(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 8, 2013) A controversial interview with Konstantin Ernst, general director of state-owned Channel One, has caused a scandal in social networks and the media, raising questions of press freedom and journalist ethics. The interview was taken in 2008 by Yevgeny Levkovich, who was a freelance correspondent for the Russian edition of Rolling Stone magazine. […]
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(Interfax – April 8, 2013) Moscow City Court Chairman Olga Yegorova believes the sentences handed down on former Yukos CEOs Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev are fair, but the sentence on the members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot could be softened. “It would be a shame if the Supreme Court changes the sentence handed down on Mikhail Khodorkovsky. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 8, 2013) Anti-Kremlin leader Alexei Navalny walks methodically past a crowd of protesters standing behind metal barricades on Bolotnaya Ploshchad, heading for a stage. Two baby-faced police officers step out of his way, blank expressions on their faces. “We’re with you,” a man in sunglasses says to Navalny. “Thanks,” Navalny answers […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 8, 2013) Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the elder human rights activist in Russia and the head of the Moscow Helsinki group, believes the figures given in reports on foreign funding received by NGOs in Russia are overestimated. “This is being done to show that these organizations allegedly have money to burn. Everyone influences public opinion in the way […]
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(RIA Novosti, HANOVER, April 8, 2013) The recent wave of inspections of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia is not aimed at restricting their activity but rather at controlling their foreign funding, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “All our actions are not designed to shut down or ban [the operation of NGOs in […]
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(Interfax – April 5, 2013) Russians have shown a more positive attitude towards the work of the country’s ministers for the last few months, a survey by the pro-Kremlin All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) has found, the Interfax news agency reported on 5 April. The poll is available on the VTsIOM website, at http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=113822 Respondents were asked to assess […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 5, 2013) Corruption levels in Russia are high, in the opinion of 80% of citizens. Some 43% argue corruption rates are growing, 40% say there is no change, and only 6% see a downward trend. The Public Opinion Foundation polled 1,500 respondents in 100 towns and cities in 43 regions in late March. Most Russians (68%) […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – April 8, 2013) The Graduate School of Urban Studies and Planning at the Higher School of Economics here in Moscow has come out with a report that says that most Muscovites want little to do with their neighbors. A recent poll conducted by the graduate school revealed that less than a third […]
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[check back for updates including active links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#64 :: 8 April 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Moscow News: New poll reveals lack of community in Moscow. 2. ITAR-TASS: RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW. Political analysts discuss ideology and political preferences of the Russian society. […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Oleg Fomichev, RBTH – April 5, 2013) Russian experts disagree on whether or not a political solution in Syria is still possible. This April marks the second anniversary of the Syrian uprising. Unlike the other Arab revolutions, it can be characterized by its deep involvement of Russian interests. While Moscow remains critical of […]
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(Interfax – TBILISI, April 4, 2013) Akhmed Zakayev, formerly known as a Chechen separatist emissary, has accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s entourage of arming and training a group of Chechen saboteurs and planning to send them to Russia in 2012. “People from Saakashvili’s inner circle brought a group of Chechens from Europe, organized their training, provided them with weapons and […]
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(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 […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 5, 2013) Without warning or explanation, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has rejected an unprecedented percentage of Russian university students applying for visas to take part in the State Department’s popular Summer Work and Travel program this year, dashing hopes and placing the program’s future in doubt. About 80-90 percent of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Litovkin, RBTH – April 4, 2013) A recently released report by International Institute for Strategic Studies has noted that Russia’s defense spending increased in 2012. Analyst Viktor Litovkin argues that Russia’s defense spending is nowhere close to the numbers put up by Western nations. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 4, 2013) All Russian government officials should be obligated to invest their money in the securities of Russian issuers, deputy Central Bank chairman Sergei Shvetsov said. “Today a large number of officials disclose their assets, and we see vehicles, dachas and land there, we very rarely see mutual funds, Russian securities. The presence of securities in […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 4, 2013) Russian federal state property agency Rosimushchestvo will publish the privatization plan for 2014-2016 in May, the head of the agency, Deputy Economic Development Minister Olga Dergunova, said at the Russian Exchange Forum in Moscow on Thursday. “We are currently at the stage of forming the 2014-2016 privatization plan. The information will be published on […]
