Russia’s secret treason investigations; In Russia, the number of state treason cases is rising. Secret service tactics mean we know less and less about who is under investigation

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(opendemocracy.net – Gleb Belichenko – October 22, 2015) Gleb Belichenko is a journalist and former member of the activist group Team 29, which works to further freedom of information in Russia. Statistics for the past few years show that, in Russia, four to six people a year are put on trial for state treason. In 2014, this number rose sharply: […]

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Russian Academia Divided Over FSB Vetting of Research Papers

FSB Building file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – October 22, 2015) A report this week of research papers and scientific articles becoming subject to vetting by the Federal Security Service (FSB) before publication rattled Russian academics, coming on the heels of several cases in which people have been accused of espionage and treason in connection with their professional activities. The […]

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Moscow’s Spending Cuts Undermining Russians’ Health and Reducing Life Expectancy

Medical Symbol with Pole, Serpents, Wings, adapted from image at lanl.gov

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, October 21, 2015) Guzel Ulumbekova, the head of the Russian Association of Professional Medical Societies, says that the health and life expectancy of Russians is directly related to the amount of government spending on health care and that as this amount is falling, their health is suffering and their life expectancies are […]

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Russian MinFin adjusts revenue for 2016 budget to 13.74 trln rubles, spending to 16.1 trln rubles

Anton Siluanov file photo

MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) – The Russian Finance Ministry has increased the parameters for the revenue and spending of the 2016 federal budget to 13.738 trillion rubles and 16.098 trillion rubles, respectively, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told journalists. “Revenue is 13.7385 trillion and spending is 16.0987 trillion rubles,” he said. Earlier the draft budget envisaged revenue of 13.57 trillion […]

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The Sakharov Center’s Direct View on Real Life

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guido de Boer – October 21, 2015) [Photos here http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/the-sakharov-centers-direct-view-on-real-life/540002.html] With all the big exhibitions that opened this autumn as part of the 6th Moscow Biennale or as museum season openers, one small but interesting show might have been overlooked. It is an exhibition of photographs at the Sakharov Center called “Direct View.” The 11 […]

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NEWSLINK Christian Science Monitor: Inside the Kremlin’s velvet grip, Russia’s civil society struggles to survive. Workers at Memorial, Russia’s leading human rights monitor, live under constant, unyielding pressure from the government, which is trying to stymie dissent.

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Calculating the Cost of Russia’s War in Syria

Syria Map

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – October 21, 2015) Russian air strikes in Syria are costing Moscow up to $4 million per day, data collated for The Moscow Times by a defense think tank showed. The figures by IHS Jane’s show that bombing raids, supply runs, infrastructure and ground personnel – along with a salvo of cruise missiles […]

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Russia’s Sole Sexual Assault Center Struggles to Make Ends Meet

Kremlin and Saint Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vasily Kolotilov – October 21, 2015) Russia has only one organization that exists specifically to help victims of sexual assault, and today, its fate hangs in the balance. The Sisters sexual assault recovery center in Moscow is eking out an existence, depending on modest donations and barely able to cover the rent and phone bill […]

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Russian deputy prime minister says no plans to raise pension age

Two Babushkas file photo

(Interfax – October 20, 2015) Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets has said that the Russian government is not yet planning to raise the pension age. “We are not planning this over the period of time we use for planning. No, we are not,” Golodets told journalists on Tuesday [20 October] when asked when the government was planning to resume discussions […]

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Putin to attend Valdai Club’s final plenary session on October 22

File Photo of Valdai Club Gathering at Long Tables in Large Hall Valdai Club Gathering at Long Tables in Large Hall

MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday will attend the final plenary session of the twelfth annual session of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi, the Kremlin has said. The topic of this year’s Valdai conference is “Societies Between War and Peace: Overcoming the Logic of Conflict in Tomorrow’s World,” the Kremlin press office said. […]

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Poshlost’ is Defining Characteristic of Putin’s Russia, Shiropayev Says

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, October 20, 2015) “Poshlost’” a virtually untranslatable Russian word connoting self-satisfied vulgarity has become the defining characteristic of Russia under Vladimir Putin, according to commentator Aleksey Shiropayev, something that unites and infects all those living under his regime. Indeed, Putin’s country should now be called “Poshlandia.” Despite what some think, the Russian […]

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Putin Regime Will Disappear Only as Result of Military Defeat Abroad, Illarionov Says

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, October 20, 2015) Neither sanctions, nor international isolation nor the domestic opposition will lead to the fall of “the harshly authoritarian and semi-totalitarian regime” that is Vladimir Putin’s, according to Andrey Illarionov. It was pass from the scene only “as the result of a military defeat abroad. After such a defeat, “the […]

