(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Koshkin, RBTH – April 30, 2013) While the Russian authorities sum up the results of their large-scale inspections of NGOs, pundits make their guesses as to whether it is possible to reach a compromise on this issue. The large-scale inspections of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have puzzled both experts and NGO representatives. While […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Dmitri Travin – April 30, 2013) Dmitri Travin is Research Director at the European University in St. Petersburg’s Centre of Modernization Studies Vladimir Putin has long paid lip service to the notion that his government should address the problem of corruption. Is his new campaign for real, or will it be more of a shootout between corrupt officials […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 29, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is an editor and correspondent at themoscownews.com As the head of an organization that helps people suffering from cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disorder that affects the lungs, Olga Alekina, of the Aid to Patients with Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, wasn’t exactly daunted when prosecutors demanded an explanation for […]
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(Interfax – April 29, 2013) More than ten members of the Russian Public Chamber have signed a statement in support of yet another NGO being checked in Russia in which they slammed the ongoing mass checks of non-profit organizations in the country in general, saying they lead to significant infringement of civil liberties, Russian news agency Interfax reported on 29 […]
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(Interfax – April 30, 2013) The inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGO) are not large-scale and the results will be summarized in late May, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin wrote in a letter to Chairman of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov. “The inspection does not pursue limiting NGO activities, it is preventive and aimed at forcing organizations […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 27, 2013) Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika sees as unacceptable civil society’s pressure on the justice system. “Everyone should mind their own business. When a civil society institution reviews a court ruling, in my opinion, this is just unacceptable,” Chaika said taking questions from Federation Council members on Saturday. “There is nothing unusual in the fact […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 24, 2013) Representatives of human rights organizations have said that the number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) inspected by state agencies is excessive. “Hundreds of NGOs were inspected by the tax service, the Ministry of Justice, fire, sanitary agencies and other bodies. Some agencies gave ridiculous demands, for instance, to confirm that all employees of the organization […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 24, 2013) Russian prosecutors, tax officials, and police are checking the offices of Levada Center, an independent polling organization, as part of a routine inspection of NGOs across the country, a source at the organization told The Moscow News on Wednesday. “They are checking the basic documents, the charter, financial documents […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 23, 2013) KIROV, Russia — A court in Russia’s Kirov Oblast has rejected a request from anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny for a further delay in his trial. Navalny had asked for more time for his lawyers to examine the 28 volumes of documents associated with his case. Navalny is accused of being involved in the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 23, 2013) The Constitutional Court has ruled that Russian voters should be allowed to appeal election results directly, overruling earlier judgments that permitted only political parties and candidates to dispute official vote counts in the courts. The court’s ruling, published on its official website on Monday, follows complaints by human rights […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, April 22, 2013) The Russian Constitutional Court has confirmed the right of voters to protest election returns in court and declared the practice of banning direct applications to courts unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court announced a corresponding resolution on Monday after checking several provisions of Civil Proceedings Code and federal laws on guarantees of electoral rights and […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 19, 2013) The mother and widow of whistle-blowing Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky were in Washington on April 17, just days after the White House issued a blacklist of more than a dozen Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s prosecution and death in jail in 2009. RFE/RL’s Richard Solash spoke to Magnitsky’s mother, Natalia, at a reception […]
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(Interfax – April 18, 2013) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov said on 18 April that “certain forces” are trying to undermine the country’s budding innovation centre, Skolkovo, which is being investigated for embezzlement, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported. Surkov, who is a member of the Skolkovo Foundation’s board of trustees, was speaking following a raid by Federal Security […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 19, 2013) The downtown office of the Skolkovo Foundation was searched Thursday as part of an ongoing corruption scandal involving two former executives whom the Investigative Committee accused of using a fraudulent tender to steal 23.8 million rubles ($789,000). A spokesman for Skolkovo Russia’s high profile project to diversify its […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 19, 2013) A prominent Kremlin critic in the largely rubber-stamp parliament, Ponomaryov suggested that ulterior motives lay behind Friday’s news. Investigators have accused a top manager at the government’s flagship Skolkovo Foundation of making $750,000 in improper payments to a State Duma deputy with close links to the street protest movement, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 19, 2013) Overzealousness in the fight against corruption could drain the civil service of many valuable cadres, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said. Speaking at the Russia 2013 business forum on Thursday, Shuvalov said that corruption is present around the world, but in Russia it has been blown out of proportion, Vedomosti reported. […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 18, 2013 – Robert Coalson) The whole process took less than an hour. At 10:26 a.m. on March 18, Lyudmila Popkova was handed a piece of paper ordering her to appear before Moscow Judge Tatyana Neverova. At 11 a.m. the same day. Hustled off to court by investigators, Popkova spent 15 minutes in front of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Henry Meyer – April 18, 2013) Russian police raided the Skolkovo innovation hub, a project championed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a day after his speech to parliament was overshadowed by a leaked video. Investigators talked today to the foundation’s head, billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, and other top officials, Skolkovo spokesman Roman Shcherbakov said […]
