While an economic and political union between Russia and Europe is unlikely, it could serve the interests of both sides in an increasingly hostile world. (opendemocracy.net – Nicholas Ross Smith and Zbigniew Dumienski – March 17, 2015) Nicholas Ross Smith is a researcher at the University of Auckland, New Zealand in the field of international relations. He has published extensively […]
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Just like in business, the centre of Russia has transferred a range of its functions to a regional political ‘contractor’. But now the tail is starting to wag the dog. (opendemocracy.net – Sergey Markedonov – March 17, 2015) Sergey Markedonov is Associate Professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities The North Caucasus is back in the news. This time, the […]
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[“How Nemtsov’s killing puts Putin in the crosshairs” – Los Angeles Times – Paul Stronski – ] Writing in The Los Angeles Times, the Carnegie Endowment’s Paul Stronski considers prospects for Russian political turbulence following the assassination of opposition figure Boris Nemtsov. Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov’s killing is not just a tragedy for Russia, but could be a harbinger of political turbulence. […]
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The Pentagon is delaying a training program for Ukrainian soldiers so as to avoid giving the Kremlin an excuse to scrap the tenuous peace deal struck last month between Kiev and Moscow-backed separatists, a top U.S. general said Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army in Europe, said U.S. officials wanted to make sure such training—which would involve […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – YALTA, Crimea, March 18, 2015) As Sergei Gabuyev, a kiosk owner in rebel-held Donetsk, watched a street fight between two groups of insurgents devolve into a sea of AK-47 fire in front of the city’s central bus station one evening, he knew it was time to leave. As had been typical among […]
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(Interfax – Volgograd, March 17, 2015) The number of social labour conflicts in the Russian Federation has increased in the past eight months, deputy chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia Yevgeniy Makarov said on Tuesday [17 March]. “The previous week was one of the most difficult ones. Conflicts were recorded in every federal district. There were […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 18, 2015) The Moscow Times and a minority stake in its sister publication Vedomosti are being sold to Demyan Kudryavtsev, former chief executive of major Russian publishing house Kommersant, news agency RBC reported citing an unidentified source. Kudryavtsev and Finnish media conglomerate Sanoma, the newspapers’ owner, had as of Tuesday signed a deal on […]
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(RIA Novosti – March 17, 2015) Russian state television’s heavily promoted drama-documentary about the annexation of Crimea, “Crimea: The Road to the Motherland”, attracted an audience share of 39.6 per cent of viewers aged 18 and over, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 17 March, quoting data from market researchers TNS Gallup Media. The programme was shown on […]
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[“Kremlin rules out handing back Crimea to Ukraine” – Reuters – March 17, 2015] Reuters reports on Russia insisting it will try to sustain its occupation and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, despite the threat of continued Western sanctions. Russia said on Tuesday it would not hand back Crimea to Ukraine, despite warnings by the United States and European Union that […]
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The assassination of activist Boris Nemtsov was carried out by Chechens inspired by Islam, according to the Kremlin. But as that claim falls apart, Russian eyes are turning elsewhere The Kremlin’s case against five Chechens accused of murdering liberal activist Boris Nemtsov for his “anti-Muslim” statements appears to be unraveling at lightning speed. The alleged shooter, Zaur Dadayev, was likely […]
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Well, he’s ba-ack, but Russia’s brief sojourn without Vladimir Putin in public view won’t be forgotten soon. Even as Putin rather airily dismissed the issue of his long public absence on Monday, saying life “would be boring without gossip,” the frenzied rumor-mongering over the Ten Days That Shook the Twitter World raised a lot of serious issues. Most of all, […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List JRL 2015-#54 :: Tuesday 17 March 2015 A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php 1. Business New Europe: Graham Stack, Debaltseve counts […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – March 17, 2015) Three more suspects in last month’s assassination of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov have been officially charged with his murder, the Interfax news agency reported Monday, as the main suspect’s lawyer said his client had an alibi. Zaur Dadayev’s lawyer, Ivan Gerasimov, told the RBC newspaper Monday that his client had […]
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When Moscow-backed separatists were starting their war in east Ukraine last spring, the country’s main security agency sent a covert team to capture a rebel leader. But word of the classified mission leaked out, and three Ukrainian operatives were themselves captured and thrown into a separatist jail. Rebels stripped them to their underwear, bound their wrists and blindfolded them, then […]
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(Interfax – March 17, 2015) Defendants in the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov have refused to cooperate with the police, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax. “The defendants have declined to help the detectives,” he said. He also confirmed that some of the defendants had refused to answer police questions on the basis of article 51 of the […]
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(Interfax – March 16, 2015) All five men held in custody in connection with the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov have now been formally charged, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax news agency has reported. Three men – Shadid Gubashev, Khamzat Bakhayev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov – were charged on 16 March, the agency reported the same day. Two others, Zaur […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Sorokina, Elena Bobrova, RBTH, combined report – March 17, 2015) Putin’s press secretary responds to comments by Jen Psaki and Federica Mogherini on the status of the peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, has responded to comments by foreign officials about Crimea by saying that any situation worth discussing […]
