(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Paul Duvernet, special to RBTH – September 17, 2013) Intellectuals, politicians and journalists gathered in central Russia for four days of discussion about the country’s future. The 10th annual meeting of the Valdai Club opened Sept. 16 with a collective inquiry into the competition between identities at the international and regional levels. The […]
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(Howard Amos, RIA Novosti – VALDAI, September 16, 2013) Russian officials, opposition leaders and pundits wrestled on Monday with the disjuncture between the country’s capital and its far-flung provinces at an international conference, where two erstwhile political rivals from the mineral-rich Urals region surprised observers by publicly settling their differences. The newly elected mayor of Yekaterinburg and outspoken Kremlin […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 17, 2013) Earlier this Tuesday, the RIA Novosti Agency launched a project called A Quarter Century of Independent Media in Russia, a focus on the history of post-Soviet media from 1989 to this day. The core of the project is based on events related to the founding or closing of high-profile mass media outlets, […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, September 13, 2013) The United States will overtake Russia in liquid fuel production this quarter, strengthening a US return to prominence as a global fuel powerhouse after years of decline, US media reported this week, citing an energy industry report. Russia currently produces more liquid oil and gas, pumping out 10.81 million barrels per day (bpd) […]
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(Interfax – September 16, 2013) Opposition activist Alexei Navalny will most likely continue his political career not in the 2014 Moscow City Duma elections but by opening of party offices in regions where problems are likely to occur, General Director of the International Institute for Political Expertise (IIPE) Yevgeny Minchenko said. “A lot depends on whether or not the People’s […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Charles Recknagel – September 13, 2013) The world is used to seeing Washington and its western allies take the lead in trying to solve world crises. But suddenly, Moscow has seized the initiative. On September 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin capped a week of energetic diplomacy by winning China’s support for Moscow’s initiative to preempt potential […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Tatyana Lisina, special to RBTH – September 12, 2013) Cartels have appeared in nearly every sector of the Russian economy. The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia has detected or suspects price-fixing agreements in sectors ranging from the fishing, alcohol and meat industries, to medical care, transportation and notary services. Over the last 15 […]
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(Interfax – BISHKEK, September 13, 2013) The Russian presidential spokesman is perplexed by comments from White House officials about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in The New York Times. “We heard a statement by a White House press secretary this morning by Moscow time. I would like to note in this regard that, when Putin was writing this article and […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Artem Zagorodnov, RBTH – September 16, 2013) The fight against graft has emerged as a rallying cry for Russia’s nascent opposition, yielding victories in local elections. The Kremlin agrees with its critics about the problem. Analysts hope the business climate stands to benefit. Dmitry Bykov, the charismatic Russian TV host-turned-opposition leader, stepped to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vladimir Kozlov, special to RBTH – September 14, 2013) While the Russian capital has a way to go to improve the quality of life for athletes, running is increasing in popularity thanks to the efforts of local race organizers and the city government, which has cleaned up major parks. [DJ: In the early […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 15, 2013) Russian Journalist Vladimir Solovyov has invited U.S. Republican Senator John McCain to speak live in his evening program on Rossiya 1 television. “On behalf of the radio and television holding VGTRK, I invite Senator John McCain to speak live in the Sunday Evening program,” Solovyov wrote in his Twitter blog. Solovyov said later on […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 16, 2013) Today, beginning at 9:15 a.m. Moscow time (5:15 a.m. GMT), RIA Novosti is broadcasting live from the opening of the 10th annual meeting of the Valdai Club, a discussion forum where high-level Russian officials have been meeting with foreign political scientists since 2004. A recording of the event will be posted after the broadcast […]
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(Interfax – September 16, 2013) Parliamentary parties are losing the support of regional and local elites some of whom are shifting towards new political forces, the Civil Initiatives Committee think tank suggested. “There is an outflow of regional and local elites and voters from practically every “systemic” party [which has seats at the State Duma]. Candidates are moving from one […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 16, 2013) Almost half of all Russians, 44 percent, agree with opposition leader Alexei Navalny that the ruling United Russia party is made up of “crooks and thieves,” a recent opinion poll showed Monday, a significant increase from two years ago. Navalny, an anti-corruption activist who finished second in Moscow’s recent mayoral election, coined […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 16, 2013) As fears about the Syrian conflict recede, equity fund flows have increased to most emerging markets, excluding Russia, Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, or EPFR, said in a report. According to EPFR, investors channeled $2.6 billion to emerging markets last week, a weekly maximum since February, but pulled $235 million out of Russia, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – September 16, 2013) Russian officials have praised their diplomatic victory in “knocking the military trump card out of U.S. hands” in Geneva on Saturday by securing a landmark deal to prevent U.S. military action in Syria. The U.S.-Russia deal was the result of nearly three days of talks in Geneva between U.S. […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 14, 2013) The Russian president’s office has denied allegations that it has paid public relations firm Ketchum $23 million from the state treasury for embellishing Russia’s image abroad. “Ketchum doesn’t get any money from the presidential administration. We continue to cooperate with them but there is no direct state spending on this cooperation,” President Vladimir Putin’s […]
