MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has played down the fact that Forbes’ magazine has declared him the world’s most powerful person. “I’m grateful to the experts at Forbes, but this is what I think of it: one is always uneasy about it because it’s restrictive somewhat, it may put restrictions on your decision making,” Putin told […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – November 12, 2013) Supreme Arbitration Court judges have lambasted President Vladimir Putin’s plans to merge the legal body with the Supreme Court, saying that the resulting superstructure will be too cumbersome and less independent in administering justice. The way judges will be appointed to the new structure does not “conform with the […]
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MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that being labeled the world’s most powerful person by Forbes magazine this year has made him “more cautious,” his first-ever public comment on the issue. “I appreciate Forbes experts’ opinion, but I personally believe that, first, it always makes you cautious because it limits you a little bit […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble, Staunton, November 6, 2013) Apparently operating on the principle that if there is a problem, there should be a government structure responsible for it, President Vladimir Putin is moving to recreate in fact if not in name a ministry to oversee the Russian Federation’s increasingly intense nationality problems. But for the same reasons that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 7, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has urged Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky to show more restraint in his speeches, most likely in reference to the lawmaker’s recent remarks about the North Caucasus that provoked outrage in the region. Zhirinovsky said during a television show last month that the North Caucasus should be surrounded […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yevgeny Shestakov, International Affairs Editor at Rossiyskaya Gazeta, special to RBTH – November 7, 2013) There are a number of reasons why the U.S. edition of Forbes magazine nominated Russian President Vladimir Putin as the most powerful person in 2013. It is difficult to gauge the accuracy of those experts who say Putin’s […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 199 – Stephen Blank – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – November 6, 2013) Indian Premier Manmohan Singh’s October 21–22 visit to Moscow not only reaffirmed traditional Indo-Russian amity, it also revealed significant trends in Asian developments that affect both parties as well as other key players like the United States, China and Pakistan. In […]
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(Kremlin.ru – November 7, 2013) Faculty members and researchers from more than 20 universities and institutes attended the meeting, held ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends. We are holding this meeting in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the adoption of Russia’s Constitution. I will not lecture you […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) – Almost half of Russians (46%) approve of the course of national development taken by Vladimir Putin after his return to the presidency, Levada Center told Interfax. This course is mostly supported by women (50% vs. 41% of men), young citizens aged from 18 to 24 (55%), people with secondary education (52%) and residents of cities […]
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MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) The head of the Russian Orthodox Church on Monday awarded Vladimir Putin with a prize in recognition of the president’s policies intended to make Russia a leading world power. The award was established this year by the World Russian People’s Council, a public organization under the aegis of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch of […]
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(Interfax – October 31, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Aleksey Kudrin, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the presidium of the presidential economic council, Russian privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 31 October. A decree confirming the membership of the council’s presidium, which included Kudrin’s name, was signed on 31 August, Interfax said, citing an […]
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(Kremlin.ru – October 30, 2013) Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Presidential Council for Countering Corruption. The main issues on the agenda were implementing state anti-corruption policy, and the effectiveness of recent legislative and administrative measures. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, We are here today to discuss the results of state anti-corruption policy. We have taken […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Russian political scientists believe that U.S. business magazine Forbes decided to place Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the top of its Most Powerful People rating largely thanks to his influence and the effectiveness of his initiative aimed at tackling problems linked to the conflict in Syria “The reasons why Putin was chosen to head 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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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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(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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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin has overseen a snap check of Russia’s nuclear deterrent, aerospace defenses and strategic aviation, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. “The exercise involved launches of ballistic missiles, drills by air defense and missile defense units,” Peskov said, adding that all practice targets had been destroyed. The Russian Defense Ministry […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 28, 2013) President Vladimir Putin opposes the introduction of a visa regime with the Central Asian countries because he is still “living with the illusions” that the Commonwealth of Independent States of which they are members continues to exist and can serve as the basis for some broader and deeper Russian-led […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Oct 28 (Interfax) – Sergei Katyrin, the head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has suggested to President Vladimir Putin that the BRICS countries should consolidate their efforts in defending their positions in the World Trade Organization (WTO). “We consider the possibility of working together with BRICS. Separately, we probably do not exceed the leading countries or […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 28, 2013) Russian nationalists and others have regularly criticized Vladimir Putin for building an economy and hence a state that relies on the export of raw materials rather than the development of industry and investment in human capital. But now two of them have stepped up this attack and argued that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – October 25, 2013) Turkey is interested in joining the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and India also wants closer ties with the organization, President Vladimir Putin said at the EurAsian Economic Community summit in Minsk on Thursday. But some political analysts saw the summit in Minsk, which for the first […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Russia will not close its market for goods from Ukraine if the latter signs an association with the European Union, but Ukrainian products will no longer enjoy benefits, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. There is a free-trade zone in the CIS of which both Russia and Ukraine are participants, he said at a press conference […]
