June 18:
In what amounts to a relaxation of curbs on civic groups imposed by his predecessor, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has introduced new legislation governing how organizations and non-profits can operate in the Russian Federation. The New York Times reports that, if enacted, the law would remove at least part of the bureaucratic red tape involved in registering NGOs with the Russian government, and curtail invasive federal investigations imposed during the Putin years, when such groups were uniformly distrusted as agents of foreign influence. It seems that President Medvedev is prepared to work on strengthening civil society and guarantees of basic rights and freedoms in Russia,” says Matthew Schaaf of Human Rights Watch. The legislation, however, still needs to be approved by the Russian parliament before becoming law.
June 20:
Long focused on natural resources as its principal medium to trade with the world, Russia is beginning to dip its toe into another commercial sector: IT. The Moscow Times reports that Medvedev recently chaired the inaugural gathering of Commission on the Modernization and Technological Development of the Economy in Moscow, a presidential panel recently established to explore hi-tech enterprise and development. The venue for the meeting was the offices of Kaspersky Lab, a cybersecurity firm, connoting the emphasis placed by the Russian president on "intellect and innovation" in the information technology sector, which Mr. Medvedev plans to make "one of the most prestigious to work in."
June 22:
The Kremlin's deployment of troops to Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is creating a "potentially explosive" atmosphere in the former Soviet Republic, a new report from the International Crisis Group has cautioned. According to the international security watchdog, Russia's recent veto of UN plans to extend the mandate of an observer mission in Abkhazia, and its efforts to prevent international monitoring from taking place in South Ossetia, have created a politically volatile climate in the post-Soviet space, and make a renewed flare-up of hostilities between Moscow and Tbilisi more likely. "Russian diplomatic pressure is dismantling the critical international conflict resolution machinery in Georgia, leaving the region facing a potentially explosive situation in which even a small incident could spark new fighting," the Agence France Presse cites the study as saying.
June 23:
Pakistan's Daily Times reports that Moscow is renewing its bid to erect a new security architecture for Europe that would marginalize NATO. The idea, initially floated last year by President Medvedev, was derailed by Russia's August war with Georgia. But now the plan - which envisions the creation of a new security arrangement in Europe as an alternative to the Atlantic Alliance - is being promoted once again by the Kremlin. “We’re not attempting to undermine NATO or any other organization active in the security field,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna. "[W]e are in favor of coordination and synergies between existing international structures to ensure that no single government (or) organization in the Euro-Atlantic area work against each other.”
June 24:
Despite recent attempts at reform, Russia's judicial system remains rife with corruption, influence peddling and graft. That is the verdict from the Council of Europe, which expresses "concern" in a new study that the judicial reform initiatives launched by the Kremlin to date have been ineffective. According to the Associated Press, the report cites several cases - including the much maligned embezzlement trial of former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky - as evidence that, despite the Kremlin's recent attention to the subject, "the fight against 'legal nihilism' launched by President Medvedev, is still far from won."
June 26:
In the clearest indication of its energy plans in recent months, Russia has made clear that it does not plan to join OPEC. Qatar's Peninsula newspaper reports that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has told the oil cartel's current head, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, that his country has no plans to join the energy bloc. OPEC, which controls some 40 percent of the world's oil production, has repeatedly invited Moscow into the fold in an effort to regain its international clout and expand its market share. But, as Medvedev has made clear, Russia plans to serve solely as an "observer" of the cartel - maintaining flexibility and autonomy in its energy output and trade.
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