(opendemocracy.net – Richard Sakwa – April 10, 2013) Richard Sakwa is professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, England. Among his books are Putin: Russia’s Choice (Routledge, 2nd edition, 2007) and Russian Politics and Society (Routledge, 4th edition, 2008) Alexandr Bastrykin, head of Russia’s influential Investigative Committee, is one of the most powerful individuals in the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas & Scott Rose – April 12, 2013) Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and his wife, the second-biggest earners among families of Cabinet members, plan to move their assets under Russian jurisdiction to comply with new restrictions. Shuvalov and his wife Olga are planning to shift their foreign holdings, Alexander Machevsky, a spokesman […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Russian state officials, reporting their income and expenses exceeding joint income of their families for three years, will have to declare foreign bank accounts and securities kept not only in foreign banks but in banks of the Customs Union and the CIS as well, aide of the Russian State Presidential Legal Directorate, Valentin Mikhailov, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 12, 2013) Russian society is disillusioned with the wayward anti-Kremlin protest movement, and the center-left Just Russia party will not pander to self-proclaimed opposition leaders, the party’s chairman said Thursday. “An atmosphere of disillusionment predominates in society today, not only disillusionment with the ruling regime but also with the so-called protest […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Georgy Bovt, special to RBTH – April 12, 2013) Georgy Bovt is a prominent Russian columnist and political expert. The Russian anti-corruption campaign gains momentum. Will the Russian public be in favor of even stronger measures? Russia’s anti-corruption campaign looks like an attempt to “nationalize” the state elite by increasing their stakes […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 12, 2013) It’s official: This past winter will down in history as one of the snowiest ever. An astounding 3 meters, 29 centimeters of snow fell on Moscow, more than double the average of 1.5 meters, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov said Friday. The snowfall hit another record on Feb. 12, when 30 centimeters of […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Sergei Guriev – April 11, 2013) Sergei Guriev is a Morgan Stanley Professor of Economics and a Rector at the New Economic School (NES) in Moscow. Russia’s Byzantine system of government has long been a rich subject for study. Could it change? Might it suddenly have to? Possibly, but there are so many vested interests and the upheaval […]
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(Interfax – April 12, 2013) More Russians are seeing results of the official anti-corruption campaign, the Interfax news agency reported on 12 April, citing an opinion poll carried out by national pro-Kremlin pollster VTsIOM. However, according to a detailed breakdown of poll results posted on at http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=113912, the number of people who said that a lot is being done to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) Capital outflow from funds investing in Russian stocks was at its highest in the last half year in the week of April 4-10, totaling $393 million, compared to $68 million the previous week, according to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR) data. From the beginning of this year to April 10, total outflow from funds […]
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(Interfax – GENEVA. April 12, 2013) The G8 foreign ministers managed to reach consensus on Iran, North Korea’s nuclear issue and other international topics regardless of their initial differences. “Of course, the positions differed considerably initially, but common sense and good will lead to formulating common approaches in line with the necessity to search for political and diplomatic solutions without […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 12, 2013) Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach officially unveiled his ministry’s new 2013 forecasts for the Russian economy on Thursday. The reduction of the GDP growth forecast was anticipated, but the scale of the decrease, by 1.2 percentage points to 2.4%, came as a surprise. In its December forecast, the Economic Development Ministry projected that […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – April 12, 2013) Russia’s building a system to neutralize space weapons as it prepares to send a man to Mars and build a permanent moon base, President Vladimir Putin and members of his government said. Russia will have the technical means by 2030 to counteract threats from space by other countries, Deputy Prime […]
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(RIA Novosti, MOSCOW, April 12, 2013) Russian election watchdog Golos (Vote, or Voice) has been given notice to vacate its office in Moscow with no explanation, the non-governmental organization’s deputy director Grigory Melkonyants told RIA Novosti on Friday. “Our rental contract is still valid, but the new lessor has informed us they are breaking the contract ahead of its […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 12, 2013) The Kremlin was bracing for the release late Friday of a U.S. blacklist of more than 100 Russians that could include Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. At the same time, the authorities were preparing to release their own blacklist with an equal number of U.S. citizens. Washington […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – www.rbth.ru – Viktor Onuchko, Interfax – April 11, 2013) Ahead of the Russia-NATO Council meeting scheduled to take place in late April, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan talks about the efforts of the international community and the Afghan government to pull that country out of its 12-year war. A meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the […]
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[check back for updates including active links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#68 :: 12 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: Over […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Ekaterina Zabrovskaya, Yelena Kim, RBTH – April 10, 2013) Regardles of the fact that Russian pundits are concerned by growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, most argue that a full-scale war will not break out. Although the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised diplomatic missions to leave the country by April […]
