MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has stressed the legal equality of all citizens of Russia regardless of their ethnic origin or religion. “More than 80% of our population are ethnic Russians, and they are without a doubt a nation-building people both culturally and simply from the point of view of demographics. But what makes Russia strong is […]
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(RIA Novosti/Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 6, 2013) Russia’s top brass are not immune from the same problems faced by ordinary Russians, it turns out, after the president and prime minister admitted to having rusty tap water from time to time. “Can you imagine: Even my tap water is sometimes rusty,” President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at a conference […]
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MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday during a televised interview that there were no problems in his relationship with President Vladimir Putin. “Everything’s OK between the president and me,” Medvedev said in response to a question about an apparent disagreement with Putin over the powers of criminal investigators. While Putin and Medvedev are close […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org –Brian Whitmore – December 5, 2013) The latest threat to Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule may be coming not from the Russian opposition but from the Ukrainian street. As tens of thousands continue to protest in Kyiv against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to scuttle a pact with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow, […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Dec 4 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin criticized the slow pace at which planned improvements to business conditions in Russia are being implemented. “Unfortunately, one-third of the measures in the approved road map have not been implemented on time. A whole host of proposals from business are stuck undergoing inter-ministerial coordination. Occasionally, the ministries propose limiting themselves to purely […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is convinced that the targets set by his decrees issued in May 2012 can still be achieved despite today’s recession and a slow pace of economic growth. “I am certain that we can and should fulfill them,” Putin said at the Russian Popular Front’s conference. “These decrees are […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 4, 2013) Vladimir Putin discussed the declaration of an amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of Russia’s Constitution at a meeting with Presidential Adviser and Chairman of the Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov and Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin. Also taking part in the meeting were Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 4, 2013) Polls not only reflect public opinion but help structure it as articles in the Moscow media this week about how the Kremlin and other power structures use them to promote their particular interests (novayagazeta.ru/columns/61233.html and km.ru/economics/2013/12/03/gazprom/726708-loyalnye-i-neloyalnye-vlasti-eksperty-komu-verit). That has left Russians and other observers of the Russian scene properly skeptical […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO, December 4 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his support for granting amnesty to perhaps tens of thousands of Russian prisoners in honor of the 20th anniversary of the country’s constitution. “I agree with your proposals in general,” Putin told the head of the Kremlin’s Human Rights Council, which had suggested the amnesty. “We are going […]
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MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the establishment of a new anti-corruption department in the presidential administration, according to a decree published Tuesday. The department will be responsible for monitoring current anti-corruption laws and suggesting legislative changes to counter corruption, the Kremlin said. Putin has appointed Oleg Plokhoi whose surname literally means “bad” […]
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(Interfax – December 3, 2013) Positive assessments of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s activities outweigh negative ones and Russian citizens note his considerable influence on the processes unfolding in the country and are ready to vote for him, sociologists said. Fifty-two percent of Russians have a favorable impression of Putin’s activities, 29 percent are displeased with his actions and 13 percent […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 2, 2013) QUESTION: Good evening, I realise that we are now in the capital of a brotherly republic, in Yerevan, one of my favourite cities, but I would like to ask a question about another capital that I like equally, about Kiev. Just recently there has been alarming news from there, and even calls for revolution. Accordingly, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – December 2, 2013) President Vladimir Putin visited Sochi’s main Olympic stadium near the Black Sea coast on Friday only to see construction workers and equipment still spread around the venue, which is still unfinished just more than two months before it will host the opening ceremony of the Winter Games. Originally supposed […]
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SOCHI. Nov 29 (Interfax) – The Russian state is spending huge money on modernizing its armed forces, and therefore all goals that have been set must be attained, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The overall volume of the [Defense] Ministry budget in 2003 was 600 billion rubles, and this year, following the last adjustment of the budget, the expenditures on […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 27, 2013) The average [monthly] salary of civilian employees in federal state bodies in January-September was R81,600 [just under 2,500 dollars at the current rate of exchange], which was 34.7 per cent up on the same period in 2012, a Rosstat [Federal State Statistics Service] press release says. The administration of the Russian president remains the […]
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MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) Time magazine said Thursday that it had shortlisted Russian President Vladimir Putin as a candidate for “person of the year,” a title awarded for having done the most to influence a year’s events, “for better or for worse.” Putin, who already received the title in 2007, has this year “locked horns with the US […]
