Russian police clubbed and detained opposition protestors St. Petersburg on Sunday during a non-sanctioned rally against President Vladimir Putin, The Associated Press Reports.
Popularity: 5% [?]
April 16, 2007Former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov accused Russian authorities of illegally crushing an anti-Kremlin march on Saturday and called the protest a victory for opponents of President Vladimir Putin, the Reuters news agency reports.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Russian exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky said Friday that he was planning a revolution in Russia to overthrow President Vladimir Putin.
Popularity: 5% [?]
April 13, 2007The Social Democratic Party of Russia, re-established in 2002 by former president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev was banned on Friday by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reports.
Popularity: 3% [?]
The adoption of the American model for development has not created prosperity in Kyrgyzstan, the Central Asian republic’s state secretary was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying on Wednesday.
Popularity: 2% [?]
December 6, 2006Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued his sternest warning to Georgia so far, telling European Union leaders that Tbilisi was risking bloodshed by seeking to regain control over breakaway regions.
The Reuters news agency reports that Putin sounded a conciliatory note on energy cooperation with the 25-nation EU, agreeing to negotiate on common principles in a new strategic partnership agreement and giving an assurance that foreign oil and gas investments would be respected. But he firmly rebuffed EU criticism of Russia’s blockade of its former Soviet neighbor, saying Georgia had provoked the escalation in tension by staging a military buildup around the Russian-backed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“It is moving in the direction of bloodshed because the Georgian leadership is seeking to restore its control through military means and they are quite open about that,†Putin told a joint news conference after dinner with EU leaders. Georgia’s foreign minister accused Putin of deliberately misrepresenting the tensions between Georgia and Russia, and insulting the intelligence of his European colleagues.
“The government of Georgia and the people of Georgia have no intention to use force against its citizens as repeatedly stated,†Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told reporters in Tbilisi. “This is pure fiction and the Russian president knows this but chooses to presume that the international community is ignorant,†he said.
The Europeans delivered a united message that Russia must give European firms a fair chance to access its huge energy resources or risk an investor exodus. “We need to develop mutual trust that requires transparency, the rule of law, reciprocity, nondiscrimination, market opening and market access,†European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
Putin said he believed there were no issues in energy cooperation that could not be resolved. He assured the Europeans that a decision to exclude foreign capital from development of the Arctic Shtokman gas field did not signal a change in rules for foreign investors and said Moscow would respect Shell’s license to operate its Sakhalin-2 project, which has been hit by Russian environmental charges.
Russian and European officials said Putin sought to tackle EU criticism head-on by inviting the leaders from the outset to question him on any sensitive issue. Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said he had raised the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Putin, as well as Moscow’s treatment of Georgia and the harassment of Georgians in Russia.
Russia cut transport and postal links with Georgia after Tbilisi briefly detained four Russian army officers on spying charges last month. Some Georgians have been deported from Russia, Georgian businesses have been shut down and police have asked some schools to provide lists of pupils with Georgian-sounding names. Moscow has been irked by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s pursuit of NATO and EU membership, while Georgia accuses Russia of backing separatists by giving aid and Russian passports to residents of the breakaway territories.
Popularity: 1% [?]
October 21, 2006
Russia does not have the same kind of democracy as in other European countries, Finland’s Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has said. Russia has democratic institutions, but the way that they work is not the same as in other countries of Western Europe, he said.
Vanhanen made his comments in Brussels in a joint interview with three Nordic newspapers: Helsingin Sanomat, the Swedish Dagens Nyheter, and the Danish Politiken.
“They say themselves that they have a democracy of their own kind. I don’t remember the exact definitionsâ€, Vanhanen said when asked if there is a functioning democracy in Russia.
“It is not the same kind of democracy as in other European countries. Russia has democratic institutions, but the way that they work is not the same as we have in Western Europe.â€
Vanhanen was cautious in his assessment of democratic development in Russia.
“Our experiences in the development of democratic models of action and political parties are from 100 years back, and it is not easy to give advice on it. It is important for Russia to adhere to its commitments in the development of democracy.â€
Vanhanen again rejected criticism over the invitation of Russia’s President Putin to a dinner during the unofficial European Union summit in Lahti on Friday.
The visit comes at a sensitive time. In addition to the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Russia has come under increasing criticism from the West over its treatment of neighboring Georgia.
Vanhanen said that thorny issues will also come up in Lahti, even though the main topics to be discussed with Putin are partnership questions and energy.
“If these questions are to be discussed, the only way to do it is to arrange an opportunity for a discussionâ€, he said.
Popularity: 1% [?]
October 18, 2006
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