Posts Tagged ‘medvedev’
Here comes the Russian bear
When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev takes to his feet in a swanky new conference centre in the Swiss resort of Davos this Wednesday he will need to make the speech of his life.
For although the Kremlin is still basking in the afterglow of BP’s landmark £10bn share-swap deal with state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, the clouds are gathering. Mr Medvedev’s message to the great and good of the global business elite will be that Russia is “open for business” and committed to making life easier for foreign investors. Show us your money and ideas, send us your experts, and let us buy stakes in your companies in order to make it a two-way process, he will say.
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Time to get tough on the Kremlin crooks and bullies
The jailing of Boris Nemtsov is a dark departure from Russia’s already bleak status quo.
When you next meet Boris Nemtsov, will you be able to look him in the eye and say that you did everything you could while he was in jail? Did you urge your ambassadors to visit him in prison? Did your local Russian ambassador find himself bombarded with public and private protests? Did your politicians write letters to the newspapers, give speeches or go to demonstrations? Did your legislators hold hearings about freedom of assembly in Russia? Did you raise Russia’s continued membership of the Council of Europe?
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The End of the Medvedev Revolution?
Since a Russian judge sentenced former Yukos oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, to thirteen and a half years in prison on December 30, many commentators have viewed the outcome—after a 22-month trial that openly flouted judicial standards—as a major setback for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. After all, a little more than a year ago, Medvedev gained international attention for vowing to institute the rule of law in Russia and make foreign investment in Russia a top priority, and there had been growing speculation that he might begin to take on the entrenched interests of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. For the moment, those hopes seem dashed. In the long run, however, the case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev may hurt Putin more than Medvedev as the two rivals position themselves for the 2012 presidential contest.
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The Verdict Is In
The re-sentencing of Russia’s No.1 dissident, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, wasn’t unexpected, but the sheer brazenness of it is a striking and dangerous sign of bad things to come. There is one word that comes to mind when watching the drama surrounding the Mikhail Khodorkovsky verdict and sentence today of 13.5 years in prison. Perhaps tellingly, it is a Russian word: naglost’. English simply doesn’t have one word that packs into so few letters all that naglost’ means: arrogance, contemptuous malice, obnoxiousness, brazenness, insolence, impudence, and sheer nerve. Google Translate suggests no fewer than 22 synonyms, none of which captures the fullness of the word as well as the Russian government has embodied it in this case.
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The Khodorkovsky Verdict: Scaring Off Investment in Russia
It must have been an awkward meeting for Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. On Dec. 29, he convened a session with his economic aides to talk about attracting talented businessmen to Moscow. No one mentioned that across the river from where they were sitting, a judge was reading out the guilty verdict of one of Russia’s most successful businessmen, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose case has scared off a lot of capital from the country. But when the subject turned to Russia’s appeal for investors, Medvedev’s tone became forlorn: “The investment climate in our country is bad. It’s very bad.” And everyone understood why.
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Khodorkovsky Corner: Russia’s Red Capitalism
While the old Soviet Union recoiled at the thought of capitalism, the new Russia has becoming increasingly dependent on capital from other nations. But as Russia seeks investors to fuel its growth, the safety of its political climate is receiving increased scrutiny.
Russia’s treatment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the nation’s richest men, has led many critics to wonder if Russia’s government is as bad as the USSR’s totalitarian regime.
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Medvedev: Russia is “very poor” investment climate
President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia’s investment climate is “very bad”. In the crisis year of 2009 the flow of foreign direct investments in the Russian economy fell by almost half compared with the previous one.
“An important theme is the investment climate, these must be dealt with in the first place” – the president said, speaking Wednesday at a meeting to establish an international financial center in Moscow.
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Khodorkovsky verdict sheds light on justice system
Russians begin to take notice as oil tycoon is again found guilty. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon turned liberal martyr, was found guilty today of a second set of charges in a trial held up as a symbol of Russia’s compromised justice system.
The guilty verdict was widely expected but nonetheless provoked harsh condemnation from Russia’s marginalized opposition, international observers and Khodorkovsky’s family.
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After Russian Death, Inquiry Doors Open and Shut
The New York Times
by Ellen Barry
It was more than a year ago when six members of an obscure oversight panel filed into Butyrskaya Prison to look into the death of a prisoner. They were hardly an intimidating bunch: retired women in hats, mostly, scribbling their observations in notebooks, regarded by the prison staff as a minor irritant, like fleas.
In a country whose law enforcement structures wield enormous power, it is easy enough to ignore civilian watchdog groups. But this day was different. When the doctors were led in and told to take a seat, the panel’s leader, a veteran human rights activist named Valery V. Borshchev, felt something unfamiliar in the air.
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