Friday, March 8, 2013

3.8.13 - News Review: A nervous Russian elite is wary as Putin transforms his political edifice - WP | Gorbachev denounces 'attack on Russia citizens' rights' - BBC News | Russia: why Magnitsky matters, even to hard-headed investors - Financial Times (blog) | Mikhail Shishkin refuses to represent 'criminal' Russian regime - The Guardian | Putin Pipeline to Send 25% of Russia's Oil Exports East - Bloomberg | Venezuela & Russia: ties that bind - Financial Times (blog) | Russia charges Bolshoi dancer but acid plot denied - Inquirer.net | Russia may charge ex-Olympic committee official - Yahoo! Sports | China, Russia clamp down on internet, says US - Sydney Morning Herald | Russia won't pressure Assad to quit: Lavrov - GlobalPost | 20 Pussy Riot Supporters Detained At Moscow Protest - RFE/RL's Russian Service






ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES - Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) arrive for a meeting of senior military officials in Moscow on Feb. 27, 2013.

A nervous Russian elite is wary as Putin transforms his political edifice

By , Friday, March 8, 7:48 AM

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin’s steady and seemingly solid political structure, under pressure from within and without, is undergoing a renovation that could remake the whole edifice, if it doesn’t crack open first. Few seem to understand how this will turn out, or what their places will be in it when it’s done.
Ever since street protests broke out in December of 2011, rattling the ruling United Russia party just as Putin was preparing to retake the presidency, there have been widespread expectations that the system here would have to change. Now it’s happening, most obviously with almost daily public exposures of corruption and chiseling schemes, which for years were ignored.
The highly publicized investigations may be mostly for show, but they have left the political top rung nervously trying to discern the message and, analysts agree, figure out what the new rules are. Coupled with this is a sharp turn inward, away from the West, that promises to force some hard choices among an up-to-now comfortable cohort.
That suggests risks for Putin, as well — depending on how the people around him eventually make those choices.
Broadly speaking, the Kremlin appears to be dropping the most egregious offenders over the side, like so much excess ballast. An Olympic official whose own construction company was over budget by 900 percent on the construction of a ski jump, and way behind schedule, was exposed by Putin himself on national television. A member of the state Duma, Vladimir Pekhtin, was let go when he couldn’t come up with a satisfactory explanation for the undeclared Miami properties in his name.
Pekhtin, according to Dozhd TV, resigned his seat only after a meeting inside the Kremlin that lasted until 2 a.m. His departure — soon followed by those of three others, including a member of the upper house — appeared to send an especially strong signal: that the nationalist fervor Putin is stirring up comes with teeth, and it’s time for those who want to keep in his favor to remember the motherland, and bring that one foot that’s been out the door back inside.
With the most recent Levada Center poll showing 54 percent of the public disapproving of the government’s performance, Putin is demanding loyalty from those around him.
One way to ensure that loyalty is to cut off their access to financial security in the West, Tatyana Stanovaya, head of the analysis department at the Center for Political Technologies here, wrote in an essay for the group’s Web site.
But that changes the deal that for a decade has guided the upper echelon, said Gleb Pavlovsky, a prominent political consultant who was ousted from the Kremlin nearly two years ago. Obeisance to Putin meant his loyalists could have their pickings.
In fact, he said, “our ruling class is loyal to the extent that it is stealing.”
There was protection for those who went along, but now that protection has been drawn back for some, and the rest, feeling the heat from above, don’t know where the red lines are anymore.
‘Terrible revelations’
In November, a criminal investigation that involved the defense minister — unpopular with the generals but a longtime close associate of Putin’s — suddenly burst into the open. Putin let the probe evolve — and the minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, lost his job — and then it bogged down. Serdyukov had powerful opponents inside the Kremlin, among the “siloviki,” or those with a background in the security services. Putin may be keeping Serdyukov free from indictment, Pavlovsky said, so as to be sure that the siloviki don’t entirely surround him.
Serdyukov, implicated along with his mistress, has been called in for repeated questioning but dangles without charges. This doesn’t entirely reassure those at a similar level.
Naturally, the self-preserving instinct kicks in. “Every day,” Pavlovsky said of Putin, “he gets these terrible revelations. If he believed them all, he’d have to fire everyone or imprison them. They’re all accusing each other not only of theft but of espionage, of being American spies. He suspects them all, but he doesn’t understand the degree of rot.”
This sums up one of the main challenges facing Putin. His grip is not absolute. Factions within the Kremlin vie for supremacy, while Russia’s vast bureaucracy looks out, primarily, for itself. He has his own minefields to deal with.
Another unpopular former minister, Yelena Skrynnik, who was the agriculture chief until last year, has also been named in a corruption investigation. But in her case, too, prosecutors have been moving slowly, said Lilia Shevtsova, of the Carnegie Moscow Center, as if waiting for a signal from on high that hasn’t yet come.
No backward glances
Yet while these graft cases remain open and unresolved, two members of a presidential human rights council, appointed by then-President Dmitry Medvedev, have also come under official harassment, by police in one instance. Their apparent offense was to prepare a report last year, at Medvedev’s request, which found that no crimes had been committed in the notorious Yukos case. That was the 2003 crackdown that sent the oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky to prison and that cemented Putin’s grip on power.
The message now, said Kirill Rogov, who studies politics at the Gaidar Institute, is that there will be no turning back, no re-examination, no question of Putin’s control stemming from the case that was crucial to the creation of his “vertical of power” political system.
Plenty of people who prospered under the previous set-up won’t be eager to follow Putin into new territory, with its fundamentalism and xenophobia. Shevtsova, who has been sharply critical of Putin for years, said that the country’s leading business tycoons will tire of his leadership and eventually find a way to replace him.
But Putin may be betting that he can benefit from stirring up a new contentiousness in Russian politics. (This is a widely held belief, most forcefully put forward in an essay by Alexander Rubtsov, head of the Center for the Study of Ideological Processes, under the Russian Academy of Sciences.)
The president is not afraid of “catastrophes,” Pavlovsky said. He believes he came to power because of the catastrophe of the Boris Yeltsin years. Some stormy drama, of his own devising, may be beckoning.
© The Washington Post Company

