(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Arina Obrazkova, RBTH – July 25, 2013) The document emphasizes various preventive measures, as well as cultural and educational events. The government of Russia has developed a special, 82-point plan to deal with inter-ethnic conflicts. Among the proposals put forth by ministers are: the funding of nonprofit organizations involved in the integration of […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 26, 2013) The upcoming Sept. 8 regional elections across Russia will be more competitive than the previous ones, amid declining public support for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, experts say. Despite compounded bureaucratic obstacles for the registration of candidates, ongoing regional election campaigns show an increased outflow of candidates from the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 28, 2013) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refuted rumors that the photo showing President Vladimir Putin pulling out a pike had been made before 2013. Runet users circulate rumors “for the lack of anything better to do in the summer time,” Peskov said in an interview with the Russian News Service on Sunday, commenting on reports […]
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(RIA Novosti – July 27, 2013) Vladislav Surkov, who left his posts as deputy prime minister and government chief of staff in early May, has no regrets and was not sacked but resigned, he has said in an interview. “I went of my own volition. That’s what it said in the presidential decree and that’s how it was,” he told […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – July 28, 2013) Aleksei Navalny has been called the best hope for liberalization in Russia. And he has been called the most dangerous man in the country. Navalny has risen quickly to become the de facto head of Russia’s anti-Kremlin opposition — a rise based almost entirely on his relentless exposure of high-level […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 25, 2013) Competition in the Russian economy is still weak, which is hindering the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the country, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday. “Our anti-monopoly legislation is quite strict, while competition is still weak,” Medvedev told a government meeting. The prime minister said problems remain on raw material […]
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(Pravda.ru – Margarita Troitsyna – July 24, 2013) On July 24, 1993, 20 years ago, the Central Bank of Russia announced the withdrawal of Soviet banknotes from circulation. From that day, Soviet cash was no longer valid on the territory of Russia. The reform was carried out to curb inflation in the country, but it caused huge panic in the […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 136 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Richard Arnold – July 24, 2013) The announcement by Vladimir Tor, the leader of the unregistered far-right National Democratic Party (NDP), that he will support anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny in the election for Moscow mayor (http://lenta.ru/news/2013/06/20/navalny/) may have gone unnoticed in the West, but it is one […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin running for reelection has reaffirmed his intention to do all he can to ensure that the mayoral elections scheduled for September 8 be truly honest. “We don’t need a victory at all costs. We need honest elections, I mean really honest elections,” Sobyanin said at a meeting with members […]
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(Interfax – July 23, 2013) According to an opinion poll carried out in Moscow on 20-21 July, only 9 per cent of those polled would vote for opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyy in the Moscow mayor election to be held on 8 September, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 23 July.(1) The figure has gone up 1 per cent since […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) A website, vybory.mos.ru, will go online soon to allow Muscovites to monitor the mayoral elections, Moscow’s IT Department head Artyom Yermolayev told the city government on Tuesday. “A technical scheme has been devised that will link up the video cameras intended for the police and housing utility services into an integrated video monitoring system, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) The trial of the alleged murderers of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya that is starting on Wednesday will be “patently illegitimate,” the journalist’s son and daughter said on Tuesday, refusing to attend the trial. “In our absence and that of our lawyers, the judge began to select jurors and approved the jury,” Ilya Politkovsky […]
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Subject: No. 133: Putin 3.0: The Economic Plan Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 From: “Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)” <newslist@isn.ch> RUSSIAN ANALYTICAL DIGEST Newsletter 18 July 2013/No. 133 PUTIN 3.0: THE ECONOMIC PLAN To download this issue please click here: http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2626 Analyses The Political Economy of Putin 3.0, by Peter Rutland, Middletown, CT Economic Growth and Strategies for Economic Development in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – July 22, 2013) The Russian government faces an uphill struggle to make underdeveloped regions more attractive for investors. Officials and business leaders disagree on the feasibility of a draft set of mandatory standards designed to improve the investment attractiveness of districts and towns, which are set to enter into force by 2014. […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 22, 2013) Head of research at the Higher School of Economics Yevgeniy Yasin has described the Russian government instruction placing heads of state companies under obligation to account for their income and spending on par with officials as “absolute piffle”. Instead of building these mechanisms, one should continue the course to privatization, the economist has […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, July 23, 2013) A year ago, Dmitry Travin, a professor at St. Petersburg’s European University, examined several possible trajectories for Russian development which he labeled the Polish, the Korean, the Mexican and the Russian, each of which he argued reflected radically different choices by the population and the elite. The Polish variant, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 20, 2013) Public service looks attractive to 55% of Russians, although 22% believe public officials have to agree to compromises with their conscience, a nationwide public opinion poll conducted by www.superjob.ru