MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) A Moscow court said Thursday that it was halting prosecution of four protesters accused of attacking police last year at an opposition rally that deteriorated into mass riots. The Nikulinsky Court decided to halt the proceedings as part of a sweeping amnesty that is being granted to thousands of prisoners and defendants in honor […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – The amnesty declared by the State Duma should be considered clemency and another amnesty over 100th anniversary since the World War I began should be declared in 2014, Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said. “I treat positively any measures of the state aimed at easing the fate of people,” Lukin told Interfax regarding the […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – December 19, 2013) Vladimir Putin held a news conference at the World Trade Centre on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. Over 1,300 Russian and foreign journalists have been accredited to cover the new conference. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, It feels as if we never parted. We met here last year and have barely blinked […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 19, 2013) President Vladimir Putin conducted his ninth major news conference today at Moscow’s World Trade Center, an annual event during which he is bombarded with questions on Russia’s policies and the government’s plans for the future. Moscow Times reporter Ivan Nechepurenko attended the news conference at the World Trade Center, while news reporter […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov and Christopher Brennan – December 19, 2013) The State Duma gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to an amnesty that could set free members of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot among other high-profile inmates, and was expected to pass the bill in its final reading later in the day. Hopes and expectations still […]
» Read more
(Interfax – Moscow, December 18, 2013) Russia’s banking sector has improved its financial indicators in 2013 and concerns over its stability are groundless, Elvira Nabiullina, chairwoman of the Central Bank of Russia, said on Wednesday [18 December] at a conference organized by the Association of Russian Banks. “Concerns over the stability of Russia’s banking sector are absolutely groundless,” she said. […]
» Read more
BRUSSELS. Dec 19 (Interfax) – High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Commission Vice President Catherine Ashton believes that the understandings between Ukraine and Russia reached in Moscow won’t hinder Kyiv’s further advancement along the road of European integration. At an extraordinary session of the European Parliament committee on foreign affairs in Brussels on Wednesday […]
» Read more
KYIV. Dec 18 (Interfax) – A Ukrainian opposition leader is concerned that President Viktor Yanukovych might have agreed with Russia on a $15-billion loan secured by Ukrainian strategic facilities. “According to some well-informed sources, a loan agreement for $15 billion secured by Ukrainian property has been signed,” opposition UDAR party leader Vitali Klitschko said at a demonstration on Tuesday. He […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – The amnesty declared by the State Duma on Wednesday does not resolve one of the main issues in the Russian justice system, the Human Rights Watch international human rights organization said. “The amnesty will allow the release of a number of citizens and this is good. This is better than nothing but the amnesty does […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 18, 2013) A century ago, the Russian religious thinker Sergey Bulgakov wrote a seminal essay entitled “Karl Marx as a Religious Type” in which he outlined the ways in which that self-proclaimed atheist was in fact someone profoundly affected in his thinking by the religious tradition of which he was a […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Russia’s population was an estimated 143.6 million on November 1, 2013, up 261,600 from the beginning of 2013, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said. The number of births in January-October rose to 1,591,600 from 1,586,900 in the same period of last year. The number of deaths fell to 1,574,800 from 1,586,100. Natural population growth […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – December 18, 2013) Russian joke from the 1990s: Two Novy Russkis (New Russians) meet on the street. “Nice tie. How much did it cost?” the first asks the second. “Its Hermes. It cost a $100!” answers the second. “You’re crazy! I know where you can buy the same one […]
» Read more
Ambassador Michael McFaul, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, addresses U.S.-Russian Relations, Ukraine, the Sochi Olympics, adoptions and other matters, in this video by RFE/RL’s Russian Service. McFaul is interviewed in Russian, with English subtitles. The video was dated December 17, 2013.
