Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – September 25, 2013) Russia leapt 10 places in the latest “Economic Freedom of the World” report, released in September by Canada’s Fraser Institute, to 101st place largely thanks to its financial reforms. The US fell 13 spots, largely because of its financial mess. The Kremlin is regularly lambasted for […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. September 24, 2013) Russia’s human rights commissioner Vladimir Lukin said he expected that the Russian authorities would not punish the activists of the Greenpeace environmental organization too severely for their protest rally against oil extraction in the Pechora Sea. “I hope that our authorities will realize that they nevertheless had admirable and noble motives and that they […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 25, 2013) Nearly half of Russians believe that the recent regional elections were fair and are pleased with the results, the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) said. About 7,000 elections of various types, in which over 40 million of Russians were entitled to vote, were held across 80 Russian regions on September […]
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(Interfax – September 24, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved a plan to create and develop mechanisms for public oversight over the activities of natural monopolies with input from consumers, along with the relevant road map, the government press service said. The goal of the document is to involve consumers in monitoring the development and implementation of monopolies’ investment […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 23, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev criticized the pace at which the road maps to increase business and investment activity in Russia are being implemented, as nearly half of their measures have not been carried out on time. “We can’t in any case be happy with the pace of implementation of these road maps. Of the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 24, 2013) If the Federation Council approves the government-backed and Duma-approved plan to restructure the Russian Academy of Sciences, a group of Russian scientists say, this will lead to a weakening or even breakdown of horizontal ties across the country and to “the growth of separatist tendencies.” In an open letter […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 24, 2013) Yevgeny Roizman was inaugurated as mayor of Yekaterinburg, just as the contest for city manager, which could well determine the influence Roizman will ultimately wield, began Tuesday. Six candidates have entered the contest, with the winner to be selected by the Yekaterinburg City Duma, RIA Novosti reported. Among them is current city […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – September 24, 2013) The appointment of former “gray cardinal” Vladislav Surkov to a post in President Vladimir Putin’s administration has prompted a flurry of speculation among Kremlin watchers with some saying it signals a return to a more flexible policy in political affairs and others insisting it is just a sinecure for […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) SVETLANA MIRONYUK: Thank you. Mr President, Mr Rühe wants to respond. Mr Rühe, please go ahead. VOLKER RÜHE: President Putin, I go along with you, what you said on Iraq. And we were as critical; the French were, also. It was not a NATO it was an American decision. But Libya was […]
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(RIA Novosti – Konstantin von Eggert – September 23, 2013) Konstantin Eggert was Diplomatic Correspondent for Izvestia in the 1990s and later the BBC Russian Service Moscow Bureau Editor. Konstantin has also spent some time working as ExxonMobil Vice President in Russia. Conflict is raging in Russia again. Luckily, not on the streets but in the country’s spirited blogosphere. The […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 23, 2013) The 2014 budget that is being drafted by Russia’s government is the most austere in years, according to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “It will be a difficult budget, the most difficult in recent years. It aims to ensure the stable development of Russia in a deteriorating global economic environment,” Medvedev said at a meeting […]
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(Interfax – September 23, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has acknowledged that security and the armed forces are a priority for state spending and social needs will have to take their place in the queue, Interfax news agency reported on 23 September. “I hope that after we complete the reorganization and restructuring of the armed forces, on which we’re […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ezekiel Pfeifer – September 23, 2013) A Moscow court on Friday rejected a lawsuit brought by opposition politician Alexei Navalny seeking to cancel the results of the city’s Sept. 8 mayoral election, in which Navalny placed second behind Kremlin-backed winner Sergei Sobyanin. Navalny’s team argued that the results were illegitimate because of violations including unequal […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – September 23, 2013) An alliance of Russia’s nonparliamentary opposition that was formed at the peak of large-scale street protests in Moscow last year has seen an exodus of its leaders, prompting predictions of its impending political death. Former mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny, Solidarity co-leaders Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin, former State Duma […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 21, 2013) Russian liberals who back candidates that make nationalist appeals either out of calculation or conviction in the hopes that this will boost their poll numbers are sacrificing their own values and helping the authoritarian regime in the Kremlin, according to a St. Petersburg University student. In a letter to […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 22, 2013) Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has categorically dismissed online rumors that the Russian president has remarried in a church ceremony at a secluded monastery in central Russia. A Twitter message that swept through social networks on Saturday claimed that Putin, who divorced in June, tied the knot again earlier in the day at the […]