has shown. ‘Stable salary and powers,’ ‘maximum salary and minimum efforts – public service is a dream for any idler’, ‘you can take large bribes […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ksenia Galouchko & Vladimir Kuznetsov – July 22, 2013) The conviction of Alexey Navalny, a political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, highlights risks faced by investors as they weigh whether to buy assets in the world’s biggest energy exporter. Russia, which earned about $350 billion from oil and gas exports last year, has a Baa1 […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 19, 2013) Moscow Bar Association President Henri Reznik has called the release of opposition activist Alexei Navalny from custody with travel restrictions the day after his incarceration unprecedented. “I must tell you I cannot recall a similar situation. I cannot remember a single case of a prosecutors’ objection to the measures chosen by a court after […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 22, 2013) The Kremlin’s spokesman on Monday said President Vladimir Putin had played no role in opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s sudden release from jail last week. Navalny, who is running for mayor of Moscow, was taken into custody Thursday upon being sentenced to five years in prison for masterminding a 2009 embezzlement scheme that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – July 19, 2013) The Federal Property Management Agency is urging banks to give out loans to investors ready to purchase government assets as part of a new scheme to stimulate privatization, which has been slow to take off. The loans provided by the banks will be backed by the privatized companies’ shares, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 19, 2013) The Federal Tax Service has accused election watchdog Golos of not paying 2.28 million rubles ($70,200) in income taxes in 2009-10 on funding it received from USAID, in what rights activists see as the latest in a string of state attacks on independent observers. Auditors from Tax Inspectorate No. 9 concluded that […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 19, 2013) The head of one of the world’s largest transport companies, state-owned Russian Railways, this week dismissed as unfounded corruption allegations made against him by opposition protest leader Alexei Navalny, Prime news agency reported. In a blog post earlier in the week, Navalny published details of property and offshore companies that he claims are […]
» Read more(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) The Russian opposition will try to take advantage of Alexei Navalny’s conviction in pursuing its political ends, but protests against this will not be very significant, says Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst and a member of the Public Chamber. “Some actions have been prepared and will be held, but they will be very […]
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Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 From: Sergei Roy <SergeiRoy@yandex.ru> Subject: Will Russia Fall Apart? Will Russia Fall Apart? By Sergei Roy [former Editor-in-Chief, Moscow News] 1. In his book The Grand Chessboard Zbigniew Brzezinski replies to the question in the title of this article unequivocally yes, it certainly will, quite inevitably. In fact, he drew a sort of road […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 18, 2013) Russian senators said they proposed waiting for a superior court ruling on the case of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, sentenced in Kirov to five years, and that if there was a political component in the trial, then only that Navalny’s violations had been checked in priority. “It is not a fact that superior agencies […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Irina Reznik & Jason Corcoran – July 17, 2013) When Russian agents stormed the downtown offices of the Skolkovo technology hub being built near Moscow on April 18, a startled Intel Corp (INTC). executive got caught up in the raid. Dusty Robbins, head of global programs for the world’s largest chipmaker, was forced to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtime.com – Anatoly Medetsky – July 17, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday again said the Cabinet was slacking off. He blamed ministers for getting behind schedule in executing measures to develop the country’s Far East. “I’ll tell you what, dear friends, will you ever get to work or not? What is this?” Putin said, according to […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, July 17, 2013) Russians do not view the opposition as an alternative to those in power but rather as “an additional” but very weak “channel of communication” between themselves and the authorities, according to a new study prepared by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The basic conclusions […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Gogland Island – July 15, 2013) VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good evening! Where shall we start? NATALYA SOLOVYOVA: We are very happy to see you. And naturally, we would like for the head of the expedition to finally tell you about this island. VLADIMIR PUTIN: Please, go ahead. YEGOR BLOKHIN: My name is Yegor Blokhin. I am heading the Gogland […]
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(Kremlin.ru – July 15, 2013) Vladimir Putin visited Gogland Island in the Gulf of Finland, where he looked over a number of projects the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) is carrying out. The President attended a presentation of RGS’ Russia’s Marine Glory project and its deep-water research programme. The main goal behind these projects is to study and preserve Russia’s marine […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, July 17, 2013) Vladimir Putin’s “restorationist policy” is rapidly leading Russia to the abyss of a new totalitarianism, one in which political repression will spread across the entire society claiming ever new victims and ultimately Putin and his entourage as well, according to Vladimir Pastukhov, one of the most brilliant analysts of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jason Corcoran & Henry Meyer – July 17, 2013) Alexey Navalny faces possible imprisonment tomorrow in the highest-profile case against a critic of President Vladimir Putin since the prosecution of former oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. A judge in Kirov, 900 kilometers (560 miles) northeast of Moscow, will rule on charges that Navalny defrauded state-owned timber company […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – July 17, 2013) RFE/RL correspondent Tom Balmforth asked Moscow residents ahead of the verdict on July 18 what they expected in the embezzlement case against Aleksei Navalny. Here are some of their answers: Igor, 25, transportation sector “I think Navalny will be found guilty. It’s most likely a political case and possibly was initiated to stop […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – July 17, 2013) Six candidates will run for mayor of Moscow in the upcoming snap elections on September 8, Valentin Gorbunov, the chairman of the Moscow City Elections Commission, said on Wednesday, when the formal registration of candidates was concluded. Aside from Acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who formally resigned and called the […]
