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The more Russia changes, the more its president stays the same as raids on domestic and international NGOs show
Always remember that Vladimir Putin could have reacted differently. He could have acknowledged that, after 13 years in power, his brand is tarnished and Russia is changing. It now has a middle class that ridicules the division between a Kremlin-licensed opposition and an unlicensed one that craves fair elections, independent courts and public accountability – that craves, in short, civil society.Instead, Mr Putin's reflex reaction to such change (with his uneasy confection of Christian Orthodox and conservative, xenophobic nationalism, Mr Putin is as much a pre-Soviet figure as a Soviet hangover) is to go after the very people who remind him how unpopular he is. A notorious law passed last year required Russian NGOs that receive foreign funding and are engaged in "political activity" to register as "foreign agents" – words in the Russian language that are tantamount to "spies".
For eight months, little happened. The levers of the security state are sometimes so rusty that they require several tugs to shift. The president had to go in person on Valentine's Day to the federal security service (FSB), to remind his former comrades that the "law had to be complied with".
For the past two weeks at least 30 raids have been launched on Russian and international NGOs alike in Moscow, and many more in the provinces. Distinguished names appear on the FSB hitlist – the Memorial human rights group, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Lev Ponomarev, the head of For Human Rights, which itself was targeted, said this was the start of the planned destruction of the NGO sector in Russia.
The raiding party typically consists of three people from the prosecutor's office, one from the tax office and, often, a camera crew from the pro-Kremlin NTV station. They demand to see registration documents, tax submissions and computer hard drives. The whole televised charade seeks to portray Russia's political opposition as foreign-sponsored. But, as the majority of Russian NGOs have refused to register themselves as "foreign agents", these raids may just be the start of a campaign to put them out of business.
Germany, whose manufacturers have heavily invested in Russia, is greatly irked. It rightly interprets Mr Putin's action as revenge for the embarrassment that the election-monitoring body Golos caused him in the Duma elections in 2011. Russian humiliations in Cyprus at German hands have not helped. Berlin has formally expressed its "concern". But it should do more. With the advent of shale gas, and cheaper natural gas, Russian gas has lost its status as a monopoly supplier. Now, Gazprom needs the west for its profits. Mr Putin should be told that his vendettas will prove costly.
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Russia: Putin's personal vendetta
The Guardian (blog) Always remember that Vladimir Putin could have reacted differently. He could have acknowledged that, after 13 years in power, his brand is tarnished and Russia is changing. It now has a middle class that ridicules the division between a Kremlin ... US-Russia differences in eyes of ex-envoysThe Daily Star Russia presses ahead with the rebuilding of its military forcesWorld Socialist Web Site Syria seen from RussiaVoltaire Network all 7 news articles » |
BY ELLEN BARRY
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On April Fools’ Day, the Ukrainian city weighed down by history celebrates its tradition of wry humor and charming scoundrels, a practice that began 40 years ago. 
OLIVER WAINWRIGHT
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The latest addition to the Russian military arsenal takes the form of an airborne church complete with parachuting priests
The Russian military unveiled an unlikely new weapon in its arsenal this month – an army of parachuting priests. The unit of chaplains, who have joined the Russian Airborne Force to train in parachute jumping and vehicle assembly, will operate out of flatpack churches that can be airlifted in to wherever soldiers may be stationed.The church could be mistaken for a standard-issue army cabin, taking the form of a khaki-coloured shed on wheels, were it not for the cladding of gilded icons and the majestic onion dome spire sprouting from its rooftop. The mobile prayer room has also been fitted with a "life-sustaining module", which includes a diesel power source, an air-conditioning unit and a fridge, reported Russia Today.
The chapel is flown in as a kit of parts, delivered via the kind of airborne platform usually used to carry armoured vehicles and other heavy military equipment, and is then assembled on the ground. Within, the gilded interior incorporates crucifixes, bells and icons, as well as a mini theatre – which can be extended sideways with additional wings, thus forming the cross-shaped plan of an Orthodox church.
The initiative has not gone without controversy in the Russian government, where debate rages over the cost of rearmament and rising military spending.