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Moscow Times: One-Third of Russians Think Russian Military Is World’s Best

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – October 17, 2015) Almost one-third of Russians think their nation’s military is the most powerful in the world, according to a new poll published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) on Thursday. The survey comes two weeks after Russia began air strikes in Syria that have dominated television news coverage […]

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Russian nationalists in retreat as government applies pressure

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

A temporary ban has been imposed on the sole large association of Russian nationalists, with the prosecutor’s office demanding that it be recognized as extremist. RBTH asks activists and observers what is happening with the nationalist movement in Russia, and why it is now calling itself the government’s “new enemy.” (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yekaterina Sinelschikova, RBTH […]

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Fitness training for dinosaurs; As austerity begins to bite, Russia’s state-owned firms are facing growing pressure to shape up

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Chris Miller in Moscow – October 15, 2015) Though Vladimir Yakunin was sacked from his post as head of state-owned Russian Railways back in August, the shock is still reverberating through Russia’s biggest and most powerful companies. A long-time friend of President Vladimir Putin, Yakunin was thought to be one of the most influential […]

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Russian Pollster: Kremlin Nurtures Rising Anti-Americanism

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Voice of America – Victor Vasiliev – October 15, 2015) Russians continue to characterize their country’s relations with the United States negatively. The latest survey by Russia’s biggest remaining independent polling organization, the Levada Center, found that a majority of the population believes U.S.-Russia relations are either “tense” (45%) or “hostile” (29%). The poll was conducted in early October 2015 […]

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RBTH: Instant messaging apps: Social resource or security threat?

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

Is tighter government regulation of instant messaging apps using encryption really needed? Where is the line between user friendliness and national security threat? Internet expert Anton Merkurov reflects upon the matters for RBTH. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anton Merkurov is an internet expert and representative of Open Garden, the developer behind FireChat – October 15, 2015) While […]

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Most Russians Want War, Always Have and Always Will, Nevzorov Says

Battle of Stalingrad file photo

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, October 15, 2015) Just as pornography can produce an erection but cannot do anything about the size of a penis, so too Russian state propaganda about the hostility of the surrounding world and the need to fight it can intensify those feelings but in no way create them, Aleksandr Nevzorov says, arguing […]

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United Russia primaries candidates must take part in debates – Medvedev

File Photo of Dmitry Medvedev with United Russia Logos Behind Him

MOSCOW. Oct 15 (Interfax) – All United Russia primaries candidates must take part in election debates, and it is wrong not to do so, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a joint meeting of the party’s supreme and general councils on Thursday. “The candidates must participate in the debates, maintain a position of their own and be able to […]

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Russian Antarctic Expedition Halts Research Due to Lack of Funds

Antarctica Map

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 15, 2015) Russia’s state-funded Antarctic expedition has had to halt its research due to a lack of funding, the TASS news agency reported Wednesday, citing one of the scientists involved in the expedition. “It’s not yet clear how long the research will be suspended for,” Ruslan Kolunin told TASS. He said that work on […]

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Exiled Russian Economist Reportedly Joining European Development Bank

Sergei Guriev file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 15, 2015) A prominent Russian economics professor who fled the country two years ago is to be appointed chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), news agency Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter. Sergei Guriev has lived in self-imposed exile in Paris since 2013. He left […]

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Russian Branch of Ecology NGO Bellona Closes Over ‘Foreign Agent’ Status

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 14, 2015) Bellona Murmansk, a Russian branch of the Norwegian environmental organization, has closed down but hopes to re-establish itself soon in a new legal form, the NGO said on its website this week. “Bellona Murmansk will continue its work under a different kind of bureaucratic structure that will free it from the yoke […]

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Infowar Continues as Russian, MH17 Investigations Reach Different Conclusions

Ukraine Air Crash Scene with Uniformed Security Personnel, Flames, Smoke

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner, Eva Hartog – October 14, 2015) The Dutch Safety Board and Russians arms manufacturer Almaz-Antey on Tuesday told a similar story about what caused the downing of flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine last year, but had a politically charged crucial difference of opinion on what type of warhead was used – and consequently, […]

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Putin Says Russian Economy Stabilizing

Putin at Desk

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – October 14, 2015) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday strove to deliver a positive message on the economy, even as output continues to shrink. “We have generally reached the peak of the crisis and overall our economy is gradually adapting to these new economic circumstances,” Putin said during a speech at the VTB […]

