(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 15, 2013) Russia could complete negotiations to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in two years if this issue is not politicized, Vladimir Tkachenko, Russia’s representative in talks to join the organization, said in an interview with Interfax. “If we’re talking about a timeframe, then technically all work could in principle be finished within two years. But there are underwater rocks on our
(Interfax – May 15, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev believes that the basic principles of international law must not be revised even in the face of global crises, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 15 May. Speaking at the International Legal Forum in St Petersburg on the same day, Medvedev admitted that “many things that seem unshakable to us lawyers in the last century don’t seem so unshakable any
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 28, 2013) Respondents polled in Russia recently said they would prefer Russia to deal with China and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States rather than with the United States. “Asked which countries should be given priority as partners in cooperation, 28% of those polled named members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Levada Center pollster told Interfax after polling 1,600 citizens in April. China
(Interfax – MAKHACHKALA, Russia – April 22, 2013) Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) has an uncollected Russian internal passport to the name of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in its files, a suspected co-perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombings killed by police who tried to arrest him, a senior FMS official said. In July 2012, Tsarnaev “filed an application saying that he had lost his Russian passport in Boston, paid a fine of
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 22, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-ethnically-based.html) The clash between Chechnya and Ingushetia over the border between the two became possible and is more serious because the authorities in each, with Moscow’s approval, have formed units in their force structures that consist largely or entirely of people from the titular nationality. And because that policy, designed to help republics integrate young people and to
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Inna Soboleva, RBTH – April 18, 2013) Russian researchers warn that a new world war might break out in the next 10 years. They proceed from the theory of economic cycles and their impact on the level of military aggression in the world. The origin of the next world war’s breakout is expected to be in the Far East, the Middle East or
(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 Russian citizens were included in the closed part of the
(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 to, let’s say, civil society and the types of NGOs
(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 the Human Rights Council (under the Russian president) devoted to
(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 activities and receiving foreign funding while not being registered as
(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) The rare Siberian cranes that took a migration flight with President Vladimir Putin’s motorized deltaplane in the autumn of 2012, have not reintegrated with the wild over diplomats’ failure to come to terms on their hibernation in Uzbekistan, Vedomosti wrote on Friday citing the Flight of Hope project director, Alexander Sorokin. “Uzbekistan’s border service said it was prepared to cooperate, but the Flight of
(Interfax – GENEVA. April 12, 2013) The G8 foreign ministers managed to reach consensus on Iran, North Korea’s nuclear issue and other international topics regardless of their initial differences. “Of course, the positions differed considerably initially, but common sense and good will lead to formulating common approaches in line with the necessity to search for political and diplomatic solutions without isolating anyone,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on
(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Moscow can see no obstacle to Russia and the United States abolishing the entry visa regime in travel between them, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “As far back as two years ago, (Russian President) Vladimir Putin proposed that we do not limit ourselves to loosening the visa regime but that we move toward the abolition of visas. We can’t see any reason
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 11, 2013) Concerns about participants’ safety, health and well-being are behind record visa refusal rates for Russian university students applying to work and travel in the United States this summer, a senior State Department official told an audience at the American Center in Moscow on Wednesday. Tara Sonenshine, the State Department’s head of public diplomacy and public affairs, said the program’s
(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 inspections by refusing to provide documents and evading meetings with
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 9, 2013) The government has allowed the Economic Development Ministry to obtain visas for the employees of big foreign companies that invest in the Russian economy from the country’s diplomatic missions and consulates abroad, a news report said Monday. The rules also apply to firms involved in the implementation of the Skolkovo project and the creation of an international financial center in Moscow. The
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 9, 2013) NGO representatives on Monday questioned the validity of President Vladimir Putin’s comment to German television that NGOs in Russia had received about $1 billion from abroad since the “foreign agent” law was adopted in 2012. In the interview broadcast Friday, Putin said there were 654 active NGOs in Russia being funded from abroad. That would mean each organization got
(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 Russia] but to put under control the financial flows from
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Koshkin, RBTH – April 3, 2013) While Russia struggles to improve its image abroad, the U.S. model of “soft power” sets a good example to follow. How many cultural and educational centers does Russia have in the United States? This was the very question that preoccupied my thoughts when I first visited the American Center in Moscow in the Foreign Literature Library
(Kremlin.ru – April 5, 2013) Ahead of the working visit to Germany, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to the German ARD. The interview was recorded on April 2, 2013 in Novo-Ogaryovo. * * * JÖRG SCHÖNENBORN (retranslated): Good evening, Mr President, Germany and Russia enjoy special relationship and, economically speaking, they are a good match. However, there exist certain difficulties from the political viewpoint. Quite a number of Germans keep
