 RFE/RL Russia Report 4/27/2010 7:43:18 PM A review of RFE/RL reporting and analysis about domestic and foreign-policy developments in Russia. For more stories on Russia, please visit and bookmark our Russia page . |
 Reporter's Notebook: Battle Of The Flags In Oslo In an apparent coincidence, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his security detail are sharing an Oslo hotel with some of his harshest critics -- the dissidents, activists, and journalists attending a major human rights forum. More  Veteran Russian Activist Backs Travel Ban In Lawyer Case The veteran Russian rights campaigner Lyudmila Alekseyeva has backed a call by a senior U.S. senator for Washington to deny entry to a group of Russian officials over the prison death of a lawyer. More  New Russian Legislation Would Increase FSB's Authority A new bill submitted to parliament would give Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) the right to take "preventive measures" against citizens suspected of engaging in vaguely defined "extremist activity." More  Irkutsk Protests Demand Governor Quit Hundreds of protesters in the eastern Russian city of Angarsk have demanded the resignation of Irkutsk Governor Dmitry Mezentsev. More  Ukraine, Russia MPs Approve Black Sea Deal The Russian and Ukrainian parliaments have ratified a deal that will keep Russia's Navy based in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula until 2042, as thousands protested outside Ukraine's parliament building against the accord. More  Senator Seeks Visa Sanctions On Russia A U.S. senator has asked Washington to cancel U.S. visa privileges for 60 Russian officials and others over the death in jail last year of a lawyer for what was once Russia's top equity fund, Hermitage. More  Russia Seeks Energy Ties With Norway Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged today closer cooperation on energy issues with Norway and to end a decades-old dispute over the two countries' border in the Barents Sea -- which is thought to contain vast oil and gas resources. More  Going To Extremes The daily "Kommersant" is reporting today that the government has submitted a bill to the State Duma that would allow the Federal Security Service (FSB) to take "preventive measures," including warnings and fines, against individuals suspected of engaging in the vaguely defined activity of "extremism." More  Ukraine, Neighbors Recall Chornobyl Ceremonies were held today in Moscow and St. Petersburg to commemorate the people who died from radiation exposure at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine. More  Sentence Of Tatar Activist To Be Reviewed Tatarstan's Supreme Court has announced it will rule on an appeal on the conviction of prominent Tatar pro-independence activist Fauzia Bayramova on April 27. More  Lukashenka Raps Russia Over Bases Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka today berated ally Russia for not paying for its military bases deployed in his country and warned that he could snub the summit of a Moscow-dominated security pact next month. More Two tax-police officers in Russia's eastern Baikal region have been jailed for accepting bribes. More  Sex Video Continues Smear Campaign Against Russia's Opposition A video of three Russian opposition figures having sex has been released on the Internet in an apparent smear campaign that one of those targeted warns is far from finished. More  Luzhkov In The Crosshairs It's hard to imagine Moscow being run by anybody but Yury Luzhkov. But with the Kremlin intent on sweeping out the old guard of regional leaders, speculation if mounting that the Moscow mayor is next on the list. More  Kadyrov Rejects Murder Allegations A spokesman for Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has rejected allegations that Kadyrov ordered the assassinations of three brothers. More  NATO Looks To Evolve Without Shedding DNA The first day of the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, was dedicated to the future of the alliance. Day two will tackle Afghanistan in talks conducted together with non-NATO nations contributing ISAF forces and relations with Russia -- albeit with no Russian officials in attendance. More  Federal Envoy Calls For Concession To Circassians Within weeks of his appointment as president of the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic in September 2008, Boris Ebzeyev managed to antagonize the republic's Circassian minority by naming a Greek, rather than a Circassian, to head the republic's new government. That perceived slight was instrumental in fuelling Circassian demands that the existing borders between the North Caucasus republics be redrawn to create a Circassian republic comprising the territories where Circssians currently constitute a majority of the population. More  Design Fail: Soviet War Veteran Calendar Uses Photos Of Nazi Troops Veterans in the Russian city of Perm are unlikely to forget this year's 65th anniversary of the World War II defeat of Nazi Germany. More  Lenin's Bulging Head The thousands of Lenin statues dotted around Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have experienced mixed fates. More Fed up with the blaring sirens used by government officials to get to their destinations faster than ordinary Muscovites, a group of frustrated drivers has begun to fight back, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports. More  Lenin’s Birthday Resonates In New York, Too During my first years as a New Yorker in the mid-1990s, I was astonished to discover the familiar silhouette of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin hovering over the New York City skyline. More  Clear Skies For NATO Meeting, Though Trouble Brews Over Russia, Afghanistan NATO foreign ministers are breathing a collective sigh of relief as skies in Europe clear from volcanic ash and their April 22-23 meeting in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, can now officially go ahead. Russia is expected to dominate the agenda of the meeting in the former Soviet republic. More  Two Foreigners Killed In Moscow Two men have been killed in a spate of attacks against foreigners in Moscow. More  Daghestani Rights Group Plans To Sue Over 'Black Widow' Photos The co-chair of the advocacy group Mothers of Daghestan for Human Rights, Svetlana Isayeva, says her organization will file a lawsuit against the daily "Komsomolskaya pravda" for publishing the photographs of 22 women who law-enforcement officials say could potentially become suicide bombers. More  Chechen Republic Head Implicated In Two Political Killings A Russian daily has published what it claims is an open letter from Moscow-based Chechen businessman Isa Yamadayev, together with a link to video footage in which Yamadayev's former bodyguard Khavazh Yusupov, who's charged with trying to kill Yamadayev, says in pretrial testimony that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov personally ordered him to kill Yamadayev. More |
