Nevsky Prospect - Russia breaks up protest with riot police

Russia breaks up protests with riot police

Russian police broke up anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sunday, and detained more than 100 demonstrators, including several opposition leaders.
In Moscow, several hundred demonstrators gathered in a central square, defying a ban imposed by authorities.
They denounced the policies of President Dmitry Medvedev and his predecessor and mentor Vladimir Putin, who continues to wield broad powers as Russia’s powerful prime minister.
Protesters shouted “Shame!” and “Down with Putin!” as Moscow police in riot gear pushed them into buses. Police quickly dispersed a similar rally in St. Petersburg, detaining most of several dozen protesters who gathered on a downtown Nevsky Prospect. Some of the demonstrators were beaten with truncheons.

EU - Russia: no gas deal

Russia-EU Summit Ends with Differences Over Energy

EU Commission President Barroso, Russian President Medvedev, Czech President Klaus and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana in Khabarovsk, 22 May 2009.
A tense summit meeting between Russia and the European Union has failed to provide assurances Europe will not face another mid-winter gas cutoff.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has also warned that stronger European ties with former Soviet republics should not turn into an anti-Russian coalition.
Meeting in the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East, Russian and EU leaders failed to bridge differences that block assurances of reliable gas supplies to Europe.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said his country has no problem supplying the fuel or honoring its delivery commitments to Europe.
He blamed the continent's recent energy disruptions on the inability of Ukraine to pay for its own supplies. About 20 percent of Europe's supply of natural gas comes from Russia through Ukrainian pipelines. Mr. Medvedev says assurances should be provided by those who pay for the gas, and there is room here for cooperation.
The Russian leader notes that if Ukraine has the money, fine, though he expresses doubt that it does.

Russia prepared to help Ukraine.

President Medvedev said Russia is prepared to help Ukraine, but wants a considerable part of this work to be assumed by the European Union and countries interested in reliable and secure energy cooperation.
Russia is also seeking to replace the so-called Energy Charter Treaty, a 1990's agreement on integration of European and former Soviet energy sectors.
Moscow signed, but did not ratify the treaty, which would provide foreign commercial access to Russian pipelines. The European Union does not want the Charter scrapped, but EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Russia has put forth interesting suggestions. "We could consider those proposals in the process of revision of the Energy Charter Treaty," he said.

Moscow suspicious of EU partnership program

Moscow is also suspicious of the EU's Eastern Partnership Program with several former Soviet republics. President Medvedev warned in Khabarovsk that the outreach program should not turn into an anti-Russian coalition.
He says what concerns Russia is that in some countries, the European Partnership is seen as a partnership against Russia. The Kremlin leader says he does not have in mind EU leadership nor any of the partners at the table [in Khabarovsk], but rather other countries.
The Partnership Program is designed to enhance Europe's relationship with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Positive comments about summit

Despite tensions at the summit, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said the summit increased mutual trust between the EU and Russia. The Czech Republic holds the EU's rotating presidency.The venue chosen by Russia, the city of Khabarovsk, is near China, about 8,000 kilometers east of Brussels. President Medvedev made a point on Thursday of noting EU leaders would understand how great Russia is by having to fly so far.

Russia needs more political competition

Russia needs stronger political competition and a greater freedom to protest, President Dmitry Medvedev said in remarks released Thursday, sending the strongest signal yet that he may rethink the legacy of predecessor Vladimir Putin.
Medvedev, who has positioned himself as a cautious liberal during his first year in power, has until now followed the path blazed by Putin, who methodically rolled back Russia's post-Soviet freedoms during his presidency.
Medvedev's statements at a meeting Wednesday with civil society activists contained some of his most explicit criticism of Putin's policies to date. The remarks were released on the Kremlin's Web site Thursday.
Medvedev specifically criticized the 2006 law that toughened registration and accounting rules for human rights groups and other non-governmental organizations, hampering their operations.
"A significant number of officials, which I think is quite dangerous, have got a sense that non-governmental organizations are enemies of the state which must be confronted to prevent some disease from seeping through and undermining the foundations of our order," Medvedev said.
Medvedev added that the purpose of the law was not to interfere with the operations of the groups. But his remarks contrasted sharply with statements from Putin who said tightened regulation was necessary to make sure that NGOs weren't controlled by what he called puppeteers from abroad.
The 2006 law requires organizations to file highly detailed reports about activities for the previous year, such as a precise accounting of all meetings held by NGO officials, and detailed information on how they are financed.
Passage of the law reflected the Kremlin's fears of what it saw as Western encouragement of anti-government protests in other ex-Soviet nations, including Georgia and Ukraine.
Medvedev said that NGOs face undue restrictions and added that changes in the law are "possible, and even essential."
He added that the country needs more freedom.
"There must a political competition, it's irreplaceable," he said.
Responding to rights activists' complaints about official refusals to sanction opposition protests, Medvedev agreed that authorities' actions defied the law.
"Authorities obviously don't want to sanction such actions, it's understandable," he said. "But in any case such decisions aren't based on law."
He agreed with one person at the conference, who suggested that Moscow needed its own Speaker's Corner, like the one in London's Hyde Park, and added that it should not be put in a distant location.
"It mustn't be an empty spot near garages or near some industrial zone," he said.
Moscow authorities have continuously rejected appeals from opposition groups to hold their rallies in central areas and offered alternative spots away from downtown.

