(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Joy Neumeyer – August 5, 2013) Across from the sprawling Gazprom offices on Moscow’s southern fringes, there is a forest. It is quiet, full of mushrooms and dead leaves. The only people usually there are a pair of monks, who live by a church built on the property. The forest is part of a village […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Vladimir Kara-Murza – August 1, 2013) On September 8, Moscow will hold its mayoral election. Six candidates are vying for the post, but only two can be considered serious contenders: the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, and anticorruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. As in previous years, a part of the opposition is calling for a boycott […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 31, 2013) The majority of Moscow citizens are aware that that early Moscow mayoral elections will be held on September 8 and they are interested in the election campaign, however not all of them intend to vote on the single election day, sociologists said. The share of Moscow citizens aware of the upcoming mayoral elections in […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 30, 2013) The share of Moscow residents happy with the work of the Moscow mayor, its government and Moscow City Duma grew, however the majority still think that authorities ignore wishes of Moscow residents when making decisions, sociologists said. The share of Moscow residents happy with the work of acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin grew from […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – July 31, 2013) Moscow’s election committee announced Tuesday that debates for the Sept. 8 mayoral election will be held with the participation of all six candidates simultaneously an arrangement many say is a result of acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s reluctance to go head to head with opposition leader Alexei Navalny. While […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 31, 2013) The brown bear that former president Boris Yeltsin gave to the Moscow zoo will be moved to a new location so that he can meet his old age “with dignity,” the zoo’s director Sergei Popov said at a press conference Tuesday. The zoo had previously received numerous letters from visitors, complaining that […]
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(RIA Novosti – July 29, 2013) Yabloko leader Sergey Mitrokhin, chairman of Just Russia Nikolay Levichev and the candidate from RPR-Parnas, Aleksey Navalnyy, will not withdraw their candidatures from the September election of Moscow mayor, RIA Novosti (1) reported on 29 July. A coordinator of the Left Front, Sergey Udaltsov, earlier called on Levichev, Navalnyy, Mitrokhin and Ivan Melnkiov (CPRF […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyana – July 30, 2013) When asked to rate President Vladimir Putin’s work as good or bad, over 60 percent of Muscovites gave a positive answer, a recent poll says. When asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical presidential election this week, 54 percent of Muscovites said they would vote for Putin, […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 139 – Pavel K. Baev – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – July 29, 2013) Last week, Aleksei Navalny re-entered the Moscow mayoral election campaign after his implausible release from jail the day after being condemned to five years behind bars on a blatantly fabricated charge. His team has jump-started the work in earnest, mobilizing […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – July 30, 2013) In the shadow of a much more publicized mayoral election in the capital, the upcoming gubernatorial election in the Moscow region offers a decidedly different set of campaign issues, people’s demands and opposition activity. Unlike in Moscow, residents of the region that is often separated from the city by […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor – July 26, 2013) All autocracies have two things in common: They exaggerate the threats they face from leading opposition figures and take extreme, repressive measures to limit or remove those threats. Russia is certainly no exception, and the trial and conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a case […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 26, 2013) The upcoming Sept. 8 regional elections across Russia will be more competitive than the previous ones, amid declining public support for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, experts say. Despite compounded bureaucratic obstacles for the registration of candidates, ongoing regional election campaigns show an increased outflow of candidates from the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – July 28, 2013) Aleksei Navalny has been called the best hope for liberalization in Russia. And he has been called the most dangerous man in the country. Navalny has risen quickly to become the de facto head of Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition — a rise based almost entirely on his relentless exposure of high-level […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 136 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Richard Arnold – July 24, 2013) The announcement by Vladimir Tor, the leader of the unregistered far-right National Democratic Party (NDP), that he will support anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny in the election for Moscow mayor (http://lenta.ru/news/2013/06/20/navalny/) may have gone unnoticed in the West, but it is one […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin running for reelection has reaffirmed his intention to do all he can to ensure that the mayoral elections scheduled for September 8 be truly honest. “We don’t need a victory at all costs. We need honest elections, I mean really honest elections,” Sobyanin said at a meeting with members […]
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(Interfax – July 23, 2013) According to an opinion poll carried out in Moscow on 20-21 July, only 9 per cent of those polled would vote for opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyy in the Moscow mayor election to be held on 8 September, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 23 July.(1) The figure has gone up 1 per cent since […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) A website, vybory.mos.ru, will go online soon to allow Muscovites to monitor the mayoral elections, Moscow’s IT Department head Artyom Yermolayev told the city government on Tuesday. “A technical scheme has been devised that will link up the video cameras intended for the police and housing utility services into an integrated video monitoring system, […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 23, 2103) Moscow was ranked the world’s second most expensive city for expatriates in this year’s Mercer Human Resource Consulting survey, published Tuesday. Moscow follows Angolan capital Luanda as the second most expensive city because of high costs for rental accommodation a luxury two bedroom unfurnished apartment rental for one month in the […]
