Russian official testifies in Magnitsky’s alleged tax evasion trial

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – April 1, 2013) A former member of the government of Russia’s Kalmykia republic has confirmed during the Sergei Magnitsky tax evasion trial that the registration of the Dalnyaya Step and Saturn Investments companies in Kalmykia as investment firms involved document forgery. Magnitsky, who was an external auditor for British investment fund Hermitage Capital and died in a Moscow […]

» Read more

Raids on opposition spread to regions

Map of Russia

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 2, 2013) Russian law enforcement authorities have widened their search for opposition figures involved in the violent May 6 protest rally last year, with a series of raids in at least four regional cities, activists said. The raids were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the violence that broke out […]

» Read more

Traffic Law Enforcement Disparity ‘Destabilizes’ Society

Moscow Traffic file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – April 1, 2013) In a meeting with traffic police on Friday, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said the preferential treatement given to certain “categories of people” for traffic violations significantly destabilized society. He did not specify which categories he was referring to, but in recent years there have been numerous cases in which […]

» Read more

Russia takes yet another step against corruption

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Munzer Hallum, special to RBTH – April 2, 2013) After large-scale embezzlement schemes revealed at major government agencies and state-owned companies, Russian authorities step up their anti-corruption campaign. The bill forbidding officials from holding foreign-issued assets will a step in the crusade. In February 2013, President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill to the […]

» Read more

Putin Orders State Officials to Declare Expenses

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, April 2, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees on Tuesday obliging state officials to declare not only their income, but also their expenses from now on, in a bid to crack down on corruption. State officials will have to submit information concerning their acquisition of real estate, land, cars, valuables and shares, as well as […]

» Read more

Pistols at dawn: Until the police can be trusted, more Russians will want guns

Makarov Handgun file photo

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Konstantin von Eggert – April 2, 2013) “If you outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns’ ­ so goes the famous slogan of the National Rifle Association in the US. Until recently, few people thought that this would ever be a contentious issue in Russia. But the case of Alexandra Lotkova, a 21-year-old Moscow student, […]

» Read more

Number of convicts drops to 575,000 in Russia for the first time in contemporary history

Russian Jail File Photo Showing Outer Wall, Windows, Barbed Wire

MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) – Some 600,000 people are currently serving prison time in Russia, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov said. “For the first time in at last 20 years, in the entire contemporary history of the Russian Federation, the number of people serving their sentences in prisons and penal colonies, i.e., people convicted to isolation, has dropped to at […]

» Read more

NGO Checks ‘Unprecedented’ in Post-Soviet Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle and Yekaterina Kravtsova – March 29, 2013) The Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia’s oldest human rights organization, on Thursday became the latest NGO inspected in a massive government campaign that has hit hundreds of non-state groups in 25 regions and is unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia, a rights leader said. Prosecutors and Justice Ministry officials […]

» Read more

Prosecutor Says Extremism Law Is Behind NGO Checks

Map of Russia

MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti) ­ A recent series of spot checks on non-governmental organizations in Russia that caused outcry among rights advocates is aimed at establishing their compliance with laws against extremism and the legalization of criminal income, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday. Nationwide NGO inspections have been taking place since last month, and most observers had linked […]

» Read more

Unannounced Checks of NGOs Persist

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – March 28, 2013) Prosecutors on Wednesday continued performing unannounced inspections of nongovernmental organizations, checking the Moscow offices of three prominent groups and summoning two human rights leaders for questioning. Officials have inspected about 2,000 NGOs nationwide in the past month, Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights group, said by telephone. […]

» Read more

Critics Of Khodorkovsky Verdict In Kremlin Crosshairs

Mikhail Khodorkovsky file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – March 27, 2013) MOSCOW — Mikhail Subbotin thought he was answering a call to public service. Two years ago, then-President Dmitry Medvedev’s Human Rights Commission recruited the legal expert to draft a report reviewing the most recent conviction of former oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Subbotin agreed to work without pay. But when the […]

» Read more

Raids On NGOs In Russia Suggest ‘Increasingly Insecure’ Kremlin

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Sitting at Desk

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Claire Bigg – March 26, 2013) Amnesty International has joined a growing list of organizations raided by Russian officials in recent weeks amid what activists describe as a ruthless Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Prosecutors and tax police on March 25 searched the venerable rights watchdog’s Moscow headquarters, along with three other prominent advocacy groups — the […]

» Read more

Authorities search NGOs for ‘foreign agents’

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Stanislav Kuvaldin, special to RBTH – March 27, 2013) Law enforcement organs are conducting mass checks of Russian NGOs. According to information from human rights activists, more than 40 organizations in 16 regions of Russia have already been inspected. The Justice Ministry and the Public Prosecutor’s Office have announced their intention to check […]

