Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

RFE/RL Russia Report 25.12.2012 A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about domestic and foreign-policy developments in Russia. DON'T FORGET TO TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWS QUIZ For more stories on Russia, please visit and bookmark our Russia page .

 

A Year That Saw Challenges To The Boundaries Of Free Speech From Pussy Riot in Moscow to a film deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, tensions between freedom of religion and freedom of speech were much in the news in 2012. More   Russian Deputies Petition Gains U.S. Support More than 32,000 electronic signatures have been added to an online petition urging the U.S. government to impose sanctions on Russian lawmakers supporting a bill that would ban the adoption of Russian children by Americans. More   Kremlin Possibly Poised For Partial U-Turn On Direct Elections The Russian leadership moved one step closer this week to depriving the population of the North Caucasus of the right to participate in direct elections for the head of their respective republics. More   Russia, EU Call For Direct Israel-Palestinian Talks Russia and the European Union are jointly calling for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority without preconditions. More   Podcast: Political Theater With A New Script Vladimir Putin's annual press conference had a familiar setting, but a brand new script. More   Little Consensus At EU-Russia Summit Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders have met for a summit in Brussels but failed to resolve their differences on a range of energy, trade, and human rights issues. More   Russian Duma Passes U.S. Adoption Ban The Russian parliament has overwhelmingly approved a bill that bans U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children. More   Obama Signs Russia Trade Declaration U.S. President Barack Obama has signed a declaration formally granting Russia "permanent normal trade relations" after U.S. lawmakers earlier this month voted to lift Cold War-era trade sanctions on the Kremlin. More   The Putin Show The Kremlin hyped Putin's annual press conference like a Hollywood blockbuster. It lasted more than four hours, and when it was (finally) over, its contents was dissected and parsed like an ancient text. More   In Magnitsky Tit For Tat, Russia's Orphans Become Political Poker Chips Russia's State Duma has passed in a final reading new legislation that bans Americans from adopting Russian children. Child-welfare advocates say the move will deprive thousands of needy children from ever finding a family. More   A View Inside Russia's Orphanages St. Petersburg-based photographer Aleksandr Belenky has spent years documenting the lives of children inside Russian orphanages. Russia's State Duma is set to pass in a final reading new legislation that proposes to ban Americans from adopting Russian children. But child-welfare advocates say the move will deprive thousands of needy children from ever finding a family. (13 PHOTOS) More   Khodorkovsky Sentence Reduced The Moscow City Court has announced a two-year reduction in the prison sentences for former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev. More   'Green Card' Star Might Get A Red Passport It is one of the roles that helped make him an international superstar. In the 1990 hit movie “Green Card,” Gerard Depardieu played a Frenchman seeking to acquire permanent U.S. residence – and win the heart of a beautiful woman. Now 63, Depardieu is again seeking residence abroad, this time in real life -- and he’s looking eastward rather than westward. More   Russian Gun Lobby Seeks Right To Bear Arms The massacre at a Connecticut elementary school last week has spurred a Moscow-based gun group to be even more zealous in its pursuit of the right to bear arms for all Russians. More   Putin Backs U.S. Adoption Ban Speaking at the first press conference of his third term, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tentatively backed a bill that would ban U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children. More   EU, Russia To Talk Visas, Trade, Energy European Union visas for Russians and clashes over energy and imports are expected to dominate the two-day EU-Russia summit opening late on December 20. More   Russia Mulls U.S. Adoption Ban Russia's lower house of parliament has approved in the second reading a bill that would ban U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children. More   Protesters Rally Against U.S. Adoption Ban At least 13 people were arrested on December 19 outside the Russian State Duma. The demonstrators were protesting against a controversial draft law that would ban U.S. nationals from adopting Russian children. The legislation is an apparent response by Russian authorities to the Magnitsky Act in the United States, which bars entry to alleged Russian human rights violators and freezes their U.S. assets. (Reuters video) More   EU Urged To Express Free Speech 'Alarm' To Moscow Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the European Union should use an upcoming summit to press Russia to “stop trying to choke off free speech and assembly and any sign of dissent.” More   The Return Of The King The Kremlin is clearly playing up Vladimir Putin's December 20 press conference. Why? More   Tajik Migrants: Both Parents Leaving For Work Puts A Strain On Those Left Behind An estimated 1 million Tajiks live and work outside of their own country. In the past, the majority of these migrants were men. But now, increasing numbers of women are pulling up stakes and traveling abroad to make money. That shift has placed a growing burden on family members back home -- siblings and grandparents who are forced to step in as caregivers for thousands of children left behind as their parents leave to seek work. More   Freeze Frames Bitterly cold temperatures and blizzards are making life painful across Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Health authorities in Kyiv say at least 37 people have died in Ukraine from causes attributed to cold weather. In Russia's Far East, temperatures have plummeted to minus 50 degrees Celsius. (17 PHOTOS) More   Moscow Is World's Worst When It Comes To Taxis, Friendliness, And Shopping Moscow placed dead last in four key categories of TripAdvisor.com's latest Cities Survey, a review of 40 of the world's top cities based on 75,000 responses solicited from savvy global travelers and knowledgeable locals by Brainbox Research. More