Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
(Peter Pomerantsev – www.opendemocracy.net – December 28, 2012) Peter Pomerantsev is a British TV producer. For many years, he sold British programmes to the Russian TV industry. He now lives in London. Throughout the Putin heyday, Russian political discourse was invented, manipulated and owned by a handful of Kremlin spin doctors. Over the last year, that changed. Though they failed […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – December 28, 2012) President Vladimir Putin on Thursday commanded the Cabinet to make good on his costly campaign promises, in a sign that he may be unhappy about how they are being fulfilled. This is the second time that Putin highlighted his intention to get the Cabinet to keep his word, after […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – December 28, 2012) President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are likely to swap their armored limousines for helicopters next year, as the city center will be equipped with several landing pads, head of the presidential affairs office Vladimir Kozhin said Thursday. The pads might appear on the territory of the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – December 28, 2012) Ludmila Alexeyeva, a leading Russian human rights advocate, is ready to defend the job she might lose under the newly adopted Russian response to the Magnitsky Act, she told RIA Novosti on Friday. The bill signed by President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day prohibits holders of US passports […]
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(Daniil Kotsyubinsky – www.opendemocracy.net – December 28, 2012) Daniil Kotsyubinsky is Russian historian and journalist based in St. Petersburg 2012 started in a huge upsurge of opposition activity: street protests, marches, arrests and imprisonments. A year later the scene is much calmer. Daniil Kotsyubinsky considers the future for the opposition, and does not find what he sees particularly encouraging The […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Roland Oliphant – December 28, 2012) Two hundred years ago this month, the miserable shreds of Napoleon’s Grande Armee shuffled out of Russian territory, thanking their lucky stars they had made it safely home and vowing never, ever to try that again. Those sentiments were shared by survivors of this year’s re-enactment of the Battle […]
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[In Ex-Soviet States, Russian Spy Tech Still Watches You – wired.com – Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan – December 21, 2012 – http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/russias-hand/all/] Wired.com reports on Russian security services spying on citizens, with the Russian legal system deeming citizen activities such as opposition protests to be extremist and a justification for surveillance: On November 12, the Russian Supreme Court okayed […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – December 27, 2012) Calls for honest elections and President Vladimir Putin’s removal might attract the urban middle class to rallies, but it is rusty pipes and the poor state of the utilities sector that might persuade thousands of disgruntled citizens of all classes to march in the streets. The possibility that higher […]
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(Interfax – December 27, 2012) The Dec. 20 press conference by President Vladimir Putin caught the attention of more than half of Russians. Thirty-four percent watched the press conference live, either fully or partially, and 18% learned the main points from news programs. Forty-eight percent did not follow the presidential press conference, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – December 24, 2012) MOSCOW Vladimir Putin’s six months back in the Kremlin may say a lot about his next six years. In May, angry protests greeted Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin for a third term as president of Russia. On inauguration day, Putin’s motorcade swept through eerily empty streets of Moscow, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Patrick Reevell – December 26, 2012) A policeman says in Russian: “I work a lot, sometimes even too much. … Winter or summer, rain or shine, I go from a bank to a store, from a store to a restaurant, from a restaurant to a market, looking for where to take money.” What’s wrong with […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – December 26, 2012) A third criminal investigation was opened against opposition leader and anti-corruption lawyer Alexei Navalny on Monday, with the Investigative Committee claiming he stole money from a political party in 2007. The committee said in a statement that Allekt, a company headed by Navalny in 2007, had received 100 million […]
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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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[Vladimir Putin gives big news conference in tough debate with journalists – ITAR-TASS – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – December 21, 2012 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/606821.html] Itar-Tass covers Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent marathon press conference. Putin reportedly claimed he had not read a recent Duma bill banning U.S. adoptions of Russian orphans, and allowed that the Duma was responding emotionally to the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times – December 21, 2012) State Duma Deputy Oleg Mikheyev from the Just Russia party came up with an original idea to lift the spirits of people depressed by all of the bad news they face every day from the country’s leading media […]
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MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first state-of-the-nation address after returning to the Kremlin earlier this year, delivered Wednesday, outlined a broad strategy for domestic development, offering no major policy updates and avoiding foreign policy issues almost entirely. At times, the speech implicitly acknowledged demands articulated by opposition activists over the past year, but it did […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has accused Russia’s opposition of destructive ambitions and a lack of constructive agenda. “They should have their agenda, their proposals for solutions to problems that face the country. In this sense, I very much expect that, after the law on the freedom of registration of political parties comes out, political struggles will […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – December 21, 2012) President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signaled a return to the classic days of his presidency by presiding over a 4 1/2-hour news conference, which at times resembled a call-in show as reporters from the country’s far-flung regions scrambled to pass personal messages to the head of state. The […]