While the Russian army insists this is the first ever flying chapel in the world, Orthodox Christianity is not the first to bring mobile worship to the battlefield. The Israeli Defense Force launched a mobile synagogue initiative in 2011 to allow troops to pray more comfortably as they operate the Iron Dome anti-missile system in southern Israel. The UK Friends of the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers (UKAWIS) has provided such mobile synagogues – which contain an ark, reader's platform and washbasin – as "a source of spiritual sustenance [for the soldiers] as they carry the weight of Israel's security on their shoulders".
In the US, religious spaces have been mobile for some time, with organisations such as Transport for Christ spreading the gospel through the medium of the truck. Its mobile chapels, which are housed in articulated lorries clad in bright decals, are parked at "strategic truck stops" to "lead truck drivers as well as the trucking community to Jesus Christ". They have yet to be deployed to the front line – as a lighter option, perhaps the US Army could try the inflatable church?
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RADHIKA DESAI
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Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, united by rejection of the neoliberal model, plan to create their own institutions
The recent summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) in Durban, South Africa, completed the group's first cycle of summits, one in each of the five member countries. The summit declarationcontained the usual pieties about "solidarity" between the Brics and their "shared goals". However, unlike previous declarations, this one contained the first steps towards creating Brics institutions.The most publicised among them, the Brics development bank, has been greeted with the usual western scepticism. Until recently, such scepticism tended to focus simply on comparative growth rates. With the Brics taking steps toward institutionalisation, there is a new element: can the Brics development bank really rival the IMF and the World Bank?
For the New York Times, the Brics don't have "enough in common and enough shared goals to function effectively as a counterweight to the west". They are "deeply divided on some basic issues", are "rivals rather than allies in the global economy" and have achieved little. Worse, they have "widely divergent economies", invest little in each other and have "disparate foreign policy aims and different forms of government". Such a motley crew could declare a Brics development bank "feasible and viable", but the devil would be in the yet-to-be-agreed-upon details.
Such scepticism is misleading. The Brics countries do have a mortar that binds them: their common experience, and rejection, of the neoliberal development model of the past several decades and the western-dominated IMF and the World Bank that still advocate it. Their rapid development over the previous couple of decades was despite, not because of, this. Countries whose governments were able and willing to resist this model developed faster. All Brics countries have become more conscious of this since the onset of the current financial and economic crisis, though individual countries' rhetoric and policies differ in the degree of their criticism of neoliberal policies.
Once this is understood, the Brics' increasing coherence becomes evident. They have long called for the reform of the IMF and the World Bank only to meet with resistance. Rather than waiting, they have decided to act.
The development bank was first proposed in New Delhi last year. The five leaders were charged with exploring the idea, which led them to being able to declare it viable and feasible at Durham. Now officials must work out the details.
Undoubtedly the differences in economic weight between the Brics and the inevitability that China will dominate in some respects must be worked around. And it can be. For example, the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), a reserve pooling organisation that includes China, Japan and 11 other countries, does give its more weighty economies disproportional voting power, but no veto (such as the US has at the World Bank) and it is designed to benefit smaller economies.
Beyond the headline-grabbing Brics bank, there were other initiatives put forward at Durban. A Contingent Reserve Agreement (CRA) to pool reserves was created, with China contributing $41bn, Brazil, India and Russia $18bn each and South Africa $5bn. There was a Multilateral Agreement on Co-operation and Co-financing for Sustainable Development between the development/export-import banks of the five countries as well as a Multilateral Agreement on Infrastructure Co-financing for Africa.
The Brics common agenda of pushing international economic governance away from neoliberalism and western dominance was also manifest when they complained that austerity in the west was holding back world growth and that the central banks' unconventional monetary policy encouraged speculation worldwide rather than growth domestically.
Given the recent attacks from countries in the west on the work of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which has been critical of western financial institutions, the Brics also made a particular point of calling for "strengthening UNCTAD's capacity to deliver on its programmes of consensus building, policy dialogue, research, technical co-operation and capacity building".
