(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 3, 2013) The Kremlin celebrates every temporary uptick in the Russian birthrate, but it and many others typically ignore another deeply troubling aspect of that country’s deteriorating demographic situation: extraordinarily high death rates among adults and especially working-age males. Indeed, those rates are so high Russia ranks 175th among the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – November 6, 2013) Contaminants in the air, water and soil, and the staggering cancer rates place the Russian cities of Dzerzhinsk and Norilsk among the 10 most polluted places on earth for 2013, a joint report by Swiss and U.S organizations said. Dzerzhinsk, once the Soviet Union’s major site for producing chemical […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Liz Fuller – November 4, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law the controversial bill he introduced into the Russian parliament six weeks ago amending the Criminal Code to expand the number of offenses classified as terrorism and require the relatives of people deemed to have committed acts of terrorism to pay financial compensation […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – November 5, 2013) The visit by Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev to China once again highlighted the strategic importance that Moscow attaches to Asia. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, notes that the prospects for […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – WASHINGTON, November 5, 2013) Worries have erupted that the U.S. is not giving proper attention to the development of its next generation of post-Soviet experts after the Department of State decided to withhold funding for its Title VIII grant program for the 2013 fiscal year. It was a budget-cutting move roundly denounced […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Ilyashenko, political analyst for Voice of Russia Radio, special to RBTH – November 5, 2013) With international forces leaving and an upcoming election looming in 2014, Afghanistan is looking at a very unstable future. On January 1, 2015, Afghanistan will say goodbye to the occupational armies of the United States and NATO, […]
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MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine is far from paying off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom despite several payments, a company spokesman said Tuesday. “We have received several small installments for gas supplies in August, but it’s too early to speak about complete payment of the debt,” spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 4, 2013) Facing down Russian bullying on one side and an economic collapse that could only be months away, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has reportedly caved into long-standing pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on November 4 by saying his government would hike domestic gas tariffs. Ukraine’s hard currency reserves have been […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Helena Bedwell – November 4, 2013) Georgia’s billionaire Premier Bidzina Ivanishvili named a 31-year-old minister as his chosen successor, reinforcing opposition claims that the tycoon would continue running the Black Sea nation from behind the scenes. Ivanishvili, who’s vowed to step down this month after a year in office, said Nov. 2 that he’d nominate Interior […]
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MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) Russia is unprepared for a war in the Arctic, a government report says. The country, which has the longest Arctic border, would be unable to quickly respond to an attack in the area, the Regional Development Ministry said in an assessment of risks to economic interests in the Far North. Russia’s northern border checkpoints […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vladimir Ruvinsky, special to RBTH – November 4, 2013) Russians who are blind want to be treated as part of the wider community, but their legacy is one of isolation. The village of Rusinovo, about 70 miles from Moscow, was once a model community adapted to the needs of the blind and visually […]
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KHARKIV. Nov 1 (Interfax) – Ukraine will have no political clout in the association with the European Union, while the Eurasian Economic Union guarantees absolute equality of its members, says Russian presidential adviser Sergei Glazyev. “Our Customs Union is being set up according to the same rules as the European Union,” Glazyev said. “Both they and we work in compliance […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anna Kuchma, RBTH – November 4, 2013) If Hollywood movies are to be believed, foreigners are scared witless of doing business in Russia. Russian businessmen look more like hardened criminals, and any attempts to work honestly in the country crash against an impenetrable wall of bureaucracy or so it is said. But […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 4, 2013) Unlike its counterparts in Europe and other parts of the world and despite the hopes of many inside Russia and beyond, Russian nationalism has never a partner of liberalism, the result of its different origins and evolution, according to Vladimir Malakhov, a senior scholar at the Institute of Philosophy […]
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MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) The head of the Russian Orthodox Church and senior Russian officials attended the opening of a resurrected Tsarist-era obelisk outside the Kremlin walls Monday. The monument was originally unveiled 99 years ago to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Russia’s Romanov dynasty, but its Tsarist iconography was removed in 1918 on the orders of Vladimir […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 3 (Interfax) – The World Russian People’s Assembly sees Russia as the main guarantor of the multipolar world. “It is Russia that plays the role of key guarantor of the multipolar world, restraining the ambitions of those who claim the role of global domination,” it said in the final document of its congress held in Moscow. Also, there […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) – It is too soon to talk of radical success in the fight against corruption, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Reuters. “I think there is movement (on corruption) but it is probably too soon to talk about some kind of strong, radical successes,” Medvedev said in the interview. He said Russia […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Ekaterina Mishina – November 1, 2013) The early Soviet criminal norms formed the basis for arbitrary interpretation and selective application of the law, as well as for judicial arbitrariness. IMR Advisor Ekaterina Mishina, a prominent Russian legal expert, contends that the legacy of that era is still being felt. In the first years […]
