(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Simon Speakman Cordall special to The Moscow News – April 29, 2013) Overshadowed by dramatic Victory Day celebrations, the May 1 holiday has yet to be redefined in the post-Soviet landscape There were four pivotal dates on the Soviet calendar; January 1, May 1, May 9 and, the anniversary of the revolution, November 7. Times, […]
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[check back for updates, including links; links also posted to twitter and facebook] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#81 :: 30 April 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: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#80 :: 29 April 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: 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. ITAR-TASS: 77% of Russians say they are happy. 2. Moscow […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Mark Galeotti, special to RBTH – April 26, 2013) Looking for the ‘lone wolf’ terrorist has hitherto not been a major part of Russian security services’ strategy but after the Boston bombings, cooperation between the FSB and FBI is crucial. Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University. His […]
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(Kremlin.ru – April 25, 2013) Moscow After the Direct Line programme, Vladimir Putin met with members of the media to answer their questions. QUESTION: Mr President, 85 questions, 85 answers, 85 people this is quite a lot. And all the questions were important. But there were nearly 2.5 million people who asked questions. Will all these questions be organised […]
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(Kremlin.ru – April 25, 2013) (transcript continued) Moscow KIRILL KLEYMENOV: Thank you, Novoshakhtinsky. Thank you, Primorye. Let’s give the opportunity to ask a question to… MARIA SITTEL: Just one second. On the topic of adoption, I have a question from Marina from Vladivostok. Mr President, is it possible to look into the legislative aspects of letting the adopted children access […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – April 29, 2013) TBILISI – Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili says resolving his country’s conflicts with Russia is his “big dream.” But it’s a dream that has him locked in a war of words with President Mikheil Saakashvili and his allies. Saakashvili slammed Ivanishvili on April 23 for saying, in remarks to the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 28, 2013) Respondents polled in Russia recently said they would prefer Russia to deal with China and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States rather than with the United States. “Asked which countries should be given priority as partners in cooperation, 28% of those polled named members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Levada Center […]
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(RIA Novosti – Fyodor Lukyanov – April 26, 2013) Fyodor Lukyanov is Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, an authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments – eng.globalaffairs.ru The case of two ethnic Chechens suspected of planting bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last Monday has perplexed many analysts. Since the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 29, 2013) The two brothers who carried out the horrific Boston bombing are not simply Muslims who were inspired by radical websites or Chechens who were continuing their struggle against Moscow by other means, as many in both Russia and the West have insisted, according to a Moscow analyst. Instead, Konstantin […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 29, 2013) With the end of ice hockey championships, Sochi 2014 organizer Dmitry Chernyshenko has declared that the dress rehearsal for the Olympics is a success. Test events held in the framework of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games ended with the final game of the International Ice Hockey World Championships in Sochi […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 28, 2013) Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny says that Russia does not need federalism and should become a unitary state in which cities rather than the current federal subjects would be the fundamental political link between individual Russian citizens and the Russian state. In an interview published in the May issue […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 27, 2013) Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika sees as unacceptable civil society’s pressure on the justice system. “Everyone should mind their own business. When a civil society institution reviews a court ruling, in my opinion, this is just unacceptable,” Chaika said taking questions from Federation Council members on Saturday. “There is nothing unusual in the fact […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas & Irina Reznik – April 29, 2013) President Vladimir Putin rejected calls for fiscal stimulus, limiting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s options as he races to meet a deadline for submitting a plan to revitalize Russia’s economy. First Deputy Premier Igor Shuvalov said Putin dismissed proposals to aid flagging growth by boosting federal spending at […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 29, 2013) The Russian government has implemented some 73 percent of presidential decrees issued by Vladimir Putin last May, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday. Putin swapped jobs with Medvedev last May, and tasked the government with 218 assignments, including 67 ones scheduled to be carried out within the next seven years. “One […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 29, 2013) Despite an uptick in protest sentiment, most Russians will stay away from street rallies during the May Day holidays, according to a new poll. At least 70 percent of respondents said they were not planning to participate in annual street rallies either for or against the authorities on May 1, the independent […]
