Russia Beyond the Headlines sets out its list of top news stories for 2012: 1. The presidential election … 2. Medvedev’s Cabinet … 3. United Russia’s new leader … Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev swapped jobs and not only in public office … 4. Strident new laws … 5. Protest actions …
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MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – Corruption is customary for Russia but the government still has to combat it, President Vladimir Putin told a Thursday press conference. “Speaking of the anti-corruption fight; this is one of our problems and a customary one,” he said. Putin told reporters a historical anecdote: Peter the Great ordered Prosecutor General Pavel Yaguzhinsky to execute thieves […]
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From: “Committee to Protect Journalists – ECA” <eurasia@cpj.org> Subject: CPJ: Russia still far from solving Politkovskaya murder Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2012 Committee to Protect Journalists www.cpj.org News Alert Russia still far from solving Politkovskaya murder New York, December 17, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for a retrial of a key defendant in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – The shooting incident at a primary school in Connecticut, the U.S., which claimed the lives of 20 children and seven adults, will make it impossible to freely sell weapons in Russia, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov tweeted on Tuesday. “The consequences of freely selling weapons in the U.S. and the beginning campaign […]
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[Russian politics: A new ideology for political ends: Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation address – The Economist – Dec. 15, 2012 – http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21568431-vladimir-putins-state-nation-address-new-ideology-political-ends] The Economist reports on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s State-of-the-Nation Address, noting what it saw as a values-oriented focus: For a man known for his pragmatism even cynicism President Vladimir Putin’s state-of-the-nation speech on December 12th was heavily […]
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SKOLKOVO, near Moscow. Dec 13 (Interfax) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has poured cold water on a proposal for starting a crackdown on corruption in Russia by choosing one of the government’s activities, such as issuing passports, and making it completely transparent. The proposal came from a speaker at the “Open Government” conference in Skolkovo on Thursday. “I believe that […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Dec. 13, 2012) When Dmitry Medvedev was caught by a live microphone last week referring to Investigative Committee agents as “kozly,” a deeply offensive insult in Russian, it sparked a minor scandal, embarrassed the prime minister, and infuriated many in the law-enforcement community. Medvedev’s gaffe cast a light on the turbulence that President Vladimir Putin’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – Dec. 13, 2012) President Vladimir Putin expanded Russian vocabulary Wednesday, as he called for “deoffshorization” of the country’s economy, a measure he said would help repatriate capital channeled to offshore jurisdictions. In his state-of-the-nation address, which covered a wide range of economic issues, Putin pushed for agreements with tax havens that would […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Dec. 12, 2012) In a meeting with supporters on December 10, President Vladimir Putin insisted the Kremlin’s anticorruption campaign was the real deal and not just for show. Arrests would be made, he added, and punishment for crooked officials was “inevitable.” Should we believe him? There are, of course, plenty of reasons for skepticism. First […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 11, 2012) President Vladimir Putin spoke to supporters Monday about the recent wave of high-profile official corruption cases, saying they are not a “show-off campaign” but part of a systemic fight against government fraud. Addressing a group of more than 500 of his official representatives who campaigned for him ahead of […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – Dec. 10, 2012) Doctor Marat Gunashev didn’t even have time to change his slippers when masked law enforcement officials led him out of the surgery room on the morning of Nov. 28 and placed a bag over his head. The patient he was administering anesthesia to was left lying on the table. […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – Social activity is not a subject of the law on “foreign agent” NGOs, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin’s election agents on Sunday. “Concerning the recent lawa(euro) There is no change with regard to social affairs, such as hospices. They are unrelated to political activity,” he said. Such organizations are not subject to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 10, 2012) In a live television interview, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed support for a range of legislation that critics say is part of a crackdown on the political opposition, including a law requiring certain NGOs to register as foreign agents. But the former president also conveyed liberal positions on several […]
