 RFE/RL Russia Report 22.05.2009 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about domestic and foreign-policy developments in Russia.For more stories on Russia, please visit and bookmark our Russia page . |
 Website Posts Photo Of Supposedly Dead Chechen Commander The Chechen resistance website kavkazcenter.com posted on May 21 a photograph it said it received earlier that day of Sulim Yamadayev, ex-commander of the Russian Defense Ministry's notorious Vostok Battalion. The photo shows Yamadayev dressed in black pajamas, propped up on pillows in a hospital bed, looking at the camera, and holding a mobile phone. More  Signs Of Strategic Division, Not Strategic Partnership The EU-Russia summit, which concluded on May 22 in the far-eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk, served to expose the depth of the disagreement which increasingly bedevils the relationship between the two sides. More  Russian Women's Problems With Heavy Machinery If you're a woman in Russia and you want to be a stallion breeder, an oil driller, or a subway driver then you're out of luck: More  Why Khabarovsk Was Chosen As EU-Russia Summit Location With little going on at the EU-Russia summit, the "FT's" Charles Clover has a nice piece looking at why the summit was held in a city nine time zones from Brussels. More  Expert Says EU Must Act As 'One Voice' On Energy Dr. Stefan Bouzarovski of the University of Birmingham, a visiting professor at Charles University in Prague, is an expert on the socioeconomic, environmental, and political aspects of energy production, transport, and consumption -- in particular energy equity, security of supply, and energy pipelines. RFE/RL's Turkmen Service talked to Bouzarovski about the EU's Southern Corridor project and the Nabucco pipeline project to bring Caspian energy resources to Europe bypassing Russia. More  Dmitry Anatolevich Krushchev In an interview with Reuters this week, Kremlin adviser Igor Yurgens compared President Dmitry Medvedev's tepid gestures toward reform to the limited thaw pursued by Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev. The comments came just days after Yurgens criticized Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for creating an overly centralized political system that stifles reform. More  What Is Ramzan Kadyrov's New Game Plan? Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has called for police and security forces in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Daghestan to coordinate their efforts to hunt down and kill Islamic militants. But Daghestan is reluctant to comply, while some analysts have questioned how effective such coordination would be. Is Kadyrov's proposal part of a long-cherished desire to extend his control to Ingushetia? Or is he simply trying yet again to demonstrate to Moscow that he personally holds the key to stability in the North Caucasus? More  Russia's Roots Are Its History, And They Are Rotten Russia, they say, is a country with an unpredictable past. In fact, it's harder to predict our past than it is to foresee the future. It is a fun-house mirror that it would seem impossible to twist further. Could it be that the new history commission will be in charge of straightening out twisted reflections? More  Multiple Pipelines, But No Happiness The European Union and Russia are holding a summit in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk that will have a special focus on energy resources. The discussions on oil and natural gas are likely to reflect a spirit of competition, rather than cooperation. More  Report Gives Obama A Potential Out On Missile Shield A group of U.S. and Russian experts has issued a report that says Iran is years away from being able to deliver a nuclear warhead to Europe, much less develop a nuclear warhead, and that the missile shield to be set up in Poland and the Czech Republic wouldn't be a credible deterrent once that capability is reached. More  Unspecified 'Progress' Registered At Geneva Talks The fifth round of talks between Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia on security and humanitarian issues in the aftermath of the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war took place in Geneva on May 18-19. International mediators told journalists afterwards that "some progress" was made; they did not elaborate. More  A Not-So-Strategic Partnership? What is a strategic partner when it stops acting like one? That's the question the EU must answer as its representatives meet Russian leaders for a biannual summit. The two sides' disputes have multiplied over the past year, and relentless Russian pressure is putting the EU's drive for pragmatic cooperation under increasing strain. More  Prominent Russian Actor Oleg Yankovsky Dies Oleg Yankovsky, a prominent Russian actor well-known in all former Soviet countries, died in a Moscow clinic on May 20. More  Forty Years In The Wilderness Forty years ago today, on May 20, 1969, the human rights movement in the Soviet Union took a bold step forward. A group of 15 brave individuals – scholars, writers, historians – announced the formation of the Initiative Group for Human Rights in the USSR and sent an open letter to the UN Human Rights Commission. Eleven of the 15 were eventually arrested and imprisoned. More  The New Fascism A new form of fascism has appeared. It is a completely international ideology and has been adopted by dictatorial regimes whose leaders do not want their countries to open up to the world or who are afraid their countries might develop a middle class and escape from their control. More  Crimean Tatars Continue Protest, Demand Land A group of Crimean Tatars is continuing a protest action in front of the government building