Spring Will Come to Russia
The New York Times. The Opinion Pages.
By GUY VERHOFSTADT
Published: May 8, 2012
But this time Putin faces a different domestic political climate. Even he cannot prevent the arrival of a Russian Spring if reform is permanently stifled. The West must also be ready and willing to play its part in pressing for change.The inauguration of Vladimir Putin on Monday for a third term as president of Russia represents the culmination of the Kremlin’s “managed democracy,” under which the political process remains arbitrary but the outcome is pre-determined.
The day after the March 4 presidential election, officials in European capitals and in Washington busied themselves drafting congratulations for Putin, while tens of thousands of people stood in Pushkin Square in Moscow demanding their rights.
I was there as Russian people called for new, free and fair elections and the registration of political parties currently outlawed by the regime. I was there as Russian people called for justice in the cases of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the late Sergei Magnitsky and Anna Politkovskaya. I was there when Russian people were bused in and generously rewarded for attending the political farce of a pro-Putin election rally.
In the aftermath of the biggest demonstrations in the history of modern Russia, outgoing President Dmitri Medvedev committed himself to political reforms, revision of electoral laws, greater political freedoms and direct elections of regional governors.
What could have been a legacy of the Medvedev presidency turned out to be futile. Putin has ruled out the possibility of holding new free and fair elections; limits have been placed on gubernatorial elections, and electoral bloc building has been banned. What was sold as a package of political reforms was in fact a further tightening of the screws on political opposition.
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Medvedev the Phony
The Russian political circus has extended its tour. Four years ago, Dmitry Medvedev was chosen to keep warm the seat of Vladimir Putin, and now as Putin returns to the presidency, Medvedev will assume the post of prime minister. This job swap, announced last September, might have been accepted by most Russians without a murmur several years ago, but Russia has changed dramatically since then. The swap instead has deepened resentment among many in the country, who view it as a slap in the face. In December, hundreds of thousands of Russians took to the streets against the rigged election, which in their eyes made Putin’s presidency illegitimate.
But where does this leave Medvedev? “Who?” some might ask dismissively. “Putin’s puppet?” others might sneer. To many Russians, the outgoing president is viewed as a nonentity whose primary concrete legacy will be the absurd reduction of Russia’s time zones from 11 to 9. During his putative presidency, the Russian system displayed unmistakable signs of decay, demonstrated by the growing role of repressive organs and their criminalization, the fusion of power with property, and the ruling elites’ attempts to pass their wealth and positions to their families and friends. Medvedev would often utter liberal-sounding ideas — his anodyne comment that “freedom is better than non-freedom” caused quite a flutter of excitement, briefly — but the follow-through on his proposals was never there. He had the power only to speak, not act. The more he tried to be taken seriously, the more comical and pathetic he looked. Often, Putin would be caught by cameras looking at his protégé with condescending amusement.
Why, then, would Putin keep Medvedev on as prime minister? Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, or nearly any other high-level official, would arguably be a more effective choice. But effectiveness isn’t Putin’s goal. Instead, his criteria are based on loyalty, keeping a corrupt architecture intact, and eliminating potential threats. This is how the personalized system in Russia works: By stepping aside and not running for reelection, Medvedev has demonstrated his loyalty to Putin, and in turn, Putin has shown that he rewards loyalty. The only silver lining of Putin’s return to power may be how it reveals Medvedev’s supposedly reformist presidency for the farce it really was.
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Russian envoy: US should stop blaming Moscow for problems
By Jordy Yager – 05/07/12 12:48 PM ET
The U.S. should stop blaming Russia for every problem, that country’s ambassador to the U.S. said Monday.
The United States should stop blaming Russia for every problem, that country’s ambassador to America said Monday.
“To see Russians behind everything that goes wrong in the United States or for the United States, it’s exactly what is wrong with our relations,” Sergey Kislyak said at a roundtable breakfast in Washington hosted by the Institute for Education.