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(Interfax – September 20, 2013) Russian pundits seem not to be surprised with President Vladimir Putin’s statement that he does not rule out standing in the next presidential election in 2018. Putin said this during a question-and-answer session at the Valday discussion club in Novgorod Region on 19 September. They believe Putin considers this scenario as basic and that this […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) MODERATOR SVETLANA MIRONYUK: They say that Senator McCain followed your example and published an article of his own in Pravda newspaper. He probably remembers from the Soviet years that Pravda was a well-known publication and the most popular newspaper in the country. True, a lot of time has passed and things have changed […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Allison Quinn – September 20, 2013) [View entire 3-hour event here http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-PtsodE-ZkY&feature=m-ch-fea] At the 10th-anniversary meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin lapped up praise for his recent New York Times op-ed on the Syria crisis and his “achievement” of averting a U.S. military strike. Putin addressed a wide array of […]
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(Kremlin.ru – Novgorod Region, September 19, 2013) Vladimir Putin took part in the final plenary meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club. The theme of the club’s anniversary session is Russia’s Diversity for the Modern World. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, friends, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that the place for your discussions, for our meetings is well […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – NEW YORK, September 20, 2013) U.S. Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona) has defended an opinion piece he wrote this week that was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling Yuri Zhigalkin of RFE/RL’s Russian Service that his remarks were based on the facts about rights abuses in Russia. RFE/RL: Senator, I had the feeling that critics and […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 19, 2013) The Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitriy Peskov, has said that the question put to Vladimir Putin during the meeting of the Valday (also spelt Valdai) discussion club on 19 September about the possibility of him standing in the 2018 presidential election was “rhetorical” and received an appropriate answer, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Vasily Shumov, special to RBTH – September 20, 2013) In modern Russia, we can see that almost every public rally features a music performance that can be identified as a protest song. Russian protest songs have come a long way in the past 60 years following World War IIstarting with songs created by […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – September 20, 2013) A study on economic factors that stimulate growth that was released Thursday puts Russia in 43rd place out of 60 countries, showing no overall improvement over last year’s ranking. The Grant Thornton Global Dynamism Index for 2013, which combined 2012 results with economic development forecasts for 2013, placed Australia […]
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(Interfax – VALDAI, September 19, 2013) Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said that should another economic crisis break out in Russia, it might bring with it political consequences. “If a crisis occurs, it will trigger political repercussions,” Kudrin told reporters on the sidelines of the Valdai discussion club. The ex-minister, however, declined to forecast when a new crisis […]
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(Pravda.ru – September 19, 2013) When Pravda.ru editor, Dmitry Sudakov, offered to publish my commentary, he referred to me as “an active anti-Russian politician for many years.” I’m sure that isn’t the first time Russians have heard me characterized as their antagonist. Since my purpose here is to dispel falsehoods used by Russia’s rulers to perpetuate their power and excuse […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, September 18, 2013) The apparent fact that Aleksey Navalnyy is popular in Moscow does not make him the sole leader of the opposition in the country, believes Boris Nemtsov, co-chairman of RPR-Parnas. “It is an apparent fact that Aleksey Navalnyy is the leader of the opposition in Moscow. However, it is too early to say whether or […]
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(RIA Novosti – VALDAI, Novgorod Region, September 18, 2013) An outspoken Russian opposition lawmaker said Wednesday that political protest in the country was too fragmented to generate the kind of large-scale public discontent that erupted after parliamentary elections in 2011. “I’m convinced there will be no new wave of protests,” Ilya Ponomaryov of A Just Russia party said at […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) A relevant parliamentary committee on Wednesday recommended that lawmakers pass a bill providing additional grounds for unscheduled checks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The committee for public unions and organizations recommended that the bill, submitted by the Russian government in June, be passed in its first reading. According to the bill, grounds for […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 19, 2013) Ethnic Russians often hold positions on ethnic issues that are at odds with one another, a reflection of the difficulties of tapping in to such sensitive questions and of real uncertainties among them about themselves, their nation and country, and about other groups. At the request of the Norwegian […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) A bill to hand over control of research institutions in Russia from the country’s Academy of Sciences to the federal government was approved on Wednesday in the federal parliament despite vehement objections from the scientific community. The landmark bill, which has yet to be approved by the upper house of parliament and […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – September 18, 2013) As the Russian government continues to search for a national identity unifying Russians, a recent study shows a society atomized along ethnic and economic lines. With so little holding a people together, the findings, sociologists say, challenge a long-held assumption that Russia is an inherently collectivist society. “We are […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) Russia’s business ombudsman proposed on Tuesday that the country’s authorities should declare amnesty for illegal migrants to help both the foreign workers and their employers. Ombudsman Boris Titov, who helped put forward amnesty for Russians jailed on economic charges, wrote a column saying that business in the country needed a considerable inflow of […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW/KAZAN, September 17, 2013) Russia could cut budget expenditure by more than 1.2 trillion rubles in the next three years. Some of this as well as money saved by other means may be redistributed or used for other priorities. Cutting and maneuvering The Kommersant newspaper said the Russian Finance Ministry was proposing to slash budget spending by more […]