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MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden will not be permitted to break the conditions of his asylum status in Russia by harming the US, a Russian newspaper quoted President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman as saying Saturday. The Kommersant daily quoted a source in the US White House as saying that Snowden’s activities in Moscow were […]
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KYIV. Nov 2 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian government and the national oil and gas provider Naftogaz have basically fulfilled President Viktor Yanukovych’s instruction to significantly reduce the amount of natural gas purchases under a contract that Ukraine concluded with Russia during Yulia Tymoshenko’s premiership in 2009, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Boiko said. “Naftogaz and the government have basically fulfilled the […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) – Georgia’s newly elected President Giorgi Margvelashvili has announced his readiness to continue working to further ease tensions in relations with Russia, as well as to seek an association agreement with the European Union and object to recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. Georgia’s relations with the European Union are intensifying today, Margvelashvili […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 2, 2013) Opposition activist Aleksey Navalnyy will not take part in the “Russian March” in Moscow on 4 November, he wrote in his LiveJournal (blog). “I still support the ‘Russian March’ as an idea and an event, I am willing to give it information support and or some other support, but in the new situation I […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nikolay Surkov, RBTH – November 1, 2013) Security experts in Moscow say Russia already had countermeasures in place. The Kremlin dismissed accusations on Friday that Russia spied on G20 delegates, saying Western media is creating a distraction from the bigger issue of deteriorating relations between the United States and its European allies over […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – November 1, 2013) Good infrastructure, a secure environment and exponentially increasing computer power guarantee the growth of innovative solutions to global problems, political and technology leaders told attendees of the International Forum for Innovative Development in Moscow on Thursday. Russia has the intellectual capital, education and state support to become a technology […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 1, 2013) Russian government officials, led by two deputy ministers, met with U.S. business representatives and lobbyists for a two-day conference in Houston to exchange their views on doing business in Russia. Deputy Economic Development Minister Sergei Belyakov gave a keynote speech during the Oct. 29 to 30 meeting organized by […]
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(Government.ru – October 31, 2013) Dmitry Medvedev’s address to the plenary meeting: Addressing the plenary meeting of the 2nd Moscow International Forum, Open Innovations Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, Mr Katainen (Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen of Finland), Mr Ayrault (Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France), the first thing I heard was: What can governments do to support innovation? I think the […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Russia has made progress in the protection of intellectual property, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the audience at the “Open Innovations” Forum in Moscow on Thursday. “There is one more theme, which, unfortunately, has been very complicated in Russia for a long period. I mean intellectual property. Nevertheless, I think that we have recently taken […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Artem Zagorodnov, RBTH – October 31, 2013) Russia moves ahead of its fellow BRIC countries in the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business ranking, as the country fights to attract international investment. Russia jumped 20 places in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey to number 92 out of 185 […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev expects to see “statistically significant” improvement in Russia’s fourth quarter macroeconomic performance. “There are signs of improvement, in terms of the investment climate, industrial output and inventories,” he said. “It seems to me that we are leaving the lowest zone, where we have been since the fourth quarter of 2012, […]
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(RIA Novosti – Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments – November 1, 2013) Over the 22 years of Ukraine’s independence, people have grown used to its endless maneuvering. Ukraine began by proclaiming the goal of European integration, which was common to the logic of Eastern European […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has advised Ukraine to look to Brussels to raise standby loans in future. “They constantly turn to us for credits, for example,” Medvedev is quoted by Reuters as saying. “In the end, if they have such advanced relations with Brussels … let them get credits from Brussels,” he said. Russia has […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – A senior Russian Orthodox bishop has claimed that Russian speakers “often suffer ethnic and religious discrimination” in regions in Russia’s North Caucasus where they are in the minority. “We are used to thinking that it is only smaller ethnic groups that need protection. That is not true. In many of the republics (of Russia), Russians […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Russia will be able to develop further only if it remains committed to the principles of continuity, historical memory and its traditions, presidential chief-of-staff Sergei Ivanov said. “Russia’s further development is possible only if the principle of continuity is followed. A rift affecting historical memory, traditions and conflicts of epoch and generations, which is the […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Over a half of Russians (54%) see the Day of People’s Unity marked on November 4 as another day off and only 11% celebrate it as “a state holiday that unites the people of Russia and the country as a whole,” according to the Superjob.ru portal. It polled 1,000 respondents on October 17-18. “I see […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – As many as 64% of Russians described Vladimir Putin’s work as president positively in October, and 33% said they trust him, the Levada Center sociological service told Interfax in summing up outcomes of a nationwide poll of 1,603 respondents conducted in 130 populated areas in 45 regions on October 25-28. Dmitry Medvedev’s performance as prime […]
