(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 3, 2013) Sberbank CEO German Gref has joined the Economic Development Ministry’s public council, returning to a ministry that he headed from 2000 to 2007. The council’s membership, ratified by current Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, includes magnates Viktor Vekselberg and Alexei Mordashov as representatives of large-scale private enterprise. The heads of the Russian Union of […]
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MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) Two top Russian courts have criticized a proposed reform of the legal system spearheaded by the Kremlin, arguing that some of the provisions are unconstitutional, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court are under an imminent reform set to be merged into a single body, a move that has […]
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MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the establishment of a new anti-corruption department in the presidential administration, according to a decree published Tuesday. The department will be responsible for monitoring current anti-corruption laws and suggesting legislative changes to counter corruption, the Kremlin said. Putin has appointed Oleg Plokhoi whose surname literally means “bad” […]
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(Interfax – December 3, 2013) Positive assessments of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s activities outweigh negative ones and Russian citizens note his considerable influence on the processes unfolding in the country and are ready to vote for him, sociologists said. Fifty-two percent of Russians have a favorable impression of Putin’s activities, 29 percent are displeased with his actions and 13 percent […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – December 2, 2013) President Vladimir Putin visited Sochi’s main Olympic stadium near the Black Sea coast on Friday only to see construction workers and equipment still spread around the venue, which is still unfinished just more than two months before it will host the opening ceremony of the Winter Games. Originally supposed […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – December 2, 2013) A recent poll revealed the population’s negative attitude towards the lower house, with many said to be in favor of its abolition. According to a poll by the Levada Center, the majority of Russians oppose the work of the current State Duma deputies, with more than […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) – The number of Russians fearing they may fall victim to terrorist attacks has grown after the Volgograd bus bombing while confidence in the authorities’ ability to protect the population from new terrorist acts is on decline, sociologists said. Some 70% of Russians feared becoming victims of terrorist attacks in 2012. The percentage grew to 78% […]
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SOCHI. Nov 29 (Interfax) – The Russian state is spending huge money on modernizing its armed forces, and therefore all goals that have been set must be attained, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The overall volume of the [Defense] Ministry budget in 2003 was 600 billion rubles, and this year, following the last adjustment of the budget, the expenditures on […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – November 29, 2013) The Russian Academy of Sciences, or RAN, doesn’t have ownership rights over its landmark building on Vorobyovy Gory and may lose the premises to a new federal scientific affairs agency, a news report said Friday. The State Property Agency had been looking for a building to house the newly-minted […]
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MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) Fewer than a tenth of Russians would favor breaking up the sprawling nation by allowing the secession of one of its regions, according to a poll by the independent Levada Center posted Thursday. Just eight percent of respondents to the survey, held over November 15-18, said they felt positively about the region where they […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) – Russian citizens are divided on the bill on the unification of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court and a relative majority of them do not understand the authorities’ motives, a public opinion polls show. A poll conducted by Levada Center in November shows that Russians are evenly divided on this initiative 26% of […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 27, 2013) The average [monthly] salary of civilian employees in federal state bodies in January-September was R81,600 [just under 2,500 dollars at the current rate of exchange], which was 34.7 per cent up on the same period in 2012, a Rosstat [Federal State Statistics Service] press release says. The administration of the Russian president remains the […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) – Russians are increasingly positive about the situation in the Russian Army now that a year has passed since Sergei Shoigu’s appointment to the post of defense minister, a poll conducted by VTsIOM shows. Shoigu was appointed defense minister on November 6, 2012 after President Vladimir Putin dismissed Anatoly Serdyukov from the post. The respondents, however, […]
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[One photo here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/navalny-publishes-photos-of-officials-suspected-luxury-real-estate/490387.html] (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 28, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has published photographs on his blog of a luxury cottage cooperative said to be owned by top United Russia officials including deputy chief of staff Vyacheslav Volodin. On Tuesday, Navalny’s LiveJournal account published several aerial shots which show the Sosny dacha complex in the […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 27, 2013) Few Russians believe that the economic situation in the country will improve in the next six months or that the government is capable of improving the situation in the country. At the same time, citizens differ on the acceptability of strikes to solve urgent problems, sociologists from the [independent pollster] Levada Centre have told […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Alexander Podrabinek – November 25, 2013) The participation of Russian opposition politician Vladimir Ryzhkov in a recent Kremlin meeting with Vladimir Putin has reignited the debate about whether it is acceptable for the democratic opposition to engage with the leader of an authoritarian regime. Author and human rights activist Alexander Podrabinek contends that […]
