April 17:
Chechnya’s pro-Moscow government has condemned the Vostok Battalion, a Chechen-manned unit subordinated to Russian military intelligence (GRU), following an April 14th incident in which battalion members clashed with forces loyal to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov on a road near the town of Gudermes. According to some reports, as many as 18 people died in a gun battle that capped an armed standoff. As the New York Times notes, analysts have said that divisions between indigenous paramilitary units in Chechnya, each with sponsors in Moscow, could disrupt the Kremlin’s efforts to stabilize the region.
President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to recognize some documents issued by separatist authorities in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and tighten links with businesses and organizations registered in the two breakaway Georgian regions. As Radio Free Europe notes, the move was quickly condemned by the United States, the European Union, and NATO, with the EU and NATO voicing “deep concern,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urging Moscow to reverse the decision, and U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack condemning it as “political mischief.” Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze called the move “an attempt to annex two Georgian regions,” AP reported.
Russia has agreed write off $4.5 billion worth of Libya’s Cold War-era debt in return for military and civilian contracts with Russian companies, Reuters reports. The deal was one of ten agreements reached during a visit to Tripoli by President Vladimir Putin, the first by a Kremlin leader to Libya since 1985. “I am satisfied by the way we have solved the debt problem,” Putin said. “I am convinced we found a scheme which will benefit both the Russian and Libyan economies and the Russian and Libyan people. The deal will not only employ Russian defense enterprises but will also help strengthen Libya’s defenses.” Interfax reported that Moscow hopes to sell Tripoli anti-aircraft systems, jet fighters, helicopters and warships worth 2.5 billion euros (more than $3.86 billion).
April 18:
NEWSru.com reports that the tabloid Moskovsky Korrespondent has suspended publication just days after running an article claiming that President Vladimir Putin plans to divorce his wife and marry Alina Kabayeva, a 24-year-old Olympic gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics who is now a State Duma deputy. Artyom Artyomov, director of National Media Company, which publishes the paper, said the decision to suspend publication was due to financial problems and not connected to the controversy over the article. Putin denied the article’s claims during a joint press conference with Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi in Sardinia, condemning those who meddle with “snotty noses and erotic fantasies in others’ lives.”
A study by Sergei Shpilkin, a physicist and computer programmer, has found that up to a third of votes cast for Dmitry Medvedev in the March 2nd presidential election were likely to have been rigged, the Times of London reports. Shpilkin, who analyzed the ballot returns from electoral commissions throughout Russia and presented his research at a seminar organized by the Moscow Carnegie Center, found that unusually high numbers of polling stations had reported turnout and percentage results for Medvedev that ended in a five or zero, among other anomalies. He concluded that millions of votes for Medvedev were the product of mass fraud or the use of “administrative resources” by government officials to pressure state employees into supporting him.
April 20:
Russia has closed down a plutonium producing reactor, marking a milestone in U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts, the Associated Press reports. Itar-TASS cited a Siberian Chemicals Plant official, Alleges Suglobov, with announcing the closure of the plant in the Siberian town of Seversk.