The Durban declaration did not avoid international flashpoints either. On Syria it asked for "all parties to allow and facilitate immediate, safe, full and unimpeded access to humanitarian organisations to all in need of assistance" and there were also statements on Mali, Palestine, Iran, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Finally, for the first time, "China and Russia reiterate[d] the importance they attach to the status of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs and support[ed] their aspiration to play a greater role in the UN". This may not amount to satisfying the latter countries' UN security council aspirations but it was no mere verbiage either.
Not since the days of the Non-Aligned Movement and its demand for a New International Economic Order in the 1970s has the world seen such a co-ordinated challenge to western supremacy in the world economy from developing countries.
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Russia March Oil Output Near Post-Soviet Record, CDU-TEK Says
Bloomberg Output at OAO Lukoil, Russia's second-biggest producer, slipped 0.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.7 million barrels a day, according to CDU-TEK. Lukoil agreed to buy Hess Corp. (HES)'s Samara-Nafta asset for $2.1 billion this year. The purchase will ... and more » |
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The head of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia calls an accusation that the republic's prime minister has paid money to an Islamic militant leader "a provocation." Speaking to journalists in Ingushetia's capital, Magas, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said that an interview that a former Islamic militant gave to Russia's state-controlled television channel must be connected with Ingushetia's leadership election scheduled for September. In the interview, aired on ...
Azerbaijani families with an autistic child have to manage with few resources, but recent RFE/RL reporting has set some official wheels in motion to assist those struggling with the disorder.
MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. and Russia should overcome their cold spell by focusing on their common economic and security challenges, former diplomats to Moscow and Washington said Tuesday.
Russia's Demographics Are Now Better Than The Baltics'
Forbes One thing you often hear from Russia watchers is that the country's dreadful demographics are not only a result of seventy-odd years of economic lunacy under the socialist yoke, but of its autocratic political system's distinct moral failure to “face ... |
By Alissa de Carbonnel MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday letting him pick candidates to lead Russia's regions if local lawmakers scrap popular polls, in what critics called a setback for democracy in the Russian leader's new term. The law allows each of the country's 83 regions to repeal direct elections of governors, introduced just last year in a concession during a wave of protests by Russians fed up with Putin's dominance and demanding a stronger political voice. ...
Across East and South Asia, demographers and policymakers have long struggled with the imbalance between the numbers of boys and girls being born. The natural proportion should be approximately 105 boys for every 100 girls, but, in parts of these regions, ratios have risen as high as 130 or even 140 to 100. Recently, the problem has also arisen in the South Caucasus and the Balkans.
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 ABC News |
Who Really Runs Russia?
The Atlantic Russian President Vladimir Putin (center) chairs a meeting of the new cabinet team in Moscow's Kremlin on May 21, 2012. (Reuters). In her 2006 book "How RussiaReally Works" and its sequel "Can Russia Modernize?" political scientist Alena Ledeneva of ... Ex-Ambassadors Urge US, Russia to Mend RiftABC News Russia: New Law Allows Governors to Be Appointed, Undoing ReformNew York Times Russia: Putin's personal vendettaThe Guardian (blog) UPI.com-THISDAY Live- World Socialist Web Site all 59 Las Vegas Sun-Zee News all 51 news articles » |
 The West Australian |
With Eye on Inflation, Russia Holds Rates
Wall Street Journal MOSCOW—Russia's central bank kept its most important interest rates unchanged Tuesday, choosing to put pressure on stubbornly high inflation rather than stimulate an economy which it admitted is slowing sharply. The bank made only a token cut of a ... Russia Holds Main Rates for 7th Month, Takes Easing StepsBloomberg Russia keeps interest rate unchangedThe West Australian Russia central bank keeps interest rate unchangedFRANCE 24 The Australian -Financial Times (blog) -CountingPips all 18 news articles » |
President Vladimir Putin is moving to redesign Russia's political system by shouldering aside the ruling party that has anchored his power for the past dozen years and creating a new, East German-style Popular Front of all Russians, which would stand above political parties and be led by him personally.
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