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(Interfax – April 11, 2013) Middle East conflicts are advantageous to those who would like the region to have smaller and less influential countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the RTVI channel. “This may be advantageous to many. For instance, those who want the region to have less influential countries. Those who want these countries […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, April 10, 2013) U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed boosting funding for the Energy Department to modernize the nation’s existing nuclear weapons in what analysts say is part of a bargain he struck with Republican lawmakers to secure their support for the New START deal with Russia to reduce nuclear stockpiles. In his federal […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Russia likes the Georgian government’s pragmatism and is ready to expand ties with the South Caucasus country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said. “The pragmatism with which Bidzina Ivanishvili’s government addresses [bilateral] relations appeals to us,” Lavrov told Russian television channel RTVi. “We are ready to expand not only trade… but also […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has branded the U.S. Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act as a manifestation of “the Russophobia that is traditionally present” in U.S. Congress. One of the architects of the Magnitsky act was Hermitage Capital investment fund chief executive William Browder, who “illegally hoarded a large fortune in the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) Moscow can see no obstacle to Russia and the United States abolishing the entry visa regime in travel between them, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “As far back as two years ago, (Russian President) Vladimir Putin proposed that we do not limit ourselves to loosening the visa regime but that we move […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – April 11, 2013) Concerns about participants’ safety, health and well-being are behind record visa refusal rates for Russian university students applying to work and travel in the United States this summer, a senior State Department official told an audience at the American Center in Moscow on Wednesday. Tara Sonenshine, the State Department’s […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Elena Shipilova, RBTH – April 11, 2013) America seeks an explanation of why Russia’s foreign trade regulations clash with WTO rules. Since 2012, Russia has been operating under both the WTO and the Customs Union. The U.S. is now seeking official clarification on how the two regimes work with each other. Russian officials […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Artem Zagorodnov, RBTH – April 10, 2013) As entrepreneurs begin to reap benefits from a top-down war against corruption, its long-term effects on the business climate remain uncertain. Russia’s staggering annual $300 billion corruption market (according to the government’s own figures) permeates nearly every aspect of life, from registering a business to obtaining […]
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(RIA Novosti – ULAN-UDE, April 11, 2013) The Kremlin favors the idea of adopting a law protecting the religious feelings of Russian citizens, the Russian presidential spokesman said Thursday. Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed the bill in the first reading on Tuesday. “The Kremlin supports the idea of the law, and the wording of the […]
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(RIA Novosti – Alexey Eremenko – MOSCOW, April 11, 2013) The list of suspects in the controversial investigation into last year’s riots at an anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow is much longer than previously announced, an opposition website said on Thursday. The Investigative Committee currently has 86 suspects in addition to the 26 people already arrested, charged or convicted over […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 10, 2013) A number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) performing the functions of a foreign agent are obstructing their inspections and refusing to comply with legitimate demands by supervisory and controlling bodies, the Prosecutor General’s Office said. “It should be emphasized that some organizations receiving financing from abroad, despite inspectors’ legitimate demands, are actively obstructing the ongoing […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – April 11, 2013) A foreign correspondent who has reported from five continents, Brooke, known universally as Jim, is the Voice of America bureau chief for Russia and former Soviet Union countries. From his base in Moscow, Jim roams Russia and Russia’s southern neighbors. In the aftermath of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Russia recognized […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 10, 2103) Corrupt businessmen and officials may take advantage of social discontent for resisting anti-corruption efforts of the authorities, National Anti-Corruption Committee Chairman, member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights Kirill Kabanov told a Wednesday press conference in Moscow. “I think there are fears that certain negative processes may […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, April 10, 2013) Law-enforcement methods are becoming ineffective in prevention of terrorism, especially when it comes to propaganda in the internet, therefore all forces must be concentrated on meticulous work with the internet audience, adviser to the chairman of the National Antiterrorist Committee and member of the Public Council under the FSB reserve Lt-Gen Andrey Przhezdomskiy […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 11, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-russia-needs-radical.html) Mikhail Gorbachev’s call for a new perestroika has sparked a discussion which rests on the idea that “if the medicine (perestroika) would kill the cancer patient (Russia in its current state), then it is necessary to put up with the cancer as long as possible,” according to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – April 11, 2013) The number 303 stood Wednesday on a digital clock on Manezh Square that counts down the days to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and President Vladimir Putin is watching it closely as the government races to make the final preparations for the Games. But that clock may be counting down […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 11, 2103) A majority of Russians do not want Vladimir Putin to run for president again in 2018 when his third term ends, according to a new survey. A total of 55 percent of Russians want a completely new leader, while 22 percent said they would like Putin to be reelected to the post […]
