Mike Nova's starred items
via NYT > Global Opinion by By MASHA GESSEN on 1/28/13
Has Putin's regime hijacked the Russian opposition's agenda by provoking it to protest increasingly absurd and aggressive laws?
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/28/13
A woman threw sour cabbage at the Russian nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky at a news conference in Kyiv.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 Spiegel Online |
Euro zone and Russia near debt compromise on Cyprus
Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe and Russia are getting closer to a deal on how to involve Moscow in bailing out indebted Cyprus after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signaled willingness to help. Medvedev was quoted as saying on Monday that Russia ... Russia's Medvedev: help for Cyprus only if conditions met - paperReuters UK all 17 news articles » |
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Alexander Winning and Ivan Nechepurenko <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/27/13
President Vladimir Putin on Monday dismissed Magomedsalam Magomedov as leader of turbulent Dagestan, a republic where authorities are fighting a militant Islamist insurgency.
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/28/13
Interior Ministry officials in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia's volatile North Caucasus say a police colonel was killed by an unknown assailant.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
America says no to dialogue with Russia
Pravda Recall, the U.S.-Russian Presidential Commission was established in July 2009, during the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Russia. It was designed to improve cooperation between Moscow and Washington after the White House announced a "reset" ... |
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 Washington Post |
Putin fires head of Russia's restive Dagestan region
Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the head of Russia's southerly Dagestan province, the Kremlin said on Monday, signaling concern over mounting Islamist violence, corruption and political rivalries in the Caucasus. Putin dismisses leader of Russia's restive Caucasus province of DagestanWashington Post Putin sacks leader of Russia's troubled Dagestan regionBBC News Putin dismisses head of Russia's troubled Dagestan regionYahoo! News (blog) Prague Post (blog) -RenewAmerica -RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty all 27 news articles » |
via Russia News Headlines - Yahoo! News on 1/28/13
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the head of Russia's southerly Dagestan province, the Kremlin said on Monday, signaling concern over mounting Islamist violence, corruption and political rivalries in the Caucasus. Putin appointed Magomedsalam Magomedov, 49, to a role in the presidential administration, the Kremlin statement said, removing him from a post that he had held since 2010. Ramzan Abdulatipov, 67, a veteran politician elected last year as deputy head of the ruling United Russia party in the lower house of parliament, was named acting head of Dagestan. ...
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/28/13
Russian President Vladimir Putin has named former Russian Nationalities Minister Ramazan Abdulatipov as acting head of Abdulatipov's home republic of Daghestan, replacing Magomedsalam Magomedov, whose dismissal has been anticipated.
Mike Nova's starred items
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/28/13
President Vladimir Putin has replaced the president of Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 RT |
Putin dismisses head of Russia's troubled Dagestan region
Reuters MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the head of Russia's southern Dagestan province, the Kremlin said on Monday, signaling concern over mounting insurgency violence and political rivalries in the mainly Muslim region. Ramazan Abdulatipov, member of Coordination Council of Azerbaijani ...APA all 7 news articles » |
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 Business Insider |
Russia Denies Selling China A New Fleet Of Deadly Bombers
Business Insider As written in the first article on the topic, it was the third time in recent years that Chinese websites and Russian media outlet had given the news that Russia was about to sell China what needed to build 36 long-range swing wing attack planes to ... |
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/28/13
If true, it is still unclear why President Vladimir Putin would have decided to replace Republic of Daghestan President Magomedsalam Magomedov, whose father once served as chairman of Daghestan's collective leadership, two years before his term in office expires in February 2015.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
Israeli NSC chief heads to Russia over Syria WMDs
Jerusalem Post National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror was set to fly to Russia on Monday to discuss the Syrian crisis, Army Radio reported. According to the report, Amidror plans to discuss the issue of Syrian chemical weapons with officials in the country ... and more » |
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 The Voice of Russia |
Iran and world powers need to stop bickering: Russia
Reuters Three rounds of talks in the first half of last year between Iran and the six powers - Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany - produced no breakthrough, increasing speculation Israel could attack Iranian nuclear installations ... Russia pledges medical help to businessman Polonsky in CambodiaThe Voice of Russia Russia Says World Powers, Iran Must Stop Arguing About Meeting VenueRadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty all 9 news articles » |
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/27/13
In this dashcam video shot on Jan. 26 in Nizhny Tagil in the Sverdlovsk region, a tank surprises vehicles stopped at a red light as it unexpectedly barrels across the intersection. Fortunately, it obeyed all traffic signals and there were no negative repercussions.
