(Kremlin.ru – June 22, 2013) Text of report “XI World Congress of Perinatal Medicine, 22 June 2013, Moscow” published in English by Russian presidential website on 25 June Vladimir Putin spoke at the XI World Congress of Perinatal Medicine being held in Moscow. The congress is taking place in Russia for the first time. Around 2,500 delegates are attending the […]
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(Kremlin.ru – June 21, 2013) Text of report “Answers to questions from St Petersburg International Economic Forum participants, 21 June 2013, St Petersburg” published in English by Russian presidential website on 24 June; subheadings added editorially: Russia’s priorities in G20 MODERATOR (retranslated): Mr President, the St Petersburg International Economic Forum is being held in your hometown. I would like to […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 26, 2013) A proposed economic amnesty in Russia is expected to release almost 100,000 people from criminal liability, Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov said on Wednesday. “Under a previous draft, we counted 13,500 people serving their prison terms on charges covered by the draft amnesty. But we should also not forget about 70,000-80,000 people […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 26, 2013) Fugitive former CIA employee Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the United States for leaking state secrets, is not collaborating with Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed Wednesday. “Mr. Snowden is not being ‘debriefed’ by the FSB. He is well, and WikiLeaks’ Harrison is […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief – June 24, 2013) Whatever you think about whistleblower Edward Snowden’s future plans (or, indeed, his whereabouts) – you may be falling for a neat trick all of the same. While all of us have been busy discussing Snowden – why he did what he did, his personality, whether or not […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 26, 2013) US whistleblower Edward Snowden, stuck in a Russian airport since Sunday, appeared to have a transit visa but even if he does not, he may get away with just a small fine, a Russian border guards spokesman told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. “Looks like he’s got a visa, that’s why he’s […]
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(Interfax -MOSCOW. June 26, 2013) Alexei Pushkov, the head of the State Duma committee on international affairs, considers former CIA official Edward Snowden, who is wanted by the U.S. authorities, a dissident. “Assange, Manning and Snowden were not spies and released secret information because of their convictions, not for money. They are new dissidents, fighters against the system,” Pushkov said […]
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(Stratfor.com – June 24, 2013 – “Russia After Putin: Inherent Leadership Struggles is republished with permission of Stratfor.”) Editor’s Note: This is the first part of a three-part series on Russia’s leadership after President Vladimir Putin eventually leaves office. Part 1 revisits Putin’s rise to power; Part 2 will examine Russia’s demographics, energy sector and Putin’s political changes; and Part […]
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Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 Kennan Institute <kennan@WILSONCENTER.ORG> Subject: Kennan Institute – Last Call for RSVPs Kennan Institute/Wilson Center Last Call for RSVPs Our June 26 half-day conference cosponsored with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Generation Next: Emerging Civic Leaders in Russia Today, is almost full. If you wish to attend, make sure to respond today so we can accomodate […]
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Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 From: “The Heritage Foundation” <mailingFP@heritage.org> Subject: Event Invitation for this Thursday – The New Russian Sphere of Influence: Does Russia’s Eurasian Union Threaten U.S. Interests? The Heritage Foundation INVITATION June 27, 2013 The New Russian Sphere of Influence: Does Russia’s Eurasian Union Threaten U.S. Interests? Featuring 10:00 a.m. Panel 1 Ambassador Temuri Yakobashvilli, former […]
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From: “Hahn, Gordon M.” <ghahn@miis.edu> Subject: Research report on the Boston Marathon attack Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 ANNOUNCEMENT A special 25-page research report on the Boston Marathon attack: ‘The Caucasus Emirate Comes to America: The Boston Marathon Attack’ will soon be available. For a copy please send an email request to gordon-hahn@sbcglobal.net. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY What I have been warning […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – June 25, 2013) The newly appointed Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Monday that his main task was to prevent a recession, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the government expected a 400 billion ruble ($12 billion) budget deficit in 2014. Ulyukayev, who served as first deputy chairman of the Central Bank […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. June 24, 2013) Police and private security guards crushed a computer in evicting Russia’s For Human Rights group from its Moscow headquarters early on Saturday, according to the organization’s leader. For Human Rights, one of Russia’s oldest and largest rights groups, was thrown out of its office in the city center in a predawn raid because of […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – June 24, 2013) A lot of things that people say never happened before suddenly seem to be happening. When news agencies incorrectly reported — based on a forged government press release — that President Vladimir Putin had sacked his longtime ally, Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin last week, some analysts called the incident […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences has dismissed as “nonsense” a new global rating of academic research by Nature magazine, in which his academy ranked 193rd among 200 institutions. “I’m absolutely convinced it’s nonsense, since Russian science is a world leader in many spheres [of research],” geologist Nikolai Lavyorov told […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) Russian billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorov, who leads the Civil Platform party, will donate 1.5 million rubles ($45,870) to pay the annual rent for a Russian human rights group evicted from its office last weekend, a party member said on Tuesday. Prokhorov made his pledge at a meeting with Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 24, 2013) Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who will turn fifty in several days, said he would have committed suicide by shooting himself if he had known what was in store for him after his arrest in Novosibirsk ten years ago. Responding to a question from The New Times as to what he would have done […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 25, 2013) Two of the co-authors of the expert report into the second Yukos case have been asked to attend interviews by the Investigative Committee, a news report said Tuesday. Lawyer Mikhail Subbotin told Kommersant that he would attend an interview Wednesday, while earlier this week it was reported that former Constitutional Court Judge […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) Russia’s Finance Ministry is proposing three maneuvers to balance the federal budget in 2014-2016 – reduce transfers to the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), cut budget earmarks for government procurements and postpone some spending on the government arms program until after 2016, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Monday. “Right now the situation […]