in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports. More  The Mythological Vertical Of Power Igor Yurgens is at it again. In February, the senior adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia's implicit social contract -- in which citizens sacrificed political freedoms in exchange for rising living standards -- was being rendered null and void by the deepening economic crisis. Now he says Russia's authoritarian system is hampering the country's development. More  Abkhaz Opposition Lambastes President Two opposition groups have released a joint statement criticizing the "damaging" policies implemented by the republic's leadership. They say those policies, including the "multivectoral" foreign policy advocated by President Sergei Bagapsh, "pose a real threat to the [continued] existence of our people and independent state." More Robert Amsterdam, who's part of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky's legal team, is twittering about the trial. More  Russia's Artificial Middle Class For the past decade, Russia's emerging "middle class" got a pretty good deal. The Kremlin was determined to create a stable and sizable cohort of happy, well-fed, and status-conscious consumers who would provide the regime with bedrock political support -- or at least tacit acquiescence. And now that is all at risk. More  On Red Lines And Reset Buttons Three former U.S. and EU diplomats recently called on Washington to lead efforts to prevent a "new tragedy" in Georgia. Citing Moscow's military buildup and its resentment over "unfinished business" from August, they argue that the West must step in to prevent a fresh escalation of violence. Co-author Denis Corboy talked with RFE/RL about the warning. More  Ramzan Kadyrov: No More 'Mr. Nice Guy' Since his appointment as Chechen Republic head two years ago, Ramzan Kadyrov has employed a combination of blandishments and threats in an attempt to stem the steady outflow of young people to join the ranks of the armed Islamic resistance. But in recent days Kadyrov has toughened his position, warning that for those who "head for the forest, there is no way back." More This Russian theater troupe is quite happy to cut off the gas, if "Europe" misbehaves. More Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  Pressing Hard "Rhetoric versus reality" is how some diplomats describe the choice facing the EU as it weighs its relationship with Russia. And whether it's a lame-duck EU Presidency or passivity toward Moscow, the Russian side appears intent on exploiting the EU's distress. EU foreign ministers are gathering in Brussels to plan their response. More  Medvedev's Little Brother, Part 2 Earlier this week, we covered a strange report from a St. Petersburg website speculating that a local entrepreneur best known for fast driving and a decade of astonishing business success (fuelled by municipal construction deals) was the illegitimate younger half brother of President Dmitry Medvedev. More  Will Russia's Debut As Host Be A Triumph, Or A Scandal? Russia, host to this year's Eurovision Song Contest, is staking national pride and an unprecedented $42 million on the event. Even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has gotten in on the act. But this year's concert could be remembered more for its scandals than its songs. More  Eurovision: Foreign-Born Stars Force Native Acts Offstage This year's Eurovision contest saw a number of nations turning away from homegrown artists in favor of foreign-born stars with broader appeal. More  Preventing New Crimean War It is time to learn lessons from the Russia-Georgia conflict by transforming the existing system of security in Europe and Eurasia. Elements of a new system should include the mutual renunciation of force as a method for solving separatist disputes and a moratorium on the expansion of NATO. More  A New Strategy After a three-week delay, President Dmitry Medvedev has signed off on Russia’s new National Security Strategy, a 20-page document that replaces the country’s 1997 National Security Concept, which itself was modified in 2000. More  South Ossetian Opposition Leader Bewails 'Lost Opportunity' Oleg Teziyev, who served in the early 1990s as prime minister of the then-unrecognized breakaway republic of South Ossetia, has accused the current president, Eduard Kokoity, of squandering the opportunity to build a truly independent republic after Russia formally recognized South Ossetia as an independent state. More  Medvedev's Secret Little Brother? The St. Petersburg-based website vkrizis.ru has published an article claiming that local businessman Mikhail Anatolevich Medvedev is the illegitimate younger half-brother of President Dmitry Medvedev. According to his official biography, President Medvedev is an only child. More  Russian Magazine Cited For Publishing 'Mein Kampf' Excerpts The magazine “National Business,” which is distributed in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Tyumen, and other Russian cities, has received an official warning from Tyumen Oblast prosecutors for purportedly violating the law on extremism. In its April issue, the journal -- which is targeted at “a new generation of managers” -- published excerpts from Adolf Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kampf.” More  OSCE Dismisses Criticism, Says 'We Do Not Seek To Please' In an exclusive interview, OSCE Secretary-General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut talks to RFE/RL about a range of issues facing Europe's leading human-rights organization, including Kazakhstan's upcoming chairmanship, Russia's influence on the organization, and whether political upheaval in Moldova has endangered a Transdniestrian peace settlement. More |