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(Interfax – YAROSLAVL, Russia. July 16, 2013) Supporters of the arrested mayor of Yaroslavl, Yevgeny Urlashov, have held a rally in the city on Tuesday. “We estimate that about 5,000 people took part in the rally,” one of the meeting organizers, Andrei Alexeyev, told Interfax. The head of the press service of the Yaroslavl regional police authority, Alexander Shikhanov, told […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 16, 2013) The pursuit of a better life is the primary cause of emigration from Russia, said 54% of respondents acquainted with prospective emigrants. Sixteen percent explained their emigration as a desire for self-actualization, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax. Five percent of prospective emigrants believe that life abroad is better organized and […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 15, 2013) The income of the CEO of state company Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais fell by 42.5 million rubles to 217.7 million rubles in 2012 from 260.2 million rubles a year earlier. Chubais’ income from his main place of work dropped to 20.55 million rubles from 22.4 million rubles, materials from the state company show. As of […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 16, 2013) President Vladimir Putin criticized the federal government and local authorities Tuesday over their failure to ensure effective development of Russia’s Far East, Rossiya 24 TV Channel reported. “Are you going to work, or what?” he asked participants at a development meeting for the Sakhalin region, which he said has everything needed to become […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yan Shenkman, RBTH – July 16, 2013) In the night between the 16th and 17th of July 1918 the family of Russia’s last Emperor, Nicolas II, was killed in Ekaterinburg. RBTH investigates the identities and lives of the killers of the tsar. Even now, 115 years after the murder of Russia’s last czar, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – July 16, 2013) [The Development of New Moscow One Year On chart here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/expectations-high-for-new-moscow-one-year-on/482838.html] A little over a year after the territory of the city of Moscow more than doubled in size, real estate prices are stabilizing, and expectations for improving infrastructure are high. On July 1, 2012, almost 150,000 hectares of […]
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(Interfax – GOGLAND ISLAND, Leningrad region, July 15, 2013) The reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences will have no negative impact on the work of the institute’s employees, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “Actually, nothing will change for those, who work in institutes,” Putin said on Monday when answering questions of participants of the archeological expedition Gogland 2013. Institutes […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief, July 15, 2013) The latest legislative initiative from the State Duma would award popular blogs the status of media outlets. I am using the word “award” somewhat ironically here. United Russia Deputy Sergei Zheleznyak, who saw himself and his family attacked in the blogosphere after it was revealed that his daughters […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 15, 2013) The Russian voter rights movement Golos (Voice) said it counted on receiving 14 million rubles from the state budget for its program whose aim is to increase public confidence in elections. “We have drafted a project, which is aimed at increasing society’s trust in the voting infrastructure and have written an application, which we […]
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(Interfax – July 16, 2013) It will be possible to watch voting during the early Moscow mayoral elections on September 8 on the Internet, same as during the presidential elections of 2012. “The next step in ensuring the transparency of elections will be the creation of a video surveillance system for regional elections,” acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, July 15, 2013) State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin believes that the spring session allowed the lower house of the Russian parliament to learn political lessons. “The past session was not easy, and, in some sense, it was a breakthrough session as far as both the amount of work and the political lessons learnt are concerned,” he said […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. July 15, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has rejected suggestions for dissolving the State Duma, arguing that disbanding Russia’s lower house of parliament would be “very dangerous for our country.” “A legitimately elected body of government must remain in rule for exactly the period that is set for this. The opposite is very dangerous for our country,” […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble Staunton, July 14, 2013) The Pugachev events like “a magic crystal” allow one to look into Russia’s future, a future that will involve either an authoritarian disintegration resembling that of the former Yugoslavia and likely extending over several years or a democratic one that could occur more quickly and easily, according to a Russian […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 12, 2013) The head of the Kremlin’s human rights council on Friday harshly criticized Russia’s lower chamber of parliament, the State Duma, for being too hasty in passing legislation. “The State Duma is currently approving bills in vast quantities. Recently, 56 laws were adopted at once,” Mikhail Fedotov told Russia’s Public Chamber, a regulatory body […]
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[Putin’s Decay – Gordon Hahn – Moscow Times – July 12, 2013 – http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/putins-decay/483044.html – Gordon Hahn, senior associate of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, is author of “Russia’s Revolution From Above” and “Russia’s Islamic Threat] In his Moscow Times Op-Ed, “Putin’s Decay,” Gordon Hahn of CSIS raises concern over what […]
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