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by Tom Balmforth (Moscow, Russia) on 1/28/13
The horrific death of a woman allegedly at the hands of her husband appears to be galvanizing efforts to address the long-neglected issue of domestic violence in Russia.
via Russia News Headlines - Yahoo! News on 1/28/13
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The artistic director of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet says the attacker who splashed acid in his face was probably driven by ambition or resentment but that he has forgiven them. His head shaven and a bandage around his neck, Sergei Filin told a Russian television station from his hospital room that he was determined to return to work despite his injuries. Filin, 42, suffered severe burns during the attack on his way home from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow late on January 18. Doctors have performed two operations on each eye and hope to save his sight. "I am not going to lie. ...
Mike Nova's starred items
Mike Nova's starred items
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service on 1/28/13
The former deputy prime minister of Kyrgyzstan’'s interim government, Azimbek Beknazarov, has come under suspicion of embezzlement.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
Russia Stocks Rise to 9-Month High as Oil Advances on Recovery
Bloomberg Russian (INDEXCF) equities advanced to the highest level since March as oil, the nation's chief export, increased on signs of a global economic recovery. The benchmark stock gauge had the smallest price swings this year. The Micex Index added 1.2 ... and more » |
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/27/13
Police seized 10 kilograms of pure gold believed to have been stolen from a major Russian gold producer and hidden in a forest in the Irkutsk region, a police statement said Monday.
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/28/13
In a joint interview on American television, U.S. President Barack Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions about whether she would run for president in 2016.
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
Russia 'set to run out of palladium'
BDlive LONDON — Palladium reserves in Russia, the world's largest producer of the metal, were "pretty much exhausted" and sales this year might be only three tons, Johnson Matthey said on Friday. Russian inventory sales dropped 68% to 250,000oz last year ... and more » |
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/27/13
The net appears to be closing on former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov after military investigators opened an investigation into extravagant improvements at a dacha belonging to his brother-in-law, a news report said Monday.
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/27/13
Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack and has refused to permit Iranian suspects to be questioned.
via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by on 1/27/13
People gather for remembrance ceremonies across the world on Sunday to commemorate Holocaust memorial day
via - Europe RSS Feed on 1/27/13
The innocuous-looking vans he helped to develop began arriving at the Third Reich’s mental hospitals in 1940.
Mike Nova's starred items
via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by Tania Branigan on 1/27/13
Once he bestrode his world, lending his name to more museums, streets, monuments and public institutions than any other 20th-century figure. But in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, at least, it is goodbye Lenin, as a political dinosaur makes way for the real kind.
Mongolia is to transform a museum once dedicated to the Soviet dictator into a centre for its wealth of fossils, including a 70m-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar specimen.
The grand building in Ulan Bator, which still boasts a giant bust of Vladimir Ilyich, has been used as offices for several years. The government has now earmarked the complex for a new dinosaur museum.
"Mongolia has been sending dinosaur exhibits abroad for 20 years, while not having a museum at home," said Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, the minister for culture, sports and tourism. "We have a wonderful dinosaur heritage but people are not aware of it."
She said that fossils lent to overseas institutions, and specimens smuggled abroad illegally, would fill several facilities if they were all brought home.
The centre will also be home to a new register for Mongolia's dinosaur finds, allowing proper tracking of discoveries.
The minister said she hoped that education via the Ulan Bator museum and other new exhibits around the country would help turn people into protectors of Mongolia's heritage, and deter smuggling. The government also hopes to encourage tourism.
The Lenin Museum opened in 1980, when the country was a Soviet satellite. "It was a very grand museum with Lenin's statue, everything embellished with red flags and with pictures of Lenin's childhood and history," said the minister.
She learned more about Lenin when glasnost began as she was studying in the Soviet Union, and, like many of her compatriots, "started thinking Lenin was not such a great figure and had caused so much misery to his own and other people".
