"PERISCOPE - ПЕРИСКОП" via Mike Nova
via Russia :: Johnson's Russia List :: JRL Home :: Russian News on 9/4/11
Cleaning up Russia's banks The Bank of Moscow was subject to a record government bailout with a $9 billion hole on its balance sheet, after most of the risky credits were issued to acquaintances of the bank's top managers ... Oleg Nikishenkov, Moscow News
Russian middle classes, as seen through the keyhole of WikiLeaks In 2006, then-US Ambassador to Russia William Burns devoted a cable to the appearance of the middle class in Russia ... Igor Bukker, pravda.ruMortgages for the masses A range of government initiatives to kick start Russia's ailing housing market are changing the dynamics of buying a property ... Anna Sulimina, Moscow News; JRL 2011-158, Sept. 2, 2011Experts expect Medvedev to assess social stratification in Russia at Yaroslavl forum The Yaroslavl World Political Forum to be held on September 7-8 ...
; JRL 2011-158, Sept. 2, 2011; JRL 2011-158, Sept. 2, 2011; JRL 2011-158, Sept. 2, 2011
Electronic Corruption: Corruption Scuppers Another Government Project Aimed at Modernizing Russia In February of this year, Russia's Audit Chamber said it analyzed how the unified state policy in the sphere of information technology was being implemented ... Tai Adelaja, Russia Profile; JRL 2011-158, Sept. 2, 2011
modified 10:21 PM ET 9/4/11 12:42 AM EDT 05:42 AM BST 08:42 AM MSD 11:42 AM OMSST 03:42 PM VLAST 05:42 PM PETST 09:42 PM AKDT
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via Twitter / robertamsterdam on 8/26/11
robertamsterdam: Stanislav Belkovsky suggests that Russians shouldn't bother voting at all. A translation from Slon.ru. http://t.co/v3pACPP
via Twitter / JohnsonRussiaLi on 9/4/11
JohnsonRussiaLi: #RUSSIA #GOVERNMENT - Most Russians Keen On Return To Direct Elections To Upper House - Poll :: JRL 9/2/11 http://t.co/sg1DKBf
via Twitter / JohnsonRussiaLi on 9/4/11
JohnsonRussiaLi: #RUSSIA #ECONOMY - Russian middle classes, as seen through the keyhole of WikiLeaks :: JRL 9/2/11 http://t.co/cBMg3gh
Russia Fights Cold War Angst With Cash as Crisis Eases East Europe Drive - Bloomberg
via Russia - Google News on 9/4/11
Russia Fights Cold War Angst With Cash as Crisis Eases East Europe Drive
Bloomberg
There is an opportunity for Russia.” Sberbank agreed to buy nine eastern European units of Austria's Oesterreichische Volksbanken AG (VBPS) in July for an undisclosed sum in the Moscow-based lender's first foray outside the former Soviet Union. ...
and more »
Chinese merchants rush into Russia - China Daily
via Russia - Google News on 9/4/11
"PERISCOPE - ПЕРИСКОП" via Mike Nova
In Russia's Dagestan, Salafi Muslims clash with government authorities - Washington Post
via Russia - Google News on 9/5/11
In Russia's Dagestan, Salafi Muslims clash with government authorities
Washington Post
MAKHACHKALA, Russia — The latest episode in Moscow's struggle with rebellious Muslims is unfolding here in Dagestan, a forbidding North Caucasian realm where peaks as high as 13000 feet descend sharply to running rivers. ...
Militant leader killed in Russia's DagestanZee News
Militant leader killed in DagestanThe Voice of Russia
all 6 news articles »
Politkovskaya Suspect 'Names' Mastermind in Plea Agreement
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 9/4/11
A key witness-turned-suspect in the 2006 killing of Novaya Gazeta reporter Anna Politkovskaya has struck a plea bargain with investigators and identified the murder's mastermind, Kommersant reported Saturday, citing unidentified sources.
"PERISCOPE - ПЕРИСКОП" via Mike Nova
:: RUSSIA, ECONOMY - Russian middle classes, as seen through the keyhole of WikiLeaks :: JRL 9/2/11
via www.cdi.org on 9/5/11
wrote.
The Russians traditionally reproach themselves and speak ill of the things that are native for them. However, the Russians do not like it much when foreigners say similar things about Russia. Brushing a subjective outlook aside, foreign critics are correct in their remarks about political indifference of the Russian people. Messianic aspirations is the destiny of European nations, who are used to imposing their orders everywhere. This virus crossed the Atlantic and settled in America, where it lives well today.
