Category: Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime

Pussy Riot’s Samutsevich intends to sue all three of her former lawyers

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Religion
File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 20, 2013) Pussy Riot punk band member Yekaterina Samutsevich, convicted to two years of a suspended sentence, has filed a lawsuit against her former lawyers Violetta Volkova, Nikolai Polozov and Mark Feigin. Samutsevich said she demanded to award her non-pecuniary damages for insulting statements regarding her. “The lawsuit has been filed against three lawyers: against Feigin, […]

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Why Russia fails in ethnic conflict resolution

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Population Disaster, Demographics, Race, Ethnic, Extremism, Xenophobia
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Patrick Sewell, special to RBTH – August 19, 2013) Flare-ups of nationalist conflict in July exposed the government as being either unable, or unwilling, to oppose a dangerous nationalist interpretation of Russian statehood with one based on civic identity. On July 8, 600 citizens in the southern town of Pugachev, angered by the […]

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Khodorkovsky lawyer doubts human rights council’s idea on new amnesty will be implemented

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, YUKOS, Khodorkovsky

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 19, 2013) The defense lawyers for former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky said he doubts that the idea of the presidential human rights council to declare a new amnesty to mark the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, which could apply to the former Yukos managers, will be implemented. “The idea of this amnesty is constantly present […]

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Investigators Won’t Charge Serdyukov With Graft, Report Says

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Military, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Anatoliy Serdyukov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 19, 2013) Military investigators have decided not to open criminal a case that could have seen former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov charged with abusing his position to misappropriate government funds, a news report said Monday The allegations have only deepened the haze of suspicion surrounding Serdyukov, who was fired by President Vladimir Putin in […]

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There is No State in Russia,’ Gontmakher Says

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 19, 2013) “In place of a state as an institution,” the Russian Federation has “a gigantic and uncontrolled private structure which is successfully diverting profits to its own use,” according to Yevgeny Gontmakher, who argues that “the most immediate task of [Russian] society is to restore a state in Russia.” In […]

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Politkovskaya Suspect Shot in Central Moscow

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Chechnya, Dagestan, North Caucasus, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime
File Photo of Mourners with Photo of Anna Politkovskaya

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 16, 2013) A defendant in the ongoing trial over the murder of prominent investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot and wounded near Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro on Wednesday evening, his lawyer said. Dzhabrail Makhmudov, who along with his two Chechen brothers Rustam and Ibragim is accused of being involved in the […]

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Seventy people walk free under ‘economic amnesty’

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

(Interfax – MOSCOW, Aug 14, 2013) The number of convicts who have walked free under the so-called economic amnesty has now exceeded seventy, the press service for the Federal Service on the Enforcement of Punishments has reported. “Seven people who served their sentences in correctional establishments and 35 people registered with criminal enforcement inspectorates have been released under a decree […]

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More than 70% of Large State Contracts Awarded in Legal “Gray Area”

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Cash, Calculator, Pen

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 15, 2013) The Audit Chamber has found gross violations in the processes through which authorities award state orders of 1 billion rubles ($30 million) or more. More than 70 percent of the contracts, as calculated by their quantity and value, were finalized in a “gray area,” the Chamber said on its website Thursday. There […]

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Apartment Raid Leaves Navalny Supporters Baffled

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – August 15, 2013) Supporters of mayoral hopeful Alexei Navalny on Wednesday were struggling to find answers over an incident that took place Tuesday evening that saw police force their way into a central Moscow apartment to seize what they said were illegal campaign materials. In a statement released Wednesday, police explained the […]

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Messiah or false prophet? [re: Navalny]

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(opendemocracy.net – Daniil Kotsyubinsky – August 13, 2013) Daniil Kotsyubinsky is a Russian historian and journalist based in St. Petersburg For the past month, Moscow has been following the fortunes of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny ­ trial, imprisonment, implausible release and continuing Mayoral ambitions. But can all really be as it seems? Daniil Kotsyubinsky presents an alternative view. Moscow’s hot […]

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Nearly half of Russians do not mind piracy – poll

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television
File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 13, 2013) Russians are not unanimous about the need to protect copyright owners, sociologists told Interfax. Some 48% of 1,600 respondents polled in 130 towns and cities in 45 regions in late July said it was possible to buy “pirated” discs and software. Thirty-nine percent argued it was improper and 13% could not answer the question. […]

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No fair play in Moscow mayoral election

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – August 14, 2013) All is fair in love and war – and in the Moscow mayoral race. As Navalny deals with accusations of receiving campaign funding from abroad, Sobyanin’s properties are the target of the opposition. The first major scandals of the Moscow mayoral campaign have erupted. The Prosecutor […]

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Sobyanin Daughter’s Apartment Triggers Controversy

