(RIA Novosti – February 5, 2014) Three-quarters of the total number of crimes reported last year in Russia’s capital went unsolved, Moscow’s head prosecutor said in a statement Wednesday. “On the one hand, the situation with solving crimes improved a little, with a five percent increase as compared with 2012,” Sergei Kudeneyev said at a meeting of city officials. “On […]
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(Kremlin.ru – February 4, 2014) Vladimir Putin spoke at the opening of the 126th session of the International Olympic Committee, held in Sochi ahead of the Winter Olympic Games. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Ladies and gentlemen, friends, President Bach, I am truly happy to welcome you to Sochi, which is hosting the XXII Winter Olympic Games. We are only […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – February 5, 2014) President Vladimir Putin concluded the 126th session of the International Olympic Committee in Sochi on Tuesday evening just as he delivered Russia’s appeal to committee voters in Guatemala in 2007 before they chose a city for the Winter Games: in English. “Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen! I declare the […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#23 :: 4 February 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: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – SOCHI – February 4, 2014) As thousands of foreign journalists begin to flock into Sochi, questions regarding their accommodation remained unanswered, the president of Russia’s National Olympic Committee said. While touring the new Sochi Media Center, designed to accommodate journalists who are not accredited for the Games, Alexander Zhukov said Monday that there were still […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Sorokina, RBTH – February 3, 2014) RBTH gets to the heart of what Russians and Americans think about each other by examining the most searched phrases in Google and Russia’s main search engine, Yandex. Thousands of miles lie between Russia and the U.S. – and that distance does nothing to diminish the […]
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KYIV. Feb 4 (Interfax) – Ukraine’s ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has criticized the talks between the opposition and authorities to settle the domestic situation, her daughter Yevheniya said. “She believes the talks are pointless and unacceptable. They can only lead to questionable compromises. The authorities simply want to buy time. My mother is against half-measures,” Tymoshenko said in an interview […]
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KIEV, February 4 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych says he is prepared to hold early presidential and parliamentary elections in the country if no other solution can be found to the ongoing political crisis, his political ally has said. The country’s government resigned last week, and demonstrators who have occupied the center of Kiev since November are demanding […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that toughens liability for extremism-related crimes. The document amends Russia’s Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, according to the authorities’ legal information website. “In an effort to neutralize the threats to national security posed by the destructive activities of religious organizations on Russian territory, […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Stanislav Tkachenko, special to RBTH – February 4, 2014) The Russian president’s proposal to establish a free trade zone between the EU, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus – made at the recent EU-Russia summit – signals a major shift in Russian foreign policy. Stanislav Tkachenko is the head of the diplomacy program at the […]
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(Interfax – February 4, 2014) The economic amnesty declared by the Russian State Duma in July 2013 has already been applied to over 2,000 people, the office of the Russian presidential commissioner for the businessmen’s rights Boris Titov said. “As of February 4, the number of persons, regarding whom the State Duma resolution On Declaring Amnesty of July 2, 2013 […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) – No shortages of snow are likely in Sochi, said Roman Vilfand, chief of the weather monitoring service, Hydrometcentre. “The snow is thick and firm enough. No problems are likely to arise with the snow, at least through the first 20 days of February,” Vilfand said. Vilfand’s deputy in charge of hydrometeorological support for the Games, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – February 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin arrived in the Winter Olympic city of Sochi on Tuesday to play host to visitors three days before the opening ceremony. After arriving in Sochi, Putin visited Sochi National Park and an animal breeding and rehabilitation center that was built using budget funds set aside for […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 4, 2014) The Russian authorities are putting ever more pressure on the Internet in the hopes of imposing Kremlin control on the last relatively free segment of the Russian media, but their efforts are being countered by those most affected who are offering hat they describe as “very easy” workarounds so […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – February 3, 2014) RBTH talks to Muslims in Russia and searches for the reasons behind the country’s apprehensive attitude toward Islam. Muslims are the second largest religious denomination in Russia, and they have peacefully coexisted with Orthodox believers over many centuries. However, in recent decades, Russians have started behaving […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) – Fewer Russians are taking permanent residence abroad, according to the Federal Migration Service. “Approximately 26,000-27,000 took permanent residence abroad last year. There has been a decline in the number of people leaving for permanent residence in foreign countries since 2008,” Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky said in an interview published by Komsomolskaya Pravda on […]