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From: Arch Getty <getty@ucla.edu> Subject: Putin and Russian History Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 Putin and Russian History By J. Arch Getty J. Arch Getty is Professor of History at UCLA. He is the author of several books on Russian history, including Practicing Stalinism: Boyars, Bolsheviks and the Persistence of Tradition, forthcoming from Yale University Press. An occupational hazard of […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#79 :: 26 April 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: 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 Times: In Marathon Show, Putin Pledges to Stay the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin pledged to stay the course on a range of key issues, from macroeconomic policy to the battle with corruption and the composition of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Cabinet, during a record-breaking live call-in show broadcast on national television on Thursday. The annual show, which lasted an […]
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(Kremlin.ru – April 25, 2013) Moscow Direct Line with Vladimir Putin was broadcast live on Channel One, Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 TV networks and Mayak, Vesti FM and Radio Rossii radio stations. During the programme, the President answered more than 85 questions from Russians on the most pressing social and political issues. The total duration of the programme was 4 hours […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 25, 2013) Russians are critical about the government’s performance but do not expect its dismissal in the near future, the Levada Center public survey service told Interfax based on results of an April poll of 1,600 respondents. Nearly a quarter of Russians – 24% – believe the government led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is efficient, […]
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(Interfax- Moscow/Makhachkala, April 24, 2013) Dagestani Interior Minister Abdurashid Magomedov has denied allegations that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two men suspected of committing bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon, started practicing radical Islam during his stay in Dagestan in 2012. “According to our information, Tamerlan Tsarnaev did come to Dagestan in 2012 in order to have his Russian passport […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 26, 2013) Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said that the tragedy in the psychiatric clinic in Ramensky village in the Moscow region’s Dmitrov district was a consequence of a number of issues in the sphere. “I share deep grief of all relatives and loved ones of the victims. Of course, possible criminal liability for what […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 26, 2013) Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia thinks that the level of relations between the church and the state does not match its potential. “The level of church-state partnership in Russia is much lower than in Germany where the state collect taxes for the Church, France where the president appoints bishops in the Alsace-Lorraine […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 26, 2013) This is part of an occasional series. As part of his effort to promote patriotism among younger generations of Russians, President Vladimir Putin has proposed creating a single set of history textbooks for schoolchildren, arguing that there should be more consistency in what students are taught and that textbooks […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 25, 2013) Russians are mostly happy with their lives, especially those living in Tyva, Dagestan, Adygea and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, the poll held by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed. The poll was carried out in 2,220 settlements in 79 Russian regions among 56,900 respondents. A total of 73% Russians consider themselves happy. The following […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 26, 2013) Anatoly Chubais, who oversaw Russia’s mass privatization drive in the 1990s, said on Friday he had always treated allegations that his US advisers at the time were operatives of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as rumors – until President Vladimir Putin said so out loud yesterday. “I often heard those claims and […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 25, 2013) Russians firstly have negative associations regarding a State Duma deputy and many consider deputies to be dishonest, self-seeking and away from people, the poll of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) showed. The main associations Russians have with a State Duma deputy are: “a corrupt official” (20%), “greed for gain” (9%) and negative […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – April 26, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his own record with his longest ever annual Q&A meet the people press conference. In just under five hours the president attempted to answer as many of the more than 3m questions submitted by Russians on topics covering the gamut of issues. Widely ridiculed by western […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 25, 2013) As more evidence surfaces that the Boston bombing suspects were motivated by a radical version of Islam learned largely from jihadist websites, the monitoring of such websites may prove to be the starting point for closer cooperation between the U.S. and Russia on security issues. The surviving suspect of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Olga Doronina, special to RBTH – April 25, 2013) The investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing has led U.S. authorities to the North Caucasus to look for links that the Tsarnaev brothers may have had with extremists there. Experts are convinced, however, that the brothers acted alone and had no links to any […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Sergei Markedonov, special to RBTH – April 24, 2013) The bombing during the Boston Marathon brought Chechnya back to the attention of the West, but the public, the press and the politicians fail to realize the situation there has changed and the threat is greater. Sergey Markedonov is a visiting research fellow […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 24, 2013) Representatives of human rights organizations have said that the number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) inspected by state agencies is excessive. “Hundreds of NGOs were inspected by the tax service, the Ministry of Justice, fire, sanitary agencies and other bodies. Some agencies gave ridiculous demands, for instance, to confirm that all employees of the organization […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dan Peleschuk, special to RBTH – April 25, 2013) As United Russia’s reputation continues to suffer and Vladimir Putin voices increasing support for his People’s Front, what’s in store for the ruling party? Once an all-powerful vanguard party that helped President Vladimir Putin consolidate support and increase his influence over Russian politics, United […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 24, 2013) Russian prosecutors, tax officials, and police are checking the offices of Levada Center, an independent polling organization, as part of a routine inspection of NGOs across the country, a source at the organization told The Moscow News on Wednesday. “They are checking the basic documents, the charter, financial documents […]
