 RFE/RL Russia Report 8/3/2010 8:15:50 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 . |
 Russia Registers Rise In Lending Official statistics show the volume of Russian bank lending to companies and individuals has increased by 1.5-2 percent in a possible sign that the credit crunch has eased slightly. More Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora Association of Human Rights Groups, said lawyer Rustem Valiullin sent a text message to his Agora colleagues informing them he had been detained for administrative violations and refusing to comply with police requests. More  Back To The Bottom Of Baikal Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin has become the latest high-profile tourist to visit the bottom of Russia's Lake Baikal. More Well-known Chechen journalist Malika Betiyeva and four members of her family have been killed in a car crash. More  Lawyers in Daghestan Demand Immunity From Police Violence The council of Daghestan's Chamber of Advocates has addressed an appeal to Interior Minister Major-General Ali Magomedov and Prosecutor-General Andrei Nazarov demanding immunity from police violence and guaranteed access to their defendants. More  When Crime Doesn't Pay Remember the local elections last October which were widely touted as being much “cleaner” than the ones held last March? Well, considering the nadir of post-Soviet election fixing that was reached in March, it wasn’t too hard to achieve some sort of improvement, I suppose. More  Umarov Bows Out As North Caucasus Emir Doku Umarov announced in a two-minute video statement posted on August 1 that he is stepping down as emir of the North Caucasus because he is "tired." More  Chechen Site Claims Umarov Steps Down An unofficial website that serves as a mouthpiece for insurgents in Russia's North Caucasus region says Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov has stepped down and appointed Aslambek Vadalov as his successor. More  Russian Patriarch Prays For Rain The patriarch of Moscow and All Russia has asked Russians to pray for rain as forest fires spread fast in Russia's European region, killing at least 28 people in recent days. More  After Decade In Obscurity, Modern Dance Steps Out In Russia Modern dance is relatively new in Russia. But a rising generation of young choreographers is blazing a trail in an effort to change the country's conservative attitudes toward the medium. More  The Kosovo Precedent Kosovo, as observers were unanimous to observe in the wake of the International Court of Justice's ruling, forms the tip of the iceberg of global separatism, and the ruling may well have opened Pandora's box. More  Russian Police Arrest Kremlin Critic Police in Moscow have arrested a leading Kremlin opponent and several other activists at a demonstration demanding freedom of assembly. More  Armenian Official: Russian Troops In Armenia Set For Mission Upgrade Defense officials in Moscow and Yerevan said on July 30 they are planning to sign a new military agreement that would assign Russia and its troops a greater role in ensuring Armenia's security. More  Medvedev Orders Olympic Investigation Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has decided to call for an investigation into corruption surrounding the construction of facilities for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. More  Activists Protest Discontinuation Of Tatar-Language TV Programs Activists in Tatarstan's second-largest city, Chally, are protesting the closure of four programs in Tatar on a local television channel. More  Russian Journalist Banned From Local TV A journalist and opposition activist in the eastern Russian region of Krasnoyarsk has been barred from appearing on a local television station. More  In The Heat Wave, Getting Information From Moscow Hospitals Is Not Easy Moscow is being tormented. For two weeks now, the temperature has not dipped below 30 degrees. Everyone is miserable, but the most miserable have to be the patients in the surgical departments of city hospitals. According to media reports, doctors are postponing elective surgeries until the fall for fear of "complications." More  Into The Inferno Russia's record-breaking temperatures have sparked fires, killed crops, and stirred fears of thousands of heat-related deaths. What will be the cost of this long, hot summer? More Russian Scholar Warns Of 'Secret' U.S. Climate Change Weapon As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries. More Scary stuff. More  Russian Press Posts 'Spy' Mug Shots More  Khimki Forest Defender Yevgenia Chirikova Is New Face Of Russian Civic Activism Yevgenia Chirikova is not your average political activist. But this former Moscow businesswoman and the mother of two young girls has become the public face of a growing grassroots environmental movement. More  Kosovo Ruling Accelerates Erosion Of European Order The decision by a UN court on Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence will not have immediate consequences. But it has become another element in the general erosion of the European order that has been ongoing since the end of the Cold War. And the long-term consequences of this erosion are impossible to predict. More  Funds For Conflict Victims In South Ossetia Disbursed To Army, Police The parliament of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia has ruled to make available 50 million rubles ($1.65 million) from a bank account opened for private donations in support of persons who suffered during the August 2008 war. More  Russia Beefs Up FSB Powers The controversial bill, which passed its third parliamentary reading on July 19, is a tamer version than the original draft, which proposed that the FSB could summon potential suspects to their office and even publish its warnings in the media. More  Moldova PM: EU To Double Wine Imports Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat says the European Union has promised to import more Moldovan wine just as Russia has threatened to embargo wine shipments from Moldova. More  Resurrecting The Old Lubyanka There is more speculation in the Russian media that the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is about to be swallowed by the Federal Security Service (FSB), a move that would essentially recreate a monolith Russian spy agency reminiscent of the Soviet KGB. More  Are Chechen Officials Playing Up Summer Camp Contretemps To Score Political Points? Senior Chechen officials and Russian law enforcement bodies are on collision course over a recent incident at a summer camp in Krasnodar Krai in which Chechen teenagers and local Russians clashed. More  Guest Blogger: Why Russia's Ban On Moldovan Wine Imports Is Bad News For Russians, Too It should be clear by now that Russia is far from being a reliable international trading partner. Additionally, as long as the Russian people continue to tolerate these types of opportunistic and destructive policies implemented by central political leaders on their behalf, Russia – the country and its people – will move further and further away from WTO membership. More  The Ambitions Of A Would-Be Orthodox Pope Vitaliy Portnikov says Patriarch Kirill probably evoked greater interest than any previous visit to Ukraine by a head of the Russian Orthodox Church. More  Uzbeks, Kyrgyz Clash In Moscow Violent clashes between Uzbek and Kyrgyz migrant workers in Moscow have left one person severely wounded. More  An Education In Church And State At Russia's best-known seminary, students and instructors argue the church is a force for moderation and tolerance. More  New French Film 'Farewell' Explores Obscure Cold War Drama When it was clear that he would be executed, Vladimir Vetrov did not cower in fear but instead asked his interrogators for a pen and paper and wrote a scorching condemnation of the Soviet system. More |