Kislyak’s made the comment after telling an anecdote about a recent trip he took through Nebraska.
During the visit, he said local media asked him if Russia was behind the Colombia prostitution scandal that has shaken the U.S. Secret Service. A radio show host implied, Kislyak said, that Russia had planted the prostitutes to spy on the United States.
Kislyak was quick to acknowledge that Russians are just as guilty of holding suspicions of the United States.
“When it comes to Russia, many Russians believe that the United States is guilty for everything that goes wrong in Russia,” he said. “I would claim that certainly they are in some instances, but not in all. We also contribute.”
He said both sides need to move beyond Cold War attitudes of suspicion and adopt an outlook of inclusion and partnership.
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Rep. James McGovern to Join the Bipartisan Policy Center For Policy Discussion on U.S. – Russia Trade Relations and Human Rights
7 May 2012, 13:15 GMT, PR Newswire (U.S.) [337 Words]
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — With Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the U.S. could be at a commercial and political disadvantage if it does not graduate Russia from the Jackson-Vanik amendment and grant it permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status. At the same time, many policymakers and experts have serious concerns about shortcomings on human rights and the rule of law in Russia, and favor an approach to Russia that addresses those concerns.
Following its recent analysis on the subject, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Foreign Policy Project (FPP) will hold a policy discussion on Wednesday, May 9, 2012 to discuss the future of U.S.-Russian relations. The event will focus on building a more constructive bilateral relationship with Russia, including promoting Russian human rights, rule of law, democracy, transparency, civil society and commercial engagements.
WHO: Representative James McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chairman, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Bill Browder, CEO, Hermitage Capital Management Celeste Drake, Trade Policy Specialist, AFL-CIO David Kramer, President, Freedom House Dr. Michael Makovsky, Director, BPC Foreign Policy Project Christopher Wenk, Senior Director of International Policy, Chamber of Commerce Jackson Diehl, Moderator; Deputy Editorial Page Editor, The Washington Post WHAT: BPC Policy Discussion on the Future of U.S. – Russian Relations
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Russian Government Must be Held Accountable for Crackdown on Protest
CONTACT: Mary McGuire in Washington, +1-202-747-7035
Washington – May 7, 2012
The brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors this past weekend during a sanctioned peaceful protest in Moscow was an assault on Russians’ civil liberties. Freedom House condemns the crackdown and urges the U.S. Administration, Congress and other democratic states to support Russian citizens seeking to hold their government accountable to its international and constitutional commitments to respect and protect fundamental rights.
“The blatant use of force in the last two days sends a clear message that the days of tolerating opposition protests in Russia are a fleeting thing of the past,” said David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House. “We wholeheartedly express our solidarity with Russian citizens’ exercising their right to free assembly. The return to intimidation techniques and detention of activists without cause are a desperate attempt to prevent protest activity in the country and should be widely condemned.”
In the lead-up to Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to his third term as president of the Russian Federation on May 6, police violently dispersed the so-called “March of Millions,” an opposition demonstration which authorities had earlier approved. Violating participants’ freedom to peacefully gather, law enforcement descended upon Moscow’s streets, gassed crowds, beat journalists and women, and detained up to 600 protestors, including three leading opposition figures. Officers have continued to detain participants well into Monday.
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British aristocrat linked to Sergei Magnitsky case
A British aristocrat has been linked to the suspected laundering of the fraudulent gains of Russian criminals involved in the death of anti-corruption campaigner, Sergei Magnitsky.
Andrew Moray Stuart, heir to the Viscountcy of Stuart of Findhorn, has been named alongside other Britons in a legal complaint filed with the City of London police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Lawyers for Hermitage Capital Management, the UK hedge fund whose Moscow lawyer – Mr Magnitsky – uncovered the alleged $230m (£140m) fraud, have called for a formal investigation by the economic crimes department into alleged money laundering.
