Moscow Court Orders Release of Opposition-Backed Businessman

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 31, 2013) ­ Moscow’s City Court ordered the release from prison on Friday of a businessman whose freedom was among the demands of the recent opposition rallies in the Russian capital. Alexei Kozlov was given eight years in prison in 2009 for fraud and “legalization of stolen property,” or the use of illegally obtained property […]

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Prison or presidency for ‘Russia’s Kennedy’? [re: Navalny]

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(opendemocracy.net – Ekaterina Loushnikov – May 25, 2013) Ekaterina Loushnikova is radio and print journalist based in the city of Kirov Charismatic opposition leader Aleksey Navalny is on trial in the provincial capital of Kirov, 900km from Moscow. He is controversially accused of stealing timber worth 16 million roubles in 2009; if found guilty, he will spend his next few […]

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Amnesty Report Slams ‘Repressive Legislation’

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 23, 2013) Amnesty International said Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin was marked by large-scale attacks on freedom of assembly and of expression, resulting in a large number of politically motivated criminal cases and repressive legislation. “Two new laws and 11 amendments to current legislation were made last year amid broadly weakened dissent,” head […]

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Navalny Defense Aided by Kirov Governor Testimony

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(RIA Novosti – KIROV, May 22, 2013) ­ Russia’s beleaguered opposition figurehead, Alexei Navalny, was given a boost in his fight against controversial embezzlement charges on Wednesday when a regional governor testified in his favor. Navalny and a former political ally, Kirov businessman Pyotr Ofitserov, are charged with heading a criminal group that investigators say embezzled 16 million rubles’ ($500,000) […]

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The incompetent many or the corrupt few?

Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(opendemocracy.net – Grigorii Golosov – May 20, 2013) Grigorii Golosov is Professor of Political Science, Project Director, Center for Democracy and Human Rights Helix, St. Petersburg Recent protest rallies and continuing opposition sentiment have provoked the Kremlin into reform.  The first part of the process sees the partial return of regional governor elections, abandoned nine years ago in favour of […]

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Witness in Navalny Trial Backs Prosecutors’ Allegations

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – May 16, 2013) A witness in the trial on large-scale embezzlement charges against opposition blogger Alexei Navalny testified Thursday that the defendant had offered a disadvantageous contract to a state company that he is accused of defrauding. Larisa Bastrygina, deputy director of KirovLes, told the Leninsky District Court in Kirov that Navalny, […]

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Russian high-profile innovations centre insists it does not fund opposition

Skolkovo File Photo

(Interfax – May 15, 2013) The head of the Skolkovo Foundation, tycoon Viktor Vekselberg, has denied reports that the innovations centre has been financing the opposition in Russia, privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 15 May. Asked by journalists whether the Skolkovo Foundation may have been involved in financing the opposition movement in Russia, he said: “No, it is categorically […]

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Russian opposition tries to hold on despite challenges

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Stanislav Kuvaldin, special to RBTH – May 8, 2013) While the government has succeeded in isolating its most vocal opponents, the opposition itself is driving other activists away due to its lack of organization. The Russian opposition held a rally on May 6 to mark the anniversary of last year’s mass protests at […]

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May 5 protest action is aimed as provocation

Moscow Protest file photo

(Interfax – May 3, 2013) The opposition forces who are organizing a rally in Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow on May 6 have accused the organizing committee of a protest, which is expected to take place in the same venue on May 5, of planning a provocation. “Our organizing committee has a strongly negative attitude to the May 5 protest action. […]

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Navalny Again Calls for an End to Russian Federalism

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 28, 2013) Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny says that Russia does not need federalism and should become a unitary state in which cities rather than the current federal subjects would be the fundamental political link between individual Russian citizens and the Russian state. In an interview published in the May issue […]

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Interfax: Most Russians’ attitude to opposition activist Navalnyy is negative – poll

File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Interfax – Moscow, April 23, 2013) Aleksey Navalnyy, one of the leaders of the Russian non-establishment opposition, is known to this or that degree to 53 per cent of Russians and 51 per cent perceive him negatively, VTsIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Centre) pollsters have told Interfax news agency presenting the results of their study. According to the VTsIOM, Navalnyy […]

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Navalny’s Request For Further Trial Delay Rejected