Since the transition to a multiparty democracy in 1990, the Mongolian People's party has been based in the building, which has also housed a bar and restaurant; at one stage Lenin's bust gazed down over pool tables.
In the building's new incarnation the centrepiece is likely to be the seven-metre long Tyrannosaurus bataar – also known as Tarbosaurus bataar, because experts dispute its taxonomy – which prompted a dispute when it was put on sale by a New York auction house last May. In December, prosecutors in the US said Erik Prokopi, a fossils dealer from Florida, had agreed to surrender the nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar and other fossils – paving the way for their return to Mongolia – after pleading guilty to smuggling dinosaur specimens into the US. They described Prokopi as "a one-man black market in prehistoric fossils".
Bolortsetseg Minjin, the New York-based founder of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs, said the case had proved a turning point, raising awareness among the Mongolian public and officials. "Mongolia is known to have many different species and the preservation is unique: you find complete skeletons in the Gobi desert, which is very rare."
International palaeontologists and the public have been interested in the country's treasures, but many in Mongolia had been unaware of them, she added. She described running an outreach programme for children who lived next to fossil sites in the Gobi but who thought dinosaurs were mythical creatures.
"They should know what they have in their backyard … [but] there were no books they could read in their language and no toys or TV programmes to learn about their inheritance."
The paleontologist has been at the forefront of efforts to promote public interest in dinosaurs and protect specimens such as the Tyrannosaur bataar.
She added: "If they decided to use it as a permanent museum, I would think Lenin's head would need to be removed because in terms of content it doesn't really go. I suppose some people might be against that."
But, she added: "Both are part of our history. Dinosaurs go back millions of years; Lenin was [decades] of history under the Soviets. I don't think there will be strong objections from the public, because they are excited about what's going on with the dinosaurs."
The government has called a new dinosaur centre as an urgent priority because the natural history museum is in a state of disrepair, and other specimens are due to return home soon.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
 Voice of Russia - UK Edition |
Russia to rework bill on offending religion
The Star Online MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian government asked parliament on Sunday to amend a bill that would set jail terms for "offending religious feeling" - a measure lawmakers proposed after last year's Pussy Riot protest at a Moscow cathedral. In a statement ... Russia Cracks Down on LGBT Groups, Civil SocietyHuman Rights First Pussy Riot film wins Sundance awardVoice of Russia - UK Edition all 13 news articles » |
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by Reuters <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/26/13
Some foreign banks may be preparing to exit Russia because of low profitability, but Asian banks are actively looking at the market, a senior Central Bank official said.
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Irina Filatova <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/26/13
A total of 8,000 doctors in Russia became ruble millionaires over the last two years, as the government seeks to attract young specialists to rural areas to upgrade the quality of medical services, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said Friday.
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
 RT |
'No flexibility yet' in Russia-US relations – PM Medvedev
RT Speaking to the “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the prime minister expressed his concerns over the on-going anti-missile defense program provided by NATO, involving several countries bordering on Russia. |
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Nikolaus von Twickel <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/26/13
Washington has effectively ended a key working group with Moscow for discussing human rights and democracy, arguing that the panel had become meaningless given recent restrictions on civil society in Russia.
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Jonathan Earle <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/26/13
Four American families affected by a new ban on U.S. adoptions have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, complaining that the law, which has divided Russians and sparked international criticism, violates Europe's human rights convention.
