(Institute of Modern Russia – www.imrussia.org – Tatiana Stanovaya – February 25, 2013 – click here for original posting of article) Two important tendencies have marked Russian political life during the past few months. The first is the Kremlin’s attempt to control officials’ and lawmakers’ foreign accounts and real estate holdings. The second is the growing activity of independent bloggers […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – February 22, 2013) The resignation of senior United Russia lawmaker Vladimir Pekhtin following accusations from opposition leader Alexei Navalny that he owned undeclared property in the U.S. triggered speculation that more lawmakers would quit their seats, throwing the ruling party into crisis. Pundits said Thursday that with lawmakers facing an increasing barrage […]
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MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) – Representatives of the four factions in the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, on Wednesday requested an extremism probe into an article on a Russian Orthodox Church reform by political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky. In the article published by the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily on February 15, Belkovsky says that the Russian Orthodox […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) – Sixty-five percent of Russians approve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s work, the Levada Center told Interfax on Thursday, following a nationwide survey conducted on February 15-18. Levada Center sociologists said that the approval rating of the Russian president gained three points, as compared to 62% in January. The approval rating of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – February 19, 2013) It was like putting a match to a powder keg. Reports of the death in Texas of a Russian adoptee are producing an outpouring of outrage from Russian political elites aimed directly at the United States. “Why should we send our children to certain death,” Deputy Chairwoman of the Federation […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 17 February) The concept of Russia’s foreign policy that was voiced by Vladimir Putin is aimed at using economic diplomacy and applying “soft power” as well as “the democratization of diplomacy”, head of the Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov has said. “This concept reflects the fact that today international economic problems cannot always be resolved […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – February 15, 2013) State Duma Deputy Vladimir Pekhtin asked to be temporarily relieved of his duties as chairman of the Duma’s Credentials and Ethics Commission until the conclusion of a probe into allegations that he failed to declare more than $2 million in property holdings in the U.S. state of Florida. Although […]
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(Interfax – February 13, 2013) The chairman of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, Aleksey Pushkov, has said that the reset in Russian-US relations has failed to smooth major differences in bilateral ties, Interfax news agency reported on 13 February. During a news conference at the agency’s headquarters in Moscow, he said: “The reset has by and large gained […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 25 – Richard Arnold – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – February 11, 2013) United Russia brought a bill before the Duma for a first reading on January 23, 2013, that would permit regional legislatures to cancel direct gubernatorial elections for the “multi-ethnic” regions of Russia. Instead, parties in regional legislatures would pick three candidates […]
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MOSCOW, February 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Tuesday approved a bill banning smoking in public places in its third and final reading. The ban, which takes effect on June 1, was passed by a 441 to one vote. The Duma passed the anti-smoking bill in a second reading on January 25. It […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – February 12, 2013) Prominent nongovernmental organizations said Monday that a new bill on volunteerism would stifle their work through increased bureaucracy and unnecessary regulation. At a roundtable organized by the Civic Initiatives Committee, a think tank headed by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, NGOs said it would be senseless to adopt legislation […]
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PARIS. Feb 6 (Interfax) – Moscow continues to insist on being provided with legally-binding guarantees by NATO, and primarily the United States, that the missile defense system being deployed in Europe will not be targeted against Russia, State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin said at debates with French National Assembly deputies. “We need guarantees backed by objective technical parameters that this […]
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LUXEMBOURG. Feb 5 (Interfax) – State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said Human Rights Watch is a politically-biased organization. “Human Rights Watch has long entered Russia on the list of countries with an inferior human rights record,” Naryshkin told reporters in Luxembourg, when asked to comment on the HRW’s most recent report. The HRW’s activities were discussed in the most general […]
