(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 17, 2013) Moscow Times reporter Anatoly Medetsky is providing a live blog of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit at noon to the State Duma, where he will recap the Cabinet’s activities for the past year and offer an account of his upcoming plans. 3:45 p.m.: Medvedev wrapped up his Duma appearance after a closing […]
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(RIA Novosti, MOSCOW, April 17, 2013) The number of corruption related crimes recorded in Russia rose by almost 25 percent in 2012, according to a report by the Prosecutor General’s Office submitted to parliament on Wednesday. A total of 49,513 such crimes were registered last year, compared to 40,407 in 2011, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said. Over 13,500 individuals […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 17, 2013) The federal weather bureau announced on Wednesday that all the snow in the capital had finally melted, giving Muscovites the go-ahead to cheer the arrival of spring. On Wednesday morning, the snow cover at the weather station at the All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow had fallen to zero centimeters from Tuesday’s measurement […]
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[check back for updates, including more live links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#71 :: 17 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: […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#70 :: 16 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: Putin Offers to Assist in Boston Bombing Probe. […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – April 15, 2013) When a journalist dies in Russia, people may pay attention, but the crime usually goes unsolved. According to some observers, this may not change for a long time. When Mikhail Beketov, a journalist who was brutally attacked in 2008, died in a hospital last week, Oleg Kashin, a journalist […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – April 16, 2013) If you wonder why Russians don’t smile in the metro, what they really think about corruption, how many of them fought bears and how many of these brave souls were drinking vodka at the time, now you can satisfy your curiosity. A Moscow-based team of market researchers has recently […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – April 16, 2013) The Economic Development Ministry of Russia proposed another five large privatization transactions in addition to the sale of 14% of ALROSA and an additional issue of VTB worth RUB100bn, Minister Andrei Belousov said, Vedomosti reported. The Ministry proposes to privatize in 2013 up to 19% of Rosneft, state-owned stakes in Aeroflot […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Agnes Lovasz – April 16, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the government to come up with a plan to revive the flagging economy after a minister warned that a recession is possible as companies cut investment and export demand wanes. Putin told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who will address lawmakers tomorrow, to devise steps to […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 16, 2013 – windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-russians-leaving.html) There are now more than 15,000 Protestant congregations in the Russian Federation, according to a Moscow expert, a figure that surpasses the total of Russian Orthodox parishes and reflects in part Russian flight from the latter because of growing anger about the policies of the Moscow Patriarchate […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 15, 2013) The official portals of the Gorky Park (www.park-gorkogo.com) and Sokolniki Park (www.park.sokolniki.com) have opened the Hyde Park division, which are accepting applications to hold public rallies. The Gorky Park portal says that the site to hold public rallies can take up to 2,000 people. Public meetings can take place between 7 a.m. and 10 […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg – April 15, 2013) A helmeted policeman drags a woman down a barricaded street, one arm tightly locked around her neck. Dozens of riot police in full gear look on as the young woman, wearing a short black dress, gasps for air. The scene is captured in a dramatic snapshot taken at a sanctioned […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 16, 2013) Pavel Chikov, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, said on Monday that a clear set of rules for inspections of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is required. “There are no rules for prosecutors’ checks. In my opinion, this is the main lesson that we should learn from all these […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 15, 2013) The information on the multi-billion funding of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Russia coming from abroad voiced by the president only partially refers to the NGOs whose activities are controlled by the Justice Ministry. “Of course, not all NGOs that are reported by banks to receive such funding according to the NGO legal status belong […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 15, 2013) The Interior Ministry has received no complaints against police with regard to checks of non-commercial organizations, Deputy Minister Mikhail Vanichkin has said. “Since the start of the checks, there has not been a single complaint to date from heads of non-commercial organizations against the actions of the police,” Vanichkin told a special meeting of […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 16, 2013) Russian prosecutors have opened a case against a regional non-governmental organization accused of not registering as a “foreign agent” in the wake of a wave of inspections of NGOs, a rights group reported on Tuesday. Alexander Zamaryanov, director of the Kostroma Public Initiatives Support Center, is suspected of being involved in political […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Loginov – April 15, 2013) Mikhail Loginov is a journalist and novelist based in St Petersburg. He is the author of the recently published bestselling political thriller “Battle for Kremlin”. Broadcaster Vladimir Posner’s ‘slip of the tongue’, calling Russia’s parliament the Dura (fool) instead of the Duma, added yet another slur to the already emasculated body. A […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, April 15, 2013) Only 4 per cent of Russian do not care what incomes State Duma deputies have, while the vast