(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 (Interfax) – Immigration may partially compensate for the decline in Russia’s population, Federal Migration Service head Konstantin Romodanovsky said during his lecture at Moscow State University on Friday. “New estimates were posted this year saying that the Russian able-bodied population would fall by almost 10 million by 2025, alongside a reduction of the total population and an […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – The Russian civil rights organizations that have won in a tender for government grants are not going to abandon foreign financing. “These are our projects. We are pursuing them regardless of financing sources. We are not carrying out projects ordered by Russian or foreign funds,” Memorial historical and civil rights society head Arseny Roginsky told […]
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(Government.ru – December 6, 2013) [Complete transcript in Russian here: http://government.ru/news/8790] The traditional annual live interview with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the round-up of the Government’s work over the year. Asking the questions were Irada Zeinalova (Channel One), Sergei Brilyov (VGTRK), Marianna Maksimovskaya (Ren TV), Vadim Takmenyov (NTV) and Mikhail Zygar (TV Rain). Transcript: Sergei Brilyov: Good afternoon. TV […]
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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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KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has assured German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle that Ukraine is determined to continue its efforts on the path towards European integration, noting, however, that extremists and neo-Nazis are obstructing this process. Azarov and Westerwelle met during the 20th session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Kyiv on Thursday, and the […]
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MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s Finance Ministry predicted serious difficulties Friday for the budget in 2016 and 2017 as slowing economic growth means there will be insufficient funds available to honor spending commitments. Short term and long term growth forecasts for the Russian economy have been cut repeatedly this year, with officials warning Russia is entering a period […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – December 5, 2013) While freedom of movement for Russian citizens is enshrined in the Constitution, practical social and economic factors often impede its full implementation. The development of regional air travel, abetted by a series of state subsidy programs and last month’s launch of Aurora, the Far Eastern subsidiary of national carrier […]
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MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine decided independently to abandon a long-anticipated trade deal with the European Union, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday, denying that Moscow pressured its neighbor into changing direction. “They realized that at the moment, they’re not ready for this,” he said in a televised interview on Russia’s state TV channel Rossiya 1. “In all […]
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KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax) – Moscow supports the idea of the Internet’s international regulation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “I think our organization should think about its role in ensuring the people’s rights in cyberspace,” Lavrov said at a ministerial session of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Kyiv on Thursday. “This concerns the problem […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) – Russia must be prepared to confront international rivalry in the Arctic, which is a priority of its geopolitical agenda, Federation Council International Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov told Interfax. “This is a topical agenda considering the expected effects of global warming on the Arctic zone. It is necessary to maintain the combat potential of the […]
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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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MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) Ukraine owes Russia some $2 billion for gas supplies and no plan is in place to settle the debt, the head of Russia’s Gazprom said Wednesday. Alexei Miller, chief executive of state-owned Gazprom, said it was in discussions with Ukraine’s national energy company Naftogaz to find a solution. “We are seeking variants to resolve […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – December 5, 2013) BRUSSELS At a meeting with NATO counterparts on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed NATO’s response to recent protests in Ukraine and said last month’s deal on Iran’s nuclear program renders the need for missile defense in Europe obsolete. In response to a joint resolution issued by […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Maksimova, special to RBTH – Deccember 5, 2013) The Russian Central Bank has revoked the license of several large banks as part of what it says is a fight against corruption and a shadow economy. Banking industry experts are worried that the Central Bank’s efforts to clean up Russia’s shadow economy could […]
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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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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Dec 4 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin ruled out the idea of boosting the tax burden on ordinary citizens in order to resolve problems facing entrepreneurs. The president criticized a proposal to collect additional budget funds to create infrastructure for housing construction, for example, by introducing an excise tax on soda pop. “Don’t do that. This means that a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – December 5, 2013) Environment ministers and delegations from the five countries bordering the Arctic met in Moscow on Wednesday to voice continuing support for polar bear conservation and outline steps for saving the species, which activists and officials say is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of global warming and resource extraction. Representatives […]