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – August 13, 2013) A seven-story apartment complex on a quiet Moscow street just a five minute walk from the Cabinet building is widely known as the White House, not only thanks to the color of its facade. The house is reportedly home to high-profile government officials inhabiting vast apartments valued at millions […]

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Quarter of Russians allege violations of their rights in past 2 years – poll

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Health, Epidemics, Substance Abuse, Human Rights
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – MOSCOW. Aug 13, 2013) Nearly half of Russians (47%) think their rights cannot be protected in the majority of cases, and 38% claim the opposite. Twenty-four percent said their rights had been breached in the past 24 months and only 7% managed to defend themselves, the Public Opinion Foundation said in comment on a poll of 1,500 respondents […]

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Russia’s Courts, Judges Struggle to Win Public Trust ­ Poll

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime
Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 13, 2013) ­ Russia’s courts and judges have yet to win the public’s trust ­ or so suggests a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation released Tuesday. Just 27 percent of respondents said they think Russian courts and judges are doing a good job, 35 percent said they were doing a bad job, and 38 […]

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Putin’s Strong State Enables Corruption – Poll

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 12, 2013) ­ The Kremlin’s centralized control over executive power in Russia facilitates graft, the majority of respondents in a new nationwide poll released Monday said. Forty-one percent of respondents in a new poll by independent Levada Center say that the “power vertical” which brings regional and municipal authorities under the federal government’s close control […]

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‘Migrant Camp’ Inspires New Facilities

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Foreign Policy, Security, Visas, Race, Ethnic, Extremism, Xenophobia
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – August 6, 2013) The Federal Migration Service has drafted a bill to set up 83 new detention centers for illegal immigrants across the country as Moscow’s three holding facilities run out of space following a week of raids on city markets. Some 1,400 alleged illegal immigrants from Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Syria, Morocco, Kyrgyzstan, […]

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Investigation into State Duma deputy Starovoitova’s murder reopened – aide

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Russian Duma Building

(Interfax – ST. PETERSBURG. Aug 6, 2013) The Federal Security Service (FSB) department for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region has reopened an investigation into the 1998 assassination of State Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova, Ruslan Linkov, Starovoitova’s former aide, told Interfax on Tuesday. “The investigation was reopened on August 1. It was done because certain investigative procedures can be conducted […]

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Sentence Reduced In Yukos Case

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, YUKOS, Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – August 7, 2013) The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to cut the sentence of former oil tycoon and Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev by two months, but their supporters called the move a “pathetic gesture” and their lawyers promised to appeal the court’s decision. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were […]

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Aleksei Navalny takes on ‘the fools and the roads’

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Alexei Navalny file photo

(opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Loginov – August 5, 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”. As the saying goes: ‘Russia has two misfortunes: the fools and the roads.’ Aleksei Navalny is just about still standing for election as Mayor of Moscow, but, […]

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Russia’s judicial system: summertime sadness

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief – August 6, 2013) It was a bit of throwaway news last week: A young man behind the wheel of a Ferrari had struck and killed a pensioner in Moscow in early July. The young man in question, rumored to be the son of a well-known businessman, was let go under […]

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U.S. Rock Group Ignites New Tensions

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Health, Epidemics, Substance Abuse, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
Russian Naval Vessel in Ukrainian Port

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – August 5, 2013) The performance of popular U.S. rock band Bloodhound Gang was canceled over the weekend after one of its musicians shoved a Russian flag into his underpants at a concert in Ukraine, prompting outrage from Russian officials and calls for an investigation into the possibility that the flag fiasco was […]

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Russian nationalism: tip of the iceberg

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Race, Ethnic, Extremism, Xenophobia
Map of European Portion of Former Soviet Union

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – August 5, 2013) Every few years, the specter of Russian nationalism rears its head, sending people who think they understand a thing or two about this country screaming in horror in all directions. The reason, I think, is that in Western democracies, “nationalism” is understood as a chauvinistic sense of supremacy that […]

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Russian human rights organization opens website to report September 8 election violations

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

(Interfax – August 3, 2013) The Russian movement for the protection of the rights of voters, Golos, has opened a website with a map [http://www.kartanarusheniy.org/] which will record all violations at local elections on 8 September, Interfax news agency reported on 2 August, quoting the movement’s press service. The press service said that people would be able to add information […]

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Moscow Helsinki Group head says law on NGOs must be cancelled

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's
Lyudmila Alekseyeva file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 2, 2013) Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva said she disagreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said he was opposed to toughening or liberalizing the law on non-governmental organizations (NGO) – foreign agents. “I think that this law must be cancelled over its absurdity,” Alexeyeva told Interfax on Friday. “We, NGOs, do not […]

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RIA Novosti: Activists Who Reported ‘Putin’s Palace’ Jailed for Extortion

