MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti)-Russia will deliver attack helicopters and mobile air-defense systems to Iraq in arms deals worth $4.2 billion signed earlier this year, it was disclosed today during a visit to Moscow by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in which he met his counterpart Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Moscow will supply 30 Mil Mi-28NE night/all-weather capable attack helicopters, […]
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MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) – Although salaries for members of the armed forces are rising fast, Russia will continue to rely on conscription in coming years, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in an interview with the newsweekly Itogi to be published on Monday. Serdyukov touted the fact that commanders of Russia’s Pacific Fleet nuclear ballistic missile submarines will earn […]
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(Alexander Bratersky – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 8, 2012) Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has ordered an investigation into claims in a television expose that opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov received funding from an ally of Georgia’s president and the former head of Bank of Moscow aimed at sowing discord in Russia. It was unclear Sunday what the investigation might […]
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VLADIVOSTOK. Oct 7 (Interfax) – People of action alone can become leaders in Russia. The skill of being loudly critical is not enough, President Vladimir Putin said in a film, shown on the Central Television program of NTV television on Sunday. “The unessential will be brushed away in a natural way, and original and smart people will emerge and assume […]
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Plaudits vie with “pensioner” jibes as Russia’s Putin turns 60 – Reuters – Alissa de Carbonnel – October 7 click here for original article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/07/us-russia-putin-birthday-idUSBRE8940ZW20121007 Reuters covers how both supporters and opposition detractors marked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 60th birthday. The ruling party’s loyal Young Guard movement published a video on its website portraying Putin as the ultimate ladies’ man, […]
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(Interfax – October 7, 2012) President Vladimir Putin, who has turned 60 on Oct. 7, has gone down in history already as a statesman, who has put Russia back on the path of stability. However, demand has been growing in Russia for “a new Putin,” strong enough to accomplish fresh breakthroughs, political analysts say. “Russia approached the 21st century on […]
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RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – Vladimir Putin has marked his 60th Birth Anniversary – ITAR-TASS – October 8, 2012 ITAR-TASS provides its take on Russian press accounts of Russian President’s Vladimir Putin’s 60th birthday. Click here for the full article: http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/539889.html
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Does the Georgian Election Signal a New paradigm? – us-russia.org – October 8, 2012 “us-russia.org” presents a panel anthology on the aftermath of the Georgia election, featuring Vlad Sobell, Edward Lozansky, Patick Armstrong, Sergei Roy, Anatoly Karlin, and Slava Kolodyazhniy. In Georgia’s October 1 parliamentary election President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement was defeated, paving the way for Georgia’s first-ever […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – October 8, 2012) Senior government officials lavished praise on President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, his 60th birthday, paying tribute to his qualities as leader and saying he rescued the country from disaster. Meanwhile, police detained about 25 opposition activists who had gathered in central Moscow to protest Putin’s rule and poke fun […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stepan Kravchenko and Ilya Arkhipov – October 8, 2012) President Vladimir Putin, who turned 60 yesterday, had his rule rated “more good than bad” by the majority of Russians more than 12 years after he first became the country’s leader, an opinion poll showed. Sixty-four percent of Russians are positive about the Putin era, the state-run […]
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STRASBOURG, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has been offered the post of head of Russia’s new financial mega-regulator, he disclosed on Monday. “Yes, I have received the offer but I’m not ready so far to discuss it in detail,” Kudrin said on the sidelines of the global forum for democracy in Strasbourg. First Deputy […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) – The World Bank has lowered its 2012 GDP growth forecast for Russia to 3.5%, from the 3.8% it was predicting in June, the World Bank said in its latest Russian Economic Report. The 3.5% growth is the same as the World Bank forecast back in March. The World Bank also lowered its 2013 growth forecast […]
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TBILISI, October 8 (RIA Novosti )- The new Georgian government will implement a plan to improve relations with Moscow, while maintaining its policy of pro-Western orientation, Foreign Minister designate Maya Panjikidze said on Monday. “There is a specific plan and idea on how to improve relations with Russia,” Panjikidze said. The aim of the Georgian Foreign Ministry is “to improve […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 8, 2012) Maia Panjikidze, nominated on Monday as Georgia’s next foreign minister, vowed that the country’s foreign policy would not change and predicted that it would take years to normalize relations with Russia. “This is the decision of the Georgian people: to integrate with European and Euro-Atlantic organizations; to continue and deepen the strategic […]
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LENINGRAD REGION, October 8 (RIA Novosti) -Russia intends to sign memorandums on new Nord Stream gas pipeline routes to Europe by December 31, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Monday as the second leg came on stream. “Today Nord Stream shareholders considered a preliminary feasibility study for the third and fourth legs, their construction was recognized as economically expedient and […]
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(Interfax – October 3, 2012) Russian environmentalists have poured cold water on claims by the head of the country’s main security service that Al-Qa’idah was responsible for forest fires in a number of countries across the European Union over the summer. In remarks reported by the privately-owned Interfax news agency on 3 October, Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – October 4, 2012 The Altai republic and Chechnya have the cleanest economies in Russia, according to a new index released Tuesday. The index, put together by WWF Russia and state-owned news agency RIA-Novosti with the support of the Russian Geographic Society, is one of the first attempts to combine environmental threat factors, […]
