(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Vasiliadi, Analyst at the UFS Investment Company, special to RBTH – September 10, 2013) Economist Pavel Vasiliadi describes how Russia has more options than most of its G20 peers in choosing to either save or spend its way out of the crisis. In the debate on international financial architecture, Russia, having picked […]
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(Interfax – Novo-Ogarevo, September 9, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that it is necessary, while defending human rights and freedoms in the North Caucasus, not to ignore sweeping accusations of allegedly widespread violations of human rights in the region. “Attempts by foreign states to use the existing problems in the North Caucasus to the detriment of Russia should be […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – September 10, 2013) In the face of persistently high inflation and capital outflows, the Russian government has decided to freeze energy tariffs, which will give the economy a short-term boost, but will also stymie the long-term development of the economy. Times are tough in Russia after economic growth dropped […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 9, 2013) Presidential aide and former health minister Tatyana Golikova was nominated by President Vladimir Putin Monday to head Russia’s Audit Chamber, the Kremlin said. Golikova was selected by Putin from a pool of three candidates for the position put forward by a State Duma commission that also included Sergei Stepashin, the Chamber’s head […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – September 9, 2013) On the eve of elections, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave the government three days to prepare a feasibility study on how a possible freeze on natural monopolies’ prices next year might affect economic growth and business in general. The Cabinet on Friday was ordered to evaluate by Monday the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – September 9, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Council on Civil Society and Human Rights on Sept. 4, during which he attempted to clarify his position on civil rights advocates in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). He reminded those present that the Russian law is constructed in […]
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(Interfax – September 9, 2013) Moscow mayoral election procedureRussian Prime Minister, leader of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev thinks that the single election day, September 8, showed a real political competition in Russia. “The elections were not easy. They showed the increased activity of non-parliamentary parties, including the recently registered ones. In general, there were 110,000 candidates from 54 […]
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Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 From” “Timothy Post” <email@timothypost.com> Subject: Kremlin_ru_eng Live Twitter Feed I just created a live Twitter feed of all the news items published by the Kremlin Wire Service. If any of the JRL readers would like to subscribe to this feed (lots of folks have Twitter feeds come to their cell phones) they can check it […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – September 4, 2013) Faced with state interference and a too-heavy focus on military production, Russia’s aircraft manufacturing industry stands at a crossroads, when competitiveness can either be regained after its Soviet heyday or lost. This is the conclusion of a report by the analytical firm Strategy Partners Group, released ahead of last week’s MAKS airshow […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, September 5, 2013) A US military strike on Syria may prompt a whole range of countries to acquire nuclear weapons for the sake of their own security, Aleksey Pushkov, head of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, has said. “They (the Americans) think that a strike will show the determination of the USA to firmly respond […]
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(Interfax – September 5, 2013) Russian opposition activist and Moscow mayoral candidate Aleksey Navalnyy believes that, by commenting about him yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to lower the candidate’s rating the Moscow mayoral election on 8 September, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 5 September. “Thus the authorities are making desperate attempts to lower my rating by a few […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 6, 2013) Televised debates between the Moscow mayoral candidates did not stir much interest among audiences, with only half a percent of residents watching the most popular round of debates on Aug. 16. Sociologists attributed weak interest to acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s refusal to participate, Kommersant reported. A total of eleven debates have been […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 5, 2013) There will be no vote-rigging in Moscow, the Moscow region, or any other regions of Russia, the Golos movement said. “The situation in some regions has changed dramatically, primarily in Moscow and the Moscow region. I am almost confident that there will be no direct vote-rigging on the voting day and the ballots will […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – September 6, 2013) On September 8, Muscovites will take to the polling booths to cast their votes for the next mayor of the capital. That wasn’t supposed to happen this year; incumbent Sergei Sobyanin still had two years left in his term when he unexpectedly announced in June that he would step […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 6, 2013) The October Revolution will be considered a “process” and the term “bloody butcher” won’t be applied to Soviet leader Josef Stalin or his henchmen. Russian historians are on their way to creating a single standard for how history is taught to schoolchildren. Historians from the Russian Academy of Sciences reached several agreements […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – MOSCOW, September 6, 2013) The six Moscow mayoral candidates entered their final 48 hours of campaigning on Thursday ahead of Sunday’s election, meeting with journalists, voters and competitors in order to press home their campaign messages and attempt to discredit their opponents. Anti-Kremlin protest leader Alexei Navalny and the Communists lashed out at President Vladimir […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 6, 2013) A number of high-ranking Russian officials have provided false information in their income declarations, the head of the presidential administration