NOVO-OGARYOVO. April 3 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin favors broader use of export loans and new forms of settlements in broadening military-technical cooperation with foreign states. “In order to strengthen (military-technical) cooperation with key partners, we should pay special attention to long-term cooperation programs and broaden the use of state export loans,” Putin said at a meeting of the Commission for Military-Technical Cooperation with Foreign States on Wednesday. “Naturally,
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Manik Mehta – March 27, 2013) BERLIN In an attempt to refurbish its image as a tourist destination, Russia went on a charm offensive to court international travelers at the recent Berlin International Tourism Bourse, the world’s largest tourism show. Conceding that visa rules were a big problem, a large contingent of Russian tour operators, hoteliers and local tourism promotion agencies tried to correct
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Howard Amos – March 27, 2013) While most Russians wade through a bureaucratic quagmire to get a visa for the European Union or the United States, once they arrive they enjoy almost complete freedom of movement. For those who choose to come to Russia to live and work, however, the bureaucratic challenges really begin to mount when they cross the border. The restrictions on foreigners
(Interfax – Moscow, March 25, 2013) The Justice Ministry has explained that mass checks at NGOs are being carried out to uncover the organizations that fall under the definition of “foreign agents”. “If breaches of the laws of the Russian Federation are uncovered, including the provisions of the Federal Law “On the introduction of changes to legislative acts as regards the regulation of activities of NGOs which perform the functions
MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) – If visas are not scrapped, strategic partnership between Russia and the European Union will not be possible, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “We must understand that visas will have to be scrapped in any case if we are to build a strategic partnership,” Medvedev said at a press conference on Friday after talks between Russian government and European Commission officials. “This is our Carthage
MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) – The BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will not form a military alliance and will center its efforts on tackling economic and social issues, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “I would like to reiterate once again that BRICS is not a bloc directed against third states. This principle was firmly and safely sealed by the Sanya Declaration in March 2011
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – March 20, 2013) Acting on instructions from the Prosecutor General’s Office, government inspectors in at least nine Russian regions have conducted hundreds of unannounced checks on non-governmental organizations, including well-known human rights, environment and religious groups. The checks are designed to catch organizations that receive foreign funding and are involved in “political activities” but have failed to register as “foreign agents,” as
MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russia needs to determine exactly who its enemies are and develop its Armed Forces accordingly, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday. “We really need to understand what our strategic threats are, clearly define who our adversary is, what kind of adversary, and configure our Armed Forces and military-technical systems to counter those threats,” he told a military-industrial conference in Moscow. Rogozin oversees
MOSCOW, March 19 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s child rights ombudsman and Foreign Ministry criticized on Tuesday the decision by Texas prosecutors not to charge the adoptive parents of a Russian toddler who died suddenly in January. “The Texas prosecutors’ position in the case of Maxim Kuzmin is upsetting, because they refused to scrutinize the circumstances of his death,” ombudsman Pavel Astakhov tweeted. Prosecutors in Ector County, Texas, said Monday that
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Aleksandras Budrys – March 19, 2013) Russia’s Culture Ministry has presented to the government a bill on 10-day visa-free entry for “non-dangerous” foreigners to participate in cultural, sporting and business events, Minister Vladimir Medinsky said on Tuesday. “We have developed a number of draft laws in this regard,” Medinsky told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a conference on the development of the tourism industry in
(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 45 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Pavel K. Baev – March 11, 2013) Entering the second year of his third presidency, President Vladimir Putin has shown uncharacteristically scant interest to foreign policy matters perhaps suspecting that Western “partners” are sponsoring Russia’s opposition movement and that neighboring post-Soviet leaders and even Chinese “friends” are losing confidence in his leadership. He keeps Prime Minister Dmitry
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – March 12, 2013) A much-touted agreement with the European Union making travel easier for businesspeople, students, NGO workers and other professionals might go into force finally, as Brussels has changed its stance on Moscow’s demand to include a visa waiver for government officials. But there are some catches, as both sides still face difficult negotiations before reaching a visa-facilitation agreement, a
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anya Aseeva – March 11, 2013) The Prosecutor General’s office, together with the Justice Ministry and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, has begun conducting large-scale unscheduled checks into non-governmental organizations to determine sources of foreign funding, a news report said Monday. Marina Grudneva, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s office, said the inspection was being conducted “everywhere and in accordance with the Prosecutor General’s work agenda,”
From: Andrei P Tsygankov <andrei@sfsu.edu> Subject: Latest work on foreign policy Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 Russia’s Foreign Policy: Change and Continuity in National Identity, 3d edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442220010 La Russie et le Moyen-Orient: entre islamisme et occidentalisme. Politique étrangère 78, 1, Spring 2013 The original in English is available here: http://online.sfsu.edu/andrei/Research/Articles.htm – Andrei P. Tsygankov Professor International Relations/Political Science San Francisco State University
(RIA Novosti – Fyodor Lukyanov – February 28, 2013) Fyodor Lukyanov is Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, an authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments – http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/ Russia’s much-anticipated Foreign Policy Concept has finally been released. And while the latest version does not contain anything revolutionary, it does provide insight into how Russia’s leadership sees the world. For the first time ever, the
