Russia 101027 Basic Political Developments

Russia 101027

Basic Political Developments

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  Nov 4: National Unity Day public holiday in Russia
  
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    Nov 5: Day-off for public holiday, working day moved to November 13
    
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  Saakashvili ready for dialogue with Russia - Russia “has occupied Georgian territory,” nevertheless, we should start a dialogue with Russia, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told TV5 Monde French TV Channel, according to RBK.ru. Saakashvili is in Montreux, Switzerland for the 13th Francophonie summit.
  
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  Yanukovych forms expert council on Ukraine-Russia relations - Presidential chief-of-staff Serhiy Lyovochkin has already been appointed to head the council, which will act as a consultative body responsible for formulating suggestions on how to tackle problems in Ukrainian-Russian cooperation and supporting Kyiv's work within the interstate commission.
  
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    Putin to lead government delegation to Ukraine - The Russian delegation includes Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, as well as representatives of other ministries and business community. Five intergovernmental cooperation agreements and five commercial deals are expected to be signed during the Russian ministers' visit to Kiev, Zurabov said.
    
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    Russia, Ukraine to discuss new approaches on gas market - Russian-Ukrainian gas relations will be high on the agenda of the meeting of the intergovernmental committee for economic cooperation that will be co-chaired by the two countries’ prime ministers Vladimir Putin and Nikolai Azarov.
    
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  Medvedev receives Sargsian and Aliyev in Astrakhan - The Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev is receiving his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts Serge Sargsian and Ilham Aliyev for talks in the city of Astrakhan, in the Volga River delta today.
  
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    Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pays working visit to Russia - Prime Minister Artur Rasizadeh, head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev and Baku Mayor Hajibala Abutalibov saw the President off at Heydar Aliyev International airport.
    Azerbaijan leader to participate in tripartite meeting on Karabakh - According to diplomatic sources, during a brief visit to Astrakhan Ilham Aliyev will participate in a ceremony to unveil the monument to his late father – Azerbaijani national leader Geidar Aliyev.
    
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    Medvedev to hold Karabakh talks with Aliyev, Sarksyan - Ankara closely follows such tripartite meetings, as any positive sign which may come from the meetings will be welcomed in the Turkish capital, which hopes that concrete progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan will enable Turkey to pass a so-called threshold in order to move ahead in its ongoing efforts to normalize ties with its estranged neighbor Armenia.
    
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    Astrakhan to host tripartite meeting of Presidents
    
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  Putin might visit Tajikistan - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should soon come to Tajikistan to discuss Russian-Tajik military-political and economic co-operation, Avesta.tj reported October 26, citing “informed sources.” The Putin visit, should it occur, would be part of a Shanghai Co-operation Organisation prime ministers’ summit, Avesta.tj reported. The Tajik presidential administration denied knowing anything about a Putin visit.
  
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  Polish government approves deal with Russia on increased gas supplies - "The conclusion of the agreement results from the necessity of providing Poland with additional natural gas supplies and increasing the country's energy security," the statement said.
  
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  Russian FM in Poland - Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, is to meet with his opposite number Radoslaw Sikorski as well as President Bronislaw Komorowski during his two-day visit to Poland.
  
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    MFA Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko Interview to RIA Novosti regarding Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s Working Visit to the Republic of Poland
    
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  Poland acquires five more Mi-17 helicopters - Polish Ministry of Defence has purchased five Mi-17 helicopters, Russian Rosoboroneksport, state enterprise acting as the sole Russian state intermediary agency for export and import of military and dual-purpose products announced yesterday in Paris.
  
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  Russian Foreign Minister To Attend 5th East Asia Summit In Hanoi
  
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  Regional organizations boost UN effectiveness – Lavrov: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov feels that the effectiveness of the UN largely depends on boosting cooperation with regional organizations, such as the Collective Security Treaty Organization and/or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
  
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  War games in full swing in Chelyabinsk -  The war games have been going on since October 25^th with the participation of more than 1700 servicemen and about 270 military vehicles from Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus.
  
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  Russian General Staff chief to attend EU Military Committee meeting - "During the meeting, the chief of the Russian General Staff will deliver a speech on reforming the Russian Armed Forces and an opportunity to expand cooperation with EU member countries on maintaining peace and providing security on the European continent," the ministry's press service said.
  
