The news that President Vladimir Putin was getting divorced instantly became the top story in the world’s media. It also unleashed a flood of jokes on the Russian blogosphere.
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The 300,000 ruble ($9,500) fine imposed last month on Russia's independent election monitoring agency Golos has been upheld by a Moscow court, a news report said Friday.
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For some 45 years after the end of World War II, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were locked in the deadly embrace of the Cold War. Then, communism lost the war of ideologies, the Soviet empire collapsed, and the two superpowers went in different directions.
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Effects of New Anti-Smoking Restrictions Met With Skepticismby By Yekaterina Kravtsova
The new anti-smoking law that came into force last week, intended by the government as a measure to fight population decline, has been met more with skepticism than strict implementation.
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What the Papers Say, June 17, 2013 by BBC Monitoring
A roundup of today's Russian-language newspapers.
NSA Spied on Medvedev at G20 in 2009 by The Moscow Times
British and U.S. intelligence agencies spied on leaders during the G20 summit in 2009 in London, including then-President Dmitry Medvedev, a news report said Monday.
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State Could Pull Plug on Rosneft Privatizationby The Moscow Times
Rosneft could be kept under state ownership as part of the Federal Property Management Agency's new plan that proposes a slower rate of privatization, a news report said Monday.
The All-Russia Popular Front (ONF) organization led by the ruling United Russia party has declared itself an official political movement.
The controversial legislation banning “homosexual propaganda” is expected to be passed by the State Duma amid protests from gay-rights activists.
Navalny Ordered to Return to Kirov by Editorial Desk
Opposition leaderAlexei Navalnyis to be forcibly brought back to Kirov at prosecutors’ request for the continuation of the embezzlement case against him, a news report said Thursday.
A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, won an opposition party’s backing on Friday in a Moscow mayoral election, raising the stakes in a trial that may put him behind bars for a decade.
[This article inThe New Timesargues that Vladimir Putin’s political control is eroding inexorably as a result of corruption from above and increasingly poor economic performance—Ed.]
A year and a month after the third coming of Vladimir Putin, who in fact never left, it is becoming obvious that he will not fulfill the main demand of those who voted for him in March 2012: things will not be “like before.” A new era is coming in Russia. This shift has occurred without a change of the regime – not thanks to revolution from below, but because of degradation from above. While the new old government is making a choice between 1937 and 1973 (with lapses into the era of “House-building”), millions of Russians are faced with the personal choice of space “between Krasnokamensk and Paris.”
An article inThe Timesof London precisely captured the main theme of current Russian life, even if in a somewhat naïve interpretation. According toThe Times, Putin’s promises cease to be at the center of attention, since the Russian economy is slowing the pace of development. For 13 years, Russians have supported Putin, since he made them richer than ever before. In exchange, citizens were prepared to resign themselves to the infringement of their liberties. A year after the beginning of this third presidential term, however, Putin’s image as a guarantor of a stable life is under threat, since the economy is slipping out of the control of the head of state. Therefore, according toThe Times, Russian society is starting to ask more questions about Putin’s long period in power than about the unexpected divorce from his spouse.
His third term will become Putin’s divorce from Russia.
The economically “prosperous naughts” ended almost five years ago— that is, back in the fall of 2008— with the onset of the global crisis. Before that, the income to the Russian Treasury, thanks to the stable growth of world energy prices, increased without any efforts by the government. If the government did put effort into anything, it was to relentlessly increase the rate of theft from state coffers.
Politically, this era of stability died in September 2011 at the Congress of United Russia, when Medvedev and Putin traded places. Part of the elite sincerely placed their hopes in a second term by Medvedev, or believed that the number one figure who had never in the history of Russia ever left their post would not return to that post. In any event, during his second term, Medvedev could in part play the role of Putin in his first term – the young energetic president of hopes. The delicate phrase ofThe Timesabout Putin’s promises ceasing to be at the center of attention has long since turned into the nickname “Obeshchalkin” (“Mr. Promise”) in Russia, which not only opposition hipsters started to call the national leader. Even the majority of those who voted for him again did not expect Putin to fulfill his promises after his return to the post of head of state. On the eve of the elections, sociologists definitively established the main motive for support of Putin as a desire to avoid change. Russians chose Putin with the logic which was once marvelously formulated by my mother’s school teacher, who was exiled to Tashkent from Leningrad University and “demoted in pedagogical rank” by Stalin: “Even an evil creature is nicer than the most evil creature.”
But almost 13 months since the victory of the candidate from the party of the stability of the graveyard, it has turned out that not everything is so peaceful in our graveyard. For the first time in almost half a century, we once again have “foreign agents”. No matter where you look, the country has been flooded with representatives of “sexual minorities with propagandistic tendencies” – even though the monopoly on any form of propaganda in Russia tacitly belongs to the state. The possessors of deputies’ mandates from United Russia can no longer save themselves from prison. The party of power itself does not know whether it will end up in an unequal fight with the troops of the All-Russian Popular Front or survive with losses in manpower and technology in some new capacity.
Nothing is guaranteed –even the prime minister, the former president doesn’t really know what his immediate future looks like. Capital is fleeing from the country at such a pace that it is as if the president who won the election was the most unpredictable and unknown candidate from the opposition with Sharikov’s economic program: “Take everything and divide it up.” The president himself held a closed economic consultation with government ministers the other day, where he demanded that they change course and stop wasting money on obviously failed projects. As if the government determines the economic course in our country. As if the government itself hadn’t thought up the most failed projects – the Olympics in Sochi and the World Cup.
Neither the elite nor the ordinary people understand what is happening to the country, what will happen tomorrow, much less how this will impact the rest of their lives. Russia has entered the “end times,” after which some other times will follow. If we were to predict their content based on today’s ingredients, we would have to admit: we can’t expect anything good. But it does seem clear that Russia is gradually, but inevitably, turning away from Putin.
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The controversial property tycoon Sergei Polonsky, key witness in an ongoing trial against fellow Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, is now wanted by Russian authorities over a massive alleged fraud. Mr Polonsky, who earlier this year skipped bail in Cambodia, where he was awaiting trial for assaulting local sailors, is now also on Russia’s wanted list.
American spies based in the UK intercepted the top-secret communications of the then Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, during his visit to Britain for the G20 summit in London, leaked documents reveal.
G8 summit to focus on Syria 'common ground'by Telegraph Staff
At a press conference ahead of the G8 summit, Prime Minister David Cameron and Russian President Vladimir Putin insist that, despite their differences, they remain hopeful that a diplomatic solution can be found to the ongoing crisis in Syria.
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