(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 10, 2013) Russia will soon put forward a “workable” plan for placing Syrian chemical weapons under international control, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday, following up on a day-old Russian proposal that has shifted the international debate on military intervention in war-torn Syria. “The Russian side is currently busy preparing a workable, clear, concrete […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#164 :: 10 September 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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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – September 9, 2013) According to a survey, the worst attitudes toward Russia are expressed, ironically, by people in countries where Russian tourists traditionally go: Israel, Turkey, Jordan and Egypt. Experts explain this by the nuance that participants in the survey primarily evaluated not the country and its inhabitants, but […]
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(RIA Novosti – BERLIN, September 8, 2013) German intelligence sources suggest that last month’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus was not ordered by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Bild am Sonntag has reported. Forces loyal to President Assad had been asking him for four months to use chemical weapons against the rebels, but they still received no approval from […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 9, 2013) Russia is considering holding peace talks on the Syrian conflict in Moscow, as plans for a US-Russia-backed Geneva-2 conference remain stalled, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday after a meeting with his Syrian counterpart. Lavrov said the main obstacle to the Geneva-2 summit intended to bring the Syrian government and rebel […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 6, 2013 – Fyodor Lukyanov, is Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments) Responding to an opponent, Barack Obama said: “I stood up and opposed this war at a time when it was politically risky to do so because I said that not only […]
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(Interfax – GORKI, September 9, 2013) A group of lawyers has arrived at the conclusion that the normative bases of the European Union and Customs Union are incompatible, and that if Ukraine joins the EU free trade zone it will not be able to take on Customs Union obligations, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said. “The conclusion […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – ST. PETERSBURG , September 9, 2013) When Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin posed for the cameras outside Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg at the start of the G20 summit, they both wore wide grins on their faces. But the public geniality apparently did not translate into a private detente. The U.S. […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 9, 2013) Russia was subject to 74 trade restrictions imposed by 17 countries as of September 1. These included 40 anti-dumping duties, Deputy Economic Development Minister Alexei Likhachev told reporters. Likhachev said anti-dumping proceedings in the EU against Russian goods were particularly noteworthy as the EU disregards the price of gas in Russia and uses its […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – September 9, 2013) On the eve of elections, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave the government three days to prepare a feasibility study on how a possible freeze on natural monopolies’ prices next year might affect economic growth and business in general. The Cabinet on Friday was ordered to evaluate by Monday the […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – September 9, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Council on Civil Society and Human Rights on Sept. 4, during which he attempted to clarify his position on civil rights advocates in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). He reminded those present that the Russian law is constructed in […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 8, 2013) Human rights defenders did not find any serious violations that might influence the outcomes of the Moscow mayoral elections as of the moment polling stations closed down. “No such violations were recorded as of the moment polling stations closed down. But another important procedure, the count of votes, is still ahead,” Golos co-leader Grigory […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – D. Garrison Golubock – September 9, 2013) Leo Tolstoy, the world-famous author and doyen of Russia’s golden age of literature, is not a gentleman about whom one expects to hear breaking news. However, in a surprise announcement last Thursday, Russia’s two most prominent Tolstoy museums announced that they would be merging and appointing a new […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 9, 2013) Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov expressed regret Monday that he had not run for Moscow’s mayor, saying that he would have posed a more serious challenge to the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, than opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Prokhorov, leader of the pro-business Civic Platform party, said he had not been able to make a bid […]
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(Interfax – September 9, 2013) Moscow mayoral election procedureRussian Prime Minister, leader of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev thinks that the single election day, September 8, showed a real political competition in Russia. “The elections were not easy. They showed the increased activity of non-parliamentary parties, including the recently registered ones. In general, there were 110,000 candidates from 54 […]
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(Interfax – September 7, 2013) A majority of Russians (55 per cent) are confident, to greater or lesser extent, that the authorities are able to protect the public from new terrorist attacks, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 3 September, quoting the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM). (1) This answer has become more popular over the past three years […]
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Subject: New book: Law, Rights and Ideology in Russia: Landmarks in the Destiny of a Great Power Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 From: “Bill Bowring” <b.bowring@bbk.ac.uk> My new Routledge book: “Law, Rights and Ideology in Russia: Landmarks in the Destiny of a Great Power” http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415683463/ Law, Rights and Ideology in Russia: Landmarks in the destiny of a great power brings […]