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KYIV. March 17 (Interfax) – Ukraine has called on the international community to consolidate efforts to pressure Russia into returning Crimea and paying compensation for the losses caused to Ukraine. “We are calling on the global community to pay more attention to the problem of occupied Crimea, to consolidate international pressure on Russia to force it back immediately into complying […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, March 17, 2015) The West does not understand Russia, but it does understand very well indeed Russia’s elites; and as a result, it has seriously miscalculated in its dealings with Moscow about Ukraine, according to Boris Kagarlitsky, who argues the elites are ready to capitulate in the face of sanctions but the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 17, 2015) Inflation is the biggest concern for Russians with 82 percent of the population picking it as the most pressing issue facing the country, according to a poll published by the independent Levada Center on Monday. The figure is up from 71 percent in August, and from 69 percent this time last year. […]
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MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) – Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Alexei Pushkov is not expecting any improvement in Russia-U.S. relations in the foreseeable future. “Such hopes are expressed here from time to time: they are claiming that we will be good with America again when the crisis passes. No, we won’t be good with America, and this […]
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(Interfax – March 16, 2015) It took firefighters almost three hours to extinguish the fire in the Moscow Novodevichy Convent bell tower. The fire, which affected an area of 300 square meters, did not do any damage to the historical building. “The internal premises were not damaged by the fire and external facing plaster fell off in the places affected […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Mark Adomanis in Philadelphia – March 16, 2015) The most basic part of any bank’s business model is the extension of loans to consumers and corporations. Clients need money, to expand their business, buy a home, or, in a less sunny scenario, to re-finance existing borrowing, and the bank gives it to them while […]
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DONETSK. March 16 (Interfax) – The administration of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has accused Kyiv of massive ceasefire violations. “Kyiv has violated the ceasefire regime 8,254 times since the Minsk meeting. The populated area of Spartak is currently under attack,” Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the DPR, told reporters on Monday. Zakharchenko denied the involvement of the militia […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson, Business Editor – March 16, 2015) U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland last week told an influential group of U.S. senators that due to Russian actions in Ukraine, “Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine are suffering a reign of terror.” Nuland, who spearheads White House policy in Eastern Europe, is persona non grata […]
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(Interfax – March 16, 2015) Some military specialists suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should have used all means of deterrence in the Crimea situation but Putin declined to do so, it was said in a documentary, Crimea – Return to the Motherland, aired by the Rossiya-1 channel on Sunday. “We were told by the Defense Ministry later that certain […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, March 14, 2015) If Vladimir Putin is ousted or when he dies, the Russian government likely to emerge at least in the near term would not be the liberal, democratic and peaceful one in which so many are placing their hopes. And in the short term, such a regime almost certainly would […]
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Subject: Re: #27 JRL 2015-#51, Russia’s Demography Just Took A Significant Turn For The Worse Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2015 From: Sergey Slobodyan <Sergey.Slobodyan@cerge-ei.cz> As Mark Adomanis correctly notes, one month doesn’t a trend make. Births in Nov-14 and Jan-15 did drop year-on-year, by 5.3 and 3.6%, respectively. But births in Dec-14, in contrast, have been the best in December […]
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(Interfax – March 13, 2015) The defence ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) says that it is local residents who account for the majority of the members of the Donbass militia, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 13 March. “I shall tell you the following: 70 per cent of the volunteers are residents of the Donetsk People’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 14, 2015) Russian state television aired what it said was footage of President Vladimir Putin working at his residence outside Moscow on Friday, a first appearance since he dropped out of sight days ago, triggering rumours he was ill or sidelined by internal conflict. In the footage, Putin was shown in his office at […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Kirill Rodionov – March 9, 2015) Kirill Rodionov is an independent journalist. From 2008 to 2013, he was a Research Fellow at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, Moscow. Follow him on Twitter: @k_rodionov In late January 2015, the Russian government adopted an anti-crisis programme. The plan includes a number of measures intended to provide sustainable development of […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – bne IntelliNews – March 13, 2015) Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s best known and most highly regarded investigative newspaper, may end its print issue this summer or even close down entirely, the newspaper’s editor said according to local reports. “It is perfectly possible that after celebrating Victory Day in May with a special edition we will […]
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Russian experts say the decision to abandon cooperation with NATO on conventional forces must be considered in the broader geopolitical and historical context. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Timofeichev, RBTH – March 13, 2015) Moscow has announced its withdrawal from the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, as of March 11, stating that the agreement had became […]
