Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
(Kremlin.ru – June 10, 2013) The Kremlin, Moscow Vladimir Putin held a meeting on measures to improve business and investment activeness in Russia. Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, Presidential Aide Elvira Nabiullina, Presidential Aide […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 10, 2013) Most Russians are informed about the tasks President Vladimir Putin has set for the government, think they are feasible and note Putin’s “good strategic foresight,” according to a recent opinion poll. “Seventy-three percent of those polled are more or less informed about the tasks Putin set to the government in May 2012, and 46% […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Valentin Baryshnikov – June 11, 2013) Garry Kasparov may be staying away from his homeland for a while, but he has no intention of steering clear of Russian politics. The chess grandmaster turned opposition figure does not mince his words when he speaks of what he calls the “Hitleresque essence” of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. […]
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(Interfax – June 11, 2013) Russian human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said that he feared “unwise” application of a bill banning propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, which the Russian State Duma could pass in the the second and third readings on Tuesday. “The main issue will be the administration of the law. Cruel and unwise administration could lead to human […]
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(Interfax – June 11, 2013) Russians have become more intolerable to homosexuality over the past few years, and the share of opponents of same-sex marriages has grown, the VTSIOM pollster has reported. Eighty-eight percent of Russian citizens welcome the proposed ban on the propaganda of homosexuality, compared to 86 percent in 2012, and only 7 percent support it. “A relative […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 109 – Pavel K. Baev – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – June 10, 2013) The explosion of public protests in Istanbul makes a strong but ambivalent impression on the development of the vacillating political crisis in Russia; the state-controlled Russian television channels prefer to give them minimal and unsympathetic coverage, focusing instead on the flooding […]
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(RIA Novosti – June 10, 2013) The USA will not be able to hinder integration processes in the post-Soviet space, chairman of the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee Aleksey Pushkov has said. He was speaking at a news conference in Moscow on 10 June, as reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on the same day. Pushkov said: […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing foreign banks and international organizations to check foreign property belonging to election candidates running for positions in state bodies, a news report said Monday. The new law will affect all federal and regional elected officials including the president, State Duma deputies, governors and heads […]
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(Interfax – June 6, 2013) The influx of migrants in Russia is becoming alarming, head of the Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovskiy has said, as quoted by Interfax news agency on 6 June. “For the last four years, we have recorded a significant increase in the number of immigrants to Russia. It was especially high in 2012 and 2013. Certainly, […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 9, 2013) Opposition blogger Alexei Navalny, recommended for nomination as a mayoral candidate by the Bureau of the opposition Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS), will not pass through the municipal filter as a serious candidate, said First Vice President of the Center for Political Technologies think tank Alexei Makarkin. “Navalny can act […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 9, 2013) The Bureau of the Opposition Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS) adopted a recommendation on Sunday to nominate opposition blogger Alexei Navalny to run for Moscow mayor, the party’s co-chairman Vladimir Ryzhkov told Interfax. “The recommendation was adopted following a preliminary discussion. By law, the recommendation has no legal force. The […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 10, 2013) Even though Muscovites will cast their votes for mayor only three months from now, Sergey Sobyanin and other aspirants are already playing the Muslim card to win support among ethnic Russians, a practice that is further alienating the Russian capital’s large and growing Muslim community. In a commentary in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) Businessman and Civil Platform party head Mikhail Prokhorov has announced his plans to work together with former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov in the upcoming city elections, a news report said Monday. “Last Saturday I met with Yuri Luzhkov. We had a two-hour-long conversation during which we discussed the plans for summer,” Interfax […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) The KirovLes trial judge Sergei Blinov has once again rejected motions for his removal by Alexei Navalny’s defense team who complained about procedural violations and case prejudice, a new reports said Monday. “The court has taken the decision to reject the defense’s request to remove the presiding judge,” Blinov announced, adding that […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – June 10, 2013) Within the space of one week, two prominent representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, known for openly voicing their disagreement with the authorities, have announced their political exile. In early June, former world chess champion and opposition leader Garry Kasparov stated at a press conference in Geneva […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, June 8, 2013) Russian Public TV is not planning to cancel its Social Network programme, the next episode will air on 10 June. The channel’s press service told Interfax on Saturday (8 June) that the 7 June edition of the programme was not aired for technical reasons. “No-one is closing the programme, it will continue to run. […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 7, 2013) President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has dismissed rumors that Putin will re-marry soon after divorce. “There is no other woman in the president’s life,” he said on Ekho Moskvy radio, noting that one should