 RFE/RL Russia Report 6/8/2010 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 . |
 Tajik Farmers Seek New Markets After Russian Ban Farmers and businessmen in Tajikistan's northern province of Sughd are desperately seeking new markets following a ban by Russia on the import of dried fruit and nuts from Tajikistan. More  Criticism For Tajik Response To 'Biased' Russian Comments Tajik independent journalists and analysts have criticized the belated official response to Russian officials’ negative remarks about the country, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. More Activists in St. Petersburg are claiming victory after a court ruling saved a historic building from demolition. More  EU-Russia Rapprochement Set To Continue EU member-state ambassadors in Brussels today are debating a new proposal to intensify foreign-policy cooperation between the bloc and Moscow. The proposal was part of a joint memorandum signed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev during their weekend meeting in the German town of Meseberg. More  Challenge To Moscow Demolitions Russian Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika has officially asked Moscow's prosecutor to scrutinize the legality of the demolition of old buildings in Moscow's historic Kadashi district. More  Activists In Moscow Mark Anniversary Of Journalist's Murder In Kalmykia Members of Russia's opposition Yabloko party gathered today to mark the 12-year anniversary of the murder of journalist Larisa Yudina. More  Conscription Buyout Idea In Russia The party led by Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky today proposed a draft law that would allow young men to pay the equivalent of $32,500 to the Defense Ministry instead of performing military service. More  Circassians Demand Division Of Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic Meeting in Cherkessk on June 5, representatives of the Circassian minority demanded the division of the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic (KChR) to recreate the separate Cherkess Autonomous Oblast that existed from 1928-1957. More  On Stage: Detained Lawyer's Final Days A theater in Moscow has staged a play based on the last days of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in prison last year caused an outcry at home and abroad. More  Kremlin 'Unhappy' With Antidrug Efforts In Afghanistan At an international security conference in Singapore, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told delegates that narcotics from Afghanistan are a threat to Europe, Asia, and the United States and urged NATO forces in Afghanistan to step up the campaign to eradicate opium poppy cultivation there. More  Troubled Sochi Olympics Draw Focus On Caucasus Conflicts Russia said this week Islamic militants were planning attacks on the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in its southern city of Sochi. The announcement came just days after a senior U.S. adviser suggested the sporting event be used as a lever to pressure Moscow into backing off Georgia's breakaway regions. Critics say the decision to hold the Games so close to the volatile Caucasus was a mistake that will dangerously fan tensions in the region. More  Russians Protest Police Brutality Over 50 activists in the Russian city of Samara in the Volga region protested today against "illegal actions" by the police. More  Injured Russian Journalist Files Lawsuit Against Police A Russian journalist injured when police forcibly dispersed an opposition protest earlier this week has filed a lawsuit against the Moscow police. More  Russian Interior Ministry Seeks To Disbar Lawyer In Magnitsky Case An investigator from the Russian Interior Ministry has filed a petition to disbar a lawyer working in the prison-death case of Sergei Magnitsky. More  Karachayevo-Cherkessia Parliament Approves New Prime Minister The Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic (KChR) parliament today approved by a vote of 47 in favor and 15 against the candidacy of Muradin Kemov as prime minister. More The employees at a struggling tractor plant in Russia's Altai Krai have been informed they will be laid off. More  The Yalta Syndrome And Its Critics Cooler heads in the Tbilisi foreign policy establishment are not as concerned about the U.S. "reset" with Russia as all the noise suggests. More Residents of Novocherkassk in Rostov Oblast are today marking the 48th anniversary of a deadly crackdown on peaceful demonstrators. More  Putin Intervenes In Standoff Between South Ossetian Leaders Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met late on May 31 in Moscow with Eduard Kokoity and Vadim Brovtsev, president and prime minister, respectively, of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia. More  KBR Supreme Court Again Calls For Abolition Of Balkar NGO The Kabardino-Balkaria Republic (KBR) Supreme Court ruled on May 31 that the unofficial Council of Elders of the Balkar People (SSBN) is an extremist organization and should be abolished. More  Tatar Police Colonel Named Karachayevo-Cherkessia Interior Minister Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on May 31 named Zhaudet Akhmetkhanov to head the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic (KChR) Interior Ministry. Akhmetkhanov, who is 42, has spent his entire career in the police force and has held leading positions in the criminal police in Kazan and the Criminal Investigation Department of Tatarstan's Interior Ministry. More  The EU's Declaration Of Impotence What is worrying is the degree to which Brussels' bureaucratic horizons seem to shape (and limit) its conception of foreign-policy making. That the removal of special representatives could badly wrong-foot partner governments in unstable regions never seemed to enter the heads of Ashton or her team. More  Russia Remembers Voznesensky, A 'Child Of The 60s' Iconic Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky is remembered as one of the boldest and most admired authors of the Soviet-era, who despite a notorious clash with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev never bowed to the Kremlin. More |