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[Russian state TV talk show discusses controversial State Duma bills – BBC Monitoring/Rossiya 1 – January 27, 2013] BBC Monitoring reports on the Rossiya 1 television program “Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyev” and its January 27, 2013, broadcast covering Duma bills: The 27 January edition of the “Sunday Night with Vladimir Solovyev” talk show on state-owned Rossiya 1 TV featured […]
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[“Riot Police Stand By and Watch Attack on LGBT Activists” – Vedomosti – January 31, 2013] Vedomosti reports on a demonstration in front of the Duma featuring homosexual behavior in the form of same-sex kissing, broken up by “Orthodox fundamentalists,” with police reportedly then arresting only the homosexual demonstrators: … Russian authorities seem to have given up their monopoly on […]
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(RIA Novosti – January 29, 2013) Veteran journalist Vladimir Pozner is one of the three best known and most trusted TV journalists in Russia, a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has shown, as reported by RIA Novosti news agency on 29 January, citing the organization’s website (http://fom.ru/SMI-i-internet/10793). The poll was conducted on 27 January among 1,500 respondents […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) – A little more than half of Russians are against the hypothetical dissolution of the State Duma and early parliamentary elections – about twice as many as those who want new elections, an opinion poll suggests. Moreover, more than two-thirds of Russians don’t want to take part in protests such as those that have been rocking […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) – The State Duma is ready to accept apologies from television journalist Vladimir Pozner, saying the draft “Pozner law” will be “put on hold.” Pozner apologized for his earlier criticism of the State Duma on his program on Sunday evening. After that criticism, parliamentarians drew up a bill prohibiting journalists who have another country’s citizenship in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – January 28, 2013) With a United Russia deputy declaring that Russia is not Sodom and Gomorrah, the State Duma gave tentative approval to a bill that would ban “gay propaganda” to minors. But the measure, which mirrors similar legislation in place in St. Petersburg and several other areas, met with unusually strong […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – David Edwards – January 21, 2013) David Edwards is chief copy editor at The Moscow Times. An obscure Washington state politician once said her votes on proposed legislation were based on conscience, constituency and caucus in that order. She may be on to something. United Russia deputies in the State Duma who voted for […]
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MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) – Most Russians do not support the government’s move to impose a complete ban on smoking in public places and believe the emphasis should be on helping smokers quit, a pollster said on Thursday. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, is to consider the anti-smoking bill in its second reading on January 25. […]
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MOSCOW, January 15 (RIA Novosti) The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, kicked off its spring session Tuesday with promises to consider, within weeks, a raft of bills on everything from the return of independent candidates in legislative elections to bans on smoking and the “propaganda” of homosexuality. The legislative body also gave preliminary approval to a bill […]
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[Failed Reforms: Political Reforms: Gubernatorial Elections Resemble Appointments, Competition Among Parties Remains Inadequate – Vedomosti – Maria Zheleznova – January 15, 2013 – no public link to English-language version] Vedomosti covers analysis by Alexei Kudrin’s Civil Initiatives Committee (CIC) that finds that gubernatorial elections resembled appointments, competition among political parties remained inadequate, and turnout continued to decline. Changes in party […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – January 15, 2013) A State Duma committee on Monday discussed an online petition opposing the “Anti-Magnitsky Law” passed late last year, but it appeared to delay until at least April any action that could result from the petition. The petition, published on the website of opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta last month, was […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Evgeniya Chaykovskaya – January 10, 2013) An initiative for the State Duma’s dissolution accumulated more than 100,000 signatures, forcing the lower house of parliament to discuss it. However, the deputies must consider the opinion of 60 million people who supported them during elections, said State Duma Deputy Speaker and Deputy Head of the United Russia […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Patrick Reevell – December 26, 2012) A policeman says in Russian: “I work a lot, sometimes even too much. … Winter or summer, rain or shine, I go from a bank to a store, from a store to a restaurant, from a restaurant to a market, looking for where to take money.” What’s wrong with […]
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Russia Beyond the Headlines sets out its list of top news stories for 2012: 1. The presidential election … 2. Medvedev’s Cabinet … 3. United Russia’s new leader … Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev swapped jobs and not only in public office … 4. Strident new laws … 5. Protest actions …
