A Kremlin official today described the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London as a “tragedy.”
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November 24, 2006
Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko claiming to have been poisoned died, doctors said, three weeks after being mysteriously poisoned in what critics alleged was a Soviet-style sting by Moscow’s secret services, a charge denied by the Kremlin, the AFP news agency reported Friday.
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Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned on the direct orders of the Kremlin because of his biting mockery of President Putin, according to a former Soviet spy now living in Britain, The Times wrote Monday.
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November 20, 2006A senior Kremlin adviser said Tuesday that Russia doesn’t intend to initiate the creation of a global natural gas cartel, but said such a project couldn’t be totally ruled out.
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November 15, 2006Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Moscow favors continued talks over Iran’s nuclear program amid a continued split in the UN Security Council over possible sanctions against Tehran, AFP said.
In a telephone conversation, “Putin put forward the principled position of Russia in favor of continuing the process of negotiations during a discussion of the situation surrounding Iran’s nuclear program,†the Kremlin press service said in a statement.
Western powers at the UN Security Council have been pushing for sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, but Russia and China have been reluctant to vote for a severe set of penalties against Tehran.
Iran has stepped up its research into the sensitive activity as diplomats have warned it could take several weeks to reach an agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week rejected the proposed sanctions, arguing that they did not advance objectives agreed on by six leading world powers concerned with the case.
The Chinese stance has yet to become clear, although Beijing — like Moscow — is an economic ally of Iran and traditionally reluctant to use sanctions for diplomatic leverage.
A text drafted by Britain, France and Germany in consultations with Washington provides for a freeze of assets related to Iran’s ballistic missile program and nuclear industry as well as travel bans on scientists.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Sunday said it was clear that there was a split between the stances of China and Russia on one hand and Europe and the U.S. on the other.
“These two countries have completely different positions to the Europeans. Russia does not want sanctions and does not want to close the path of negotiations, and the Chinese have a similar position,†he said.
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October 31, 2006Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Vladimir Putin to run for a third presidential term in 2008, despite a constitutional two-term limit, according to a newspaper interview published Monday.
Mubarak, set to visit Russia later this week, hailed Putin as “a very good, clever leader†in the interview with the daily Vremya Novostei, and said he should stay in office — the first such call from a global leader. “Russia needs Putin,†Mubarak was quoted as saying.
Asked by the newspaper what he would tell Putin when they sat down for talks in the Kremlin, Mubarak answered: “To stay on and not to listen to anyone. For the sake of national interests.â€
“He knows well the situation in Russia and the world,†Mubarak said about Putin. “He understands everything. Let him stay.â€
The immensely popular Putin is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term, and he has insisted he will step down in 2008. However, supporters and various regional groups, including in Chechnya, have called for a referendum on amending the country’s basic law to allow Putin to stay in power.
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Mubarak scoffed at Russia’s two-term limit as an imitation of the United States.
“Is your constitutional two-term limit an imitation of the Americans?†he was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “You criticize the Americans and you imitate what they do. Are you opening the doors or closing them? You must decide.â€
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October 30, 2006Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos arrives in Moscow for a three-day visit Monday with an agenda dominated by bilateral economic and international issues, Kremlin press office reported in Monday.
Russia has been seeking to re-establish contacts with African states, including oil-rich Angola, under President Vladimir Putin. The president and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made separate tours of the continent this fall, signaling a fresh interest in business cooperation since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which supplied arms and other goods to Africa in the ideological standoff with the West.
Russia is currently Angola’s 10th largest partner, according to Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a government daily. But meeting with Lavrov in September, Soviet-educated Dos Santos urged more intensive cooperation with Russia, above all in the development of new iron ore, oil and gas deposits, and space.
The Kremlin press office said: “A set of bilateral documents is expected to be signed at the meeting.†Other areas of cooperation between Russia and Angola include diamond production, power engineering, and fisheries. Russia’s largest diamond producer, Alrosa, has about a 40% stake in the Catoca diamond joint venture in Angola, which produces around 6 million carats of crude diamonds a year.
Russian companies are helping the country build the largest hydropower plant in the region, with a capacity of 520 mWt, and are in talks on the construction of power lines. Russian fishing companies also catch up to 25,000 metric tons of sea products a year in Angolan waters.
Angola has shown brisk economic development exploiting its vast mineral resources since the government signed a ceasefire agreement with American-backed UNITA rebels in 2002, following 27 years of bloody civil war. The country, which was in ruins several years ago, plans to export up to 2 million barrels of oil annually, largely to the United States and China, by 2008, RIA Novosti reports.
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Condoleezza Rice on Saturday delivered a symbolic rebuke to Russia over shrinking press freedoms even as she courted President Vladimir Putin for help punishing Iran over its nuclear program, The Associated Press news agency reports.
Rice made a point of scheduling an interview with Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where a Anna Politkovskaya had worked before her murder this month. Rice also met with the reporter’s son.
Rice’s one-day trip to Moscow followed talks in Asia last week over North Korea’s nuclear test on Oct. 9. Russia voted for U.N. penalties against North Korea after the test, and the United States is seeking Russian cooperation for an upcoming vote on sanctions against Iran.
Yet even before Rice arrived in the Russian capital, her Russian counterpart said Moscow will not allow the Security Council to be used for punitive measures against Iran. Russia, however, was ready to discuss ways to pressure Iran into accepting broader international oversight of its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
“Any measures of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks,†Lavrov said in an interview with the Kuwaiti News Agency KUNA that was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry Web site Saturday.
