(Interfax – May 23, 2013) Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov does not think that Russia will have a recession this year. “There won’t be a recession this year. Short answer,” he said at a Thursday briefing. The economy is not currently in a crisis situation. The issue is that the government is not satisfied with current growth levels […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 23, 2013) Some political experts say that the annual report of Amnesty International human rights organization on the state of human rights in Russia is a political order based on statements coming from radical opposition. “On the one hand, conclusions made in the report are based on the opinions of opposition radicals, on the other, they […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – May 24, 2013) Sergei Prikhodko, a foreign policy advisor to Russia’s leaders for more than 15 years, has been appointed a deputy prime minister and government chief of staff. He assumes the role of head organizer for a government that has been battered by accusations of poor work in recent months. Experts […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#94 :: 24 May 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: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Reuters: David Rhode, Prosperity without power. 2. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 23, 2013) The 2012 international religious freedom report of the U.S. State department has been done superficially and does not reflect the objective situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “We are to conclude that the U.S. State Department has again presented a contorted and politicized picture of the situation in the religious freedom sphere in the […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 23, 2013) Radical groups in Syria will continue to impose their conditions of forming a government system even if the election of a new president is held in the republic, and this can provoke the collapse of the country, the chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces, […]
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(Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 24, 2013) Ten months after the bloodshed in Syria was formally recognized as a civil war by the Red Cross, Moscow and Washington are finally working together to end it, at least in terms of public diplomacy. The plan is to hold a conference tentatively scheduled for June where the Syrian […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – May 23, 2013) Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader currently on trial for fraud, has expressed certainty that he has slim chances of getting a not guilty verdict, and he is almost certainly right. The inevitability of the ruling is not due to the fact that he is such an outspoken critic of […]
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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Mary Elizabeth Malinkin and Andrey Miroshnichenko – May 22, 2013) Interview with Andrey Miroshnichenko, Fulbright-Kennan Institute Research Scholar, upon the completion of his grant, Spring 2013 Malinkin: During your Fulbright scholarship you have been looking at the question “Will Russian media go the way of American media?” What are your thoughts about this, based on […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Grigorii Golosov – May 22, 2013) Grigorii Golosov is Professor of Political Science, Project Director, Center for Democracy and Human Rights Helix, St. Petersburg A concession or a ruse to ensure continued authoritarian rule? In the second of two articles examining changes in Russia’s electoral architecture, Grigorii Golosov considers the recent relaxation of Russia’s party registration rules. Between […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 22, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes that government officials and members of parliament should share economic risks with the rest of the country and keep their money in Russian banks, but he is not convinced that they should be prohibited from holding foreign assets. “Members of the government, State Duma deputies, administration officials should after […]
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(Interfax – Sochi, May 22, 2013) Dmitriy Peskov, press secretary to the Russian president, has described reports that the Kremlin was taking film-making under its control as fiction but stressed that films produced with state money should have matching content. “A number of mass media outlets, including the (business) newspaper Vedomosti, have said that all of Surkov’s (Vladislav Surkov, once […]
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(Government.ru – May 20, 2013) The Government, chaired by Dmitry Medvedev, began working on May 21 a year ago. CONTENTS 1. Examples of the Government’s most important decisions 2. Socioeconomic development: facts and figures 3. Implementation of Presidential Decrees Nos. 596-606 of May 7, 2012 4. Dmitry Medvedev: visits and events as Prime Minister 1. Examples of the Government’s most […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 23, 2013) Amnesty International said Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin was marked by large-scale attacks on freedom of assembly and of expression, resulting in a large number of politically motivated criminal cases and repressive legislation. “Two new laws and 11 amendments to current legislation were made last year amid broadly weakened dissent,” head […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 22, 2013) Radical Islam has taken roots in 55 Russian regions, former Interior Minister and president of the Club of Russian Military Commanders Army Gen Anatoliy Kulikov said at a scientific conference “Islamism and Russia’s national security” today. “Radical political Islam, or Islamism, which has declared jihad on our country, is the most real threat to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 22, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is not changing his position regarding the need for the government to keep out of the media, especially in the regions, and he regrets that this has yet to be done. “It’s a shame that we didn’t bring this topic to its conclusion. The government’s presence in the media […]
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(Kennan Institute Meeting Report – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Mackensie Knorr – April 29, 2013) “Why did the Russians, despite all that one would expect from them given the histories of the downfalls of empires, decide not to fight and to let the empire fall?” asked Serhii Plokhii, Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, at a 29 April 2013 […]