via Russia - Google News on 3/6/13

BBC News

Gorbachev denounces 'attack on Russia citizens' rights'
BBC News
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has denounced new laws passed in Russia as an "attack on citizens' rights". In an interview with the BBC, he called on President Vladimir Putin "not to be afraid of his own people". Mr Gorbachev also criticised Mr ...
Putin says Russia to spend five trillion rubles on planes, choppersSydney Morning Herald
Russian President Vladimir PutinRIA Novosti

all 6 news articles »

See more of Mike Nova's starred items ...



via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 3/7/13
Anti-corruption police in the Chelyabinsk region have opened a check into state spending to repair damage caused by the 10,000-ton meteor that spectacularly exploded over the region last month.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 3/7/13
Investigators working on the Oboronservis corruption case have seized the real estate of former Defense Ministry employee Yevgenia Vasilyeva, the Investigative Committee's official spokesman Vladimir Markin announced Thursday.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Anya Aseeva <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 3/7/13
Jailed Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is serving a two-year term at a penal colony in Mordovia, has asked for an early release on parole, Kommersant reported Thursday.

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s office says he is traveling to Caracas to take part in the funeral of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

A representative from a wildlife organization hands out stuffed polar bear dolls to delegates before they vote on a proposal by Washington to change the status of the polar bear from a species whose trade is merely regulated, not banned at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, in Bangkok, Thailand Thursday, March 7, 2013. The proposal by the United States to ban cross-border trade in polar bears and their parts was defeated Thursday at an international meeting of conservationists, marking a victory for Canada’s indigenous Inuit people over their big neighbor to the south. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)BANGKOK (AP) — A proposal by the United States to ban cross-border trade in polar bears and their parts was defeated Thursday at an international meeting of conservationists, marking a victory for Canada's indigenous Inuit people over their big neighbor to the south.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 3/7/13
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the government of endangering citizens' rights and President Vladimir Putin's inner circle of being full of "thieves and corrupt officials."

Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is serving a two-year sentence in a Russian prison camp, has asked to be released on parole.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the jailed Pussy Riot members, serving a two-year sentence in a Russian prison camp, has asked to be released on parole, according to reports, to spend more time with her daughter.