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(Interfax – BRUSSELS, September 13, 2013) Russia is not planning to put pressure on any state or drag it forcibly into any association because of its relations with the EU’s Eastern Partnership, Russian envoy to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told Interfax on Friday. “Our partners, primarily European parliamentarians, are unfortunately deeply misled on this. It is not about Russia’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – September 16, 2013) While the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) largely focused their attention on Syria and Iran at a summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, joint infrastructure projects and the energy sector were also in the spotlight. The leaders of the SCO, which includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, September 12, 2013) The Kremlin did not bat an eyelid as Chinese President Xi Jinping jetted from one Central Asian capital to the next tying up billion-dollar energy deals in Moscow’s backyard. Privately, it might have been glowering. For years after gaining independence, the countries of former Soviet Central Asia remained locked […]
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(Interfax – September 16, 2013) Possible U.S. military intervention in the Syrian conflict will look even more odious in the context of the agreement to subject Syrian chemical weapons to international monitoring, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov wrote on Twitter. “Kerry is reassuring Netanyahu: the U.S. keeps its finger on the trigger! But a strike against Syria […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 12, 2013) Business ombudsman Boris Titov believes the issue of criminal prosecution of businessmen is blown out of proportion, although law enforcement agencies are frequently biased against businessmen. “Statements made in the press sometimes blow the issue out of proportion. Statistically, it’s not 300,000 people who have been prosecuted. A little more than 13,000 people, including […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 13, 2013) President Vladimir Putin will meet prominent opposition politicians at the 10th annual Valdai International Discussion Club, where Russian and foreign experts will discuss diversity, political and otherwise, in modern Russia, a news report said Friday. The forum is being held in the Novgorod region from Sept. 16-19 and will conclude with a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – September 13, 2013) President Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow’s mayoral elections as fair and transparent at Sergei Sobyanin’s inauguration ceremony Thursday evening, attributing any “opposition votes” to frustration with bureaucrats abusing power. “I’m sure that nobody would’ve voted against Sobyanin. Why would they vote against him? He’s done nothing but good, especially over […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 13, 2013) Russians have no respect for Pussy Riot, a poll from Levada Center indicates. Out of a sample of 1,601 people surveyed in 130 urban centers, not a single respondent said that they respected the band. In August 2012, band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina were sentenced to two years […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – September 13, 2013) Vladimir Putin, peacemaker. Such a title would have seemed almost unimaginable even a few weeks ago for a man who rose to power in part by waging a bloody war in Chechnya, where he vowed to “rub [the rebels] out in the outhouse.” But with his foreign minister pushing […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 13, 2013) Public awareness in Russia of two criminal investigations and trials of leading opposition figures is on the rise, and the public is increasingly seeing these issues as politically motivated, a new poll has found. The survey published by the independent pollster Levada Center yesterday asked respondents about their knowledge of anti-corruption activist […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 13, 2013) Rosneft president and Kremlin insider Igor Sechin is facing accusations of corporate misconduct that could be reviewed by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, within a week, a news report said Friday. Gennady Osorgin, a minority shareholder in the Rosneft-owned TNK-BP Holding, sent a complaint regarding Sechin to RSPP’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor – September 13, 2013) President Vladimir Putin loves to set traps for U.S. President Barack Obama. The only thing Putin loves even more is when Obama falls smack into one. Trap No. 1. Putin set his latest trap Monday with a seemingly attractive proposal to have international monitors identify and […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Bishkek, September 13, 2013) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member countries, heads of state of observer countries, high representatives and summit guests, The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has been working for more than a decade now and has achieved some big results. It has established its place as an influential international […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – James Ellingworth, special to RBTH – September 12, 2013) The Sochi Olympics are a “prestige project” and a symbol of “Russia’s rise” those are the alliterative buzz-phrases you’ll find in articles everywhere. But what does this Olympic prestige mean for Russians? The most obvious cultural link is to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, […]
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(Interfax – NOVO-OGARYOVO, September 11, 2013) Russia needs to have a growth budget in 2014-2016 despite the difficulties in the global economy, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on drafting the budget for the next three years. “We need to soberly assess the situation and bring revenue and spending into line with the economic growth forecast that is shaping […]
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(Interfax – NOVO-OGAREVO, September 11, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he saw elements of stabilization in the world economy and that he was not expecting a crisis. This is the first time the budget is being drafted by the programming principle, Putin said at a meeting on budget projections for the period 2014-2016. “The second specific aspect is that […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yaroslava Kiryukhina, RBTH – September 11, 2013) Women are poorly represented in politics in Russia, although a handful of women politicans have reached key positions. Russia is known for being a patriarchal country, but despite considerable barriers, some women leaders have managed to reach high levels in the political hierarchy. Women make up […]