look at Putin’s busy schedule. “It is easy to understand that his life is in no way connected […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Dmitry Travin – June 6, 2013) Dmitry Travin is Research Director at the European University in St. Petersburg’s Centre of Modernization Studies. Discontent may soon be the norm across all sections of Russian society. But it’s unlikely to benefit the opposition or professional classes, says Dmitry Travin. Russia viewed from the Kremlin The official Kremlin view goes something […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 7, 2013) More than two-thirds of Russians don’t believe that the status of a country’s president deprives him or her of the right to divorce, an opinion poll suggests. Asked, “Does the president have the right to divorce, in your opinion?”, 71% of those questioned by the Superjob.ru portal on Friday answered in the affirmative. Every […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – June 10, 2013) Ordinary Russians reacted with a mix of compassion, skepticism and indifference to Thursday’s announcement that President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila would divorce after 29 years of marriage, the first time a Russian leader has dissolved his marriage in over three centuries. “Honestly, it’s a circus, it’s funny, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) Almost half of Russian people consider President Vladimir Putin an ideal or “close to ideal” president of Russia, a nationwide survey conducted by Levada Center said. Overall, 64 percent of respondents said that they approve of the president’s dealings. Of the 41 percent of people who consider Putin an ideal leader, 6 […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 7, 2013) Life span in Moscow has almost reach the level common in Europe, said Moscow’s acting Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. “Muscovites’ life span has increased considerably in recent years, reaching 75.5 years, which is almost as long as in Europe,” he said. The birth rate has risen, too, he said. “About 130,000 births were registered in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 10, 2013) On Wednesday June 12 offices around Russia will empty as Russia celebrates Russia Day, one of the nation’s youngest public holidays. Since the day falls in the middle of the week, it will not be rearranged to make up a long weekend. “People will have to organize their working week to take […]
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(RIA Novosti – June 6, 2013) A controversial piece of Russian legislation banning the promotion of homosexuality among children has undergone significant changes since it won preliminary approval in January and is to be put to its key second reading in parliament on 11 June, Russian news agencies reported on 6 June, quoting senior MPs involved in pushing for the […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, June 6, 2013) A number of Russian rights activists have stood up for the Golos NGO and other organizations that have been labelled foreign agents, saying that their work should not be labelled political. “Accusations about NGOs taking part in political activities strikes out citizens’ constitutional rights,” reads Rights Council statement released in Moscow on Thursday (6 […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 6, 2013) The Moscow mayor’s rating has grown over the past few months, sociologists said. Thirty percent of Muscovites support Sergei Sobyanin at present. The number was 26% in March, shows a Superjob.ru portal survey done on May 17-20 amongst 2,000 economically active respondents. Men (31%) are more inclined to approve of the mayor’s work than […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 7, 2013) The ministries and executive agencies’ work and its results must be made open to the public, said President Vladimir Putin. The government presented a plan to Putin in the Kremlin on Friday for implementing the presidential decrees passed in May 2012, followed by Putin’s remarks. “A concrete and clear picture must be drawn to […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 7, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he was not satisfied with the quality and contents of plans compiled by Russian ministers to show what they intend to do within the next five years in order to fulfill the tasks set by the president in May 2012. On May 7, 2012, the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – June 7, 2013) Within hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila announced their divorce on state television on June 6, jokes about their separation became a big hit on social media, particularly on the microblogging site Twitter. RFE/RL’s Central Newsroom has compiled a selection of some of the more notable tweets and comments. […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 7, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has called for treating the president’s private life with respect and not intruding into it. Peskov refrained from answering Interfax how Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin’s daughters had taken the news about their divorce. “Anything that concerns Vladimir Putin’s private life concerns only him, and he has […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – June 7, 2013) The trial against 12 people charged with violence against police and participation in alleged mass riots in the so-called Bolotnoye case a case observers say is one of the largest politically motivated trials in recent history opened at the Zamoskvoretsky District Court on Thursday. More than 400 […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – June 6, 2013) As Russia’s economy slows, corruption worsens, and current Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev’s political stature shrinks, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin’s name is mentioned more and more frequently as a potential candidate for Russia’s next prime minister. However, Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 7, 2013) Lyudmila Putina once called President Vladimir Putin a vampire, while he in turn has suggested that anyone who could put up with her for three weeks was heroic and deserved a monument. These and other observations about the private family life of the Putins were detailed in a 2001 book that provided […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Boris Bruk – June 3, 2013) The principal idea that consolidates different parts of Russian society is xenophobia and intolerance to “others.” Such, at least, was the conclusion of a new study on Russia’s “ideological portrait.” IMR Advisor Boris Bruk, who has analyzed the study, is