Russia: to shoot journalists or to shoot human right activists

MOSCOW – The EU's top executive angered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while standing next to him at a news conference on Friday by raising concerns about the murders of Russian human rights activists and journalists in Moscow.
Their acrimonious exchange came after meetings intended to improve European Union-Russian relations, badly scarred by the Georgia war and last month's cutoff of Russian natural gas supplies to Europe.
Both Putin and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said their talks were constructive and set a positive tone for negotiations on a long-awaited EU-Russia partnership agreement.
But the atmosphere soured after Barroso mentioned that he had raised the issue of Russia's problems with the rule of law in his meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev earlier Friday.
"I have just now learned that Mr. Barroso discussed the construction of a law-based state with President Medvedev," a visibly irritated Putin told reporters. "Mr. Barroso discussed this in the Kremlin but is talking about it here, at a news conference, where Mr. Medvedev is absent and cannot say anything about this issue."
Putin tried to turn the tables, saying the rights of ethnic Russians, migrants and prisoners are violated in some EU countries.
"We believe we must discuss the whole spectrum of problems, both in Russia and in the countries of the European Union," he said.
Barroso then tackled the matter in more detail, saying he had expressed EU concerns about the fatal shootings on a Moscow street last month of a human rights lawyer and a reporter — the latest killings of Russians who challenge the authorities.
"Human rights and the rule of law are things that are much more important than diplomacy between states," Barroso said in lengthy remarks. "They have to do directly with people, with the rights of citizens, and I think it's a very important element of our common European civilization."
That was too much for Putin.
"Are we going to continue this discussion?" he fumed.
The tension subsided somewhat, but Putin got the last word when he said, with more than a hint of sarcasm, that Russia would welcome frequent visits from "this Magnificent 10" — Barroso and the nine European commissioners he brought with him.
Russia and the EU are linked closely by commerce, but ties have been strained for years by disputes on issues ranging from timber tariffs to the Kremlin's record on human rights. Tensions were driven to a post-Cold War peak by Russia's war with Georgia in August, and the EU suspended talks with Russia on the new partnership deal.
The EU announced in October that it would resume negotiations on the agreement, but no visible progress was made. January's gas cutoff — which left European homes unheated and factories idle because of a price dispute between Russia and Ukraine — deepened EU concerns about its reliance on Russian energy supplies.
The EU gets about a quarter of the gas it uses from Russia.
"We need greater reliability and predictability from this relationship," Barroso told the news conference.
He said the gas drought showed that the new Russia-EU treaty "should enshrine robust rules on energy security."
Russia also wants guarantees against a repeat of the costly cutoff, which it blames on Ukraine, but has clashed with the EU over the format. Moscow has rejected EU pleas to join the Energy Charter, a treaty that would open up its rich gas fields to more foreign participation, and pushed for a new international compact.
"We need to think about forming a full-fledged international legal system to protect against such incidents because the current system — including the Energy Charter — doesn't work," Medvedev told Barroso in a telvised remark.
Both Barroso and Putin made soothing statements about the gas issue. But the argument over human rights underscored the deep tension between the two powers that warily share a continent.
Putin said Russia might be open to a revised Energy Charter, and Barroso said the EU would look at Russia's proposals. In another olive branch, he said that while the EU is seeking alternatives to Russian pipelines that dominate exports from the former Soviet Union, it does not oppose rival Russian pipeline projects.

Russia's Constitution - no more than a piece of paper

Russia's president, who in November initiated constitutional changes to the presidential and parliamentary terms, said Friday that further amendments could be made to the Constitution.

"Is it possible there will be some changes to the Constitution in the future? I believe this question can be answered in the affirmative," Dmitry Medvedev said at a Kremlin conference dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Russian Constitution.

"But fundamental rights and freedoms, and the presidential form of our state will never change, or at least not in the foreseeable future," he said. "The opposite threatens the existence of the state of the Russian Federation. Should anything like this happen, the consequences could be extremely bad."

During his November 5 state of the nation address, Medvedev proposed extending the current four-year parliamentary and presidential terms to five and six years, respectively. The announcement of the changes, which would apply to the next head of state and legislature, triggered speculation that they could be a pretext for the return to office of his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Russia's upper house of parliament approved the amendments extending the terms on November 26.