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(Moscow Times – temhoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – September 12, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Thursday appointed business lobbyist Alexander Galushka as Far East Development Minister, completing the staff changes meant to spur investment in a region sitting next to major Asian powerhouses. A co-chairman of business association Delovaya Rossia, Galushka will work in tandem with Deputy Prime Minister Yury […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – September 11, 2013) When Aleksei Navalny addressed thousands of supporters on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square, he surprised many when he urged the crowd to go home peacefully after the rally ended. Earlier on September 9, the anticorruption blogger-turned-opposition leader appeared to implicitly be threatening mass unrest when he said he would call his supporters […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Mark Teeter, special to RBTH – Mark H. Teeter teaches English and Russian-American relations in Moscow. He blogs daily for ‘Moscow TV Tonite’ on Facebook – September 11, 2013) Were you surprised by the results of the Moscow mayor election? The answer for Muscovites may depend on what media they consume. The unexpectedly […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – September 11, 2013) Audit Chamber chief Sergei Stepashin, who is being replaced by presidential aide Tatyana Golikova, said goodbye to his colleagues at the chamber’s headquarters in downtown Moscow on Tuesday, to a round of applause and the patriotic marching tune “Farewell of Slavyanka.” Stepashin, who earlier headed the Interior Ministry and […]
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(Interfax – September 11, 2013) The overwhelming majority of Russians (84 per cent) know or heard about the military conflict in Syria that has been continuing for over two years, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 11 September quoting a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation among 1,500 people in 43 constituent parts of Russia on 31 August-1 […]
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(RIA Novosti – Carl Schreck – WASHINGTON, September 11, 2013) The White House has vowed that no American boots will be on the ground in Syria, but a Russian proposal to seize and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons would almost certainly require an international security force, experts said Wednesday. “Boots on the ground will be necessary. The question is: ‘Where will […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, September 11, 2013) The State Duma on Wednesday (11 September) called on the international community not to allow aggression against Syria, where the conflict, in the opinion of deputies, can only be resolved as part of the Geneva conference. “In an effort to use all available means to avert a catastrophe, the State Duma appeals to the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 12, 2013) Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office and the U.S. Justice Department have agreed to sign a memorandum on cooperation in order to work together on criminal matters, in a move that could put the thorny issue of extradition between the two countries up for discussion. The agreement was reached at a meeting that took […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 12, 2013) The United States will not boycott the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia in light of the recently adopted Russian legislation banning the promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships toward minors, the US ambassador said Wednesday. US athletes should not fall victim to politics, Ambassador Michael McFaul told the Dozhd TV channel as Russia […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – MOSCOW BLOG, September 12, 2013) Everyone assumes that the Kremlin cheats when it comes to elections. Did the Kremlin steal the Moscow City election for mayor on September 8 from opposition blogger Alexei Navalny? Ballot stuffing has been par for the course. It is widely accepted that the authorities added about 12% to the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – September 12, 2013) Opposition leader and former mayoral hopeful Alexei Navalny announced Wednesday that he would submit 951 separate complaints of voting violations to the Moscow City Elections Commission on Thursday. “There’s about 50,000 pages here, we’ll have to bring it in a truck,” Navalny wrote in a post on his LiveJournal […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 11, 2013) Russian political analysts have offered suggestions to secure acting Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin’s victory at the 9 September election, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on 11 September. Political scientist Vladimir Slatinov said that Sobyanin achieved an “insecure” victory and would need to compensate for “this shortcoming in legitimacy”. “Sobyanin has achieved an […]
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(Interfax – September 11, 2013) Less than 10 percent of Russian citizens are ready to accept people from Central Asia who have lived in Russia for a long time as equals, VTsIOM General Director Valery Fyodorov said. “Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Kyrgyz – those who are in most cases called guest workers – only 8 percent of Russians agree to consider […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 12, 2013) Russia hosts the world’s largest population of immigrants after the United States, according to a new UN study showing that the number of people living abroad across the globe has reached a record high. New figures released Wednesday by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) in New York indicated that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – September 12, 2013) With the upcoming Paralympic Games in Sochi set to laud disabled athletes for their accomplishments, ordinary members of Russia’s disabled population are still “facing an uphill battle” every day due to a lack of proper infrastructure and general discrimination, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday. The […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 11, 2013) Opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman, who won Sunday’s mayoral vote in Yekaterinburg, was scheduled to be questioned by investigators Tuesday as a witness in a criminal case against a former employee of his City Without Drugs foundation. Roizman, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, was one of the few opposition members to win […]
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