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – February 26, 2013) Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday accused the European Union of employing a double standard when it agreed to allow nondiplomatic Ukrainian officials to enter member states without a visa. “A Ukrainian bureaucrat is no different from a Russian one,” he told students at Moscow’s Diplomatic Academy. Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are permitted to enter the EU without a
(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – February 26, 2013) The Justice Ministry has refused to conduct a check into election watchdog Golos’ compliance with recently passed legislation requiring foreign-funded organizations to register as “foreign agents” despite over 100 requests to do so. The ministry received 120 requests to recognize Golos as a foreign agent, and 350 such requests for the Levada Center, RIA-Novosti reported Monday. Tatyana Vaghina, the ministry’s deputy director
(International Relations and Security Network (ISN) – www.isn.ethz.ch – Aglaya Snetkov for the ISN – February 25, 2013) Aglaya Snetkov is a senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS). Despite the attempts by Western powers to penetrate the Caucasus, Russia continues to exert unmatched influence over the region. In today’s Questions and Answers presentation, the CSS’ Aglaya Snetkov outlines some of the differences between Moscow’s North and South
(Government.ru – February 22, 2013) Transcript: Correspondent (via interpreter): I know we have little time and will try to be succinct. I’ll start with Syria right away. Do you think Bashar al-Assad will remain in power for a long time to come? We know that Syria has been in this situation for a long time already, and it is still unclear what the outcome will be. What is Russia’s position
(Interfax – Moscow, February 21, 2013) The Russian Foreign Ministry has opened an official account in the social network Facebook, says a report published on the ministry’s website today. “Topical information about the Russian foreign policy, archive materials about the history of the Russian diplomatic service, helpful information for countrymen and Russians staying abroad will be posted there. We expect that the page will become a popular ground for interactive
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Alexey Dolinskiy, special to RBTH – February 21, 2013) In 2013, Russia will host the G-20 summit for the first time ever. Russia’s official presidency started in December 2012, but high-level meetings, culminating in the September 2013 St. Petersburg summit, are just beginning. Leading a global institution of the world’s most powerful countries is both a great opportunity and a great test for
(RIA Novosti – Moscow, 18 February 2013) The West’s capabilities to dominate global politics continue to dwindle, the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, whose text was posted on the website of the Foreign Ministry today, reads. [http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/ns-osndoc.nsf/e2f289bea62097f9c325787a0034c255/c32577ca0017434944257b160051bf7f] “The capabilities of the historically established West to dominate the global economy and politics continue to decline. The global potential of strength and growth is dispersing and shifting eastwards, particularly towards
(Interfax – Moscow, 17 February) The concept of Russia’s foreign policy that was voiced by Vladimir Putin is aimed at using economic diplomacy and applying “soft power” as well as “the democratization of diplomacy”, head of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov has said. “This concept reflects the fact that today international economic problems cannot always be resolved only by economic means and that today foreign policy institutes
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – February 18, 2013) The head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development promised Friday that accession to the club of the world’s most economically advanced countries won’t take Russia as long as its entry into the World Trade Organization. “It will not take 17 years,” Angel Gurria told Finance Minister Anton Siluanov at a joint news conference. “We aim to be
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – February 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on security service officers to shield Russians from an array of threats, including extremist groups, foreign-funded organizations and cyberattacks. “Any direct or indirect interference in our internal affairs, any form of pressure on Russia, our allies and partners is unacceptable,” Putin told senior Federal Security Service officers at a meeting, according to a
(Business New Europe – bne.com – February 14, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an end to the long Soviet-era habit of classifying geological data as a state secret. As part of the new look Russia-can-do Inc, that he hopes will bring in more investment, the president said the information on the size and location of the countrys natural resource made public. The Soviets were always very secretive about
(opendemocracy.net – Almut Rochowanski – February 13, 2013) Almut Rochowanski is a co-founder and coordinator of Chechnya Advocacy Network, a US-based NGO. Russian NGOs have traditionally looked abroad for their funding, and are dismayed at recent legislation setting up new barriers to this practice. Almut Rochowanski argues, however, that this should be seen as a challenge to increase the involvement of the Russian public in the development of civil society.
NOVO-OGARYOVO. Feb 11 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has emphasized the need for “soft force” mechanisms in Russian Foreign Ministry operations. “Obviously, ‘classic’ diplomacy is, if not particularly out of date, then seriously transformed. You and your colleagues have to deal with the economy, developing business relations, supporting various economic projects and opening new promising markets,” Putin told Russian Foreign Ministry staff members decorated with state awards on Monday. There
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) – Russia will soon present the UN with the results of its research on the extent of the continental shelf in the central Sea of Okhotsk, and later in the Arctic Ocean more than 200 miles from the shore, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said at a Thursday briefing. “Russia has long been conducting systematic work on the proper clearance of its
(www.opendemocracy.net – Ivan Krastev – February 7, 2013) Ivan Krastev is chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM). The incompatibility of an anachronistic and arbitrary regime with the modern world is leading many to consider that democratic change is possible likely even in Russia. But those expecting that a new ‘democratic’ government would somehow take
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