An Italian court has found former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi guilty of leaking information from a police inquiry and sentenced him to a year in prison.



via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Kyiv Post

Russia: why Magnitsky matters, even to hard-headed investors
Financial Times (blog)
By curious coincidence, Russia is prosecuting a dead man on the 60th anniversary of Stalin's death. Just days after the commemoration of the Soviet leader, the trial is due to start on of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer who died in a Moscow jail after ...
Magnitsky boss Browder called in for questioning by Russian policeRussia Beyond The Headlines
Russia charges fund boss Browder over Gazprom dealsKyiv Post
Hermitage Capital boss charged over GazpromThe Voice of Russia

all 10 news articles »

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 3/7/13
Investigators have opened a criminal case against State Duma deputy Oleg Mikheyev on charges of attempted fraud and obstructing justice with the use of his official position, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on its official website Thursday.

The mountaineering federation of Russia's North Caucasus Republic of North Ossetia wants a mountain peak there to be name after late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has called on Russia's President Vladimir Putin "not to be afraid of his own people".

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 3/7/13
Expanding its global reach, Rosneft has signed a deal to buy an interest in 20 deepwater exploration blocks held by ExxonMobil in the Gulf of Mexico.

via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by Alison Flood on 3/7/13
Author pulls out of US Book Expo showcase in light of 'pyramid of thieves' returning his country 'to the Middle Ages'
One of Russia's most important contemporary authors, Mikhail Shishkin, has pulled out of representing Russia in a major international literary event because he does not want to be the voice of "a country where power has been seized by a corrupt, criminal regime [and] where the state is a pyramid of thieves".

Shishkin, who has won Russia's three main literary awards including the Russian Booker, travelled with the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications to be part of its showcase of Russian writers at Book Expo America in 2012, one of the biggest publishing events of the year. A return to the book fair in 2013 would have cemented relationships with American publishers, readers and booksellers.

Shishkin initially accepted the invitation, but has now changed his mind, "not because 'my schedule doesn't permit it', but out of ethical considerations", he has written in a letter to the agency.

"Russia's political development, and the events of last year in particular, have created a situation in the country that is absolutely unacceptable and demeaning for its people and its great culture," writes Shishkin. "What is happening in my country makes me, as a Russian and a citizen of Russia, ashamed. By taking part in the book fair as part of the official delegation and taking advantage of the opportunities presented to me as a writer, I am simultaneously taking on the obligations of being a representative of a state whose policy I consider ruinous for the country and of an official system I reject."

He wrote that "a country where power has been seized by a corrupt, criminal regime, where the state is a pyramid of thieves, where elections have become farce, where courts serve the authorities, not the law, where there are political prisoners, where state television has become a prostitute, where packs of impostors pass insane laws that are returning everyone to the Middle Ages – such a country cannot be my Russia".

Shishkin wants instead to represent "another Russia, my Russia, a country free of impostors, a country with a state structure that defends the right of the individual, not the right to corruption, a country with a free media, free elections, and free people," he wrote in his letter.

The move, he said, was his alone, and had not been made in consultation with other writers invited to New York.

Yesterday, the author elaborated on his decision via email, saying that "the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications ('the ministry of propaganda') wanted to buy me (by inviting me to the book fair in the US, which is very important for me as a writer) to be their 'human face'. I refused because I don't want to support this regime in any way."

Shishkin's UK publisher Quercus, which has just released the first of the author's novels to be published in the UK, The Light and the Dark, after acquiring it at last year's London Book Fair, said it supported his stance "absolutely".

"It's a question of conscience to him and his withdrawal is a serious act as it means he will no longer be promoted as one of their outstanding writers – despite the numerous literary prizes he's been awarded," said spokesperson Nicci Praca. "He's lucky because after many years of trying he's finally found both an American publisher as well as a UK one … but had he not secured publishers in the two most respected markets he would effectively be doing himself a disservice. And the question needs to be asked – what happens to those who don't have the luxury of having US or UK publishers and who are trying to break out into the English market?"

Authors' rights organisation International PEN also supported Shishkin's move. "Mikhail Shishkin's clear, thoughtful and principled stand highlights the challenges and choices writers face in Russia today. PEN International stands in solidarity with his desire to see 'another Russia', one that respects freedom of expression," said executive director Laura McVeigh.