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WASHINGTON, December 20 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) – US groups financing politically active nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia are facing a potentially jarring shake-up of these programs amid Moscow’s escalating clampdown on such funding. The question now is: What are they going to do about it? At least two US taxpayer-funded organizations viewed with suspicion by the Russian […]
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[Click here for Transcript Part I] (Kremlin.ru – December 20, 2012) Moscow QUESTION: Mr President, I am Alexander Kolesnichenko from Argumenty i Fakty. I am an adoptive parent myself, and regardless of the foreign policy context I considered the amendment passed by the State Duma yesterday to be outrageous, inadequate and, sorry, cannibalistic. The people who have passed this law […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – David Burghardt – December 20, 2012) Russian President Vladimir Putin said he does not believe that those who participate in mass protests should be sent to prison, but added that anyone who resists police authority should be punished. “I don’t think that participation in a mass protest, even if it was held in breach of […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin disagrees with the claims that he has built an authoritarian system in Russia. “I think we have ensured stability as a mandatory condition of development. I think this is extremely important. Yet I cannot call this system authoritarian; I cannot agree with this thesis,” he told a grand press conference on Thursday. […]
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(Moscow Times – Dec. 20, 2012 – themoscowtimes.com/news/article/putin-pictured-in-hell-on-the-economist-cover/473430.html) The cartoon’s accompanying article, which is presented as a travel guide, says the quickest way to hell is by constantly committing major sins without giving in to feelings of remorse. President Vladimir Putin was pictured in hell on the cover of The Economist‘s last issue for 2012, floating along in a fiery […]
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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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[Click here for Transcript Part II] [Fuller Russian transcript and video here http://kremlin.ru/news/17173] (Kremlin.ru – December 20, 2012) Moscow Vladimir Putin’s news conference took place at the World Trade Centre on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. Over 1,000 Russian and 200 foreign journalists were accredited to cover the news conference. Channel One, Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 TV channels and Radio Mayak, Vesti FM and […]
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MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) – Leading opposition figures joined students protesting against the inclusion of their university on Russia’s notorious “list of inefficient colleges” on Tuesday evening. Leftist opposition figure Sergei Udaltsov and two State Duma lawmakers from the A Just Russia party, Ilya Ponomaryov and Dmitry Gudkov, visited students, who began their sit-in in a lecture hall of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – December 19, 2012) As the State Duma considers a bill countering the U.S. Magnitsky Act, a group of lawmakers is threatening to add a provision that would massively increase pressure on nongovernmental organizations they believe to be meddling in domestic politics. The deputies support amendments that would enable authorities to close […]
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MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) A controversial amendment that would ban US citizens from adopting Russian children passed in a second reading in the State Duma on Wednesday. The draft law retaliates for enactment of the Magnitsky Act in the US, which imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials deemed guilty of human rights abuses. The amendment […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Evgeniya Chaykovskaya – December 19, 2012) Russia’s Federal Tariff Services asked the government to raise tariffs for heating (by 11.5 percent instead of 9.5 percent proposed by the Economic Development Ministry) and water supply (11-13 percent instead of 5-6 percent). If their wish is granted, households will face a 15 percent increase in utility payments, […]
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MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Russian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), cash-strapped due to a recent restrictive law on foreign funding, may get much needed support from an organization led by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, he said on Tuesday. “There’s currently a shortage of support foundations in Russia, and we’re filling that niche,” Kudrin said about his Civic Initiatives Committee. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – December 19, 2012) A bill that could once again abolish direct gubernatorial elections, which were reinstated this year, was submitted to the State Duma on Tuesday by members of the majority United Russia party. Popular elections of governors were discontinued following the Beslan school hostage crisis in 2004, when Vladimir Putin, early […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – December 19, 2012) Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Tuesday castigated Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s Cabinet as inefficient, but he rejected speculation that he would come back to the government in the near future. Despite praising Medvedev’s personal contribution to the 18-year process of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization during […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anastasia Matveyeva, Moskovskiye Novosti – Dec. 17, 2012) Market participants are recognizing that the Federal Tax Service has started to work more efficiently, according to statistics presented at a tax summit at RIA Novosti’s press center. “In 2000, 1,350,000 tax inspections of corporate entities were carried out, and the average level of additional charges was […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Anti-western rhetoric has stopped the establishment of an International Financial Center (IFC) in Russia, former finance minister and now chairman of the Civil Initiatives Committee, Alexei Kudrin, said. Instead of dialogue between the authorities and the public, legislation is being passed that is hitting protestors. One myth is the assertion that almost all civil activity […]
