NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 15 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to fight corrupt officials regardless of their rank or any other factors that may hinder the effort. “We will in the most serious way … continue eradicating this infection regardless of position or party membership,” Putin said at a meeting of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, which is tasked […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 14, 2013) A group of academics from Moscow State University has begun collecting signatures in support of an open letter it wrote asking President Vladimir Putin to halt mass dismissals at Russia’s leading university. The letter, published on the University Solidarity website, says that the university’s administration has not received budget funds to raise […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 13, 2013) Russian citizens’ protest potential has significantly declined over the last eight years, and their willingness to take part in mass protests against falling living standards is higher than [their willingness to take part in protests] with political demands, sociologists have found. In 2005, the proportion of respondents willing to take part in protests was […]
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(Interfax – November 13, 2013) The head of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Ivanov, on 13 November addressed a meeting with deputy governors who are in charge of internal policy issues. He criticized the regional and local authorities for not sorting out petty local problems so people have to turn to the federal authorities for help, told regional authorities […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) – The concept to reform the law enforcement authorities drafted with the participation of the Committee of Civil Initiatives, headed by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, is interesting but will meet serious resistance, the Center for Political Technologies First Vice President Alexei Makarkin said. “I think that the concept itself is quite adequate. I suppose that […]
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(Interfax – November 13, 2013) The first deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Vyacheslav Volodin, has called for fair and legitimate elections in Russian provinces and warned regional administrations against creating “artificial competition,” the privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 13 November. Volodin was speaking at a session with regional deputy governors. “In the realm of politics, anything that […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 14, 2013) In an editorial today, Moscow’s “Nezavisimaya gazeta” asks what may be the key question about Russian social and political life in the next few years or more: will Russians react to the Kremlin’s unprecedented prediction that the country potentially faces decades of stagnation as a result of the government’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov and Ivan Nechepurenko – November 13, 2013) The State Duma on Tuesday approved in the first reading a bill seeking to merge the Supreme Arbitration Court into the Supreme Court, as the former warned that the move could signal the end of the entire arbitration court system. Arbitration courts, which hear commercial disputes, […]
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(Interfax – November 13, 2013) The system of staff training in which specialists had supervisors should be revived and every reservist should understand his prospects, Russian presidential administration chief Sergei Ivanov said. “The Soviet Union had very good staff policies. There were certain filters and stages that people went through. I will not deny that these people were supervised, in […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has played down the fact that Forbes’ magazine has declared him the world’s most powerful person. “I’m grateful to the experts at Forbes, but this is what I think of it: one is always uneasy about it because it’s restrictive somewhat, it may put restrictions on your decision making,” Putin told […]
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(RIA Novosti – Konstantin von Eggert – November 11, 2013) Konstantin von Eggert is a freelance commentator and consultant. In 2010-2013 he worked for Kommersant FM radio in Moscow as a commentator and as Editor-in-Chief. Even if he is styled as the “president,” the head of the Russian government’s executive branch is a de facto monarch. Accompanied by holy Orthodox […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – November 12, 2013) Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will present a proposal Monday to completely restructure Russia’s law enforcement system through the creation of independent municipal, regional and federal authorities. The reforms were formulated by The Institute for the Rule of Law at the European University in St. Petersburg and anti-corruption NGO […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – November 12, 2013) Supreme Arbitration Court judges have lambasted President Vladimir Putin’s plans to merge the legal body with the Supreme Court, saying that the resulting superstructure will be too cumbersome and less independent in administering justice. The way judges will be appointed to the new structure does not “conform with the […]
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MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament said in an op-ed published Tuesday that the country’s politicians are too ignorant about the Constitution and that civil servants should be made to pass an exam on it before they can enter government service. “[The Constitution] has ceased to be required reading for many politicians […]
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MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that being labeled the world’s most powerful person by Forbes magazine this year has made him “more cautious,” his first-ever public comment on the issue. “I appreciate Forbes experts’ opinion, but I personally believe that, first, it always makes you cautious because it limits you a little bit […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) – The Prosecutor General’s Office cannot satisfy the request of the presidential Human Rights Council to suspend probes of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). A letter from Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Malinovsky to head of the council Mikhail Fedotov says Russian law does not give prosecutors such rights. “Proceedings in a concrete case can be suspended pursuant to […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble, Staunton, November 6, 2013) Apparently operating on the principle that if there is a problem, there should be a government structure responsible for it, President Vladimir Putin is moving to recreate in fact if not in