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
 The Moscow Times |
Russia's Real Friends in the West
The Moscow Times Their efforts bolstered Russia's transformation into a stable, prosperous and globally engaged country. Rather than pursuing their own interests, foreign-funded NGOs have largely based their actions on concern for Russia and its citizens and on the ... Voice of America: Obama II downgrades relations with RussiaKyiv Post all 5 news articles » |
Voice of America: Obama II downgrades relations with Russia
Jan. 27, 2013, 7:31 p.m. | Op-ed — by James Brooke
US President Barack Obama signs H.R. 6156, the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, on December 14, 2012 in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. The legislation would punish officials tied to the November 2009 death of lawyer and anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow detention centre, denying them entry to the US and freezing their assets. Looking on from left are: US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Senator Roger Wicker, R-MS, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, Mark Levin, Executive Director of NCSJ, Senator Ben Cardin, D-MD, Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and CEO, Alcoa Inc., Senator Joe Lieberman, I-CT, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT, Democratic Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-MD, House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Rep. Sandy Levin, D-MI, and Representative Jim McGovern, D-MA. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN
© AFP
© AFP
Scenes from three weeks of watching US-Russia relations in New York, Washington and Moscow:
Kate, an old high school classmate, tracks me down to ask it if will be safe for her to take her 17-year-old adopted Russian daughter back to Russia for a visit this summer
Ruslan, a 22-year-old adoptee of half-Russian, half Chechen descent, listens quietly as I try to explain why Russian officials cite horror stories to justify banning new adoptions by American parents. Nearby, the New Year’s Day table at his grandparents’ house in New England is covered with hams, curries and cakes.
Last Monday night in Moscow, as official anti-Americanism matches the bitter cold outside Spaso House, I am inside cajoling, and nearly dragging, U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to a live VOA TV interview. Hands keep reaching out for handshakes. Russian guests keep blocking his path for photographs.
Read more here
Obama II Downgrades Relations With Russia’s Kremlin?
(Voice of America – James Brooke – January 27, 2013)
James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR.
Scenes from three weeks of watching US-Russia relations in New York, Washington and Moscow:
Kate, an old high school classmate, tracks me down to ask it if will be safe for her to take her 17-year-old adopted Russian daughter back to Russia for a visit this summer
Ruslan, a 22-year-old adoptee of half-Russian, half Chechen descent, listens quietly as I try to explain why Russian officials cite horror stories to justify banning new adoptions by American parents. Nearby, the New Year’s Day table at his grandparents’ house in New England is covered with hams, curries and cakes.
Last Monday night in Moscow, as official anti-Americanism matches the bitter cold outside Spaso House, I am inside cajoling, and nearly dragging, U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to a live VOA TV interview. Hands keep reaching out for handshakes. Russian guests keep blocking his path for photographs.
On the personal level, relations between Americans and Russians are as good as they have ever been. My 10-hour, every seat packed, Aeroflot flight from New York to Moscow is testament to that.
But, on the official level, relations are bad.
And defying my innate optimism, I see no reason why this should change in the near future.
Last year’s pre-election “silly season” of anti-Americanism has morphed into the silly era.
Obama Administration officials believe that this is driven not by events, but by President Putin’s domestic political strategy. The Kremlin, they say, is using state-controlled television to create a straw foreign “enemy” to reverse a gradual erosion of popular support.
Russia’s powerful state media can reshape public opinion.
In 2010, 38 percent of Russians polled by the VTsIOM pollster said they opposed foreign adoptions. In a survey released by this state-controlled pollster on Jan. 18, the portion opposing adoptions by American families had doubled to 78 percent.
But there is another, more worldly Russia. On the average day, 1 million Russians eat a meal at a McDonald’s restaurant. Last month, 10 percent ordered Christmas presents from overseas. Last year, 15 percent of Russian adults vacationed outside the former Soviet Union. And, most threatening of all, 50 percent of Russians now use the internet.
For Americans, the adoption ban was the breakthrough issue. It brought the cranky new Kremlin home to the American public and to the American Congress. One American official described the mood in Washington as: “Disgust.”
Some Russian officials don’t get the message. At Foreign Minister Lavrov’s annual reception for foreign correspondents, also on Monday evening, Russian diplomats expressed optimism that President Obama will accept President Putin’s invitation for a one-on-one meeting in Russia.
That visit is unlikely to happen, my American sources say. The American President will attend the G-20 meeting in Russia in September. And that may be that. The 1,000-day clock on his presidency will start ticking. More than ever, the American president will devote his time to areas where he can make a difference and create a legacy.
Barring a major crisis, Washington will probably downshift relations. Without top level interest, one American official predicted that the relationship could easily descend into becWashington “sending a midlevel person to Moscow, to hear ‘no’ and then come home.”
Countries don’t have friends. Good will may not count for much in international relations. But civility between leaders does not hurt.