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(Interfax – Dec. 9) Criminal cases on more than 16,500 corruption-related crimes by Russian officials were passed on to courts in the first nine months of 2012. “The number of corruption-related crimes committed by officials in the criminal cases passed on to courts is 16,603 (compared with 11,137 in 2011),” official spokesman for the Russian Investigations Committee (RIC) Vladimir Markin […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – Rumors of corruption in Russia are exaggeratory and opponents take advantage of the Russian image of a highly corrupt country, Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov told President Vladimir Putin’s election agents on Sunday. “Corruption rumors are exaggeratory. This does not mean we have no such problem, but I will be honest: the idea of Russia […]
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[Medvedev’s interview with Russian TV stations ends awkwardly – ITAR-TASS – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – Dec. 10, 2012 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/595374.html] Itar-Tass covers Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s “hit mic” comments disparaging of Russian security services raiding the home of a media figure: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s interview with five Russian television stations ended awkwardly Russia Today placed a […]
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[Getting His Goat: Open criticism of Russian officials is allowed only when it is part of a plan – Masha Gessen – Masha Gessen is the director of Radio Liberty’s Russian Service and the author of “The Man Without a Face,” a biography of Vladimir Putin – New York Times – Dec. 10, 2012 – click here for full article] […]
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[Medvedev discusses corruption, tighter legislation, Opposition with TV journalists – Itar-Tass – Lyudmila Alexandrova – Dec. 7 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c39/592431.html] Itar-Tass covers a recent interview by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with Russian television networks: One of the first most acute questions was about the high-profile scandals and the potential involvement in them of some very high-ranking officials, including the former […]
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SOCHI, Russia. Dec 7 (Interfax) – Russia’s human rights ombudsman argued at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that the country’s prison system needs reforming, citing increasingly frequent protests by prison inmates, and asked for measures to prevent accidental explosions at military training sites. “This year there has been no big difference between the quantity and quality of […]
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[Vladimir Putin tries to restore monopoly of power – Matthew Rojansky – Valdai Discussion Club – Dec. 4, 2012 – Valdaiclub.com interview with Matthew Rojansky, Deputy Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie Endowment – http://www.carnegieendowment.org/2012/12/04/vladimir-putin-tries-to-restore-monopoly-of-power/eqjp] Matthew Rojansky of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is interviewed on politics and corruption under Vladimir Putin. Rojansky notes the uptick in anti-corruption action, […]
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[Purge and prejudice: What will the fate of military reform tell us about the anti-corruption campaign? – Mark Galeotti – Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Dec. 3, 2012 – Mark Galeotti (Twitter: @markgaleotti) is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s SCPS Center for Global Affairs. His blog, “In Moscow’s Shadows,” can be read at http://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com – full article […]
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MOSCOW, December 6 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) A prison in Russia’s Urals region where inmates rioted last month against alleged abuse and extortion was compared to a “concentration camp” on Thursday by a member of the Kremlin’s human rights council. “We saw a splendid park and a beautiful church, marble but behind the facade there was hell,” Maxim […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has argued that current criminal action against people featured in the documentary film “Anatomy of Protest 2” is a necessary measure against “destructive forces.” “The danger is that people may have their protest sentiments manipulated by interested persons and their associations in attempts by destructive forces to use the protest […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alec Luhn – Dec. 6, 2012) Even as the government wages a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, Russia remains in the bottom third of Transparency International’s corruption index, released Wednesday. The nation ranked on par with Kazakhstan, Iran and Honduras. This is “the zone of national shame,” said Yelena Panfilova, director of Transparency International Russia. It indicates […]
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Far, far more serious than the shake-up’s implications for Russia’s military doctrine and modernization — and they are serious, because it is unlikely that Shoigu will succeed by retaining Soviet-era management practices — are its implications for the stability of the Putin regime and its reliance on clans, protection, corruption, and intimidation. The Serdyukov scandal is a hint that Putin is not in control, and that his political system has become vulnerable to fratricide.
