January 21:
The Associated Press reports that Russian security forces are actively searching for three suspected female suicide bombers, at least one of whom is believed to be in Sochi ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games there. All three persons of interest are so-called “black widows,” the surviving spouses of now-deceased North Caucasus militants, who have been trained “to perpetrate acts of terrorism,” a police description of the suspects has outlined.
Reuters reports that Russian police have killed a senior Islamist militant in the North Caucasus during a search for a woman they suspect is planning a terrorist attack during the Olympic Games in Sochi. The militant leader, Eldar Magatov, was a suspect in a number of attacks on Russian targets, and is alleged to have served as the leader of an insurgent group in Dagestan. Police continue to search for the woman, Ruzanna Ibragimovaya, who is the widow of a slain Islamist militant and is believed to have left Dagestan in order to participate in terrorist attacks during the Winter Olympics.
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January 22:
Against the backdrop of the Sochi Olympics, Russia is stepping up its counterterrorism cooperation with Israel. RIA Novosti reports that Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, on an official state visit to Israel, has expressed an interest in learning how Israeli “special units carry out anti-terrorist operations and hostage-release missions and ensure security and order at mass public events.” During his stay, Kolokoltsev was shown the multi-level security system in place at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion international airport – widely considered one of the world’s safest airports. Additionally, arrangements were made by Kolokoltsev and his Israeli counterpart, Yitzhak Aharonovich, for a number of officers from the Russian Interior Ministry’s transportation security department to travel to Israel for training in transport hub security.
A controversial bill that would have branded Russian media outlets which receive more than 50% of their revenue from foreign sources as “foreign agents” was withdrawn from the State Duma on Tuesday, RIA Novosti reports. The draft legislation – introduced in November by members of the ruling United Russia party- will be reintroduced at a later date, with an even lower threshold for qualification as a foreign agent. “We are simply tightening the wording linked to ‘foreign agents.’ It put [the threshold at] 50-percent foreign funding. We think this figure should be increased after the recent events in Ukraine where, in essence, the media has provoked a civil war,” deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov, one of the bill’s authors, has said.
January 23:
Just weeks after President Putin’s pardoning of ousted oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Khodorkovsky’s business partner, Platon Lebedev, is also a free man. The Wall Street Journal reports that Russia’s Supreme Court has released Lebedev from jail four months early, bringing to a close the country’s most high-profile criminal case in recent years. All is not forgiven for Messrs Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, however; the same court verdict refused to overturn the $500 million-plus tax penalty previously levied against Khodorkovsky – funds that he will be forced to pay if he returns to Russia or establishes new business dealings there.
January 24:
New, stricter customs rules have caused a number of parcel couriers to pull out of the Russian market, the New York Times reports. Under new customs rules propagated at the beginning of the year, couriers are forced to prove that each package they transport does not contain anything more valuable than the duty free limit of approximately $200 – an onerous burden that is likely to significantly impact the operations of companies delivering parcels in the Russian Federation. In response, several couriers, including FedEx, UPS and DHL, have announced that they are halting the delivery of all goods to Russian individuals.