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SOCHI. Nov 28 (Interfax) – The role of Russian President Vladimir Putin in global politics can go unnoticed solely by a “politically short-sighted” person, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said when commenting on rumors that Putin was in the rating of most influential people of 2013 of the Time magazine. “The year’s events were indeed abundant and one thing can […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Alexander Podrabinek – November 25, 2013) The participation of Russian opposition politician Vladimir Ryzhkov in a recent Kremlin meeting with Vladimir Putin has reignited the debate about whether it is acceptable for the democratic opposition to engage with the leader of an authoritarian regime. Author and human rights activist Alexander Podrabinek contends that […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Tatiana Stanovaya – November 25, 2013) Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin gave the police and security forces an opportunity to take revenge for their losses during Dmitri Medvedev’s presidency. Practically all of the initiatives of the former Russian president and current prime minister have been revised – a state of affairs that […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vardan Bagdasaryan, special to RBTH – November 27, 2013) Vardan Bagdasaryan is Deputy Director of Center for Scientific Political Thought and Ideology. There are various, culture-to-culture political consciousness types that exist. In Russia, a specific type has emerged historically. It is three-dimensional boyars, folks, and tsar. The matter is not in medieval […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin presented Pope Francis with an icon of Our Lady of Vladimir during a brief visit to the Vatican on Monday afternoon, which some observers hope could improve ties between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches. Putin and the pope spoke privately for 35 minutes in the hall of the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 26, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Monday proposed a measure aimed at mollifying a business community alarmed by a recent Kremlin-sponsored tax crime bill. The legislation, which earlier caused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to lose his poise and lash out in a rare public disagreement with his boss, would give employees […]
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Subject: No. 138: Putin’s Turn to Traditionalism/Nationalism Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 From: “Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)” <newslist@isn.ch> RUSSIAN ANALYTICAL DIGEST Newsletter 8 November 2013/No. 138 PUTIN’S TURN TO TRADITIONALISM/NATIONALISM To download this issue please click here: http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2759 Analyses Conservatism as the Kremlin’s New Toolkit: an Ideology at the Lowest Cost, by Marlene Laruelle, Washington. Putting Traditional Values into Practice: […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Nov 21 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he urged the government and experts to determine practical steps to ensure stable economic growth of the country. “The work on development tasks should be regular and systemic. Deep expert elaboration of our strategic guides, proposals on practice steps able to ensure stable development of the country and competiveness of […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – The actions of the Greenpeace environmentalists who tried to climb an oil platform in the Arctic posed a threat to the lives of the people who are working there, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “When they climb the platform and create an emergency situation, there could be not just one mistake of an operator but […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that no one is imprisoning anyone for their political views in Russia, but no one allowed to take actions that break the law. “No one is grabbing anyone and no one is imprisoning anyone for ideas, for political views, and we will never allow that. We will never go back […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 21, 2013) [Non-parliamentary] opposition parties’ leaders have welcomed yesterday’s [20 November] meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it was constructive and expressing hope for [positive] outcome. As the co-chairman of the RPR-Parnas party Vladimir Ryzhkov told Interfax, “the impressions from the meeting with the president are good”. “Some changes have been made for the first […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The Moscow Patriarchate expects Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican to give an additional impetus to relations between Orthodox people and Catholics. “We would like to hope that President Putin’s meeting with the Pope will help strengthen relations between Russia and the Vatican, as well as relations between the […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin does not rule out that his annual address to the Federal Assembly he plans to deliver in December might contain objectives not only for the coming year but for a more distant future. “I am holding a series of meetings with parliamentary factions and virtually with everyone, and this is related […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin is opposed to the nationalization of companies sold at loans-for-shares auctions at the end of the last century. At his meeting with representatives of nonparliamentary parties acting chairman of the Right Cause Vyacheslav Maratkanov invited owners of companies that were bought at such actions “with gross abuses” in the early 1990s “to […]
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(Kremlin.ru – The Kremlin, Moscow – November 20, 2013) [Complete transcript of meeting in Russian here http://www.kremlin.ru/news/19659] Vladimir Putin met with the leaders of non-parliamentary parties. Taking part in the meeting were representatives of Civic Platform, Communists of Russia, Right Cause, Patriots of Russia, the Republican Party of Russia Party of People’s Freedom, Motherland, Russian Party of Pensioners for […]
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MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) The Greenpeace activists detained in Russia over a protest at an Arctic oil rig should be granted clemency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday as 10 of them were released and many others granted bail. When asked to comment on their case at a meeting with Russian writers, publishers, critics and booksellers, Putin said […]