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The Guardian

Mikhail Shishkin refuses to represent 'criminal' Russian regime
The Guardian
One of Russia's most important contemporary authors, Mikhail Shishkin, has pulled out of representing Russia in a major international literary event because he does not want to be the voice of "a country where power has been seized by a corrupt ...

and more »

via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by Miriam Elder on 3/7/13
'Thank you doesn't butter my bread' and 'What are we going to do?' are among phrases banned under new guidelines
Targeted arrests, propaganda films, increased fines – nothing has yet brought an end to corruption in Russia. Now, the Kremlin is seeking to ban officials from using certain examples of apparently corruption-inducing language in its bid to overcome the endless scourge.
"Thank you doesn't butter my bread," "What are we going to do?" and "The question is difficult to solve, but possible" are among those terms that the ministry of labour and social security has recommended banning in a document published this week.
Other terms include: "You need a weightier argument," and the ubiquitous "dogovorimsya", which translates roughly as: "We'll sort it out."
The document also advises officials to avoid certain subjects when dealing with the public, including their low wages, relatives' unemployment and "the desire to acquire this or that property, receive this or that service, go on a tourist tour".
Corruption is a centuries-old problem in Russia, ingrained in its culture and its language. Nineteenth-century writers such as Nikolai Gogol poked fun at the problem with dark humour.
It continued in Soviet times, when Russians were expected to brings gifts – alcohol, chocolate, flowers – to everyone from doctors to teachers.
Under Vladimir Putin, corruption has grown to astronomical heights, infecting every aspect of life and growing ever more expensive for average Russians, who are expected to pay thousands of pounds in bribes to everyone from traffic police to tax officials. Government critics have highlighted corruption scandals reaching Putin's inner circle, and the president himself.
Russia ranked 133 out of 174 on Transparency International's corruption perceptions index last year – putting it well below the other emerging markets countries with which it hopes to compete.
Putin has devoted dozens of speeches to rooting out corruption. He has never addressed corruption accusations levelled against him, including the alleged existence of a lavish hidden palace on the Black Sea.
Critics have approached a recent Kremlin anti-corruption campaign with suspicion. Several MPs have resigned in recent weeks after it emerged that they owned property abroad. Putin has signalled his approval for a draft law that would ban Russian officials from keeping their funds in foreign bank accounts.
The labour ministry document is addressed to officials of all levels.
It fails to list all of the common terms associated with corruption in Russia, missing out such gems as: "We need to add legs [money] to your document."

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 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by Frud Bezhan on 3/7/13
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has come under criticism in Iran for predicting that deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez will return -- alongside Jesus and the last imam of Shi'ite Islam -- to bring peace and justice to the world.



via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Putin Pipeline to Send 25% of Russia's Oil Exports East
Bloomberg
Russia is on course to send an unprecedented 25 percent of its crude exports to eastern markets by 2015 as rising demand from China and other Asian consumers attracts sales at the expense of Europe. The country sent 1.1 million barrels a day east in ...

and more »

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Russia Stocks Climb 3rd Day, Headed for Weekly Gain on U.S. Data
Bloomberg
Russian (INDEXCF) shares advanced for a third day as better-than-expected U.S. data spurred appetite for equities in the world's biggest energy exporter. The 50-stock Micex Index climbed 0.3 percent to 1,496.24 by 1:40 p.m. in Moscow, with 32 stocks ...

and more »

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Russia says kills Chechen rebel leader, two militants
Reuters
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian forces killed the leader of one of the rebel groups fighting to carve an Islamist state out of the North Caucasus and two other militants on Thursday, news agencies said, quoting Russia's anti-terrorism committee. One law ...

Russia's Interior Ministry says Hermitage Capital Management CEO Bill Browder has been charged in absentia with illegally purchasing shares of Russia's energy giant, Gazprom.

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Venezuela & Russia: ties that bind
Financial Times (blog)
Rosneft's boss (pictured left with Chávez in 2011) has played a key role in forging close ties with Venezuela that have landed Russia with lucrative oil and arms deals. But after bidding farewell to the Bolivarian strongman, Sechin will have the much ...

and more »

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

CBC.ca

Russia looking into ex-Olympic head for cost overruns
USA TODAY
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's prosecutor-general is asking its investigators to look into whether to file misuse-of-funds charges against the former deputy head of the Russian Olympic Committee who came under fire from President Vladimir Putin for delays and ...
Bilalov Brothers Leave RussiaThe Moscow Times

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Russian forces have reportedly killed the leader of one of the rebel Chechen groups and two other militants.