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[check back for updates including active links] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#67 :: 11 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: Most […]
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(opendemocracy.net – April 8, 2013 – Pavel Usanov) Pavel Usanov is head of the Hayek Institute for Economy and Law in St. Petersburg and Reader at the Higher School of Economics. Cyprus’s monetary crisis has drawn international attention to the island’s role as a tax haven and money laundry for Russia’s rich. Meanwhile, Putin has announced a crackdown at home […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#66 :: 10 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. Interfax: Life expectancy in Moscow surpasses certain EU states – […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, April 9, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-putins-commitment-to.html) A report by the Inter-Regional Association of Young Political Scientists notes that Vladimir Putin has changed his language to reflect is “commitment to stability above everything else,” a conclusion that one Moscow commentator suggests fails to capture just how dangerous Putin’s position is for Russia as a […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 10, 2013) The punishment for those found guilty of corruption should be as severe as for treason, Kirill Kabanov, head of Russia’s National Anti-Corruption Committee independent watchdog said on Wednesday. “We believe the penalty for corrupt activities should be equal to that in place for treason,” said Kabanov, who is also director of the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 9, 2013) Mortality rates in Moscow have declined by practically every parameter thanks to the modernization of city healthcare in 2011-2012, city health department head Georgy Golukhov said at a city government meeting on Tuesday. “The death rate from external causes decreased by 25% in the reporting period; the death rate from respiratory disorders went down […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 9, 2013) Physical education and sport in Russia have improved over the past seven years in the eyes of respondents polled by the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM). The percentage of positive opinions grew from 42% to 59%. The negative opinions declined from 44% to 30%, VTsIOM told Interfax. The majority of positive opinions were […]
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(Kremlin.ru – April 8, 2013 – Amsterdam) QUESTION: If you don’t mind, I will depart somewhat from the issues of the Russian-Dutch relations. Today, as you must know, we have received the sad news of Margaret Thatcher’s death. Can you tell us your opinion of the former Prime Minister’s contribution to building modern Europe and strengthening European security? VLADIMIR PUTIN: […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 10, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will face withering criticism and calls to fire at least one minister when he delivers his first address on the work of his Cabinet to the State Duma next week. Medvedev is scheduled to speak in the Duma on April 17, and he also will meet with the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 10, 2013) The State Duma on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed in a first reading a contentious bill that would radically toughen penalties for those who offend believers’ feelings or desecrate relics and places of worship. Supporters of the legislation say it aims to safeguard traditional Russian values, which they say are under […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 9, 2013) The draft law that introduces criminal penalties for hurting the feelings of the believers and desecrating holy places is an anti-Church document, which will cause an outbreak of militant atheism, the Russian Communist Party parliamentary group believes. “This criminal penalty will not add to the Church’s authority. This is an anti-Church law,” Communist Party […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – rferl.org – April 9, 2013) The Zhukovsky Peoples’ Council this week set up task forces to address a series of issues, including the environment, housing, urban renewal, transportation, and youth affairs. It all seems pretty banal at first glance, except for one small detail. The 15-member council was chosen in a free and fair vote […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – April 8, 2013 – Anna Arutunyan) Anna Arutunyan is an editor and correspondent at themoscownews.com Coming back from a monthlong break, I’ve seen a flurry of activity. There’s an anti-corruption drive that’s either meant to curb capital flight or get a better grip on State Duma deputies, the court date for Alexei Navalny’s embezzlement trial […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 9, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-kind-of-russian.html) There are many kinds of Russian nationalism on offer today, a Russian Communist Party commentator says, but a major divide now lies between the kinds of Russian nationalism that President Vladimir Putin wants to promote and use and other kinds of Russian nationalism that he views as […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Olga Tanas & Scott Rose – April 10, 2013) Elvira Nabiullina is declining to follow in the footsteps of Mark Carney and Haruhiko Kuroda and become an agent of change at Russia’s central bank. Nabiullina, backed by lawmakers to become the first woman to head a Group of Eight monetary authority in June, pledged continuity yesterday […]
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(Interfax – April 9, 2013) Russia’s strategy on the European gas market could be built on reinforcing its position in non-EU European countries and introducing independent gas companies to Russian projects in Europe, Russian privately owned Interfax news agency reported on 9 April, quoting a source in Russia’s Energy Ministry. Separately, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller has said that expanding the […]
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