The director of "Black Hawk Down" - the movie about a special operation of the USA in Somalia in 1993 - included a dialogue in the motion picture between a local resident and a US soldier. The message of that episode is simple: "why are you here?"
Political apathy of Russian citizens has its roots in the living conditions. The boisterous past has taught many to stay away from various -isms, advanced teachings, beliefs in the bright future on earth and other gibberish. Fifty years ago, the Soviet people, being humiliated by their own authorities and external enemies, were craving "low benefits" of life - bread and sausage. The prime daily goal of the people was to eat and to feed children.
Representatives of the current middle classes in Russia prefer not to play games of politics. Their living standards in Russia still lag behind Western standards. Buying a house or a yacht is a prerogative of those who can be referred to as oligarchs.
The Soviet power destroyed classes-parasites and erstwhile ideals. When the Soviet power collapsed, it turned out that there was nothing to struggle for. The holy place is never empty, and then there was Mr. Dollar.
2 United Russia Deputies Jump Ship
via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Nikolaus von Twickel and Natalya Krainova <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 9/4/11
In a sign of growing discord in the run-up to parliamentary elections, State Duma Deputy Alexei Lebed left United Russia on Friday and accused the party of crushing dissent among members.
2 United Russia Deputies Jump Ship | News | The Moscow Times
via www.themoscowtimes.com on 9/5/11
2 United Russia Deputies Jump Ship
05 September 2011
By Nikolaus von Twickel and Natalya Krainova
Vladimir Filonov / MT
United Russia says corporate income tax breaks would cover the machine-building and processing industries.
In a sign of growing discord in the run-up to parliamentary elections, State Duma Deputy Alexei Lebed left United Russia on Friday and accused the party of crushing dissent among members.
"I quit because I understand that every person should live honestly [and] have the right to speak their mind independently from the party's directives," Lebed, a former Khakasia governor, told reporters in the republic's capital, Abakan, RIA-Novosti reported.
Lebed, a retired general like his older brother Alexander, a political heavyweight killed in a helicopter crash in 1998, is the second Duma lawmaker to leave the ruling party within a week.
On Tuesday, Igor Isakov, who represents the Krasnoyarsk region, quit United Russia after scoring poorly in recent Duma primaries, a much-touted event fraught with allegations of vote rigging.
Speculation swirled Friday that the two lawmakers might run in the Dec. 4 elections on the tickets of other parties, including the rival pro-Kremlin A Just Russia and the Kremlin-linked Right Cause.
Isakov did not comment publicly on his decision, but his spokesman told RIA-Novosti that his boss might run with the pro-business Right Cause.
A Just Russia founder Sergei Mironov rushed ahead by saying Lebed planned to join his party. "Alexei Lebed is a well-known general, a former governor � and also a paratrooper. We are in talks about including him in A Just Russia," he told Interfax.
However, in an interview with Izvestia published online late Friday, Lebed suggested that he was far from having made up his mind. "I'd easily join the Liberal Democratic Party," he said about the party headed by nationalist populist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Asked whether he would join A Just Russia, he merely replied that Mironov "has his own nuances," and that the only party he would never join is the Communist Party.
Lebed joined United Russia in 2005 and became a Duma deputy in January 2009, after President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed him as Khakasia governor in December 2008 following 13 years in office.
United Russia officials said Friday that they considered the deputy no loss for the party.
Lebed "almost never attended" meetings of the regional party leadership and refused to take part in the Duma primaries, which ended last month, said the head of the party's Khakasia branch, Sergei Mozharov, RIA-Novosti reported.
Lebed told Izvestia that he had decided against taking part in the primaries because he considered the intraparty votes to be a sham.
"I immediately understood that I would be right at the end of the list. The primaries' supposed transparency has not been achieved in the republic," he said.
Lingering hostility between the two pro-Kremlin parties burst into the open recently as United Russia functionaries said senior members were deserting A Just Russia after polls showed that the party's chances to take the Duma's 7 percent hurdle were slim.
"Only those who lost in the primaries or did not take part in them and those who have no chance to make it into the next Duma are leaving United Russia," said Alexei Chesnyakov, a senior United Russia official, Interfax reported.
"Meanwhile, people are leaving A Just Russia because they do not believe their party will make it into the next Duma," he said.
But Mironov claimed that Lebed was not the only United Russia member willing to join A Just Russia. As an example, he pointed to the Smolensk region, where a whole group of former ruling party officials had switched sides. "More and more disenchanted United Russia members are leaving," he said.
via www.facebook.com on 9/5/11
RUSSIA and WEST - РОССИЯ и ЗАПАД
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via Russia and The West: News and Opinions - Россия и Запад: Новости и Мнения by Admin - News Review on 9/4/11