Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1576

July 13:

Czech officials have confirmed that Russia cut oil supplies to the Czech Republic immediately after last week’s signing of a Czech-U.S. missile defense agreement, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports. Speaking to the German news agency, Czech government commissioner Vaclav Bartuska ruled out that a technical problem was responsible for the cut in oil supplies but also denied that it was Russian retaliation for Prague allowing Washington to base a radar system on Czech soil as part of a missile shield program.


July 15:

The Russian navy’s announcement on July 14th that it has resumed patrols in disputed waters around the Arctic Ocean archipelago of Svalbard – known to Russians as Spitzbergen - shows that Moscow is prepared “to protect its interests in the region not only by diplomatic means, but by military means,” writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta. As Reuters noted, Russia says it has a right to fish in waters almost up to the coast, but Norway in 1977 unilaterally established a 200-mile fisheries zone around Svalbard that Russia does not recognize. In 2006, a Norwegian coastguard boat chased a Russian trawler across the Arctic Ocean for six days before it escaped into Russian waters.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on the government to change fundamentally its approach toward regulating business, the Moscow Times reports. Putin told the weekly meeting of his Presidium, an inner body of the Cabinet, that the government spends nearly $7 billion per year investigating companies for procedural infractions and that more than 20 million investigations are carried out each year. “I haven’t even mentioned the ‘informal expenses’ for businesspeople, which, of course, are considerably higher [than the government's expenses],” Interfax quoted Putin as saying.

Putin’s comments came during a discussion about proposed legislation that would simplify business registration, eliminate insurance on certain goods and limit government intrusion by criminalizing extra-procedural investigations conducted by police and Interior Ministry agents.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has expressed concern over Russian military over-flights of Georgian territory, Reuters reports. “The secretary general is concerned by the recent escalation of tension in Georgia, he is troubled by Russia’s statement that its military aircraft deliberately over-flew Georgian territory in violation of its territorial integrity,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai said. Last week, Georgia recalled its ambassador in Moscow to protest the Russian overflights, while Russia said they were aimed at preventing Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili from launching a military operation against the separatist South Ossetia region. Saakashvili, meanwhile, told the Times of London that the Russian overflights are “killing international law.”


July 16:

Several leading Russian human rights activists have warned that a war with Georgia would be “an absolute political catastrophe” for Russia, Interfax reports. “Russia and Georgia are linked by a centuries-old friendship,” they said in a joint statement. “And if irreparable things happened, than we and future generations will feel shame before Georgia the way we now feel shame before Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland [and] Chechnya.” The statement was signed by Lev Ponomarev, Lyudmila Alexeyeva and Svetlana Gannushkina, among others.

President Dmitry Medvedev has denounced U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, accusing the U.S. of aggravating the situation and promising that Russia will respond appropriately, the Guardian reports. “This common [security] heritage cannot survive if one of the sides selectively destroys isolated elements of the strategic construction,” Medvedev said in a speech to Russian ambassadors, adding: “This doesn’t satisfy us.” Medvedev also dubbed Kosovo’s U.S.-backed independence illegal and accused the Baltic states of glorifying fascism. “They are shuffling history like a pack of cards,” he said.