(Interfax – Moscow, February 5, 2014) The Russian president’s press secretary Dmitriy Peskov has said everything is ready for the Olympic Games and made an appeal not to exaggerate problems in Sochi. “I’m not in favour of making problems that accompany any event of this scale, any Olympic Games, look like they can affect the entire process,” Peskov said, speaking […]
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(cc – February 4, 2014) Vladimir Putin visited the Persian Leopard Breeding and Rehabilitation Centre at the Sochi National Park. Vladimir Putin toured the Centre together with IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games Gilbert Felli and IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Killy. The Centre was set up in 2009 within the framework of the programme to restore the Persian […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 5, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin does not aspire to become a new Stalin as long as he is able to maintain power and profitability without the use of the totalitarian violence of the Soviet dictator, according to one Russian analyst, but he may become a Milosevich by his incautious actions […]
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(Kremlin.ru – February 4, 2014) Vladimir Putin spoke at the opening of the 126th session of the International Olympic Committee, held in Sochi ahead of the Winter Olympic Games. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Ladies and gentlemen, friends, President Bach, I am truly happy to welcome you to Sochi, which is hosting the XXII Winter Olympic Games. We are only […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – February 5, 2014) President Vladimir Putin concluded the 126th session of the International Olympic Committee in Sochi on Tuesday evening just as he delivered Russia’s appeal to committee voters in Guatemala in 2007 before they chose a city for the Winter Games: in English. “Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen! I declare the […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill that toughens liability for extremism-related crimes. The document amends Russia’s Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, according to the authorities’ legal information website. “In an effort to neutralize the threats to national security posed by the destructive activities of religious organizations on Russian territory, […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Stanislav Tkachenko, special to RBTH – February 4, 2014) The Russian president’s proposal to establish a free trade zone between the EU, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus – made at the recent EU-Russia summit – signals a major shift in Russian foreign policy. Stanislav Tkachenko is the head of the diplomacy program at the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Christopher Brennan – February 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin arrived in the Winter Olympic city of Sochi on Tuesday to play host to visitors three days before the opening ceremony. After arriving in Sochi, Putin visited Sochi National Park and an animal breeding and rehabilitation center that was built using budget funds set aside for […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – February 4, 2013 – Ilya Arkhipov and Stepan Kravchenko) The Sochi Olympics, designed to trumpet the strength of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, also shines a light on its weaknesses. As skiers, hockey players and figure skaters arrive this week at the games that cost about $50 billion, the North Caucasus region remains unruly more than 14 years […]
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(Kremlin.ru – February 3, 2014) Vladimir Putin chaired an expanded meeting of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art Presidium on developing theatre. Before the start of the meeting, the President visited the Pskov Academic Drama Theatre, which recently underwent restoration and construction work. Speech at a meeting of the Council for Culture and Art Presidium PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR […]
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(Interfax – February 3, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had personally chosen the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. “I am especially pleased to see what is going on here because I chose this venue personally. I came here by UAZ [car] in 2001 or 2002, we drove around, came to the bank of that river and […]
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Subject: Comment on the Economist editorial entitled “The triumph of Vladimir Putin” (JRL 2014-#21) Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2014 From: Ben Aris <editor@bne.eu> [Editor, Business New Europe] I have to comment on the Economist editorial entitled “The triumph of Vladimir Putin” (JRL 2014-#22) as it is a classic example of Russian bashing that is full of mistakes, half-truths, omissions and […]
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(Bloomberg editorial – bloomberg.com – January 30, 2014) The recurrent turmoil in emerging markets raises a difficult question about Russia: Is it a fundamentally sound economy that can weather the storm, or a corrupt autocracy headed for disaster? Unsatisfying as it may be, the answer is both. As the U.S. Federal Reserve starts to pull back on its extraordinary stimulus […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – January 30, 2014) Anna Arutunyan’s “The Putin Mystique” came out in Britain this week, and this article is not an attempt to review the book. Although we frequently highlight the accomplishments of our friends and colleagues as part of the buys of the week rubric, an actual review of Anna’s book would […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Irina Reznik, Stephen Bierman and Henry Meyer – January 30, 2014) The record stretched across the history of the party and its socialist predecessor — from the first meeting in March 1898 to the last one in July 1990, a year and a half before the Soviet Union collapsed, Bloomberg Markets will report in its March […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 30 (Interfax) – As many as 65% of Russians praised Vladimir Putin’s performance as president in January, which is as many as was in December 2013, the Levada Center sociological service told Interfax on Thursday in summing up outcomes of a nationwide poll of 1,603 Russians it conducted in 130 communities in 45 regions of Russia on January […]
