(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Lilit Gevorgyan, IHS Global – December 18, 2013) Any form of aid is probably going to be a bandage on Ukraine’s economic troubles rather than a serious remedy. These troubles are a result of a toxic combination of domestic macroeconomic policy failures and unfavorable external demand for Ukrainian undiversified exports, which are heavily dependent […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – December 18, 2013) U.S. Senator John McCain has accused Russia of trying to block Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union. Fresh upon his return from witnessing the pro-European Union demonstrations taking place in Kyiv, McCain spoke to RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari about what may lie ahead for the country. RFE/RL: Senator McCain, You just returned from […]
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(Interfax – December 18, 2013) The so-called Magnitsky List is an utterly unfriendly step regarding Russia and Moscow will take proportionate measures if it is expanded, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said. “I think that this law is an unfriendly step regarding us and does not contribute to improving the climate in our bilateral relations with the United States. […]
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(Interfax – December 18, 2013) Moscow stands for NATO-CSTO cooperation in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during the Government Hour at the Federation Council on Wednesday. “We think it would be useful to finally start practical cooperation between the CSTO and NATO,” he said. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) give much […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#228 :: 18 December 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#227 :: 17 December 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. RIA Novosti: 2 Out of 3 Russians Uninterested in Politics […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#226 :: 16 December 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Moscow Times: Alexander Panin, Survey Underscores the Death of the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/RIA Novosti – rbth.ru – Konstantin Bogdanov, RIA Novosti – December 16, 2013) Russian officials have expressed their sharp criticism towards the U.S. plans for the so-called “Prompt Global Strike” initiative. Are they justified? What does this “Prompt Global Strike” represent, how can it interfere with the Russian plans and how can it be opposed? Around the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – Russia needs about 1,500 nuclear warheads in its strategic nuclear forces, Russian Strategic Missile Troops (RVSN) Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said. “It is necessary to have about 1,500 nuclear warheads in the shock troops of the Russian strategic nuclear forces in order to resolve tasks of strategic deterrence. The United States have approximately the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Vicky Pelaez – December 17, 2013) Examine everything you see/Then ask yourself/Who are they this time? (Taras Shevchenko, “The Friendly Epistle”) The protests that broke out in Kiev on November 21 in response to President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to postpone the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union have brought the country to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gevorg Mirzayan, special to RBTH – December 16, 2013) The crisis over the country’s future intensifies as protesters backing closer ties with Europe bring the barricades back to Kiev’s Maidan Square. Opinion in Ukraine has split in two over whether the country should sign an Association Agreement offering trade and political links with […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Harriet Salem in Kyiv – December 17, 2013) “I am here to support stability, I am here for the future of Ukraine, for my grandchildren,” Anna Egorovna told bne standing in Mariinsky Park. Eregorovna was one of the tens of thousand supporters that arrived in Kyiv over the weekend of December 14-15 to attend […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The European Union is divided over the issue of signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine, but the EU is unanimous in its call for the resignation of Ukraine’s current leadership, Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, told Interfax on Monday. “The impression is that a certain split is obvious within the […]
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BRUSSELS. Dec 17 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has denied that Russia pressed Ukraine to opt against signing a planned association agreement with the European Union. “We gave an honest warning, we didn’t blackmail anyone: the Commonwealth of Independent States treaty on the free trade zones has the reservation that, when a situation emerges that poses risks to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – December 17, 2013) Below find the link to a new paper from academics Clifford G Gaddy and Barry W Ickes, the men that brought us the term “virtual economy” in the 1990s the defining idea of the Yeltsin-era. In this new paper the thesis is that Russia suffers from the oil curse, but the […]
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(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Russian presidential aide on economic issues Andrey Belousov has said that the efforts aimed at improving Russia’s business climate have so far not led to a breakthrough, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 16 December. “The euphoria we felt due to [Russia’s] advancement in the Doing Business ranking by almost 20 percentage points […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The reasons why measures to support economic growth are not working and why interest rates are not coming down need to be analyzed, Andrei Belousov, a Russian presidential aide, told reporters. “As regards [November] industrial output dynamics, the result is of course negative,” Belousov said. This is partly because the markets for metals, both ferrous […]