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Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 Subject: Current Moscow TV programming From: “Mark H. Teeter” in Moscow <markhteeter@gmail.com> FYI: After a nice run with the TV column “TeleMost” for the Moscow News over 2010-11 (archived at http://www.themoscownews.com/col_archive/index_7.html), I began posting daily previews/reviews of selected current Moscow TV programming last year on Facebook, where the response from my modest-sized Friends list has been […]
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Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 From” “Timothy Post” <email@timothypost.com> Subject: Kremlin_ru_eng Live Twitter Feed I just created a live Twitter feed of all the news items published by the Kremlin Wire Service. If any of the JRL readers would like to subscribe to this feed (lots of folks have Twitter feeds come to their cell phones) they can check it […]
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(Kremlin.ru – St Petersburg, September 6, 2013) Vladimir Putin took part in the second working session of heads of delegations of G20 countries, invited countries, and international organisations. The summit participants discussed investment and job creation, among other issues. The discussion then continued in working breakfast format with the participation of invited heads of state and international organisations. * * […]
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(Kremlin.ru – St Petersburg, September 5, 2013) Among other things, the latest global economic trends and financial regulation issues were discussed during the first working meeting themed Growth and Financial Stability. The G20 summit’s work officially began with Vladimir Putin’s welcome speech as he addressed the invited heads of state and government. * * * Speech at working session of […]
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(Kremlin.ru – St Petersburg, September 6, 2013) Vladimir Putin summed up the results of the G20 Summit and answered journalists’ questions. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Ladies and gentlemen, friends! To start with, I’d like to say that in the five years of its existence the G20 has really become an effective mechanism for elaborating and coordinating common approaches to […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nikolay Surkov, RBTH – September 5, 2013) Russian pundits believe that the U.S. is hesitating to strike Damascus alone, but it is not willing to give up, either. Moscow does not believe the U.S. intelligence information that claims government forces in Syria used chemical weapons, and it does not intend to reconsider its […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, September 5, 2013) Russia does not set itself the objective of establishing influence in the Middle East and there is no reason either to speak of a “cold war” with the USA, chairman of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP) Fedor Lukyanov believes. “The positions (of the Russian Federation and the USA) are indeed diametrically […]
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(Interfax – STRELNA, September 6, 2013) A comprehensive approach, including higher investment in the economy, is needed to tackle unemployment, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a working meeting during the G20 summit. “Employment policy cannot and must not be the concern only of the government bodies responsible for social policy. Clearly, real changes in the sphere of labor and […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – Natalia Savitskaya, special to RBTH – rbth.ru – September 2, 2013) During the Soviet era, teachers and scientists were revered and their dedication to their work reflected their status. Now that today’s students aspire to careers in business or entrepreneurship, are educational standards slipping? In the Soviet Union, no child left behind was the rule, […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan, Editor and Correspondent at themoscownews.com – September 6, 2013) With the international gay community up in arms over Russia’s so-called anti-gay laws – which don’t outlaw gays but only the promotion of their lifestyles – there’s a new bit of legislation that goes out of its way to crack down on homosexuality. Andrei […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 8, 2013) Opposition activist Alexei Navalny scored high in the Moscow mayoral elections and he has a political future, Center for Political Technologies First Vice-President Alexei Makarkin said. Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin is leading in the election with 56% of the vote, and Navalny goes second with 29%, according to the Center for Political Technologies’ […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – September 9, 2013) What to make of opposition blogger Alexei Navalny’s unexpectedly strong result in the Moscow mayor elections on Sunday, September 8? With over 98% of the votes counted Navalny received 27.37% against the incumbent Sergei Sobyanin’s 51.15%, the election committee said on Monday, September 9. Navalny’s tally is a lot more than […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – September 4, 2013) Faced with state interference and a too-heavy focus on military production, Russia’s aircraft manufacturing industry stands at a crossroads, when competitiveness can either be regained after its Soviet heyday or lost. This is the conclusion of a report by the analytical firm Strategy Partners Group, released ahead of last week’s MAKS airshow […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, September 5, 2013) A US military strike on Syria may prompt a whole range of countries to acquire nuclear weapons for the sake of their own security, Aleksey Pushkov, head of the Russian State Duma International Affairs Committee, has said. “They (the Americans) think that a strike will show the determination of the USA to firmly respond […]
