Subject: Jackson Diehl on Extremists From: John Evans <evansinusa@aol.com> Date: Thu, 2 May 2013 Jackson Diehl’s attempt to conflate the Chechen rebels with the Syrian rebels (“Extremists of Putin’s Own Making,” Washington Post op-ed, April 29, JRL #80) and then blame it all on the Russian President risks misleading readers into imagining that Russia, not Islamist extremism, is our current […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – April 25, 2013) (transcript conclusion) Moscow MARIA SITTEL: Friends, I want to draw your attention to the fact that we have been on the air for over four hours. Shall we take it into the home stretch? VLADIMIR PUTIN: Let’s. MARIA SITTEL: Mr President, we would like to propose a quick question and answer session, which has become […]
» Read more
[check back for updates, including links; links also posted to twitter and facebook] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#84 :: 3 May 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: […]
» Read more
(Cato Institute – cato.org – Andrei Illarionov – May 1, 2013) It is challenging to calculate the industrial output for post-socialist transition economies. However, through meticulous work based on internationally recognized statistical standards over two decades, two Russian economists currently associated with the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Eduard Baranov and Vladimir Bessonov, were able to produce a statistical […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – May 1, 2013) Six blocks from the Caspian Sea, on Kotrova Street in central Makhachkala, sits a mosque being watched by undercover Russian agents charged with preventing acts of terror. As worshipers spill out into the streets, American investigators are watching now, too, as they try to reconstruct the events […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – London, May 2, 2013)(Dateline as received) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov hopes that social network VKontakte will continue despite the problems surrounding its founder, Pavel Durov. Social network VKontakte has recently found itself at the centre of several scandals. Information has appeared in the media about Durov’s involvement in a high-profile road accident in central St […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, May 1, 2013) US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Washington supports Georgia’s aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), ambitions that Moscow has repeatedly warned will only inflame tensions in the South Caucasus. “We are very supportive of Georgia’s aspirations with respect to NATO and Europe,” Kerry said ahead of […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – London, May 1, 2013) The political system in Russia is steady and capable of transformation, it is changing in parallel with changes in society, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov believes. “The system is not broken, this is someone’s invention. The system of which I have to honour to be a co-author exists, and it survived the […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 2, 2013) Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov told students in London that the political system that he helped create had beat the opposition and suggested that he had been one Russia’s top businessmen when he worked for jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Surkov also insisted that Russia was open for foreign investment and expressed longing […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – London, May 1, 2013) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov does not agree with those who believe that Russia is undergoing a period of stagnation. “I cannot see any stagnation; life in Russian is very boisterous and dynamic, very volatile. We have many problems, we have many troubles. Frankly speaking, I would have been glad: it would […]
» Read more
(Interfax – Moscow, May 1, 2013) A rally promoting European electronic music in Russia was the first event held at the “Hyde Park” (speakers’ corner) that opened in Moscow’s Gorkiy Park on Wednesday (1 May), the creator of Hardcore Russia TV, Yuriy Markin, has said. “We are pioneers, the first people who held an action in this ‘Hyde Park’. We […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 2, 2013) The Russian government commission for legislative work has approved a bill defining the procedure and sites of conducting religious events. The bill amending the law on the freedom of conscience and on religious associations was drafted by the Justice Ministry by way of enforcing a December 2012 judgment of the Constitutional Court, the government […]
» Read more
(Interfax – Brussels, May 1, 2013) In the Russian-US agreements on missile defence, transparency and confidence-building measures should be part of a package of solutions that could satisfy the Russian side, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoliy Antonov has said. Antonov was in Brussels today answering journalists’ questions on proposals, allegedly contained in US President Barack Obama’s letter handed over to […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ekaterina Zabrovskaya, RBTH – April 30, 2013) Russians in the United States believe the reaction of ordinary Americans to reports of a “Russian connection” in the Boston attack has shown how little people in the U.S. know about Russia and how weak Russia’s “soft power” is in the country. However, they do not […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – TBILISI, May 2, 2013) Georgia will not boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi after the country’s National Olympic Committee voted unanimously Thursday in favor of taking part. The question of a boycott has repeatedly arisen in Georgia as a result of the 2008 war with host national Russia. The two countries still […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – April 25, 2013) (transcript continued) Moscow MARIA SITTEL: We have a culture-related question from Moscow now. Ms Antonova, director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, is here. You have the floor. DIRECTOR OF THE PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS IRINA ANTONOVA: Mr President, my question also concerns St Petersburg. The matter is that 65 years […]
