Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1528

January 23:

According to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Russia’s economy remains stable amid slumping global stock markets, RIA Novosti reports. “In the past few years Russia has managed to achieve economic stability piling up substantial international reserves, which play the role of an airbag,” Kudrin said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I believe Russia will soon be the focus of attention as a haven of stability.” He added that with its “substantial reserves,” Russia could “help soothe the global crisis.” Russia’s Stabilization Fund, set up to accrue surplus revenue from high world oil prices, stood at 3.85 trillion rubles ($157 billion) as of January 1st compared to 2.35 trillion rubles ($89.1 billion) a year earlier.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that NATO expansion and U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic cannot be justified by security concerns, United Press International reports. He also said Russia would have to take “appropriate measures” if Ukraine were to join NATO. Agence France-Presse, meanwhile, reports that NATO has invited President Vladimir Putin to a NATO-Russia summit on the margins of a summit of NATO leaders in Bucharest on April 2nd-4th.

Two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers have test fired missiles in the Bay of Biscay off the French coast as part of naval exercises, the BBC reports. Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, an aide to Russia’s air force commander, said the bombers’ crews “are successfully carrying out exercises over the Atlantic and firing rockets” and that the maneuvers are being carried out “in strict accordance with international rules” in neutral waters. The bombers, he said, were tracked by British and Norwegian planes.

NEWSru.com reports that a poll conducted over January 18th-21st by the independent Levada Center found that 82 percent of respondents who said they plan to vote in the March 2nd presidential election said they would choose First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev if the election were held on the coming Sunday. The website notes that President Putin did not receive such a high percentage of the vote in previous presidential elections.

[Editor’s Note: Given the effect of Russia’s increasingly authoritarian political climate on pollsters and respondents alike, the results of public opinion surveys in Russia should be viewed with some caution.]


January 25:

Semyon Mogilevich, the reputed head of a powerful Eastern European organized crime ring known as the “Brainy Don” because of his economics degree, has been arrested in Moscow. The Times of London reports that some 50 police commandos seized Mogilevich outside a Moscow supermarket, with Russian state television showing footage of the alleged mobster as police held him and bodyguards against their luxury cars. The arrest was made in connection with an investigation into a $2 million tax evasion scheme allegedly run through Arbat Prestige, a successful chain of Russian cosmetic stores owned by Vladimir Nekrasov, who was also arrested.

According to the Times of London, a known Mogilevich associate, Monya Elson, claimed in an interview given ten years ago that the Ukrainian was “the most powerful mobster in the world.” Mogilevich is wanted by the FBI, Interpol and the British police for numerous international crimes including fraud, racketeering and money laundering. “An investigation by U.S. newspaper the Village Voice, which apparently brought a death threat for its author, cited classified FBI and Mossad documents claiming that he was responsible for trafficking nuclear materials, drugs, prostitutes, precious gems, and stolen art,” the Times writes of Mogilevich. “He was also said to have run a series of contract hit squads operating in the U.S. and Europe.”