Posts Tagged ‘medvedev’
Is Russia trying a dead whistle-blower because of a US law?
The US recently enacted legislation targeting those Russian officials involved in the 2009 death of whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, spurring an angry reaction from the Kremlin.
At the center of the stormiest US-Russia diplomatic crisis since the cold war stands the enigmatic figure of Sergei Magnitsky, for whom the US Senate has named a punitive new law that imposes harsh visa and economic sanctions against scores of Russian officials who are deemed to have committed serious human rights violations.
The tale of Mr. Magnitsky, a corporate lawyer who blew the whistle on a vast corruption scheme, was arrested by the same officials he had implicated, and was allegedly beaten to death in prison over three years ago, appears to validate all the worst suspicions held in the West about the nature of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The Magnitsky Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama last month, is a controversial new breed of legislation that aims to compensate for the perceived failures of Russia’s justice system by meting out punishment to about 60 Russian officials deemed to have been involved in the wrongful prosecution and alleged murder of Magnitsky.
The Kremlin’s incandescent response makes it likely that the mutual acrimony will expand in weeks to come. Mr. Putin called the Magnitsky Act a “purely political, unfriendly act” that demanded a stern riposte. Last week he signed the retaliatory Dima Yakovlev Act, whose key provision is a ban on all adoptions of Russian children by US citizens.
But in an apparent effort to overturn the widely-held Western narrative, which sees Magnitsky as the victim of corrupt officials and a lawless state, Russian prosecutors have announced they will put the deceased Magnitsky on trial later this month, seeking to prove that he and his former boss, Bill Browder, head of the London-based Hermitage Capital, were the real criminals.
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Vladimir Putin to snub London 2012 Olympics
Exclusive: Russian president will send Dmitry Medvedev to Games instead, illustrating Kremlin vitriol towards Britain. Vladimir Putin will not be coming to the London Olympics, diplomatic sources have said, in an apparent signal of the Russian president’s continuing displeasure and irritation with Britain.
Putin won’t attend the London 2012 opening ceremony on 27 July, sources confirmed, despite the fact that Moscow will host the Winter Olympics in 2014 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Instead, the Russian president is likely to dispatch his prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, to London.
The snub follows Putin’s controversial decision earlier this month to boycott the G8 summit hosted by the US president, Barack Obama. Putin claimed he was too busy forming his new government to attend, and sent Medvedev instead. He has accused the US of inciting street protests against him and is unhappy with Washington’s missile defence plans in Europe.
Putin has a long list of grievances against Britain. As well as the unresolved Alexander Litvinenko affair – a source of smouldering tension – the Kremlin has been infuriated by calls to ban senior Russians accused of human rights abuses.
In March, a group of backbench MPs voted to refuse visas to officials implicated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison, in 2009. The Foreign Office has so far ignored the non-binding vote and ruled out a Magnitsky ban.
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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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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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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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Invisible President
Dmitri Medvedev has entered his last week as president of Russia: on May 7, he will hand back the office to Vladimir Putin. Having served just one four-year term, he will be remembered as one of the country’s shortest-lived rulers. He will also be remembered as one of country’s shortest rulers. At no more than 5’3”, and with his propensity to wear huge Windsor knots, he often looks like a fourth-grader trying on daddy’s business suit.
What else will Russians remember of Medvedev? My guess is, nothing. People do not like to remember being made to look like fools, which is exactly what many Russians feel he did to them.
At the outset, Medvedev reached out to liberals and intellectuals. Weeks before his election, in February 2008, he had announced that his guiding principle was, “freedom is better than unfreedom.” People might have worried about a leader who found it necessary to turn this truism into a grand pronouncement, but, having been left out in the cold during the previous eight years of Putin’s reign, Russian liberals were eager to be engaged again. Over 40 people accepted invitations to join a newly constituted presidential council for human rights and civil society.
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A Discussion With Russian Civil Society Leaders
BY THOMAS O. MELIA / APRIL 26, 2012
Thomas O. Melia serves as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
Today I was delighted to welcome to the State Department a dozen inspiring civil society advocates from Russia who work tirelessly to protect the human rights and dignity of prisoners, and for the rule of law. We were joined by Deputy Secretary William Burns, formerly our ambassador to Russia, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald K. Steinberg and Assistant Administrator Alexander, as well as Mark Kappelhoff, Chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. As we are seeing increasingly in Russia and in many countries across the globe, the United States included, civil society is an essential driver of progress and accountability on an array of important issues, including prison reform.
Prison reform, including prisoner’s rights, is a central theme for the Civil Society Working Group (CSWG) of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, established in 2009 by Presidents Obama and Medvedev. I co-chair the CSWG along with Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy, and Rule of Law. The United States and Russia share an obligation under international law to protect the human rights of people in our custody. Through the CSWG we are connecting activists from across the United States and Russia who are working for improvements in prison conditions and the protection of the human rights of inmates.
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Russia’s Medvedev vows to continue modernization
My Earth Link From Associated Press
International News VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
April 24, 2012 7:55 AM EDT
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev vowed Tuesday to pursue his modernization agenda and implement political reforms enacted after massive street protests, after he shifts into the prime minister’s job.
Medvedev had agreed to step down after one term to allow his longtime mentor Vladimir Putin to reclaim the presidency in March’s election. The swap was widely seen as a cynical maneuvering and a show of contempt for democracy, fueling a wave of unprecedented rallies in the run-up to the vote.
Medvedev raised hopes for liberal reforms after winning the presidency in 2008, but achieved little, largely staying in Putin’s shadow, who continued calling the shots as prime minister.
In Tuesday’s speech before the State Council, Medvedev repeated pledges to combat corruption, pursue political reforms and modernize economy.
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