June 8:
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces reported the successful testing of its next-generation ICBM, which can supposedly pierce any anti-ballistic missile system. The test, which was the fourth successful launch of the new missile, according to RIA-Novosti, took place only days after the United States announced that it would resume plans to place an anti-ballistic missile system in Europe. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin lauded the success of the latest launch, calling the new missiles “a missile defense killer...Neither current nor future American missile defense systems will be able to prevent that missile from hitting a target dead on.” Called the “Rubezh” system, the new ICBMs are expected to replace the old Topol-M and Yars missile systems in the next year. Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces currently have 160 mobile Topol-M missile systems, 50 silo-based and 18 road-mobile Topol-M systems, and 18 RS-24 Yars systems. Russia is also believed to have at least 58 silo-based Soviet-era P36M ballistic missiles (classified by NATO as “SS-18 Satan” missiles), which are estimated to be the most powerful missiles in the world, incorporating up to 10 megaton-class warheads.
June 10:
As nongovernmental organizations deal with the recent law requiring those who receive aid from abroad to register as “foreign agents” (a term which is the equivalent of “spy” in Russia), even non-political groups are being dragged into court. In the latest round, reports the Christian Science Monitor, groups dedicated to environmentalism, wildlife protection, and children’s rights – groups which Russian authorities initially pledged would be exempt from the law – now face fines of up to $15,000 if they fail to acquire the “foreign agent” label. “We’re not going to accept this label by registering,” said Marina Rikhvanova, the leader of Baikal Environmental Wave, an organization which once persuaded the Kremlin to re-route a controversial pipeline away from Russia’s Lake Baikal. “We will protest, we will go to court,” she added. “They searched us in the past, and found no foreign agents here. I assume prosecutors must have got fresh instructions to find some foreign agents, somehow, somewhere.” “Aid to Children with Cystic Fibrosis, an NGO which recently irritated the Ministry of Health by questioning its methods, was also served with notice, along with St. Petersburg’s annual “Bok o Bok” international film festival, which screens LGBT-themed films.
June 11:
Russia’s human rights activists are up in arms, after the country’s lower house of parliament overwhelmingly voted through two controversial bills. The first, the Telegraph reports, introduced jail terms for “religious offenders.” Introduced last year after the Pussy Riot trial, the new law will impose up to three years in prison on “public activities expressing clear disrespect to society and carried out with the aim of insulting the religious feelings of believers.” The second law levies substantial fines against the distribution of “propaganda of homosexuality among minors.” The support for both bills illustrates the recent revival of the Orthodox Church under President Vladimir Putin, which has led to the promotion of what are viewed as “core traditional values.” Outside the parliament building, supporters of the bills gathered, accusing gay rights campaigners of “destroying the Russian family and imposing themselves” on Russia’s children. “Let them go off to America or Europe,” suggested one protestor, “where they will be welcome.”
June 12:
Between six and ten thousand people gathered to march through the streets of Moscow on Russia Day. Estimates varied by the source, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports, but the protestors gathered to demand the release of those they consider “political prisoners.” They carried banners and the pictures of the twenty-seven activists detained last year after a May 6th protest, on the eve of Putin’s inauguration, for “mass rioting.” The protest was called “a march for our and your freedom,” a slogan which was popular among Russia’s Soviet-era dissidents. “We want Moscow to really belong to Muscovites,” said one protestor. “That is first.”
June 13:
“The possibility of constantly and quickly raising state spending has been exhausted,” according to President Putin. The statement was made in Putin’s annual presentation of the government’s three-year budget plan, as Russian stocks hit new one-year lows and the Kremlin announced economic growth of just 1.6 percent in the first quarter, less than half last year’s total in the same period. Alhough a logical conclusion, analysts note that cutbacks will be difficult if Putin aims to fulfill his campaign promises. So far, Reuters reports, Putin insists that he will not “backtrack” on plans to spend over $700 billion to modernize Russia’s armed forces. Moreover, the three-year fiscal package to be proposed by Russia’s Finance Minister foresees the country running at a deficit until at least 2016, contrary to Putin’s promise to balance the budget by 2015. With the increase in spending, experts estimate that oil, the backbone of Russia’s economy, would have to sell at $115 per barrel to balance the budget, instead of its current $103 per barrel. “If you don’t want to violate the fiscal rule,” noted Russian economist Ivan Tchakarov, referring to Moscow’s recent policy of restricting new borrowing, “then you must be ready to shift military spending to health and education. This is not consistent.”
June 14:
Prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny raised the stakes in his ongoing trial by winning the backing of opposition party RPR-PARNAS in the Moscow mayoral election. “I’m running in the elections to rip our city out of the pincers and tentacles of Mr. Putin, Mr. Sobyanin (the current mayor) and the United Russia party,” Navalny told supporters. Sergei Sobyanin, who was appointed Mayor by the Kremlin in 2010, surprised many by resigning earlier this month and calling for a snap election. Critics accuse the Kremlin of planning the move to legitimize Sobyanin and cheat the opposition out of the time needed to organize a campaign. Although Navalny is only polling at three percent in Moscow according to the latest poll, Reuters reports that analysts believe he will gain further support now that Mikhail Prokhorov, who was polling second behind Sobyanin, announced that he has no plans to run.