(RIA Novosti – Natalia Antonova – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow News – July 2, 2013) Last week, a couple of foreign journalists I know traveled to a small town very far from Moscow in order to explore local culture and possibly write about it. Before they went, they posted an innocent question on a local forum, […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – ST. PETERSBURG, June 21, 2013) Russia’s government was rushing in where investors feared to tread and used the St. Petersburg Economic Forum as a rallying call for aggressive spending in the country’s regions. Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East have especially attracted attention in recent years in terms of the […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, May 22, 2013) Radical Islam has taken roots in 55 Russian regions, former Interior Minister and president of the Club of Russian Military Commanders Army Gen Anatoliy Kulikov said at a scientific conference “Islamism and Russia’s national security” today. “Radical political Islam, or Islamism, which has declared jihad on our country, is the most real threat to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 22, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is not changing his position regarding the need for the government to keep out of the media, especially in the regions, and he regrets that this has yet to be done. “It’s a shame that we didn’t bring this topic to its conclusion. The government’s presence in the media […]
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(RIA Novosti – KIROV, May 22, 2013) Russia’s beleaguered opposition figurehead, Alexei Navalny, was given a boost in his fight against controversial embezzlement charges on Wednesday when a regional governor testified in his favor. Navalny and a former political ally, Kirov businessman Pyotr Ofitserov, are charged with heading a criminal group that investigators say embezzled 16 million rubles’ ($500,000) […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, May 17, 2013) Homophobia is rather common in Russian society and attitudes toward the LGBT community have been changing slowly throughout the past year, sociologists said. The same as a year ago, three-fourths of Russians brand gays and lesbians as morally loose (43%) or mentally deficient persons (35%). Only 12% acknowledge homosexuality’s right to existence, the Levada […]
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(RIA Novosti – BOCHAROV RUCHEI (Sochi), May 16, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the majority of Russian regions is likely to choose their leaders by direct popular vote. The return of direct gubernatorial elections, scrapped in 2005, was signed into law last year in the aftermath of a wave of anti-Kremlin protests. Earlier this year, Putin […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, May 13, 2013) The idea that “Moscow is not Russia” has long been a commonplace among both residents of the capital and residents of the portions of Russia beyond the ring road, but the two are increasingly dissimilar, raising the possibility that a conflict between the capital and the rest of the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alexandra Ilina, Moskovskiye Novosti – May 8, 2013) GALKINSKOYE, Sverdlovsk region – The village of Galkinskoye is no different from any of the other towns and villages around the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, with its old wooden houses, rickety fences and decaying former farm buildings. However, in 2008, Vasily Melnichenko came up with the idea […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 23, 2013) The demographic decline of the ethnic Russians is leading to a hollowing out of predominantly Russian regions, leaving many of them with only a few cities surrounded by a decaying and increasingly empty countryside, according to the latest demographic data. With the release of ever finer-grained data from the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 22, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/04/window-on-eurasia-ethnically-based.html) The clash between Chechnya and Ingushetia over the border between the two became possible and is more serious because the authorities in each, with Moscow’s approval, have formed units in their force structures that consist largely or entirely of people from the titular nationality. And because that […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 17, 2013) Most of Russia’s regions would rank speculative grade, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said. In an article published on April 16 and titled “Most Russian Regions’ Creditworthiness Is Below Investment Grade Due To A Weak Intergovernmental System, Economy, And Management”, S&P explains its estimate of the credit quality of all 83 Russian regions. The […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – April 2, 2013) Russian law enforcement authorities have widened their search for opposition figures involved in the violent May 6 protest rally last year, with a series of raids in at least four regional cities, activists said. The raids were part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the violence that broke out […]
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MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law that allows regions to decide whether they want to elect a governor by a direct popular vote or let regional legislatures choose them from nominees approved by the president. The State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament whose members initiated the bill, passed […]
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(Interfax – March 28, 2013) Russia’s rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin presented a report on the observation of human rights in Russia in 2012 to President Vladimir Putin, the Interfax news agency reported on 28 March. He highlighted that not enough attention was paid to rights issues in some regions and expressed concern about pressure on regional ombudsmen. Lukin said that […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 22, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-136-national.html) Some 136 national languages of the Russian Federation are at or already beyond “the edge of extinction,” according to UNESCO. Many of these languages are subgroups of others, but the danger of disappearance exists for groups as large as Avars, Bashkirs and Chechens. According to the United […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – March 17, 2013) Around 250 languages are spoken in Russia, including Russian, which is spoken by some 150 million