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Interfax: Ukraine rebels say they “did not have” Buk missile system at time of MH17 crash

Ukraine Air Crash Scene with Uniformed Security Personnel, Flames, Smoke

(Interfax – October 13, 2015) Eduard Basuryn (Basurin), the deputy defence minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, has once again said that the east Ukrainian insurgents did not have access to a Buk surface-to-air missile system at the time when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 13 October. Earlier in the […]

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Most Russians Want Homosexuals ‘Liquidated’ or Ostracized – Poll

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – October 12, 2015) More than half of Russians think that gay people should be either “liquidated” or isolated from society, according to a poll published Friday that showed a hardening of attitudes toward many minority groups in Russia in recent years. The survey by the Levada Center, an independent pollster, is the […]

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Lawmakers Move to Force Russian Media to Report Foreign Funding

Russian State Duma Building file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – October 13, 2015) Russian media will be obliged to report funding they receive from abroad to the media watchdog Roskomnadzor, if an inter-party group of deputies get their way. A bill to that effect was introduced to the State Duma, the lower chamber of the country’s parliament, last week by deputies from […]

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Justice Ministry Wipes 10 NGOs Off ‘Foreign Agents’ List

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 13, 2015) Russia’s Justice Ministry has deleted 10 NGOs from the list of “foreign agents,” the Gazeta.ru news website reported Monday. Four of them were excluded from the list because they “stopped performing the functions of a foreign agent,” while the other six were removed because they had closed down for good. The report […]

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The beginning of a resurrection for Russia’s battered capital markets

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Jason Corcoran in Moscow – October 7, 2015) Russian corporates locked out of international capital markets for the past 11 months due to the Kremlin’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict can see light at the end of the tunnel. A new agreement brokered in Paris on October 2 to hold elections in Eastern Ukraine, […]

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Justice Ministry Refuses to Remove Elections Monitor Golos from ‘Foreign Agents’ List

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 8, 2015) Russia’s Justice Ministry has refused to exclude independent elections watchdog Golos from the list of “foreign agents,” the Vedomosti newspaper reported Wednesday. Golos said on Twitter back in July that the ministry had begun the process of removing it from the list. Ruling that its inclusion was an “error,” the ministry also […]

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Interfax: Over 70% of Russians back Russia’s air campaign against ISIL in Syria – poll

Syria Map

MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) – Seventy-two percent of Russian citizens interviewed by Levada Center sociologists have expressed their positive attitude toward Russia’s air campaign against Islamic State (ISIL) targets in Syria. Fourteen percent of respondents criticized these airstrikes and another 14% were unable to articulate their attitude to Russia’s air force operation in Syria. The survey was conducted in 46 […]

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Russian Trust in State Institutions Grows Amid Recession, Sanctions and Foreign Conflicts

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 8, 2015) Russians’ trust in almost every key institution of state has increased during the past two years, even as the country’s economy has tanked and freedom of expression has been eroded. A survey published Wednesday by the Levada Center, an independent pollster, found that public trust in President Vladimir Putin, the army, the […]

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It’s Time to Recall Kennan’s Long Telegram and Forget His Later Optimism about Change in Russia

Joseph Stalin file photo

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – August 6, 2015) Staunton, October 3 – George Kennan’s famous “long telegram” of February 1946 was written to explain to Western leaders something they found difficult to understand: how Moscow could turn from being a wartime ally into an implacable enemy, a problem that some Western leaders are again finding it difficult to […]

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Medvedev: Russia must cut dependence on oil revenues

Oil Wells File Photo

Speaking at a forum in Sochi, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has revealed that oil and gas revenues have provided for less than half of the federal Russian budget for the first time, and said the country must focus on reducing its dependence on oil through reforms, stimulating domestic manufacturing and cutting spending. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – […]

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[From 1993:] Russia Mourns Victims of Uprising

File Photo of Parliament Building Billowing Smoke in 1993

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anne Barnard, David Filipov – October 8, 1993) Moscow mourned the human cost of this week’s political bloodshed Thursday, as President Boris Yeltsin suspended the Constitutional Court he has accused of complicity in the violence. Several thousand friends, strangers and comrades in arms filed past the coffins of six policemen killed last Sunday and Monday […]

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Putin urges Russian businessmen to support rights NGOs

Kremlin and Saint Basil's File Photo

(Interfax – Moscow, October 1, 2015) Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on businessmen and entrepreneurs to render financial support to Russian human rights non-commercial organizations. “I fully and completely join the call and believe that we all together and I personally must urge, here, right now, I’m urging our citizens, all our business structures to render support to non-commercial […]

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Putin Promises to Rewrite ‘Foreign Agents’ Law

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – October 2, 2015) President Vladimir Putin met with the presidential Human Rights Council on Thursday and promised to rewrite the so-called “foreign agents” law requiring that all NGOs which receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activity to register as “foreign agents,” a term widely associated in Russia with espionage, […]

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NEWSWATCH Reuters: When Kremlin candidate loses election, even voters are surprised.