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The Chechen connection to the assassination of Russia’s opposition leader Boris Nemtsov is pushing Russia’s spooks into political battles they would rather avoid. The FSB appears to have uncovered signs of a conspiracy that implicates Chechen leaders very close to Ramzan Kadyrov. According to Novaya Gazeta, investigators have found a sustained effort by elements in the Chechen security forces to track and target not only Nemtsov, but several prominent opposition figures and public personalities critical […]
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The impact of oil prices on the Russian economy is well known. After crude fell 50 percent last fall, the Ministry of Economic Development forecast a 3 percent GDP contraction this year, along with 12 percent inflation. The crash in oil prices will not only test President Vladimir Putin’s domestic support. It will upend Russian foreign policy, challenging the modernization of the country’s armed forces while diminishing its influence in Asia […]
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March 11, 2015 … Ketchum has ended the bulk of its work for the Russian Federation in the US and Europe amid continuing tensions between the country and Western governments. The Omnicom Group firm represented the Kremlin through its hosting of the Winter Olympics in Sochi last year but also as its relationship with the West strained over the country’s […]
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… Russia will not be able to keep pace with the outside world. If Russia does not possess sufficient economic strength (I do not mean simply hard currency—I mean the capacity to create wealth by real production), surrounding countries will not willingly ally with it. … http://carnegie.ru/eurasiaoutlook/?fa=59335
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IN LATE 2013, early in the Maidan demonstrations, Savik Shuster, one of Ukraine’s most influential television hosts, made the mistake of inviting opposition leaders onto his talk show. Mr Shuster’s network, whose owners were aligned with Viktor Yanukovych, then the president, promptly dropped Mr Shuster’s programme “Savik Live”. It was picked up by Channel 5, a station owned by a […]
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(Interfax – March 13, 2015) Russian prosecutors have dropped their charges against Svetlana Davydova, a mother of seven from the town of Vyazma accused of treason after calling the Ukrainian embassy about Russian troop movements in April 2014, due to the absence of any crime, the woman’s lawyer Ivan Pavlov told Interfax on Friday. “Davydova was cleared of all high […]
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(Interfax – March 12, 2015) A lawyer for one of the men charged with the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has dismissed suggestions that his client was tortured in order to force him to confess to the crime, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 12 March. Ivan Gerasimov said that his client, Zaur Dadayev, had told […]
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Experts say that conflict between Russia’s security services and the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, likely played a role in the murder. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yekaterina Sinelschikova, RBTH – March 12, 2015) New details in the Feb. 27 murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov have cast doubt on the claim of the investigators that Nemtsov was […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – MOSCOW BLOG: Ben Aris in Moscow – March 13, 2015) Moscow is gripped by the disappearance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hasn’t been seen in public for a week. Is he dead? Is there a palace coup underway? Perhaps he has sneaked off to marry his girlfriend, or he is just undergoing another […]
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(Voice of America – voanews.com – Patrick Wells – March 12, 2015) After months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, the presence of the Ukrainian military and the shelling of civilian neighborhoods seem to be pushing more men to join the rebellion. New recruits for Ukraine’s rebel army, part of a battalion of Don Cossacks, are on their way out of […]
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As Russian oil supplies increase, Gulf states are forced to drop prices to remain competitive (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Kuchma, RBTH – March 12, 2015) Russia boosted oil supplies to China, Japan and South Korea by 10 million tons in 2014, increasing the proportion of oil exports to Asia from 7.2 percent to 8.7 percent. The […]
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(Interfax – March 11, 2015) The Basmannyy Court has given Zaur Dadayev, accused in the case of murder of politician Boris Nemtsov, an opportunity to state his position regarding the investigators’ request for his arrest, the press-service of the court has said. “Dadayev was given the right to speak. But he thought that the criminal case was being heard, while […]
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Wall Street Journal: A Manhattan federal judge has ordered London-based hedge fund manager William Browder to comply with a subpoena that could force him to reveal the sources of information he gave to federal prosecutors in a high-profile money-laundering case. …
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MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has a very busy schedule at this time, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said. “He is holding meetings all the time, but not all of them are public. His schedule is very busy these days. He is discussing crisis-linked issues and other matters. He is keeping in touch with the […]
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(Interfax – March 11, 2015) Russia is ready for negotiations concerning a new treaty regarding the control of conventional weapons in Europe, Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department on non-proliferation and arms control issues, said. “We are ready to consider the possibility and hold appropriate negotiations regarding a new agreement that is in line with the new […]
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(Interfax – March 10, 2015) Former NATO Secretary General and EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana is sticking to his desire for a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis. The Ukraine conflict is being resolved in a diplomatic manner, Solana told Interfax, adding he did not want to give an impression that he preferred other methods. He said they should […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Spinella – March 11, 2015) A Russian opera director who found himself mired in legal controversy after he provoked the ire of a local church leader was cleared of a charge of offending the sentiments of religious believers, the theater announced Tuesday via Twitter. Director Timofei Kulyabin had faced administrative charges for offending religious […]
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