» Read more
[check back for updates, including links; links also posted to twitter and facebook] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#82 :: 1 May 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – April 30, 2013) SOCHI The problems on Ruslan Zokhidov’s mind are not typical for a young man of his age: he is the least likely person to be found nattily dressed at a trendy night club or entering a university lugging a pile of books. Instead, Zokhidov, 19, lugs building materials […]
» Read more
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – April 29, 2013) Excerpt from Leslie Woodhead’s ‘How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin: The Untold Story of a Noisy Revolution,’ Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2013 Andrei Makarevich opened his school book. As he turned the pages they crackled, releasing the fusty smell of a Soviet classroom a quarter- century ago, and triggering memories of his boyhood […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 30, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to consider by June 15 the expediency of restoring a contemporary Western art museum in Moscow. “To consider the expediency of restoring a new (contemporary) Western art museum in Moscow,” say Putin’s instructions given after the Direct Line with Russians. The government’s report on the subject […]
» Read more
[check back for updates, including links; links also posted to twitter and facebook] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#82 :: 1 May 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: […]
» Read more
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 30, 2013) Massive injections of government money into the Russian economy will do more to fuel inflation than to accelerate growth in production, the government should act to extend greater economic freedom, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who now chairs the Civil Initiatives Committee, believes. “When the government starts going in with its money through development […]
» Read more
(Interfax – May 1, 2013) The decision of the U.S. side to postpone the fourth stage of the adaptive program of missile defense increases the window of opportunities for reaching an understanding on missile defense that would suit both sides, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov has said. “The cancellation of the fourth stage is not the problem. Essentially nothing […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Robert LaFranco & Alex Sazonov – May 1, 2013) Alisher Usmanov, Russia’s richest person, moved control of most of his $20 billion fortune last year to a holding company based in the British Virgin Islands, a collection of more than 60 isles 5,600 miles away from Moscow. The company, USM Holdings, controls the billionaire’s most valuable […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Koshkin, RBTH – April 30, 2013) While the Russian authorities sum up the results of their large-scale inspections of NGOs, pundits make their guesses as to whether it is possible to reach a compromise on this issue. The large-scale inspections of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have puzzled both experts and NGO representatives. While […]
» Read more
(opendemocracy.net – Dmitri Travin – April 30, 2013) Dmitri Travin is Research Director at the European University in St. Petersburg’s Centre of Modernization Studies Vladimir Putin has long paid lip service to the notion that his government should address the problem of corruption. Is his new campaign for real, or will it be more of a shootout between corrupt officials […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 1, 2013) Hundreds of thousands of people rallied across Russia on Wednesday to mark Labor Day with events ranging from Soviet-style state-endorsed marches to campaigns for promotion of European techno and single ladies’ rights. Moscow saw seven rallies, the biggest of them being a march of labor unions in Moscow, co-organized by the ruling […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 1, 2013) Tens of thousands of people marched in central Moscow on Wednesday at a May Day rally billed as a show of support for President Vladimir Putin. But the turnout amounted to about half the number who showed up for a similar event last year. About 90,000 people participated in the march down […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktoriya Semioshina, special to RBTH – May 1, 2013) In early May, Russians have two bank holidays in quick succession, both inherited from the former Soviet Union. This sometimes translates into as many as nine days off work plenty of time to head for warmer climes, though many will opt to stay […]
» Read more