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(Interfax – November 20, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the liberalization of the Russian political system, the privately owned Russian television channel REN TV reported on 20 Nov on 20 November. Speaking at a meeting with the leaders of parties not represented in the Duma in Moscow, Putin said that although some people complained about the large number […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – November 21, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday met with leaders of major nonparliamentary parties for the first time in his 13 years in power, to discuss issues that will be addressed in his state-of-the-nation speech to be delivered next month. Participants in the meeting, who included billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov of Civil […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – D. Garrison Golubock – November 20, 2013) Moscow has a reputation for lines, yet even seasoned city dwellers were surprised to see the massive lines that formed in the first week of November in front of Manezh, snaking all the way to the State Historical Museum and then back around the other side of Manezh […]
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MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) Russian lawyers criticized the Kremlin on Tuesday in a rare display of public discontent, speaking against a court reform that would abolish what they called the most progressive branch of Russia’s judiciary. Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed in July to merge the Supreme Arbitration Court, which oversees business disputes, into the Supreme Court, which […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – November 19, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin is frustrated with the slow progress in his anti-corruption drive and struggling to take charge of the situation. Having ignored the problem for over a decade, the president has been forced to finally deal with the problem of graft, as Russia can […]
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MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) The proportion of Russians who consider themselves patriots has dropped by eight percent since President Vladimir Putin first took office 13 years ago, according to a new survey released by the independent Levada Center pollster Tuesday. Sixty-nine percent of respondents professed to be patriots in the poll held at the end of October, down […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vojtech Bohac – November 19, 2013) Although more than four years remain until the next presidential election, the ground is already taking shape and the first noises have been made about who might enter the 2018 race. But President Vladimir Putin will almost certainly win re-election if he decides that he wants to stay put, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin and Delphine d’Amora – November 18, 2013) While the Kremlin considers possible modifications to a bill that will restore investigators’ power to open tax fraud cases, lobbyists said small businesses and individual entrepreneurs, whose numbers are decreasing, are the ones most threatened by the legislation in its current form. The tempest centers on […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will give a press conference at noon on December 19, 2013, the Kremlin press service reported on Monday. The venue of the press conference and the admission procedures will be reported later. The accreditation and briefings department of the press service and information department has begun accreditation procedures for the press […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region – November 14, 2013) Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) Supervisory Board. Meeting participants discussed the creation of a good investment climate and the evaluation of new ASI-supported projects. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues, Today we are holding our final meeting this year. So I would […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has ruled out the possibility of restoring the practice where police were authorized to prosecute violators of tax laws. Putin, who was speaking at a meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency, was referring to proposals for changes to the Criminal Code to adjust it to the 2011 liberalization […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – November 15, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has reprimanded officials for discussing government issues in the mass media and suggested that those who oppose government policy had better leave their posts. The president was speaking Thursday at a meeting of the Strategic Initiatives Advisory Board when he was asked about a contentious bill […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO, near Moscow. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned it is unacceptable for senior government figures to discuss a planned decision with the media before it has been discussed in government. At a meeting of the supervisory board of the Strategic Initiatives Agency on Thursday, the president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sergei […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 15 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to fight corrupt officials regardless of their rank or any other factors that may hinder the effort. “We will in the most serious way … continue eradicating this infection regardless of position or party membership,” Putin said at a meeting of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, which is tasked […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 14, 2013) A group of academics from Moscow State University has begun collecting signatures in support of an open letter it wrote asking President Vladimir Putin to halt mass dismissals at Russia’s leading university. The letter, published on the University Solidarity website, says that the university’s administration has not received budget funds to raise […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – November 14, 2013) On November 2, President Vladimir Putin signed a controversial law changing Russia’s anti-terrorism legislation, enabling law enforcement authorities to confiscate the property of relatives of anyone who has committed a terror attack. The Moscow News has asked five experts to weigh in on whether the law will work and […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 13 (Interfax) – The rating of Russian President Vladimir Putin does not decrease and is approximately 60%, the Kremlin said. “If we were to speak about President Putin, then we would say that Putin has an objective rating because they write whatever they want about him in social networks, all liberal media outlets write about him and however […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region, November 12, 2013) In the run-up to Vladimir Putin’s official visit to the Republic of Korea, the President gave an interview to South Korean television and radio company KBS. The interview was recorded on November 7. KYUSUN YEON: First of all, I would like to thank you for taking time for this interview out of […]
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