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YEKATERINBURG. Nov 26 (Interfax) – Government officials who disagree with the official course should leave their posts, said ex-finance minister and head of the Civil Initiatives Committee Alexei Kudrin. “I agree that if one does not support the policy pursued by the president or government, one should switch to the experts community, or join the political opposition,” Kudrin said at […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Tatiana Stanovaya – November 25, 2013) Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin gave the police and security forces an opportunity to take revenge for their losses during Dmitri Medvedev’s presidency. Practically all of the initiatives of the former Russian president and current prime minister have been revised – a state of affairs that […]
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SMOLENSK. Nov 25 (Interfax) – The Russian Orthodox Church will advocate its independence, its head Patriarch Kirill has said. “The church is defending its freedom because it is sure that only its independence gives it the possibility of being a full-scale spiritual authority. Any form of convergence of the church and state is dangerous for the cause of God. Only […]
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Subject: No. 138: Putin’s Turn to Traditionalism/Nationalism Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 From: “Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)” <newslist@isn.ch> RUSSIAN ANALYTICAL DIGEST Newsletter 8 November 2013/No. 138 PUTIN’S TURN TO TRADITIONALISM/NATIONALISM To download this issue please click here: http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2759 Analyses Conservatism as the Kremlin’s New Toolkit: an Ideology at the Lowest Cost, by Marlene Laruelle, Washington. Putting Traditional Values into Practice: […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Nov 21 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he urged the government and experts to determine practical steps to ensure stable economic growth of the country. “The work on development tasks should be regular and systemic. Deep expert elaboration of our strategic guides, proposals on practice steps able to ensure stable development of the country and competiveness of […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 21, 2013) [Non-parliamentary] opposition parties’ leaders have welcomed yesterday’s [20 November] meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it was constructive and expressing hope for [positive] outcome. As the co-chairman of the RPR-Parnas party Vladimir Ryzhkov told Interfax, “the impressions from the meeting with the president are good”. “Some changes have been made for the first […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 22, 2013) Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, brimming with enthusiasm about breathing life into the gasping Russian economy, returned to the Kremlin’s policymaking table on Friday for an inaugural meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s economic council. The meeting, which lasted about four hours, did not produce any specific recommendations and was predominantly academic in […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – November 21, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is an editor and correspondent at themoscownews.com Earlier this month, a lawmaker known for his loyalist legislative proposals introduced a bill that would criminalize even talking about separatism in Russia. In an apparent attempt to emulate the law that bans promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors, […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin does not rule out that his annual address to the Federal Assembly he plans to deliver in December might contain objectives not only for the coming year but for a more distant future. “I am holding a series of meetings with parliamentary factions and virtually with everyone, and this is related […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) – Direct elections of governors will remain a key provision of the Russian electoral system, President Vladimir Putin President Vladimir Putin has said. “The right of voters to elect the heads of regions is the main political trend. We will undoubtedly follow it,” he said at a Wednesday meeting with the leaders of nonparliamentary parties in […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) – Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill says he sees no grounds for criticism by those who believe that the church is putting pressure on society and is growing into the state. “Look around you, at what surrounds you, at the TV programs, advertising, lifestyle, full restaurants during Lent. The church is not dragging anyone […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin is opposed to the nationalization of companies sold at loans-for-shares auctions at the end of the last century. At his meeting with representatives of nonparliamentary parties acting chairman of the Right Cause Vyacheslav Maratkanov invited owners of companies that were bought at such actions “with gross abuses” in the early 1990s “to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 21, 2013) Russia has risen eight points to rank 56th best country in the latest survey of taxation environment, which is part of the World Bank’s Doing Business effort. The improvement was thanks to a reduction of administrative red tape, but the survey of 189 countries found that it still cost Russian companies too […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – November 21, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with leaders of major nonparliamentary parties for the first time in his 13 years in power, to discuss issues that will be addressed in his state-of-the-nation speech to be delivered next month. Participants in the meeting, who included billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov of Civil […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – The dominant role of Investigators in criminal prosecution leads to numerous unfounded arrests, said Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. “The law enforcement mechanism is apparently misbalanced, given that prosecutors have lost some of their oversight functions. Paradoxically, the prosecutor’s powers to ensure one of the most constitutional guarantees – the right to freedom and personal […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) – The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court has postponed until February 4, 2014 the hearing of the complaint filed by the human rights center Memorial about the prosecutors’ demand to register as a foreign agent. Thus, the court has postponed the hearing of the human rights activists’ until the Strasbourg court or the Russian Constitutional Court give their […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Kuzmin, RBTH – November 19, 2013) The Russian government has established a foundation to support startups. Experts, however, are skeptical that such an idea will be successful Startup support is becoming a part of the Russian government’s small- and medium-business support policy. Notwithstanding planned 2014 budget expenditure cuts (many items will be […]