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MOSCOW. April 4 (Interfax) – High local-level corruption is the cause of millions of Russians working in the “grey economy”, mentioned by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Chairman of the Civil Initiatives Committee and former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said. “I’m sure that local authorities are aware of this business. These citizens (employed in the grey economy) are not […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Sergei Markedonov, special to RBTH – April 5, 2013) Sergei Markedonov is a visiting fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C. The country’s authorities should undertake drastic reform of the nationalities policy. “The nationalities issue” remains a priority for Russia’s social and political development. In the 1990s-early 2000s, the […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 63 – Pavel Felgenhauer – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – April 4, 2013) The Russian government, the expert community in Moscow and the national economic elite are actively discussing the economic future of the nation and possible drastic financial policy changes as the economy slumps into potentially long-term stagflation, which may fundamentally destabilize the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 5, 2013) Oppositionist blogger Alexei Navalny has revealed he wants to be president, with a trial less than two weeks away that could jail him for up to 10 years on embezzlement charges. “I want to become president,” Navalny said in an interview with the independent Dozhd TV late Thursday evening. […]
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(Interfax, MOSCOW. April 4, 2013) None of the leading NGOs will register as a foreign agent following prosecutors’ inspections, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the head of the Russia’s oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, told Interfax on Thursday. “I know for sure than no one will register. No matter how much they try,” Alekseyeva said. Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 5, 2013) Nongovernmental organizations across the country are being threatened with fines stretching to $20,000 or more, as authorities press on with sweeping checks that activists are calling a government-orchestrated crackdown on civil society. Prosecutors have said the checks are aimed at uncovering extremist activity and are routine, but NGOs fear […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 5, 2013) A leak of details about offshore bank accounts belonging to Russian businesspeople and the wife of First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov threatens to embarrass President Vladimir Putin, who has vowed to crack down on the use of tax havens. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a network of 160 journalists around […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 4, 2013) Alexei Kudrin, chairman of the Civil Initiatives Committee and former finance minister, said that he sometimes meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “There are meetings with the president. But I’m not ready to discuss their contents,” Kudrin told reporters on Thursday. Kudrin said that he shared his position at such meetings. “I express my […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 4, 2013) For the first time in Russian history, the current situation in the country is such that it requires concluding a public agreement that entails a diffusion of power, an analytical report prepared by the Centre of Political Technologies foundation, commissioned by the Civic Initiatives Committee (CIC), has found. “A ‘super-presidential’ republic should be replaced […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Olga Doronina, special to RBTH – April 5, 2013) Opinion polls show that a majority of Russians are increasingly intolerant of the wealth of government officials riches which they see as connected to the embezzlement of public funds. Russians are increasingly intolerant of wealth among state officials and parliamentarians. Ordinary people not […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 5, 2013) The official Russian set of technical standards, GOST, has finally solved one of Russia’s two biggest problems: bad roads. In 2011, the Rosstandart national standardization body redefined the definition of a pothole as having a width of at least 1.5 meters and a depth of 7 centimeters. At the time, Rosstandart defended its […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 5, 2013) Moscow has finally taken first place in an international rating, but it’s in a category the authorities would like to be excluded from. According to the Tom-Tom congestion index, which was released Thursday and is produced annually by the Dutch firm specializing in navigation products, Russia’s capital is ahead […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – April 5, 2013) The middleclass in Russia grew by about 1 percentage point annually from 2004 to 2011 and now makes up about 18.9% of society, while the share of government officials and silovikis, a Russian term referring to political entities in the military or security spheres, usually former officers of the KGB and […]
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(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 […]
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MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin insisted on Friday that the Kremlin was committed to the goal of democratic development, but said Russia needs more time to overcome the legacy of almost 70 years of Soviet rule. “It is obvious that we have made a decisive choice for democracy and we cannot imagine any other path of […]
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[check back for updates including active links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#63 :: 5 April 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. RIA Novosti: Russia Will Not Stray From Democracy’s Path – Putin. 2. Kremlin.ru: Interview to the German ARD. 3. Business New Europe: Russia middleclass grows, alongside […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 4, 2013) The Prosecutor General’s Office has requested documents from elections watchdog Golos and the organization’s newspaper, Grazhdansky Golos, as part of its check into nongovernmental organizations. Golos’ deputy director, Gregory Melkonyants, was presented with a written request for all legal documents, including information on staff, a schedule of activities with a list of […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 4, 2013) Opposition activist and blogger Aleksey Navalnyy is becoming increasingly known among the Russians, however his rating among the electorate is going down and less countrymen believe him, a sociologist survey has shown. In April 2011, Navalnyy was practically unknown to his countrymen – 94 per cent of people confirmed this to sociologists, whereas in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 4, 2013) A Kirov court on Wednesday set a date to begin hearing a criminal case against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who describes as “absurd” the charge that he embezzled $515,000 from a state timber company several years ago. Navalny’s lawyers had asked Kirov’s Leninsky District Court to arrange preliminary hearings […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – April 2, 2013) KGB General Sergei Ivanov, once considered a likely successor to Vladimir Putin, lost much of his influence after Dmitri Medvedev’s selection as president in 2008. Yet in recent weeks, Ivanov appears to have made a political comeback. