29
March 2011

Russia’s Economic Prospects

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Russia’s economy grew by close to 4 percent in 2010. Compared with developed economies, this was a robust achievement, given the uncertainties faced by the global economy and the continuing debt crises in some small European economies. These economies could still endanger the stability of the European economy more widely, and thus cast a shadow on the prospects of Russia’s major trading partner.

Still, Russia’s growth was about 1 percentage point lower than was generally expected a year ago. Inflation was slightly higher. These differences can be explained largely by the extreme summer weather and numerous forest fires that plagued the country. As a result, Russia’s grain harvest was about 25 percent below the recent average. While Russia has emerged as a major exporter of grain—especially of feed wheat—in past years, it banned grain exports last August; the ban remains in effect until this summer.

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29
March 2011

From oil tycoon to imprisoned muse

Russia Beyond the Headlines

Directors and writers have turned their eyes to former oligarch and longtime inmate Mikhail Khordokovsky as a subject, inspiration, and more recently, colleague. During the first few moments of the movie “Khodorkovsky,” the screen remains black. Then a narrow blue band widens from the top edge of the inky darkness, as if the viewer is peering out at the clear sky from some dark chamber. The vista grows, revealing two oil pumps swinging up and down in the middle of a snowy desert in Siberia. They look like the hands of a huge clock, ticking off the inevitable minutes.

The film, which was a sleeper hit warmly received at last month’s Berlin Film Festival, got much bigger play after it was stolen from the director’s office before a small screening, causing an even greater sensation for the film.

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28
March 2011

A Year Before Elections, What About Russia’s Corruption Fight?

Radio Free Europe

The highly publicized cases of Sergei Magnitsky — a 37-year-old lawyer who died in pretrial detention in November 2009 after exposing a multimillion-dollar fraud against the Russian taxpayer — and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed business magnate who was sentenced at the end of 2010 to remain in prison through 2017, have again put the international spotlight on corruption in the Russian state.

By the time of his death, the ailing Magnitsky had been complaining for weeks that he was being denied adequate medical treatment for acute stomach pain. The subsequent inquiry into his demise represented a serious miscarriage of justice. Khodorkovsky’s latest case gained notoriety for the brazenly irregular manner in which he was charged and convicted of embezzling his own company’s oil, apparently with the predetermined goal of keeping him behind bars at all costs.

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24
March 2011

Washington College of Law Prof. Juan Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Inquires Into Alleged Torture and Death of Russian Attorney

Washington College of Law

WCL Prof. Juan Méndez, in his role as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has engaged the Russian government to inquire into the alleged torture and eventual death in custody of Russian attorney Sergei Magnitsky. Prof. Méndez began the inquiry after an application from Redress, a human rights organization in London. Magnitsky died in prison after being arrested for tax evasion. He had previously uncovered evidence of Russian government tax fraud. hairy girl займ на карту онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/how-to-get-fast-payday-loan-online.php https://zp-pdl.com/get-a-next-business-day-payday-loan.php займ онлайн на карту без отказа

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24
March 2011

One Year Before Russia’s Presidential Election, Systemic Corruption Subverts Reform

Freedom House

One year before the pivotal presidential election in March 2012, Russia confronts an immense and growing corruption problem at all levels of government and society that severely threatens chances for reform, according to a special report released today by Freedom House and the Latvian policy institute Providus.

The report, The Perpetual Battle: Corruption in the Former Soviet Union and New EU Member States, describes the extent to which Russia’s entire institutional apparatus—including the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, security services, and news media—now conspires to fuel state-led corruption. In addition, the study finds that despite the passage of two decades since the collapse of the Soviet system, most of the non-Baltic former Soviet Union remains mired in institutionalized graft.

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23
March 2011

Measuring Russian Risk

Wall Street Journal

Bill Browder’s Feb. 24 op-ed, “Sergei Magnitsky and the Rule of Law in Russia,” notes Moscow’s attempts to reassure Western investors of Russia’s openness and attractiveness.

But this ignores the hard, cruel reality that the Russian state has become—a gangster film from top to bottom. And as in all gangster movies, the spoils are doled out by the dons and the dons are ever-wary of being knocked off themselves.

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23
March 2011

Businessman Linked to Magnitsky Embezzlement Case Gets Minimum Sentence

The Moscow Times

A man linked to the multibillion-ruble embezzlement scheme that late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky tried to expose was handed a minimum sentence — and not asked to pay anything back.

Vyacheslav Khlebnikov, who the Investigative Committee said in January is a businessman with a criminal record, was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement, Magnitsky’s former employer, Hermitage Capital, said in an e-mailed statement.

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23
March 2011

Hermitage attacks leniency of Russia in tax fraud ‘cover-up’

Daily Telegraph

Hermitage Capital has accused the Russian state of pressing ahead with a cover up of the biggest tax fraud in Russian history after one of the men behind the scam was given a suspiciously light sentence.

The UK-based investment fund spoke out after a Moscow court confirmed it had found 43-year-old Vyacheslav Khlebnikov, a former convicted felon, guilty of taking part in the £144m fraud.

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23
March 2011

Magnitsky Play “One Hour Eighteen” discussed on Voice of Russia radio

Voice of Russia

Russia has a rich tradition of theatre, which is studied and performed around the world. But the new direction of documentary theatre is something that has been borrowed from the West. With guests – theatre critic John Freedman and young playwright Natalia Antonova – they discuss how important documentary theatre is in providing a platform for revealing the true reality and concerns of contemporary Russians. They focus on the play about Sergei Magnitsky entitled: “One Hour Eighteen”.

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