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Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 From: PONARS Eurasia / IERES <ieresgwu@gwu.edu> Subject: REMINDER – PONARS Eurasia Policy Conference – September 23-24, 2013 IERES – The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies We are pleased to invite you to the annual PONARS Eurasia Policy Conference September 23-24, 2013 GW Elliott School of International Affairs 1957 E Street NW Washington DC […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) Russia should be preserved within its current borders at any cost, said 93% of citizens polled by the Public Opinion Foundation in September. Some 57% of 1,000 respondents polled over the phone said there was a threat to Russian territorial integrity. Such answers were mostly given by citizens older than 60 (69%), vocational school […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Grigorii Golosov – September 17, 2013) Grigorii Golosov is Professor of Political Science, Project Director, Center for Democracy and Human Rights Helix, St. Petersburg Recent regional elections in Russia provoked more interest than usual, mainly because charismatic and controversial opposition leader Alexei Navalny was standing in the Moscow mayoral election. Some results were dramatic, but Grigorii Golosov wonders […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – September 18, 2013) The State Duma on Wednesday is set to review a controversial reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences in a key second reading amid a flurry of scandalous accusations against both the academy’s leadership and federal lawmakers who’ve sponsored the reform. The proposed reform has been met with major […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 17, 2013) Academician Yury Osipov, who was the Russian Academy of Sciences’ president for 12 years, said an unseemly and insulting campaign has been launched in the media against the Academy. “A well-orchestrated and large-scale information campaign against the Academy of Sciences, which is apparently linked to the Academy reform, aims to convince the public, whose […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, September 18, 2013) Ever fewer Russians are taking part in elections, a trend that one Moscow analyst has suggested is a greater threat to the Kremlin than any increase in support for opposition figures because it sets the stage of “either a ‘cold’ civil war” with real elections “or an ordinary civil […]
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(opendemocracy.net – By Tatyana Kargina – September 18, 2013) ‘Delai Sam’ is Russian for ‘Do it yourself,’ a concept supposedly alien to the average Russian, who is used to having other people take decisions for him or her. But, as Tatyana Kargina reports, herself a ‘Delia Sam’ believer, more and more people are becoming civic grassroots activists. ‘Do it yourself,’ […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky, an Editor and Novelist, is a Bloomberg View contributor – September 17, 2013) If you’ve ever wondered about the size of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s private fortune, allow me to offer a clue: He doesn’t need one. From time to time, Western journalists and bloggers speculate about whether Putin is one of the world’s […]
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(RIA Novosti – YAROSLAVL, September 17, 2013) Russian opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov is under investigation for publicly inciting “extremist activity,” local prosecutors told RIA Novosti Tuesday. Prosecutors in Yaroslavl did not indicate which statements concerned them, but Boris Nemtsov, who is co-leader of the Parnas opposition party and a local lawmaker, links this to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 16, 2013) The Geneva agreements between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are doubtlessly a significant diplomatic success but the question is whether or not they may be given different interpretations, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said. “An important diplomatic success has been achieved in Geneva. First […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 16, 2013) Moscow’s pro-Kremlin mayor, who recaptured his post after a closely watched election last weekend, said Monday he would not run for Russia’s presidency in 2018, but suggested that his victory against opposition leader Alexei Navalny has bolstered his legitimacy. Asked about plans to run in the next presidential race, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 16, 2013) Natalia Antonova is the Acting Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow News. She also works as a playwright her work has been featured at the Lyubimovka Festival in Moscow and Gogolfest in Kiev, Ukraine. It was a headline worthy of instant fame on Reddit or Buzzfeed: “Man shoots another man following argument over philosopher Immanuel […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Paul Duvernet, special to RBTH – September 17, 2013) Intellectuals, politicians and journalists gathered in central Russia for four days of discussion about the country’s future. The 10th annual meeting of the Valdai Club opened Sept. 16 with a collective inquiry into the competition between identities at the international and regional levels. The […]
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(Howard Amos, RIA Novosti – VALDAI, September 16, 2013) Russian officials, opposition leaders and pundits wrestled on Monday with the disjuncture between the country’s capital and its far-flung provinces at an international conference, where two erstwhile political rivals from the mineral-rich Urals region surprised observers by publicly settling their differences. The newly elected mayor of Yekaterinburg and outspoken Kremlin […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, September 17, 2013) Earlier this Tuesday, the RIA Novosti Agency launched a project called A Quarter Century of Independent Media in Russia, a focus on the history of post-Soviet media from 1989 to this day. The core of the project is based on events related to the founding or closing of high-profile mass media outlets, […]
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(Interfax – September 16, 2013) Opposition activist Alexei Navalny will most likely continue his political career not in the 2014 Moscow City Duma elections but by opening of party offices in regions where problems are likely to occur, General Director of the International Institute for Political Expertise (IIPE) Yevgeny Minchenko said. “A lot depends on whether or not the People’s […]
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