Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1624

February 17:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked four regional governors and stripped the country's Agriculture Minister of power in a very public show of Kremlin strength. The Moscow Times reports that the governors from the Oryol, Pskov and Voronezh regions and the Nenets autonomous district have been relieved of duty, as has Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, who has been tapped to serve as the new governor of Voronezh. The move comes amid growing efforts by the Russian government to eliminate waste and inefficiency amid the ongoing global financial crisis. "It is impossible to pat someone on the head and say, 'You know, you need to pull up your socks,'" Medvedev had warned civil servants recently. "We will be obliged to make some important decisions if previously adopted laws are not implemented." Kremlin officials, however, have been quick to reassure reporters that the moves are isolated incidents, and not part of a larger restructuring "campaign."


February 18:

In a move intended to expand its market presence in Asia and simultaneously shore up rapidly dwindling federal funds, Russia has just inked a massive new energy deal with China. Bloomberg reports that the Russian government has agreed to provide the PRC with some 300,000 barrels of oil daily for two decades in exchange for $25 billion in loans from the China Development Bank. The arrangement also commits Russia to building a new pipeline spur stretching from Siberia to the Chinese border. The deal is to be jointly overseen by Russia's state-controlled Rosneft and Transneft companies, which will receive $15 billion and $10 billion of the Chinese funds, respectively.


February 19:

A Russian judge has ordered the case of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya reopened, a day after a Moscow jury acquitted three suspects in the 2006 killing. The New York Times reports that presiding judge Yevgeni Zubov has ordered the Russian Investigative Committee to revisit the case after a unanimous verdict of "not guilty" was handed down for the three suspects in the case a day earlier. The verdict had outraged human rights activists. “The fact that no one at all has been held accountable for this murder sends a very clear message to potential perpetrators: You can do it, and you can get away with it,” the Times cites Tatyana Lokshina, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch Moscow bureau, as saying. “Brazen killings have become almost routine in the Russian Federation.”


February 20:

As domestic discontent over economic conditions mounts, Moscow is investing heavily in beefed up security forces designed to quell internal dissent and instability. RBC reports that a "crisis militarization" is now underway in Russia, centering on an expansion of the size and power of security forces intended to deal with "internal deployments." The plan, begun late last year with a federally-ordered freeze in the drawdown of the number of personnel enlisted in Russia's security forces, now seeks to reverse that decline, expanding the number and capabilities of those tasked with ensuring domestic security. The reasons for the move, observers say, are clear. "Internal stability under crisis conditions is an open question," political scientist Dimitry Oreshnik explains, particularly in light of rising joblessness in Russia, which has now reached 10 million souls - a size Oreshnik terms a "catastrophe."


February 23:

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, whose popularity was previously unassailable, is facing growing unrest from within the country's armed forces. The London Telegraph reports that "a growing number of disgruntled servicemen, including senior officers, are making contact with Russian opposition groups for the first time since [Putin] came to power in 2000." The reasons for the discontent run the gamut, and include poor conditions, low morale and a new plan by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to drastically reorganize the structure of the Russian military, leading longtime loyalists to begin rethinking their support for Putin's rule. "The days when Putin could escape blame for everything that goes wrong are ending," says one army colonel. "People are angry with Serdyukov, but they are angry with Putin too."