American officials note that during his four-year stint as prime minister, Vladimir Putin never visited the United States. Since returning to the Kremlin as president last May, Putin stood up Obama at the G-8 Summit at Camp David, showed up late for a bilateral meeting with Obama at the G-20 Summit in Mexico, and then presided over the Asia Pacific summit in Vladivostok for September, a time when the American president campaigning for re-election was unable to attend.
And then October brought the start of a series of expulsions of American programs in Russia.
In recent weeks, anti-Americanism reached the level of officials making weird charges that American adoptee parents were, variously: pedophiles, engaged in organ trafficking, interested in acquiring domestic servants, or preparing a legion of 50,000 Russian adoptee zombies to attack Russia.
Now the Duma is studying bills to ban Russian officials from marrying foreigners, to ban foreign passport holders from criticizing Russia on state controlled TV, and to fine officials who use English words in public. On Friday, the Duma gave initial approval to a vaguely worded bill that would ban “homosexual propaganda” that could be seen by minors.
But it would be a setback for Russia if Americans start taking Russian government rhetoric seriously and start writing Russia off as the kooky country.
Almost two decades ago, a Brazilian Finance Minister told me that, after years of annual inflation rates of several thousand percent, the biggest risk to Brazil was “irrelevancia.” The minister, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, went on to end Brazil’s hyperinflation, and to win elections as president.
Today, Brazil is far from irrelevant.
But, today, it sounds like déjà vu when I hear an Obama administration Russia expert exclaim: “We don’t need them. We don’t need the Russians.”
Kate, an old high school classmate, tracks me down to ask it if will be safe for her to take her 17-year-old adopted Russian daughter back to Russia for a visit this summer
Ruslan, a 22-year-old adoptee of half-Russian, half Chechen descent, listens quietly as I try to explain why Russian officials cite horror stories to justify banning new adoptions by American parents. Nearby, the New Year’s Day table at his grandparents’ house in New England is covered with hams, curries and cakes.
Last Monday night in Moscow, as official anti-Americanism matches the bitter cold outside Spaso House, I am inside cajoling, and nearly dragging, U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to a live VOA TV interview. Hands keep reaching out for handshakes. Russian guests keep blocking his path for photographs.
Read more here
Obama II Downgrades Relations With Russia’s Kremlin?
(Voice of America – James Brooke – January 27, 2013)James Brooke is VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR.
Scenes from three weeks of watching US-Russia relations in New York, Washington and Moscow:
Kate, an old high school classmate, tracks me down to ask it if will be safe for her to take her 17-year-old adopted Russian daughter back to Russia for a visit this summer
Ruslan, a 22-year-old adoptee of half-Russian, half Chechen descent, listens quietly as I try to explain why Russian officials cite horror stories to justify banning new adoptions by American parents. Nearby, the New Year’s Day table at his grandparents’ house in New England is covered with hams, curries and cakes.
Last Monday night in Moscow, as official anti-Americanism matches the bitter cold outside Spaso House, I am inside cajoling, and nearly dragging, U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to a live VOA TV interview. Hands keep reaching out for handshakes. Russian guests keep blocking his path for photographs.
On the personal level, relations between Americans and Russians are as good as they have ever been. My 10-hour, every seat packed, Aeroflot flight from New York to Moscow is testament to that.
But, on the official level, relations are bad.
And defying my innate optimism, I see no reason why this should change in the near future.
Last year’s pre-election “silly season” of anti-Americanism has morphed into the silly era.
Obama Administration officials believe that this is driven not by events, but by President Putin’s domestic political strategy. The Kremlin, they say, is using state-controlled television to create a straw foreign “enemy” to reverse a gradual erosion of popular support.
Russia’s powerful state media can reshape public opinion.
In 2010, 38 percent of Russians polled by the VTsIOM pollster said they opposed foreign adoptions. In a survey released by this state-controlled pollster on Jan. 18, the portion opposing adoptions by American families had doubled to 78 percent.
But there is another, more worldly Russia. On the average day, 1 million Russians eat a meal at a McDonald’s restaurant. Last month, 10 percent ordered Christmas presents from overseas. Last year, 15 percent of Russian adults vacationed outside the former Soviet Union. And, most threatening of all, 50 percent of Russians now use the internet.
