June 24:
Freedom House has said that surging oil and gas wealth in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are enabling their authoritarian governments to increasingly “clamp down” on critics, independent voices and institutions, the Voice of America reports. The human rights group states in a new report, “Nations in Transit 2008,” that all three countries have seen a “sharp and systematic erosion of accountability and transparency” and have moved backward on every single democracy indicator since 1999, except for Russia’s slightly improved corruption score.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has backed a $4.7 billion program to rebuild Chechnya over the next four years, roughly double the federal money spent over the last six years to create jobs and fund construction projects in the war-torn republic, the Moscow Times reports. “In the next four years, we are to create tens of thousands of jobs in this region and double its industrial output,” Putin told a session of the Presidium, his inner Cabinet, adding that the program aims to finance the construction of roads, colleges and institutes, hospitals and broadcasting facilities.
June 25:
First Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov has told pro-Kremlin youth activists that “destructive forces” inside Russia are trying to “drive a wedge” between President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Ekho Moskvy radio reports. Political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin told the radio station that Surkov’s comments signal “serious differences” between “influence groups” surrounding Medvedev and Putin. Still, Oreshkin said such differences are “inevitable and completely natural” given Russia’s new “enigmatic configuration of power” and can even have a positive influence – facilitating a kind of “separation of powers” - as long as the two leaders manage to avoid “butting heads” and can reach a consensus.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said his country is fortifying “all levels of cooperation” with Russia, including the purchase of more arms, the Associated Press reports. Chavez said he spoke with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by telephone and is grateful to Putin for helping Venezuela buy arms in the face of a U.S. “embargo.” (As AP notes, Venezuela is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the U.S.) Venezuelan Defense Minister Orlando Maniglia is on his way to Moscow for meetings.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that Berlin shares Georgia’s concern about Russia’s actions in the breakaway region of Abkhazia, Agence France-Presse reports. “Like Georgia, Germany is concerned about the steps that have been taken by Russia,” Merkel said after talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, adding that Germany is ready to help negotiate an end to the standoff and that Tblisi and Moscow should “remain calm.” Saakashvili said he is ready to work with Moscow to defuse the crisis and wants to forge “a partnership” with Russia, whom he accuses of seeking to annex Abkhazia.
Meanwhile, an official with Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly, Gazprom, has told Reuters that the idea of building a gas pipeline directly from Russia to Abkhazia is “being studied.”
President Medvedev has told Reuters that Russia is facing both international threats like financial instability and domestic threats, above all poverty. Resolving poverty is “the main task for the government,” he said. “We are going to work hard at this, using all of our economic might. The second problem is corruption. Corruption as a systemic challenge, as a threat to national security, as a problem which leads to a lack of faith among citizens in the ability of government to bring order and protect them.” Medvedev also said in the interview that Russia is seeking a “serious” pact with the European Union reaffirming it as part of Europe.