 RFE/RL Russia Report 17.06.2009 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 . |
 Russia's Long ‘Continuation War’ With Georgia Russia knows that securing outright international recognition for Abkhazia and South Ossetia will remain mission impossible in the foreseeable future. It is content to bide its time, muddying waters at the United Nations and other international bodies. More  Death Accelerated Transformation Of Chechen Resistance The death three years ago today of Chechen Republic Ichkeria (ChRI) President and resistance commander Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev was a milestone in the evolution of what emerged in 1994 as an almost exclusively Chechen fight for independence into a pan-Caucasian, multinational Islamic resistance movement. More The Russian Defense Ministry has announced that there were 27 noncombat deaths of Russian soldiers in May, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Is EU Doing Too Little To Help Eastern Neighbors? It has been just over a month since the European Union attempted to draw six post-Soviet neighbors -- Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia -- closer to its orbit with its Eastern Partnership program. But a new report by the European Council on Foreign Relations blasts the EU for what it calls its "complacent" and "long-term" strategy in the region, and warns that without fast action to engage the eastern neighbors, Europe could risk another "August surprise" with Russia -- in Moldova, Ukraine, or once again in Georgia. Andrew Wilson, a coauthor of the report, spoke to RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas from London. More A group of ultranationalists has been detained in the city of Georgiyevsk in Russia's southwestern Stavropol Krai, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Russian Officer Killed In Ingushetia Shoot-Out A Russian Army officer has been killed in a clash with rebels, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More Fourteen artists in the southwestern Russian city of Chelyabinsk have begun a hunger strike to protest the confiscation of their studios and the revision of new regulations on renting the studios, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Violence Intensifies In Russia's North Caucasus Two police officers were severely wounded by unknown attackers in Ingushetia on June 15, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  'Beast Of The East' Appears To Have Lost Its Teeth The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has sought to promote itself as a "rising beast in the East" and an Asian counter to NATO. But for all the experience under its belt, the SCO -- which formally gathers Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan -- is looking less formidable than usual. More  Georgia Slams Russia For Shutting Down UN Mission Tbilisi has strongly condemned Russia's decision to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at extending the UN Observer Mission in Georgia. The move brings to an end two weeks of heated negotiations, and means the withdrawal of the last international monitoring mission on Georgia's breakaway territories. More  Russia's Ongoing Intellectual Warfare Intellectual warfare among opposing camps of pundits, think tankers, and consultants has been going on for awhile now. But the persistence of Putin loyalists and the siloviki clan in opposing even a modest thaw, and the fierceness of their assault on those calling for one, suggests that they are getting very very nervous. More A Russian Army conscript has committed suicide in a military hospital in the city of Vyborg, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  'Sinatra Of The East' Celebrates 70th Birthday Karel Gott, the Czech pop-music icon whose legions of fans continue to adore him in much of Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Germany, is marking his 70th birthday with a very Gott-like gala event billed as the "concert of the century." More  Putin Enters The Art World Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is an art critic now, in case you didn't know. More  Russian Public Health Chief Shows Clout Russia has banned hundreds of dairy products from Belarus, citing health concerns. But the move is widely seen as retaliation for Minsk's defiant tone and recent coziness with Europe. Not for the first time, Russia has allowed its public health chief to flex his muscles amid high-profile diplomatic spats with its neighbors. More  Russian Constitutional Court's 'Unconstitutional' Decision A new Russian Constitutional Court decision represents the opening round of a new Moscow campaign against the Russian Federation's so-called ethnic republics, and thus is certain to provoke new tensions between the central government and the peoples and governments of these republics. More  New Era As Gas Giant's Profits Plummet A year ago, Gazprom was sitting on top of the world, but the fortunes of Russia's state gas company have taken a dramatic turn for the worse. While the company still ranks among the world's most valuable, it's worth less than half what it was in 2008, and a number of problems lurk on the horizon. More Inspired by The Atlantic's mock "World Leaders" Facebook group, RFE/RL presents a Facebook-style summary of last week's events. More  China, Russia Line Up To Buy IMF's First Bonds For the first time, the International Monetary Fund is planning to issue bonds. It's one of the ways the fund is trying to boost its resources to help countries hit by the economic crisis. China and Russia have already lined up to buy billions of dollars' worth. More  Russian President Visits Violence-Hit Daghestan Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in Daghestan after the southern rebel region was hit by two high-profile assassinations over the past two weeks, the Kremlin said. More  Are EU's Russian Energy Supplies Perpetually At Risk? An EU delegation embarks on a two-day mission to Kyiv and Moscow in a bid to avert a future gas spat with Russia and Ukraine. Kyiv recently prevented an immediate crisis, but five months after Russia's shock cutoff, the threat of a new disruption looms large. More  Colonel Kovalyov And Blaming Poland For WWII The occupation of Poland by units of the German Wehrmacht and the Red Army is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of World War II for Russians. Seventy years after the fact, Comrade Kovalyov has demonstrated admirable political acumen, telling us how the Poles themselves were to blame for everything. More Gazprom – the Russian energy giant at the heart of Moscow’s gas wars with its western neighbors – has its own anthem. In fact, it’s a drinking song. More  Timothy Garton Ash On The Meaning Of Europe As voters went to cast their ballots in European Parliament elections, RFE/RL spoke to British historian Timothy Garton Ash about the definition of Europe. Garton Ash explained how a common vision defines Europe as much as geography, and why the EU must stay true to its philosophy of expansion. More  Societies Susceptible To Racism As Eastern Europe prepares to mark 20 years since the fall of communism, many countries find themselves grappling with spiraling racist violence. Why have ultranationalist groups been gaining momentum and claiming a rising number of victims? More  History Is Made To Be Rewritten Russia's Defense Ministry offered a novel reinterpretation of history on June 4, announcing in a paper published on its website that World War II was caused by none other than -- the Poles! More  The Propaganda Machine About a month ago I wrote a post about the dueling polling agencies in Russia and discussed briefly the relations between the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) and the Kremlin (particularly with the office of the Kremlin’s domestic-politics curator Vladislav Surkov and with the United Russia party). More  Kadyrov Orchestrates Public Denunciation Of Second Chechen President For the second time in four months, Chechen television screened on May 29 a grandiose four-hour live talk show intended to vilify, and to demolish lingering public support for, the concept of an independent Chechen state. On both occasions, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov presided over the proceedings and steered the discussion in the desired direction. More  Slighted By Russia, Ashgabat Courts EU Hastily arranged high-level meetings between Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and EU officials are being seen in the EU capital as a sign of Ashgabat's growing frustration with Russia. This spring, Russia reneged on an agreement to buy large volumes of natural gas from Turkmenistan at what was then a "European" price, causing the regime in Ashgabat to approach other potential suitors. More |