said Friday. “I would like to avoid naming names, but we have some concrete results concerning exposed facts of officials providing false information,” Sergei Ivanov said on the sidelines of the G20 […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region – September 4, 2013) On the eve of the G20 Summit, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Channel One and the Associated Press news agency. The interview was recorded in Novo-Ogaryovo on September 3. JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Thank you for inviting us into your home and for answering questions for the AP’s worldwide audience. I know […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 5, 2013) A leader of the independent election watchdog Golos has left Russia to continue her work abroad due to a lack of financial support from the state, a news report said Thursday. Lilia Shibanova said she saw no point in remaining in Russia after Golos was barred from observing nationwide elections in June […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 5, 2013) The Moscow authorities have donated an office to a Russian human rights NGO, a source in the city administration told RIA Novosti Thursday, after it was evicted from its previous home in July. The For Human Rights movement’s new downtown office will be free of charge to the organization for 49 years, […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Aleksandr Chuikov – September 3, 2013) In September Russia’s parliament votes on a highly controversial law to reform the Russian Academy of Sciences. As Aleksandr Chuikov reports, its supporters call it a bitter pill for the 21st century; its opponents, the kiss of death, and an attempt to curb academic freedoms. The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) was […]
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Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 From: Vladimir Shlapentokh <shlapent@msu.edu> Subject: New book: Freedom, Repression, and Private Property in Russia. Hardcover,Cambridge University Press, 2013 Freedom, Repression, and Private Property in Russia Hardcover, Cambridge University Press, 2013 by Vladimir Shlapentokh (Author), Anna Arutunyan (Author) This study demonstrates how the emergence of private property and a market economy after the Soviet Union’s collapse […]
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(RFE/RL – August 27, 2013) More than two decades ago, at a time when the world was witnessing the collapse of the Soviet Union and its socialist economy, as well as the triumph of the free market and democracy, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama predicted that liberalism would sweep away competing ideologies. But in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Belarus […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Makar Butkov, special to RBTH – August 27, 2013) The protests in the winter of 2011-2012 used “For Fair Elections” as a slogan. Subsequently, many politically active citizens became observers at the presidential elections that March. This year, the Election Commission is being formed five years early. What is the Russian Election Commission, […]
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(Kremlin.ru – August 28, 2013) [The official website of the Russian G20 presidency http://en.g20russia.ru/] PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: This year marks the G20’s 5th anniversary. At the peak of the crisis the G20 members agreed on coordinated measures to support the global economy. We made the commitment to curb trade protectionism, developed new principles of financial regulation, and defined […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Evgenia Pismennaya and Irina Reznik – August 27, 2013) Vladimir Putin was lonely and homesick after moving to Moscow to work in the Kremlin in 1996 and planned to return to St. Petersburg within a year, according to a friend, documentary filmmaker Igor Shadkhan. “But then things began to happen very fast and suddenly Putin became […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 28, 2013) The statement by Vyacheslav Volodin, first deputy chief of Presidential Administration, that Moscow won’t block opposition candidates is just for show, Russian analysts say, but it does indicate that the Kremlin has sufficient confidence in its ability to manage the process in ways that will distract and divide […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – August 27, 2013) The Kremlin’s move to revive ambitious Luzhkov-era plan to build a gigantic circular highway 50 kilometers beyond the Moscow Ring Road is bringing to life the dreams of developers and nightmares of owners of property in its path. Construction of the Central Ring Road was first approved by federal […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) Non-governmental organizations that received funding from abroad are on the lift of recipients of grants from the state, Maria Slobodskaya, president of the Institute of Civil Society Issues and a member of the Russian Public Chamber, said. “The issue of who received foreign funding or did not receive foreign funding was not even considered. […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 27, 2013) What Vladislav Surkov described as “sovereign democracy” now lacks a single “sovereign” because the power vertical Vladimir Putin so carefully constructed no longer has one but rather several decision-making centers, a new situation that inevitably calls the entire edifice into question, according to a Moscow commentator. In an essay […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has slammed candidates for mayor of the Russian capital who “say that, generally speaking, Moscow is just a stage for them in trying to seize power in the country, to storm the Kremlin.” “I don’t think this trick will work. Neither you and I nor the Muscovites would put […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) The Kremlin will give grants to the Memorial human rights organization and several other opposition-minded NGOs that prosecutors earlier this year accused of being “foreign agents,” the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported Monday. Two regional branches of Memorial will receive a combined 800,000 rubles ($24,000) from the 2.3 billion rubles ($700 million) […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – August 23, 2013) The collapse of the Soviet Union, the transition to a market economy, the ban on the Communist Party, the complete transformation of the public and the economic structure of the country all of these followed the coup attempt on Aug. 19-21, 1991. The […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova and Ezekiel Pfeifer – August 23, 2013) The mayoral campaign of opposition leader Alexei Navalny faced a new wave of pressure by authorities Thursday as the Moscow Elections Commission warned he could be struck from the ballot and police raided a printer of his campaign materials. With just over two weeks left before […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) Lawyers of the two jailed members of the Russian feminist punk protest group Pussy Riot are filing a petition to have their clients’ remaining jail time replaced with community service, a Russian daily reported Friday. