March 29:
Michael McFaul, the new U.S. Ambassador to Russia, has accused the Russian press of tapping his personal communications, the Wall Street Journal reports. McFaul's allegations stem from being accosted recently by a pro- Kremlin television channel outside the offices of a human rights activist after an unpublicized meeting and harrassed about his meetings with various opposition members. While it is not unusual for U.S. diplomats in Russia to suspect wiretapping, McFaul has been unusually blunt about his suspicions. He has called the “shrill anti-American tone” of media leveled against him “somewhat shocking” in light of the purported "reset" in relations underway between Russia and the U.S. The new ambassador has been the target of the Russian press since his very first week in office, when he was accused of provoking revolutionary fervor following the country's disputed parliamentary elections Former British Ambassador Anthony Brenton endured similar treatment from pro-Kremlin youth activists in 2007, after attending an opposition conference.
April 1:
Dozens of people have been arrested in Moscow’s Red Square during an unsanctioned silent anti-government protest. Reuters reports that police closed the square as hundreds attempted to gather, provoking accusations from opposition activists that their right to free assembly had been violated. Four people were arrested en route to the square from a nearby metro station, and later police “picked people out of the crowd at the gates and pushed them into buses.” Officials gave various reasons for the closure of the square, including repair work and another scheduled event.
April 3:
Russia’s Orthodox Church claims it is “under attack” after throwing its support behind president-elect Vladimir Putin. After Patriarch Kirill called Putin’s reign a “miracle of God” ahead of recent presidential elections, Reuters reports, the Supreme Church Council says it came under attack by “anti- Russian forces,” citing a recent protest performance by an all-girl punk band at Moscow’s major cathedral, as well as opposition media allegations against Patriarch Kirill and three incidents in which churches were desecrated, priests beaten, and icons destroyed. Kirill’s support for Putin angered many opposition members, who called it “political meddling” and an abuse of the church’s influential position in society. For its part, the church maintains that it is being snubbed by “those pushing through radical liberal values” as a result of the church’s positions on gay marriage, consumerism, the spread of violence, and adultery.
April 4:
Russia's capital flight woes saw a spike in March, despite hopes that Vladimir Putin’s re-election would restore economic and political stability. $35.1 billion left Russia in the first quarter of this year, according to the Wall Street Journal, almost double the $19.8 billion that fled during the same period of time in 2011. The losses are part of a trend begun in the fourth quarter of last year, which analysts blamed on the instability following December’s disputed parliamentary elections.
International experts have further cautioned that the negative economic trend likely won’t reverse this year, although Russian officials predicted otherwise. Projections for total 2012 outflows were recently lowered from $84.2 billion to $80.5 billion. This number, however, would still be the second highest since the central bank began keeping track of such statistics back in 1994.
April 5:
Viktor Bout, the notorious Russian arms dealer caught in 2008 by an undercover U.S. sting operation in Thailand, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail. The Kremlin reacted angrily to the decision, Reuters reports, and said that the “groundless and biased” ruling was politically motivated. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov contended that the decision was made under “unprecedented pressure” from American authorities, and the Foreign Ministry vowed to continue its efforts to return Bout to Russia. Amnesty International claims Bout was involved in embargo-breaking arms deals with human rights abusers in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was finally arrested on charges that he agreed to sell arms to what he believed were FARC militants “intent on attacking American soldiers in Colombia.”
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