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 3, 2013) A recent poll indicates that Russians consider the fight against corruption one of the three issues Russian President Vladimir Putin should concentrate on. Fifty-three percent of respondents said during the all-Russia poll held in March that the key task of the Russian president was overcoming the economic crisis and fostering the economy, Levada Center […]
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(Interfax – HELSINKI. April 3, 2013) Russia is determined to build “a full-scale democratic society,” said State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin. “Undoubtedly, building a democratic society is a very complex, very large-scale social and political project in any country, and there are hardly any naive people in this audience who believe that such a project can be carried out at […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, April 4, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-life-expectancy-in.html) For the first time in a decade, life expectancy at birth in the Russian Federation has declined, the Russian state statistical agency says, and while the decline was small, demographers say that it reflects a disturbing trend, one that also includes the end of the much-ballyhooed mini-“baby […]
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(Interfax – April 3, 2013) Russians display a growing interest in politics. Half of them say there is more freedom and openness now, and the other half disagrees, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Wednesday. Some 63 percent declared lack of interest in politics last year. The indicator is down to 54 percent now, the center […]
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(Kennan Institute – Mattison Brady – March 11, 2013 – www.wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute) Meeting summary “The question I wish to ask here today is, ‘is Vladimir Putin’s system of rule in crisis?’” opened Marie Mendras, Professor at Sciences Po University and Research Fellow with the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, at a March 11, 2013 lecture at the Kennan Institute. […]
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(Interfax – Gorki, April 3, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said the social obligations taken by the state are unconditional and set the task of optimizing spending in this area. “A very considerable sum is provided for these purposes (in the social sphere) in the federal budget this year: over R5,000bn (about 160bn dollars at the current rate […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 4, 2013) The Russian authorities are dodging vital but unpopular measures and structural reforms necessary to spur Russia’s faltering economic growth, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Thursday. “The government is making use of measures other than those necessary while being afraid of real measures because they are not always popular,” said Kudrin, […]
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(Interfax / Religion – Moscow, April 3, 2013) The Russian church official urges Russian elite to realize their responsibility before nation and make their capitals work for the welfare of the Russian economic system. “Our elite has to consider attentively the signs of time and think whether it is time to change, to restore their connections with people and make […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – April 4, 2013) New legislation on procurement will allow the government to eliminate kickbacks, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov said. Belousov was speaking during Goszakaz, an exhibition dedicated to state procurement a field known for a high level of corruption and a lack of government oversight. The expo opened Wednesday in […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 3, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-moscow-must-prepare.html) Moscow has finally recognized that “the seizure of power in Syria by radical Islamic groups inevitably will lead to the growth of tensions in the North Caucasus” and the exacerbation of conflicts there because of the number of North Caucasians who are fighting with the Syrian opposition, […]
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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 […]
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[check back for updates including active links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#62 :: 4 April 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net JRL homepage: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Interfax: More Russians interested in politics – public opinion poll. 2. ITAR-TASS: RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW. Russia needs new social contract, believe liberal experts. 3. Paul Goble: […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 3, 2013) The Russian government will not influence the Central Bank’s independence in decision-making in order to accelerate economic growth, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said at a conference entitled ‘Economic and Social Modernization’ at the Higher School of Economics on Wednesday. “The key principles behind the Central Bank’s work will continue and, eventually, they […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 4, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama will hold full-fledged talks on the sidelines of the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland in June, a Putin aide said on Thursday. The possibility of “contacts in connection with Obama’s participation in a G20 summit” is also under consideration, presidential aide Yury Ushakov […]
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