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Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Toohey – October 3, 2012 The independent Levada Center polling agency has released an analytical research paper on potential future scenarios for the protest movement. The research was carried out based on interviews with the leaders of the opposition and rally participants, also incorporating data from public opinion polls. The research was conducted with […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – October 4, 2012 President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a law introducing a single voting day for regional and federal elections, a measure that opposition politicians said was illegal and would benefit the ruling party. Meanwhile, the Central Elections Commission proposed restrictions on how people can take photographs and make video recordings […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – October 4, 2012 State-controlled NTV television is scheduled to air two new politically themed documentaries this weekend an opposition expose on Friday and a feature about the day-to-day life of President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, his 60th birthday. The channel has a history of producing controversial documentaries about Kremlin foes […]
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Lena Smirnova – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 5, 2012 Thousands of kilometers from the capital, a lone interactive whiteboard sits in a customs warehouse on Russia’s southern border. The device’s Turkish manufacturer, Vestel, is rushing to get the unit to its Moscow showroom and start selling the product to schools. But more than two months is expected to […]
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Paul Goble – Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 13 Issue: 19 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – October 4, 2012 The final results of the Georgian parliamentary elections were not announced yet when President Mikhail Saakashvili conceded that his party lost the majority of the vote; Bidzina Ivaanishvili has begun talks about forming a government and suggested that Saakashvili resign as […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – October 5, 2012 The Foreign Ministry on Thursday complained that it had not been properly informed by United States authorities that a group of Russian citizens had been arrested on charges of smuggling microelectronics, raising “serious concerns” for Russia. “A lot is unclear in this story. It raises serious concerns, and we […]
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Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – October 5, 2012 A round of 73 regional and municipal elections that start on October 14 will be the first real test for Russia’s nascent protest movement. The first protests were sparked by popular outrage to rigged Duma elections last December and were followed by large crowds protesting against […]
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Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Marie Mawad and Ilya Khrennikov – October 5, 2012 Looking for a public bathroom in Moscow? Facebook Inc. (FB) has you covered. Still a dwarf in Russia, the world’s largest social network is courting local geeks to build apps tailor-made for their home market. Its goal is to win over users in Europe’s most populous country […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich has called it impossible for Russia to simultaneously have a high level of social protection, a large army, and a lot of state properties. “We cannot allow ourselves to simultaneously have a very high level of social protection in a system built on paternalistic principles, at the same time […]
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MOSCOW, October 4 (Dan Peleschuk, RIA Novosti) – A prominent human rights worker in Moscow has reported receiving anonymous threats on her cell phone. Tanya Lokshina, a senior Russia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said she received direct and severe threats via text messages mentioning specific details of her life, including her pregnancy. She also said the contents of the […]
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Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#174 4 October 2012 davidjohnson@starpower.net A World Security Institute Project www.worldsecurityinstitute.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: www.russialist.org/funding.php Your source for news and analysis since 1996 In this issue POLITICS 1. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Moskovskiye Novosti: Svetlana Babaeva, A new social contract for Russia? Although the protest movement in Russia […]
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Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#173 3 October 2012 davidjohnson@starpower.net A World Security Institute Project www.worldsecurityinstitute.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: www.russialist.org/funding.php Your source for news and analysis since 1996 In this issue POLITICS 1. RIA Novosti: Tanks on Moscow’s Streets During October 1993 Revolt. 2. Moscow Times: Friends and Foes to Mark Putin’s […]
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Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 Subject: USAID Russia Lessons Learned From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> USAID Russia Lessons Learned by Sarah Lindemann-Komarova, Siberian based civil society development activist. Almost everyone knew it was time for a USAID end strategy in Russia. The possible exception to this maybe a few organizations that did not leverage years of generous support from the American […]
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Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – October 3, 2012 – Leonid Bershidsky, an editor and novelist, is Moscow and Kiev correspondent for World View. For Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to Moscow was a great photo opportunity. Some of Russia’s technology entrepreneurs, though, saw it as the latest salvo in a global battle for the […]
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Paul Rogers – www.opendemocracy.net – October 4, 2012 Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He is openDemocracy’s international-security editor, and has been writing a weekly column on global security since 28 September 2001; he also writes a monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group. His books include Why We’re Losing the […]
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Voice of America – October 3, 2012 – By James Brooke – James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR. In the run-up to Georgia’s parliamentary vote, supporters of President Mikheil Saakashvili derided their opponent, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, as “a Kremlin project.” Activists for Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition were even chased out of one village […]