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Investigative procedures in the so-called “third Yukos case” started two weeks after the second sentence was handed down on former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky. “Two weeks after Khodorkovsky and former top manager Platon Lebedev were sentenced, i.e. in the beginning of 2011, the police started to collect evidence for the third case,” a source familiar […]
» Read more
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – December 17, 2013) U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has spoken of the current state of bilateral relations, the upcoming Sochi Olympics, and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service. McFaul, speaking at RFE/RL’s Moscow Bureau, quashed rumors of a possible U.S. boycott of the Winter Olympics. He confirmed […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) US President Barack Obama dealt a sharp reprimand to Russia over its anti-gay laws on Tuesday by including two openly homosexual athletes in the official delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi and declining to attend the Games himself. The White House announced that Billie Jean King, a gay former tennis champion, and Caitlin […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – December 18, 2013) Before Mayor Sergei Sobyanin came to power in 2010, Guram Bolkvadze, a businessman from Georgia, owned 24 kiosks at bus stops across Moscow. Then one day, he was given just a few hours to get his goods out of the shops before the bulldozers came in and leveled 18 […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Kuzmin, special to RBTH – December 18, 2013) The ruble’s value decreased 11 percent in 2013, making it a good time for foreign investors to invest or spend more money in Russia. With the Russian ruble devalued by 11 percent, experts say there are opportunities for foreign investors to earn money on […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – December 18, 2013) Construction of a major pipeline kicked off Tuesday in an effort that will likely bring more oil from Siberia to China. Governor Lev Kuznetsov made a show at the starting ceremony in his Krasnoyarsk region, braving the rubber-bullet injury he suffered during a robbery of his southern French villa […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia is surprised by blatant attempts to pressure Ukraine into signing an association agreement with the European Union, Russia’s foreign minister said Wednesday. Sergei Lavrov said that pressure was continuing despite Kiev’s clear choice to develop closer ties with Moscow. He spoke a day after President Vladimir Putin agreed to cut the price of […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s deal to provide Ukraine with cheaper gas may mean billions of dollars in lost profits, an investment analyst told a business newspaper in remarks published Wednesday. President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would slash the price of its gas to Ukraine by one-third on Tuesday, down to $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters from […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – December 17, 2013) Vladimir Putin met with President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in the Kremlin. The meeting between the two heads of state was held prior to the session of the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Yanukovych, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Moscow. This is a regular meeting scheduled to […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – December 17, 2013) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Yanukovych, colleagues, I have just had a very detailed discussion of practically all areas of our cooperation with President Yanukovych. Russia and Ukraine are strategic partners not on paper but in actual practice. We share a centuries-old friendship and the bond of having spent a long time living together […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Lilit Gevorgyan, IHS Global – December 18, 2013) Any form of aid is probably going to be a bandage on Ukraine’s economic troubles rather than a serious remedy. These troubles are a result of a toxic combination of domestic macroeconomic policy failures and unfavorable external demand for Ukrainian undiversified exports, which are heavily dependent […]
» Read more
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – December 18, 2013) U.S. Senator John McCain has accused Russia of trying to block Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union. Fresh upon his return from witnessing the pro-European Union demonstrations taking place in Kyiv, McCain spoke to RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari about what may lie ahead for the country. RFE/RL: Senator McCain, You just returned from […]
» Read more
(Interfax – December 18, 2013) The so-called Magnitsky List is an utterly unfriendly step regarding Russia and Moscow will take proportionate measures if it is expanded, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said. “I think that this law is an unfriendly step regarding us and does not contribute to improving the climate in our bilateral relations with the United States. […]
» Read more
(Interfax – December 18, 2013) Moscow stands for NATO-CSTO cooperation in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during the Government Hour at the Federation Council on Wednesday. “We think it would be useful to finally start practical cooperation between the CSTO and NATO,” he said. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) give much […]
» Read more
[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#228 :: 18 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 […]
» Read more
Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#227 :: 17 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: 2 Out of 3 Russians Uninterested in Politics […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines/RIA Novosti – rbth.ru – Konstantin Bogdanov, RIA Novosti – December 16, 2013) Russian officials have expressed their sharp criticism towards the U.S. plans for the so-called “Prompt Global Strike” initiative. Are they justified? What does this “Prompt Global Strike” represent, how can it interfere with the Russian plans and how can it be opposed? Around the […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – Russia needs about 1,500 nuclear warheads in its strategic nuclear forces, Russian Strategic Missile Troops (RVSN) Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said. “It is necessary to have about 1,500 nuclear warheads in the shock troops of the Russian strategic nuclear forces in order to resolve tasks of strategic deterrence. The United States have approximately the […]
» Read more