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MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Former Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin on Tuesday slammed the authorities for allowing “creeping de-privatization” of the economy despite the government’s commitment to sell state-run companies in order to raise their efficiency and lure much-needed foreign investment. “Despite the declared goals of privatization, we are witnessing creeping de-privatization,” Kudrin said at a press conference […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News – Dec. 17, 2012) I should say something about the latest anti-government protest how about 2,000 people showed up to the first white-ribbon demonstration that failed to get City Hall authorization, but… snore. The rallies have disintegrated into a mere tribute […]
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(RIA Novosti – Dec. 17, 2012) The decision of the Russian opposition Coordination Council to hold off on mass rallies until spring 2013 is a sensible one in view of the wane in protest activity, political analysts told state-owned news agency RIA Novosti on 17 December. Meanwhile, the managing director of the independent Levada Centre pollster, Lev Gudkov, predicted a […]
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MOSCOW/WASHINGTON. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The Magnitsky Act endorsed by the Congress and signed by U.S. President Barack Obama is not targeted against Russia, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul posted in his blog. He said the act did not stipulate any extraterritorial measures. The act concerns the U.S. sovereignty and ability to bar persons involved in violations of human […]
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MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Foreign forces trying to spark “a color revolution” in Russia won’t succeed, Russia’s Security Council chief said in an interview published Tuesday. “There are no grounds for ‘color revolutions’ in Russia and we will not permit those scenarios to develop in our country,” Nikolai Patrushev, security chief and longtime ally of President Putin, told […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – Dec. 17, 2012) On the day that President Vladimir Putin called the nation to patriotism last week, Josef Stalin, wearing his recognizable overcoat against the frost, had a lot of “foreign stuff” to gripe about. “How can you talk of patriotism?” he said, puffing on a smokeless pipe as he stood at […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – Dec. 18, 2012) After a year of tensions between the Kremlin and opposition-minded citizens not seen for over a decade, Russian society decisively split into three parts, with only a minority ready to push for thorough reforms, a new poll reveals. The reform efforts of the 20 percent of “wealthy, educated and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 17, 2012) Hundreds of protesters braved subfreezing temperatures and the threat of detention on Saturday to voice a wide range of grievances against President Vladimir Putin’s government in the first major demonstration to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the street protest movement. But the event was the smallest major demonstration since […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 14 (Interfax) – All of the procedures for privatizing federal property are enshrined at the presidential and governmental level; the legislative framework is adequate to what should happen with privatization in the coming years, and it does not need to be enhanced, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said. “All procedures are now fixed in federal law, […]
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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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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle and Alec Luhn – Dec. 14, 2012) On the eve of the next major anti-government protest, investigators announced that they had evidence that a Georgian politician helped organize violent clashes at a May 6 protest in Moscow. Givi Targamadze, a close ally of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, “managed” opposition leaders responsible for the […]
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(Interfax – Dec. 13, 2012) Mass protests in Russia, such as For Fair Elections, March of Millions and others that have taken place in the country since the end of 2011, are now supported by 40 per cent of Russians. As many people (41 per cent) are against them and others could not say (19 per cent ), Russian Interfax […]
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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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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer and Ilya Arkhipov – Dec. 13, 2012) Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin cemented his position atop Russia’s pecking order. Dmitry Medvedev, the protege he pushed aside, is having difficulty accepting that. “It’s not the easiest thing to do, when you become prime minister after serving as president,” Prime Minister Medvedev said in an […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Dec. 12, 2012) [Scroll Down for Transcript] The Kremlin Vladimir Putin made annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation which outlines priority targets for national political and economic development. The event took place in St George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace and was attended by the members of the Council of Federation, State […]
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