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(opendemocracy.net – December 14, 2013 – Ekaterina Loushnikova) Ekaterina Loushnikova is radio and print journalist based in the city of Kirov Over a century after Maksim Gorky’s famous play about homeless people ‘The Lower Depths’ Ekaterina Loushnikova has been looking around her home city of Kirov to see if anything has changed. The church porch I stood in […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 17, 2013) “Time is working for President Putin and his regime” because the aging of the Russian population means that he can rely on the ever greater share of the population of pensioners, some Moscow experts say, but concomitantly time is working against Russia because it is rapidly driving down the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – December 17, 2013) The State Duma will vote Tuesday in a first reading on President Vladimir Putin’s draft bill to grant amnesty to certain categories of prisoners, a piece of legislation that could exonerate high-profile detainees despite what critics say are its narrow criteria. As part of an effort to free space […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 17, 2013) Vladimir Putin’s efforts to exploit “the energy” of Russian nationalism and Orthodoxy to shore up his regime strike many as clever and effective, but Rashit Akhmetov points out that they recall those of Nicholas II and may have the same result, undermining both the current Kremlin ruler’s position and […]
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MOSCOW, December 17 (RIA Novosti) Only one percent of Russians are actively interested in politics, according to an opinion poll. Some 26 percent say that they have no interest in politics at all. Another 41 percent describe themselves as “rather uninterested” in politics, the survey by the independent Levada Center found. Only 28 percent of the 1,600 people questioned […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev argued on Friday that it might be simplistic to see current protests in Ukraine as an offensive against Soviet-style policies. “You drew some comparisons and mentioned Ukraine. I’m not sure that all that is happening in Ukraine at the moment can be described as an attack on ‘Sovok,’” Medvedev said […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russia will answer symmetrically if the United States expands the so-called Magnitsky List, i.e. the list of Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses and subject to U.S. financial and visa sanctions under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “Decisions on putting more Russian […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Ilyashenko, special to RBTH – December 16, 2013) Russian diplomacy in 2013 won several important victories and met a few disappointments. With the end of the Cold War far behind us, Russia’s foreign policy concerns in 2013 were largely focused on a “humanitarian” war against Syria and a disarming strike against Iran. […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes Ukraine will have to overcome a tectonic fault that threatens the state’s existence as such. “It seems to me that Ukrainian society will have to overcome a tectonic fault that has formed in it. This fault threatens the state’s stability and actually its existence. Surely, we are greatly alarmed […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG – December 16, 2013) Some 100,000 protestors rallied on Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in central Kyiv for the third Sunday in a row this weekend, maintaining the pressure on the increasingly embattled President Viktor Yanukovych. They were treated to a speech by US Senator John McCain and a gig by Ukrainian rock […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 13, 2013) Chief Executive Officers from Russian companies are generally upbeat about the current state of Russia’s economy, but a large proportion have only moderate expectations for its future development prospects, a study conducted by executive search firm Stanton Chase International found. Over 85 percent of the survey’s participants assessed 2013 as successful, but […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vladimir Kozlov, special to RBTH – December 16, 2013) In the past year, the Bolshoi Theater has gone through a series of controversies and management changes. What is behind all of the chaos? Just a few years ago, Bolshoi was under public scrutiny because of its major renovation scheme, which went behind schedule […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Eradzh Nidoev – December 13, 2013) It’s 10 a.m. on a Sunday. A thin layer of fog hangs in the air, but I can clearly see the dilapidated concrete building in front of me. It is one of the biggest children’s hospitals in Moscow. I am here to work as an unpaid volunteer. “Do you […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) – The leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, Sergei Mitrokhin, has described opposition activist Alexei Navalny as an “oligarchic project.” “Here is an oligarchic project under the tentative name Alexei Navalny. We know that this project is supported by the big interests and money of dissatisfied oligarchs and enjoys latent support from the Russian elite,” Mitrokhin […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – December 16, 2013) Some of Russia’s most prominent nonsystemic opposition leaders founded the Social Democrats of Russia party on Sunday, marking a first step toward the possible consolidation of the country’s marginal social democratic factions. The announcement comes amid a proliferation of opposition parties, among them former Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny’s […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 16, 2013) Whenever something bad happens in Russia, the last refuge of pro-regime commentators is to suggest that the ruler isn’t in charge and that underlings are to blame: the man in the Kremlin can thus continue to be given credit for anything good that happens but not be held responsible […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Andy Frecka – December 16, 2013) From Murmansk to Magadan, Sochi to Salekhard, and from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka, its tentacles weave a web of hideous destruction. Quietly, on the steppes of Siberia, now whispering over the Urals, then across the Volga. Now coming down your street as you innocently sit in your home. No, I […]
