(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stephen Bierman – January 2, 2014) As Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin argue over human rights in Russia and the fate of fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, the countries’ biggest oil companies are preparing to drill for giant discoveries together in the Arctic Ocean. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM:US) and OAO Rosneft (ROSN) are set to […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 2, 2013) Official identification of one of the terrorist bombers in Volgograd as an ethnic Russian from Mari El who converted to Islam and fought on the side of the militants in Daghestan has attracted attention to a trend that most Russians have been reluctant to discuss: the growing number of […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stephen Bierman – January 2, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin called for increased security across the world’s largest country after a pair of suicide bombings killed more than 30 people before the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in February. Authorities have detained more than 700 people as officers, including teams with search dogs, investigate the attacks on […]
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(Interfax – January 2, 2014) It is possible to make progress on Russia-U.S. relations in 2014 only if there is a will of both leaderships, a Russian policy expert said. “For now I do not see any serious prerequisites for improving the relations in the upcoming year. On the other hand, everything depends on the presidents; if Barack Obama and/or […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Khrennikov – November 29, 2013) Sergey Galitskiy took less than two decades to build OAO Magnit (MGNT) from scratch into Russia’s retail leader. With the wealth that’s brought him, the billionaire is training local kids to challenge the country’s soccer elite. Galitskiy, 46, created FC Krasnodar in 2008 and since then has spent more than […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – James Ellingworth, special to RBTH – December 26, 2013) For Russian sports fans, 2013 was all about looking ahead to next year – and the future’s bright If you struggled to wait for Santa Claus, spare a thought for Russian sports fans – their whole 2013 has been like an extended Christmas Eve, […]
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(Pravda.ru – Nadezhda Alexeeva – December 17, 2013) Previously, Russian village life used to be associated with rosy village women, fresh air and clean snow. Nowadays, village life in the minds of many Russians brings up such associations as rickety black huts, deserted villages, bad roads, or their absence. What crippled the Russian village? Russia was traditionally considered an agrarian […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 1, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s “conservatism” is a combination of the ideas of the Russian radical right of the early 20th century and Stalin’s notions of “traditional values” which the dictator used to cover repression and fool the west, according to a Moscow commentator. In short, Pavel Protsenko argues in “Yezhednevny […]
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(Pravda.ru – Nadezhda Alexeeva – December 25, 2013) Do the Russians know the laws? Are they able to defend their rights in court? Are they aware of their constitutional rights? It seems that the level of legal culture in Russia is not particularly high, and even the officials do not read the Constitution. What is behind this legal nihilism, and […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitriy Romendik, RBTH – January 1, 2014) During the holidays, a morning hangover can ruin your day. There are many remedies in the world for a hangover, but Russians swear by theirs. A folk wisdom says “What is good for a Russian in the evening, is bad for him in the morning.” This […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – January 1, 2014) Russians are traditionally viewed as being harsh and unconcerned about their bodies, but it turns out that this is far from reality. Russians reacted vehemently when the artist Pyotr Pavlensky nailed his genitals to a cobblestone in Moscow’s Red Square in an act of protest last […]
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(PONARS. Eurasia – ponarseurasia.org – Polina Sinovets, Associate Professor. Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University – December 20, 2013) [Footnotes here http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/why-russia-undermines-norm-nuclear-disarmament] Russia is one of the founding fathers of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and continues to play a major role in its framework today. Together with the United States, Moscow plays an important role in keeping the regime intact, […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – Russia is looking to study oil and gas prospects as it prepares to extend its Arctic shelf borders. Subsurface resources agency Rosnedra has already announced – on the state procurement portal – a tender for the selection of an outfit to evaluate the prospects of oil and gas fields on Russia’s continental shelf beyond the […]
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KYIV. Dec 31 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Rybak have congratulated fellow citizens with the New Year and Christmas. The prime minister recalled the main socioeconomic and political events of the outgoing year and said that the year was complicated but certain achievements were still made. “We averted devaluation of the national currency […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 31, 2013) Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov has said that the scenario of NATO’s Steadfast Jazz 2013 military exercise which took place on 2-9 November has “surprised” Moscow. He made the statement in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published on 31 December. In the same interview he also spoke about the […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 1, 2014) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Dear Friends, This year, on June 4-5, 2014, Russia is hosting the 40th G8 Summit in Sochi. Russia plans to present our partners with an ample agenda for frank and substantive discussion so as to most importantly arrive at concrete decisions. We see that the world has not […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 