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MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) Russia has published a draft law that will bar foreigners from owning or renting land in the country without official permission, a Russian newspaper reported Wednesday. The publication of the document follows reported consultation between government ministries, security services and migration agencies. Experts have warned the move could affect the country’s investment climate. According […]
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MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) Russian lawyers criticized the Kremlin on Tuesday in a rare display of public discontent, speaking against a court reform that would abolish what they called the most progressive branch of Russia’s judiciary. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed in July to merge the Supreme Arbitration Court, which oversees business disputes, into the Supreme Court, which […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 19, 2013) Russia’s regions are overwhelmingly in a deep crisis, the result of a confluence of factors that can be overcome only by ending “hyper-centralization,” restoring budgetary federalism, and somehow reversing the “degradation” and rapacity of the Moscow elite and its faith in gigantist projects, according to Natalya Zubarevich. In a […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – November 19, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin is frustrated with the slow progress in his anti-corruption drive and struggling to take charge of the situation. Having ignored the problem for over a decade, the president has been forced to finally deal with the problem of graft, as Russia can […]
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MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) The proportion of Russians who consider themselves patriots has dropped by eight percent since President Vladimir Putin first took office 13 years ago, according to a new survey released by the independent Levada Center pollster Tuesday. Sixty-nine percent of respondents professed to be patriots in the poll held at the end of October, down […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) – The authorities prefer to work with the non-governmental organizations (NGO) they themselves create, Head of the Committee for Civil Initiatives Alexei Kudrin said. “I understand the topic of the so-called ‘fake’ NGOs, when the authorities create quasi NGOs passing those for NGOs and real public opinion. Today we are virtually faced with the practice when […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vojtech Bohac – November 19, 2013) Although more than four years remain until the next presidential election, the ground is already taking shape and the first noises have been made about who might enter the 2018 race. But President Vladimir Putin will almost certainly win re-election if he decides that he wants to stay put, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin and Delphine d’Amora – November 18, 2013) While the Kremlin considers possible modifications to a bill that will restore investigators’ power to open tax fraud cases, lobbyists said small businesses and individual entrepreneurs, whose numbers are decreasing, are the ones most threatened by the legislation in its current form. The tempest centers on […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Russian Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko believes the resources of the Russian Constitution have not been exhausted yet and the issue of changing it should be approached very carefully. “We should treat the Constitution very carefully. We should always remember that this document determines the long-term national development and is far from having exhausted its resources […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will give a press conference at noon on December 19, 2013, the Kremlin press service reported on Monday. The venue of the press conference and the admission procedures will be reported later. The accreditation and briefings department of the press service and information department has begun accreditation procedures for the press […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 18, 2013) The Moscow media are full of stories that President Vladimir Putin plans to propose changes in the 1993 Russian Constitution in a message to the Federal Assembly on December 12 and will announce the establishment of a special 90-person Presidential council to consider and draft revisions. But some Russian […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – The parameters of 40 Russian government programs approved in 2012-2013 are inconsistent with the budget plan for 2014-2016, the chairman of the Audit Chamber, Tatyana Golikova said in an interview published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Thursday. “This refers to 40 state programs approved by the government in 2012-2013, which were laid at the foundation of […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region – November 14, 2013) Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) Supervisory Board. Meeting participants discussed the creation of a good investment climate and the evaluation of new ASI-supported projects. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, Today we are holding our final meeting this year. So I would […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the possibility of restoring the practice where police were authorized to prosecute violators of tax laws. Putin, who was speaking at a meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency, was referring to proposals for changes to the Criminal Code to adjust it to the 2011 liberalization […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin, today head of the Civil Initiatives Committee, has slammed as a “major backward step” a draft law to bring back the practice where law enforcement agencies could bypass tax authorities in prosecuting suspected tax crimes. “I support those who don’t consider it correct to empower law enforcement authorities to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – November 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has reprimanded officials for discussing government issues in the mass media and suggested that those who oppose government policy had better leave their posts. The president was speaking Thursday at a meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Advisory Board when he was asked about a contentious bill […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO, near Moscow. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned it is unacceptable for senior government figures to discuss a planned decision with the media before it has been discussed in government. At a meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency on Thursday, the president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sergei […]
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