The constitutional amendments next have to be approved by at least two-thirds of regional legislatures. After that, the Federation Council will hold another session to endorse their decision. The amendments will come into force once they have been signed by the president and published in a government newspaper.

Russia as an anti-American "world power"

A New York Post columnist and former Bush foreign policy adviser warns that the current Kremlin leadership is trying to extend Russia's sphere of influence beyond Asia, the Caucuses, and Europe.

Russian warships were recently deployed to Venezuela to coincide with President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Caracas -- the first ever by a Russian president. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Russia's deployment of the naval squadron was "not a provocation," but rather "an exchange between two free countries."

Peter Brookes, a senior fellow for national security affairs at The Heritage Foundation, says Russia is signaling it has interests in Latin America. "I think it's to strategically distract the United States. I think it's a bit of payback for American warships which went into the Black Sea -- which Russia considers a Russian lake -- during the Georgian crisis a few months ago," he contends. "So I think that there's a lot of symbolism here in terms of this ship visit. I think it also says that Russia sees itself as a world power; it's not just a regional power."

A day after the U.S. presidential election, in his first major address since taking office, Russian President Medvedev delivered an extremely anti-American speech. Brookes believes that speech was a signal to the U.S. and the incoming Obama administration. However, he notes that the Russians have backed down a bit from their "harsh rhetoric" after an Obama foreign policy adviser said the president-elect had not committed to deploying a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

RIC Litvinenko - 2 years dead

Thirty Russian opposition activists have paid tribute to Russian ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko on the second anniversary of his death of polonium poisoning in London, accusing Russian authorities of having ordered the murder.
Protesters brandished placards reading: "He was poisoned at the order of Russian authorities" and "We call for a trial of the murderers and those who ordered it," as they rallied at Chistye Prudy Boulevard in downtown Moscow and lit candles in Litvinenko's memory.
The rally had been authorised by city authorities, though the police at the site asked one protester to put down a slogan criticising President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic, died in a London hospital on November 23, 2006, three weeks after being poisoned with radioactive substance polonium 210 while taking tea at a hotel in the capital's Mayfair district.
His death prompted a crisis in Russo-British ties as Moscow refused to extradite a suspect in the case, former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, which triggered an expulsion of diplomats from both sides in the summer of 2007.
Earlier Saturday, Lugovoi declared in an interview to the Times that he was ready to cooperate with British justice and could send his friend Dmitry Kovtun, one of the last people to see Litvinenko before his illness, to London for talks with investigators.
Alex Goldfarb, president of the Litvinenko Fund and his widow's spokesman, denounced the interview as a ploy to improve Russia's image.

Constitutional changes that pave the way for Putin

A series of constitutional changes that critics allege are meant to consolidate one-party rule and perhaps pave the way for Vladimir Putin's early return to the presidency are set to pass the Kremlin-dominated State Duma early this week.
In a stunning demonstration of the Kremlin's control over Russia's political process, the first-ever amendments to the country's 1993 constitution were suggested by President Dmitry Medvedev in a Nov. 5 speech, then crammed through their first reading in the Duma on Friday.
The measures, which passed by 86 percent of the votes in the lower house of parliament, will extend a president's term in office from four years to six, prolong terms of Duma deputies from four years to five, and require the government – for the first time – to report on its work annually to parliament. Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said the final two readings are set for Tuesday.
Following that, the bill will be sent to the Kremlin-controlled upper house for the needed three-quarters approval. Since the vast majority of Russia's 81 regional legislatures are dominated by the United Russia party led by Mr. Putin, the required endorsement of two-thirds of them also seems likely.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, warning of Kremlin power greater than that of "any czar," said Friday his party will challenge the legality of the amendments in the Constitutional Court.
Even some deputies who say longer presidential terms could be a stabilizing move at a time of economic uncertainty, worry about the use of the Duma's pro-Kremlin majority to make hasty innovations to fundamental law.
"It's a very troubling precedent," says Ilya Ponomaryov, a deputy with the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia party. "The Constitution envisages a long and complex procedure, with plenty of discussion, before changes are made. But here it's being rewritten in a few days, virtually without debate."
Mr. Medvedev argued that the current four-year presidential term is too brief for one man to master the complexities of leading a huge country like Russia. In an interview last week he insisted that the new rules will apply starting with his successor, who is due to be elected in 2012.
Putin, speaking to journalists last week, said the amendments had "no personal dimension" and were intended to "foster the development of democracy."
But critics say the muscular haste with which the changes are being pushed through belies routine explanation. Some recall the stage-managed Kremlin operation that vaulted Putin's handpicked successor, Medvedev, into the presidency with himself as prime minister last year. They warn that a similar power play may be in motion.
"I think Putin will return next year," perhaps through emergency presidential elections, says Vladimir Ryzhkov, a former independent Duma deputy. "A classic authoritarian regime prolongs itself endlessly, using imitation democratic methods."
Some critics argue that the Kremlin's urgency is tied to the galloping economic crisis, which threatens to ignite social discontent for the first time since Putin came to power almost nine years ago. Amid signs of economic distress, Medvedev's popularity rating slipped from 83 percent in September to 76 percent the next month.
"The power of Putin and Medvedev is based on a social contract: The Kremlin delivers economic prosperity and the population forgets about political freedoms," says Boris Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister and leading liberal oppositionist. "Now, because of the crisis, that contract is in question. That's why they're trying to close the deal immediately."
The economic crisis is certainly on Russian leaders' minds. Speaking to a group of police chiefs last week, Medvedev urged them to stamp out any protests. "We have a stable state," he said. "We do not need a return to the 1990s when everything was boiling and seething."
But Yevgeny Yasin, a former Kremlin official, says the public political awareness that characterized the 1990s is missed in today's "ho-hum" acceptance of the Kremlin's ability to rewrite the Constitution. "I am astonished that there is so little coverage of this process," says Mr. Yasin, head of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. "Not so long ago we were discussing the question of whether Putin will run for a third term. Now we've received our answer. Here we are watching it happen, but we can do nothing about it."

