February 13:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that veiled threats from Russia toward Ukraine were “reprehensible” and “unacceptable,” Agence France-Presse reports. Referring to comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 12th that Moscow could aim missiles at Ukraine if it pursues plans to host NATO missile-defense facilities, Rice said such rhetoric “is not helpful to a relationship that has some positive aspects,” and cited U.S.-Russian cooperation on Iran and North Korea as well as Middle East peace as examples of the latter.
Roman Rudakov, the Russian conscript hospitalized for thirteen months after being severely beaten, has died in Moscow’s Burdenko military hospital, RIA Novosti reports. Rudakov, who underwent multiple operations, including the removal of his small intestine last September, claimed his condition was the result of hazing. However, in January 2006, Sergei Ivanov, who was then Russia’s defense minister, said Rudakov’s case was “exclusively medical” and had nothing to do with hazing. According to Polit.ru, Rudakov’s sister claimed last August that he was dying in the hospital because he was not receiving medical care or even “elementary nursing.”
February 14:
In his final annual presidential press conference, Vladimir Putin has said that there were no “serious failures” during his eight years in office and that “all the goals that were set were reached,” according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s website. Asked whether he would see the prime minister’s post as “transitional” if Dmitry Medvedev is elected president and follows through on his stated intention to make him prime minister, Putin said the premiership “cannot be transitional” and that he will remain in it for as long as possible if he can fulfill the goals he laid out in his speech on Russia’s development plans through to 2020. Putin also said he would not need to hang the president’s portrait in his office.
Asked about the decision by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights not to send election monitors to the March 2nd presidential election, Putin said that instead of trying to “teach” people they should “teach their wives to make shchi” – cabbage soup. Asked about the claim made in Western newspapers that he is the richest person in Europe, Putin said it was “nonsense” they “picked out of their noses and smeared on their papers.”
February 15:
In a speech to the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum, Russia’s likely next president, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, has said that Russia needs to concentrate over the next four years on four ‘i’s - institutions, infrastructure, innovation and investment – and complete seven tasks: overcoming legal nihilism, radically lowering of administrative barriers, reducing the tax burden, turning the ruble into a regional reserve currency, creating the basis for a national innovation system and realizing a program for the country’s social development. According to NEWSru.com, Medvedev also called for ensuring an independent court system and press, shrinking the state apparatus and fighting corruption, which he said is the most serious disease afflicting the country.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has accused President Vladimir Putin of preparing to lead a puppet government, Reuters reports. “I think that Mr. Putin is trying to restore the old Russian empire,” the Arizona senator said. “Obviously he is perpetuating himself in power in Russia virtually indefinitely by this setup of having basically a protégé, someone who is doing his bidding as president while he serves as the prime minister. We knew the puppet show was going on, we just didn’t know who the puppet was.”
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