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MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) Investigators plan to formally charge a former Russian defense minister with negligence on Friday, according to a police source familiar with the situation. Investigators said last week they were opening a criminal case on negligence charges against Anatoly Serdyukov over claims he caused 56 million rubles ($1.7 million) of damage to the state by […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – By Anna Arutunyan – December 4, 2013) The Louis Vuitton pavilion controversy highlighted lack of transparency in managing areas surrounding the Kremlin As workers dismantled a giant Louis Vuitton suitcase that went up suddenly on Red Square last week, just who authorized the project and who issued orders for it to be taken down remained […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, December 4, 2013) A member of the public council at the Russian Interior Ministry, former Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin, has announced that according to his data, the number of recorded crimes committed in Russia is understated at least by a factor of four. He told this journalist after the first meeting of the new composition of […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 4, 2013) Crimes of corruption in Russia cost the state more than R9bn (about 270m dollars at the current exchange rate) over two years, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported head of the Russian Investigations Committee Aleksandr Bastrykin as saying on 4 December. Damage to state, need to extend investigation period “As for damages inflicted […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – December 5, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has turned down proposals to amend the Constitution so that an official state ideology can be established, though the rebuff doesn’t signal the end of his search to find a “national idea” to unite Russians, the Kremlin’s spokesman said. The proposal, put forward by United Russia […]
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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 held a meeting of the Presidential Economic Council. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon colleagues, Two years ago at the Business Russia congress, we launched the National Business Initiative. We set the goal then of creating a comfortable environment for doing business in the regions and in the country in general. We […]
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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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TBILISI. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Georgia has diversified its export markets to an extent that, if Russia once again imposes a ban on Georgian imports, this would not be as strong a blow to local producers as it was in 2006, Georgian Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri believes. “Russia is no longer number one trade partner for Georgia, and our markets […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations Vsevolod Chaplin has said that peaceful solutions should be found for conflicts in former Soviet states. “People are predetermined to live side-by-side in peace. Enmity, wars and total conflicts, whether they be controllable or uncontrollable, are always bad. We can see this in many events […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Russia should have tact and not try to give instructions to Ukraine on how to act in the situation of continuing protests in Ukraine, Andrei Klimov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council committee on international affairs and a member of the United Russia General Council presidium, said. “Further development of the situation depends on the […]
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BRUSSELS. Dec 4 (Interfax) – Brussels calls on Kyiv to stop playing with figures indicating how much money Ukraine needs to accumulate to proceed toward closer integration with Europe; the parties should instead start a constructive dialogue if they want to reach some tangible results on the way toward signing an association agreement, a high-ranking European diplomatic official said in […]
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MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti) The government of Ukraine said Wednesday that it has agreed on a roadmap for a future association agreement with the EU, which the former Soviet nation decided to delay last month. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Arbuzov met with the EU envoy to Ukraine Jan Tombinsky to agree on a sequence of negotiations needed before […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Sberbank of Russia (MOEX: SBER) President and CEO German Gref has taken a seat on the public council of the Economic Development Ministry, the ministry he headed in 2000-2007. The makeup of the board is contained in an instruction from Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev. Deputy Economic Development Minister and State Secretary Oleg Fomichev will […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – Russians think that the North Caucasian situation remains tense and do not expect stabilization of the situation soon, Levada Center told Interfax. Only 17% of the respondents claim that the North Caucasus is calm and prosperous, and 63% say there are tensions. Ten percent of 1,603 respondents polled in 130 towns and cities in 45 […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 4, 2013) Opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been stripped of the right to practice law due to his criminal conviction earlier this year, a post on his LiveJournal blog said. “Since I am a criminal and convicted of a premeditated crime the bar association simply didn’t have any other options legally,” Navalny wrote Tuesday. […]