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(Interfax – October 31, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Aleksey Kudrin, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the presidium of the presidential economic council, Russian privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 31 October. A decree confirming the membership of the council’s presidium, which included Kudrin’s name, was signed on 31 August, Interfax said, citing an […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Lyudmila Alekseyeva, chairman of the Moscow Helsinki group and Russia’s oldest human rights activist, believes Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has crossed the line of aggressive nationalism. “Let’s put barbed wire around Zhirinovsky, not the Caucasus,” Alekseyeva told a press conference on Thursday. Alekseyeva said grassroots nationalism is commonplace in Russia, but some people […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan, Natalia Antonova – October 31, 2013) In the past, Maria, a sales manager, never attended the nationalist Russian March, an annual rally commemorating Russia’s Day of National Unity. This time, less than a month after taking part in a violent nationalist protest in southern Moscow’s Biryulyovo district, is different. “I’m ready to go,” […]
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(Interfax – October 31, 2013) The materials of the checks carried out by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which uncovered serious violations regarding the use of budget funds in the Skolkovo innovation foundation, will not cause an immediate launch of criminal cases, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported, quoting an informed source in the law-enforcement structures as saying. No criminal cases expected […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – The latest events in Moscow’s Biryulyovo district show that only the forces seeking to destroy Russia will gain from further disregard of the opinion of the Russian majority, said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia. “The latest clashes in the Moscow Biryulyovo district demonstrated that a deaf ear turned by the authorities to the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Maria Karnaukh, special to RBTH – November 1, 2013) Many countries would like to tap into the Arctic’s vast hydrocarbon resources, but Russia is the only nation so far to have risked hefty investments in the region. Experts wonder whether Moscow will be successful in selling Arctic oil at $200 or more per […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – November 1, 2013) In early October, Rosneft head Igor Sechin made a brief, enigmatic comment suggesting that there was more than meets the eye behind a Greenpeace protest Sept. 18 against a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic, an action that resulted in the arrest of 30 people and a black eye […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) – Russia will make a decision on the degree of its financial contribution to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons in the near future, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “The Russian material contribution was considered during these consultations. We don’t yet have a reason to publicly announce its parameters, but we are about to make […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – November 1, 2013) The IMF issued a tough statement yesterday listing all the things that the Ukraine will have to do before it gets access to a new and desperately needed Stand By Agreement. But despite the tough talk, the IMF’s statement was all posturing. The EU and the IMF are in emergency talks, […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stepan Kravchenko & Henry Meyer -October 30, 2013) Russia said Iran showed “unprecedented openness” in Geneva during two days of talks with world powers this month over its disputed nuclear program. “The Iranians displayed unprecedented openness, something that was recognized by all participants” representing the so-called P5+1 powers — the U.S., Russia, China, U.K., France and […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, October 30, 2013) The Russian president’s spokesman Dmitriy Peskov thinks that the existing government telecommunications in the country ensure the protection of the security of conversations between the first persons of the country. “We have government telecommunications which ensure the necessary level of confidentiality and security of conversations. And measures to ensure that security is at […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) – Alexei Pushkov, the head of the State Duma committee on international affairs, said he was outraged by the fact that western governments have not reacted to reports on the use of chemical weapons by rebels in Syria against Syrian Kurds. “According to information received from Syrian Kurds, the rebels used chemical weapons against them in […]
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MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) Russia and China reaffirmed their intention to work together in dealing with global challenges during a meeting Wednesday between Russia’s Defense Minister and a top Chinese military commissioner. “The consolidated position of our governments has a stabilizing influence on the international situation,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at the start of talks with Xu […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – October 31, 2013) Russia’s straddling of Europe and Asia and its unpretentious approach to embracing all who strive to capitalize on new technology will make the Open Innovations Forum that starts Thursday in Moscow a success, the event’s chief executive said. World-famous innovators and visionaries will share their concepts and secrets of […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Alexander Podrabinek – October 28, 2013) The “migrant issue” is being presented as one of the main pressure points in Russian society. Author and human rights activist Alexander Podrabinek discusses the ten most popular myths about migrantsand debunks nine of them. When I wrote that the migrant issue in Russia was mostly artificial […]
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