Mr Stuart, who lives in Mauritius and Dubai but is named as a director of more than 500 UK companies, is alleged to have transferred about $1.4m through a British Virgin Islands’ shell operation on behalf of Vladlen Stepanov, the husband of a senior tax official at the centre of the alleged fraud.
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Kremlin Human Rights Watchdog’s New Master
By John K. Yi – May 5, 2012
The Council’s Final Meeting
In two days, Vladimir Putin will be inaugurated for this third term as the President of the Russian Federation. And with his reentry into the nation’s chief position, the issue of human rights and the development of civil society, a touted reform in the past four years under current President Medvedev, face an uncertain future.
Earlier this week President Medvedev’s held his final meeting with the Kremlin’s Council on the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights. With their terms expiring on Monday, the departing council members did not hold back their disappointment of the Council’s accomplishments and criticism of the Kremlin’s unwillingness to make true reform.
The Council Chairman Mikhail Fedotov opened the meeting by raising his concerns to the exiting President that the council, though it has helped passed a number of laws, has still a long way to go on issues of police and anti-corruption reform. He described the current government apparatus as “sufficiently bulky, archaic, and clumsy.” After the meeting in an interview with the press, Fedotov warned that if under President Putin the members of the Council were to be replaced by “generals” and “those who attack human rights,” he would have no interest in being part of such a Council.
Other prominent members of the Council made their own departing shots, when they announced that they would not be returning to their posts under the new administration.
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Russia’s Medvedev seeks new lease of life as PM
By Alexei Anishchuk
MOSCOW | Fri May 4, 2012 12:42pm BST
(Reuters) – Dmitry Medvedev has a chance to prove he is more than just Vladimir Putin’s sidekick when he becomes Russia’s prime minister next week, but expectations are low after he failed to deliver much of what he promised as president.
When he took over the presidency from Putin in 2008, he talked of enacting sweeping reform, but his four years in the Kremlin – which end on Monday when Putin is sworn in as head of state – turned out to be heavy on rhetoric and light on deeds.
Switching Russia to permanent daylight savings time was his only real achievement, his critics say, and he is widely mocked on social networking sites about everything from his height and dress sense to his policies and perceived weakness.
In a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable, he even suffered the indignity of being described as playing Robin to Putin’s Batman.
Medvedev has promised to push an ambitious agenda as prime minister too, a role he will be confirmed in by parliament on Tuesday. Pension reform, ending poverty and corruption, less red tape, better state governance and modernisation are among the priorities he has identified.
But the Russian public, increasingly tired of having the same faces in power, is sceptical.
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Medvedev the ‘Reformer’ quits Kremlin
Business Spectator
When the Kremlin door slams shut on Dmitry Medvedev after Vladimir Putin returns to the presidency on May 7, the sound reverberating off the ancient red-brick walls may be one of bitter failure.
Post-Soviet Russia is set to remember its only one-term president as a man whose biggest achievement was keeping the Kremlin seat warm for Putin when he was barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term.
Youthful, interested in technology and apparently open to the West, Medvedev’s promises to make Russia a freer, more democratic country created unprecedented hopes when he took office in 2008.
But his agreement at a congress of the ruling United Russia party last September to willingly renounce his claim to a second term and swap jobs with 59-year-old premier Putin earned him mockery not just from the opposition but also from many of his former supporters.
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To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below
- Sergei Magnitsky
- Why was Sergei Magnitsky arrested?
- Sergei Magnitsky’s torture and death in prison
- President’s investigation sabotaged and going nowhere
- The corrupt officers attempt to arrest 8 lawyers
- Past crimes committed by the same corrupt officers
- Petitions requesting a real investigation into Magnitsky's death
- Worldwide reaction, calls to punish those responsible for corruption and murder
- Complaints against Lt.Col. Kuznetsov
- Complaints against Major Karpov
- Cover up
- Press about Magnitsky
- Bloggers about Magnitsky
- Corrupt officers:
- Sign petition
- Citizen investigator
- Join Justice for Magnitsky group on Facebook
- Contact us
- Sergei Magnitsky