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were sentenced to two years in jail last August for their February […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 22, 2013) Mass searches of NGOs across the country have helped to detect 22 “foreign agents,” a top official from the Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday. The law, which requires non-governmental organizations that receive funding from abroad and engage in “political activity” to register as “foreign agents,” came into effect in November. In March, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 21, 2013) The Foundation for the Development of Civil Society (FoRGO) predicts that United Russia candidates may win all gubernatorial elections on September 8 but the opposition can offer strong rivalry in mayoral elections in Voronezh and Yekaterinburg. “We assume that that candidates nominated by United Russia or supported by United Russia will win in all […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 21, 2013) The Russian government’s failure to maintain the infrastructure that existed at the end of Soviet times is one of the primary reasons why this year’s flooding in the Russian Far East has inflicted so much damage and suffering on the population there, according to Moscow experts. Many Moscow commentators […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 20, 2013) The Kremlin has held back a proposed program to give financial support to the most talented Russian students undertaking postgraduate degrees in top foreign universities, because there is no guarantee that the economy will benefit from the outlay, a news report said Tuesday. The program was aimed at raising the standard of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – August 21, 2013) Sitting in a tiny room that serves as a temporary office for elections watchdog Golos, Grigory Melkonyants, a senior member of the now defunct organization, is full of enthusiasm. Despite the roller-coaster ride the organization has been through in recent months caused by sanctions placed on it by the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – August 21, 2013) With Moscow about to vote for a new mayor this September, opposition blogger and candidate for the job Alexei Navalny is doing what he does best: exposing the sweet little earners that come from being well connected. In this case it is Anna Sobyanina, the daughter of Moscow’s incumbent mayor, Sergei […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – August 20, 2013) Groups of workers squatting on their haunches surrounded by piles of sand and broken tarmac is a common picture for downtown Moscow these days. But Muscovites can keep calm: this is not another 2 billion ruble effort by acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin to replace asphalt with tiles on pavements […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, August 19, 2013) Moscow mayoral candidate Sergey Sobyanin has provided the full set of documents for registration in the election of Moscow city chief and was registered in total accordance with the law, a spokesperson for the Moscow city electoral commission told RIA Novosti on Monday (19 August). Moscow mayoral nominee from the RPR-Parnas party Aleksey […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Patrick Sewell, special to RBTH – August 19, 2013) Flare-ups of nationalist conflict in July exposed the government as being either unable, or unwilling, to oppose a dangerous nationalist interpretation of Russian statehood with one based on civic identity. On July 8, 600 citizens in the southern town of Pugachev, angered by the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 19, 2013) At least 39 State Duma deputies were supposed to make decisions regarding their foreign assets and real estate abroad before August 19. A law, which came into effect on May 19, 2013, compelled deputies to abandon either their assets or their parliament seats. Deputies and public servants are permitted to have real estate abroad […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Maria Stambler – August 20, 2013) When Westerners think of Russia, bears, snow, matryoshki and, of course, vodka are among the first things that come to mind. The pervasiveness and social acceptance of vodka have attracted the government’s attention in recent years due to worrying levels of alcoholism. According to a 2011 report by the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 19, 2013) Military investigators have decided not to open criminal a case that could have seen former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov charged with abusing his position to misappropriate government funds, a news report said Monday The allegations have only deepened the haze of suspicion surrounding Serdyukov, who was fired by President Vladimir Putin in […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Anastasia Valeeva – August 16, 2013) Anastasia Valeeva is a Moscow-based journalist working at Public Television of Russia and doing her MA at the University of Siegen, Germany. The upcoming Moscow mayoral election is much in the news because one of the candidates, Alexei Navalny, is appealing against a prison sentence. Anastasia Valeeva gives a snapshot of some […]
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(Interfax – August 19, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with members of the presidential human rights council on September 3, the newspaper Vedomosti reported, citing sources with knowledge on the matter, on Monday. Putin was earlier scheduled to meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in Moscow on September 3. Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the human rights council […]
» Read more(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 19, 2013) “In place of a state as an institution,” the Russian Federation has “a gigantic and uncontrolled private structure which is successfully diverting profits to its own use,” according to Yevgeny Gontmakher, who argues that “the most immediate task of [Russian] society is to restore a state in Russia.” In […]
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