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MOSCOW, February 3 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti) – The school shooting, a nightmare scenario most commonly associated with the United States, was visited upon Russia on Monday in an attack that left two people dead. There was little about the suspected perpetrator – a retiring, 15-year-old straight-A pupil – that aroused suspicion. Some education experts fear, however, that the boy […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – February 3, 2014) For Russian literature, it’s time again for a political choice: for or against Putin? RBTH presents an overview of the problem and interviews experts. Russian literature and government power have always had something of a love-hate relationship. There have been periods when writers were exiled or put before the firing […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 3 (Interfax) – Business conditions facing Russian manufacturers continued to worsen at the start of 2014, PMI data from HSBC show. The overall deterioration in the sector was the most substantial since June 2009, with declines registered for output, new orders, exports, employment and purchasing, HSBC said in a research note. Meanwhile, inflationary pressures remained historically weak overall, […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kharkiv – February 4, 2014) Embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s most vocal supporters are currently not from his Donbass homeland, but from the second largest city of Kharkiv. But their combination of provocative sloganeering, abusive rhetoric and apparent thuggishness mean friends like these may do him no favour in the eyes […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – laire Bigg and Daisy Sindelar – February 4, 2014) After being kidnapped on January 22, Dmytro Bulatov says he was kept blindfolded for eight days as his abductors beat him, sliced off part of his ear, drove nails through his hands, and finally left him for dead in a forest. Through the ordeal, he never once […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – February 4, 2014) Russia, Asia and the Middle East are fueling a global upswing in defense expenditure, even as the member nations of the NATO alliance continue to cut their military budgets, according to international consultancy IHS Jane’s annual review, released Monday. But while other countries from list of top military spenders […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – February 4, 2013 – Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko) The Sochi Olympics, designed to trumpet the strength of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, also shines a light on its weaknesses. As skiers, hockey players and figure skaters arrive this week at the games that cost about $50 billion, the North Caucasus region remains unruly more than 14 years […]
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MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) – Holding this month’s Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi and developing resorts in the neighboring North Caucasus region risk increasing tensions in the already unstable area, a research group has warned in a report. The International Crisis Group presented a new study Monday titled “Too Far, Too Fast: Sochi, Tourism and Conflict […]
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(Kremlin.ru – February 3, 2014) Vladimir Putin chaired an expanded meeting of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art Presidium on developing theatre. Before the start of the meeting, the President visited the Pskov Academic Drama Theatre, which recently underwent restoration and construction work. Speech at a meeting of the Council for Culture and Art Presidium PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR […]
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(US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul – http://m-mcfaul.livejournal.com/ – February 4, 2014) This is my last blog as the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. Soon after the Olympics, I plan to rejoin my family in California. After more than five years working in the Obama administration, it is time to go home. Last summer, my wife and two sons […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#22 :: 3 February 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: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Ben Aris: Comment on the Economist editorial entitled “The triumph […]
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MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) – Crisis-hit Ukraine currently owes Russia about $3.3 billion in unpaid natural gas bills, Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom said Monday in an apparent reminder that the long-running conflict over the fuel has not been solved by a recent price cut agreement. Ukraine is unlikely to pay on time for gas imported in January, Vedomosti […]
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KYIV. Feb 3 (Interfax) – Ukraine’s incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych and Vitaly Klitschko, leader of the party UDAR, have the most chances of making it to the second round of presidential elections, shows a study entitled “Ukrainian Residents’ Evaluation of the Socio-Political Situation in the Country as of January 2014. The study was conducted by the social technologies institute Sociopolis […]
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(Interfax – February 1, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that statements that Ukraine should choose between relations with Russia and relations with the rest of the world are “counterproductive”, privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 1 February. “When (US Secretary of State) John Kerry speaks and says that Ukraine should choose who it is with – with […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, February 2, 2014) Russia has been waiting for two years for proposals from NATO on conventional arms control in Europe and further delay will reduce the chances of any possible talks being successful, Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Security and Disarmament Department, has said. “As far as we know the alliance is currently […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 2 (Interfax) – The approach of the United States to confidence and transparency in space has greatly changed for the better, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry department for security and disarmament Mikhail Ulyanov believes. “The dialogue on space with Americans continues and has proven more productive than one could have expected. There has been a positive evolution […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Stanislav Savinov, special to RBTH – February 3, 2014) Stanislav Savinov is a macroeconomic analyst at UFS Investment Company in Moscow. New leadership has given the Russian Central Bank a fresh dynamism that was sorely lacking. The new head, Elvira Nabiullina, is shaking things up, in part by making inflation Enemy No. 1. […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – James Ellingworth, special to RBTH – January 30, 2014) Tired of reading about men’s hockey and security threats? Here are a few issues you might have missed. The build-up’s been going on for seven years, and with the Sochi Olympics now just days away, newspapers around the world are bursting with previews and […]