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 5, 2013) ­ Four environmental activists in southern Russia have been given lengthy jail terms for extorting money from a real estate developer, though they denied the accusations, Russian media reported. Four employees of the Gelendzhik Human Rights Center in the Krasnodar Region were given jail terms of between eight and 13 years in a […]

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Carelessness as a Russian National Trait

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Disasters, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Military, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor – August 2, 2013) Russians have had trouble shaking off one stereotype for centuries: razgildyaistvo, or negligence and carelessness. Razgildyaistvo, some say, is as Russian as long, cold winters ­ a ­Russian institution of its own making. How accurate is this stereotype? Prominent historian and journalist Leonid Mlechin perhaps put […]

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Putin discontented with fight against corruption in Russia

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Vladimir Putin Sitting at Desk

(Interfax – SELIGER, Tver region, Aug 2, 2013) The main problems in Russia are corruption, low incomes of citizens and insufficient infrastructure development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The first issue and first problem is the fight against corruption, which is eating our society and state system. The second issue – and all this is interrelated – is low incomes […]

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Putin Questions Jail Term for Opposition Leader Navalny

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 2, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that a recent real jail term for his vehement opponent Alexei Navalny was “strange,” given that another defendant in the case got away with a suspended sentence. Whistleblowing blogger Navalny was given five years in jail last month on embezzlement charges that he dismissed as fabricated by […]

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Sergei Filin hopes to attend opening of new season at Bolshoi Theater

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Bolshoi Theater file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 2, 2013) Bolshoi Theater Artistic Director Sergei Filin, who is being treated in a German clinic, has said he does not rule out that he might return to the theater in September. “If vision in my left eye continues recovering at the same pace and if it stabilizes, it is quite possible that I could return […]

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Government Backs Skolkovo High-Tech Hub With Funding Pledge

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Science, Technology, Engineering
Skolkovo File Photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 2. 2013) The Russian government appeared to renew its support for the Skolkovo innovation hub Thursday as Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told the Cabinet that the embattled project would be included in a state program and receive 502 billion rubles ($15.2 billion) of funding through 2020. The brainchild of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and […]

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Urlashov Faces More Charges

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Yevgeny Urlashov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – August 1, 2013) Investigators said Wednesday that they were preparing a new criminal case against former Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, who was arrested on attempted bribery charges in early July in what his supporters say was a frame-up to ruin his party’s chances of winning regional elections. Urlashov became a nationally known […]

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Sentence first, verdict afterwards

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
European Court of Human Rights Building file photo

(opendemocracy.net – Kirill Koroteev – Aug. 1, 2013) Kirill Koroteev, a Russian lawyer, has worked with Memorial Human Rights Centre (Moscow) and European Human Rights Advocacy Centre on numerous cases lodged against the Russian Federation with the European Court of Human Rights. He was also a charge de mission for the International Federation for Human Rights (Paris) on Belarus and […]

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Most of Russians mistrust national judiciary – poll

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime
Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 31, 2013) Most of Russians have no trust in the national judiciary, Levada Center told Interfax on Wednesday referring to the July poll outcomes. Almost two-thirds of the respondents (61%) suspect that an average person cannot expect fair justice, and 27% disagree. The attitude to the Russian judiciary has been changed for the past five years. […]

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131 Years After Death, Dostoyevsky Undergoes Criminal Check in Russia

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Fyodor Dostoyevskty file photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 1, 2013) As if Fyodor Dostoyevsky wasn’t depressing enough, Russian court marshals have added a touch of Kafka to his legacy, investigating the Russian literary giant for contempt of court ­ and only clearing him because he is no longer alive. The amusing story began with an “idiot” ­ both the title of an 1869 […]

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‘Foreign Agents’ fight for survival

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(opendemocracy.net – Yuri Dzhibladze – July 30, 2013) Yuri Dzhibladze is founder and president of the Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, a Russian public policy and advocacy NGO. The Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights has achieved much in fifteen years, but now, like so many NGOs, it has been branded a ‘foreign […]

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Keeping calm and carrying on

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Nonprofits, Activists, NGO's
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(opendemocracy.net – Anna Sharogradskaya – July 31, 2013) Anna Sharogradskaya is the director of the Regional Press Institute in St Petersburg, lecturer in Journalism and social activist. St Petersburg’s Regional Press Institute has defended Russian media rights for the last two decades. Like other similar organisations, it has been subjected to various forms of governmental harassment, but has managed to […]

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Russian Prosecutor Questions Reported Bribery Figures

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime
Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 30, 2013) ­ While the number of bribes being offered in Russia rose 30 percent in the first six months of this year, the number of bribes accepted was down 6.5 percent, a top prosecutor said Tuesday, questioning the objectivity of those figures. Such figures could be related to the desire of regional prosecutors to […]

