Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1830

April 27:

Another 140 people were arrested from a Moscow muslim prayer room during a search for members of “extremist groups.” Authorities claim the raid was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing efforts against extremist groups in the region, Aljazeera reports, reflected in President Vladimir Putin’s latest television appearance, in which he said that the recent bombing at the Boston marathon “justified” his hard-line stance against rebels in the North Caucasus. However, analysts suggest otherwise, given that at least 30 of the men arrested were citizens of foreign countries. Raids are a frequent tactic of the Kremlin in trying to flush out illegal migrants from the ex-Soviet republics.

April 29:

The New York Times reports that the recent attack at the Boston Marathon has already led to increased counterterrorism cooperation between Russia and the United States. Both countries responded positively to a phone conversation between Presidents Obama and Putin, in which the two reportedly discussed cooperation “in the context of the recent Boston bombing.” “This aroused praise from Putin and Obama, and their satisfaction,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, adding that such cooperation “on the whole promotes mutual confidence in bilateral relations.” An American analyst notes that intelligence cooperation “had been awkward,” attributing the tension to a concern among American agents that information passed to Russia “may be misused,” adding that, “sometimes we just have vague hints about someone, and if we pass it to the Russians, at 2 in the morning, men in balaclava helmets are going to kick down his door.”

Russian and Japanese leaders agreed at a recent summit to reopen talks to resolve a territorial dispute over four islands in the Pacific. The disagreement prevented the two sides from signing a treaty formally ending World War II, Reuters reports, but China’s rising economic and political influence in the East has pushed them to pursue warmer relations. About 20 economic cooperation agreements were signed at the meeting, but Russian President Putin cautioned that this “did not mean the issue would be resolved tomorrow.” “This really is complex matter,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe added. “And there is no magic wand in the world that could solve the problem in one move.” The summit was the first such meeting between Russia and Japan in a decade.

May 1:

Amidst the recent increase in cooperation between Russia and the United States, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced plans to make his first official visit to Moscow, calling the trip “overdue.” Voice of America reports that Kerry is scheduled to meet with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, to discuss a range of topics, including the Russian ban on American adoptions, ongoing disputes over Syria, and the Kremlin’s restrictions on civil rights groups. And as a State Department spokesman added, “human rights always come up in talks with Russian officials.”

May 2:

United Russia “must exist in a competitive environment,” according to Russia’s Deputy Prime minister, Vladislav Surkov, adding that the country’s major political party United Russia “needs a rival.” Speaking at the London School of Economics, Surkov said that such a rival would be “useful for the country,” RIA-Novosti reports. “I think that the United Russia party simply has to exist in a competitive environment,” he added, “and now that competition will develop,” noting that Russia has a “practically free registration of parties.” When asked about the corruption scandal at the Skolkovo Foundation, where a recent search turned up evidence of $750,000 worth of theft, Surkov responded with “Let them prove that these people are guilty of something, we’ll see, if they will prove that or not.” He called Skolkovo one of the “cleanest projects,” and insisted that the project’s head, Voktor Vekelsberg, one of Russia’s richest men, “would not soil himself for the sake of a few hundred thousand dollars.” The Skolkovo Innovation Center, known to the public as “the science city” is a non-profit organization founded in 2010 in an effort to draw in foreign investment and hi-tech companies specializing in fields like nuclear technology and biomedicine.

May 3:

Irish politicians folded under the pressure of the Kremlin’s threats of an adoption ban, and days later amended a bill before the Irish parliament to remove the proposed sanctions on Russian officials involved with the death of Sergei Magnitsky. The bill, the Irish Times reports, called on the Irish government to propose a U.S.-style Magnitsky list to the EU while it sits as the organization’s president this year. The list, much like the one created by the Magnitsky Act in the United States, would freeze the assets of the named officials, and refuse them entry visas into the European Union. However, a letter from Russian Ambassador Maxim Peshkov, which warned the body that such a move would have a “negative influence” on the adoption agreement still in negotiations between the two countries created an uproar among Irish families currently on the waiting list for Russian children. Days later, the parliament’s foreign affairs committee voted unanimously to drop the sanctions, instead asking the country’s government to “raise the issue” of Magnitsky’s death. “It is regrettable that the Irish parliament has succumbed to blackmailing from Vladimir Putin’s regime,” lamented one official, while another noted that the events demonstrated “the heavy-handed tactics of Russian diplomacy.”