October 7:
Some 1,000 opposition activists have gathered in Moscow to mark the first anniversary of the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, while 10,000 pro-Kremlin youth assembled across town to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin on his 55th birthday. The Associated Press reports that members of the youth group “Nashi” chanted “Happy Birthday!” and carried signs bearing slogans such as “Putin is our everything!” and “Putin is our future!” Alexei Permogorov, an opposition activist who attended the Politkovskaya memorial, told the AP: “We are living in a country that isn’t free. And Politkovskaya was fighting for freedom.” Putin, meanwhile, hosted a Kremlin reception for senior Cabinet officials, the top military and security brass and families of the officers who have died in line of duty.
October 9:
In the wake of the arrest earlier this month of Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) deputy head Lt.-Gen. Alexander Bulbov and several other senior FSKN officers by agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the newly-formed Investigative Committee, Kommersant has published an article by FSKN chief Viktor Cherkesov. In it, Cherkesov openly refers to an “internecine war” going on within Russia’s special services. He also defends Bulbov and his men, who investigated the “Tri Kita” furniture store case and other cases of alleged contraband smuggling by senior officials of the FSB and Prosecutor General’s Office.
Cherkesov’s article stresses the need for solidarity within the “corporation” of Russia’s special services, which he also refers to as the “Chekist” community. “Scandals and fights cannot be tolerated,” he writes. “Norms must not be turned into arbitrariness. Warriors must not be allowed to become merchants.”
October 9:
Gazprom has avoided another energy standoff with Ukraine by reaching a deal on repayment terms for the $2 billion debt Moscow says Kiev owes it for natural gas shipments, the Financial Times reports. The deal follows Gazprom’s threat last week to cut supplies if Ukraine failed to settle $1.3 billion in debts by November 1st, raising concerns of new shortfalls to Europe. In an earlier price dispute in 2005-2006, Gazprom cut shipments to Ukraine, triggering natural gas shortages in Europe. About 80 percent of Russian gas exports to Europe pass through Ukraine.
October 10:
Russia’s booming economy and hunger for new cars, televisions and machinery means that the transit routes through Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are clogged with trucks, Reuters reports. The amount of goods imported to Russia through Finland has doubled from 2002 to 2006 and Russia’s transport ministry admits it cannot handle the growing number of vehicles. Latvia has 700 and 1,000 trucks regularly waiting at the two main crossing points to Russia and processing takes between 60 and 72 hours. Last month a line of trucks waited for more than a week in Estonia. “The situation in Latvia got so bad that in April a local region declared a state of emergency to draw central government’s attention to its infrastructure needs,” Reuters writes.
FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev has told Argumenty i Fakty that some Western politicians want to “prevent Russia from becoming an equal participant in international relations” and are “asserting claims on our territory and national wealth.” “Claiming credit for the breakup of the Soviet Union,” he said, “they now are hatching plans aimed at dismembering Russia.” He accused Britain’s MI6 of trying to influence Russian domestic politics and charged that both MI6 and the CIA “continue to enlist the services in the Russian sector of their partners from Poland, Georgia, the Baltic states and some others.” Patrushev also claimed foreign intelligence services are using NGOs both to gather intelligence and to exert a “hidden influence” on Russia’s “political processes.”
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