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times – December 21, 2012) State Duma Deputy Oleg Mikheyev from the Just Russia party came up with an original idea to lift the spirits of people depressed by all of the bad news they face every day from the country’s leading media […]
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(Interfax – December 20, 2012) The approval ratings of Russian leaders grew in December after a minor decline in November, Levada Center told Interfax on Thursday. It held a nation-wide poll on Dec. 14-17. The approval rating of President Vladimir Putin stood at 65 percent in December, as against 63 percent in November and 68 percent in September, the sociologists […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – December 19, 2012) As the State Duma considers a bill countering the U.S. Magnitsky Act, a group of lawmakers is threatening to add a provision that would massively increase pressure on nongovernmental organizations they believe to be meddling in domestic politics. The deputies support amendments that would enable authorities to close […]
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MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) A controversial amendment that would ban US citizens from adopting Russian children passed in a second reading in the State Duma on Wednesday. The draft law retaliates for enactment of the Magnitsky Act in the US, which imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials deemed guilty of human rights abuses. The amendment […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle and Howard Amos – Dec. 18, 2012) State Duma deputies stepped up Russia’s retaliatory response to the so-called Magnitsky Act on Monday by introducing a measure that would ban U.S. citizens from adopting Russian orphans. The move was roundly condemned by children’s rights advocates, who warned that a blanket ban on U.S. adoptions […]
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(Interfax – Dec. 11, 2012) The United Russia faction at the State Duma has proposed to name the bill retaliating against the Magnitsky Act after 18-months-old Dima Yakovlev who died after his adoptive American father left him in a locked car in a parking lot for nine hours on a hot day. “They named their act after Magnitsky and United […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 11, 2012) In a widely expected response to the passage of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, State Duma deputies on Monday introduced a bill that would make Americans suspected of mistreating Russians personae non gratae. The bill bans Americans from traveling or investing in Russia if they are deemed to have “illegally” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 3, 2012) President Vladimir Putin told leaders of the four State Duma factions that he would make his state-of-the-nation address in mid-December. The address is traditionally held in November, but a Kremlin source told Kommersant in late October that the address might be delayed amid disputes about its content. The faction heads met Putin […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Rachel Nielsen – November 15, 2012) At Wednesday’s congress of a major business lobbying group, the president of the country pulled a no-show, the first deputy prime minister told the group to avoid politics and a State Duma deputy personally fielded business complaints. The congress was the 10th annual gathering for Opora, a nationwide group […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – November 14, 2012) A State Duma deputy who was riled by the press for estimating the intellectual abilities of “the dumbest” of his colleagues above those of an average Russian, lamented the lack of control over journalists on Wednesday. Ilya Kovtunov, member of ruling United Russia party, tweeted his apologies but got […]
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(Alexander Bratersky – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 8, 2012) Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has ordered an investigation into claims in a television expose that opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov received funding from an ally of Georgia’s president and the former head of Bank of Moscow aimed at sowing discord in Russia. It was unclear Sunday what the investigation might […]
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Why I Lost My Right To Speak in the Duma – Ilya Ponomaryov- Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 1, 2012 – click here to read full text of original article Ilya Ponomaryov is a State Duma deputy with A Just Russia. Ilya Ponomaryov writes in his Moscow Times op-ed about being banned from speaking in the Russian State Duma […]
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – October 1, 2012 Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin did not attend Saturday’s reunification of his nationalist Rodina party, but the re-emergent bloc is likely to become his political vehicle, pundits and party insiders said. Alexei Zhuravlyov, a longtime Rogozin ally, was elected chairman of the party at a congress Saturday. He aims […]
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Yekaterina Kravtsova – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 24, 2012 The State Duma tentatively approved a bill on Friday to broaden the legal definition of high treason, seen by human rights groups as part of a continuing crackdown on foreign-funded organizations in Russia. While lawmakers contend that the bill would make the work of law enforcement authorities more effective, […]
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