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(RIA Novosti – Howard Amos – ST. PETERSBURG, June 24, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin urged foreign investors to pitch in on several multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects last week, but his audience proved wary, with investors warning that obstacles old and new from lack of predictability to slowing economic growth were likely to deter inflows of new capital […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) The economic amnesty will apply to persons first indicted or convicted of economic crimes. They will be released from custody and their criminal cases probed by investigative authorities and courts will be closed. The rule is established by draft resolutions of the State Duma on the economic amnesty and regulations for the fulfillment of […]
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(Interfax -MOSCOW. June 24, 2013) Without the large-scale application of new technologies, oil production in Russia will begin to decline in 2016-2017, says a report by Lukoil (RTS: LKOH) on the main trends in the development of global markets for oil and gas in the period until 2025. A characteristic of a majority of Russian deposits is the natural drop […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 25, 2013) Russia said on Tuesday that Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee wanted by the US for leaking state secrets, had not crossed the Russian border. Snowden, who leaked details of a US surveillance program to newspapers in the US and UK earlier this month, was widely reported to have flown from Hong […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – June 25, 2013) Journalists flocked to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on Monday to board a flight to Cuba that supposedly would also contain fugitive Edward Snowden, who is attempting to escape arrest by U.S. authorities for revealing highly classified surveillance programs. According to a widely distributed statement by an unidentified Aeroflot employee, Snowden […]
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(RIA Novosti – Carl Schreck, WASHINGTON, June 24, 2013) Former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s reported sojourn in Moscow this week is the latest in a series of cases in recent years to rattle U.S.-Russia ties over cooperation in politically tinged criminal investigations. “Both sides have tended to regard as a purely criminal investigation [what] the other side thinks […]
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Subject: No. 128: Russia in the Syrian Conflict Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:40:19 +0200 From: “Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)” <newslist@isn.ch> RUSSIAN ANALYTICAL DIGEST Newsletter 10 June 2013/No. 128 Russia in the Syrian Conflict To download this issue please click here http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2561 Analyses The Impact of the Syrian Conflict on Russian Relations with Other Middle Eastern Countries, by Mark N. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 25, 2013) The state controlled NTV channel has aired a documentary alleging that the Yukos founders, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky, were involved in the killing of the mayor of Nefteyugansk in western Siberia in 1998. The film is seen by experts as part of a campaign to set the scene for the third criminal case […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alena Tveritina, RBTH – June 20, 2013) All Tolstoy in One Click [http://www.readingtolstoy.ru/] the Russian project, similar to the international humanitarian Project Guttenberg, begins digitizing the 90-volume collection of works by the great Russian writer. The project was announced by the Leo Tolstoy State Museum and ABBYY. The multi-volume collection of works by […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – June 24, 2013) Russia, China and Uzbekistan face targeted sanctions from the U.S., after finding themselves in a group of countries that Washington deems to have made the least progress addressing human trafficking over the past year. For the first time since 2002, the U.S. Department of State shifted […]
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(Moscow News – Anna Arutunyan, Correspondent and Editor at themoscownews.com – June 24, 2013) In the geopolitical drama over the ongoing Syrian civil war, Russia’s position, on the surface, appears to be clear as glass. Of course Russia’s backing Syrian authoritarian leader Bashar al Assad, the narrative goes – it fears a similar uprising back home. Actually, the Kremlin’s stance […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 24, 2013) Russia’s liberals played a key role in pushing through the economic reforms which made a return to communism impossible, but they failed to help the country to make the transition from an empire to a nation and thus must bear part of the blame for continuing strength of Moscow’s […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, June 22, 2013) The privatization plan for 2014-2016 is actually just an updated plan from 2011-2013, the head of Russia’s Federal Property Agency (Rosimushchestvo) Olga Dergunova said at a Saturday briefing during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). “Essentially, the privatization plan for 2014-2016 is an updated 2011-2013 plan. There were no significant changes, with […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 24, 2013) Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that there are no plans to devalue the ruble, despite claims he made last Tuesday that a weaker currency could boost revenues and growth. “Devaluation will not be carried out in Russia under any circumstances,” Siluanov said Sunday during an interview with Central Television NTV, adding that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – June 24, 2013) Thousands of jailed businessmen are expected to be freed this summer as part of the amnesty plan approved by President Vladimir Putin and set for review by the State Duma by mid-July. The plan, one of business ombudsman Boris Titov’s first and most important initiatives, was met with great […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 24, 2013) The appointment of Alexei Ulyukayev as new Russian economic development minister will not alter the fundamental objectives of economic policy, but could alter the tactics by which those aims are achieved, experts told Interfax. Do jobs change people? Ulyukayev’s appointment in place of Andrei Belousov will not result in major changes in economic policy, […]