For Americans, the adoption ban was the breakthrough issue. It brought the cranky new Kremlin home to the American public and to the American Congress. One American official described the mood in Washington as: “Disgust.”
Some Russian officials don’t get the message. At Foreign Minister Lavrov’s annual reception for foreign correspondents, also on Monday evening, Russian diplomats expressed optimism that President Obama will accept President Putin’s invitation for a one-on-one meeting in Russia.
That visit is unlikely to happen, my American sources say. The American President will attend the G-20 meeting in Russia in September. And that may be that. The 1,000-day clock on his presidency will start ticking. More than ever, the American president will devote his time to areas where he can make a difference and create a legacy.
Barring a major crisis, Washington will probably downshift relations. Without top level interest, one American official predicted that the relationship could easily descend into becWashington “sending a midlevel person to Moscow, to hear ‘no’ and then come home.”
Countries don’t have friends. Good will may not count for much in international relations. But civility between leaders does not hurt.
American officials note that during his four-year stint as prime minister, Vladimir Putin never visited the United States. Since returning to the Kremlin as president last May, Putin stood up Obama at the G-8 Summit at Camp David, showed up late for a bilateral meeting with Obama at the G-20 Summit in Mexico, and then presided over the Asia Pacific summit in Vladivostok for September, a time when the American president campaigning for re-election was unable to attend.
And then October brought the start of a series of expulsions of American programs in Russia.
In recent weeks, anti-Americanism reached the level of officials making weird charges that American adoptee parents were, variously: pedophiles, engaged in organ trafficking, interested in acquiring domestic servants, or preparing a legion of 50,000 Russian adoptee zombies to attack Russia.
Now the Duma is studying bills to ban Russian officials from marrying foreigners, to ban foreign passport holders from criticizing Russia on state controlled TV, and to fine officials who use English words in public. On Friday, the Duma gave initial approval to a vaguely worded bill that would ban “homosexual propaganda” that could be seen by minors.
But it would be a setback for Russia if Americans start taking Russian government rhetoric seriously and start writing Russia off as the kooky country.
Almost two decades ago, a Brazilian Finance Minister told me that, after years of annual inflation rates of several thousand percent, the biggest risk to Brazil was “irrelevancia.” The minister, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, went on to end Brazil’s hyperinflation, and to win elections as president.
Today, Brazil is far from irrelevant.
But, today, it sounds like déjà vu when I hear an Obama administration Russia expert exclaim: “We don’t need them. We don’t need the Russians.”
via - Europe RSS Feed on 1/27/13
Russian police made a rare swoop to arrest a number of alleged mafia kingpins at the weekend, raiding a restaurant get-together where crime groups were supposedly discussing their strategies.
Mike Nova's starred items
via Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news by Tom Parfitt on 1/27/13
A Moscow trial to prosecute the dead whistle-blowing lawyer who exposed huge tax fraud among Russian officials has been labelled a "Stalin show trial" and an "absurd" attempt to discredit him.
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
 The Moscow Times |
'We Live in Russia, Not Sodom and Gomorrah'
The Moscow Times According to a survey by Levada Center last year, 32 percent of Russians consider homosexuality "an illness or the result of a psychological trauma," while even more, 43 percent, believe it is "immoral and a bad habit." Only 17 percent call ... Three-time world chess champion suspected of being 'foreign agent'Russia Beyond The Headlines all 4 news articles » |
via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by on 1/27/13
Police have raided a restaurant near Moscow and arrested four suspected crime bosses and 19 others as they met to plan strategy after the killing of a criminal godfather known as Grandpa Hassan, according to the interior ministry.
Officers swooped on the Family Elite-Club restaurant in the town of Nikolina Gora after learning that suspects from Russia and Belarus would meet there to discuss issues of a criminal nature, the ministry said.
"During the secret meeting, held under the cover of a celebration of the birthday of a suspected senior criminal authority, the plan was to discuss next steps after the recent assassination of the head of the Aslan Usoyan clan," it added.
Usoyan was the real name of Grandpa Hassan, 75,one of the most influential kingpins of organised crime in the former Soviet Union. He was shot dead on a Moscow street on 16 January in what authorities believe was a contract killing.