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  Russia wants troop limit in new NATO states: report - Russia is demanding that any new cooperation deal with NATO include limits on the number of troops posted in the alliance's new member states in central Europe, a leading Russian daily reported on Wednesday.
  
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    Russia seeks restrictions on NATO military contingents - paper: Kommersant said that the request was laid out in a draft cooperation deal that Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov handed over to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in December 2009. The deal, which is still under discussion, was not made public, under a mutual agreement. "We want the level of predictability in military activity on the territories of the countries recently admitted to NATO to be higher than it is now," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the paper.
    
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    Russia to ask NATO impose ban on substantial military units placement in newly accessed member states
    
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  NATO Chief Sees 'New Start' With Russia - In an interview with the British-based "Financial Times" newspaper, Rasmussen says he believes Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's expected attendance at the defense alliance's annual summit next month in Lisbon will improve NATO's relations with Moscow that were strained over Russia's 2008 war with Georgia.
  
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    Nato hopes to rebuild ties with Moscow - “The summit will represent a new start in the relationship between Nato and Russia,” said Mr Fogh Rasmussen. “It will be a very substantive Nato-Russia summit and definitely the most important event for [bilateral] co-operation since the Rome summit of 2002, when we established the Nato-Russia council.”
    
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  Exclusive: Afghanistan: Russia steps in to help Nato - The Independent has learnt that Moscow is engaged in training the Afghan army and counter-narcotics troops and has agreed in principle to supply Nato with helicopters for use in Afghanistan.
  
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    Russia and Nato plan joint initiative in Afghanistan - Russian forces could return to Afghanistan for the first time since they were forced out by mujahideen fighters in 1989, under a joint initiative with Nato.
    
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  Russia against politicizing nuclear energy use for peaceful purposes - Russia is opposed to politicizing the right to the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. This kind of stand on the issue whips up tension in international relations, says Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in an interview with the VIP-Premier magazine.
  
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  IAEA head hails Russia's efforts in nuclear medicine
  
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  Russia ready for row as Stockholm seizes trade mission
  
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    German businessman hurts Russia's reputation in the West - Scandalous Sedelmayer case took a very unfavorable turn for Russia. Russia was unable to appeal the seizure of the government property imposed on October 11 by Swedish judicial authorities. We are talking about the building of the Russian trade mission in the town of Lidingö near the Swedish capital.
    
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  Chechen leader Kadyrov to deliver speech in Russian parliament - Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov will address the Russian parliament's upper house on Wednesday, the Federation Council's spokesman said.
  
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  Polish appeals court drops case of Chechen separatist activist - Akhmed Zakayev was detained in Poland last month on a Russian warrant but then released the same day after a Warsaw court rejected the Russian-issued warrant. The 51-year-old returned to Britain, where he is living in exile. Prosecutors, however, appealed the decision to free Zakayev.
  
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  Russia's Deputy Prosecutor Calls For Vetting All North Caucasus Police
  
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  European Reports Paint Grim Picture of Kadyrov’s Chechnya – by Valery Dzutsev
  
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  Arab jihadists emerge in Caucasus war - In recent months, Jordanian newspapers and Web sites have reported the death of several Jordanians fighting in Chechnya.
  
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  Drawing the Line - Is Saakashivli’s Move to Abolish Georgian Visas for the Citizens of Certain Russian Republics a Way to Provoke Moscow to Take Heedless Action? By Justin Lyle
  
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  Kremlin Shuffles Army - President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked three army generals and appointed a number of other top brass to new positions, the Kremlin said on its web site Tuesday, without providing reasons for the reshuffle.
  
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  Next Bulava missile launch scheduled for Oct. 29
  
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  Progress cargo ship to be blasted off from Baikonur to ISS
  
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  Russia may invest $5 million in national operating system - paper: The Russian government may allocate 161 million rubles ($5.28 million) in 2011 for the development of a national operating system in a bid to reduce the country's dependence on Microsoft, a Russian business daily said on Wednesday.
  
