David Cameron must stand up to Putin
European leaders could honour the memory of Russian reformer Yelena Bonner by helping activists confront this corrupt cabal.
The death on Saturday of Yelena Bonner, widow of Andrei Sakharov, will be lamented across Russia. Her trenchant criticisms of Vladimir Putin’s autocracy – she was the first signatory of the “Putin Must Go” manifesto last March – was echoing as recently as last Thursday at a conference of reformists in Moscow.
Whether her death will have any effect on the decline in democracy in her beloved Russia may be discovered this week.
Russia’s justice minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, is the puppet who will announce this week whether or not the Putin regime will allow any opposition parties to put up candidates in December’s parliamentary elections and the presidential poll next March.
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Loosening Putin’s grip
As dictators fall in the Middle East and even China’s leaders panic at the word “Jasmine,” a question arises: What about Russia? Is Vladimir Putin’s regime immune to this fourth wave of democratic pressures?
It’s a safe bet that folks in Putin’s inner circle are wondering the same thing. Only 43 percent of Russians surveyed say that they would vote for Putin’s ruling party, United Russia, in the parliamentary elections scheduled for December, down from 56 percent in 2009. People are angry about rampant corruption at the highest levels and about the unsolved murders of journalists and others who probe too deeply. A think tank close to United Russia argues that the government is suffering a “crisis of legitimacy.”
That the public mood is souring during an election season presents some stark choices to Putin and to the United States. Putin could respond by providing some outlet for discontent, allowing more room for a political opposition that he has squeezed almost into oblivion. A new political party led by respected Russian political figures Boris Nemtsov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Vladimir Milov and Vladimir Ryzhkov applied last month to register to run in the December elections. If Putin is smart, he’ll let them run. They can’t win, at least this time around, against the government apparatus. But Putin’s regime could claim greater legitimacy if a genuine liberal opposition were given a chance to compete.
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So, Do Theater and Politics Mix in Russia?
Jailed businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsy and writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya came together rather like Plato and Socrates last week to discuss the state of the State of Russia.
No, this was not an unexpected event involving the actual individuals, it was an unexpected event involving actors — Alexei Yudnikov and Yevdokiya Germanova – who played them on a stage.
And, yes, it was unexpected.
There are few things Russian theater avoids with more dexterity and conviction than politics. It has almost always been this way. In the 19th century plays that pushed too far into political or social commentary were routinely banned. Even after the revolution there was just a short window of time, during which directors and writers used theater as a mouthpiece for sociopolitical topics. Those efforts quickly fell by the wayside or turned into propaganda.
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Trade and consequences
Washington Post
The next stage of President Obama’s “reset” with Russia will include trade favors, if the administration has its way. The president has promised the regime of Vladimir Putin that he will support Russia’s long-delayed accession to the World Trade Organization this year. For that to happen, Georgia, a U.S. ally subjected to a Russian invasion in 2008, must still sign off. Also, Congress must grant Russia fully normalized trade relations to avoid a conflict under WTO rules once Moscow is admitted. That means exempting Russia from a 1974 law conditioning trade on Russia’s emigration policies.
The law, known as Jackson-Vanik, is outdated; it was passed to try to force the Soviet Union to allow Jews to emigrate. But granting Russia trade privileges now rightly seems to many in Congress to be an unwarranted concession to a regime that, under Mr. Putin and partner Dmitry Medvedev, continues to engage in massive human rights violations — not to mention epic corruption.
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Investors to Gauge Climate at Forum
When corporate leaders from around the globe gather in St. Petersburg on Thursday for the International Economic Forum, they will be treated to a picture of the country as modern and investor-friendly.
Special features this year include morning yoga, a business regatta and an open-air performance from British pop legend Sting on the city’s Dvortsovaya Ploshchad on Thursday evening, according to the forum’s cultural program.
Yoga might be welcome by participants eager to understand what is being said between the lines.
The Indian meditation practice aimed at achieving spiritual tranquility is reportedly a favorite pastime of President Dmitry Medvedev, who will attend the forum Friday and Saturday.
It is Medvedev’s political future that vexes investors as political uncertainty mounts in the run-up to December’s State Duma elections and the question over whether his “tandem” with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will continue after the March 2011 presidential vote.
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Internet: Web becomes valued forum for free speech
When state television showed a dynamic Vladimir Putin at the wheel of a yellow Lada touring the provinces after devastating forest fires, a fuller picture was to be found on the internet.
Video shot by laughing onlookers and uploaded to the net showed that the prime minister was in fact followed by a motorcade of at least two dozen vehicles, including three spare yellow Ladas in case of a mechanical breakdown.
There are few sectors that better reflect Russia’s lopsided development than the internet. The web has grown strongly as a business, drawing on the nation’s strengths in maths and science to produce a domestic search engine, Yandex, that describes itself as “better than Google”.
Yet the government’s efforts to foster a Russian Silicon Valley outside Moscow show how a poor investment climate is letting down that human potential.
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Lawlessness Unlimited
Despite the Kremlin’s ongoing efforts to combat legal nihilism, there is little or no evidence on the ground of a change in support for the rule of law in Russia, a new study has found. Russia fared the worst of its BRIC peers (Brazil, India And China) when it came to upholding the principle of separation of powers and the observance of fundamental human rights, according to the Rule of Law Index report released on Monday.
“The country shows serious deficiencies in checks and balances among the different branches of government (ranking 55th), leading to an institutional environment characterized by corruption, impunity, and political interference,” said the report, which was prepared by the World Justice Project and funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “Violations against some fundamental rights, such as freedom of opinion, freedom of association, and arbitrary interference of privacy are areas of concern.”
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In U.S.-Russia Dialogue On Human Rights, A Tougher Tone Comes Through
The latest session of a high-ranking U.S.-Russia dialogue on human rights included frank exchanges on press freedom and corruption, according to a senior U.S. official who participated in the talks.
Michael McFaul, senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs on the U.S. president’s National Security Council, described the talks in an interview with RFE/RL.
The U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Civil Society Working Group, established two years ago as part of the “reset” in U.S.-Russia relations, brings together officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from both countries. McFaul, who will reportedly be nominated by President Barack Obama to be America’s next ambassador to Russia, holds the chair for the U.S. side. His Russian counterpart, Vladislav Surkov, is first deputy chairman in the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
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Firestone boss runs Moscow practice from London as partner death probed
The managing partner of a US law firm in Russia is being forced to run his firm from London after continuing to speak out against the authorities he believes are responsible for his former partner’s death.
The managing partner of a US law firm in Russia is being forced to run his firm from London after continuing to speak out against the authorities he believes are responsible for his former partner’s death.
Jamison Firestone is managing partner and co-founder of Moscow-based tax firm Firestone Duncan. In 2009 a partner at the firm, Sergei Magnitsky, died in custody after allegedly being refused medical treatment (TheLawyer.com, 30 November 2009).
Magnitsky had been held without trial for almost a year on charges of tax evasion as a consequence of an investigation into his client, investment company Hermitage Capital.
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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
