 RFE/RL Russia Report 11/5/2009 5:18:45 PM 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 . |
 Blood And Velvet Some were peaceful and some were violent. Some were popular revolts and some were orchestrated within the Communist Party leadership. The revolutions of 1989 cast aside Europe's Cold War dictators, paving the way for democracy and the free-market reforms of the 1990s. More  GM's About-Face On Opel Angers Germany, Russia The surprise decision by U.S. automaker General Motors not to sell off its European operations is raising political tensions in U.S. relations with Germany and Russia. GM has announced it is overthrowing months of negotiations with a Canadian-Russian consortium to sell the Opel brand, angering leaders in Berlin and Moscow. More A region in south-central Russia is the latest to have declared a swine flu emergency, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Protest In Moscow Against Fascism, Ultranationalism More than 1,000 activists gathered in downtown Moscow today to protest against ultranationalism, racism, and fascism in Russia, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Unmasking The Truth About Swine Flu As concerns over massive outbreaks of swine flu rise in many countries with the onset of the influenza season, doctors say much is misunderstood about how people contract the disease. We speak to experts to learn more, and whether there is any cause for panic. RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel reports. More  Putin The Director Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin criticized Russia’s film industry yesterday, telling prominent directors assembled at the recently created Council of Cinematography that “goals of economic, cultural, and humanitarian influence are not being reached.” More  In Fear Of The Flu Public fears of a major outbreak of swine flu are growing in countries from Ukraine to Afghanistan. What is not clear is how many cases are actually the dreaded H1N1 strain, and whether fears of a pandemic are justified. More  Slain Russian Businessman To Be Buried In Israel Prominent Russian businessman Shabtai Kalmanovich, who was shot dead in Moscow on November 2, will be buried in Israel, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Russia Is Dying To Learn Its Census Data The news that the next Russian census will be held in 2010 is welcome news indeed. There had been considerable speculation that the census had been delayed largely for political reasons, and it is encouraging to think that the opinions of experts who say the census information is crucially needed were heeded in this case. More  Experts Downplay Fears Over Ukraine-Russia Gas Crisis A recent exchange of barbs between Russia and Ukraine is raising worries in Kyiv over a possible new natural-gas crisis this winter. Moscow's shutoff last winter left millions of Europeans without heat in the bitter cold, but observers say they doubt there will be a repeat this year. More  Campaign To Discredit Exiled Chechen Leader Intensifies Over the past year, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov has repeatedly said he would welcome the return to Chechnya from London of Akhmed Zakayev, who heads the Chechen Republic Ichkeria (CHRI) leadership in exile. But last week, Kadyrov abruptly changed tack, branding Zakayev a liar and a hypocrite and accusing him of misrepresenting the present situation in Chechnya. More  The Not-So-Special Relationship Climate change, energy cooperation, and a raft of topical international issues will dominate the first formal U.S.-EU summit since President Barack Obama took office. But officials in Brussels are downplaying the chances of any breakthroughs coming out of the meeting. Coupled with the EU pessimism, is the prevailing sense that, contrary to early expectations, the EU-U.S. relationship has failed to take off since President George W. Bush stepped down. More  Survey Finds Generational Split In View Of Reforms Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people in countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain have mixed feelings about the changes democracy and capitalism have brought to their lives. A new survey finds general satisfaction but also disappointment. More RFE/RL's first Russian-language news program to the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia began today. More  RFE/RL's Moscow Bureau Chief, Vladimir Baburin, Dies More  Britain's Miliband Meets With Russian Rights Activists British Foreign Minister David Miliband met with human rights activists in Moscow today, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Your Own Personal Vertical An influential think tank is advising President Dmitry Medvedev that he needs to establish an alternative power structure answerable only to him in order to reach his goal of modernizing Russia. More  Britain Attempts Own Russia 'Reset' Relations between Britain and Russia have grown chilly over the last five years, hurt in part by the poisoning case of Russian ex-security agent Aleksandr Litvinenko. But in Moscow, Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov struck a warm tone in their public statements, prompting speculation that Britain is attempting a U.S.-style Russia "reset" of its own. More  Russian Marathoner Marvels At Her Good Fortune Lyudmila Petrova of Russia placed second in the 2009 New York City Marathon on November 1, repeating her performance of 2008. Petrova came a close second to the marathon's first-place female finisher, Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia. More  Russia Remembers The Repressed -- Past And Present As Russia marks its annual day of remembrance for the victims of Soviet-era repressions, even the country's president, Dmitry Medvedev, condemned the cruelty of the Stalinist regime. But rights watchers are pointing to a current campaign of killings, arrests, and crackdowns, and say political repressions are not limited to the past. More  'Not Enough Concern' From Kremlin On AIDS, Other Diseases The number of Russians infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has doubled during the past eight years. It's an alarming trend, and Western health experts say it's time for the Russian leadership to seriously address AIDS and the myriad health threats facing the country, in order to help forestall a looming demographic catastrophe. More  Working With Russia To Prevent Eurasian Collapse The Eurasian region continues to disintegrate, and neither Russia nor the West has been able to arrest the destabilizing dynamics. The West's attempts to secure and stabilize Eurasia after the end of the Cold War must be recognized as a failure. More  Moving Beyond Russia's Embrace Russia enjoys dabbling in the domestic politics of its neighboring countries, publicly supporting its favorite politicians, and demonstrating its contempt for those whom it dislikes. But it rarely -- at least among its European neighbors -- gets the result it is seeking. More  Examining The Impact Of New Media On Authoritarian Regimes After a year in which Twitter and Facebook catalyzed protest movements in Iran and Moldova and authoritarian regimes around the world unleashed new tools of Internet control, a Congressional panel was told how new media and the Internet affect the balance of power between human rights activists and authoritarian governments. More  St. Pete Skyscraper Debate Opens Rift in Russian Elite Doubts have surfaced over whether long-standing plans by the Russian energy giant Gazprom to erect a $2 billion, 400-meter skyscraper in St. Petersburg will go ahead. Fierce public opposition to the project has sparked a rare phenomenon -- debate and dissent within Russia's political elite. More |