Alexei Navalny file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 23, 2013) KIROV, Russia — A court in Russia’s Kirov Oblast has rejected a request from anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny for a further delay in his trial. Navalny had asked for more time for his lawyers to examine the 28 volumes of documents associated with his case. Navalny is accused of being involved in the […]

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Whistle-Blower’s Case Revives Concerns Of Punitive Psychiatry In Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – April 18, 2013 – Robert Coalson) The whole process took less than an hour. At 10:26 a.m. on March 18, Lyudmila Popkova was handed a piece of paper ordering her to appear before Moscow Judge Tatyana Neverova. At 11 a.m. the same day. Hustled off to court by investigators, Popkova spent 15 minutes in front of […]

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Apathy in evidence as Russia opposition activist Navalny goes on trial

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – April 17, 2013) “A case against Navalny is a case against all of us,” insist the friends and supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is due to go on trial for corruption in the regional city of Kirov on April 17. Unfortunately, many other Russians appear not to […]

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Russian opposition leader Navalnyy publishes his income declaration

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, April 16, 2013) Opposition representative Aleksandr Navalnyy has published his income declaration for the year 2012, according to which his income from his work as a lawyer amounted to nearly R7.5m (about 183,000 dollars). Navalnyy posted his declaration on his webpage in Live Journal (http://navalny.livejournal.com/789792.html). According to the documents, the income from his activities as a lawyer […]

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Case Against Russia’s ‘Bolotnaya’ Protesters Gathers Steam

Russian Riot Police file photo

(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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Russians Want Stability Even If Things Are Not Going Well, Polls Show

Map of Russia

(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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Navalny’s Taunts Led to ‘Speedy’ Investigation

Alexei Navalny file photo

(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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No conditions for Putin’s cooperation with irreconcilable opposition – Peskov

Vladimir Putin file photo

(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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Dozens in ‘Risk Group’ over Moscow Riots Case – Opposition

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(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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Coming clean: As Navalny’s trial looms, it’s time for a reality check

Alexei Navalny file photo

(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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Protest Movement Inspires a Flood of Anti-Kremlin Art

Moscow Protest file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – April 8, 2013) “Do you dare come to the square where the regiments are waiting … between the Senate and Synod?” These lines, though written by Russian poet Alexander Galich in 1968 about the Decembrist revolt of 1825 on St. Petersburg’s Senatskaya Ploshchad, express the spirit of the art inspired by Russia’s […]

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Documentary Series Shows ‘Hairs and Wrinkles’ of Opposition Leaders

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 8, 2013) Anti-Kremlin leader Alexei Navalny walks methodically past a crowd of protesters standing behind metal barricades on Bolotnaya Ploshchad, heading for a stage. Two baby-faced police officers step out of his way, blank expressions on their faces. “We’re with you,” a man in sunglasses says to Navalny. “Thanks,” Navalny answers […]

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Blogger Navalny floats presidential ambitions ahead of trial

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 5, 2013) Oppositionist blogger Alexei Navalny has revealed he wants to be president, with a trial less than two weeks away that could jail him for up to 10 years on embezzlement charges. “I want to become president,” Navalny said in an interview with the independent Dozhd TV late Thursday evening. […]

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Russian poll shows prominent opposition activist gaining recognition

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, April 4, 2013) Opposition activist and blogger Aleksey Navalnyy is becoming increasingly known among the Russians, however his rating among the electorate is going down and less countrymen believe him, a sociologist survey has shown. In April 2011, Navalnyy was practically unknown to his countrymen – 94 per cent of people confirmed this to sociologists, whereas in […]

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Court Sets Date for Navalny Embezzlement Case

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – April 4, 2013) A Kirov court on Wednesday set a date to begin hearing a criminal case against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who describes as “absurd” the charge that he embezzled $515,000 from a state timber company several years ago. Navalny’s lawyers had asked Kirov’s Leninsky District Court to arrange preliminary hearings […]

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Raids on opposition spread to regions

Map of Russia

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 2, 2013) Russian law enforcement authorities have widened their search for opposition figures involved in the violent May 6 protest rally last year, with a series of raids in at least four regional cities, activists said. The raids were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the violence that broke out […]

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Russia Needs Standard Approach to Teaching History – Putin

