(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 21, 2013) The time has come for the federal government to hand additional powers over to the regions, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told a world economic forum in Moscow. “It’s time indeed to transfer additional powers to the regions,” he said. “Certain financial resources could also be additionally provided to the municipal level,” he […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 19, 2013) While opening an international competition in Russia’s second largest city St. Petersburg on Friday, President Vladimir Putin, an avid judoist, called martial arts “a philosophy” that helps people to gain confidence in themselves. During his opening speech at the World Combat Games 2013, Putin, a judo black belt, said martial arts were, […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Daniil Kislov – October 17, 2013) Daniil Kislov is a poet, journalist and essayist from Uzbekistan. He currently lives in Moscow. He is the main editor of the online news portal Fergana News. An ethnic Russian is killed at a Moscow street market, supposedly by a migrant from the Caucasus; the ensuing riot by nationalist extremists leaves one […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 18, 2013) The approval rating of Russian President Vladimir Putin stands at 62% in October, sociologists of the All Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Friday. Forty-seven percent of respondents to VTsIOM’s October survey said that Putin’s vast political experience appeals to them (38% in 2011). Thirty-three percent of those polled described […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg and Arifa Kazimova – October 16, 2013) Footage detailing the heavy-handed arrest of an Azerbaijani native suspected of killing a Russian man in Moscow has escalated mounting ethnic tensions between the two nations. Russian police detained Orkhan Zeynalov on October 15 on suspicion of fatally stabbing a 25-year-old ethnic Russian man, Yegor Shcherbakov, in […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 18, 2013) A Kremlin source has denied reports claiming that a number of regional governors may be relieved of their posts ahead of time. “These absurd claims are not even worth commenting on. This newspaper article uses some artificially formed agenda, not real facts,” the source told Interfax on Friday. The Izvestia newspaper said, citing its […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 16, 2013) Some 43% of Russian citizens support the initiative to reinstate the “against all” opinion on ballots, the Russian Public Opinion Studies Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Wednesday. Twenty-one percent of the respondents disagreed with the idea, and 32% said they simply did not care. VTsIOM polled 1,600 people in 130 towns and cities in […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 17, 2013) The Russian Federation finds itself in a Zugswang, a German term for a situation in which any move leads to a loss, according to the editor of “Kulturolog.” And in its case, the situation is especially dire because the country increasingly finds itself forced to choose between disintegration and […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – October 16, 2013) A court last week ordered activist Mikhail Kosenko to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment for attacking a riot police officer during the May 6, 2012 protest rally on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration. The ruling sparked concerns among rights activists that Soviet-era punitive psychiatry, when dissidents were found to […]
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(Interfax – October 16, 2013) Russian party leaders have for the most part welcomed the commutation of opposition leader and anti-corruption campaigner Aleksey Navalnyy’s sentence to a suspended one, on appeal, on 16 October. In reaction sampled by the Russian news agency Interfax, Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, of the nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), stood out, with his call for a […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 16, 2013) The Kremlin’s moves against the principles of the Russian Constitution and basic human rights are currently coming at such a rapid pace that it is difficult to keep up with its assault on what remains of democracy in that country. This week alone featured three initiatives that are particularly […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 16, 2013) The “against all” vote, a popular mechanism of protest until it was stricken from the Russian ballot in 2006, may soon reappear on the initiative of the very people who removed it the ruling United Russia party. Valentina Matviyenko, who is the Federation Council’s Speaker and a United Russia member, said […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow) Moscow police rounded up and arrested more than 1,000 migrant workers at a vegetable warehouse on October 14, the day after rioters staged the most violent nationalist unrest in the Russian capital in three years, with more than 3,000 going on the rampage, smashing up a market, overturning and burning […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Darya Lyublinskaya, special to RBTH – October 16, 2013) According to data from surveys, almost two thirds of Russians are indifferent to the political situation in the country. In their explanation of these results experts claim in the first instance that the population are more focused on everyday problems and do not trust […]
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(Interfax – October 16, 2013) Prominent opposition activist and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, whom the Kirov Regional Court gave a five-year suspended prison sentence on Wednesday for embezzlement of assets belonging to the state-run timber company Kirovles, may be subject to the amnesty that the State Duma is expected to announce soon, Russian Presidential Human Rights Council head Mikhail Fedotov […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 15, 2013) Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny has said he does not expect the Kirov Regional Court to acquit him as it hears an appeal contesting Navalny’s embezzlement conviction on October 16. “I will be given a real or a suspended prison sentence, but I will not be acquitted,” he told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. However, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 15, 2013) Nationalism is now at the center of Russian political discourse, that country’s leading specialist on ethnic conflicts says, and as a result, the core of Moscow’s political debate has shifted from one between liberals and derzhavniki to a very different one between left nationalists and right-of-center ones. Emil Pain, […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, October 14, 2013) Moscow’s migrant workers have seen this story before and they believe they have reason to be afraid. When an unidentified man — believed to be from the Caucasus — stabbed and killed a young ethnic Russian on October 10, triggering the capital’s worst ethnic riots in three years, police […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 14, 2013) Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said the police officers ‘ actions during riots in the Moscow district Western Biryulyovo were right. “In this case, what has occurred should be classified as hooliganism. It truly was hooliganism, and the law enforcement agencies should punish the perpetrators,” Alekseyeva told Interfax on Monday. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – October 15, 2013) Surrounded by railroads, industrial estates and giant cooling towers from a local thermal plant, the Western Biryulyovo district where riots broke out Sunday oozes its own sense of disunion from the rest of Moscow and residents say it has become a hostage to its own growing marginalization. “If […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – October 15, 2013) In response to a violent race riot in southern Moscow over the weekend, federal and city authorities announced new measures to fight illegal immigration and detained about 1,200 migrants at a vegetable storage facility that had been attacked by rioters Sunday. With these actions, the government took a first […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 14, 2013) The ethnic violence in Moscow’s Biryulevo district over the weekend is only the latest pogrom to have occurred in the Russian capital since Vladimir Putin became president, something that all those who are following this rapidly developing story need to keep in mind to comprehend what this latest clash. […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – October 10, 2013) In September, Vladimir Putin appointed Colonel General Viktor Zolotov, who used to head the Russian president’s security service, as deputy commander of the Interior Ministry troops, a large paramilitary force of about 170,000 soldiers. This appointment may be a step toward the creation of a new […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – October 10, 2013) The fact that a Moscow court found Mikhail Kosenko guilty of assaulting a police officer despite video evidence to the contrary didn’t exactly come as a surprise. In recent years, Russian courts have convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky of stealing oil from himself and Aleksei Navalny of embezzling money without making a profit, just […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Maria Snegovaya – October 10, 2013) The question of “Who is Mr. Putin” continues to interest Western Russia watchers. Political analyst Maria Snegovaya contrasts two recent books about the Russian leader, “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” by Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy, and “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 11, 2013) The Constitutional Court ruled Thursday to allow people previously convicted of “serious and very serious crimes” to run for public office, in a move that may pave the way for opposition leader Alexei Navalny and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to get into politics. The ruling concerns a law […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – October 11, 2013 Experts advise the ruling party of Putin and Medvedev to resolve practical problems. Last week’s United Russia congress demonstrated that the ruling party remains the nation’s leading political force and has no viable rivals. Nevertheless, experts believe United Russia will need to change fast or risk […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Andrei Kolesnikov – October 10, 2013) Moscow based journalist, editor of the op-ed section of Novaya Gazyeta, columnist of the Vedomosti daily and www.gazeta.ru web magazine. Author of three books, including biography of controversial politician Anatoly Chubais Like a crippled Dreamliner, the Russian economy is slowing to a standstill; the bureaucrats are ignoring instructions; even the scientists are […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – October 11, 2013) At first, Sochi’s Fisht Olympic Stadium was meant to resemble a giant snowflake, a symbol of cold weather to balance out the city’s palm trees and beaches for the Winter Games. Then, the design morphed into two parallel mounds of snow, opened down the middle to present views of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – October 10, 2013) Russia’s top psychiatric institution held an open house Wednesday in an attempt to popularize its work, amid speculation about a revival of Soviet-style punitive psychiatry following the sentencing of an opposition protester to mandatory mental treatment. The Serbsky Center of Social and Judicial Psychiatry welcomed about a dozen journalists […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, October 10, 2013) Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday to overturn a provision barring people convicted of major crimes from running for public office in a move that could open the way for opposition leader and recent Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny to participate in future elections. The court said in its ruling that a judicial […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, October 9, 2013) Russia’s Supreme Arbitration Court is widely viewed as the country’s most impartial court. But it might not be for much longer. The Kremlin this week submitted legislation to the State Duma that would essentially abolish the body, which resolves economic disputes, by merging it with the Supreme Court. The […]