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MINSK. Oct 25 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed once again that Ukraine cannot be simultaneously an EU associated member and a Belarusian-Kazakh-Russian Customs Union member. Speaking to journalists in Minsk on Friday, Putin pointed out that the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU says that all possible integration associations Ukraine would wish to join in the […]
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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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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 – Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber – October 22, 2013) President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met for bilateral talks in Moscow on Monday, signing a series of agreements to enhance economic and scientific cooperation, but failing to reach a consensus on the future of a Russian-operated nuclear power plant in southern India. Putin and Singh […]
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(Interfax – Ufa, October 22, 2013) The voice of Russian Muslim figures should be heard better both on the international arena and in the international Islamic community, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “Tensions between the West and the Islamic world are increasing today. And someone is trying to gamble on this theme by adding firewood to this fire. We are […]
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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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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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(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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(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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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – October 21, 2013) Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said that he conferred with President Vladimir Putin about the decision to allow opposition leader Alexei Navalny to participate in the mayoral election on Sept. 8, confirming widespread speculations at the time. Putin and First Deputy Chief of Staff Vyacheslav Volodin “had a positive attitude […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – October 18, 2013) International pressure on Russia over the arrest of Greenpeace activists mounted Thursday as 11 Nobel Peace Prize winners urged President Vladimir Putin to drop the piracy charges against them. The 11 laureates made such an appeal in a letter sent to the Russian president, Greenpeace said. The letter, which […]
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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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(Interfax – October 16, 2013) Anti-Kremlin protesters prosecuted in the so-called “Bolotnaya case” could be freed under the amnesty proposed by the Human Rights Council (HRC) under the Russian president, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 16 October. The draft submitted to President Vladimir Putin specifically mentions people who “took part or were convicted for taking part in public […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ekaterina Shatalova and Nicholas Brautlecht – October 15, 2013) Vladimir Putin is inching closer to his goal of turning Russia into a major transit route for trade between eastern Asia and Europe by prying open North Korea, a nuclear-capable dictatorship isolated for half a century. Russia last month completed the first land link that North Korea’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has submitted to the State Duma a bill that would restore the right of investigators to open tax fraud cases without a request from the tax authorities a move that critics fear could lead to a renewed persecution of business executives, a news report said Tuesday. If approved, […]
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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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(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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(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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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – October 11, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s human rights adviser urged prosecutors to drop piracy charges against Greenpeace activists for an Arctic protest, saying it’s as stupid as accusing them of raping the oil platform they scaled. “These charges are laughable because there isn’t the slightest justification for accusing the crew […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 10, 2013) At least seven Supreme Arbitration Court justices have resigned after President Vladimir Putin this week submitted a bill to the State Duma that would merge the legal body into the Supreme Court. The arbitration court on Thursday confirmed that seven judges had resigned, while an unidentified court official told Kommersant that more […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 9, 2013) The Russian State Duma has passed a bill in the first reading expanding grounds for unscheduled inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGO). According to the explanatory materials to the bill, it is expected to expand the list of grounds over which the Justice Ministry can hold unscheduled inspections of NGOs regarding which the information on […]
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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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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 9, 2013) Moscow expects that a meeting between the Russian and U.S. presidents will take place and will become another important stage in the development of bilateral relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “We do not need meetings just for the sake of having meetings. The Russian president has said this very clearly. We conduct intensive […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan, Editor andCcorrespondent at themoscownews.com – October 8, 2013) “I don’t like Putin, but I respect that guy. He is tough. He delivers what he says he’ll deliver. He presents himself as a real He-Man.” That wasn’t a congratulatory note to President Vladimir Putin on his birthday. That was Fox News. More specifically, it […]
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(Pravda.ru – Anton Ponomarev – October 8, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 61st birthday on October 7th. Pravda.Ru talked to political scientists asking what actions of the Russian leader in the domestic and foreign policy during his tenure as President they find most successful. Head of Political Science Department of High School of Economics Leonid Polyakov: “I would […]
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(Interfax – BALI, October 7, 2013) The absence of U.S. President Barack Obama from the APEC Bali summit is quite understandable, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. He said he would have done the same. “We can see what is going on in U.S. domestic politics and this situation is not easy. I think the decision of the U.S. president not […]
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