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(Interfax – February 3, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had personally chosen the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. “I am especially pleased to see what is going on here because I chose this venue personally. I came here by UAZ [car] in 2001 or 2002, we drove around, came to the bank of that river and […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – January 31, 2014) The scandal surrounding the independent Dozhd TV channel has so far progressed in a predictable and chilling fashion: Media organization does something that many people find to be tactless and/or offensive, said people express their dismay, the media organization apologizes… and then surrealism begins to take over. In case […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Trofimova, RBTH – February 2, 2014) RBTH has selected the most widespread traditions and stereotypes linked to Russian hospitality. It is no secret that foreigners sometimes associate Russia with everlasting cold, bears, vodka and the rudeness of its people. So much for the stereotypes. But what kind of welcome really awaits you […]
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MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) – Vasily Petrov, one of two remaining marshals of the Soviet Union, the highest Soviet military rank, died on Saturday at the age of 98. “We’ve suffered a great loss,” the head of the Russian Military Commanders Society, Nikolai Deryabin, told RIA Novosti. Petrov, born in the Russian Empire’s North Caucasus just months before the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – February 3, 2014) State-controlled oil giant Rosneft had a very good year. That is what company chief executive Igor Sechin told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Friday at a meeting to review Russia’s largest oil producer, whose capitalization grew by 18 percent to $73 billion at the end of 2013. Sechin’s optimism […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – February 3, 2014) Russia spent the end of last year battling the EU for control over Ukraine. But should the Kremlin have been paying more attention to what was going on its southern border instead? In the last three months, the Chinese have swept through Central and Eastern Europe […]
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(Interfax – February 3, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed concern over statements by European Union representatives that inter-governmental agreements between Russia and South Stream project participants should be brought in line with the requirements of the Third Energy Package. “We are bewildered and concerned by Brussels’ statements about the need to review the intergovernmental agreements between Russia […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – February 3, 2014) Amid unprecedented security measures by the authorities to secure Sochi for the Winter Olympics, observers have expressed concerns that other cities in Russia have been left unprotected, with law enforcement personnel and technical equipment needed to prevent terrorist attacks having been concentrated in the Olympic capital. Some Russian regions, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble) Staunton, February 2 – Growing inequality in the economic performance of Russia’s regions requires that the regions be given more authority to make decisions, a grant that many in Moscow are reluctant to make because that will undermine Vladimir Putin’s “power vertical” and threaten the country with disintegration, according to a Moscow geographer. In […]
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Subject: Comment on the Economist editorial entitled “The triumph of Vladimir Putin” (JRL 2014-#21) Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2014 From: Ben Aris <editor@bne.eu> [Editor, Business New Europe] I have to comment on the Economist editorial entitled “The triumph of Vladimir Putin” (JRL 2014-#22) as it is a classic example of Russian bashing that is full of mistakes, half-truths, omissions and […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#21 :: 31 January 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: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Moscow News: Natalia Antonova, A non-review of Anna Arutunyan’s ‘The […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) – Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev believes that the Russian economy passed through the worst of the economic downturn in the third quarter of 2013 and there are now encouraging signs that the situation is improving. “It seems to me that we passed through the nadir sometime in about the third quarter of 2013. Encouraging signs […]
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(Business New Europe KYIV BLOG – bne.eu – January 31, 2014) There was high drama in Kyiv this week after a tumultuous special session of the Rada repealed most of the so-called dictator’s laws and went on to pass a less-than-satisfactory general amnesty law that is guaranteed to keep the protestors in their camp on Independence Square (known as Maidan). […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 28, 2014) Claims by Russia, Denmark and Norway to portions of the Arctic Ocean and its mineral-rich seabed have sparked concerns about possible economic and even military conflicts there in the near term, but according to a Moscow scholar, such concerns are overblown at least in the short term. In “Nezavisimaya […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ben Aris, special to RBTH – January 31, 2014) Russia’s benchmark RTS Index fell 6 percent in 2013 for one of the poorest performances on record. But analysts expect 2014 to be a better year for Russian stocks. Russian equity had one of its worst years on record in 2013, especially compared to […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – January 31, 2014) Entrepreneurship has become an object of intense focus in Russia since the crisis of 2008-2009, as debates continue over the pace and the progress of economic diversification. The expansion of business accelerators and technoparks across the country has indicated the interest in fostering small and medium-sized enterprises. Events such […]
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