majority (92 per cent) would like to know this and therefore support the use of such measures as mandatory declaration of incomes and spending for the elected representatives of the people. Some 90 per cent of […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Elena Bobrova, RBTH – April 16, 2013) Russian students from a prestigious world politics program get diverse American perspectives first-hand. A more intense spotlight shines on educational cooperation as Russia and the United States seek fresh perspectives on bilateral relations despite recent shadows cast on the reset. The Center for International and Security […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 15, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-russians-want.html) In January 1917, Lenin thought that he and members of the older generation of revolutionaries might not live to see a revolution but by the end of that year, he and the Bolsheviks were in power in Petrograd. Now, the Russian opposition believes that there must be […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 16, 2013) Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama will meet twice in the upcoming months for talks aimed at easing tensions amid differences over human rights and other issues. The two presidents have agreed to hold talks on the sidelines of a Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland in June and to meet […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 16, 2013) The Kremlin said the United States has sent Russia a “positive signal” by dispatching a high-profile delegation to Moscow headed by U.S. National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon, who delivered a letter Monday with “concrete measures” on missile defense, nuclear arms reduction and trade. The meeting occurred amid ongoing strains […]
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(RIA Novosti -LONDON, April 16, 2013) Russia’s strategic forces are capable of penetrating the US missile shield and it poses no military threat to the country, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday. “We have solved the issue of penetrating the missile shield. We regret that the United States waste their money on missile defense and compel us […]
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(RIA Novosti – Carl Schreck – WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013) The United States and Russia struck a conciliatory chord Monday following tit-for-tat blacklists of alleged human rights violators, but the contentious US legislation that sparked the diplomatic dust-up appears set to become a permanent fixture in ties between Washington and Moscow. “There is no sunset clause on the Magnitsky […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vladimir Chukov, Stepan Serdyukov, Anna Laletina, special to RBTH – April 15, 2013) RBTH continues its coverage of the U.S. Work & Travel program by asking three former participants about their experiences. The Summer Work and Travel program, created as a public diplomacy tool in 1963, allows foreign university students to work and […]
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(Interfax – TBILISI, April 15, 2013) A vast majority of Georgians approve of the government’s plan to resume exports of wine, mineral water and agricultural produce to Russia, an opinion poll suggests. Current Georgian-Russian talks on the resumption of such exports were acceptable to 84% of respondents and unacceptable to only 3% of respondents in a recent survey by the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 16, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has expressed his sympathy and offered to assist in a U.S. investigation into twin bomb blasts that killed three people and injured more than 140 others during a marathon in Boston. A senior Russian lawmaker said the tragedy should remind countries to work together rather than create divisive blacklists, […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Mark Galeotti, special to RBTH – April 15, 2013) Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University. His blog, ‘In Moscow’s Shadows,’ can be read here: inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/ The result of the Syrian crisis is likely to affect Russia’s positions in the world and influence in the Middle East. At the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – April 15, 2013) Russia, which is chairing the G20 in 2013, does not want to discuss the management of the exchange rates of national currencies and the bank crisis in Cyprus during the G20 meeting in Washington on April 18-19. Russia, which is chairing the G20 in 2013, does not plan to propose that the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Lankov, special to RBTH – April 15, 2013) In early April, North Korea’s top leadership was shaken up top military officers retired, civilian bureaucrats have taken over and a reform-minded premier has been reinstated. Korean historian Andrei Lankov argues that, while it is too soon to confidentially say North Korea is […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 15, 2013) The Russian Economic Development Ministry expects GDP growth to accelerate to 2.1% in Q2 2013, from 1.1% in Q1, and to around 3% in H2 2013, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told reporters. “The slowdown in economic growth is here for all to see. But we work on the basis that there’ll be […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) The Russian Audit Chamber has looked into the observance of Russia’s obligations and the realization of Russia’s rights in its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and suggests providing more support for exports and agriculture, the Public Chamber said in a press release. Participants in the Public Chamber collegium held on April 8 […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) Poverty in Russia has shrunk thrice since the 1990s but higher salaries of public sector employees remain a key objective of the government, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting of the Labor Ministry board on Friday. “Compared with the 1990s, the poverty level has reduced thrice. The decline is directly related to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) The rare Siberian cranes that took a migration flight with President Vladimir Putin’s motorized deltaplane in the autumn of 2012, have not reintegrated with the wild over diplomats’ failure to come to terms on their hibernation in Uzbekistan, Vedomosti wrote on Friday citing the Flight of Hope project director, Alexander Sorokin. “Uzbekistan’s border service […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15. 