» Read more

More Inspections Hit Rights NGOs in Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) ­ Russian state officials continued a wave of raids on prominent rights organizations on Wednesday that activists describe as a renewed pressure campaign against non-governmental organizations in the country. On Wednesday, officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office and tax control service targeted several more NGOs, including the Moscow offices of Human Rights Watch, Transparency International […]

» Read more

Pussy Riot stunt was caused by moral decline – justice minister

File Photo of Pussy Riot Member in Courtroom Cage, Grinning and Gesturing with Clasped Hands

MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) – Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov believes the stunt carried out by the feminist punk group Pussy Riot in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is an indication of a moral decline in society. “There has been a considerable moral decline. The dancing of the girls, who consider themselves art revolutionaries, on the ambon of a church […]

» Read more

Poll suggests over one-third of Russians want parole for Pussy Riot performer

File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) – Russians who would like Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk rock band, to be released on parole make up roughly the same proportion as those who want her to serve out her two-year term, an opinion poll suggests. On March 20, the chairman of the Public Supervisory Commission of […]

» Read more

‘Berezovsky Was a Scapegoat and a Criminal’

Boris Berezovsky file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – March 26, 2013) “Is Boris Berezovsky the godfather of Russia’s godfathers? It sure looks that way,” Russian-American journalist Paul Klebnikov wrote in an article published in late 1996, the year a small group of Russian oligarchs, including Berezovsky, engineered President Boris Yeltsin’s re-election. Berezovsky, then a billionaire businessman, objected to the portrayal, […]

» Read more

Residence Issue Crucial to Berezovsky Estate Decision – Expert

Boris Berezovsky file photo

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Resolving the fate of the Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky’s estate will depend on whether the United Kingdom or Russia is ruled to have been his official place of residence, an expert told the Rapsi news agency on Monday. Since 2000, the Russian businessman had resided in the United Kingdom, where he died on Saturday […]

» Read more

Amnesty Intl’s Russian office chief says may be summoned to prosecutor’s office

Kremlin and St. Basil's

MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax) – The head of Amnesty International’s Russian office Sergei Nikitin announced after police visited the office that he could be summoned to the prosecutor’s office soon. Prosecutors, Justice Ministry and tax officials started an audit on several nongovernmental organizations on Monday, among them Amnesty International, Public Verdict and the Movement for Human Rights. “They spent five […]

» Read more

Checks at Russian NGOs seek to identify ‘foreign agents’ – Justice Ministry

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Interfax – Moscow, March 25, 2013) The Justice Ministry has explained that mass checks at NGOs are being carried out to uncover the organizations that fall under the definition of “foreign agents”. “If breaches of the laws of the Russian Federation are uncovered, including the provisions of the Federal Law “On the introduction of changes to legislative acts as regards […]

» Read more

Corruption is the Communism of Today, Russian Analyst Says

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 26, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-corruption-is.html) For Vladimir Putin’s Russia, corruption is the communism of today, Stanislav Belkovsky argues, and the struggle against it is like the struggle against the CPSU a quarter of a century ago, a battle that will lead to “Perestroika Version Two” and a series of events resembling those […]

» Read more

NEWSLINK: Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to continue its legal actions to bring Berezovsky’s criminally acquired assets back to Russia

Boris Berezovsky file photo

[Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to continue its legal actions to bring Berezovsky’s criminally acquired assets back to Russia – ITAR-TASS – March 25, 2013 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/686220.html] ITAR-TASS reports on Russian efforts to seize assets of exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, recently found dead under undetermined circumstances in Britain, where he had been granted political asylum. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office […]

» Read more

Russians’ greatest worry is corruption; only 4 percent worried about rights – poll

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Interfax – March 21, 2013) Over the past three years, the Russians have become less concerned about inflation, unemployment and economic crisis in the country and significantly more concerned about growing corruption, social inequality and uncontrolled immigration, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 21 March, citing an opinion poll carried out by the Levada Centre in February. According to the […]

» Read more

Former ‘Provocateur’ Blames Police for Bolotnaya Clashes

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – March 22, 2013) A man professing to be a former government operative has said that police officials, including the former interior minister, were involved in organizing clashes at an opposition rally last year, allegations that members of the Kremlin human rights council say could be trustworthy. The online television channel Politvestnik posted […]

» Read more

Trial of Dead Lawyer Magnitsky Begins in Moscow

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

MOSCOW, March 22 (RIA Novosti) – The unprecedented posthumous trial of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky for tax evasion began on Friday as investigators denied he was arrested for uncovering major corruption by state officials. This is believed to be the first time a dead person has been prosecuted in either Russian or Soviet history. Magnistky, who worked for the British-based […]

