 RFE/RL Russia Report 6/29/2010 7:55:18 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 . |
 Russian Rights Group Creates 'Gulag' The Russian human rights center Memorial has launched an online "museum" on the history of the Soviet labor and prison camps known as the gulag. More  Karachayevo-Cherkessia Sets Up Group To Address Abazins' Grievances Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic President Boris Ebzeyev met on June 28 with leading members of four public organizations that represent the republic's Abazin minority to discuss how to resolve their grievances. More  Russia Creates 'Talented Youth' Registry The Russian government has announced the formation of a national registry of "talented young people." More  Russia Calls U.S. Spy Charges 'Baseless,' Regrets Timing Russia's Foreign Ministry says the arrest of 10 alleged Russian spies in the United States is a throwback to the Cold War. In a statement, the ministry said the U.S. allegations are unfounded and pursued "unseemly" goals. More  Arrests At Moscow Mayor Protest Fifteen people were arrested in Moscow on June 28 during a protest against Mayor Yury Luzhkov. More  U.S. Arrests 10 Alleged Secret Russian Agents The United States has announced the arrests of 10 people for allegedly spying for Russia. More Several days into a hunger strike, a protest is growing over the closing of several schools in Russia's central Ulyanovsk region. More  Gori Residents Divided Over Stalin Residents of the hometown of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin are divided over the controversial removal of his statue from the city's main square. More In February, Sayid Fekhretdinov jumped to his death from a fourth-floor window in his Moscow flat. He was just 10 years old. Why did he do it? And why are hundreds of other Russian children doing the same? More  Gay Rights Activists Defy Russian Ban Russian gay rights activists have gathered at St. Petersburg's world-famous Hermitage Museum for a brief unsanctioned rally that ended with a police raid. More  Russia To Build Youth Camp Near Sochi The Russian government has ordered the construction of a youth camp in the bordering Stavropol region, in an effort to improve the image of the volatile North Caucasus ahead of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. More Some 40 teachers and parents of middle school students in the central Russian city of Ulyanovsk are two days into a three-day hunger strike to protest the city's decision to close their school. More  Passions High As Foreigners, Locals Debate 'Muscovite's Code' What does it mean to be a Muscovite? Moscow authorities are coming up with an etiquette guide for the city's residents that looks suspiciously exclusionary toward ethnic non-Russians. More  Russian Tennis Star To Visit Chornobyl-Affected Belarus After the Wimbledon tennis tournament concludes next weekend, Maria Sharapova will head to the Gomel region in the southeast of Belarus – the area from which her family fled due to Chornobyl-related radiation concerns a year before her 1987 birth. More  Labelle Of Transparency International Says Pressure Should Be On Governments Experts gathered in New York this past week for the UN Global Compact Leader Summit. Among the issues they discussed was how the world can come together in the fight against corruption. RFE/RL correspondent Nikola Krastev talked to Huguette Labelle, chair of the Transparency International watchdog group, about what can be done to fight corruption in Russia. More  Michael Jackson Flash Mob Thrills Moscow Russian RIA-Novosti has posted video of a flash mob to honor the late King of Pop on the first anniversary of Michael Jackson's death. More  Despite Boost In U.S. Support, Russia's WTO Bid Still Faces Opposition In Georgia U.S. President Barack Obama says Russia is on its way to winning full U.S. support for its long-delayed bid to join the World Trade Organization. But what the U.S. president failed to mention is that another WTO member, Georgia, has threatened to block Russian accession. How significant a threat does Tbilisi pose to Moscow's bid to join the global trade group? More  Georgia Fells Stalin Hometown Statue The 6-meter-high statue was removed in the dead of the night in an unannounced operation. Georgian media said police tried to prevent journalists from filming the process, beating some of them. More  A Voice From Under The Bus? With Russian President Dmitry Medvedev making his triumphant tour of the United States and everything looking rosy for the U.S.-Russia reset, it seems almost curmudgeonly to be skeptical. Fellow Power Verticalist Brian Whitmore, in a piece about how the reset is being viewed from Georgia, quotes U.S. President Barack Obama’s senior Russia adviser, Michael McFaul, as stating forcefully that “we’re not ending our assistance to Georgia, throwing the Georgians under the bus….” More  G8 & G20: Can World Leaders Agree On Strengthening Economic Recovery? Two of the world's major power groupings – the G8 and the G20 – are meeting back-to-back in Canada starting on June 25. One of the biggest questions on their agendas is also the most difficult: How much should governments intervene to try to strengthen the still fragile global economic recovery? More  Obama, Medvedev Seal Successful 'Reset' With Burgers And Fries U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said today that they have "succeeded in resetting" the relationship between their two countries and marked their burgeoning friendship over a lunch of cheeseburgers and fries at a local restaurant. The Russian leader also won a major victory when Obama endorsed Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization. More  Modernizing Like It's 1985 The turbulence currently rattling Russia's body politic resembles that which existed in the early perestroika period. There is a consensus that there is a need for change, the elite has split into two opposing camps unable to agree over what needs to be done, and neither side can garner a critical mass of support for their agenda. More  Georgia Rethinks The 'Reset' Georgians used to worry they would be the victims of better U.S.-Russian relations. But officials in Tbilisi now say U.S. President Barack Obama's reset with Moscow is actually enhancing their security. More  In Silicon Valley, Medvedev Looks For Investment Possibilities Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today visited Silicon Valley, America's cradle of high tech innovation, with an eye toward expanding Russian-U.S. business ties and diversifying his country's economy. His California visit comes ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, where security issues will share the agenda with economic cooperation talks. More  Medvedev Launches Twitter Account, Complete With Typo On his way to Silicon Valley to try to lure investment eastward and learn lessons to apply to Russia’s own nascent tech hub of Skolkovo, President Dmitry Medvedev paid a visit to Twitter headquarters -- and opened his own Twitter account. More  In A First, Russia OKs PACE Resolution Russia has approved a resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the North Caucasus, the first time it has accepted recommendations on that region since it joined the council. More  Can A Russian Silicon Valley Rise From The Dust? Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is touring California's high-tech nerve center for meetings with executives from Google, Microsoft, and Intel. His tour is an attempt to attract investment for his country's own Silicon Valley -- the nascent town of Skolkovo -- which he hopes will help boost Russia's technology sector and diversify its economy away from oil and gas. More  'Forbidden Art' On Trial In Russia Russian state prosecutors have asked for a three-year jail sentence for the organizers of a controversial art exhibition three years ago. More  Russia Pushes Own 'Cash For Clunkers' Russia's Industry and Trade Ministry has distributed nearly 200,000 vouchers in an effort to encourage drivers to trade in their old cars for new models. More  OSCE, EU Condemn Karabakh 'Armed Incident' The French, Russian, and U.S. co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a toughly worded statement on June 21 condemning the reconnaissance mission by Azerbaijani forces late on June 18 across the Line of Contact separating Azerbaijani and Karabakh Armenian forces east of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic. More  Troubled Bridge Over Russian Water Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has just ordered officials in Volgograd Oblast to once again thoroughly check the safety of a bridge across the Volga River after it began undulating and swaying in the wind last month. He's also asking them to look into the construction and financing of the span. More  Russian President Opens U.S. Visit Russian President Dmitry Medvedev kicks off a visit to the United States that is expected to focus on developing business ties with America. More |