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(Interfax -MOSCOW. April 16, 2013) The closed part of the list of U.S. citizens prohibited to visit Russia is longer than the open part, a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry told Interfax on Tuesday. “Concerning the Russian list, its closed part carries more names than the open one,” he said. The source said he did not know how many […]
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(RIA Novosti, MOSCOW, April 17, 2013) The number of corruption related crimes recorded in Russia rose by almost 25 percent in 2012, according to a report by the Prosecutor General’s Office submitted to parliament on Wednesday. A total of 49,513 such crimes were registered last year, compared to 40,407 in 2011, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said. Over 13,500 individuals […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg – April 15, 2013) A helmeted policeman drags a woman down a barricaded street, one arm tightly locked around her neck. Dozens of riot police in full gear look on as the young woman, wearing a short black dress, gasps for air. The scene is captured in a dramatic snapshot taken at a sanctioned […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 16, 2013) Pavel Chikov, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, said on Monday that a clear set of rules for inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is required. “There are no rules for prosecutors’ checks. In my opinion, this is the main lesson that we should learn from all these […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 15, 2013) The information on the multi-billion funding of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Russia coming from abroad voiced by the president only partially refers to the NGOs whose activities are controlled by the Justice Ministry. “Of course, not all NGOs that are reported by banks to receive such funding according to the NGO legal status belong […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 15, 2013) The Interior Ministry has received no complaints against police with regard to checks of non-commercial organizations, Deputy Minister Mikhail Vanichkin has said. “Since the start of the checks, there has not been a single complaint to date from heads of non-commercial organizations against the actions of the police,” Vanichkin told a special meeting of […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 16, 2013) Russian prosecutors have opened a case against a regional non-governmental organization accused of not registering as a “foreign agent” in the wake of a wave of inspections of NGOs, a rights group reported on Tuesday. Alexander Zamaryanov, director of the Kostroma Public Initiatives Support Center, is suspected of being involved in political […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 15, 2013) Only 4 per cent of Russian do not care what incomes State Duma deputies have, while the vast majority (92 per cent) would like to know this and therefore support the use of such measures as mandatory declaration of incomes and spending for the elected representatives of the people. Some 90 per cent of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15. 2013) Days before the much-anticipated trial of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is scheduled to begin, an Investigative Committee spokesman has suggested that Navalny’s constant criticism of the government caused investigators to “accelerate” work on the case against him. When someone “uses all his energy to bring attention to himself” and “provokes the government,” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15, 2013) Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday described Vladimir Putin as a “fierce” defender of Russia’s national interests but also a “master of compromise” while commenting on everything from the opposition movement to escalating tensions with the U.S. Peskov’s comments, made on the state-owned Rossia 1 television channel on Sunday night, come amid […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) Most of the Russian officials added on Friday to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals List (OFAC’s SDN list) under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 are no longer working in the positions they occupied when an investigation against Hermitage Capital lawyer […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Richard Sakwa – April 10, 2013) Richard Sakwa is professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, England. Among his books are Putin: Russia’s Choice (Routledge, 2nd edition, 2007) and Russian Politics and Society (Routledge, 4th edition, 2008) Alexandr Bastrykin, head of Russia’s influential Investigative Committee, is one of the most powerful individuals in the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas & Scott Rose – April 12, 2013) Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and his wife, the second-biggest earners among families of Cabinet members, plan to move their assets under Russian jurisdiction to comply with new restrictions. Shuvalov and his wife Olga are planning to shift their foreign holdings, Alexander Machevsky, a spokesman […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Russian state officials, reporting their income and expenses exceeding joint income of their families for three years, will have to declare foreign bank accounts and securities kept not only in foreign banks but in banks of the Customs Union and the CIS as well, aide of the Russian State Presidential Legal Directorate, Valentin Mikhailov, […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Georgy Bovt, special to RBTH – April 12, 2013) Georgy Bovt is a prominent Russian columnist and political expert. The Russian anti-corruption campaign gains momentum. Will the Russian public be in favor of even stronger measures? Russia’s anti-corruption campaign looks like an attempt to “nationalize” the state elite by increasing their stakes […]
