Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – October 7, 2013) The lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the Duma, set a new record before the 2013 summer recess by passing as many as 261 new bills. Some of them have caused quite a stir, including the laws banning the propaganda of homosexuality, making it […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – September 9, 2013) First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov on Tuesday griped about proposed raises in government salaries, describing them as insufficient, adding to the unabated broadsides aimed at the federal budget plan for next year. His comments highlighted the tensions bred by a lower-than-expected increase in government spending. “The salaries that […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 9, 2013) It will take “at a minimum two generations” for the various identities in the Russian Federation to come together to form a united civic nation, a process that will be all the more prolonged because except in the major cities, the country does not have a civil society, according […]
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(Pravda.ru – Anton Ponomarev – October 8, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 61st birthday on October 7th. Pravda.Ru talked to political scientists asking what actions of the Russian leader in the domestic and foreign policy during his tenure as President they find most successful. Head of Political Science Department of High School of Economics Leonid Polyakov: “I would […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 7, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently become more long-sighted and wiser (65%), more strong-willed (64%) and looks fresher and more energetic (63%), sociologists said citing a poll held. Respondents said that Putin awoke more interest in himself and his actions (57%) than before, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) said presenting the survey […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Bali, Indonesia – October 8, 2013) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, I want to note that the APEC summit had good, practical outcomes. Let me recall once again that the Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 40 percent of the world’s population; it generates 56 percent of global GDP and accounts […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 8, 2013) Russian government programs require a quality review, as their funding is not backed by real budget spending, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said at a parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council in Moscow on Tuesday. “Government programs in key sectors – infrastructure, healthcare, education and science were compiled and considered with financing that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – October 3, 2013) The Cabinet on Thursday discussed moves to back small and medium-sized businesses with greater access to loans and state contracts as a way to spur the flagging economy. “We must make a serious breakthrough in the field of investment, the field of labor productivity, the field of diversification of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 3, 2013) The majority of Russians approve of the piracy charges against 28 Greenpeace activists who were detained in late September after trying to climb an Gazprom-owned oil drilling rig in the Arctic to protest its environmental impact. A survey from state pollster VTsIOM published Wednesday showed that 60 percent of the respondents believe […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) Loss of national “sovereignty” is not an acceptable price for higher quality of life in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. “It’s impossible for Russia to swap sovereignty for better quality of life, because if we lose our sovereignty, we will lose the country,” Putin said at a meeting of the Council on […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – October 3, 2013) The worst of the economic crisis is over and the economy is under control, but it is time to steer the economy back into growth mode, President Vladimir Putin said at an investment forum Wednesday. He was speaking at the Russia Calling! VTB Capital event in Moscow, where he […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Moscow – October 2, 2013) Vladimir Putin took part in the fifth annual “Russia Calling!” Investment Forum, organised by VTB Capital. The theme of this year’s forum is New Horizons for Growth: How to Reach Them. The “Russia Calling!” Investment Forum provides a platform for developing dialogue between Russian business and the international investment community. Prominent political and […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, October 2, 2013) Eighty percent of Russians remember the standoff between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov’s parliament that resulted in disturbances in Moscow in October 1993, sociologists told Interfax. Sixteen percent of the 1,600 respondents polled in 130 towns and cities in 42 regions in September learned about those events from the sociologists. Most […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – October 3, 2013) Twenty years later, the changes to Russia’s political system enacted in the aftermath of the October 1993 attempted coup still reverberate. On Oct. 3, 1993, post-Soviet Russia faced its first major political crisis. The two-day conflict between then-President Boris Yeltsin and the State Duma […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, October 1, 2013) Sergey Ivanov, head of the Russian Presidential Administration, said today that the low voter turnout for the September 8 elections was a healthy phenomenon and reflected the increasing sense of well-being of the Russian people. “Thank God, “we have approached” that situation (regnum.ru/news/russia/1714111.html). But Irina Pavlova, one of the […]
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(Government.ru – Sochi, Krasnodar Territory, September 28, 2013) Anna Schneider: Good afternoon, Mr Medvedev. Thank you for finding the time to come here. Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon. Anna Schneider: The forum is about to complete its work. What results have been achieved? What are your personal impressions? How is this year’s forum different from the previous ones in terms of […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 29, 2013) The problems of the Russian judicial system cannot be resolved by reform, specifically, by uniting courts, the judicial administration should become competitive and win people’s confidence, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. “I believe this work is very difficult. It is not reduced to the signing of a law or even, for example, uniting […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – September 26, 2013) Stop thinking Putin has everything figured out, because he doesn’t Sometimes, President Vladimir Putin says – or does – a bunch of stuff, and everyone gets really, really confused. It happens all the time, particularly when there’s a major global controversy, like whether someone needs to intervene in Syria’s […]