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

Reuters covers a recent Russian regional election in which the ruling United Russia party suffered defeat. When Communist Sergei Levchenko beat the incumbent from President Vladimir Putin’s party to become governor of Irkutsk region in Siberia on Sunday, even the voters who backed him were surprised: the Kremlin doesn’t lose elections. The result is said to raise questions about the […]

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NEWSWATCH Washington Post/Daniel Treisman: “Searching for the roots of Russia’s aggression”

Balaklava harbour, the cattle pier, Crimea, Ukraine, 1855; adapted from image at loc.gov; Fenton, Roger, 1819-1869, photographer;

Writing in The Washington Post, Daniel Treisman of UCLA, and the Russian Political Insight project, considers the roots and contours of Russian aggression.  In part, he draws upon and reviews several new books, by Marvin Kalb, Walter Laqueur and Steven Lee Myers. A generation after the Cold War ended, Russian fighter jets are again probing NATO’s defenses in the skies […]

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The opposition’s last mandate

Russia Regions Map

Deputies of the Pskov regional assembly are attempting to remove a colleague from their ranks-opposition lawmaker and journalist Lev Shlosberg (opendemocracy.net – Svetlana Prokopyeva – September 23, 2015) Svetlana Prokopyeva is a journalist from Pskov, Russia and former editor in chief of Pskovskaya Guberniya. When the regional assembly of Russia’s north-western Pskov region convenes on 24 September, it promises to […]

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Putin Pushing New Social Contract Based on Fighting Corruption Rather than Economic Growth, Petrov Says

Russia Regions Map

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, September 24, 2015) The recent arrests of governors is part of a broader effort by Vladimir Putin to create a new social contract with the population, Nikolay Petrov says. In the old one, he offered stability and economic growth; now that he cannot offer those things, he is pushing himself forward as […]

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Saakashvili’s personal agreement is needed to launch procedure of appointing him as Ukrainian PM – Poroshenko

Mikheil Saakashvili file photo

KYIV. Sept 24 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has responded to an online petition asking him to appoint the Odesa region’s Governor Mikheil Saakashvili Ukraine’s prime minister. “The candidate’s personal agreement to take on this post is a necessary condition for launching the aforementioned procedure of appointing the prime minister of Ukraine. However, Saakashvili has not offered any comments […]

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Design Chosen for Moscow Monument Commemorating Gulag Victims

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – September 24, 2015) The winner of a public initiative competition to design a Moscow monument honoring victims of the gulags has been chosen from 336 entries by a jury and team of experts. Sculptor Georgy Frangulyan, announced Wednesday on his website that his proposal, a large-scale relief of human figures, symbolizing gulag […]

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Russia’s banking pain is forcing long-overdue sector consolidation

Central Bank of Russia file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – September 24, 2015) Russian banks are in a world of pain. Real incomes are falling for the first time since President Vladimir Putin has been on the job, and sanctions have cut banks off from their main source of long-term cheap financing. The upshot is that Russia’s financial sector […]

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Achieving balanced budget at cost of its quality unacceptable – PM

Dmitri Medvedev file photo

MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes that the structure and effectiveness of budget expenditures are no less important than balancing the budget. “The creation of comfortable conditions begins with ensuring macroeconomic stability. Low inflation and a balanced budget remain priorities for the country’s sustainable development. Inflation must be reduced to the level of 4% in […]

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Russian Options Narrow as Putin Looks to Exporters’ Windfall

Diverse Paper Currency, Coins, Line Graph

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas, Andrey Biryukov – September 22, 2015) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s promises made as recently as last year may be the latest casualty of the collapse in oil prices. Putin instructed the government on Tuesday to study the possibility of steering into the budget some of the gains by exporters from ruble devaluation, without losing […]

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RBTH: Russia’s opposition denies waning influence as protests shrink

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

In the wake of the low turnout to a Sept. 20 protest in Moscow, sources polled by RBTH say that the protest did not appear convincing and conclude that for the time being the opposition does not have very bright prospects. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yekaterina Sinelschikova, RBTH – September 22, 2015) Despite claims by leading liberal […]

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