(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – October 31, 2013) Some 200 officials, including eight unidentified senior officials, have been fired for “loss of confidence” over information in their income declarations for 2012, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov told a meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s anti-corruption council Wednesday. In addition, the official number of corruption crimes decreased this […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) – A concept of a unified history textbook was endorsed at an expanded meeting of the Russian History Society and forwarded to the president for consideration on Wednesday. “Completing the work on the concept and forwarding it to the president in line with his instructions, we are completing only the first stage of the work, and […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 30, 2013) A writer for the official newspaper of the Russian parliament says that today “the most important question” for residents of the Russian Federation is “what’s your nationality?” a question that is not easy for everyone to answer but one which is asked with such insistence that those of mixed […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 30, 2013) Fifty years ago, Michael Harrington described the alternative universe of the poor in the United States in his classic and transformative “The Other America.” Now, Russian researchers are pointing to the re-emergence of what might be called “the other Russia,” those from rural areas living in the shadows in […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) Russian prosecutors said Wednesday they have exposed major financial irregularities and waste at a center for innovation that has long been the pet project of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement that spending at the Skolkovo Foundation has become “out of control and extravagant” and that it has […]
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KHABAROVSK. Oct 29 (Interfax) – The Russian Far East Development Ministry has put together a model for the Far East that will establish a network of export oriented zones in the region. Other ministries have not yet reached a consensus on this issue, but Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has already issued some instructions. Export to Russia irrational In a meeting […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) – The Russian Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat has backed the proposal of party leader Gennady Zyuganov to set the date for making demand for the government’s resignation after the public events dedicated to the 96th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Party Central Committee Secretary Sergei Obukhov said. “The party Secretariat discussed the issue […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – October 30, 2013) Two commissions of the Moscow City Duma on Tuesday recommended against registering opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s bid to submit a bill on utilities prices, which he has sought to make the first-ever grassroots initiative considered by legislative authorities in Russia. Navalny wrote on Twitter that the City Duma would […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed a number of senior Interior Ministry officials on Wednesday, including the police head of the Moscow district that was the scene of violent nationalist riots earlier this month. Putin dismissed Alexander Podolny, the police chief of Moscow’s southern administrative district, from his post effective immediately, according to a Kremlin […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said an atmosphere of intolerance of corruption should be created in Russia. “The laws alone, the demands [against corruption] alone are not enough. We need to form an atmosphere of zero tolerance of corruption in society,” Putin told the Council on Corruption Prevention on Wednesday. The president believes there is a […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin was named the most powerful person on the planet by Forbes magazine Wednesday, knocking US President Barack Obama off the number one spot. Forbes said that Putin, who ranked third last year, showed his dominance in diplomatic maneuvring during the international crisis over Syria, and the fate of fugitive US […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – October 30, 2013) The protest movement in Russia is dwindling and growing old. The march in support of political convicts, which took place in Moscow on Oct. 27, gathered 5,0007,000 people a remarkable setback compared to what happened a year ago. Experts note that the protest movement in […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, October 29, 2013) Head of the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the Russian president Mikhail Fedotov has expressed the view that there are political prisoners in present-day Russia and they should be amnestied. “There are political prisoners in present-day Russia. The human rights community, include one abroad, has a view on this, and it clearly says that […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – October 29, 2013 – Jake Rudnitsky) One hundred days before the start of the most expensive Winter Olympics, President Vladimir Putin’s $48 billion vision of a newly empowered Russia rests in the hands and shovels of laborers working around the clock. Construction continues on the main stadium, hotels and athlete housing for the Feb. 7-23 Winter […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 193 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Roger McDermott – October 29, 2013) As the anniversary approaches in November 2013, marking one year since President Vladimir Putin sacked Anatoly Serdyukov and appointed Sergei Shoigu as Russia’s defense minister, evidence is mounting to indicate that the change may not herald better times for the military. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 29, 2013) State pollster VTsIOM released survey results Monday regarding last month’s Greenpeace protest in the Arctic that indicate more than a third of Russians believe the protest was a foreign plot and more than two-thirds disagree with the group’s message of needing to protect the environment from oil drilling. Armed […]
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MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) Russians must learn to perceive the decisions of courts and investigators as legitimate for the country to develop forward, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised interview Saturday. Answering a question about a high-profile corruption case that has ensnared several top Defense Ministry officials since late last year, Medvedev said that evaluating the […]