31. (Interfax) – Russia had 6.5% inflation in 2013, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said, quoting preliminary figures. December inflation decelerated to 0.5%, from 0.6% in November. Inflation for the year was below the 6.6% seen in 2012. Russia had 6.1% inflation in 2011 and 8.8% in 2010 and 2009. December inflation was in line with the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – Russian Popular Front Central Council member, head of the inter-faction group for interaction between civil society, police and security services Mikhail Starshinov (United Russia) has proposed a number of operative measures regarding the Volgograd terror attacks. “I am confident that we need to increase the number of investigators, especially in the North Caucasus, and to […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – January 1, 2014) At a press conference back in September, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a seemingly throwaway remark that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid outside military intervention by giving up all his chemical weapons. The same day, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin seized the diplomatic initiative by calling on his […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Loginov – December 31, 2013) Mikhail Loginov is a journalist and novelist based in St Petersburg. He is the author of the recently published bestselling political thriller “Battle for Kremlin”. New Year is by far Russia’s most important and lavishly celebrated public holiday. But as Russians prepare to celebrate it, Putin is trying to impose austerity on […]
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(Interfax – January 1, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named the person of the year again, Putin is first in popularity ratings since 1999, sociologists of the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) told Interfax citing a poll held. The survey was held on December 7-8 in 43 Russian regions in 100 cities, towns and villages and involved 1,500 respondents. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – January 1, 2014) Many Russians love to honor the animal that symbolizes the coming year, based on the Chinese astrological calendar, believing half-jokingly but many would insist that it brings them luck for the next 12 months. “Whose year is the next one?” Russians ask each other around December. The […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2014-#1 :: 1 January 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has given the country’s government and Foreign Ministry until May 1, 2014 to complete negotiations on a Eurasian Economic Union Treaty with Belarus and Kazakhstan and draft a bill to ratify this document. The list of instructions that come as a follow-up to the president’s annual address to the Federal Assembly […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The Russian-American program to retrieve spent nuclear fuel of Russian production from other countries has been prolonged until 2024. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom told Interfax that Russia and the United States exchanged their notes on this agreement. Rosatom was previously planning to round off the program in 2016. The Russian-American program is being carried […]
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KYIV. Dec 30 (Interfax) – Half of Ukrainians – 50% – do not support the ongoing protests for Ukraine’s integration with Europe at Independence Square in Kyiv (known as Euro-Maidan), as is evident from a poll of 2,079 respondents that Research & Branding Group conducted in 24 regions of Ukraine, Crimea, Kyiv, and Sevastopol on December 23-27. Another 45% support […]
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KIEV, December 30 (RIA Novosti) A statue to Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was toppled in the central Ukrainian town of Vatutino on Sunday night only to be put back in place several hours later, the UNIAN news agency reported Monday. “A group of unidentified persons detached the monument from the pedestal and toppled it. But it turned out […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – December 31, 2013) Several world leaders have offered their support and condolences over the deadly bombings in Volgograd while the Russian Foreign Ministry called for joint efforts to fight terror attacks that follow “the same template” around the world. In a statement on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that Russia “will not […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – Private and state consumption accounted for 68.5% of GDP in the third quarter of 2013, up from 65.1% in Q3 2012, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said. Household consumption accounted for 49.4% of GDP in Q3 2013, up from 47.1% a year earlier. State consumption rose to 18.7% of GDP from 17.5%. In absolute […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) – Requests to conduct an inquiry into the production of the play An Ideal Husband at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater (MAT) have been forwarded to the Russian Investigative Committee’s Moscow branch, the city police department said on its Twitter page. “Twenty-three requests demanding an inquiry into the Chekhov MAT’s production of An Ideal Husband, which […]
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MOSCOW, December 31 (RIA Novosti) A former painter from Moscow, whose quest to bring culture to provincial villagers resulted in a jail term for bribery, was granted parole on Tuesday. The Tver Region Court upheld a parole request filed by 36-year-old Ilya Farber, who had already spent two years and nine months behind bars. Farber left Moscow for the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – David Burghardt – December 31, 2013) Margarita Simonyan has been named editor-in-chief of the newly founded Rossiya Segodnya, previously called RIA Novosti, the news agency’s general director, Dmitry Kiselyov, announced on Tuesday. Simonyan was appointed editor-in-chief of the Moscow-based English-language television station RT in 2005. “This key position could only be held by a person […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The Republican Party of Russia-PARNAS (RPR-PARNAS) may split up in the near future, says a statement made by some members of the RPR political board on Monday. “If we cannot consolidate the three components of the party, the issue of RPR’s restoration in its classical