During the chaos which accompanied the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, killings across Russia were commonplace as criminal gangs battled to gain control of lucrative businesses and carve up territory.
According to reports, Usoyan established a network involved in illegal gambling, drugs and weapons sales, and natural resources extraction, with stakes in former Soviet republics and beyond.
President Vladimir Putin has claimed credit for bringing order since he rose to power in 2000, but Kremlin critics say corruption has worsened and accuse government authorities of ties to organised crime.
The Russian news agency Interfax identified the four main suspects arrested in the restaurant as Alexander Bor, Konstantin Borisov, Alexander Medvedev and Pavel Alexiyevich.
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
Italian Rys: Russia Buys Western Lynx MRAPs
Defense Industry Daily In a strong-commodity, weak-dollar/Euro world, Russia has the finances it need to replenish its badly depleted military. What it doesn't have yet is the industrial and engineering capacity, which was lost during the state's budgetary collapse. The ... |
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
Gold Climbs as Russia, Kazakhstan Central Banks Boost Holdings
Bloomberg Palladium, which was at $742.75, is set for a third monthly advance amid expectations that supply from Russia, the largest producer, is falling while a global recovery boosts demand. Russian reserves are “pretty much exhausted” and sales may be only 3 ... |
via Russia - Google News on 1/27/13
 Alaska Dispatch |
Russia revisits Cold War-era nuclear waste dumps in the Arctic
Alaska Dispatch As plans for offshore drilling in Russia's Arctic materialize, the nation is revisiting Cold War-era nuclear test sites to survey potential radiation hazards around areas of oil and gas exploration, the BBC reports. Exxon Mobil and Russia's energy ... |
via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on 1/27/13
The U.S. State Department has confirmed that Iranian authorities have sentenced an American Christian pastor of Iranian origin to eight years in prison.
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Allison Quinn <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/27/13
Real estate developer Sergei Polonsky, currently being held in a Cambodian prison following a scandalous New Year's celebration, told Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an open letter published on Polonsky's blog on the Ekho Moskvy website that his detention is part of conspiracy.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |
Russia Demands $7 Billion From Ukraine For Unused Natural Gas
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty KYIV -- A spokeswoman for Ukraine's state oil and gas company Naftohaz told journalists on January 28 that Russia's Gazprom has demanded that Kyiv pay $7 billion for using less gas than promised. Gazprom says Ukraine did not buy the full amount of ... Ukraine 'refuses to pay' $7 billion Russia gas bill: sourceHurriyet Daily News Russia Today: Gazprom bills Ukraine $7 billionKyiv Post Ukraine weakened in IMF loan talks after Russia gas billInteractive Investor Business New Europe -Business Recorder (blog) all 29 news articles » |
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via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 ABC News |
Russia Tries Whistleblower, Despite His Death
ABC News Russia is preparing to put lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial, even though he died in 2009, in the latest twist in a case that has become a byword for rampant Russian corruption and has severely strained U.S.-Russian relations. The posthumous trial has ... Russia 'Never Supported' Syrian GovernmentVoice of America Russia opens trial of dead lawyer MagnitskyAljazeera.com Facing worldwide criticism over whistleblower's death, Russia prepares to try ...Fox News UPI.com all 101 news articles » |
via Russia News Headlines - Yahoo! News on 1/28/13
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is preparing to put lawyer Sergei Magnitsky on trial, even though he died in 2009, in the latest twist in a case that has become a byword for rampant Russian corruption and has severely strained U.S.-Russian relations.
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 1/27/13
President Vladimir Putin will soon recommence his "active hobbies" despite several months of speculation about his health, his spokesman said Monday.
via Russia - Google News on 1/28/13
 RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |
In Russia, Tank Zips through Traffic
Wall Street Journal (blog) A Russian motorist equipped with a dashboard video camera captured frightening footage Saturday of a fast-moving tank cutting across an intersection on a busy highway in the Ural Mountains city of Nizhny Tagil. But local officials explained that it ... Tank appears out of nowhere flying across busy road in RussiaPravda Highway Tank 'Broke No Traffic Rules'RIA Novosti Highway tank terror: T-90 video goes viral (VIDEO)RT all 10 news articles » |
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