people. Russian, along with several Turkic-based languages, is doing fine. However, the linguistic situation for many lost tribes and Small Indigenous People in Russia is far more Dmitry Sukhodolsky, special to RBTH Russia’s many […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Olga Doronina, special to RBTH – March 12, 2013) While Moscow’s street politicians take a breather, experts observe a rise of social activity in the Russian regions. In contrast to the capital, the demands of the Russian hinterland are social rather than political. In its monthly analytical ranking of social and political stability […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 11, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/03/window-on-eurasia-moscow-centrism.html) The “main mistake” of the Russian opposition in the past has been its focus that on Moscow rather than on the regions, but clashes between demonstrators and the authorities in Russia’s regions are prompting them to redirect their attention, a shift that will generate “a wave of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – February 19, 2013) Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the government to find ways to reduce bureaucratic obstacles to regional investment amid a drive to boost regional economies. Medvedev has called for the Economic Development, Finance and Regional Development Ministries to present proposals to increase regional investment, RIA-Novosti reported Monday, citing the […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 14, 2013) Does anybody remember Skolkovo? What seems like eons ago, back when iPads were still must-have gadgets for the Russian elite, the scientific and technological center was the showcase project in Dmitry Medvedev’s efforts to modernize the country’s economy to make it less dependent on oil and gas. Well Skolkovo is back […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 13, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-russia-beyond-moscows.html) Russian President Vladimir Putin operates on the assumption, which many observers in Moscow and abroad appear to share, that Moscow may be bubbling with popular unhappiness and organized dissent but that the rest of the Russian Federation is quiet and stable. But a survey conducted by Igor […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, Combined report – February 7, 2013) Disputes about Stalin’s role in history have flared up again, as the legislature of the city of Volgograd rules that the city shall be called Stalingrad on dates commemorating key anniversaries of World War II. Volgograd, one of 15 Russian cities with a population of […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 6, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-russian-regions.html) Encouraged by Vladimir Putin, Russian regions over the last year have come up with new and often harshly reactionary legislation that taken together has the effect of undermining something the incumbent Russian president took so much pride in creating during his first two terms, a common legal […]
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(Interfax – February 7, 2013) Despite the fact that members of the Kirov regional Legislative Assembly have dropped the idea of holding a vote of no confidence in Governor Nikita Belykh, his possible dismissal is still under consideration, Vedomosti reported on Thursday. “The issue of Belykh’s dismissal has not been removed from the agenda, and it is still quite likely,” […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) – Political analysts believe the intention of a group of members of the Kirov regional legislature to express no confidence in Governor Nikita Belykh has been endorsed by some influential political forces both in the region and in Moscow. “Mr. Belykh is not very popular with the local elites and is perceived as an outsider. Perhaps […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – February 6, 2013) Nikita Belykh, the liberal governor of the Kirov region and a former opposition leader, is facing a new wave of pressure from opponents after 19 regional lawmakers announced their intent to put forward a no-confidence vote against him. Investigators raided Belykh’s office last week in connection with the alleged […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Daria Gonzales – February 5, 2013) Today, the provocative label of “dead town” smothers a thousand human tales of departure, relocation, and long waits in the hopes of a flat in a new city. Yet, not all residents of these nearly uninhabited places have the desire to leave. RBTH explores the lives of […]
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(Kremlin.ru – January 31, 2013) The Kremlin, Moscow Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Council for the Local Self-Government Development. Participants discussed improving the regulation of local self-government institutions. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues. I am glad to welcome everyone to our Council’s meeting, one which is attended by the new members. Heads of urban districts, […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) – The new reform of gubernatorial election law is a step towards decentralization of power, but this process needs to be balanced, Federation Council Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on Thursday. “Moscow has assumed an excessive number of competences for a federal state. That was the right thing to do […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, Combined report – January 31, 2013) Nine months after popular gubernatorial elections were re-introduced on the initiative of former President Dmitry Medvedev, a 90 percent majority in the Russian Duma votes “yes” on a bill that gives regional legislatures the right to scrap them. President Putin believes the measure could prevent […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Ben Judah – January 25, 2013) Ben Judah is the author of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In And Out Of Love With Vladimir Putin to be published in May 2013 by Yale University Press. He is an associate fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The Yellow Peril was a feature of life in Soviet times […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – January 24, 2013) State Duma deputies on Wednesday overwhelming passed in its first reading a bill that would give regional assemblies the right to abolish direct elections for governors, likely weakening a key pro-democracy reform signed last year by then-President Dmitry Medvedev. A total of 403 deputies voted in favor of the […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 23, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-liquidating-non.html) There has been much talk about the possibility that Moscow will liquidate the non-Russian republics, but there has been almost none about exactly how the center would do that. That makes such talks “unserious” because it means the advocates of such a change do not understand just […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 19 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-real-opposition-to.html) The “real opposition” to the powers that be is not in Moscow but in the provinces, a Lipetsk writer says, because in Moscow, opposition figures simply want to replace one ruler with another while in the provinces people want the authorities whoever they are to play an ever-smaller […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 9, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-putin-playing-regions.html) Like Nicholas II and Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin is putting the regions and their more traditionalist values in play against the emergent civil society in Moscow as part of his effort to keep himself and his allies in office and in control of Russia’s enormous natural wealth, […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 27 (Interfax) – The heads of Russian regions ought to bear a political responsibility for their territories, President Vladimir Putin said. “Governors in the regions should bear a political responsibility for the quality of the business climate there. It is a test of his [governor’s] management skills,” Putin said at a State Council session on Thursday. “As for […]
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MOSCOW, December 27 (RIA Novosti) Russian regions should prepare regional investment roadmaps with clear-cut goals to attract investors and boost the county’s flagging economy, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Putin made the statement at a meeting with Russian governors to discuss how to make the regions more appealing as investment destinations. Russia’s regions should demonstrate their potential to […]
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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. 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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NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 29 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready to rejuvenate government plans to create a mega state corporation to develop Russia’s depressed eastern Siberia and Far East. “The idea of a government corporation was discussed and I know that far from everyone shares this approach,” Putin said at a State Council meeting […]
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(Howard Amos – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 21, 2012) Despite the establishment of a Far East Development Ministry in May, the area from Siberia to the Pacific coast lacks an effective administrative body to coordinate investment projects, according to Alexander Bazhenov, head of the Far East Development Fund. Decaying infrastructure, extreme weather conditions, a decreasing population and the […]
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MOSCOW, November 6 (Dan Peleschuk, RIA Novosti) Economic progress, a clear political mandate, and good press: these are the things, according to a new report by a leading Russian think tank, that make a Russian region truly stable. It was otherwise largely unnoticed regions, such as Mordovia, that fared best in the rating, despite other ostensibly more likely contenders […]
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(Mikhail Loginov – www.opendemocracy.net – November 2, 2012- Mikhail Loginov is a journalist and novelist based in St. Petersburg. He is the author of the recently published bestselling political thriller “Battle for Kremlin”.) October is Russia’s local election month, and some regions have just elected governors for the first time in seven years, part of an electoral reform designed to […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 19 (Interfax) – Differentiation between the levels of unemployment in Russia’s federal districts remains strong – the gap in the districts can surpass four-fold and in the regions 80-fold, the Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat said in a report on employment and unemployment in September. The lowest level of unemployment, in accordance with ILO criteria, was in the […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Yulia Ponomareva – October 15, 2012) The recent APEC summit hosted in Vladivostok once again brought to the fore the need to develop Russia’s Far East, a region that accounts for a third of the country’s territory but only 4 percent of its population, and which is challenged by the bustling economy of its southern […]
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Business New Europe – bne.eu – Julia Reed in Moscow – October 5, 2012 A round of 73 regional and municipal elections that start on October 14 will be the first real test for Russia’s nascent protest movement. The first protests were sparked by popular outrage to rigged Duma elections last December and were followed by large crowds protesting against […]
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Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 Subject: USAID Russia Lessons Learned From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> USAID Russia Lessons Learned by Sarah Lindemann-Komarova, Siberian based civil society development activist. Almost everyone knew it was time for a USAID end strategy in Russia. The possible exception to this maybe a few organizations that did not leverage years of generous support from the American […]
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Siberia placed to be the new Middle East – Asia Times – By Yong Kwon – September 24, 2012 – http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/NI25Ag01.html Yong Kwon is a Washington-based analyst of international affairs. Asia Times examines the impact of Middle Eastern instability on oil and the global economy, and Siberia’s emergence as a significant source of petroleum. Russia actually starting serving as a […]
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By James Brooke – Voice of America – September 18, 2012 James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR. Word of the killings of four American diplomats in Libya took 24 hours to reach me last week. That was fitting as I was contemplating the silence of cedar forests, the grace of wild horses cantering […]
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