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From: Stephen F. Cohen <sfc1@nyu.edu> Subject: re Adomanis/1993 Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 In his important revisiting of Yeltsin’s violent destruction of Russia’s elected parliament, and indeed its entire constitutional order, in October 1993, Mark Adomanis (JRL #113, 2013) endorses my longstanding argument that the country’s de-democratization began not with Putin but with that horrific event. I am grateful for […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 22, 2013) Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin described as arbitrary the eviction of the organization For Human Rights from its office in Maly Kislovsky Street in Moscow by city law enforcement agencies early on Saturday. “We will discuss with lawyers how to react to what happened,” Lukin told Interfax on Saturday. “Moscow authorities and police […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – June 24, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of his initiative to combine the Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court into a single body has been met with suspicion that such a move would deepen current problems within the judicial system. “In order to introduce unified judicial procedures for individuals, organizations, state […]
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(Interfax – June 21, 2013) The Kremlin is not increasing pressure on the Russian government; President Vladimir Putin is simply changing the principles governing the work of the executive authorities, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said. Shuvalov was speaking in an interview to internet and satellite broadcaster Dozhd TV on 21 June on the sidelines of the St Petersburg […]
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(Interfax – June 21, 2013) A total of 76 per cent of Russians say they are happy about the life they lead at present, while a mere 8 per cent complain “they still cannot adapt themselves to the current state of affairs”, private-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 19 June, quoting the latest Levada Centre opinion poll. The poll […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, June 21, 2013) President Vladimir Putin harshly criticized the Cabinet’s road maps to the implementation of his decrees of May 7, 2012, but “has repeatedly made quite high assessments” of the Cabinet’s overall performance, said the president’s chief of staff. “The president has repeatedly made quite high assessments of the performance of the government. He criticized […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 21, 2013) Russians are paying tribute to their compatriots who saved the country in World War Two. They are also ready to fight for their homeland if a new war starts, Levada Center told Interfax in comment on a poll held before the Day of Remembrance and Grief. Some 52% of the respondents said the Soviet […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 21, 2013) The Russian Federation has only five years [to[ take steps to prevent “a demographic catastrophe” there, according to a group of the government’s own expert aadvisors on this issue; and its neighbor, Belarus, specialists in Mensk say, may have even less time to avoid an even more severe population […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 22, 2013) Russia will get confronted with serious after-effects of the demographic crisis of the 1990s, said President Vladimir Putin. “Our country plunged into a deep demographic crisis in the 1990s. We have not yet felt the upshots of that crisis, but they will manifest themselves in the economy, social sphere and industrial development,” Putin told […]
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(Kremlin.ru – St. Petersburg – June 21, 2013) Vladimir Putin and Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel took part in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum’s plenary session. In his address to the plenary session, Mr Putin outlined the global economy’s main problems today, looked at the issues on the G20 agenda under the Russian presidency, and noted Russia’s efforts […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 22, 2013) After Russia and the United States implement the New START treaty, further strategic offensive arms cuts will have to be discussed in a multilateral format, as the matter will concern arms levels comparable to those possessed by countries other than Russia and the U.S., Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “The first priority now […]
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(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG, June 21, 2013) The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1987 cannot exist endlessly, says Russian presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov. “A legitimate question arises: on the one hand, we have signed the Soviet-U.S. treaty, and we are honoring it, but this can’t last endlessly,” Ivanov […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – rbth.ru – Interfax, Combined report – June 23, 2013) Russian officials are puzzled in what country former CIA officer Edward Snowden is going to apply for political asylum. Amid media reports about former CIA officer Edward Snowden’s arrival to Moscow, some Russian officials comment on the consequences of granting political asylum to him. Chairman of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Igor Rozin, based on Interfax – June 24, 2013) Russian experts ask how U.S.-Russia relations will be affected by the Snowden case. While the U.S. demands that Russia detain former C.I.A. agent Edward Snowden, Russian experts ask how U.S.-Russia relations will be affected by the case. Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin argues […]
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(Interfax – June 24, 2013) Russian law enforcers have no reasons so far to detain and subsequently extradite former CIA employee Edward Snowden who disclosed information about the operations of U.S. special services, a well-informed Moscow source told Interfax on Monday. “Snowden has not committed any crimes in the territory of Russia. Neither have Russian law enforcement bodies received any […]
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