Posts Tagged ‘dvorkovich’
Getting the New Kremlin Cabinet Wrong: No, These Are Not Liberals
Tom Balmforth’s article on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty about the new cabinet puzzled me, as his pieces often do in taking a more liberal view of Russia’s intentions than I think are merited. Where does this come from? Does it come from interviews with actual Russian officials? I don’t see such interviews referenced in the piece.
No, I think it comes from simply Balmforth’s own worldview, the evidently “progressive” view which he frames the entire Russian story in the first place, such as to make what he sees as reasoned estimates of Russia’s behaviour.
But they all strike me as being quite wrong.
First, there’s the notion that Vladislav Surkov was “demoted” and “in disgrace”. “Last December, he was relegated to an obscure deputy prime minister’s portfolio,” says Balmforth. But there was never any evidence for any punishment — and the evidence that it was NEVER the case is in fact now before us, as Surkov is back with just as much power (or more) than ever! It was just a maneuver.
Surkov was moved out of the limelight strategically at a time when demonstrators were seeing him as the heart of darkness, and Golos, the nonprofit election monitors were blasting NTV as “Surkovskaya propaganda.” Surkov has always been the grey cardinal of the Kremlin and never ceased being so — and while he was furloughed, he was put in charge of religion, too, and that’s why no doubt we see a nasty new legislative development regarding religious groups — no longer can they register as nonprofit or non-commercial groups like NGOs; they will have to be approved in a separate section of law.
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Russia says action on Syria, Iran may go nuclear
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned on Thursday that military action against sovereign states could lead to a regional nuclear war, starkly voicing Moscow’s opposition to Western intervention ahead of a G8 summit at which Syria and Iran will be discussed.
“Hasty military operations in foreign states usually bring radicals to power,” Medvedev, president for four years until Vladimir Putin’s inauguration on May 7, told a conference in St. Petersburg in remarks posted on the government’s website.
“At some point such actions which undermine state sovereignty may lead to a full-scale regional war, even, although I do not want to frighten anyone, with the use of nuclear weapons,” Medvedev said. “Everyone should bear this in mind.”
Medvedev gave no further explanation. Nuclear-armed Russia has said publicly that it is under no obligation to protect Syria if it is attacked, and analysts and diplomats say Russia would not get involved in military action if Iran were attacked.
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Replacement of Jackson-Vanik Amendment unacceptable – aide
ITAR-TASS
Russia considers unacceptable the replacement of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to a new decision by the U.S. authorities, presidential aide, Russia’s G-8 Sherpa Arkady Dvorkovich said.
Commenting on the upcoming talks between Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama, Dvorkovich told journalists on Thursday: “I don’t doubt that during the meeting, the names of Jackson and Vanik will come back although there is nothing to discuss because this is the internal problem of the American Administration.”
According to the presidential aide, if it necessary Russia is ready to talk about this. But “we don’t intend to the cancellation of this amendment by any means. Moreover, primarily American companies will be hurt by such actions”, Dvorkovich said.
He stressed that the attempts to replace the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to a new law, “which will solve problems and which seem to see by certain American senators, are unacceptable”.
In addition, Dvorkovich said, “We will be forced to react. But why our countries need this?”
The U.S. House of Representatives will discuss a bill that would impose financial and visa restrictions on Russian officials linked with the criminal persecution of the Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. It is expected that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will discuss it next week. The bill is an updated version of a previous legislation, introduced by McGovern and another Tom Lantos commission co-chairman, Frank Wolf. A similar bill has been introduced to the U.S. Senate by Senator Ben Cardin last May. The proposed U.S. legislation has sparked an angry reaction from the Russian authorities. The Obama Administration has been opposed to the bill, saying there was no need to pass special legislation to ban Russian officials allegedly linked to Magnitsky’s death from entering the United States. Earlier, Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak said this document “is America’s violent rejection of the principle of mutual respect in interstate relations”. займ срочно без отказов и проверок займ онлайн https://zp-pdl.com/online-payday-loans-in-america.php www.zp-pdl.com займы без отказа
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Russia acknowledges it has an image problem
Russia has an image problem due to cases such as the death in jail of a whistleblower and the trials of an ex-tycoon, a senior official has said.
But the president’s chief economic adviser added that Russia was working hard to improve the investment climate. “We are doing our best to punish those people who are not following the rule of law,” said Arkady Dvorkovich.
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