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BRUSSELS. Jan 28 (Interfax) – In demanding that no force should be used and that civilized methods should be chosen in settling the conflict in Ukraine, Europe should address these demands not only to official Ukrainian authorities but also the opposition, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. In speaking at a press conference following an EU-Russia summit on Tuesday, Putin agreed […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 28, 2014) Vladimir Putin took part in the Russia-EU summit meeting. The Russian President had a private meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The meeting was at the EU’s initiative. The meeting continued in a working lunch format with participation by the delegations’ members. Following the summit, the […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 22, 2014) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, everyone, The main reason for this meeting is to congratulate you on the upcoming holiday. As one would write in official documents, I want to congratulate you and in your person all of Russia’s students. I wish you the very best in your studies and your future careers. […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – January 24, 2014) Celebrate Economist editor Edward Lucas made one of his more outrageous claims in a paper written for the Central European Policy Institute, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not only ultimately responsible for the two shooting deaths in Kyiv this week, but somehow ordered’ Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to kill […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 21, 2014) Vladimir Putin held a meeting to discuss healthcare development and the implementation of the Presidential Executive Orders signed in May 2012. Special attention was given to the need to reduce inefficient spending in healthcare and improve the efficiency of medical institutions, as well as issues pertaining to wages in the healthcare sector. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 24, 2014) The Kremlin sent as New Year’s presents to the leaders of the ruling United Russia parties copies of Nicholas Berdyaev’s “Philosophy of Inequality,” Vladimir Solovyev’s “Justification of Good,” and Ivan Ilin’s “Our Tasks,” three books which celebrate authoritarianism and the last of which suggests fascism is the only bulwark […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 23, 2014) In the course of the meeting, Vladimir Putin approved the proposal of human rights activists to nominate Ella Pamphilova candidate for the position of Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner. The meeting participants also discussed the development of the institution of human rights ombudsman and increasing the effectiveness of the system of regional human rights ombudsmen. Excerpts […]
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MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that there are too many banks in Russia, Prime business news agency reported. “We have just under a thousand banks. That is, of course, a large quantity of financial institutions for our economy,” Putin said during a meeting with a group of Moscow students. Dozens of Russian banks have […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 22, 2014) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, everyone, The main reason for this meeting is to congratulate you on the upcoming holiday. As one would write in official documents, I want to congratulate you and in your person all of Russia’s students. I wish you the very best in your studies and your future careers. […]
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TULA. Jan 21 (Interfax) – The Future Research Fund should not chase rainbows and have scientific and technological illusions in the selection of projects it will support, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. He added that the Fund “should be looking over the horizon.” “It is important to avoid straight repetition of even promising solutions in the selection of projects. As […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 16, 2014) Vladimir Putin met with designers of a new concept for teaching Russian history. Taking part in the meeting were State Duma Speaker and Chairman of the Russian Historical Society Sergei Naryshkin, Presidential Aide Andrei Fursenko, Education Minister Dmitry Livanov, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and representatives of the academic, education and expert communities. —– Speech at […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – January 22, 2014) President Vladimir Putin touted public-private partnership, as a means for revitalizing the threadbare public health care system at a meeting with top ministers Tuesday. The sector clearly demands investment, but simply raising the rates that individuals and companies pay into the state’s obligatory medical insurance fund is not an […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Dmitry Travin – January 22, 2014) Dmitry Travin is Research Director at the European University in St. Petersburg’s Centre of Modernization Studies. Global attention is focused on Russia’s hosting of the Winter Olympics, a PR coup for President Putin. But all is not well on the economic front and the scenario the Russian government will probably choose going […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, January 16, 2014) The need to design a single Russian history textbook has arisen because there are many teaching aids containing “ideological junk”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The most important thing was that, under the system of certification of, let us say, teaching materials that went to schools, there occurred things that were absolutely unacceptable not […]
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MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s electoral rating rose in December, returning to 2000s levels, a new opinion poll by the independent Levada Center showed. Asked whom they would vote for if a presidential election took place next Sunday, 68 percent of respondents said they would vote for Putin, up 10 percent from figures in December […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vladimir Kozlov, special to RBTH – January 19, 2014) From portraits to fridge magnets to video games, Putin’s image has become a commercial venture. Portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin are staples in the offices of state officials of various ranks across the country. But his images can be also found on various […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 19, 2014) Ahead of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the Russian President gave an interview to reporters from BBC, ABC News, CCTV, Rossiya-1, Channel One, and Around the Rings. The interview was recorded in Sochi on January 17. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: It seems to me that you know everything about the coming Olympics and I […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nikolay Surkov, RBTH – January 20, 2014) Russia will welcome all participants and guests of the Sochi Olympics irrespective of their sexuality, President Vladimir Putin has said to domestic and foreign media President Vladimir Putin is promising that Sochi’s Olympic Games will be a success and the world will see what a great […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Oliver Staley, Henry Meyer and Stepan Kravchenko – January 14, 2014) Yulia Nelyubina is an internationally recognized chemist at the Russian Academy of Sciences. An overhaul of the academy pushed through by President Vladimir Putin may leave her homeless and further damage the country’s already bruised science establishment. The changes mean the academy will lose control […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 13, 2014) Though he may lack the Twitter following of his tech-obsessed Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin was social media star over the weekend, as a “selfie” photo of the president and a young boy made the rounds on the Internet. [https://twitter.com/koffboy/status/422411344927653888] The picture of an unidentified boy and Putin was published […]