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KOSTROMA, October 29 (RIA Novosti) A Russian rights organization that promoted public initiatives said Tuesday that it was suspending operations because it is unable to pay a $9,000 fine imposed for failing to register as a “foreign agent.” The NGO, based in the central Kostroma Region, said it was able to raise 100,000 rubles ($3,000) to pay a fine […]
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MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) Russian lawmakers will consider letting people who have been convicted for serious crimes run in elections, on the condition that voters are told about their criminal records. “As it turns out, people’s rights are affected, even though they’ve already been punished,” state lawmaker Sergei Ivanov of the nationalist LDPR party and author of the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – October 29, 2013) An increasing number of Russians are tired of year-round daylight savings time, a recent survey shows. According to a poll released on Tuesday by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, just 32 percent of Russians approve of not having to set clocks back an hour each fall, down from 73 percent […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – The leaders of Russian human rights organizations believe a broad amnesty timed with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution will help establish effective dialogue between the authorities and civil society. “Will the authorities find the energy to build relations with civil society again” The best way out of this deadlock would be broad amnesty, […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Russian presidential chief-of-staff Sergei Ivanov has called on the municipal authorities to cooperate with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) instead of shunning them. “You should not be afraid of NGOs. Rather, you ought to work together with them,” Ivanov said at a meeting of city mayors and city managers on Thursday. Practice shows that the municipal authorities […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Protopope Dimitry Smirnov, the head of the patriarch’s commission on family and protection of mothers and children, believes that democracy is based on lies. “It’s just a lie. Communist is also a lie, but Communism has religious features. Communism seems to take a lot from true religions. The Communists have their own teaching, their own […]
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(Interfax – Snegiri, Moscow Region – October 24, 2013) The Kremlin receives in a positive key the signal from the parliamentary opposition, which is calling for giving priority to ensuring the security of the state and does not support “orange forces” (reference to Ukrainian orange revolution which is seen as backed by the West), according to the head of the […]
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SNEGIRI, Moscow region. Oct 24 (Interfax) – The Kremlin has welcomed the parliamentary opposition’s signal indicating its support for national security as a priority and its refusal to back so-called “orange forces”, director of the president’s homeland security directorate Oleg Morozov said. “We have heard the signal sent by the parliamentary systemic opposition, as it is called today, which really […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrey Vaganov, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, special to RBTH – October 25, 2013) A recently passed law on reforming the Russian Academy of Sciences is aimed at segregating scientific research from academic property management. The government argues the move will free science of an irrelevant burden. Academics, for their part, are convinced […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Forty percent of the respondents surveyed by the Public Opinion Foundation believe Russia has political opposition, 30% believe it does not, and the others were undecided. The poll was conducted in 43 regions of Russia in mid October. It surveys 1,500 respondents. Only 4% of those who believe Russia has political opposition believe it has […]
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SNEGIRI, Moscow region. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Russian electoral authorities, including the Central Election Commission (CEC), have managed to minimize the number of situations where potential candidates are banned from running in elections for no discernable reason, head of the Russian president’s homeland policy directorate Oleg Morozov said. “I would like to thank our colleagues from the CEC and you […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Vyacheslav Volodin, first deputy head of the presidential administration said he disagrees with the fact that a single voting day, the second Sunday of September this year, was the cause of low voter turnout. “I disagree that September 8 is a day that does not give a high voter turnout,” Volodin said at a meeting […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gleb Fedorov, RBTH – October 24, 2013) Business ombudsman Boris Titov tells RBTH why Russia needs an economic amnesty and how to improve the country’s business climate. Boris Titov, owner of Russia’s largest champagne producer, is no stranger to pressure from officials. Now, in the position of Presidential Ombudsman for Entrepreneurs’ Rights, he […]
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MOSCOW, October 24 (RIA Novosti) Russian investigators will not open a criminal case into allegations by jailed feminist punk rocker Nadezhda Tolokonnikova that a prison official threatened to kill her, a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee said Thursday. “A decision has been taken not to open a criminal case because no crime was committed,” said Natalya Afanasieva, a spokeswoman […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – October 24, 2013) Government officials, lawmakers and education officials will finalize changes to the way history is taught in schools by Nov. 1, State Duma Deputy Speaker Lyudmila Shvetsova said Wednesday outside a roundtable discussing new state textbooks. New textbooks teaching children of various age groups a consensus opinion about historical events […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Lev Gudkov – October 22, 2013) Lev Gudkov is a Russian sociologist, director of the analytical Levada Center and editor-in-chief of the journal The Russian Public Opinion Herald. He is the author of numerous books and articles on sociology and inter-ethnic relations in Russia. Cynicism, originally a philosophy in ancient Greece, is now the prevailing mood in Putinist […]
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(Interfax – October 24, 2013) The number of Russians who claim that the police are one of the worst corrupt authorities has declined over the past year, a source from the Russian Interior Ministry told Interfax, referring to a Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) poll. “Currently, this opinion is expressed by 19 percent of the respondents. The indicator stood […]
