Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
(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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(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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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Cochairman of PARNAS opposition party and former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov has said he agrees with many proposals made by President Vladimir Putin in his Wednesday message to the Federal Assembly but is not sure that all of them will be implemented. “A significant part of Putin’s speech was predictable. Just a year ago I […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – First Deputy Chairman of the Communist Party Central Committee and State Duma vice speaker Ivan Melnikov did not hear anything fundamentally new in President Vladimir Putin’s message to the Federal Assembly. “Judging by the document as a whole, I must say that one and the same idea is repeated year after year – the stage […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Political expert Gleb Pavlovsky has mixed feelings about the state-of-the-nation address President Vladimir Putin presented at the parliament on Wednesday. He thinks the address is inertial. “The address does not contain fresh ideas; it is inertial, which means it is based on the principle “we have done this and that and we will carry on […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Dec. 13, 2012) The government will continue to bolster the country’s economic and military prowess as well as dole out benefits to citizens, but political change can only be incremental, President Vladimir Putin said in his state-of-the-nation address Wednesday. Putin’s first major policy speech since he returned as head of state […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Provincial intelligentsia should be revived as a moral pillar of the country, President Vladimir Putin said in the state-of-the-nation address he presented at the parliament on Wednesday. “I would like to speak particularly about the social sphere. Specialists working in this field are formally indentified as ‘public sector employees’. These people have a good education […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Scott Rose & Ilya Arkhipov – Dec. 12, 2012) Russian President Vladimir Putin vetoed legislation passed by parliament on changes to the Skolkovo innovation hub, a project championed by Premier Dmitry Medvedev, threatening to widen a rift between the two men. The bill, which proposed delaying mandatory residency requirements for Skolkovo, needs additional work to determine […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) – The majority of Russians are discontent with the government although the share of happy persons has grown from 6% to 8% over the past years, Levada Center told Interfax on Tuesday. Fifty-two percent blame the government for inability to curb down inflation and to stop a decline in personal incomes. The respondents were polled in […]
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MOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) President Vladimir Putin warned against foreign interference in Russia’s domestic affairs during his state-of-the-nation address Wednesday, casting local political actors who get money from abroad as a fifth column serving foreign interests. “Direct or indirect interference from outside in our internal political processes is unacceptable,” he said. Someone “who receives money from abroad for […]
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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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(Interfax – Dec. 11, 2012) Sources for Russian opposition activists being questioned about an alleged plot to incite mass disorder have denied that they went to Lithuania to be taught how to seize power, Interfax news agency reported on 11 December (see “Russian investigators question new witnesses in coup plot case”, published by BBC Monitoring on 11 December). The whole […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – Dec. 12, 2012) Investigators successfully appealed on Wednesday to prolong the detention of opposition figure Leonid Razvozzhayev for nearly four more months. The activist is accused of staging mass unrest in Moscow. The decision to allow investigators to continue work on the case until April 1 was made by Moscow’s Basmaniy Court, […]
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MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti, Alexandra Odynova) Amid last year’s large-scale opposition protests in Moscow, Russian leader Vladimir Putin jokingly compared himself to the powerful python Kaa from Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.” Since then, Kremlin critics have certainly felt a squeeze, with authorities employing anti-opposition tactics that have ranged from counter-rallies and media campaigns to tough new legislation […]
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(RIA Novosti – Dec. 10, 2012) President Vladimir Putin has rejected suggestions that Russia’s drive for closer ties with other former Soviet republics is an attempt to rebuild the Soviet Union. Speaking on 10 December at a meeting in Moscow with his “authorized representatives”, who acted as his election agents during this year’s presidential election campaign, Putin dismissed such claims […]
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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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(Interfax – Dec. 11, 2012) The United Russia faction at the State Duma has proposed to name the bill retaliating against the Magnitsky Act after 18-months-old Dima Yakovlev who died after his adoptive American father left him in a locked car in a parking lot for nine hours on a hot day. “They named their act after Magnitsky and United […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 11, 2012) In a widely expected response to the passage of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, State Duma deputies on Monday introduced a bill that would make Americans suspected of mistreating Russians personae non gratae. The bill bans Americans from traveling or investing in Russia if they are deemed to have “illegally” […]
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MOSCOW, December 9 (RIA Novosti) Russia is concerned about a possible repeat of “color revolutions” that caused regime change in several post-Soviet republics in the mid-2000s with ambiguous results, a senior Russian official said on Sunday. “Events are in motion in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine; we’re dealing with it every day. Are these [events] a danger for us? Yes,” […]
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(RIA Novosti Moscow, 9 December) First deputy head of the Kremlin administration Vyacheslav Volodin believes that no other country, including the USA, has the kind of democracy that Russia has. “It is not just that we have maximum democracy, it is also a fact that other countries have not had it, and still don’t. You know, if we take the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) General Director Valery Fyodorov claims that protest movement has broken down in Russia and the political situation has stabilized. “The election campaign ended several months ago. Protest movement experienced a crisis and actual breakdown against the backdrop of de-politicization of the society. Everyone can see its signs: preparedness to […]
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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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[Post-interview ‘hot mic’ catches Russia’s Medvedev – AFP – Dec. 10, 2012 – click here for full article] AFP covers Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s recent remarks against security services, caught after a televised press conference was supposed to be over, but when at least one live feed was still running (from state-controlled Russia Today): Stark divisions within Russia’s elite […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Dec. 10, 2012) Television channels were passing the blame Monday after unofficial footage from an interview with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was leaked Friday. Footage that appeared on YouTube showed the prime minister just after the end of an hour-and-a-half interview, chatting freely with the journalists from the five channels that […]