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  Moscow police prosecute world's biggest spammer - Moscow police have filed a criminal case against businessman Igor Gusev, listed as the world's biggest spammer. His company Despmedia has been sending spam e-mails advertising fake pharmaceutical products to users in the United States, Canada and other countries through a partner program Glavmed.com, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
  
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    Noticed less spam lately? - Yesterday, police officials in Russia here announced a criminal investigation of a suspected spam kingpin, Igor Gusev. They said he had probably fled the country.
    Serial spammer: Russian Viagra baron may face jail
    
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    Russia Seeks Arrest of World’s Biggest Spammer, Kommersant Says
    
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  Sobyanin Keeps Luzhkov's Team – for Now - The most significant addition to the lineup of nine deputies is Anastasia Rakova, a member of Sobyanin's team from the time when he served as governor of the Tyumen region in the early 2000s.
  
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  Baturina’s Lawsuits Rejected - Moscow’s Presnensky District Court on Tuesday refused to consider two defamation lawsuits filed by billionaire Yelena Baturina’s Inteko company against NTV television for September reports that linked her and her husband, former Mayor Yury Luzhkov, to corruption, Interfax reported.
  
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  Russian mafia boss killed in Sochi - A Russian mafia boss was shot dead on Tuesday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Real estate owner Eduard "Karas" Kakosyan, 31, was gunned down near a gas station in the centre of town a month after another mafia chief and friend was shot and wounded, Interfax reported.
  
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  Choc shock as cops raid Moscow factory - Police raided the underground confectionary manufacturer in Solnechnogorsk, just outside Moscow, after a tip-off about illegal immigrants working their without proper papers.
  
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  Lost generation: Russia tops youth crime table - Ranked by the World Health Organization as having the highest rate of youth crime in Europe, Russia is faced with the tough task of rehabilitating its young people and improving the statistics.
  
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  Russian Press at a Glance, Wednesday, October 27, 2010
  
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    Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said that the country should pay more attention to household energy efficiency and promised to deal with governors responsible for delaying the installation of modern utility metering equipment. Promoting energy efficiency is one of the priorities of Medvedev's modernization program.
    
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    Almost no Luzhkov-era officials were dismissed as new Mayor Sergei Sobyanin appointed his government on Tuesday. Analysts view the lineup as a temporary measure to mask the gradual replacement of the old guard, which Sobyanin has described as "not up-to-date."
    
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    Transparency International placed Russia 154th out of 178 countries in its 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index. Despite President Dmitry Medvedev's promise to tackle corruption, Russia has slipped eight positions down from last year's rating.
    
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    Experts have expressed doubts that data collected during the all-Russian census will represent the real situation in the country. Public polls show that more than one third of Russians did not take part.
    
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    The Memorial rights group appealed to the authorities on Tuesday about a Dagestani journalist who has received anonymous death threats and been harassed by law enforcement agencies after writing a report about police torture.
    
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    Russia wants NATO to impose a ban on the deployment of major combatant forces on the territories of new NATO member states, according to a draft cooperation deal being discussed by Russian and U.S. officials.
    
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    The Russian government may allocate a total of 161 million rubles ($5.28 million) in 2011 for the development of a national operating system in a bid to reduce the country's dependence on Microsoft.
    
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    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged Russian businessmen to invest in the development of Siberia.
    
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    The Russian government may replace Exxon Mobil as the operator of the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project after it raised spending from $42.8 billion to $95.3 billion for the period until 2055. According to media reports, Russian Energy giant Gazprom has expressed its readiness to join the project.
    
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    One of the co-owners of Metalloinvest, the largest iron ore holding in the Commonwealth of Independent States, may sell his share of the company for around $4 billion.
    
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  Meeting of the Commission for Modernisation and Technological Development of Russia’s Economy - However, work carried out in this field remains insufficient. Recalling that a law on energy conservation and energy efficiency was passed almost a year ago, President Medvedev outlined a number of organisational problems that citizens, private companies and the public sector still face.
  
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  Medvedev Pushes for Efficiency - President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that the country needs to start thinking seriously about energy efficiency in the housing sector and promised that he would deal with governors who are "irresponsible" in delaying installation of modern utility metering equipment.