File Photo of U.S. Diplomat Teaching Class to Russian Students

ROSTOV-ON-DON, March 29 (RIA Novosti) ­ President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia needs a unified, standard approach to teaching history. “I fully agree that there should be a canonical version of our history,” Putin said Friday while meeting with his campaigners from the All-Russia People’s Front. He acknowledged that there are different opinions concerning history textbooks in high schools, […]

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A Bad Example

Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(Institute of Modern Russia – www.imrussia.org – Alexander Podrabinek – March 21, 2013) Despite their mutual aversion, the Russian government and the Russian opposition have one common trait­a tendency to oversimplify the image of their enemy for propagandistic purposes. Author and analyst Alexander Podrabinek argues that the opposition is making a grave mistake when it focuses all its efforts just […]

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At Putin’s Order, FSB Now Using Social Networks to Target Opposition

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 12, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-at-putins-order-fsb.html) At the direction of President Vladimir Putin, the FSB is not only monitoring social networks but using one of their features to create problems for those opponents of the regime who use them by posting statements on their sites and then invoking the appearance of those materials […]

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“Moscow Trials” Puts Art on Trial, Trials in Art

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – March 11, 2013) Journalist and theater director Mikhail Kaluzhsky called it a “theatrical slam.” Olga Shakina, a journalist from the Dozhd television channel, said it was a moment when “one theatrical event replaced another.” What they were discussing on Saturday on Echo Moskvy radio was a now-notorious performance of “Moscow Trials,” a […]

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Now That The Thaw Is Over

File Photo of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin with Heads Bowed Over Microphone

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 14, 2013) Does anybody remember Skolkovo? What seems like eons ago, back when iPads were still must-have gadgets for the Russian elite, the scientific and technological center was the showcase project in Dmitry Medvedev’s efforts to modernize the country’s economy to make it less dependent on oil and gas. Well Skolkovo is back […]

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Opposition Leader Udaltsov Put Under House Arrest

Sergei Udaltsov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova and Oleg Sukhov – February 11, 2013) A Moscow court on Saturday placed outspoken leftist opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov under house arrest in connection with criminal charges that he orchestrated anti-government riots last year. The ruling marks the first time since the rise of the opposition movement in December 2011 following disputed State […]

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Navalny Ally’s Apartment Raided

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – February  8, 2013) Investigators on Thursday raided the apartment of Vladimir Ashurkov, director of the Foundation for Fighting Corruption and an anti-Kremlin activist, in connection with a criminal case against opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Navalny, who started the foundation, is accused of stealing 100 million rubles ($3.3 million) from the now-defunct Union […]

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NEWSLINK: Russian state TV talk show discusses controversial State Duma bills

Kremlin and St. Basil's

[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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Liberal governor advised by Navalny has office searched; Firebrand opposition leader Alexei Navalny may be linked to the investigation into Nikita Belykh, the head of the Kirov region.

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva – January 29, 2013) The office of Kirov Governor Nikita Belykh was searched by investigators Tuesday in a probe into the privatization of a local vodka factory, which investigators claim was sold for a below-market price in 2010. Prominent opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who served as an adviser […]

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Party Conflict Highlights Divisions in Opposition

Map of Russia

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – January 25, 2013) The social-democratic Just Russia party issued an ultimatum Thursday to four members who are leaders in the anti-Kremlin protest movement, warning them to quit leadership roles in other organizations or face dismissal from the party. The demand threatens to further weaken and divide the already splintered opposition, which is […]

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Authorities Trying to ‘Break’ Putin Foe Razvozzhayev – Lawyer

Leonid Razvozzhayev file photo with hand to ear, as if holding cellphone

MOSCOW, January 24 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) ­ Prison officials in East Siberia are attempting to force a protest movement figure, charged with seeking to violently overthrow President Vladimir Putin, to implicate himself and others in the alleged plot, his lawyer told RIA Novosti on Thursday. Leonid Razvozzhayev, a leftist activist, was transferred from Moscow to a pre-trial detention center […]

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Russian Political Party Logos: Any Takers For ‘Skunk’ Or ‘Hamster’?

