July 16:
Czar Nicholas II and Josef Stalin are running neck and neck in an online poll to identify Russian history’s “greatest heroes.” According to the Wall Street Journal, Stalin took an early and large lead in the contest but was narrowly overtaken by Nicholas II on July 14th after thousands of monarchists and anti-communists organized an anti-Stalin “clickathon.” The poll, which is being conducted by the state-controlled Rossiya television channel, is taking place as Russian monarchists prepare to mark the 90th anniversary of Nicholas II’s execution by the Bolsheviks.
[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.]
July 18:
Moscow News reports that Russia and Georgia are simultaneously holding large-scale military exercises amid growing tensions over Russia’s support for the breakaway Georgian enclaves of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Georgia’s plans to join NATO. About 8,000 Russian servicemen, including members of the elite Pskov Airborne Division, are taking part in the Kavkaz-2008 exercises, which will be held in eleven Russian regions, including Chechnya, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia. Meanwhile, some 1,200 U.S. and 800 Georgian servicemen are participating in the Immediate Response 2008 joint training exercise, which is being held at the Vaziani military base near Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.
July 19:
President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Georgia to remove its troops from Abkhazia’s Kodori Gorge, NEWSru.com reports. According to a Kremlin statement, Medvedev stressed in a meeting in Moscow with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is the coordinator of a United Nations group which is trying to resolve the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, that “the only way out of the current situation is to adopt joint documents obliging the sides to refrain from force and guaranteeing security, and the withdrawal of Georgian troops from the upper part of the Kodori Gorge.”
July 20:
Izvestia has quoted an unnamed high-ranking Russian air force official as saying that long-range nuclear-capable Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers could be deployed to Cuba if the United States deploys an anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe. “While they are deploying the ABM system in Poland and the Czech Republic, our long-range strategic bombers will already be landing in Cuba,” Izvestia quoted the source as saying.
July 22:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he would welcome Russian military bases in his country, Gazeta.ru reports. “Russia has sufficient resources to provide for its presence in various parts of the world,” he told reporters in Moscow when asked about the possibility of Russia having bases in Venezuela. “We will raise flags; we will be beating drums and singing songs, because our allies, with whom we have a common vision of the world, will be coming.” According to the BBC, Chavez called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the U.S., while President Dmitry Medvedev said three Russian energy companies will be allowed to operate in Venezuela but gave no details of an anticipated arms deal between the two countries.
July 23:
President Medvedev has admitted that state posts are bought and sold, NEWSru.com reports. “Decisions about filling positions are sometimes made on the basis of acquaintance, on the basis of personal allegiance or, even more disgustingly, for money – that is, offices are for sale,” he told officials during a meeting at his residence outside Moscow. Medvedev also said that there is a serious shortage of qualified candidates for top posts in the country, particularly in the regions – which, he said, are suffering from a “personnel famine.”
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