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Vicky Pelaez – December 17, 2013) Examine everything you see/Then ask yourself/Who are they this time? (Taras Shevchenko, “The Friendly Epistle”) The protests that broke out in Kiev on November 21 in response to President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to postpone the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union have brought the country to […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gevorg Mirzayan, special to RBTH – December 16, 2013) The crisis over the country’s future intensifies as protesters backing closer ties with Europe bring the barricades back to Kiev’s Maidan Square. Opinion in Ukraine has split in two over whether the country should sign an Association Agreement offering trade and political links with […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Harriet Salem in Kyiv – December 17, 2013) “I am here to support stability, I am here for the future of Ukraine, for my grandchildren,” Anna Egorovna told bne standing in Mariinsky Park. Eregorovna was one of the tens of thousand supporters that arrived in Kyiv over the weekend of December 14-15 to attend […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The European Union is divided over the issue of signing the Association Agreement with Ukraine, but the EU is unanimous in its call for the resignation of Ukraine’s current leadership, Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, told Interfax on Monday. “The impression is that a certain split is obvious within the […]
» Read more
BRUSSELS. Dec 17 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has denied that Russia pressed Ukraine to opt against signing a planned association agreement with the European Union. “We gave an honest warning, we didn’t blackmail anyone: the Commonwealth of Independent States treaty on the free trade zones has the reservation that, when a situation emerges that poses risks to […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – December 17, 2013) Below find the link to a new paper from academics Clifford G Gaddy and Barry W Ickes, the men that brought us the term “virtual economy” in the 1990s the defining idea of the Yeltsin-era. In this new paper the thesis is that Russia suffers from the oil curse, but the […]
» Read more
(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Russian presidential aide on economic issues Andrey Belousov has said that the efforts aimed at improving Russia’s business climate have so far not led to a breakthrough, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 16 December. “The euphoria we felt due to [Russia’s] advancement in the Doing Business ranking by almost 20 percentage points […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The reasons why measures to support economic growth are not working and why interest rates are not coming down need to be analyzed, Andrei Belousov, a Russian presidential aide, told reporters. “As regards [November] industrial output dynamics, the result is of course negative,” Belousov said. This is partly because the markets for metals, both ferrous […]
» Read more
(opendemocracy.net – December 14, 2013 – Ekaterina Loushnikova) Ekaterina Loushnikova is radio and print journalist based in the city of Kirov Over a century after Maksim Gorky’s famous play about homeless people ‘The Lower Depths’ Ekaterina Loushnikova has been looking around her home city of Kirov to see if anything has changed. The church porch I stood in […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 17, 2013) “Time is working for President Putin and his regime” because the aging of the Russian population means that he can rely on the ever greater share of the population of pensioners, some Moscow experts say, but concomitantly time is working against Russia because it is rapidly driving down the […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – December 17, 2013) The State Duma will vote Tuesday in a first reading on President Vladimir Putin’s draft bill to grant amnesty to certain categories of prisoners, a piece of legislation that could exonerate high-profile detainees despite what critics say are its narrow criteria. As part of an effort to free space […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 17, 2013) Vladimir Putin’s efforts to exploit “the energy” of Russian nationalism and Orthodoxy to shore up his regime strike many as clever and effective, but Rashit Akhmetov points out that they recall those of Nicholas II and may have the same result, undermining both the current Kremlin ruler’s position and […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, December 17 (RIA Novosti) Only one percent of Russians are actively interested in politics, according to an opinion poll. Some 26 percent say that they have no interest in politics at all. Another 41 percent describe themselves as “rather uninterested” in politics, the survey by the independent Levada Center found. Only 28 percent of the 1,600 people questioned […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev argued on Friday that it might be simplistic to see current protests in Ukraine as an offensive against Soviet-style policies. “You drew some comparisons and mentioned Ukraine. I’m not sure that all that is happening in Ukraine at the moment can be described as an attack on ‘Sovok,’” Medvedev said […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russia will answer symmetrically if the United States expands the so-called Magnitsky List, i.e. the list of Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses and subject to U.S. financial and visa sanctions under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “Decisions on putting more Russian […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Ilyashenko, special to RBTH – December 16, 2013) Russian diplomacy in 2013 won several important victories and met a few disappointments. With the end of the Cold War far behind us, Russia’s foreign policy concerns in 2013 were largely focused on a “humanitarian” war against Syria and a disarming strike against Iran. […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes Ukraine will have to overcome a tectonic fault that threatens the state’s existence as such. “It seems to me that Ukrainian society will have to overcome a tectonic fault that has formed in it. This fault threatens the state’s stability and actually its existence. Surely, we are greatly alarmed […]
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – KYIV BLOG – December 16, 2013) Some 100,000 protestors rallied on Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in central Kyiv for the third Sunday in a row this weekend, maintaining the pressure on the increasingly embattled President Viktor Yanukovych. They were treated to a speech by US Senator John McCain and a gig by Ukrainian rock […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 13, 2013) Chief Executive Officers from Russian companies are generally upbeat about the current state of Russia’s economy, but a large proportion have only moderate expectations for its future development prospects, a study conducted by executive search firm Stanton Chase International found. Over 85 percent of the survey’s participants assessed 2013 as successful, but […]
» Read more