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Western Activists Urge Vodka Boycotts, Visa Bans To Protest Russia’s Antigay Laws

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Russia & the West
Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW – July 29, 2013) Western lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists are ratcheting up the pressure on Russia over laws outlawing “gay propaganda.” Among the tactics: an online campaign to “dump Russian vodka” calls for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, while another campaign urges a visa ban […]

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Local Politics in Moscow Goes Global

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 139 – Pavel K. Baev – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – July 29, 2013) Last week, Aleksei Navalny re-entered the Moscow mayoral election campaign after his implausible release from jail the day after being condemned to five years behind bars on a blatantly fabricated charge. His team has jump-started the work in earnest, mobilizing […]

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Let’s Say “No” to the Erosion of the Constitution

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Spies, Spy Allegations
Kremlin and Moscow Environs Aerial View

(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Ekaterina Mishina – July 29, 2013) Russia’s leading legal experts have published an open address in which they detail the threats to the country’s constitutional order. IMR Advisor Ekaterina Mishina, a co-signatory of the address, emphasizes that, for the lawyers, to point out the dangers of the current situation is a professional, civic, […]

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Putin Uses His Favorite Ax to Grind Navalny

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
File Photo of Alexei Navalny Being Grabbed by Police at Protest

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor – July 26, 2013) All autocracies have two things in common: They exaggerate the threats they face from leading opposition figures and take extreme, repressive measures to limit or remove those threats. Russia is certainly no exception, and the trial and conviction of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a case […]

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Corruption, concerns about judicial system may impact Russian investment climate – EESC head

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 27, 2013) Opacity of the Russian judicial system and corruption may influence investors’ decisions to enter the Russian market, European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) President Henri Malosse said. “Today investors indeed may feel some trepidation for reasons that are linked to the reliability of the Russian judicial system, as well as for reasons of corruption,” […]

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Credit card fraud in Russia 10-times less than elsewhere

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – July 25, 2013) Despite its image as a den of high tech thieves international credit card company VISA reports that fraud in Russia is 10-times less than in its other markets. The company said that card fraud in Russia costs it 5 kopecks per 1,000 annually, a tenth of the company’s global average, VISA […]

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Majority of Russians Approve of White Lies – Poll

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Life in Russia, Culture, Arts
Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, July 25, 2013) ­ The percentage of Russians who say it is acceptable to tell white lies has almost doubled since the fall of the Soviet Union, according to a poll on Russian morals released Thursday by the Levada Center. Just 33 percent of those surveyed in 1992 said that they considered lying for a good […]

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Lawyer wants first conviction of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev annulled

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Europe, EU, Human Rights, YUKOS, Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(Interfax – July 25, 2013) The Thursday resolution by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding a complaint lodged by Yukos ex-CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev should prompt the Russian authorities to annul their first conviction. “The court recognized a violation of [the right to] a fair trial. The conviction should be annulled,” Khodorkovsky’s […]

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Russia typifies link between high interest rates and corruption

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – July 25, 2013) Corruption in Russia has helped drive up interest rates on loans to the point where it’s choking off economic growth. “Rates are high now and that makes it hard to do business,” Garegin Tosunyan, head of the Russian Association of Banks, said at the St Petersburg […]

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No economic amnesty to Russian opposition leader, tycoon yet – ombudsman

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Human Rights, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
Boris Titov file photo

(Interfax – July 23, 2013) Russia’s business ombudsman Boris Titov, who proposed the idea of economic amnesty, has said that it is difficult to grant it now to opposition leader Aleksey Navalnyy and former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovskiy from the legal standpoint. Titov said this at a news conference in Moscow on 23 July, as reported by Russian news agency […]

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Politkovskaya children to boycott ‘undignified trial’ of mother’s alleged killers

Assassinations, Beatings, Threats, Chechnya, Dagestan, North Caucasus, Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Human Rights, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television
File Photo of Mourners with Photo of Anna Politkovskaya

(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 23, 2013) The trial of the alleged murderers of Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya that is starting on Wednesday will be “patently illegitimate,” the journalist’s son and daughter said on Tuesday, refusing to attend the trial. “In our absence and that of our lawyers, the judge began to select jurors and approved the jury,” Ilya Politkovsky […]

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Leading Russian Economist Slams Medvedev’s Move To ‘Police’ State Companies

Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade
Empty Boardroom

(RIA Novosti – Moscow, July 22, 2013) Head of research at the Higher School of Economics Yevgeniy Yasin has described the Russian government instruction placing heads of state companies under obligation to account for their income and spending on par with officials as “absolute piffle”. Instead of building these mechanisms, one should continue the course to privatization, the economist has […]

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