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(http://premier.gov.ru – Dec. 7 2012) Sergei Brilyov (Rossia 1 Channel): Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon, Mr Medvedev. Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon. Sergei Brilyov: This is “A Conversation With Dmitry Medvedev.” I am confident that my colleagues and I are ready to ask some rather serious political and economic questions. But, first, I would like to ask you about your impressions […]
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[President to deliver state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly on December 12 – ITAR-TASS – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – Dec. 6, 2012 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/590982.html] Itar-Tass covers plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin to deliver his state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly on December 12: Experts are awaiting surprises which might become “the key priority” during the new presidential term. The […]
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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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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm – Michael Bohm is opinion page editor of The Moscow Times – Dec. 7, 2012) Speculation about President Vladimir Putin’s health problems was revived this week when he met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. Judging from a Reuters photograph, it seemed that Putin was wincing as he lowered himself […]
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[Russian PM defends tough laws, stands behind Putin – Reuters – Timothy Heritage – Dec. 7 – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/07/us-russia-medvedev-idUSBRE8B60OU20121207] Reuters reports on Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s vocal support for President Vladimir Putin and new laws on treason, protests, defamation and NGO’s: In a live interview with five Russian television stations, Medvedev appeared determined to show he is in step with […]
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MOSCOW, December 7 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti) One year ago, large-scale street protests in Moscow seemed to overturn the indifference toward politics that had dominated the Russian public consciousness for much of the 2000s. Today, sociologists say, people’s willingness to hit the streets has waned considerably, with many voters skeptical both of the Kremlin and the opposition. But the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) – Politicians and experts, who attended the presentation of a research study of the Civil Society Development Fund at Interfax on Thursday, made interesting or even paradoxical comments on the protest movement in Russia that marked its first jubilee. The “white ribbon” movement saved Russia from a social outburst, political expert Leonid Polyakov told the press […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) – The majority of people who attended protests staged by the Russian opposition said they would be ready to support President Vladimir Putin at elections if he agreed to implement some reforms, the director of the All Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies (VTsIOM), Valery Fyodorov, said. The center’s sociologists drew these conclusions after interviewing those […]
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MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) Russian NATO envoy Alexander Grushko refuted on Friday claims by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Russia is aiming to “re-Sovietize” Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “Sovietization is a cliché which, in my opinion, is absolutely incongruous with the actual processes that are taking place throughout the former USSR,” Grushko said during a […]
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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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(Interfax – Dec. 6, 2012) The protest movement in Russia is losing steam, Civil Society Development Fund head Konstantin Kostin said in a presentation of his report at Interfax on Thursday. “Protests were escalating from December 2011 through February 2012 and then started to subdue,” he said. Kostin put the blame on internal problems of the protest movement. “People are […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, 3 December) Political analyst Aleksey Mukhin believes that the authors of the Carnegie Centre’s report “The awakening of Russia” are somewhat late with their conclusions, some of which could have been partially accepted in December 2011 – March 2012. According to Mukhin, there is no reason to talk about a crisis in the country, including a […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscow.times.com – Alexander Bratersky – Dec. 6, 2012) Activists who took part in large-scale protests against the Kremlin over the last year are putting their hopes in new political parties that could be used as a platform for opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny. With public enthusiasm for protests seeming to have waned after a year of mass […]
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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. Dec 4 (Interfax) – The Civil Initiatives Committee of former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has urged the authorities not to tighten the screws on civil society regulation. “It is necessary not to tighten the screws on the regulation of civil society, free discussion and protest actions. Such measures do nothing but radicalize protests and ruin the authorities’ hope […]
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(RIA Novosti – Fyodor Lukyanov – Dec. 6, 2012 – Fyodor Lukyanov is Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal the most authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments) We have seen growing speculation about President Vladimir Putin’s health over recent weeks. A break in his foreign trips and reports of a sports-related injury […]
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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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[After a year of protest, a different Russia beckons – Washington Post – Will Englund and Kathy Lally – Dec. 5, 2012 – Click here for full article] The Washington Post covers the one-year anniversary of the large protests that broke out in Russia in December 2010: The political protests that suddenly began a year ago seemingly accomplished little concrete […]
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MOSCOW, December 5 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) – When thousands of Muscovites swept into the streets to protest alleged vote-rigging in favor of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party at the December 4, 2011, parliamentary polls, they revived a passion for politics not seen here for some two decades and set the scene for the greatest challenge to the ex-KGB officer’s […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 4 December) Left Front coordinator Sergey Udaltsov is satisfied with the results of the year that has passed since the start of active protests and believes in dialogue with the authorities on issues of political and social reform in the country. (Passage omitted: disputed 4 December 2011 parliamentary election led to mass public protests) “It will be […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – Dec. 5, 2012) “Who is in favor of fair courts? Seems like no one wants fair courts. How about early elections? Don’t you want early elections?” former chess champion Garry Kasparov asked the opposition Coordination Council regarding the main slogan to be used for a Dec. 15 protest march. “For now, we […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – Dec. 5, 2012) One year ago Wednesday, tens of thousands of protesters filled Chistiye Prudy, a leafy park in downtown Moscow, in a spontaneous protest against State Duma elections that they said were rigged. The participants led by students and urban, middle-class professionals described the event in terms of jubilation […]
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