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(Interfax – DUBNA, Moscow region, July 23, 2013) The number of children who live in orphanages in the Moscow region has decreased by more than 22,000 in the past year, Russian children’s rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said. “Whereas there were 124,000 orphans in Russia in 2008, last year this figure stood at 74,700. It was an almost 50% reduction. Of […]
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(Moscow News – Anna Arutunyan, Editor and Correspondent at themoscownews.com – July 22, 2013) For all the Byzantine intrigue behind the decision to let opposition blogger Alexei Navalny go free pending appeals, I was sincerely glad for him, his family and his supporters. Last Thursday’s ruling, which slapped Navalny with a five-year term in a penal colony, brutally wiped out […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s participation in the Moscow mayoral elections will enhance their legitimacy, although no one thinks Navalny will win, political analysts said. “Navalny will definitely lose in an honest game,” Konstantin Kostin, chairman of the Civil Society Development Foundation, said at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday. The front-runner, Sergei Sobyanin, […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – July 22, 2013) Vladimir Putin submerging into the depths in a submarine. Aleksei Navalny being greeted by an adoring crowd as he triumphantly returned to Moscow. Something old, something new. The two images bookended what was a remarkable — and highly consequential — week in Russia. As the Navalny saga was unfolding — […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova, Kristen Blyth – July 22, 2013) Even for Muscovites who aren’t very much into politics, the September mayoral elections are about to get interesting. The surprising five-year sentence for opposition candidate Alexei Navalny – and the equally shocking decision to free him the very next day pending appeal – has both exacerbated political […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko & Oleg Sukhov – July 22, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, unexpectedly freed by a Kirov court a day after being jailed on embezzlement charges, got a hero’s welcome from hundreds of supporters when his train arrived in Moscow over the weekend, and he immediately announced that he would pursue his long-shot bid […]
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(Interfax – KIROV, July 19, 2013) Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny has said he will make a final decision regarding his further participation in the Moscow mayoral race after he returns to Moscow and consults with his election campaign coordinators. “This decision will be made after I return to Moscow and we discuss everything,” Navalny said, answering a question from […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) Russian public figures and foreign diplomats on Thursday weighed in on the five-year jail sentence handed down to anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny, with opinions ranging from grim pessimism among liberals and “disappointment” from the U.S. ambassador to mixed forecasts by economic analysts and claims of a fair trial by pro-Kremlin pundits. – […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigning blogger who was handed a five-year-jail term on Thursday, is to withdraw his candidacy for the upcoming election for Moscow mayor, his campaign office said. Navalny’s campaign office will proceed with canceling his registration for the early Moscow mayoral vote, scheduled for September 8, […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – July 17, 2013) Six candidates will run for mayor of Moscow in the upcoming snap elections on September 8, Valentin Gorbunov, the chairman of the Moscow City Elections Commission, said on Wednesday, when the formal registration of candidates was concluded. Aside from Acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who formally resigned and called the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – July 16, 2013) [The Development of New Moscow One Year On chart here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/expectations-high-for-new-moscow-one-year-on/482838.html] A little over a year after the territory of the city of Moscow more than doubled in size, real estate prices are stabilizing, and expectations for improving infrastructure are high. On July 1, 2012, almost 150,000 hectares of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 16, 2013) Opposition leader Alexei Navalny will be registered on Wednesday as a candidate for the Moscow mayoral elections, just one day before the verdict for the KirovLes embezzlement case is scheduled to be delivered, Kommersant reported. The Kremlin critic is awaiting the verdict in a criminal case alleging that he embezzled 16 million […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) Opposition candidate Alexei Navalny will add spice to the Moscow mayoral election and draw Muscovites to polling stations, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told Interfax. “The participation of Navalny in this campaign will make it heated and draw attention to the mayoral election and this interesting candidate. It will capture the attention of Muscovites, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 12, 2013) Only six candidates, including acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and opposition activist Alexei Navalny, have managed to submit the necessary documentation for registration in the upcoming mayoral elections. The deadline for accepting candidates’ registration papers was 6:00 p.m. Thursday. While eight people submitted documentation to the Election Committee, only six managed to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 11, 2013) Less than two months before the Moscow mayoral election, an independent public opinion poll shows acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin with a double-digit lead over the other 39 potential candidates, none of whom received even 10 percent of respondents’ support. The poll published Wednesday by the Levada Center named […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – July 11, 2013) The mood for protest has shifted from