2013) Days before the much-anticipated trial of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is scheduled to begin, an Investigative Committee spokesman has suggested that Navalny’s constant criticism of the government caused investigators to “accelerate” work on the case against him. When someone “uses all his energy to bring attention to himself” and “provokes the government,” […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 15, 2013) Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov does not see any conditions for the cooperation of the head of state with what is known as the irreconcilable opposition so far. “Largely this depends on the extent to which the irreconcilable opposition will be able to generate a more or less constructive agenda. Unfortunately, so far we […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15, 2013) Income declarations for 2012 for the president, members of the presidential administration, government officials and Federation Council officials were published on Friday, showing revenues that ranged from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions of rubles, and from one to several pieces of real estate. In the overall picture, President Vladimir Putin […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 13, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-alienation-of-russian.html) A major reason for the destruction of the Russian Empire in 1917 and of the Soviet Union in 1991, a Moscow historian says, was “the alienation that existed between the state and the Russian people,” a shortcoming that unfortunately the Russian Federation has not yet overcome with […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 15, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have agreed to have a special meeting with the economic block of the government, members of the Kremlin administration and experts to discuss prospects of the Russian economy amid the global negative tendencies on the world market. Medvedev said at a meeting with Putin at […]
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(Interfax – April 15, 2013) Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said that the information about the foreign funding of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Russia recently disclosed by President Vladimir Putin is reliable. “There is not the slightest reason to doubt the reliability of the said figures,” Peskov said on a Sunday night current events show on Russia 1 channel. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15, 2013) Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday described Vladimir Putin as a “fierce” defender of Russia’s national interests but also a “master of compromise” while commenting on everything from the opposition movement to escalating tensions with the U.S. Peskov’s comments, made on the state-owned Rossia 1 television channel on Sunday night, come amid […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov accused the US administration on Monday of demonstrating “conflicting behavior,” but said Moscow was ready to develop and deepen its ties with the US. The official’s comments were made during a visit by US national security advisor Tom Donilon to Moscow. “On the one […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 12, 2013) The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a private foundation based in Washington, D.C., that provides grants and other support to organizations around the world that promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. The NED’s senior director for Europe, Rodger Potocki, recently visited RFE/RL’s broadcast center in Prague and spoke with […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 14, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-battle-of-lists.html) The publication of the Magnitsky List and the Russian response have prompted widespread speculation not only about the secret and supposedly much larger and possibly expandable lists attached to each but about the meaning of this exchange for the future of Russian-American relations. In an article entitled […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) Most of the Russian officials added on Friday to the U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals List (OFAC’s SDN list) under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 are no longer working in the positions they occupied when an investigation against Hermitage Capital lawyer […]
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[check back for updates including active links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#69 :: 15 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: Putin’s press […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – April 12, 2013) As Russia’s relationship with Georgia warms up after the new Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili assumed power in Tbilisi, Moscow will host its long awaited Georgian guest, the famous Rustavi ensemble. Rustavi, a folk dance and chorus group, will perform in Russia on Thursday after a 10-year absence. “We […]
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(RIA Novosti -ST. PETERSBURG, April 12, 2013) Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko lashed out at European politicians at an international conference in St. Petersburg on Friday, claiming Russophobia in the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe (PACE) was obstructing Russian-European cooperation and suggesting the EU’s stance on visa requirements and human rights was hypocritical. “Not so long ago, our partners […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – April 12, 2013) Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times. State Duma Deputy Alexei Mitrofanov, who heads the Duma committee regulating the media, came up with a new idea two weeks ago to fight the Kremlin’s battle against “insulting speech” aimed at politicians: increase the fines against media outlets […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 68 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Pavel Felgenhauer – April 11, 2013) Since last March, Russian and international human rights organizations – including such prominent ones as Memorial, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Transparency International and others – have been harassed by Russian law enforcement and tax authorities, had their premises searched all […]
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