(Interfax – August 19, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with members of the presidential human rights council on September 3, the newspaper Vedomosti reported, citing sources with knowledge on the matter, on Monday. Putin was earlier scheduled to meet with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama in Moscow on September 3. Mikhail Fedotov, chairman of the human rights council […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – August 16, 2013) The cancellation of the bilateral meeting between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin that had been scheduled for next month is being seen as a long-awaited acknowledgment from the White House that its “reset” policy had failed. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Stepan Kravchenko – August 14, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has opened Moscow’s first detention camp for illegal immigrants as migrants become the main concern among voters preparing for the city’s first mayoral election since 2003. The tarpaulin tents for 600 people, surrounded by an eight-meter (26 feet) fence, signal the campaign for […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Daniil Kotsyubinsky – August 13, 2013) Daniil Kotsyubinsky is a Russian historian and journalist based in St. Petersburg For the past month, Moscow has been following the fortunes of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny trial, imprisonment, implausible release and continuing Mayoral ambitions. But can all really be as it seems? Daniil Kotsyubinsky presents an alternative view. Moscow’s hot […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Tatiana Stanovaya – August 13, 2013) The issues of internal migration and relations between Russians and “newcomers” from the Russian southern regions have become major problems in the country. Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya talks about whether the government has a strategy with regard to such issues. In July, an acute crisis broke out […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 14, 2013) President Vladimir Putin met with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Tuesday in what proved to be a fruitful visit, but one which led some to express caution about Russia’s influence in the republic. The visit came just a few weeks before presidential elections are set to […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 13, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a one-day working visit to Azerbaijan to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues, including trade, energy and transportation, a presidential aide said. The talks are expected to result in the signing of several agreements, including a document on cooperation between emergencies ministries. “The presidents will […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 12, 2013) The Kremlin’s centralized control over executive power in Russia facilitates graft, the majority of respondents in a new nationwide poll released Monday said. Forty-one percent of respondents in a new poll by independent Levada Center say that the “power vertical” which brings regional and municipal authorities under the federal government’s close control […]
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(Interfax – August 8, 2013) A number of political analysts interviewed by Interfax are of the view that U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel his one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September will not be followed by Washington’s skipping other forums hosted by Moscow, and the situation itself will be played down. “In this situation, the matter […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 9, 2013) The number of Russians who are disappointed in President Vladimir Putin has more than doubled since his first year in power, according to the latest in a series of nationwide polls that started in 2000. Twenty-two percent of respondents professed disappointment in the country’s long-standing leader last month, compared to 10 percent […]
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(The White House – Office of the Press Secretary – NBC Studios – Burbank, California – August 7, 2013) For Immediate Release Q Now, were you surprised that Russia granted Snowden asylum? THE PRESIDENT: I was disappointed because even though we don’t have an extradition treaty with them, traditionally we have tried to respect if there’s a law-breaker or an […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Terry Atlas & Margaret Talev – August 8, 2013) President Barack Obama’s decision to snub Russian President Vladimir Putin sends their relationship to a new low. In effect, Obama is replacing his effort to “reset” relations between the two nations with Cold War-style realpolitik, after a series of Russian actions contrary to U.S. interests. Even before […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 145 – Roger McDermott – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – August 6, 2013) Moscow’s highly ambitious military rearmament plans to 2020 always appeared destined to encounter major setbacks linked to the capacity of the domestic defense industry to deliver the modernization of weapons and equipment for the Armed Forces. However, on July 31, within […]
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(Kremlin.ru – August 2, 2013) Vladimir Putin visited the Seliger 2013 National Youth Education Forum, taking place in Tver Region on July 14-August 5. The President met with the Seliger-2013 forum participants and examined the best youth projects and public initiatives. This was Vladimir Putin’s fourth visit to Seliger. He previously visited the forum in 2009, 2011, and 2012. Seliger […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 5, 2013) Russia has not received any official notification that US President Barack Obama intends to cancel a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month, Putin’s spokesman said Monday. “We haven’t received any changes, or any notifications. We don’t, therefore, have any information,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told Russian […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 4, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s love of sport means that, from a medical point of view, he is “much younger than his age,” the Kremlin’s chief doctor, Sergei Mironov, said in an interview to be published Monday. “He is a very sporty person. Not everyone at such a mature age starts to play […]
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(Interfax – SELIGER, Tver region, August 2, 2013) The attempts to plunge Russia into chaos will lead to the situation as in some Middle Eastern countries and Russia does not need new priests Gapons (Georgy Gapon was a Russian priest and a popular working class leader before the Russian Revolution of 1905), Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Seliger […]
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(Kremlin.ru – August 2, 2013) Vladimir Putin visited the Seliger 2013 National Youth Education Forum, taking place in Tver Region on July 14-August 5. The President met with the Seliger-2013 forum participants and examined the best youth projects and public initiatives. This was Vladimir Putin’s fourth visit to Seliger. He previously visited the forum in 2009, 2011, and 2012. Seliger […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 5, 2013) Four environmental activists in southern Russia have been given lengthy jail terms for extorting money from a real estate developer, though they denied the accusations, Russian media reported. Four employees of the Gelendzhik Human Rights Center in the Krasnodar Region were given jail terms of between eight and 13 years in a […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov & Olga Tanas – August 2, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing his gamesmanship on a global stage by giving his voters what they want with the asylum granted to ex-U.S. contractor Edward Snowden, while leaving the White House flustered. The decision is backed by almost twice as many Russians as those against […]
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(Interfax – SELIGER, Tver region, August 2, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he did not intend to end his political career for now but, in any case, when the moment came, he would continue doing public work. “I hope it is not finished yet,” Putin said at the youth camp Seliger when asked what he would do after ending […]