Moscow to the regions as Russia’s economy slows, according to the Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow. Approval ratings for President Vladimir Putin, 60, have stabilized, and he’s now more popular in the capital than in the rest of Russia, according to the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – July 9, 2013) With Moscow’s election months away and the result likely predetermined, the next big showdown in the Russian capital should come as early as next week. In the last couple days, more than 6,000 people have already joined a special Facebook page calling on Russians to gather on Moscow’s Manezh Square […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Romendik, specially for RIR – July 8, 2013) Two rapid rail links will come up in the Russian capital within the next few years a new subway circular line and a surface, commuter-train circular line. Muscovites who travel on the efficient yet crowded underground will benefit from expansion of the Moscow […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – July 9, 2013) The battle over the preservation of Moscow’s architectural heritage has become visibly political in recent weeks, as prominent opposition parties criticized acting mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s policies. Several candidates have promised to address the issue in the run-up to this September’s mayoral race. The primary catalyst in the debate has […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Kan, special to RBTH – July 8, 2013) Depending on Sept. 8 election results, the opposition in Russia could effectively be shut down. Early elections for mayor of Russia’s capital will be held on Sept. 8. This will be the opposition’s zero-hour: The key electorate for opponents of the regime is represented […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – June 28, 2013) Despite numerous hurdles facing opposition leader Alexei Navalny, including the six criminal cases against him and campaign conditions skewed in favor of the incumbent mayor, Navalny pledged to fiercely campaign his own program at Moscow’s mayoral elections on Sept. 8. “Moscow is not developing quickly enough; its development paradigm […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) Temperatures soared to 31.4 degrees Centigrade in Moscow on Thursday afternoon, the hydro-meteorological bureau of Moscow and the Moscow region told Interfax. “A century-old record has been repeated: Moscow had temperatures of 31.4 degrees Centigrade on June 27, 1911,” it said. The bureau does not rule out the temperature record might be beaten by […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) Two more aspirants filed for registration as Moscow mayoral candidates on Thursday, the city elections commission told Interfax. “The documents were filed by two unemployed men: 53-year-old Andrei Kim and 43-year-old Sergei Golkin,” the commission representative said. The city elections commission denied registration to one self-nominee, unemployed Alexei Denisov earlier in the day. “There […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – June 19, 2013) [Video here: rferl.org/content/navalny-game-russia-opposition-moscow-trial/25022010.html] Aleksei Navalny may be on the ropes, but at the same time he’s also on something of a roll. The on-the-ropes part was in full display in Kirov on June 18 when Judge Sergei Blinov flat-out refused to allow Navalny to call any defense witnesses in his […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov and Natalya Krainova – June 17, 2013) In a preview of what to expect in the fight for post as Moscow mayor, several opposition candidates presented their campaign platforms to municipal deputies on Saturday in an effort to gather the required amount of deputies’ signatures to run in the election set for Sept. […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – June 17, 2013) Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has registered with the Moscow Election Commission as a candidate for the upcoming mayoral elections scheduled for September 8. Sobyanin, who officially resigned from his post earlier this month in order to stand for mayor, will be running as an independent candidate, meaning that […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – June 10, 2013 – James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR) Last week, an American friend of mine received two mysterious white envelopes in the mail. On opening them, he found that each contained a black and white photo of his car, each taken secretly, in the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – June 14, 2013) Citing problems with transferring his foreign assets to Russia, billionaire businessman Mikhail Prokhorov announced Thursday that he would not run for mayor of Moscow, removing perhaps the strongest potential opponent to acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin from the September vote. It is possible to move his foreign assets, including legal […]
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(Interfax – June 13, 2013) Opposition activist Alexei Navalny believes that the Kirov Court hearings on the Kirovles case scheduled by the court for June 13 and 14 are aimed at blocking his nomination for Moscow mayor, said his lawyer Sergei Kobelev. The lawyer said that his client Navalny had notified him that he was supposed to attend a meeting […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 11, 2013) The official campaign for early Moscow mayoral elections started Tuesday when the publication of the City Duma’s decision to hold the vote on Sept. 8 in City Hall’s official newspaper, Tverskaya 13. Candidates can submit the paperwork required to register their bids with the elections committee from Wednesday, Interfax said. Under stringent […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 9, 2013) Opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, recommended for nomination as a mayoral candidate by the Bureau of the opposition Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), will not pass through the municipal filter as a serious candidate, said First Vice President of the Center for Political Technologies think tank Alexei Makarkin. “Navalny can act […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 9, 2013) The Bureau of the Opposition Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS) adopted a recommendation on Sunday to nominate opposition blogger Alexei Navalny to run for Moscow mayor, the party’s co-chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov told Interfax. “The recommendation was adopted following a preliminary discussion. By law, the recommendation has no legal force. The […]
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