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[Yulia Latynina – Moscow Times – Dec. 5, 2012 – Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio – http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/new-rules-in-old-corruption-game/472507.html] Yulia Latynina comments upon the shifting landscape in Russian corruption and how it is handled: Under the old rules, a public scandal involving Serdyukov would have failed to result in his dismissal. It also would have meant […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for raising standards in Russia’s legal education system, attacked the allegedly undeserved conferment of academic degrees in the law profession, but hailed the existence of more than 400 free legal assistance centers in Russia. Speaking at a session of the Russian Lawyers Association, Medvedev said that, at various conferences, he […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – The anti-corruption fight in Russia has started to bear tangible fruit, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Tuesday. It polled 1,600 people in 138 towns and cities in 46 regions in late November. Thirty-six percent of Russians said the anti-corruption measures were efficient in 2007, and the indicator has grown to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Dec. 5, 2012) The index on state sector corruption, published by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) on Wednesday, showed Russia climbed 10 spots to 133th place in 2012. Based on expert opinion, countries are scored from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Russia scored 28. No country scores a perfect 100. While no […]
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[Corruption scandals dominate Russian headlines; Allegations have involved Russia’s defense and agriculture ministries and even the space program. Some wonder whether the regime is cracking down or fracturing. – Los Angeles Times – Sergei L. Loiko – Dec. 3, 2012 – http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/02/world/la-fg-russia-corruption-20121203] The Los Angeles Times covers recently exposed corruption scandals in Russia: … the news in Russia lately has […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 3, 2012) Magnitsky’s life reveals a man who was in many ways ordinary and felt compelled to fight a state machine he had trusted his whole career. When a childhood friend said he was thinking of not returning to Russia after a concert tour abroad in 2000, Sergei Magnitsky gave him […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vladimir Frolov – Dec. 3, 2012) It may feel like hitting a political trifecta. You defang the political issue that energizes your opponents. You restore your standing with the military and please your core supporters long clamoring for the corrupt elites’ heads. You anesthetize your governing team with a fear of being on the hit […]
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(Business New Europe – www.bne.eu – Ben Aris) A major anti-corruption campaign is underway in Russia. Yet despite making graft the defining issue of the Russian story, the western press is vigorously ignoring the campaign. At the start of November, President Vladimir Putin fired the defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, after an investigation uncovered RUB3bn ($97m) worth of stealing from a […]
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(Augusto Come – www.opendemocracy.net – Augusto Come is a student of the Paris School of International Affairs and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He is interested in issues of democracy and transition in the post-Soviet space – Nov. 29, 2012) Russia’s higher education institutions are popularly assumed to be among the most corrupt in the country. Augusto Come […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Nov. 30, 2012) A city court has declared Pussy Riot’s “punk prayer” video extremist, meaning that media outlets can face closure for publishing the all-female band’s famous performance in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. Thursday’s far-reaching decision also means that hosting platforms like YouTube must remove the video for Russian users […]
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(Interfax – Vienna, 29 November) The Kremlin hopes that the draft bill on controlling officials’ expenses will take effect this year. “Among anti-corruption stories, I would note the draft bill on controlling officials’ expenses,” the head of the Kremlin (Presidential) Administration, Sergey Ivanov, said at the International Anti-Corruption Academy’s (IACA) first Assembly of Parties in Vienna on Thursday (29 November). […]
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(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Nov. 29, 2012) Is it an anti-graft campaign? A purge of the elite? Or the start of a clan war? When police raided and searched the home of Rostelekom CEO Aleksandr Provotorov last week, it marked yet another chapter in what the Russian media has been describing as a Kremlin-backed war on corruption. The search […]
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(Senate fight coming over Russian human rights bill – Foreign Policy – Josh Rogin – Nov. 28, 2012 – click here for full article) ForeignPolicy.com covers the U.S. Senate’s handling of the Magnitsky Act and related trade regulation, and the question of whether to broaden its scope to human rights violators world-wide: The Senate is set to do battle over […]