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

BBC News

Russia charges Bolshoi dancer in acid plot
NEWS.com.au
RUSSIA has charged a leading Bolshoi dancer with grievous bodily harm after he admitted ordering an assault on the famed ballet troupe's chief while denying ever planning the use of acid. Russian police charged leading Bolshoi soloist Pavel ...
Acid, Mafia and Scandal at Russia's Bolshoi BalletBloomberg
Dancer Held in Acid Attack on Bolshoi DirectorNew York Times
Bolshoi dancer Dmitrichenko held over Russia acid attackBBC News
Voice of Russia - UK Edition -NDTV
all 282 news articles »

via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/7/13
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has condemned Kremlin-backed laws passed in Russia as an “attack on the rights of citizens”.



via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/7/13
As Russia prepares to mount a posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, state-controlled television has aired a documentary accusing the dead whistleblowing lawyer and his bosses of being part of an MI6-led conspiracy.

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

China, Russia seek greater control of Internet: US
Reuters
"In a world where countries like Russia, China and others are in a completely different place than the United States and when there is a completely different vision for how the Internet should be governed, then I think it's going to be very difficult ...

and more »

via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/7/13
As Russia prepares to mount a posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, state-controlled television has aired a documentary accusing the dead whistleblowing lawyer and his bosses of being part of an MI6-led conspiracy.

via NYT > Europe by By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO on 3/7/13
The verdict against Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, is expected to weaken his position as talks begin on forming a coalition government.

The vote came after a Republican senator ended his filibuster of the nomination over questions about the Obama administration’s drone program.

Officials said Sulaiman Abu Ghaith is expected to face an initial hearing March 8 in New York City on terrorism charges.

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Lukoil Surging 29% to Analysts on Output Plans: Russia Overnight
Bloomberg
Analysts are the most optimistic on OAO Lukoil (LUKOY) stock since November, predicting a 29 percent rally in the next 12 months, as the Russian oil producer says it will use last year's record profit to boost output. Lukoil climbed for a fourth day in ...

and more »

via NYT > Europe by By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO on 3/7/13
Around the world, a growing number of billionaires are purchasing homes at record prices.

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Inquirer.net

Russia charges Bolshoi dancer but acid plot denied
Inquirer.net
Pavel Dmitrichenko, foreground, is escorted out of a courtroom in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, March 7, 2013. The star dancer accused of masterminding the attack on the Bolshoi ballet chief acknowledged Thursday that he gave the go-ahead for the attack ...
Acid, Mafia and Scandal at Russia's Bolshoi BalletBloomberg
Dancer Held in Acid Attack on Bolshoi DirectorNew York Times
Dancer confesses in writing to Bolshoi acid attack: Russia policeNEWS.com.au
Russia Beyond The Headlines -Yahoo!7 News -Voice of America
all 288 news articles »



via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Bilalov Brothers Leave Russia
The Moscow Times
Businessman and former Olympic Committee deputy president Akhmed Bilalov, whom President Vladimir Putin publicly criticized and sacked in February, has left the country. Akhmed Bilalov and his brother Magomed Bilalov left Russia just over a month ago, ...

and more »

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Russia may charge ex-Olympic committee official
Yahoo! Sports
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's prosecutor-general is considering misuse-of-funds charges against the former deputy head of the Russian Olympic Committee. Akhmed Bilalov was criticized by President Vladimir Putin for delays and cost overruns in building the ...

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Sydney Morning Herald

China, Russia clamp down on internet, says US
Sydney Morning Herald
"In a world where countries like Russia, China and others are in a completely different place than the United States and when there is a completely different vision for how the internet should be governed, then I think it's going to be very difficult ...

and more »

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 3/7/13
Interim leader Nicolas Maduro said plans call for Chavez to be embalmed and put on display for “eternity.”

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Yahoo! News (blog)

China, Russia seek greater control of Internet: US
Yahoo! News (blog)
GENEVA (Reuters) - China and Russia are buying increasingly powerful surveillance technologies to intercept communications and try to take control of the Internet, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Alec Ross, the U.S. secretary of state's senior ...