Russian missiles: provocative

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has sharply criticised Russian plans to deploy short-range missiles on its western border.
The missiles will be based in the Kaliningrad enclave between Poland and Lithuania, but the Kremlin says it is willing to cancel the project if the US scraps its plans for a missile shield in central Europe.
Mr Gates says Russia's actions are provocative and misguided, adding that it is hardly the welcome a new US administration deserves.
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced his plans the day after US President-elect Barack Obama won the election.

Putin says term-extension bill not meant for him

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that a bill that would extend the Russian president's term to six years was not tailored for him and would be a boost for democracy in the country.
The measure could pave the way for a new 12-year presidency for Putin if he decides to seek Russia's highest office again. Lawmakers are moving to fast-track the constitutional change that President Dmitry Medvedev submitted to parliament Tuesday.
Putin said the change "has no personal dimension" and cast it as aiding democracy — which critics say was rolled back dramatically during his two four-year presidential terms.
"We are seeking instruments that would enable us to guarantee sovereignty, to implement our long-term plans, and that would not only not damage but would foster the development of democracy in this country," he said in televised comments at a meeting with the Finnish prime minister.
"As far as I know, the president of the Finnish Republic is elected for six years," Putin said, adding that for decades, France's presidential term was seven years. "In this sense, Mr. Medvedev has not proposed anything unusual."
Putin wouldn't say whether he would seek to return to office.
"As for who will run for office and when, it's too early to talk about that now," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.
The widely popular Putin — who was barred constitutionally from seeking a third straight term as president — tapped longtime protege Medvedev as his favored successor, ensuring his election in March.
Putin then became prime minister and leader of the United Russia party, which dominates the Duma, and is still widely seen as the man calling the shots in Russia.
He is not barred from running again after a break, and Medvedev's move to extend the presidential term sparked speculation that Putin might not wait until scheduled elections in 2012 to seek a return to the office.

Iceland starts talks with Russia on huge Loan

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Iceland's delegation started talks in Moscow today to secure an emergency loan of as much as 4 billion euros ($5.47 billion) from Russia after the island's three largest banks collapsed.
A six-person delegation lead by Sigurdur Sturla Palsson, the head of the central bank's international department, flew to the Russian capital yesterday, a spokeswoman for Iceland's Moscow Embassy said. The talks may last a number of days, said an official at Russia's Finance Ministry.
Iceland was the first NATO member to appeal for Russian aid after the global financial crisis led to the collapse of Kaupthing Bank hf, Landsbanki Island hf and Glitnir Bank hf with debts equivalent to as much as 12 times the size of the Nordic country's economy.
``This is a wake-up call for the U.S.,'' Vladimir Matias, managing partner at Asset Capital Partners in Moscow, told Bloomberg Television. ``It needs now to decide what do to, to intervene and possibly help Iceland and build a political bridge before the Russians.''
While Russia's stock markets suffered their worst rout since the 1998 default, the world's largest energy exporter has weathered the global credit crunch with $546 billion in currency reserves, the third largest after China and Japan.
No Support
Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde complained last week that his country hadn't received financial support from its allies in Europe and North America.
Iceland may also become the first western nation to seek aid from the International Monetary Fund since 1976. Loans from the IMF and Russia ``are not mutually exclusive,'' Haarde said on Oct. 9.
Icelandic Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir, speaking in a phone interview from Reykjavik, said that talks with Russia would last at least two days, adding that discussions with the IMF are continuing.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's top economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich, said last week that Russia wanted to help stabilize Iceland.
``Global turmoil affects Russia a lot,'' Dvorkovich said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``We are part of Europe and we want Europe to be stable.''