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(RIA Novosti – Konstantin von Eggert – October 9, 2013) For the past decade Russian politics has been all about ‘signals’ from on high. In the absence of mature democratic institutions like parliament, independent courts and (with rare exceptions) truly independent media, what leaders say, especially the president, take on an almost-sacred meaning. When 10 years ago, at the beginning […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – October 7, 2013) The lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the Duma, set a new record before the 2013 summer recess by passing as many as 261 new bills. Some of them have caused quite a stir, including the laws banning the propaganda of homosexuality, making it […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 9, 2013) It will take “at a minimum two generations” for the various identities in the Russian Federation to come together to form a united civic nation, a process that will be all the more prolonged because except in the major cities, the country does not have a civil society, according […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 7, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently become more long-sighted and wiser (65%), more strong-willed (64%) and looks fresher and more energetic (63%), sociologists said citing a poll held. Respondents said that Putin awoke more interest in himself and his actions (57%) than before, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) said presenting the survey […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 8, 2013) Russian government programs require a quality review, as their funding is not backed by real budget spending, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said at a parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council in Moscow on Tuesday. “Government programs in key sectors – infrastructure, healthcare, education and science were compiled and considered with financing that […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) The current challenge for the Russian economy is the need to accelerate labor productivity gains, since the current slow pace means that the economic orientation on raw materials extraction will continue, President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow on Wednesday at the Russia Calling investment forum organized by VTB Capital. “For Russia, the main, crucial […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – October 3, 2013) The Cabinet on Thursday discussed moves to back small and medium-sized businesses with greater access to loans and state contracts as a way to spur the flagging economy. “We must make a serious breakthrough in the field of investment, the field of labor productivity, the field of diversification of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 3, 2013) The majority of Russians approve of the piracy charges against 28 Greenpeace activists who were detained in late September after trying to climb an Gazprom-owned oil drilling rig in the Arctic to protest its environmental impact. A survey from state pollster VTsIOM published Wednesday showed that 60 percent of the respondents believe […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) Loss of national “sovereignty” is not an acceptable price for higher quality of life in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. “It’s impossible for Russia to swap sovereignty for better quality of life, because if we lose our sovereignty, we will lose the country,” Putin said at a meeting of the Council on […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 1, 2013) Sergey Ivanov, head of the Russian Presidential Administration, said today that the low voter turnout for the September 8 elections was a healthy phenomenon and reflected the increasing sense of well-being of the Russian people. “Thank God, “we have approached” that situation (regnum.ru/news/russia/1714111.html). But Irina Pavlova, one of the […]
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(Government.ru – Sochi, Krasnodar Territory, September 28, 2013) Anna Schneider: Good afternoon, Mr Medvedev. Thank you for finding the time to come here. Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon. Anna Schneider: The forum is about to complete its work. What results have been achieved? What are your personal impressions? How is this year’s forum different from the previous ones in terms of […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – September 26, 2013) Stop thinking Putin has everything figured out, because he doesn’t Sometimes, President Vladimir Putin says – or does – a bunch of stuff, and everyone gets really, really confused. It happens all the time, particularly when there’s a major global controversy, like whether someone needs to intervene in Syria’s […]
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(Interfax – VLADIVOSTOK, September 28, 2013) – Russia will take a break in megaprojects under the current complex circumstances but will continue to develop its transport infrastructure. “There will be no such megaprojects as the Sochi Games in 2014 but there will be other very important projects, such as transport infrastructure for greater passenger and cargo mobility. They will not […]
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(Government.ru – Dmitry Medvedev – September 27, 2013) [English translation of commentary published in Vedomosti, September 27, 2013] 1. The beginning Five years ago it became obvious that a global economic catastrophe was beginning. I remember very well the first G20 anti-crisis summit meeting in Washington and the views which I and the majority of my colleagues expressed there. From […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Andrew McChesney – October 1, 2013) Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov has expressed surprise about the opposition’s growing political clout, particularly Alexei Navalny’s strong showing in Moscow’s mayoral election this month, but indicated that President Vladimir Putin was unconcerned by any threat to his grip on power. Ivanov, who made the comments in an […]
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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 Subject: Re: Current History’s October issue From: Joshua Lustig [Managing Editor] <JoshuaLustig@currenthistory.com> Current History’s October 2013 issue, devoted to Russia and Eurasia, is available at www.currenthistory.com, in print, and via Kindle. It includes the following essays: Can Putin Keep His Grip on Power? by Daniel Treisman Moscow’s Soft Power Strategy, by Andrei P. Tsygankov Russia’s […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff has credited Russia’s 1993 constitution with making it possible to “preserve the sovereignty and unity of Russia.” “The constitution has made it possible to preserve the sovereignty and unity of Russia. It has made it possible to step back from a very dangerous point and put political processes […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) [Complete transcript here http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/6007] VLADIMIR PUTIN: And one more question for our American friend and colleague. What will the United States do about the budget deficit, the debt that has reached an incredible size? It is the largest debt in the United States’ post-war history. How will the situation unfold moving forward? This […]
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