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(Kennan Institute Meeting Report – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Mackensie Knorr – April 12, 2013) “We strive to get all the information to put together the full picture. All questions must be answered, and there shouldn’t be any holes in the story,” said Svetlana Reiter, freelance journalist for Bolshoi Gorod, among other magazines. At a 12 April conference at the Kennan Institute, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – May 23, 2013) When it comes to Russian college students’ career aspirations, Gazprom’s gas fields might as well be described as the fields of dreams, according to an annual ranking released Thursday by the Universum consulting firm. The state-owned gas giant was rated the most attractive employer by business students, with Sberbank […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 23, 2013) People’s attitudes to Russia’s global role continue to deteriorate, particularly in the U.S., according to a poll conducted in 25 countries by the BBC. Respondents in only eight of the countries polled had predominantly positive perceptions of Russia, while in 15 countries people expressed negative views, Gazeta.ru said. Overall, only 30 percent […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 23, 2013) The United States’ insistence on pursuing a missile defense system in Europe is standing in the way of further cuts to Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces, Russia’s top general said on Thursday at an international security conference in Moscow. “Russia will cut its strategic attack force only when it is certain that the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 22, 2013) Georgia has resumed exports of Borzhomi mineral water to Russia after a long-term pause. “On May 22, two trucks with Georgian mineral water Borzhomi were cleared at the Mamontovo customs office of the Moscow region customs of the Central Customs Department. The vehicles came from Georgia and went to suppliers in Moscow stores after […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#93 :: 23 May 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: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Kennan Institute (DC): The Turning Point for Russia Will Be […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#92 :: 22 May 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: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. RIA Novosti: Brezhnev Beats Lenin as Russia’s Favorite 20th Century […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Ilyashenko, special to RBTH – May 21, 2013) The campaign to resolve the Syrian crisis has entered a new phase. However, if the upcoming international conference, dubbed Geneva-2, focuses entirely on increasing the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, there will be a long way to go before peace is achieved in the […]
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(Interfax – May 21, 2013) State Duma speaker Sergey Naryshkin has said that at a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in the next autumn he is intending to raise an issue of abandoning the monitoring of Russia by the Council of Europe. Naryshkin said this at a meeting with Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjoern […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 22, 2013) Rainbow flags were flown at half mast to mark President Vladimir Putin’s visit last month to Amsterdam, widely known as a city of open minds that take pride in enjoying free love. Thousands of brightly dressed Dutch activists gathered outside the Amstelhof, the site of Putin’s dinner with Queen […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 22, 2013) One of Russia’s most internationally renowned journalists, Masha Gessen, has said that she will probably move to New York to join her son, who is studying in the U.S. Gessen, 46, moved with her family to the U.S. in 1981, returning to Moscow to establish a career as a journalist covering Russia […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – May 22, 2013) The role of the government is to provide infrastructure and facilitate technological development and innovation, Communications and Press Minister Nikolai Nikiforov told business representatives at the Leaders’ Club forum on Tuesday. Information technology is important for the Russian economy, Nikiforov said. It accounts for 4.6 percent of the nation’s […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 21, 2013) Most Russians (57%) think that state should not interfere in church affairs and vice versa, poll conducted by the Levada Center showed. At the same time, 30% respondents said they thought state and church should participate actively in each others’ affairs and 14% failed to answer. When asked who is to punish people insulting […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 21, 2013) The head of Russia’s oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, has said that the draft bill on the protection of believers’ feelings passed by the State Duma in the second reading (today) violates human rights and contravenes the Constitution, despite softening amendments. “This is yet another repressive bill,” Alekseyeva told […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – May 22, 2013) In an attempt to squash media reports and assure investors, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said Tuesday that he had no plans to leave government and intended to help guide the country’s economic course at least until the next presidential election in 2018. Dvorkovich, speaking at a news conference […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 22, 2012) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he was not ready to part with any of the current ministers, but dismissals are possible in connection with the recently introduced law banning officials from keeping their money in foreign banks. “The government is a team. I have proposed their [ministers’] candidacies to the president and […]
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(Interfax – May 21, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has given a wide ranging interview to the pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda to mark the anniversary of the formation of the current government, privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 21 May. The interview is to be published in the newspaper’s 22 May edition. The topics highlighted by Interfax were: – […]