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

Russia still a mystery to many Finns
YLE News
Experts at Helsinki University who research Russian affairs argue that Finland needs new thinking about its expertise, and more grassroots involvement with the nation's eastern neighbour. In addition to more formal research, there is also a need for ...

and more »

A senior U.S. official says China and Russia have been buying powerful surveillance technologies in a bid to “control” Internet communications.

via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

China, Russia Seeking Internet Control
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Alec Ross, the U.S. secretary of state's senior adviser for innovation, said “many Middle Eastern countries, Russia, China, and others” have been taking an “increasingly aggressive stand to try to control the Internet.” He said China, Russia, and other ...

and more »

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by Richard Solash on 3/8/13
John Brennan, 57, was confirmed as CIA director on March 7 by the U.S. Senate.



via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

China, Russia seek greater control of Internet: US
NBCNews.com
GENEVA — China and Russia are buying increasingly powerful surveillance technologies to intercept communications and try to take control of the Internet, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Alec Ross, the U.S. secretary of state's senior adviser ...

The Georgian Parliament has reaffirmed the country's commitment to its European and Euro-Atlantic foreign-policy course.

via Russia - Google News on 3/8/13

Russia won't pressure Assad to quit: Lavrov
GlobalPost
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Friday that Moscow will not push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to quit, saying it would be against Russian policy and in any case would be futile. "It is not for us to decide who should lead Syria ...

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by VOA's Andre de Nesnera on 3/8/13
Roman Catholic cardinals continue to meet in preconclave discussion groups to talk about the state of the church in advance of electing a new pontiff.

via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/8/13
The Vatican has said the conclave to elect a new pope is likely to start in the first few days of next week, signalling that cardinals are coming to an end of discussions about the state of the church and who might lead it.

via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/8/13
Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is being treated in a Milan hospital for an eye inflammation that prevented him from attending his sex-for-hire trial.

A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sits on a table before a press conference by Buthaina Shaaban, special envoy of the President, in New Delhi, India, Friday, March 8, 2013. Shaaban Friday criticized Britain's decision to provide non-lethal military equipment to Syrian rebels, saying it will hinder efforts for peace in the strife-torn country. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad "is not bluffing" about his determination to stay in power, Russia's foreign minister said in comments broadcast Friday, as negotiations to free 21 U.N. peacekeepers held by Syrian rebels dragged into a third day.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service on 3/8/13
The wife of Azerbaijani opposition activist Mahir Bayramli says he has been sentenced to five years in prison.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL's Russian Service on 3/8/13
At least 20 supporters of Russia's feminist protest collective Pussy Riot have been detained at a Moscow demonstration marking International Women's Day.



via Russia - Google News on 3/7/13

China, Russia seek greater control of Internet: US
NBCNews.com
GENEVA — China and Russia are buying increasingly powerful surveillance technologies to intercept communications and try to take control of the Internet, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. Alec Ross, the U.S. secretary of state's senior adviser ...

The Georgian Parliament has reaffirmed the country's commitment to its European and Euro-Atlantic foreign-policy course.

via Russia - Google News on 3/8/13

Russia won't pressure Assad to quit: Lavrov
GlobalPost
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Friday that Moscow will not push Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to quit, saying it would be against Russian policy and in any case would be futile. "It is not for us to decide who should lead Syria ...

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by VOA's Andre de Nesnera on 3/8/13
Roman Catholic cardinals continue to meet in preconclave discussion groups to talk about the state of the church in advance of electing a new pontiff.

via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/8/13
The Vatican has said the conclave to elect a new pope is likely to start in the first few days of next week, signalling that cardinals are coming to an end of discussions about the state of the church and who might lead it.

via - Europe RSS Feed on 3/8/13
Former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi is being treated in a Milan hospital for an eye inflammation that prevented him from attending his sex-for-hire trial.

A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sits on a table before a press conference by Buthaina Shaaban, special envoy of the President, in New Delhi, India, Friday, March 8, 2013. Shaaban Friday criticized Britain's decision to provide non-lethal military equipment to Syrian rebels, saying it will hinder efforts for peace in the strife-torn country. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad "is not bluffing" about his determination to stay in power, Russia's foreign minister said in comments broadcast Friday, as negotiations to free 21 U.N. peacekeepers held by Syrian rebels dragged into a third day.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service on 3/8/13
The wife of Azerbaijani opposition activist Mahir Bayramli says he has been sentenced to five years in prison.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL's Russian Service on 3/8/13
At least 20 supporters of Russia's feminist protest collective Pussy Riot have been detained at a Moscow demonstration marking International Women's Day.