» Read more

Human rights ombudsman Lukin to continue seeking reversal of Pussy Riot sentence

Vladimir Lukin file photo

(Interfax – March 21, 2013) Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said he will continue insisting that the court reverse the conviction of members of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot. “No doubt, the case will go higher and will reach the Supreme Court. We have worded our position and it is unchanged,” Lukin told Interfax on Thursday. It was reported […]

» Read more

Russia, Cyprus to Continue Vital Loan Talks

Cyprus Map

MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) ­ Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris is set to continue negotiations on a potential Russian loan with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov on Wednesday, after initial talks between the two countries’ finance ministries ended without an agreement. The Cypriot minister is in Moscow to discuss the extension of a 2.5-billion-euro loan that Russia […]

» Read more

Investigators Close Case Into Magnitsky’s Death

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova and Ezekiel Pfeifer – March 20, 2013) Investigators said Tuesday that they had closed the case into the 2009 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose name is attached to a U.S. law that has caused tension in U.S.-Russian relations by seeking to punish Russians implicated in human rights violations. An inquiry into Magnitsky’s […]

» Read more

Russian Lenders Face Billions in Losses Due to Cypriot Levy

Cyprus Map

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – March 19, 2013) The proposal by the Cypriot authorities to introduce a levy on the country’s bank deposits as part of a plan to bail out its economy drew harsh criticism from Moscow on Monday, with the largest Russian lenders facing multibillion-dollar losses as a result of the measure. President Vladimir Putin […]

» Read more

Corruption Fight Progressing, Watchdog Says

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – March 18, 2013) Europe’s top intergovernmental corruption watchdog has found that Russia has made modest progress in fighting graft between 2010 and 2012. The country has implemented 15 recommendations out of 26 made by the Group of States Against Corruption, or GRECO, according to a report published Friday. The document, compiled […]

» Read more

Russia’s Rogozin Lashes Out at Corrupt Officials

Dmitry Rogozin file photo

MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country’s military-industrial complex, called on Friday for harsher punishments for corrupt officials who “betray the motherland” by siphoning funds from defense projects. “These crimes must be punished in the harshest possible manner,” Rogozin told a meeting of officials from the Russian Federal Service for Defense […]

» Read more

Russia Fulfills Recommendations of the Group of States against Corruption

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Interfax – March 15, 2013) The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) gives a generally positive evaluation to the anti-corruption efforts of the Russian authorities and to the implementation of the GRECO recommendations, the Russian Prosecutor’s General Office said. “The GRECO has noted that Russia had accomplished a lot in a short term to implement the recommendations of the GRECO. […]

» Read more

Kremlin Slams Embarrassing Report that Claims United Russia Lost Duma Elections

Russian Duma Building

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris – March 14, 2013) The Kremlin said on March 13 that the author of a report that claims the ruling United Russia party actually lost the 2011 elections to the Communist Part of the Russian Federation thanks to fraud needs psychiatric help is surprising and extremely embarrassing. The report is embarrassing as […]

» Read more

Kremlin Rebuffs Report Questioning Duma Vote

Duma Session file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – March 14, 2013) Senior government officials on Wednesday rejected as pure fantasy a leaked report that cast doubt on the ruling United Russia party’s victory in the 2011 State Duma elections, saying its author should seek psychiatric help. The report, written by Stepan Sulakshin, director of the Governance and Problem Analysis Center, […]

» Read more

Kickbacks Still ‘Dwarf’ Top Officials’ Salaries, Despite Raises

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – March 14, 2013) The salaries of top state employees have doubled since December, but such remunerations remain minute compared with unlawful kickbacks to the echelons of power, an anti-corruption expert said Wednesday. Higher pay amounts to buying loyalty from bureaucrats, but state salaries can hardly act as an efficient tool against […]

» Read more

Accusations of Plagiarism Become a Political Weapon

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – March 13, 2013) Members of the political opposition often accuse state officials of grandiose misdeeds, such as falsifying election results, stealing millions from state coffers, or even ordering the killings of their adversaries. Lately, they have begun accusing pro-Kremlin officials of a far less sinister offense, one more often leveled at schoolchildren […]

» Read more

Titov Seeks Changes to Pretrial Detention Rules

Boris Titov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – March 13, 2013) The case of an entrepreneur who spent five years behind bars before even being sentenced will be used by the business ombudsman to reduce the maximum time that suspected criminals can remain in pretrial detention. Business ombudsman Boris Titov has joined forces with human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to […]

» Read more

Russia Remains in Last Place for Public Trust

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – March 13, 2013) The level of trust in government officials and business executives remains dramatically low in Russia, with most residents saying they are more inclined to rely on their colleagues and independent experts, a research company said Tuesday. Only 5 percent of Russians believe that any government official tends to tell […]