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(Interfax – VLADIVOSTOK, September 28, 2013) – Russia will take a break in megaprojects under the current complex circumstances but will continue to develop its transport infrastructure. “There will be no such megaprojects as the Sochi Games in 2014 but there will be other very important projects, such as transport infrastructure for greater passenger and cargo mobility. They will not […]
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(Government.ru – Dmitry Medvedev – September 27, 2013) [English translation of commentary published in Vedomosti, September 27, 2013] 1. The beginning Five years ago it became obvious that a global economic catastrophe was beginning. I remember very well the first G20 anti-crisis summit meeting in Washington and the views which I and the majority of my colleagues expressed there. From […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – By Anatoly Medetsky – September 28, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned Friday that the economy had fallen on hard times and identified the private sector as the engine for future growth. Medvedev made what was one of the key political statements of his premiership at the annual International Investment Forum in Sochi after numerous […]
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(RIA Novosti – Karin Zeitvogel – WASHINGTON, September 30, 2013) Russia earns low marks on a global index that rates countries by the quality of life and wellbeing of their old folk, ranking 78th out of 91 countries in the first-ever Global AgeWatch Index released Monday. The index, which lists Sweden at number one and Afghanistan at rock bottom, ranks […]
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(Government.ru – Sochi, Krasnodar Territory – September 27, 2013) The main focus of the forum is economic growth and quality of life, including foreign direct investment, comprehensive regional development and expansion of transport infrastructure through private investment. The participants also discussed social issues, including healthcare, participation of private medical organisations in the mandatory medical insurance system, social development policies for […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Andrew McChesney – October 1, 2013) Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov has expressed surprise about the opposition’s growing political clout, particularly Alexei Navalny’s strong showing in Moscow’s mayoral election this month, but indicated that President Vladimir Putin was unconcerned by any threat to his grip on power. Ivanov, who made the comments in an […]
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(Interfax – SOCHI, September 27, 2013) Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said the main risk for the Russian economy was the risk of not implementing a new economic development model. There are external and internal risks that can affect the rate of economic growth, he said. “But I think the major risk us the risk that we will nit […]
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Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 Subject: Re: Current History’s October issue From: Joshua Lustig [Managing Editor] <JoshuaLustig@currenthistory.com> Current History’s October 2013 issue, devoted to Russia and Eurasia, is available at www.currenthistory.com, in print, and via Kindle. It includes the following essays: Can Putin Keep His Grip on Power? by Daniel Treisman Moscow’s Soft Power Strategy, by Andrei P. Tsygankov Russia’s […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff has credited Russia’s 1993 constitution with making it possible to “preserve the sovereignty and unity of Russia.” “The constitution has made it possible to preserve the sovereignty and unity of Russia. It has made it possible to step back from a very dangerous point and put political processes […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) [Complete transcript here http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/6007] VLADIMIR PUTIN: And one more question for our American friend and colleague. What will the United States do about the budget deficit, the debt that has reached an incredible size? It is the largest debt in the United States’ post-war history. How will the situation unfold moving forward? This […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 27, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that investors have an “irrational fear” of Russia, a country he described as “incomprehensible” and “sometimes unpredictable,” in a long opinion piece published Friday in a Russian newspaper. The article of over 3,000 words was titled “The Time of Simple Solutions Has Passed” and focused […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – September 26, 2013) A state of emergency has been declared in Sochi as water and mudslides have blocked the Olympic resort’s newly built main roads, just as International Olympic Committee inspectors arrived for their final assessment ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games. Many local residents could not travel to work Wednesday […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 26, 2013) The findings of the latest Levada Center survey show, Moscow commentator Sergey Chernyakhovsky says, that most Russians support the values of the left even as Moscow is pursuing policies of the right, a divergence that raises questions about the nature of the country’s political system and its future stability. […]
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(Interfax – SALEKHARD, Russia, September 25, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, has denied that Vladislav Surkov will have any other duties in his new capacity as a presidential aide than those relating to Russia’s economic relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. “I have answered this question a hundred times, but let me answer it for the […]
