April 30:
Russia has accused Georgia of preparing to invade the breakaway region of Abkhazia and says it is boosting Russian forces there and in the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the BBC reports. According to Russia, Georgia is massing 1,500 soldiers and police in the upper Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia which remains under Georgian government control. Russia’s Foreign Ministry charged that “a bridgehead is being prepared for the start of military operations against Abkhazia.”
Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze has accused Russia of strengthening “de facto control on the ground” in Abkhazia over the last three months and establishing direct ties with the local authorities, which “questions Georgia’s jurisdiction,” Agence France-Presse reports. “It’s hard to believe that this is being done for the purposes of peacekeeping, it’s rather the beginning of full scale military aggression,” Bakradze told the news agency. The White House, meanwhile, has expressed concern about the situation. “We respect Georgia’s territorial integrity, and we would urge everyone to maintain a level of dialogue, rather than take any further action,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Vedomosti reports that Higher Arbitration Court Chairman Anton Ivanov has signed an order forbidding courts from using article 169 of Russia’s Civil Code to confiscate property. According to the newspaper, the clause, which permits the nullification of deals made deliberately in violation of “the foundations of law and order or morality,” has been used against the Bashneft and Russneft oil companies and the PricewaterhouseCoopers auditing firm. Ivanov is a friend of Dmitry Medvedev who studied law with the president-elect at Leningrad State University.
Outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that relations with Iran will not change when Dmitry Medvedev takes office, United Press International reports. The assurance from Putin was conveyed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by acting Russian Security Council Secretary Valentin Sobolev, who is in Tehran and said that Russia “confirms its principles in relations with Iran, and that its policy does not depend on who is in power at the moment.” According to RIA Novosti, Sobolev and Ahmadinejad discussed international and regional issues including the Iranian nuclear program and bilateral cooperation in peaceful energy use.
May 1:
More than two million people around Russia have participated in May Day political demonstrations and holiday events, NEWSru.com reports. While the Interior Ministry claims the day passed without any arrests or incidents, the website reports that police in Moscow detained 30 of some 200 anarchists who were attempting to hold a demonstration. Meanwhile, police in Saratov reportedly detained members of the opposition United Civil Front and "Yabloko" political party after they held up signs reading “Putin, you’re fired!” during a demonstration organized by the Communist Party.
May 3:
Noting that May 3rd is World Press Freedom Day, Ekho Moskvy radio reports that Freedom House’s just released annual survey of media freedom around the world put Russia in 170th place (out of 195 countries). The U.S. human rights group gave Russia the same press freedom score as Kazakhstan, Sudan and Yemen.
[Editor’s Note: In a meeting with journalists in late April, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev said the Russian press has “become more technologically sophisticated and perhaps a bit boring because of that,” Reuters reported. “It has become less sensational and tough than in the 1980s,” he said. “Perhaps that is good. The media has become more respectable along with the rest of society.” Still, Medvedev told the journalists that while the audience and forms of reporting have changed, “the need to write the truth and be responsible for stories you publish” should remain intact.]
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