May 13:
Yelena Valyavina, first deputy chairwoman of the Supreme Arbitration Court, has claimed that Valery Boyev, an adviser in the Kremlin’s department for personnel issues and state awards, warned her in 2005 she would not be re-elected to her post unless she reversed a ruling against the Federal Property Fund in a case involving ownership of shares in Tolyattiazot, Russia’s largest ammonia manufacturer. As Kommersant reports, Valyavina made her claim while testifying as a defense witness in a libel suit Boyev filed against Vladimir Solovyov, host of a program on the Serebryany Dozhd radio station. Solovyov said in a broadcast that Boyev “gives orders to the Supreme Arbitration Court” and “there are no independent courts in Russia,” only “courts dependent on Boyev.”
[Editor’s Note: As Kommersant notes, the Kremlin personnel department in which Valery Boyev worked was controlled by Viktor Ivanov, the Kremlin aide and KGB veteran said to be a leader of the hard-line faction of “siloviki.”]
May 14:
President Dmitry Medvedev has reappointed two of his predecessor’s advisers - Vladimir Shevchenko, whose service as a Kremlin adviser goes back to Mikhail Gorbachev’s presidency, and Mikhail Lesin, who served both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, NEWSru.com reports. As Regnum.ru reported, Medvedev made a number of appointments on May 13th – naming, among others, former Communications and Information Technologies Minister Leonid Reiman and former Minister of Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov as presidential advisers.
The International Herald Tribune reports that the Kremlin has “rolled out the red carpet” for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the first foreign official to hold talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Some German security analysts interpreted Steinmeier’s warm welcome in Moscow as a snub to Chancellor Angela Merkel, given that Steinmeier has, according to the newspaper, consistently adopted a conciliatory approach toward Russia while Merkel has repeatedly criticized Putin for rolling back democracy and muzzling the media.
May 15:
President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree appointing Kremlin aide Viktor Ivanov as director of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), Gazeta.ru reports. Ivanov replaces another KGB veteran, Viktor Cherkesov, who has been named head of the Federal Agency for the Procurement of Military and Special Equipment.
May 16:
President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree removing Alexander Chernogorov as Stavropol Krai governor. As NEWSru.com reports, Valery Gaevsky, who was a deputy to Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak and a long-time associate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported last month that Putin and Kozak will play a significant role in determining the fate of regional leaders by controlling a new rating system for governors that will become the basis for the president’s decision on whether or not to keep them in their posts.
Meanwhile, Primorsky Krai Governor Sergei Darkin reportedly plans to fly to Moscow to be treated for heart problems, NEWSru.com reports. Darkin was hospitalized following a raid by law-enforcement agents on his home in connection with a criminal investigation into alleged fraud involving federal property. The website reports that Darkin, whose duties have temporarily been taken over by Alexander Kostenko, may be removed as Primorsky governor.
Germany’s counterintelligence service has accused Russia and China of using spies and Internet technology to acquire industrial secrets, Kommersant.com reports. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution states in its 2007 report to German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble that foreign intelligence agents are interested in a wide range of industrial targets, as well scientific and technological institutes, and that Russia uses “nonprofessional spies” - students and scientists - along with special services agents.
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