October 7:
Is the Kremlin going green? Germany's Der Spiegel reports that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has laid out an ambitious plan to make the country more energy efficient. Under the notional initiative, outlined by Medvedev in a high-profile address before the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, involves slashing energy usage by some forty percent in the next decade. "Those who save energy, save money," Medvedev told his audience, which included Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina.
[Editor's Note: Medvedev's priorities on this score are markedly different from that of his predecessor, the newsmagazine points out. Shortly after taking office in 2000, then-President Vladimir Putin shuttered the Russian government's most prominent environmental body, the State Committee for the Protection of the Environment.]
October 8:
Russia is planning a major expansion of its trade relations with China. According to the Gulf Daily News, Russian premier Vladimir Putin's planned mid-October visit to Beijing will include the formal codification of more than $5.5 billion-worth of finance and infrastructure agreements. Cumulatively, the thirty-four deals will include new accords on transportation, infrastructure and construction. The deals will further boost an already-ballooning bilateral trade between Beijing and Moscow; Russia's trade with China reached $56 billion in 2008, a more than 600 percent increase over the $9.3 billion turnover between the two countries charted in 2002.
October 10:
In December, Russia and India will sign a new, ten-year accord codifying enhanced military and strategic communication between Moscow and New Delhi. RIA Novosti reports the deal, expected during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's upcoming visit to Moscow, will greatly expand the existing cooperation agenda between the two countries - which already includes some 200 joint projects, among them the assembly of T-90 tanks in India and the modernization of a Russian naval carrier for use by the Indian navy.
October 11:
Russia's beleaguered political opposition is crying foul over the results of regional polls, the Financial Times reports. Early returns for regional and local elections indicate that Russian premier Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party is poised once again for a decisive victory, sweeping 76 of Russia's 83 regions. But the impending victory, opposition politicians charge, comes through electoral fraud on a massive scale, including the "voting by people outside of their areas of residence, and without any supporting identification." More decisive still, however, was the period prior to the election, in which "a number of liberal opposition figures were not allowed to run, after signatures they gathered to put on the ballot were disqualified as illegitimate," the paper reports.
October 13:
As part of its reinvigorated arms control dialogue with the Kremlin, the Obama White House is throwing open the U.S. nuclear infrastructure to inspection. According to Fox News, Russia and the U.S. have reached tentative agreement on a weapons inspection regime that would allow the Russian government to visit U.S. nuclear facilities and examine American stockpiles. The deal is part of ongoing discussions between Moscow and Washington about a new, post-START treaty arms control relationship, and is intended to provide the Russian government with greater insights into the U.S. strategic triad as part of confidence-building measures between the two countries. "We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has explained.
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