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(Interfax – April 12, 2013) More Russians are seeing results of the official anti-corruption campaign, the Interfax news agency reported on 12 April, citing an opinion poll carried out by national pro-Kremlin pollster VTsIOM. However, according to a detailed breakdown of poll results posted on at http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=113912, the number of people who said that a lot is being done to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Artem Zagorodnov, RBTH – April 10, 2013) As entrepreneurs begin to reap benefits from a top-down war against corruption, its long-term effects on the business climate remain uncertain. Russia’s staggering annual $300 billion corruption market (according to the government’s own figures) permeates nearly every aspect of life, from registering a business to obtaining […]
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(RIA Novosti – Alexey Eremenko – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) The list of suspects in the controversial investigation into last year’s riots at an anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow is much longer than previously announced, an opposition website said on Thursday. The Investigative Committee currently has 86 suspects in addition to the 26 people already arrested, charged or convicted over […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 10, 2013) A number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) performing the functions of a foreign agent are obstructing their inspections and refusing to comply with legitimate demands by supervisory and controlling bodies, the Prosecutor General’s Office said. “It should be emphasized that some organizations receiving financing from abroad, despite inspectors’ legitimate demands, are actively obstructing the ongoing […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 10, 2103) Corrupt businessmen and officials may take advantage of social discontent for resisting anti-corruption efforts of the authorities, National Anti-Corruption Committee Chairman, member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Kirill Kabanov told a Wednesday press conference in Moscow. “I think there are fears that certain negative processes may […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 11, 2013) The number 303 stood Wednesday on a digital clock on Manezh Square that counts down the days to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and President Vladimir Putin is watching it closely as the government races to make the final preparations for the Games. But that clock may be counting down […]
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(opendemocracy.net – April 8, 2013 – Pavel Usanov) Pavel Usanov is head of the Hayek Institute for Economy and Law in St. Petersburg and Reader at the Higher School of Economics. Cyprus’s monetary crisis has drawn international attention to the island’s role as a tax haven and money laundry for Russia’s rich. Meanwhile, Putin has announced a crackdown at home […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 10, 2013) The punishment for those found guilty of corruption should be as severe as for treason, Kirill Kabanov, head of Russia’s National Anti-Corruption Committee independent watchdog said on Wednesday. “We believe the penalty for corrupt activities should be equal to that in place for treason,” said Kabanov, who is also director of the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – April 9, 2013) The corruption market in Russia is estimated at $300 billion a year, with most of this money circulating in the public finance, state property and natural resource industries, according to estimates released Monday by the National Anti-Corruption Committee, an opposition-minded think tank. But experts worried that the majority of […]
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(Interfax – April 8, 2013) Moscow City Court Chairman Olga Yegorova believes the sentences handed down on former Yukos CEOs Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are fair, but the sentence on the members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot could be softened. “It would be a shame if the Supreme Court changes the sentence handed down on Mikhail Khodorkovsky. […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 8, 2013) Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the elder human rights activist in Russia and the head of the Moscow Helsinki group, believes the figures given in reports on foreign funding received by NGOs in Russia are overestimated. “This is being done to show that these organizations allegedly have money to burn. Everyone influences public opinion in the way […]
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(RIA Novosti, HANOVER, April 8, 2013) The recent wave of inspections of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia is not aimed at restricting their activity but rather at controlling their foreign funding, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “All our actions are not designed to shut down or ban [the operation of NGOs in […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 5, 2013) Corruption levels in Russia are high, in the opinion of 80% of citizens. Some 43% argue corruption rates are growing, 40% say there is no change, and only 6% see a downward trend. The Public Opinion Foundation polled 1,500 respondents in 100 towns and cities in 43 regions in late March. Most Russians (68%) […]
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MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) – High local-level corruption is the cause of millions of Russians working in the “grey economy”, mentioned by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Chairman of the Civil Initiatives Committee and former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said. “I’m sure that local authorities are aware of this business. These citizens (employed in the grey economy) are not […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 5, 2013) Oppositionist blogger Alexei Navalny has revealed he wants to be president, with a trial less than two weeks away that could jail him for up to 10 years on embezzlement charges. “I want to become president,” Navalny said in an interview with the independent Dozhd TV late Thursday evening. […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 4, 2013) For the first time in Russian history, the current situation in the country is such that it requires concluding a public agreement that entails a diffusion of power, an analytical report prepared by the Centre of Political Technologies foundation, commissioned by the Civic Initiatives Committee (CIC), has found. “A ‘super-presidential’ republic should be replaced […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 4, 2013) A Kirov court on Wednesday set a date to begin hearing a criminal case against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who describes as “absurd” the charge that he embezzled $515,000 from a state timber company several years ago. Navalny’s lawyers had asked Kirov’s Leninsky District Court to arrange preliminary hearings […]
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