Russia 111215 Basic Political Developments

Russia 111215

Basic Political Developments

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  Iran says has no plan for gas swap to Russia - Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Exporting Company Hossein Bidarmaghz rejected reports that Iran has planned to pump gas to Russia, ISNA reported.
  
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  Top Russian, U.S. diplomats discuss strategic stability, missile defense
  
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    About the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov in Russian-US Working Group on Arms Control and International Security
    Indian PM to visit Russia - During his visit, Singh plans to discuss military and technological cooperation, ways to boost economic development, nuclear power industry as well as science and medicine partnership with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials.
    
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  Expanding Indo-Russian cooperation in India’s interest: Manmohan - During the visit, Dr. Singh will discuss with Russian President Medvedev ways to further enhance consultations in international forums like the United Nations Security Council, G 20, BRICS as well as the East Asia Summit which Russia has recently joined.
  
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    Low business interest dogs PM's visit to Russia - The irony is that bilateral trade stands around $9.6 billion, while the defence trade — without taking the cost of the Russian-built civilian nuclear plants at Kudamkulam into account — is double that, around $20 billion annually.
    
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    India to buy 42 upgraded Russian Su-30MKIs - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will ink a deal on purchasing 42 upgraded Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft during his visit to Russia starting on Thursday, Indian media said.
    
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    India, Russia already implemented about 500 joint scientific projects - Indian PM
    
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    Indian prime minister: India will fulfill all nuclear commitments to Russia - The Russian-Indian nuclear cooperation will continue, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Russian journalists before flying out to Moscow.
    
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    Manmohan Singh: India and Russia cooperation has multidimensional scope - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is visiting Moscow on December 15-17, has given an interview to Interfax ahead of his visit in which he speaks about the achievements and prospects of Indian-Russian cooperation.
    
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  Russia’s WTO membership to spur cooperation within BRICS – Russian minister: [Nabiullina] She spoke at a meeting of BRICS foreign trade ministers, which was preceded the eighth ministerial conference of WTO member countries. The conference is expected to yield a protocol on Russia’s accession of the World Trade Organization.
  
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  Medvedev visits Brussels for his last EU summit - The summit begins on Thursday at 08.00 GMT and will be attended by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, the EU foreign affairs’ chief Catherine Ashton, the European Commission’s head, Jose Manuel Barroso and the energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger.
  
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    EU, Russia to get closer to visa-free travel after Brussels summit - van Rompuy
    
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    Euro zone crisis, visa-free travel to dominate RF-EU summit in Brussels
    
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    Summit all-up: Much to cover at Russia-EU talks
    
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  Russian election protests “came from within” - Clinton: “Russia has one of the most highly educated populations in the world, and now a growing middle class with all the aspirations that middle class families have. And so this didn’t come from the outside; it came from within,” she said.
  
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  U.S. administration to establish new fund to support Russian NGOs - The U.S. administration is in talks with Congress on the establishment of a new organization supporting NGOs in Russia, Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, said on Wednesday.
  
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  Missile-shield pledge backfires for proposed US ambassador to Russia - “McFaul’s case could be the usual bargaining between Republicans and Democrats,” Kirill Koktysh from the Moscow State University of International Relations told RT. “Another reason is the American system would like to wait for the recent developments in Moscow, just to make sure what it is going for, because the ambassador should reflect the American position.”
  
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  Russia to deliver first three Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan - Russia will deliver the first three military transport Mi-17V5 helicopters to Afghanistan in the next few days and send nine more to the customer until the end of this year, an official participating in the supply contract implementation told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
  
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  Russia supporting Abkhazia, S Ossetia on delimitating border with Georgia - Russia supports the willingness of two young South Caucasian countries, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, to delimitate their borders with their former metropolitan country, Georgia, a high-rank Russian diplomat said here upon the completion of the 18th round of discussions on stability and security in South Caucasus.
  
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    Georgia hopes to sign an agreement on non-use of force on next negotiations in Geneva format - "We hope that at the next round Russia will be able to issue such a document and confirm, that will not use force against Georgia," - said Kapanadze and stressed that despite the "aggressive rhetoric" sounded in recent years against Georgia from the lips of senior officials of the Russian Federation, such an obligation on the part of Moscow is needed.
    
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  Former Dutch pilot jailed for spying for Russia
  
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  Russian aid convoy remains blocked on Kosovo border - No new agreements have been reached to allow the convoy to continue the trip.
  
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  Russia forces Azerbaijan to choose Nabucco for gas export to Europe - The European Commission has achieved its goal - Russia joined to the pressure upon Azerbaijan to make the latter to choose Nabucco gas pipeline for its gas supplies to Europe. Yesterday, Reuters, citing sources in Gazprom, informed of a change in the proposed South Stream gas pipeline route.
  
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  Russian Grain Producers Union: There’s no full consent of CU members on technical regulations for grain
  
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  Turkmenistan: Russians Said "Panicked" About Leaving - The semi-official news service turkmen.ru announced yesterday, citing the Turkmen Foreign Ministry, that President Berdymukhamedov will visit Moscow on December 23.
  
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  Russia election: Putin accepts 'lawful' protests
  
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    Putin hopes demonstrations will continue within law
    
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    Putin suggests web cameras at pres election stations 2012
    
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    Putin to meet press, answer questions from Russians
    
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    Question time: Putin to conduct 10th Q&A
    
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  Medvedev gives up deputy’s mandate - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who led the United Russia party ticket in the December 4 parliamentary elections, has given up his mandate as deputy, presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova has said.
  
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  Putin's challenger vows to pardon Khodorkovsky- Mikhail Prokhorov said Thursday he would also liberalize elections rules and reduce a presidential term if he wins next March's vote.
  
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    Russia billionaire Prokhorov: I am ready to marry to become president
    
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  United Russia member elected Chairman of Moscow regional Duma - Igor Bryntsalov- a representative of the United Russia party, has been elected Chairman of the 5th Duma of the Moscow region at its first session. Igor Bryntsalov received 47 out of 49 votes in his support with two abstentions.
  
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  Babich replaces Rapota as presidential envoy to Volga Federal District
  
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  The opposition will take people to the streets again on December 24 - The Moscow Mayor’s Office authorized a rally against unfair elections on the Academician Sakharov Avenue on December 24.
  
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  One more test launch of Bulava missile to take place before year-end – source: "The preliminary information available to us confirms that a Bulava salvo test launch will be carried out from the Yury Dolgoruky missile carrying submarine within the period from December 25 to December 29 this year. A launch date will be set by a state commission at the beginning of next week," he said.
  
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  Fire at Vaygach nuclear icebreaker kills two in Siberia
  
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    Blaze aboard nuclear-powered icebreaker put out, two die
    
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  SuperJet-100 pilot training simulator becomes operational at Zhukovsky
  
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  Russians blame US military's Alaska HAARP array for Mars probe failure
  
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  Russia commemorates murdered journalists - December 15 in Russia is a commemoration day for journalists murdered for doing their job. On Thursday, dozens of people will lay flowers on the graves of the murdered journalists.
  
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  100 Beluga whales trapped in Russian Far East
  
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  Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, December 15, 2011
  
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  The new Duma: United Russia and the opposition stand to gain - RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Babich
  
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  Russian TV struggles with Kremlin control - By Melissa Akin
  
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  bneChart: The power of ruling parties - With all this talk of revolution and vote rigging, bne thought it a would be good idea to compare Russia's voting record with the other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).