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(Kremlin.ru – October 23, 2013) Vladimir Putin spoke at a training seminar for mayors of Russian cities. The event, which took place under the Presidential Executive Office’s aegis, focused on domestic policy issues and modern effective management principles. Excerpts from the speech at the Mayors’ Conference and Seminar PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues. Today, we are meeting […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vladimir Goryachev and Christopher Brennan – October 24, 2013) The Investigative Committee said it had dropped the piracy charges against 30 people who were on board Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship, replacing them with accusations of hooliganism. If convicted of the new charges, the 28 activists and two journalists who were taken into custody in September […]
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(Interfax – October 23, 2013) A report published on the website of the Human Rights Council under the Russian president says practically all the cases in which the Prosecutor-General’s Office (PGO) accused NGOs of being in breach of the controversial recent law on “foreign agents” have been thrown out by courts, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 23 October. […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yaroslava Kiryukhina, RBTH – October 23, 2013) Just several months after granting temporary asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Russia prepares to implement electronic surveillance that looks similar to the infamous PRISM. But is it actually the same? Russia’s Communications Ministry has drafted an order that would require Internet providers to install monitoring […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax) – Russians believe that the degree of corruption in Russia as a whole remains high with the local authorities being the most corruption-ridden sphere, sociologists tell Interfax. Studies conducted by VTsIOM public opinion center over the years indicate that presently 80% of respondents find the current degree of corruption high while last year the opinion was […]
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UFA, October 22 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin signed a law Tuesday giving local authorities more responsibility for handling relations between ethnic communities in a sign the government is growing nervous at evidence of a surge in nationalist-tinged discontent. Speaking at the Interethnic Relations Council in the Urals town of Ufa, Putin lashed out at local governments for what […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – October 22, 2013) A bill submitted to the State Duma on Tuesday could add NGOs engaged in the fight with illegal immigration to the list of organizations that the government is authorized to support. The law currently sanctions government aid for organizations involved in 12 areas of social work, such as disaster […]
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(RIA Novosti – October 21, 2013) The Russian presidential human rights council has sent a letter to Prosecutor-General Yuriy Chayka, asking for checks on NGOs to be suspended until a complaint about the law “On foreign agents” is considered in the Constitutional Court, council head Mikhail Fedotov told state news agency RIA Novosti on 21 October. “Today we sent a […]
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(Government.ru – October 21, 2013) The FIAC discussed technical regulation issues, the lifting of administrative obstacles, improving customs legislation for investors, the development of the banking sector and financial markets in Russia, trade and the consumer sector, as well as innovations-based development. Dmitry Medvedev’s introductory remarks Transcript: Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, colleagues. It has become a good […]
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MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off Monday on the introduction of stiffer penalties for smoking in public as the government continues in its battle to improve health standards in the country. The law sets fines of up to 3,000 rubles ($94) for smoking in public places designated as no smoking areas. The steepest fines […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 21, 2013) The introduction of the widely discussed new real estate tax that is set to replace the old system of levying fees on property with a market-oriented approach will not take place until 2015, a news report said. The bill was submitted to the government in August, but needs to be revised and […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 21, 2013) Because Vladimir Putin has reversed the steps Boris Yeltsin took in the direction of federalization and has been able to restore “the empire in the most petty details,” the Russian Federation “inevitably faces” the same fate that the USSR met with in 1991, according to a Russian analyst. In […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 21, 2013) A Russian telecommunications giant has slammed government plans to give security services complete access to all Internet traffic by the middle of 2014, calling them unconstitutional, Kommersant newspaper reported Monday. The daily cited a letter submitted by mobile operator Vimpelcom to the Press and Communications Ministry as saying the proposed legislation violated fundamental […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov – October 22, 2013) Russian investigators probed yesterday’s suicide bombing that killed six bus passengers in Volgograd as the southern region was placed on high alert hours before President Vladimir Putin met Muslim clerics. The suspected female suicide bomber arrived from the capital of the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan, disembarking […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg – October 19, 2013) The Russian presidential human rights council has presented Vladimir Putin with its proposal for a sweeping prison amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the country’s adoption of its post-Soviet constitution. Up to one-quarter of the country’s inmates could walk free under the amnesty. Who initiated the planned amnesty? Russian […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 21, 2013) The Communications Ministry’s draft decree on the special services’ access to Internet traffic is not a novelty and does not contradict Russian legislation,” the ministry press service told Interfax on Monday. “This decree is not new. Besides, it doesn’t regulate the procedure governing the provision of Internet users’ data to the special services,” the […]
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