 RFE/RL Russia Report 10/19/2010 7:53:25 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 . |
| Retired Russian Officers In Symbolic Fast The military officers told RFE/RL that their hunger strike is merely a warning and will last just 24 hours. They are demanding increased pensions for retired military officers and the restoration of all benefits that have been cut recently. More  Grozny Attack Underscores Chechen Insurgents' Military Capabilities There has not yet been any claim of responsibility for the suicide attack on the parliament building in Grozny. But there can be little doubt that it was planned and carried out by the same group of veteran Chechen field commanders who were responsible for the equally audacious attack on Ramzan Kadyrov's home village. More Dozens of people gathered on October 19 in the town of Batken in southern Kyrgyzstan to protest what they say are efforts by some political leaders to "seek protection in Russia." More At least six people have died and several others have been wounded in an attack on the Chechen parliament building. More  Medvedev Open To Missile-Shield Talks Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed caution about NATO's planned European missile-defense shield, but said Moscow was open for talks on the subject. More  The Party Vertical Yury Luzhkov has been out of office for two weeks. But the political aftershocks from his dismissal will reverberate for some time to come. For Exhibit A, one needs to look no farther than the effect the Luzhkov affair has had on the ruling United Russia party's approach to the regions. More  Umarov Again Lambastes Dissident Field Commanders Self-styled Caucasus Emirate head Doku Umarov has issued a new denunciation of the four senior field commanders who rescinded their oath of loyalty to him two months ago, and whom he has since stripped of their respective commands. More  Russia: Officials Sacked After Floods Krasnodar Krai Governor Alekandr Tkachev has dismissed two local officials following recent flooding in which several people died. More  'Russian Newsweek' Ceases Publication The Russian-language edition of "Newsweek" magazine hit newsstands for the last time today. More  Russia's Kobzon Collapses On Stage In Astana Well-known Russian singer and member of the Russian Duma Yosif Kobzon has collapsed on stage while delivering a speech in Astana. More  Russian Activists, Opposition Apply For Mass Gathering In Moscow Opposition groups and human rights activists in Moscow today formally applied for permission to hold a mass gathering on the city's Triumph Square on October 31. More  Opposition Legislators Say Russia's Parliament Is No Parliament Once known for its bluster, brawls, and obstruction, Russia's parliament is now so subservient to the Kremlin legislators say it's lost even its function as a business lobbying forum. More  From The Lives Of Remarkable People Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have participated in the all-Russia census. And observers have been scrutinizing all the details of the events surrounding their questionnaires. More Hundreds of protesters have gathered in the Russian city of Saratov to demand heating in their apartments. More  Kyrgyz Election Victors In Moscow Leaders of at least three parties that garnered the most votes in the Kyrgyz parliamentary elections on October 10 have traveled to Moscow. More  Putin Aide Tapped For Moscow Post After weeks of speculation, Muscovites learned the name of their likely new mayor, as President Dmitry Medvedev announced that he would nominate Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin to replace the recently fired Yury Luzhkov. More  An Opposition Demand Russia's President Can Like In Soviet days, there was a joke about the unending patience of the Soviet citizen... More  25 Questions For Everyone In Russia: The 2010 Census Begins More than 600,000 people, carrying blue bags and clad in blue scarves, began knocking on doors all over Russia as the country’s nationwide census, its first since 2002, began. More  In Ethnically Diverse Russia, 2010 Census Presents Logistical, Political Headaches Russia has officially begun the 12-day process of counting and categorizing its estimated 142 million residents. Authorities are eager to ensure the 2010 All-Russian Census will avoid the pitfalls of the last count eight years ago, when claims of skewed results forced state statisticians to offer revised numbers several years later. Much of the controversy centers on the issue of Russia's ethnic minorities, who are eager to see their ranks get a fair count. More  Antidrug Activist To Appeal Sentence Yegor Bychkov, head of the City Without Drugs Foundation in the central city of Nizhny Tagil, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail after being found guilty of kidnapping a young drug addict. Bychkov says the child's parents asked for the forced intervention, and supporters insist the case against him was fabricated. More  EU Ban Urged Over Russian Lawyer's Death Moscow Helsinki Group Chairwoman Lyudmila Alekseyeva has called on Germany to put a visa ban on Russian officials found responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. More  Russian Foreign Ministry Lambastes Georgian Abolition Of Visas For North Caucasus Residents The announcement by Georgia that residents of Russia's seven North Caucasus republics may visit Georgia for 30 days without a visa has, predictably, met with a negative reaction from the Russian Foreign Ministry. But Georgian opposition politicians too have questioned the wisdom of that move, as have some North Caucasus political figures. More  The New Dynamics Of Russia's Succession Process In a system with weakly developed institutions and a tradition of personality-centered politics, the question of who will become Russia's president in 2012 has become the fundamental issue facing the country today. More  Russian Ecologists To Continue Fight For Forest Russian environmental activists say they will continue their fight to preserve the Khimki forest near Moscow if authorities decide to go ahead with the construction of a new Moscow-St. Petersburg highway. More Just a few weeks after devastating wildfires raged around the city, Moscow today received its first snowfall. The snow's not sticking, however, as temperatures hovered around 5 degrees Celsius. More  Five Years On, Militants In Kabardino-Balkaria Take On New Role Five years after the multiple attacks by inexperienced, young fighters from the Yarmuk jamaat on police and security facilities, the trial of the 58 men identified as the surviving perpetrators is nowhere near its end. More  Medvedev Names New Rights Adviser Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has chosen Mikhail Fedotov, an official in Russia's Union of Journalists, to head the Kremlin's human rights committee. More  Moscow Cops Detain Many At Rally The demonstrators were said to be demanding a return from the current system for naming mayors and regional governors, in which the president nominates such officials, to popular elections for such posts. More  Medvedev Brings Investigations Committee Close Contributor Mark Galeotti says Russia's transfer of the powerful Investigations Committee from the Prosecutor-General's Office to direct subordination by the president offers insight into the concerns of the senior leadership. More  Another Tandem In Moscow? It's decision time in Moscow as the Kremlin inner sanctum draws closer to replacing Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. More Anti-Semitic pictures and slogans have been found on the walls of a building housing the Jewish center in the central Russian city of Barnaul. More  Russian Investigative Journalists Explore KGB Legacy RFE/RL talks with two Russian authors about their new book on the real meaning and influence of Russia's KGB, and how the KGB will factor into the 2012 presidential elections. More  Daghestan Faces Multiple Threats, But Not Civil War No Russian Federation subject is currently riven by a greater number of political, economic, and religious conflicts than Daghestan. Yet there is no consensus as to which of those conflicts poses the most immediate and serious threat to the cohesion of that multiethnic and economically polarized society, let alone how to combat them either individually or collectively. More  Daghestan's Jamaats Decimated But Defiant -- And Still Deadly In recent months, Daghestan has overtaken Ingushetia as the most unstable and violence-prone North Caucasus republic, with militant attacks and counterattacks by security forces occurring almost on a daily basis. More  Abkhaz Prosecutor Identifies Two Possible Motives For Mosque Shooting The Prosecutor-General's Office of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia has identified two possible motives for the drive-by shooting in Gudauta in which one man was killed and two wounded as they left the building that serves as the local mosque. More  Ethnic Uzbek Imam Slain In Russia An Islamic leader of Uzbek origin has been shot dead in the central Russian city of Tyumen. More  Commonwealth Games Offer Lessons For Russia, Brazil For future Olympic organizers, there is a valuable lesson to be learned from the 2010 Delhi public-relations fiasco and from the 2004 Athens games. Hosting these events is a double-edged sword, offering both opportunities and risks. More |