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(Nikolaus von Twickel – Moscow Times – October 3, 2012) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev praised the results of Georgia’s parliamentary elections, in which the main opposition coalition defeated the party of President Mikheil Saakashvili. “If these results remain, Georgia’s political landscape will become more diverse. You can only welcome this, because it means that more constructive and responsible forces will […]
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MOSCOW, October 2 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti) – The Georgian opposition’s likely victory in parliamentary elections yesterday spells no more than token changes in relations with Russia, as anti-Kremlin President Mikheil Saakashvili remains entrenched in power, Russian analysts said on Tuesday. “Relations will improve, because they can’t get any worse,” said Alexander Krylov, Caucasus expert at the Institute of World […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Mark H. Gay – October 3, 2012 The Moscow Times has survived many nicks and scratches in its 20-year history: snipers firing at its editorial offices, staff rescued by helicopter from the midst of military mayhem, thugs muscling into the office to steal the wages, and a two-thirds plunge in the currency that wiped out […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Howard Amos and Irina Filatova – October 3, 2012 Signaling the start a long-awaited overhaul at Gazprom, President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for corruption to be eliminated at the state-controlled gas giant and said its business model should be improved. Gazprom has been criticized for years by minority investors who believe their lucrative shares […]
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Kremlin.ru – October 2, 2012 – Moscow The Forum is taking place in Moscow on October 2-4, 2012. Among the main topics for discussion are the strategic priorities of the country’s development in terms of changes in global economic markets, the creation of the Common Economic Space and Russia’s accession to the WTO. The RUSSIA CALLING! Forum has been held […]
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Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#172 2 October 2012 davidjohnson@starpower.net A World Security Institute Project www.worldsecurityinstitute.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: www.russialist.org/funding.php Your source for news and analysis since 1996 In this issue POLITICS 1. Moscow Times: Meg Bortin, How The Moscow Times Was Born 20 Years Ago. 2. Russia Beyond the Headlines: What […]
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Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#171 1 October 2012 davidjohnson@starpower.net A World Security Institute Project www.worldsecurityinstitute.org JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: www.russialist.org/funding.php Your source for news and analysis since 1996 In this issue POLITICS 1. ITAR-TASS: Russia marks Internet Day. 2. AP: Putin Rolls Back Protege’s Modest Liberal Legacy. 3. Financial TImes: Infighting weakens […]
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Why I Lost My Right To Speak in the Duma – Ilya Ponomaryov- Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 1, 2012 – click here to read full text of original article Ilya Ponomaryov is a State Duma deputy with A Just Russia. Ilya Ponomaryov writes in his Moscow Times op-ed about being banned from speaking in the Russian State Duma […]
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RIA Novosti – Natalia Antonova – October 1, 2012 Natalia Antonova is the deputy editor of The Moscow News. I never thought that there would come a day when I would unabashedly cheer on Mark Zuckerberg. After all, even among hardcore Facebook users such as myself, it is much more fashionable to poke fun at the guy, gently or otherwise. […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – October 2, 2012 On Monday, the same day that the U.S. Agency for International Development ended its 20-year presence in Russia, President Vladimir Putin proposed bringing nonprofit groups that provide social services under closer government supervision. A plan outlining criteria for evaluating the quality of services provided by nonprofits, as well as […]
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RFE/RL – October 2, 2012 A report debated on October 2 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe strongly criticized Russia, highlighting limitations on free speech, political meddling in the judiciary, and multiple violations of human rights. The report was the first produced by the Strasbourg-based body to address Russia’s obligations and commitments to the Council of Europe […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 2 (Interfax) – Russia will respect any choice made by the Georgian people in the October 1 parliamentary election, Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, told journalists. “Our country will respect any choice of the Georgian people. It is the Georgian people’s right to elect its parliament and the country’s […]
» Read moreBloomberg – bloomberg.com – Helena Bedwell and Henry Meyer – October 2, 2012 Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili’s opposition coalition unexpectedly won the most votes in a parliamentary election yesterday, dealing a blow to U.S.-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili. The president, 44, said his United National Movement would move to opposition after results with 29.1 percent of votes counted showed Ivanishvili’s Georgian […]
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MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti)-The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has funded Russian non-governmental organizations, stops its operations in Russia from Monday. Russia said in September that USAID, which provided financing for pro-democracy and human rights groups that have irked the Kremlin, would have to close its offices in the country by October 1. President Vladimir Putin […]
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Dmitri Travin – www.opendemocracy.net – September 28, 2012 Dmitry Travin is Research Director at the European University in St. Petersburg’s Centre of Modernization Studies As the Russian government tries to put together its budget plan for 2013-2015, it is clear that it cannot possibly meet all its pre-election promises. Dmitry Travin looks at the financial crisis facing the country. The […]
» Read moreMoscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – October 1, 2012 When Georgia elects a new parliament Monday, the small South Caucasus nation is likely to get the most global attention it’s received since its 2008 war with Russia. The vote has been labeled historic because the parliament will elect a prime minister who, thanks to a 2010 constitutional […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) – Sixty-two percent of Russians are aware of the Innocence of Muslims scandalous film released in the United States. Thirty-three percent of them have heard a lot about the film, and 6% are monitoring the situation closely, the Levada Center told Interfax. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents learned about the film in the poll of 1,601 […]
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