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(RIA Novosti – April 24, 2013) The head of the inter-factional group of MPs for cooperation of institutions of civil society with law-enforcement bodies, Mikhail Starshinov, considers the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International organizations to be hostages of their stereotypes and has said that their reports are politicized, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 24 April. On […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – George Feifer, special to RBTH – April 25, 2013) Author and longtime Russian expert George Feifer turns conventional wisdom on its head and explains the ways in which Russians are free and Americans are dully imprisoned. When Denis Diderot visited St. Petersburg at Catherine the Great’s invitation, the great philosopher and founder of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – April 25, 2013) ExxonMobil was a highlight of an investment conference in Moscow on Wednesday, attended by U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, where speakers discussed the prospects of U.S. business in Russia. Organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, the event sought to emphasize trade and investment despite political tensions between […]
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(Buiness New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – April 25, 2013) There is no competition in Russia. The revenues are fake. You have to control the whole sector to make money.” This comment was made by Oleg Tinkoff on one of the panels at Sberbanks recent investment conference, “The Russia Forum”, yet this highly successful Russian serial […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/RIA Novosti – rbth.ru – Fyodor Lukyanov – April 24, 2013) Fyodor Lukyanov, the chairman of the Presidium of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, explains why the Magnitsky Act will have long-term consequences on U.S.-Russia relations. Conflicts associated with the Magnitsky Act are not going away any time soon. Congress will not drop the subject, […]
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(Interfax – April 25, 2013) The Russian Union of Afghan War Veterans that unites many generals and officers who took part in the pullout of the Soviet limited contingent from Afghanistan are ready to respond to requests from NATO colleagues and share their materials, Union leader Frants Klintsevich told Interfax-AVN on Thursday. “I have learned about the NATO request from […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – April 24, 2013) In the absence of significant economic achievements, Vladimir Putin is trying to consolidate support on the basis of conservative values. Although President Vladimir Putin is still the most popular politician in Russia, the trend is clear: The first year of his third term saw his confidence […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 25, 2013) Russian political analysts have different opinions regarding the likelihood that the government could be dismissed following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks during a traditional annual Q&A session on Thursday. Igor Bunin told Interfax that Putin had apparently gave some more time to the government and no dismissals of individual government ministers should be expected […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova and Alexander Winning – April 25, 2013) The Moscow Times is running a live blog of President Vladimir Putin’s 11th televised call-in show, the first since he returned to the presidency last year. See below for updates from our reporters following the show, which will be broadcast on three federal TV channels […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 25, 2013) Officers of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency operated as consultants to Anatoly Chubais, the Russian deputy prime minister who oversaw the privatization of the country’s economy in the early 1990’s, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “In Chubais’ entourage, it has now turned out, CIA officers worked as consultants,” Putin said […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 25, 2013) President Vladimir Putin said his methods don’t have anything in common with those of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, and that the trials of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the members of the Pussy Riot feminist punk group were not politically motivated. Putin made the remarks in response to a […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 25, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin set a new record on Thursday for the duration of his annual televised question and answer session, replying to 85 questions in four hours and 47 minutes. This was Putin’s 12th Q&A session, but the first since being re-elected president in 2012. Putin’s very first Q&A session, held on […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#78 :: 25 April 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: 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: Putin Sets New Q&A Session Record 2. Reuters: […]
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(RIA Novosti – MAKHACHKALA, April 24, 2013) The Russian parents of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings have agreed to visit the United States to assist in the ongoing investigation into the crime, a police source said on Wednesday. A team from the US Embassy in Moscow has arrived in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan to speak […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Liz Fuller – April 22, 2013) The Daghestani wing of the North Caucasus insurgency has formally denied any role in the Boston Marathon bombings. In a brief statement posted on April 21 on the website vDagestan.com, its leaders stress that their primary enemy is Russia and they “are not engaged in military hostilities with the United […]
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