shape as a liberal, democratic, opposition, responsible and professional party […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 31, 2013) Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin defined terrorism as any action which killed a large number of people, but under Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leading independent specialist on its intelligence community says, terrorism has been redefined as “‘a policy of intimidation and pressure on the organs of power.’” That change is […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has condemned the calls for toughening the Russian legislation and lifting the moratorium on the death penalty as a reaction to the terrorist attacks in Volgograd. “We shouldn’t give in to all hysterical calls to toughen everything, close everything, and introduce the death penalty. It’s what our enemies are […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The only good Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP) production news this year was on the export front, which is the profit margin generator. Against a backdrop of weakening competitors, Russian gas deliveries increased. The record holder Gazprom Export, instead of reaping rewards, got tax claims and equivalent to its annual revenue and exile to St. Petersburg. BETTER […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 31 (Interfax) – The head of the Muslim Board of the Caucasus, Allahshukur Pashazadeh, has extended his condolences following the deadly terrorist attacks in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd. “It is absolutely obvious that the terrorist attacks were meant to incite ethnic and religious hatred between people. Islam, as a religion of peace and creation, resolutely condemns the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The attempts to hold any nationalist rallies due to terrorist attacks in Volgograd are unacceptable, the Russian Federation Council said. “Amid the current situation various nationalist movements should not be allowed to earn points with this tragedy, terrorist attacks and people’s grief. Appeals for nationalist gatherings are voiced in Volgograd. Such rallies will play into […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitriy Romendik, RBTH – December 27, 2013) New Year celebrations are popular all over the world, but in Russia they are the main national holiday. The festivities last for at least eight days, and sometimes as many as 20. Russians’ pagan ancestors celebrated Kolyada, a winter solstice holiday. Early Slavs celebrated it from […]
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MAGADAN/KHABAROVSK, December 31 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin broke with tradition this December 31 and delivered two New Year’s speeches instead of one. In a pre-recorded New Year’s address to Russians shown on television minutes before midnight in Russia’s easternmost Kamchatka region, Putin outlined the priorities for the coming year. “Next year, a lot needs to be done […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – December 31, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, that he’s counting on further strengthening ties. In a New Year’s greeting, Putin thanked Yanukovych for “comradely, businesslike” relations that allowed the two former Soviet neighbors to develop a partnership benefiting “brotherly peoples.” The coming year should provide an opportunity […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer and Ben Priechenfried – December 31, 2013) Two bomb attacks in southern Russia before the country hosts the Winter Olympics are raising concerns that militants active in the region will target the games to gain international attention. The main threat is attacks by Muslim separatist groups in the North Caucasus that are at war […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#233 :: 27 December 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#234 :: 30 December 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. RIA Novosti: Half of Russians Describe 2013 as Successful Year […]
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(opendemocracy.net/Chatham House – Roderic Lyne – December 25, 2013) Sir Roderic Lyne served as British Ambassador to Russia from January 2000 until August 2004, when he retired from the Diplomatic Service after 34 years. He now works as a consultant, principally advising businesses on Russia and the CIS. He was a member of the Chilcot Enquiry. Experts agree modernisation and […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – December 30, 2013) From the sudden release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky to the tragic events in Volgograd, here are 10 top headline grabbers for 2013 according to The Moscow News staff. 1. Khodorkovsky bombshell President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suddenly pardon oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was possibly the most unexpected news of the year. After two […]
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MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti) More than a half of Russians said they will remember 2013 as a successful year for them, an independent pollster said on Saturday. A total of 51 percent said the year was successful for them, 24 said it was unsuccessful and 25 percent had no answer. However, 30 percent said that this year was […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexandra Guzeva, RBTH – December 30, 2013) As the year draws to a close, check out these 13 stories that RBTH readers found most interesting, engaging or thought-provoking in 2013. Most popular stories of 2013: Russia to ban cash transactions over $10,000 Russia beckons for Tebow Putin’s medical secrets leaked to the media […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – December 30, 2013) Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times. Looking back at the main events that shaped Russia over the past 12 months, it is clear that 2013 will go down in history as President Vladimir Putin’s “anti-year.” It was in 2013 that the powers that be not […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Fyodor Lukyanov – December 30, 2013) Fyodor Lukyanov is chairman of presidium of the Russian Council for Foreign and Defense Policy. The dawn of a unipolar world means that countries will have to settle arguments through talks again. The year 2013 may well go down in the history of world politics. Its tumultuous […]
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