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(Interfax – May 21, 2013) The protest mood in Russia is low, Interfax news agency reported on 21 May, citing a poll conducted by independent Russian pollster Levada Centre. According to the poll results published on the Levada Centre website on the same day (http://www.levada.ru/21-05-2013/gotovnost-uchastvovat-v-protestakh), 68 per cent of respondents said mass protests against falling living standards or in support […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 22, 2013) Russians view Leonid Brezhnev as the most positive of all Soviet and Russian leaders in the 20th century, but Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were close behind in an opinion poll released on Wednesday. Brezhnev, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1964-1982, was viewed positively by 56 percent of respondents in the […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor – Eurasia Daily Monitor – Volume 10, Issue 96 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Roger McDermott – May 21, 2013) Six months after his appointment as Russia’s defense minister, Army-General Sergei Shoigu has initiated a number of policy reversals in key areas of his predecessor’s Armed Forces reform. Some of these changes were small measures, however […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, May 21, 2013) The Russian Orthodox Church will never recognize same-sex marriages, even though it respects people’s free choice even if it is sinful, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia said on Tuesday (21 May) at a meeting with the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjoern Jagland. “If people choose such a way of […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – May 21, 2013) The Russian government has no plans to break up the state-owned gas monopoly Gazprom, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told the state-owned paper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on May 20. Speculation has been mounting that the state will break the inefficient behemoth up in its quest to make Russias biggest tax payer more […]
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(Interfax – May 20, 2013) The first day of broadcast of the Russian Public TV (OTR), which was launched on 19 May, has received extensive feedback from pundits and journalists. The channel’s vague prospects and the coverage of non-topical issues have become the main points of criticism. “The project envisages the appearance of a discussion platform. But to make it […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – May 20, 2013) You may have never watched Soviet television in the 1980s, but if you’re curious and would like to get a flavor, tune in to the newly launched Public TV channel. Across the political spectrum, commentators agree that many of the Russian government’s initiatives over the past […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 21, 2013) The Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday urged the European Union to abstain from “ideology-based” remarks on the issue of non-governmental organizations in Russia. The statement, posted on the ministry’s website, was made in the wake of the May 17 meeting between the Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – May 21, 2013) Russia is facing a renewed barrage of international criticism, led by the European Union, over its human rights record in connection with an ongoing clampdown on non-governmental organizations and a State Duma proposal to ban so-called “homosexual propaganda.” The EU on Friday expressed growing concerns about the situation, including […]
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(Interfax – May 21, 2013) The Internet audience in Russia has been growing year on year and most of users believe the worldwide web has nothing but advantages, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) said after having polled 1,600 respondents in 42 regions of the country on March 30-31. At present 65 percent browse the Internet daily, weekly or […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 21, 2013) A total of 59 percent of Russians use Internet, up three percentage points since last year, according to the results of a survey published on Monday by an independent pollster, Levada Center. The figure was only five percent when Levada Center first polled Russians on the issue in 2001. The percentage varies greatly […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 20, 2013) Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is the most popular and one of the most influential members of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s government, a survey among prominent figures in the media and politics suggests. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are the others in the top troika on a 28-name […]
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[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#91 :: 21 May 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: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]
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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#90 :: 20 May 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: www.russialist.org JRL on Facebook: www.facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support JRL: http://russialist.org/funding.php POLITICS 1. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Russia’s Internet Use Is Exploding. 2. ITAR-TASS: […]
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(Interfax – May 17, 2013) Corruption in Russia is a threat to national security, and cooperation with international organizations must be stepped up to fight it, Russian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Chayka said on 17 May. He was speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in Moscow, as reported by Russian […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Elena Shipilova, RBTH – May 20, 2013) Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich talks to RBTH about the country’s current economic problems, investment climate, energy sector and upcoming St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Arkady Dvorkovich, speaks to Russia Beyond The Headlines about the problems of the Russian economy, access […]
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