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MOSCOW, January 12 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named the third most admired person in the world, behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates and US President Barack Obama, according to a new poll for The Times. The newspaper reported that Putin’s popularity among Russians helped him secure the third place on the list. The poll conducted in […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 9, 2014) Support in the city of Moscow for Vladimir Putin’s new conservative message has always seemed “insincere,” according to a Russian commentator. But in ethnic Russian regions, that message has been warmly echoed by the actions of national conservative groups. In an essay on the Svobodnaya pressa portal yesterday, Vladislav […]
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Moscow, January 7, Interfax – President Vladimir Putin has greeted Orthodox Christians, all Russian citizens celebrating Christmas, the Kremlin press service reported on Tuesday. “This lightsome holiday nourishes the kindest of feelings and intensions and serves to unite millions of people on the basis of common spiritual values and historical traditions of which mutual respect and accord, mercy and care […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 6, 2014) Almost 95 percent of Russian television viewers saw the traditional New Year’s address by President Vladimir Putin, according to preliminary data from media research firm TNS Russia. This year’s address differed starkly from previous years in that it was delivered in two versions, the initial one recorded in the Kremlin and broadcast […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 3, 3014) Russia’s presidency of the Group of Eight this year will focus on transparency and efficiency in the fight against terrorism and elimination of protectionist barriers in trade, President Vladimir Putin said. In an address published on the Kremlin’s website as Russia assumed the presidency on New Year’s Day, Putin preached cooperation, dialogue […]
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MOSCOW, January 3 (RIA Novosti) A pro-Kremlin civic movement headed by President Vladimir Putin has registered its first regional office in Russia, the party’s website said Friday. The All-Russia People’s Front (ONF) said it registered the office in the city of Lipetsk, located some 440 kilometers (270 miles) south of Moscow, with Russia’s Justice Ministry. “I hope that in […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 1, 2014) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Dear Friends, This year, on June 4-5, 2014, Russia is hosting the 40th G8 Summit in Sochi. Russia plans to present our partners with an ample agenda for frank and substantive discussion so as to most importantly arrive at concrete decisions. We see that the world has not […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – January 1, 2014) At a press conference back in September, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a seemingly throwaway remark that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid outside military intervention by giving up all his chemical weapons. The same day, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin seized the diplomatic initiative by calling on his […]
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(Interfax – January 1, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named the person of the year again, Putin is first in popularity ratings since 1999, sociologists of the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) told Interfax citing a poll held. The survey was held on December 7-8 in 43 Russian regions in 100 cities, towns and villages and involved 1,500 respondents. […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 31, 2013) Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin defined terrorism as any action which killed a large number of people, but under Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leading independent specialist on its intelligence community says, terrorism has been redefined as “‘a policy of intimidation and pressure on the organs of power.’” That change is […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 31, 2013) Vladimir Putin welcomed in the New Year in Khabarovsk together with residents of the Far East who have suffered from devastating flooding. In Khabarovsk, the President delivered his New Year’s Address to the Nation. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Friends, The New Year of 2014 is almost here: in a few moments, we will take […]
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MAGADAN/KHABAROVSK, December 31 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin broke with tradition this December 31 and delivered two New Year’s speeches instead of one. In a pre-recorded New Year’s address to Russians shown on television minutes before midnight in Russia’s easternmost Kamchatka region, Putin outlined the priorities for the coming year. “Next year, a lot needs to be done […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – December 31, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, that he’s counting on further strengthening ties. In a New Year’s greeting, Putin thanked Yanukovych for “comradely, businesslike” relations that allowed the two former Soviet neighbors to develop a partnership benefiting “brotherly peoples.” The coming year should provide an opportunity […]
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MOSCOW, December 30 (RIA Novosti) Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been named International Person of the Year by Britain’s The Times newspaper for succeeding in his ambition of bringing Moscow back to the international top table. The paper said Putin, 61, a judo black belt, has hip-flipped US President Barack Obama on the Syrian crisis, wrestled the EU to […]
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