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KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Ukraine has made a final choice in its foreign policy vector – integration with Europe, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said. “As we are told, the door to the European Union is open for us, same as the door of the Customs Union. That is very good, because we have a choice and we will […]
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(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Major foreign business has been recently concerned mostly about the psychological and political aspects in Russia, not with the business climate itself, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Monday when speaking at the conference “100 Steps Towards Favorable Investment Climates. Achievements and New Challenges” organized by the Vedomosti newspaper. “I have recently […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 16, 2013) Affordable housing remains a dream for most Russian families, whose average monthly income is not enough for a mortgage to buy even a half of a two-bedroom apartment, according to research conducted by Finexpertiza consulting firm. A survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, showed that a two-bedroom apartment is the “Russian dream,” […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 13 (Interfax) – Russians are certain that foreign security services are spying in their home country and support the proportionate actions of domestic security services on a global scale. Two-thirds of Russians (66%) believe that domestic security services should collect intelligence information in other countries: tap conversations, read correspondence and obtain classified materials. Ten percent say this is […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – December 16, 2013) As mass anti-government and pro-EU protests move into their third week in Ukraine, vox pop and opinion polls show the continued high motivation of protestors, but also the stubborn resistance of the east-west geographical fault line that shapes Ukrainian politics. December 15 saw another large crowd […]
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MOSCOW, December 14 (RIA Novosti) The number of Russian speakers worldwide has declined by about 120 million people in the past 20 years, a senior Russian government official said Friday. Measures to boost the popularity of Russian have been insufficient to reverse this decline, according to Benjamin Kaganov, deputy minister of education and science. He told a conference in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – December 16, 2013) The era of the brash New Russian has ended. Neither heavy gold chains nor massive Rolex watches enthrall the Russian consumer as they did at the dawn of capitalism in the 1990s, although quality is preferred and people are willing to pay for it, according to a survey released […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 12, 2013) Finally, we need to speed up the adoption of laws that would enable Russian universities to actively develop distance learning, which would also be aimed above all at our compatriots abroad and at the CIS countries. As we improve professional education, we must remember that the labour market is becoming more flexible and people need […]
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(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Russia has not yet managed to achieve a radical breakthrough on the issue of improving its business climate, the Russian president’s aide on economic issues, Andrei Belousov believes. “The euphoria from the nearly 20 percent advancement in the Doing Business rating passed about three hours after we found out the results,” Belousov said on Monday […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke -December 14, 2013) James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR. KYIV – To understand what is happening in Kyiv today, remember that Ukraine has a larger landmass in Europe than France, the largest nation of the European Union. From East to West, Ukraine is longer than Italy, […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Moscow is already taking disciplinary measures in relation to the Russian diplomats accused in the U.S. of unlawfully receiving Medicaid benefits to cover the pregnancy and childbirth costs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “This is a disciplinary offence, because, by being insincere in filing applications and citing inaccurate figures to receive some benefits, they […]
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MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) Russia confirmed Monday that it has deployed tactical ballistic missiles near its borders with NATO but said the move did not violate international agreements. Bild newspaper in Germany reported over the weekend that Russia had “quietly” moved 10 Iskander-M (SS-26 Stone) missile systems into its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and along its border with […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#225 :: 13 December 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Russia Beyond the Headlines/Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Russians have grown angrier and […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Ekaterina Mishina – December 12, 2013) December 12 marks the 20th anniversary of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to some estimates, over $600,000 were spent on pompous celebration activities. Meanwhile, as IMR legal expert Ekaterina Mishina notes, the constitution has begun to be treated as a fetish, while its real content […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Ineffective federal programs might be discontinued, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a cabinet meeting devoted to the performance of these programs over the first nine months of the year. “We need to either radically change the situation with the programs of close them down. We’ll reach a decision on this by the end […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Companies with Russian assets that are registered in foreign jurisdictions have to pay taxes according to Russian law, while at the same time will receiving no government support, state contracts, or VEB credits, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. “As nothing [has been done about this] in this sphere [‘de-offshoring’ the economy] this year, I […]
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