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(Interfax – September 5, 2013) Russian opposition activist and Moscow mayoral candidate Aleksey Navalnyy believes that, by commenting about him yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to lower the candidate’s rating the Moscow mayoral election on 8 September, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 5 September. “Thus the authorities are making desperate attempts to lower my rating by a few […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 6, 2013) Televised debates between the Moscow mayoral candidates did not stir much interest among audiences, with only half a percent of residents watching the most popular round of debates on Aug. 16. Sociologists attributed weak interest to acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin’s refusal to participate, Kommersant reported. A total of eleven debates have been […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 5, 2013) One of the leaders of the Golos movement Grigory Melkonyants has refuted rumors that the movement is wrapping up its activities in Russia and that another leader of the NGO Liliya Shibanova emigrated. “This is a special hoax ahead of the elections in order to discredit the activity of Golos,” Melkonyants told Interfax on […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 5, 2013) There will be no vote-rigging in Moscow, the Moscow region, or any other regions of Russia, the Golos movement said. “The situation in some regions has changed dramatically, primarily in Moscow and the Moscow region. I am almost confident that there will be no direct vote-rigging on the voting day and the ballots will […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Kristen Blyth – September 6, 2013) On September 8, Muscovites will take to the polling booths to cast their votes for the next mayor of the capital. That wasn’t supposed to happen this year; incumbent Sergei Sobyanin still had two years left in his term when he unexpectedly announced in June that he would step […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Koshkin, RBTH – September 5, 2013) Video “What drives Americans to go to Russia?” here: http://rbth.ru/multimedia/video/2013/09/05/what_drives_americans_to_go_to_russia_29539.html Despite another decline in U.S.-Russian relations, interest in Russia among American students is steadily growing. This indicates that exchange programs remain a powerful tool for rooting out the Cold War mentality. Although U.S.-Russian relations are not […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 6, 2013) The October Revolution will be considered a “process” and the term “bloody butcher” won’t be applied to Soviet leader Josef Stalin or his henchmen. Russian historians are on their way to creating a single standard for how history is taught to schoolchildren. Historians from the Russian Academy of Sciences reached several agreements […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – MOSCOW, September 6, 2013) The six Moscow mayoral candidates entered their final 48 hours of campaigning on Thursday ahead of Sunday’s election, meeting with journalists, voters and competitors in order to press home their campaign messages and attempt to discredit their opponents. Anti-Kremlin protest leader Alexei Navalny and the Communists lashed out at President Vladimir […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 6, 2013) A number of high-ranking Russian officials have provided false information in their income declarations, the head of the presidential administration said Friday. “I would like to avoid naming names, but we have some concrete results concerning exposed facts of officials providing false information,” Sergei Ivanov said on the sidelines of the G20 […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dan Pototsky – September 5, 2013) People in small towns and villages are quickly getting the hang of the Internet. They account for more than 40 percent of all Internet users in Russia a total of 27.5 million according to TNS Russia. The fastest-growing segment of Russian Internet users is residents […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – September 6, 2013) A military strike in Syria would have a destructive effect on the global economy, sending oil prices up, China warned in a gesture of support to President Vladimir Putin, the host of the Group of 20 summit that began in St. Petersburg on Thursday. “Military action would have a […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – September 6, 2013) While Syria lurked in the background of the G20 leaders’ summit, which opened on Thursday, official discussions had their focus firmly on economic issues. The conflict in Syria, however, did occasionally come to the foreground. President Vladimir Putin himself raised the topic at the end of his opening address, […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#161 :: 5 September 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 Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – September 5, 2013) As the leaders of the world’s major economies are flocking to St. Petersburg for the G20 summit, scheduled to begin Thursday, President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed his position on the possible U.S.-led military strike in Syria but took a more flexible stance, saying that Moscow could support the campaign. […]
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(RIA Novosti – ST. PETERSBURG, September 5, 2013) Russian and Chinese state corporations signed a string of economic agreements including another document paving the way for the long-awaited multi-billion dollar gas deal, after President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met Thursday at the G20 summit in the city of St. Petersburg. Russian gas giant Gazprom and the […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, September 4, 2013) The veterans of the Russian human rights movement, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, Lev Ponomarev and Svetlana Gannushkina, have given up on taking part in a meeting with US President Barack Obama in St Petersburg since its date is constantly being changed. “They have changed all this business several times: at first 5 September then 6 September, […]
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(Interfax – STRELNA, September 4, 2013) Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who currently chairs the Committee on Civil Initiatives, does not anticipate any serious changes to the ruble’s real exchange rate in the next three to four years. “I don’t expect any major changes in the fate of the ruble. If you look at the official forecast, many might […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region – September 4, 2013) On the eve of the G20 Summit, Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Channel One and the Associated Press news agency. The interview was recorded in Novo-Ogaryovo on September 3. JOHN DANISZEWSKI: Thank you for inviting us into your home and for answering questions for the AP’s worldwide audience. I know […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vladimir Goryachev and Oleg Sukhov – September 3, 2013) Mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny has voiced support for an economic amnesty and a windfall tax on some privatized assets at a high-profile meeting with businessmen and top executives, Vedomosti reported. The event was the first public meeting with entrepreneurs during Navalny’s campaign, with the previous ones […]
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