name a ministry to oversee the Russian Federation’s increasingly intense nationality problems. But for the same reasons that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – November 7, 2013) Prominent members of the business community have sent an appeal to President Vladimir Putin asking for a reevaluation of amendments to the Criminal Code, which Putin himself submitted to the State Duma on Oct. 11, Vedomosti reported Thursday. The amendments would authorize investigators to open tax cases at their […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 7, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has urged Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky to show more restraint in his speeches, most likely in reference to the lawmaker’s recent remarks about the North Caucasus that provoked outrage in the region. Zhirinovsky said during a television show last month that the North Caucasus should be surrounded […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yevgeny Shestakov, International Affairs Editor at Rossiyskaya Gazeta, special to RBTH – November 7, 2013) There are a number of reasons why the U.S. edition of Forbes magazine nominated Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most powerful person in 2013. It is difficult to gauge the accuracy of those experts who say Putin’s […]
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(Interfax – November 7, 2013) In the last eight years the opinion of Russians about the place and role of the opposition in the world today has changed, studies of VTsIOM public opinion center indicate. The share of Russians believing that the objective of opposition forces is to work out their own course and come to power has grown from […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – November 7, 2013) Common wisdom has it that all of Russia’s ills originate in two simple things: fools and roads. Indeed, one of the biggest factors holding back the country that occupies one-sixth of the world’s landmass may be its transportation arteries – or lack thereof. 1) Some better off on horses […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – November 7, 2013) “Who was killed in your family?” A man in a beret in his early 60s asked me as he joined the long queue of people. We were both attending the annual recital of the names of the victims of political repressions in Russia by the Solovetsky […]
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(Kremlin.ru – November 7, 2013) Faculty members and researchers from more than 20 universities and institutes attended the meeting, held ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends. We are holding this meeting in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the adoption of Russia’s Constitution. I will not lecture you […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 6, 2013) The Investigative Committee has developed a bill criminalizing tax optimization transactions, Vedomosti reported Wednesday. The proposed bill is set to amend the Tax Code by introducing definitions for “imaginary” and “fictitious” financial transactions. These terms refer to transactions which business either did not complete, or have completed, but fudged the description and […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Daniil Kotsyubinsky – November 5, 2013) Daniil Kotsyubinsky is a Russian historian and journalist based in St. Petersburg On Friday, a Russian news agency had its publishing licence revoked, supposedly for publishing two ‘profane’ Youtube clips. For Daniil Kotsyubinsky, however, the episode was but the latest example of a ‘summary execution’ intended as a warning to any […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) – Almost half of Russians (46%) approve of the course of national development taken by Vladimir Putin after his return to the presidency, Levada Center told Interfax. This course is mostly supported by women (50% vs. 41% of men), young citizens aged from 18 to 24 (55%), people with secondary education (52%) and residents of cities […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – November 6, 2013) A day after hundreds of detentions at numerous nationalist rallies across the country, media reports circulated Tuesday that the government is considering creating an interethnic relations ministry to keep tensions under control. Immigration has dominated the Russian media landscape since thousands took part in a nationalist riot in the […]
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MOSCOW, November 6 (RIA Novosti) Russia will not consider raising the retirement age until at least 2018, but will encourage people to work longer, the head of the State Pension Fund said Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin said during 2011 electoral campaigning that he was against raising the pension age and has frequently restated this position. Russia’s next presidential elections […]
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MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) The Russian Central Bank launched a public competition Tuesday to find a symbol that will represent the ruble alongside other major world currencies. For the next month, visitors to the Central Bank’s website can vote for one of five variations on the letter R in both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. “Written symbols for […]
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(Moscow News – – Anna Arutunyan, Editor and Correspondent at themoscownews.com – November 5, 2013) According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, nationalism is defined as “loyalty and devotion to a nation; a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above others.” National Day of Unity on November 4 has become an annual venue where nationalists across the spectrum can gather together […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – November 5, 2013) Moscow is ranked number one in a congestion index of the world’s major cities and building more roads is unlikely to solve the problem, according to a new report. The average time it takes to get from one point to another during rush hour is increasing, according to research […]
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(RIA Novosti – Aleksey Mukhin – November 5, 2013) A news conference Sergei Shoigu: A year as Defense Minister. Performance results was held at the RIA Novosti multimedia press center. During the event, General Director of the Center for Political Information and Valdai Club expert Alexei Mukhin presented a report on the activities of the Defense Ministry during […]