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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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MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti) The number of polar bears in the Arctic could drop by two-thirds by 2050 because of poaching, pollution and global warming, Russia’s natural resources and ecology minister said Wednesday. Speaking at the International Forum on the Conservation of Polar Bears, Sergei Donskoi said that active industrial development in the Arctic in recent decades is […]
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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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(Kremlin.ru – December 3, 2013) [Full Russian transcript with Q&A here: http://www.kremlin.ru/news/19778] Vladimir Putin met with students from Moscow law schools at the Law Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The meeting is timed to coincide with the Lawyer’s Day marked in Russia on December 3. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon friends, We are here today at the […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Graham Stack in Kyiv – December 3, 2013) Ten years on from the Orange Revolution that rolled back a rigged election, Ukraine again appears in the throes of revolution, after mass protests in Kyiv against the government’s failure to sign a deal for closer ties with the EU and ensuing police violence led to […]
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(Interfax – December 2, 2013) Protests in Kiev do not look like an orange revolution, but they may be the implementation of the scenario of part of the Ukrainian leadership, Gleb Pavlovskiy, president of the Effective Policy Foundation, has said, as reported by privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax on 2 December. Commenting on mass protests staged in Kiev and in […]
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KYIV. Dec 2 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has urged the European Union to empathize with Ukraine’s November 21 decision to suspend preparations for an association agreement with the EU. “I now ask you to take an objective view of this situation, not to accuse us of insincerity but to trust us and make a concession to us,” […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yuri Paniyev, special to RBTH – December 3, 2013) Syria, Afghanistan and NATO’s European missile defense system will top the agenda at the Russia-NATO Council session scheduled to begin on Dec.3. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his counterparts from the NATO member states are expected to exchange opinions on issues concerning Euro-Atlantic […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 3, 2013) Sberbank CEO German Gref has joined the Economic Development Ministry’s public council, returning to a ministry that he headed from 2000 to 2007. The council’s membership, ratified by current Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, includes magnates Viktor Vekselberg and Alexei Mordashov as representatives of large-scale private enterprise. The heads of the Russian Union of […]
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BALI. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has lowered its forecast for economic growth this year from 1.8% to 1.4%, for 2014 from 3.0% to 2.5%, and for 2015 from 3.1% to 2.8%, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told the press on the sidelines of the WTO conference in Bali on Tuesday. Ulyukayev said he expects Q4 GDP […]
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(Interfax – Gorki, December 2, 2013) Stable economic growth still has not been achieved in Russia, Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said. “The task of providing for sustainable economic development, where the key factor is the growth of labour productivity and the modernization of existing capacities, the creation of high-efficiency jobs and personnel training that is up to modern standards, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 3, 2013) Even as Russian commentators blame Vladimir Putin for creating “a revolutionary situation” in Ukraine (ej.ru/?a=note&id=23865), many more Russians are asking themselves why they and their nation have been unable to organize protests the ways that Ukrainians can. To ask that question is to pose two even more important ones […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 3, 2013) Contrary to investigators’ claims, organizers did not intentionally orchestrate riots at the demonstration on Bolotnaya Ploshchad on May 6 last year, opposition leader Alexei Navalny told a Moscow city court on Monday. “Officials intentionally instigated the crush so as to claim there were riots,” Navalny, who was present at the protest as […]
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MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) Two top Russian courts have criticized a proposed reform of the legal system spearheaded by the Kremlin, arguing that some of the provisions are unconstitutional, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The Supreme Court and the Supreme Arbitration Court are under an imminent reform set to be merged into a single body, a move that has […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – The sentencing of corruption suspects to fines has practically doubled in Russia in the past two years, the Supreme Court said. “The number [of suspects] sentenced to fines has grown in the past two years, since the moment the amendments that significantly raised fines for corruptive practices came into force. Some 46.5% of all persons […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – The director of the Transparency International office in Russia, Yelena Panfilova, said that Russia’s 127th place on the Berlin-based organization’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index was to be expected. The authorities did not sort out the issue of protecting people who report corruption-related crimes, and the work on a mechanism that would allow civil society to […]
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