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – January 22, 2013) Russian politics is so inclusive, pluralist, and teeming with new political parties that each party should adopt an animal as its insignia to make it easier for overwhelmed voters to remember which party is which. This is the solution put forward by Aleksandr Sidyakin, a 35-year old United Russia parliamentary deputy, to […]

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Real Opposition to the Authorities is in the Provinces, Lipetsk Writer Says

Map of Russia

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 19 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-real-opposition-to.html) The “real opposition” to the powers that be is not in Moscow but in the provinces, a Lipetsk writer says, because in Moscow, opposition figures simply want to replace one ruler with another while in the provinces people want the authorities whoever they are to play an ever-smaller […]

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Russian Opposition Plans Next Mass Protest In Spring

Moscow Protest file photo

(RIA Novosti – January 20, 2013) The opposition Coordination Council has decided to hold the next mass protest march in spring, Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported on 20 January. Twenty-six members of the Coordination Council voted for the proposal “to hold a nationwide mass protest in spring 2013, with the working title March against the Hangmen”. The exact date […]

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Opposition Figures’ Legal Woes Mount

Leonid Razvozzhayev file photo with hand to ear, as if holding cellphone

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – January 21, 2013) Two opposition figures saw their legal troubles mount on Friday, as investigators pressed ahead with an embezzlement charge against protest leader Alexei Navalny and opened a criminal case into allegations that leftist activist Leonid Razvozzhayev falsely maligned them. Investigators presented the final version of a charge against Navalny that […]

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Navalny says prosecution aims to bar him from elections

Alexei Navalny file photo

MOSCOW. Jan 18 (Interfax) – Opposition campaigner Alexei Navalny said his prosecution in the fraud case connected with the Kirovles logging company is part of the law enforcement services’ plan to obstruct his political activities and prevent him from running in elections. “The goal is to obstruct my political activities and to prevent my running in elections, all of which […]

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Investigators Open New Case Against Putin Foe

Leonid Razvozzhayev file photo with hand to ear, as if holding cellphone

MOSCOW/IRKUTSK, January 18 (RIA Novosti) ­ Investigators opened a new criminal case against opposition activist Leonid Razvozzhayev on Friday and denied media reports of his disappearance. Investigators accuse the activist of spreading false information, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told RIA Novosti on Friday, stemming from Razvozzhayev’s continuing claims that he was tortured into confessing his role in organizing mass […]

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‘Final’ Charges Brought against Opposition Figure Navalny

Alexei Navalny file photo

MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) – Final charges in a grand embezzlement case have been brought against Russian opposition figurehead Alexei Navalny, the Investigative Committee said on Friday. Navalny has refused to testify, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, adding the investigation into the case “is nearing completion.” Navalny has been charged with “organizing embezzlement on a grand scale” and faces […]

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Opposition Activist Charged with Coup Plot Sent to Siberia

Leonid Razvozzhayev file photo with hand to ear, as if holding cellphone

MOSCOW, January 9 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) ­ A leftist activist charged with plotting to overthrow President Vladimir Putin was sent on Wednesday from the central Russia holding cell where he had spent the New Year holidays to Siberia, prison officials said. Left Front activist Leonid Razvozzhayev’s lawyer told RIA Novosti he had not been informed that his client was […]

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NEWSLINK: In Ex-Soviet States, Russian Spy Tech Still Watches You

FSB Headquarters Building file photo

[In Ex-Soviet States, Russian Spy Tech Still Watches You – wired.com – Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan – December 21, 2012 – http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/russias-hand/all/] Wired.com reports on Russian security services spying on citizens, with the Russian legal system deeming citizen activities such as opposition protests to be extremist and a justification for surveillance: On November 12, the Russian Supreme Court okayed […]

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Putin accuses opposition of lack of agenda

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has accused Russia’s opposition of destructive ambitions and a lack of constructive agenda. “They should have their agenda, their proposals for solutions to problems that face the country. In this sense, I very much expect that, after the law on the freedom of registration of political parties comes out, political struggles will […]

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Soul-Searching Starts After Puny Rally

Map of Russia

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 17, 2012) Hundreds of protesters braved subfreezing temperatures and the threat of detention on Saturday to voice a wide range of grievances against President Vladimir Putin’s government in the first major demonstration to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the street protest movement. But the event was the smallest major demonstration since […]

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Russian opposition figures deny attending subversive seminar abroad

Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

(Interfax – Dec. 11, 2012) Sources for Russian opposition activists being questioned about an alleged plot to incite mass disorder have denied that they went to Lithuania to be taught how to seize power, Interfax news agency reported on 11 December (see “Russian investigators question new witnesses in coup plot case”, published by BBC Monitoring on 11 December). The whole […]

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