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(Interfax – November 5, 2013) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the convicted performers of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot, who is currently being transported to a new penitentiary, is feeling well and eating properly, Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin told Interfax on Tuesday. “Acting at the request of several human rights campaigners, I got in touch with the administration […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Oleg Kashin – November 3, 2013) Oleg Kashin is a Russian journalist living in Geneva. In Russia, a poet is more than a poet. The strong feelings revealed in a recent national argument over two bards — Yevgeny Yevtushenko, long emigrated to the U.S., and Joseph Brodsky, who died in 1996 — might even help explain […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 4, 2013) Unlike its counterparts in Europe and other parts of the world and despite the hopes of many inside Russia and beyond, Russian nationalism has never a partner of liberalism, the result of its different origins and evolution, according to Vladimir Malakhov, a senior scholar at the Institute of Philosophy […]
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(Government.ru – October 31, 2013) Dmitry Medvedev’s address to the plenary meeting: Addressing the plenary meeting of the 2nd Moscow International Forum, Open Innovations Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, Mr Katainen (Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen of Finland), Mr Ayrault (Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France), the first thing I heard was: What can governments do to support innovation? I think the […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Russia will be able to develop further only if it remains committed to the principles of continuity, historical memory and its traditions, presidential chief-of-staff Sergei Ivanov said. “Russia’s further development is possible only if the principle of continuity is followed. A rift affecting historical memory, traditions and conflicts of epoch and generations, which is the […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Over a half of Russians (54%) see the Day of People’s Unity marked on November 4 as another day off and only 11% celebrate it as “a state holiday that unites the people of Russia and the country as a whole,” according to the Superjob.ru portal. It polled 1,000 respondents on October 17-18. “I see […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – As many as 64% of Russians described Vladimir Putin’s work as president positively in October, and 33% said they trust him, the Levada Center sociological service told Interfax in summing up outcomes of a nationwide poll of 1,603 respondents conducted in 130 populated areas in 45 regions on October 25-28. Dmitry Medvedev’s performance as prime […]
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(Interfax – October 31, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Aleksey Kudrin, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the presidium of the presidential economic council, Russian privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 31 October. A decree confirming the membership of the council’s presidium, which included Kudrin’s name, was signed on 31 August, Interfax said, citing an […]
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(Interfax – October 31, 2013) The materials of the checks carried out by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which uncovered serious violations regarding the use of budget funds in the Skolkovo innovation foundation, will not cause an immediate launch of criminal cases, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported, quoting an informed source in the law-enforcement structures as saying. No criminal cases expected […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – The latest events in Moscow’s Biryulyovo district show that only the forces seeking to destroy Russia will gain from further disregard of the opinion of the Russian majority, said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia. “The latest clashes in the Moscow Biryulyovo district demonstrated that a deaf ear turned by the authorities to the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – November 1, 2013) In early October, Rosneft head Igor Sechin made a brief, enigmatic comment suggesting that there was more than meets the eye behind a Greenpeace protest Sept. 18 against a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic, an action that resulted in the arrest of 30 people and a black eye […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, October 30, 2013) The Russian president’s spokesman Dmitriy Peskov thinks that the existing government telecommunications in the country ensure the protection of the security of conversations between the first persons of the country. “We have government telecommunications which ensure the necessary level of confidentiality and security of conversations. And measures to ensure that security is at […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) “Why are you arresting me?” “Isn’t it just easier to give money to the policeman?” “What do you do if the police beat you?” Practice conversations in a special Russian language-learning textbook handed out at an experimental new cultural integration center for migrants focus on topics considered most relevant to guest workers […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) – Some 1,600 Russian officials have property and bank accounts abroad, mainly real estate in CIS countries. “It has been established that presently slightly over 1,600 municipal and government officials have foreign assets. Given all the statistical errors this is less than 0.1% of all pubic servants,” head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Ivanov told the […]
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(Kremlin.ru – October 30, 2013) The Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office spoke with journalists about the results of auditing declarations by civil servants and staff at state corporations, as well as companies with state participation, conducted in 2013. Sergei Ivanov reminded journalists that anticorruption standards apply to all civil servants and officials, certain categories of municipal offices […]
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(Kremlin.ru – October 30, 2013) Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Presidential Council for Countering Corruption. The main issues on the agenda were implementing state anti-corruption policy, and the effectiveness of recent legislative and administrative measures. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, We are here today to discuss the results of state anti-corruption policy. We have taken […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) A state commission Wednesday issued a draft outline for a line of unified history textbooks to be published in Russia on the Kremlin’s order. The draft will be filed Thursday with President Vladimir Putin, who ordered its creation last February, said a spokesman for the Russian Historical Society. A state tender will then be […]
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