 RFE/RL Russia Report 7/20/2010 6:24:08 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 . |
 Diplomatic Mission In a practice reminiscent of the Soviet Union's relations with Warsaw Pact countries, the Kremlin is increasingly appointing politically connected ambassadors to CIS countries. Why? More  Pavel The Osminog? Paul the Octopus, the eight-armed Cassandra of the World Cup, might find work in Russia if the head of Russia's National Association of Bookmakers has his way. More  Has Moscow Had Enough Of Belarus's Lukashenka? An ongoing conflict between authoritarian Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his erstwhile Kremlin allies has intensified markedly, leading to speculation that Russia may seek to remove him from power. More  Almaty Meeting Fails To Break Deadlock In Karabakh Talks Talks on July 16-17 on the sidelines of the OSCE foreign ministers' meeting in Almaty failed to galvanize the apparently deadlocked Karabakh peace process. More A group of Russian teens make a grisly discovery while beating the heatwave at the Nefedevskih ponds outside Moscow. More  Former KGB General Kalugin Calls U.S.-Russia Spy Saga 'A Farce' Oleg Kalugin headed overseas counterintelligence operations for many years at Russia's KGB secret services, where he oversaw operatives including future Russian President and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He spoke to RFE/RL about his KGB career and the recent spy scandal in which 10 alleged Russian agents were expelled from the United States. More  Russian Activists Camp Out As Battle For Khimki Forest Heats Up Environmental protesters have set up a round-the-clock watch in a forest close to Moscow's biggest airport after they expelled workers felling hundreds of trees as part of the planned construction of a highway linking Moscow to St. Petersburg. More  Kabardino-Balkaria President Looks For Scapegoats With less than three months to go before his presidential term expires, Kabardino-Balkaria Republic President Arsen Kanokov has complained he is under pressure from unnamed rivals who, he claims, do not shrink from using "dirty methods" to discredit him. More  Duma Votes To Expand FSB Powers The Russian lower house of parliament has passed a controversial bill expanding the powers of Russia's security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB). More  Axis Of Edible Targets World Cup Star Paul The Octopus Now RIA Novosti reports that Paul's "brethren" (presumably octopus or squid) was served to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev at dinner in St. Petersburg on July 14. More Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent embrace of micro-blogging service Twitter, through his KremlinRussia account, has other Russian officials following suit, says RIA Novosti. More  Magnitsky's Final Hours A Theater Success In Moscow The small theater stage is the world and all the people on it are to be judged, says the director of a play based on the diary of a Russian lawyer who died in prison last year. The production -- based on the daily writings of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in October after awaiting trial for nearly one year -- has been running in Moscow for more than a month and is completely booked through August, organizers say. More  A Year Later, Still No Closure In Chechnya Estemirova Killing One year has passed since rights campaigner Natalya Estemirova was killed, and friends and colleagues say they're losing hope of seeing justice done. More  Another Dinosaur’s Farewell Although the details aren’t clear, the bottom line is that longtime Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov – he has headed the republic since 1993 – will not seek another term. More Fox News Vs. Russia Today More Belarus President Prepares Next Act Plot closure is a sign of the highest mastery in dramaturgy. In this regard, Ilya Milshtein argues, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is a first-class talent. More  Russian Streets Paved With $100 Bills! Or... "Russian Esquire" has calculated that it would be cheaper to build the new Sochi-Adler highway -- which is being built ahead of the 2014 Olympics -- out of $100 bills or oysters or foi gras than it would to build it under the current budget. More  Daghestan Rights Activists Not Convinced Arrested Women Planned Suicide Bombings Russia's National Counterterrorism Committee (NAK) reported on July 12 the arrest in Makhachkala of six women it identified as potential suicide bombers, and two men believed to be their handlers. The Russian daily "Kommersant," however, today quoted a Daghestan human rights activist as questioning whether the women indeed intended to commit acts of terrorism. More  Wiesel 'Pleads' With Russian Government For Khodorkovsky's Freedom Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel has launched a global campaign to free imprisoned Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom he calls a "political prisoner." RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Elena Vlasenko spoke to Wiesel about the case and the state of human rights in Russia. More |