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(Interfax – SELIGER, Tver region, Aug 2, 2013) The main problems in Russia are corruption, low incomes of citizens and insufficient infrastructure development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The first issue and first problem is the fight against corruption, which is eating our society and state system. The second issue – and all this is interrelated – is low incomes […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 2, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that a recent real jail term for his vehement opponent Alexei Navalny was “strange,” given that another defendant in the case got away with a suspended sentence. Whistleblowing blogger Navalny was given five years in jail last month on embezzlement charges that he dismissed as fabricated by […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Terry Atlas & Nicole Gaouette – Aug. 2, 2013) Russia’s decision to grant temporary asylum to fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is a blow to President Barack Obama’s desire to “reset” U.S. relations with its Cold War enemy. The Russian action yesterday puts in doubt a summit planned for next month between Obama and […]
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( RIA Novosti – Simon Saradzhyan, researcher at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center – Aug. 1, 2013) So Snowden has left the building. The NSA leaker’s departure from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, for an undisclosed location in Russia, on Thursday is turning into a real blessing for the US-Russian relationship. It may sound perverse, but both Barack Obama, and, to a […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyana – July 30, 2013) When asked to rate President Vladimir Putin’s work as good or bad, over 60 percent of Muscovites gave a positive answer, a recent poll says. When asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical presidential election this week, 54 percent of Muscovites said they would vote for Putin, […]
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(Moscow News – Anna Arutunyan, Editor and Correspondent at themoscownews.com – July 29, 2013) It’s late July, and that can only mean one thing: Potemkin Tales takes on its favorite subject – primordial myth. When it’s warm outside, the Russian president never fails to give fodder for armchair anthropology. The idea that is central both to politics and the Potemkin […]
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(Kremlin.ru – July 27, 2013) Vladimir Putin took part in the conference called Orthodox-Slavic Values: The Foundation of Ukraine’s Civilisational Choice. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends, I just said goodbye before to President of Ukraine Mr Yanukovych. You also sent him your best wishes. Unfortunately, he has a strict schedule with a lot of events to attend: […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – July 29, 2013) State television on Friday showed President Vladimir Putin catching a 21-kilogram pike in a Siberian lake and kissing it, in what analysts say was a publicity stunt meant to portray Putin as a strong leader capable of re-election in 2018 and bloggers say was pure fiction. The footage, said […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, July 26, 2013) Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has thanked Russian leaders represented by President Vladimir Putin for their respectful attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church. “We have been developing church-state relations since 2000. This model was not handed down from the above and its outlines – mutual respect, non-interference in each other’s affairs and, […]
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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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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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(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 – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor of The Moscow Times – July 19, 2013) When Edward Snowden, with the assistance of his curators in the Russian government, held his makeshift news conference last Friday in Sheremetyevo Airport’s transit zone, it was no surprise that pro-Kremlin opinion makers dominated the short, invitation-only list of attendees. Among them […]
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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 […]
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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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(Kremlin.ru – July 17, 2013) [excerpt re: Snowden] QUESTION: Mr President, I want to ask about [Edward] Snowden. What happened with [Bolivian President Evo] Morales showed that the White House will stop short of nothing in this case. Aren’t you worried that it might jeopardise the upcoming Russian-American summit? Also, it seems that the biggest question now is how you […]
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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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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – RFE/RL’s Russian Service – July 16, 2013) Amid an apparent split in the ranks, the feminist punk performance-art group Pussy Riot has released a new music video lashing out at the oil industry; Igor Sechin, the head of Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft; and others. Copies of the video were released to RFE/RL on July 16 […]
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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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(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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[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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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 11, 2013) Parties represented in the State Duma and (regional) legislative assemblies, rather than just the victorious party in regional elections, will have the right to nominate gubernatorial candidates to the president in the regions that have decided not to hold direct elections (for regional governors), says the president’s degree published on the official portal […]
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(Interfax – July 11, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said he hopes the upcoming visits of US President Barack Obama and US Vice-President Joe Biden to Russia will strengthen Russian-US economic ties. He was speaking at the Innoprom industrial trade fair in Yekaterinburg on 11 July, as reported by Russian privately-owned Interfax news agency. “I hope that the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 10, 2013) Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg has denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he has known for a long time, helps him solve his business problems. “Vladimir Vladimirovich and I started training in sambo wrestling when I was a little over 13 and he a little over 12. Our acquaintance goes back to that time, […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – July 11, 2013) The mood for protest has shifted from Moscow to the regions as Russia’s economy slows, according to the Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow. Approval ratings for President Vladimir Putin, 60, have stabilized, and he’s now more popular in the capital than in the rest of Russia, according to the […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Anton Doroshev & Ilya Arkhipov – June 9, 2013) Police, judges and lawmakers, as well as bureaucrats, are seen in Russia as the most corrupt groups, fueling popular discontent with the government, according to a global survey by Transparency International. Five percent of Russian respondents rated President Vladimir Putin’s anti-corruption campaign as effective, a sharp drop […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stepan Kravchenko, Evgenia Pismennaya & Irina Reznik – July 10, 2013) Josef Stalin built a massive luxury apartment compound across the river from the Kremlin to both reward and spy on his closest comrades. The one Vladimir Putin built for his clique is smaller and harder to find. Tucked among a warren of Soviet-era structures about […]
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