“We won’t be able to support and will oppose any attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or use Iran’s program in order to promote the ideas of regime change there,†according to the interview Friday.
A draft resolution is expected to be introduced in the Security Council early this week, and diplomats have said they would seek limited penalties for Tehran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
Rice’s decision to meet with Novaya Gazeta editors and reporters was a reminder to Putin of the widening rift between Russia and the U.S. over what the Bush administration sees as a rollback of democratic gains under the Russian president.
She met privately with Putin later Saturday.
Previewing her message to the newspaper editors, Rice told reporters traveling with her that she wanted to speak to one of a shrinking number of “independent voices†in Russian media.
“The fate of journalists in Russia is a major concern,†Rice said. “Anna Politkovskaya was a particularly well-known and well-respected journalist so I think it’s important to note that.â€
Politkovskaya repeatedly had accused Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov’s security forces of abducting, torturing and killing innocent people. Her newspaper posthumously published her last story that described alleged torture by the Kremlin-backed Chechen security services.
Politkovskaya, a sharp critic of Putin and the conduct of the Kremlin and of Russia’s war in Chechnya, was found shot dead at her Moscow apartment building.
Since Putin’s election more than six years ago, he has presided over what critics have called a steady rollback in press freedoms won since the Soviet Union’s collapse. Top independent television stations have been shut down and print media are under growing pressure from officials.
Putin said the killers had done the Russian government no favor. The killing “inflicts much greater damage to the government than any of her writing,†he said after the killing.
The media rights group Reporters Without Borders has called Putin one of the world’s press freedom “predators.â€
Rice’s last Asian stop was in Beijing, North Korea’s traditional ally, where she met with a Chinese government envoy just back from a hastily arranged visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Rice said the envoy, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, told her nothing that confirmed news reports about conciliatory moves from the North.
“Councilor Tang did not tell me that Kim Jong Il either apologized for the test or said that he would never test again,†Rice said, adding that she does not know the source of widely circulated South Korean media reports to the contrary.
“I don’t know whether or not Kim Jong Il said any such thing. But the Chinese … in a fairly thorough briefing to me about the talks, said nothing,†that confirms it, Rice said.
Lavrov, in the Kuwaiti interview, urged the U.S. and North Korea to settle issues such as U.S.-imposed financial restrictions in order to clear the way for international talks to resume on the North’s nuclear program.
“Both sides should show flexibility,†he said.
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October 24, 2006A Kremlin spokesman has said that Vladimir Putin’s recent joke about Israeli President’s sexual abilities was a bad translation and not an approval of rape, the Associated Press news agency reports.
President Vladimir Putin made joking references to the sexual assault accusations against Israeli President Moshe Katsav when he met the visiting Israeli prime minister.
As Ehud Olmert met the Russian leader at the Kremlin on Wednesday, reporters overheard Putin tell him: “Say hello to your president. He really surprised us.â€
The microphones were then cut off but Putin was overheard, adding, “I met him. He didn’t look like a guy who could be with 10 women.â€
Olmert told his host: “I wouldn’t envy him,†said an Israeli, who heard the talk but sought anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media.
Israeli police want Katsav, 60, charged with rape, aggravated sexual assault and misconduct after women who once worked for him filed complaints. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov explained away the exchange as poor translation. “In no way can (it) be considered as an approval of raping women or an appreciation of such a potential action. Sometimes translation from Russian into English does not reflect the essence of a joke.â€
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October 21, 2006Reporters Without Borders today asked the French government to strip Russian leader Vladimir Putin of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour that President Chirac awarded him just one month ago, on 22 September, the RSF web-site reports.
The request was addressed to the Council of State and to Chirac, as Grand Master of the Order of the Legion of Honour.
“The Legion of Honour is France’s highest award and the Grand Cross is the highest rank within the order,†the press freedom organization said. “We think Vladimir Putin is not worthy of this decoration and for this reason we have asked President Chirac and the Council of State to withdraw it.â€
Reporters Without Borders continued: “It beggars belief that Putin has been given one of the greatest honors France can bestow on a person. A total of 21 journalists have been murdered in Russia with almost total impunity since he became president. Chechnya is black hole for news coverage. Putin waited 48 hours before making any comment about the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, one of the few journalists to cover the Chechen conflict, and then he chose to say ’her impact on Russian political life was minimal’.â€
The organization added: “The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Russia twice, in February 2005 and on 12 October 2006, for its actions in Chechnya. It is outrageous to say Putin has rendered service to causes that France defends. We do not recognize France’s fundamental values in Putin’s discourse — when he says, for example, that he wants to wipe out Chechen terrorists in the shit-house, or when he describes the independent press as means of mass disinformation and tools for combatting the state, or when he tells a French journalist who asks him about Chechnya to come and get circumcised in Moscow so nothing grows back.â€
Acclaimed internationally for her courage and professionalism as a journalist, Politkovskaya was gunned down in her central Moscow apartment building on 7 October. Aged 48, she had worked for the biweekly Novaya Gazeta since 1999. She was supposed to have handed in an article, with photos, about torture in Chechnya for the 9 October issue. It never arrived at the newspaper. In her last book, “Russia according to Putin,†published this year in France, she not only criticized atrocities in Chechnya but also corruption and human rights violations in Russia.
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