» Read more

Gazprom Belies State-Run Tag as Russia Can’t Get Answers

Russian Gas Facility file photo

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Scott Rose – March 11, 2013) OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas export monopoly, is thwarting efforts to boost oversight of its $28.9 billion in capital spending as the state seeks to improve investment, Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov said. “Despite the fact that it’s a state company, even we, to put it mildly, can’t always see […]

» Read more

Kremlin Probing State Companies Over Corruption

Cropped File Photo of Two Men in Business Suits Shaking Hands and Passing Cash

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 12, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has instructed major state companies to unofficially provide tax and financial authorities with information about their deals monthly in an effort to probe corruption. The Federal Tax Service and Federal Financial Monitoring Service receive the information in order to check whether corporate management is affiliated with any businesses, a […]

» Read more

Experts Shed Light on Russia’s Capital Flight

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ben Aris, special to RBTH – March 11, 2013) Some $350 billion has fled Russia since the 2008 global crisis. But things aren’t as bad as they seem. Genuine capital flight is only half the official figure, according to a new study by Ernst & Young, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund […]

» Read more

At Putin’s Order, FSB Now Using Social Networks to Target Opposition

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 12, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-at-putins-order-fsb.html) At the direction of President Vladimir Putin, the FSB is not only monitoring social networks but using one of their features to create problems for those opponents of the regime who use them by posting statements on their sites and then invoking the appearance of those materials […]

» Read more

The Magnitsky Money: From Russia … And Then What?

File Photo of Man Placing Stack of Large Bills into Inside Pocket of Suitcoat

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson, Richard Solash – March 11, 2013) What if $230 million went missing and no one wanted to get it back? That is the puzzling question posed by Russia’s years of unwillingness to investigate the well-documented fraud claims made by lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky. At least half a dozen European Union countries, plus Switzerland, […]

» Read more

Scandal Hits Duma Anti-Graft Chief

Russian Duma Building

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – March 12, 2013) Irina Yarovaya, head of the State Duma’s powerful Anti-Corruption and Security Committee, on Monday became the latest United Russia deputy to face embarrassing allegations of ethics violations with the publication of a report accusing her of de facto owning a multimillion-dollar apartment. Despite declared earnings of 2.9 million rubles […]

» Read more

The Kremlin’s New Deal

Vladimir Putin file photo

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – March 11, 2013) Tsar Peter I once proposed to his prosecutor-general that corrupt officials be either exiled to Siberia or executed. “But then who will be left?” the prosecutor responded, according to the oft-repeated historical anecdote. “We’re all thieves.” President Vladimir Putin repeated this tale during his press conference in December to illustrate […]

» Read more

Ex-FSB Officer Shuns Litvinenko Inquest

file photo

MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) ­ A former officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) suspected by the British authorities of poisoning Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko said on Tuesday that he will pull out of the inquest into the killing, blaming political pressure from London. Andrei Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko days before his death in 2006, called a press […]

» Read more

Prosecutor General Checks NGOs for Source of Foreign Funding

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anya Aseeva – March 11, 2013) The Prosecutor General’s office, together with the Justice Ministry and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, has begun conducting large-scale unscheduled checks into non-governmental organizations to determine sources of foreign funding, a news report said Monday. Marina Grudneva, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s office, said the inspection was being conducted […]

» Read more

“Moscow Trials” Puts Art on Trial, Trials in Art

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – March 11, 2013) Journalist and theater director Mikhail Kaluzhsky called it a “theatrical slam.” Olga Shakina, a journalist from the Dozhd television channel, said it was a moment when “one theatrical event replaced another.” What they were discussing on Saturday on Echo Moskvy radio was a now-notorious performance of “Moscow Trials,” a […]

» Read more

A champion for businessmen’ rights uses influence against raiders

Boris Titov file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Tim Wall, RBTH – March 11, 2013) Russian Presidential Commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights Boris Titov gives an insight he is helping businessmen successfully deal with pressure from officials through the courts. Boris Titov, Russia’s foremost producer of sparkling wines, knows all too well what it’s like to face pressure from officials. But now, […]

» Read more

NEWSLINK: Sergei Magnitsky: The enemy within: A saga that has been a parable of the self-mutilating way Russia is governed

Memorial Flowers and Photo of Sergei Magnitsky

[Sergei Magnitsky:  The enemy within: A saga that has been a parable of the self-mutilating way Russia is governed – The Economist – Editorial – March 9, 2013 – http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573119-saga-has-been-parable-self-mutilating-way-russia-governed-enemy-within] The Economist issues an editorial on the Magnitsky saga and its aftermath, and what it shows about brutal, deadly elitism in Russia: Martyred human rights activists; fatally brave journalists: Russia, […]

» Read more
1 25 26 27 28 29 32