skeptical about predictions of a “fascist” future […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 6, 2013) Ten ecologically pristine zones in Russia are at risk of becoming polluted, according to a report that the World Wildlife Fund released Wednesday, as the nation celebrates ecologist day. Krasnodar, Irkutsk and Kamchatka regions lead the list with two endangered areas each. The paper mill at Baikalsk on Lake Baikal is the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – June 4, 2013 – photo here: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/bloggers-claim-photos-show-yakunin-mansion/480966.html) Bloggers have published pictures of a luxury mansion, believed to be owned by Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways and powerful member of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. The three-story marble-clad mansion, occupying 70 hectares of land near the Moscow suburb of Domodedovo, was […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – June 6, 2013) Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion-turned-political-opposition-stalwart, told a news conference in Geneva that he would not return to Russia for fear of criminal prosecution for his political activities, his website reported Wednesday. Kasparov’s announcement comes amid fears of a new wave of emigration of opposition-minded intellectuals, a fear intensified […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 6, 2013) The human rights center Memorial has called for an independent legal evaluation of the events that occurred in the Moscow Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012 and the trial of the people charged in the riots, which is now beginning. “We believe it is extremely important to conduct an independent legal evaluation of the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – David Burghardt – June 6, 2013) Sergei Sobyanin made an unexpected move by resigning as the Moscow mayor and instigating snap elections for September in order to secure the next five years in City Hall. In actuality, Sobyanin holds a solid popularity rating of well over 50 percent among Muscovites, has done a lot to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 5, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says his viewpoint on the daylight saving time remains unchanged. “You know my opinion about daylight saving time; there has been no change,” he told the Open Government on Wednesday. “I think everyone must bear one’s responsibility: experts are responsible for validating their standpoint. And the government is responsible […]
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(Howard Amos, RIA Novosti, MOSCOW, June 6, 2013) When investigators summoned prominent Russian economist Sergei Guriev for questioning in February, his first thought was that his professional work could be paralyzed if they confiscated his computers and documents. “With other experts, they took everything away so they could not function,” Guriev told RIA Novosti by telephone from Paris, where […]
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(RIA Novosti – WASHINGTON, June 5, 2013) Russians are dramatically less tolerant of homosexuality than are people in eastern and western Europe or North America and that intolerance has risen rapidly in recent years, according to a new global survey by the US-based Pew Research Center. Of the 996 Russian adults surveyed over a two week period in March, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 5, 2013) The government’s legislative commission has approved a draft amendment giving the authorities additional grounds on which to carry out unscheduled inspections of nongovernmental groups that violate Russian law, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday. According to the draft amendment, checks can be undertaken if violations are not fixed within time limits set by […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Natalia Antonova – June 3, 2013) The departure of Sergei Guriev is ultimately an illustration of what happens when powerful institutions steadily lean toward the irrational. To recap, Guriev is an economist who co-authored a report that criticized the treatment of imprisoned tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. When Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was president in 2008-2012, Guriev […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – June 4, 2013) It’s pretty obvious why Sergei Sobyanin announced today that he will resign as Moscow mayor and run in a snap election in September. What isn’t so clear is whether the gambit will pay off. Appointed in 2010 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev and rubber-stamped by the Moscow City Duma, Sobyanin could […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – June 5, 2013) Mayor Sergei Sobyanin will ask President Vladimir Putin to declare early mayoral elections, the first in Moscow since 2003, in a move analysts said would help ensure Sobyanin’s election in September amid a worsening political climate for the mayor. Sobyanin said his decision was made in the spirit of […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, June 5, 2013) The supporters of Stalin and those who want to continue his political approach have in fact “triumphed” in today’s Russia, and these people consist not of the older generation but of the young who have grown up in the course of the re-Stalinization of the country during the last […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Yekaterinburg – June 4, 2013) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, The talks held at the 31st Russia-EU Summit were constructive and meaningful. We examined in detail the current issues of cooperation in trade, the economy and humanitarian sphere, as well as the improvement of the legal framework for our relations. Russia and the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 3, 2013) Experts at the Audit Chamber and economists it recruited who work at government, corporate and research institutions are questioning the Russian government’s social and economic scenarios and forecasts for 2014-2016. The social and economic development forecast that the government considered on May 16 was discussed on May 29 at a meeting at the Audit […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Chloe Schmitt – June 3, 2013) New Moscow Population: 250,000 residents in the added territory Main industries: In the past, the city of Troitsk was well known for its textile industry. But today there are no major industries in new Moscow. One of the major businesses today is real estate, with the construction of many […]
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