July 28:
The Russian government has set in motion the country's largest privatization program since the 1990s. According to the New York Times, the sell-offs currently being planned by the Kremlin will include 11 companies, two state banks and companies in the oil and railroad industries. The program marks a reversal of the Russian government’s recent nationalization trend, and is most likely caused by fiscal pressure from the rising national debt. The International Monetary Fund projects that the Russian deficit this year will total as much as 5.9 percent of the national GDP, a level never before reached in Russia. Recent statements by President Dmitry Medvedev suggest that the sell-off program could be part of a larger trend toward a decreased role of the Kremlin in the country’s economy.
Russia has celebrated a controversial new holiday that marks the area’s original conversion to Christianity in 988 CE. Reuters reports that the new "National Day," which was approved by President Medvedev back in June, has drawn criticism from some rights groups, which have charged that it undermines Russia’s secular constitution. Others view the new holiday as a sign of the Orthodox Church’s burgeoning power in Russia, while the country's Muslim community has complained that it excludes Russia's nearly 20 million adherents to Islam, and has requested Russia also celebrate the arrival of Islam, brought across the Caspian over 1,000 years ago.
July 30:
Russia's struggle against Islamist extremism in the republic of Dagestan continues without notable progress or a clear end in sight. According to Germany's Der Spiegel, some high-ranking Russian officials believe that, at best, it will take years to defeat extremist groups in the restive region - if such a feat can be accomplished at all. Despite Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s insistence that the area will be safe for the nearby 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia's Interior Ministry has reported a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks there, necessitating armored vehicles and helicopters for all visiting Kremlin officials. A grassroots campaign has begun in an effort to destabilize the insurgent movement in recent months; so far, however, this indigenous effort has seen little success. Traffic policemen now require the protection of Interior Ministry units and plainclothes uniforms, and the level of corruption within the governing and justice systems has reached an “unparalleled” level, according government sources. “It will take years to change the situation here,” one Russian general estimates. “For every dead terrorist, two new ones rise up to take his place.”
August 3:
The head of Russia's main Islamist opposition group, the Caucasus Emirate, has appointed his successor. The CE's current "Emir," militant commander Doku Umarov, recently appointed the movement's Eastern Front commander, Emir Aslambek (also known as Alambek Vadalov), as his deputy and successor, according to a new report from the the Nine Eleven Finding Answers (NEFA) Foundation, a terrorism policy institute. Umarov, who claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb attacks on the Moscow Metro in March, “urged Mujahideen to accept his choice and emphasized that in case of his death, commanders of the Mujahideen... should pledge bayat (oath) to Emir Alambek and obey him as long as Emir Alambek obeys Sharia of Allah and adheres to Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad.”
August 4:
Russian officials have put off the current deadline for destroying chemical weapon stockpiles, citing “budget and technical problems.” According to the Associated Press, the Chemical Weapons Convention requires member countries to dispose of their chemical weapons stockpiles by 2012, and while the Russian government has claimed it has eliminated nearly 20,000 tons of weapons chemicals, this constitutes only 48 percent of the country's total stockpile. Moscow, however, might find a sympathetic ear for its request in Washington; U.S. officials have voiced a similar inclination to delay the 2012 deadline for their Class I weapons — those with no purpose other than in armaments.
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