JRL Table of Contents :: Johnson’s Russia List 2012-#225 – 20 December 2012

Johnson’s Russia List
2012-#225
20 December 2012
davidjohnson@starpower.net
A World Security Institute Project
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In this issue

POLITICS

1. Interfax: Putin defines himself as democrat demanding order, observation of laws.
2. ITAR-TASS: Putin favours direct elections of governors, in republics people to decide.
3. ITAR-TASS: Putin backs Duma’s ban on US adoptions as response to US Magnitsky Act.
4. New York Times: Putin Evasive on Support of U.S. Adoption Ban.
5. Kremlin.ru: News conference of Vladimir Putin. (partial transcript)
6. www.russiatoday,com: Ban on US adoptions is ‘adequate reaction’ – Putin.
7. Moscow News: Putin: Protesters should not be sent to prison.
8. Interfax: Corruption customary for Russia but must be fought resolutely – Putin.
9. Moscow Times: Putin Pictured in Hell on The Economist Cover.
10. Moscow News: Church estimates for Orthodox believers halved ­ poll.
11. BBC Monitoring: Russian PM urges improving lives of orphans at home, rather than looking abroad. (Medvedev)
12. Russia Beyond the Headlines: Russia ready for New Year. Inspired by the old saying, “The way you see the New Year in is the way you will live it,” Russians are prepared to splurge during the holiday season.
13. Moscow Times/BBC Monitoring: What the Papers Say, Dec. 20, 2012.
14. Valdai Discussion Club: Mikhail Dmitriev, Changes in political sentiments of Russian citizens after the Presidential elections.
15. The Economist: Russia’s opposition. Smaller and colder. The anti-Putin protesters are coming under rising pressure.
16. www.russiatoday.com: Russian investigators to probe Lithuania’s role in Moscow riots.
17. RIA Novosti: Russian Opposition Activist Sent to Siberia. (Leonid Razvozzhayev)
18. Reuters: Russian tycoon Khodorkovsky to walk free in 2014.
19. Kommersant: Students Protest Against Closure of Their “Inefficient” University.
20. International Herald Tribune: Putin Under Fire From International Rights Groups.
21. The Lawyer: Social media, Russian style.

ECONOMY

22. Business New Europe: Ben Aris, OUTLOOK 2013: Confused picture for Russia (Part 1).
23. Moscow Times: James Beadle, The Maturing of a Market. The Russian government is good at talking the talk about modernizing its capitalist state, but it needs to start walking the walk.
24. Moscow Times: Boris Kagarlitsky, Between Gaidar and Keynes. Looking at the hordes of shoppers besieging Moscow stores this holiday season, a person might wonder why there has been so much talk of a crisis.
25. Moscow Times: Top 10 Russian Internet Companies in 2012.
26. Reuters: Russia’s Klondike? Not yet. (re eastern Siberia)
27. Forbes.com: Katya Soldak, Venture Capital, Russian Style.
28. Moscow Times letter: No Shadows On This Think Tank. (re Carnegie Moscow Center)

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

29. RIA Novosti: Fyodor Lukyanov, To Govern, Not to Act.
30. Moscow Times: Tough Talks Expected At EU-Russia Summit.
31. AFP: Russia negotiates union with ex-Soviet states.
32. Vedomosti: STRIKE UZBEKISTAN. CIS CSTO summit took place in Moscow. Uzbekistan quit the organization.
33. Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Moscow Daily: CIS Countries Will Remain Russia’s ‘Main Foreign Policy Priority’
34. Interfax: Peskov blames Clinton for lack of understanding of processes in FSU.
35. RIA Novosti: Putin Likens Libya Now to Syria in Event of Invasion.
36. Christian Science Monitor: Fred Weir, What’s behind Russia’s bill banning US adoptions?
37. Interfax: Adoption of Russian children by foreigners ‘a disgrace’ – ombudsman.
38. The American Interest: David Kramer and Lilia Shevtsova, What the Magnitsky Act Means. If implemented properly, it could mean the restoration of a normative dimension to Western policy on Russia.
39. Project Syndicate: Deana Arsenian, Russia’s Foreign Friends.
40. Komsomolskaya Pravda: Alexey Pankin, The Litvinenko case — a Blair family business?