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(The Magnitsky Bill: The Sources of America’s Obsession with Russia – US-Russia.org – featuring Vlad Sobell, Ron Paul, Edward Lozansky, Willism Dunkerley, Alexander Rahr, Alexandre Strokanov, Nicolai Petro, Mark Nuckols, Patrick Armstrong, and Sergei Roy – Nov. 28, 2012 – click here for full article) US-Russia.org features remarks in Congress by Cong. Ron Paul, as well as commentary by Vlad […]
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(Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 9, Issue 217 – Pavel K. Baev – Nov. 28, 2012) A capacity for unleashing targeted repressions is crucial for the survival of authoritarian regimes, and President Vladimir Putin finds it increasingly difficult to demonstrate that he has such a capacityor that he controls it. Health problems keep him confined to […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – Nov. 26, 2012) Let’s get one thing out of the way first I am married to one of the actors starring in “One hour and eighteen minutes,” a documentary play about the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. And I am not here to talk to you about the quality of the […]
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(Interfax – 11.29.12) Corruption in Russia remains high, and citizens are worried about it, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Thursday. Seventy-five percent believe that the corruption level is high or even very high. The indicator was the same in 2007-2008, the sociologists said. Sixty percent claimed high corruption in their home towns in 2007. The […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – 11.29.12) Russia ranked dismally in the yearly Rule of Law Index published by the nongovernmental World Justice Project, scoring in the bottom third for each of the ranking’s eight criteria. Russia ranked 92nd out of 97 countries for the extent to which its government’s powers are limited, 92nd for order and security and 71st for […]
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(Rostelecom Is Forever in Debt to the Kremlin – Yulia Latynina – Moscow Times – Nov. 28, 2012 – Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio – http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/rostelecom-is-forever-in-debt-to-the-kremlin/472094.html) Yulia Latynina comments in a Moscow Times op-ed on alleged corruption and repercussions entangling Rostelecom, Marshall Capital and VTB Bank, yet another Russian scandal ending up in the […]
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(Constitutional Court considering law on rallies – ITAR-TASS – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – November 28, 2012 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/583381.html) ITAR-TASS reports on the Russian Constitutional Court’s review of a law on protests: Russia’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday began to consider complaints filed by parliamentarians of the State Duma and opposition leader Eduard Limonov. They oppose new rules for organizing rallies and […]
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(Interfax – November 27, 2012) The U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law (USRF), which is a U.S.-registered entity, neither can replace the defunct Russian branch of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) nor has any plans to do so, USRF’s chief executive said on Tuesday. USRF and USAID have completely different missions, Mark Pomar […]
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Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 Subject: Response to your question (re Masha Gessen) From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> A response to David’s request concerning the accuracy of Masha Gessen piece “In the Penal Colony. This Being Russia, A Massive Prison Protest Isn’t Being Reported”. By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova The temperatures here in Novosibirsk are currently ranging between -20 and -30. That allows […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – November 27, 2012) A revolt at a maximum security prison in the Chelyabinsk region by prisoners complaining of corruption and abuse has ended, regional prison officials said in a statement Monday. But the fallout appears to be just beginning, as prosecutors quickly opened a check into the incident, and two senior officials […]
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MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) Self-proclaimed Cossacks who began patrolling central Moscow on Tuesday were not authorized to do so, despite claiming otherwise, the district administration said. A group of people styling themselves Cossacks patrolled a downtown square by the capital’s Belorussky train station on Tuesday, reports said. Eight men in furry hats and striped trousers, outnumbered five to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – November 27, 2012) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was showered by a wave of ridicule and negative public sentiment on Monday following a weekend tirade against bad driving. The backlash kicked off on Saturday when Medvedev used the latest entry on his video blog to call for a crackdown on the country’s notoriously […]
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