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From: “Michael Herzen” <mikeh@4herzen.net> Subject: Navalny Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 Re: JRL #145 of August 9, items 24 and 25: “ALEKSEI NAVALNY AN EXAMINATION OF HIS TRIAL AND CONVICTION”, By Alexander Mercouris Surprised and dismayed that no one has commented on this “examination”, I will have to do so myself, though I am no legal scholar. Why this […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – September 26, 2013) The Federation Council on Wednesday approved a controversial bill to reform the Russian Academy of Sciences, paving the way for it to be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, as opponents of the bill protested against it outside the upper house of parliament. The bill has prompted numerous […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – September 26, 2013) When a devastating flash flood killed 155 people in the southern Russian town of Krymsk in July 2012, it was a summons for journalist Dmitry Aleshkovsky, who joined hundreds of volunteers flocking to the area. When Aleshkovsky created the “Nuzhna Pomosh” (Need Help) project in September 2012 to bring […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) TELEVISION PRESENTER KSENIYA SOBCHAK: Mr President, the first post-Soviet generation grew up during your time in power. This generation has shown that it is prepared to invest time in politics. We see that these people largely urban university graduates, middle or high income are willing to work as volunteers and election […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Lyudmila Nazdracheva, special to RBTH – September 26, 2013) This year, thanks to a program that facilitates the return of nationals to Russia, around 15,000 people have moved back to the country. The plans for the program estimated the influx of returning émigrés to be in the hundreds of thousands per year, and […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 25, 2013) Russia cannot be understood as a single whole, according to Natalya Zubarevich, but only as four different Russias whose increasingly different situations are pushing them in four different directions, a pattern that is often obscured by the use of data sets for the country as a whole. In yesterday’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – September 25, 2013) A key United Russia lawmaker said Tuesday that he supported granting amnesty to suspects in the high-profile Bolotnoye case, echoing recent comments by President Vladimir Putin. Speculation about a possible amnesty for suspects in the case has grown since Putin said at the Valdai Club meeting last week that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Andrew McChesney – September 25, 2013) People should focus on Vladimir Putin’s work as president and avoid prying into his personal life not that he has one because he is so busy with his Kremlin duties, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Peskov, who made the appeal in a far-ranging interview published Wednesday in Izvestia, […]
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From: “Alexander Domrin” <adomrin@rumyantsevconsulting.ru> Subject: new issue of Konstitutsionny Vestnik on the the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 Dear David I am pleased to tell you and JRL readers that a new Konstitutsionny Vestnik issue of can be downloaded from the web site of the Russian Foundation for Legal Reform: http://www.rfcr.ru/news_upload/kv3.pdf The issue […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – September 25, 2013) Russia leapt 10 places in the latest “Economic Freedom of the World” report, released in September by Canada’s Fraser Institute, to 101st place largely thanks to its financial reforms. The US fell 13 spots, largely because of its financial mess. The Kremlin is regularly lambasted for […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. September 24, 2013) Russia’s human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said he expected that the Russian authorities would not punish the activists of the Greenpeace environmental organization too severely for their protest rally against oil extraction in the Pechora Sea. “I hope that our authorities will realize that they nevertheless had admirable and noble motives and that they […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 25, 2013) Nearly half of Russians believe that the recent regional elections were fair and are pleased with the results, the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) said. About 7,000 elections of various types, in which over 40 million of Russians were entitled to vote, were held across 80 Russian regions on September […]
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(Interfax – September 24, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved a plan to create and develop mechanisms for public oversight over the activities of natural monopolies with input from consumers, along with the relevant road map, the government press service said. The goal of the document is to involve consumers in monitoring the development and implementation of monopolies’ investment […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 23, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev criticized the pace at which the road maps to increase business and investment activity in Russia are being implemented, as nearly half of their measures have not been carried out on time. “We can’t in any case be happy with the pace of implementation of these road maps. Of the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 24, 2013) If the Federation Council approves the government-backed and Duma-approved plan to restructure the Russian Academy of Sciences, a group of Russian scientists say, this will lead to a weakening or even breakdown of horizontal ties across the country and to “the growth of separatist tendencies.” In an open letter […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 24, 2013) Yevgeny Roizman was inaugurated as mayor of Yekaterinburg, just as the contest for city manager, which could well determine the influence Roizman will ultimately wield, began Tuesday. Six candidates have entered the contest, with the winner to be selected by the Yekaterinburg City Duma, RIA Novosti reported. Among them is current city […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – September 24, 2013) The appointment of former “gray cardinal” Vladislav Surkov to a post in President Vladimir Putin’s administration has prompted a flurry of speculation among Kremlin watchers with some saying it signals a return to a more flexible policy in political affairs and others insisting it is just a sinecure for […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) SVETLANA MIRONYUK: Thank you. Mr President, Mr Rühe wants to respond. Mr Rühe, please go ahead. VOLKER RÜHE: President Putin, I go along with you, what you said on Iraq. And we were as critical; the French were, also. It was not a NATO it was an American decision. But Libya was […]
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