Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1851

September 21:

Ukrainian and Russian officials continue to clash over Ukraine’s plans to sign a free trade pact with the European Union. At a conference in Yalta, Reuters reports that officials from both countries traded barbs over the deal, as Kremlin officials insisted that the Russian market could be flooded by competitive EU goods exported across the border with Russia. Ukrainian officials responded that the possibility was nothing more than a “hypothetical,” and renewed their own complaints at Russia’s refusal to cut the price of the gas it sells to Kiev. In response, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Russia “might be obliged” to impose a tax on any goods crossing the border with Ukraine, a threat which would impose a serious financial burden on the former Soviet state.

September 23:

Extremist groups continue to plague Russia’s restive North Caucasus region. The New York Times reports that two people were killed and another twenty injured when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside a police station in the republic of Dagestan. Extremist groups in the area remain active, with the ultimate goal of creating an Islamic state in the region, which is predominately Muslim. Rights activists suggest the insurgency is fueled by widespread poverty and public anger at “heavy-handed police tactics.”

September 24:

Russian officials launched a criminal case against Greenpeace activists arrested last week for boarding an Arctic oil rig owned by energy titan Gazprom. Officials reportedly plan to charge the activists with piracy, claiming that the Greenpeace ship carried a suspected explosive device. The activist organization decried the arrests, insisting that it is “absurd to think that an organization with a long history of non-violent protest could have been engaged in any kind of violent hostile activity.” The oil rig the activists tried to board is due to begin drilling operations in early 2014, and will potentially make Gazprom the first company to drill offshore in the Arctic region. Greenpeace maintains that there are no safety plans in place in case of an oil spill, and that such an event could cause catastrophic damage to the “fragile Arctic ecosystem.” The Guardian reports that if convicted of piracy, the activists face up to 15 years in a Russian prison.

September 25:

Another attack took place in Russia’s republic of Dagestan, this time claiming the lives of a Supreme Court judge and his son. Reuters reports that both men were shot dead in the region’s capital, Makhachkala, by an unknown assailant. Like the bombing earlier this week, the attack has been blamed on extreme Islamist groups active in the area. The judge, Mukhtar Shapiyev, is the second member of the court to be killed this year.

September 26:

The International Olympic Committee angered many LGBT and human rights activists with the announcement that it has no grounds to challenge a controversial Russian law prohibiting the distribution of homosexual “propaganda” to minors. The Washington Post reports that IOC Chairman Jean-Claude Killy declared himself “satisfied” with the situation in Russia on a final inspection tour before the Games’ opening ceremony in February, “as long as the Olympic Charter is respected.” “Another thing I should add,” Killy noted, is that “the IOC doesn’t really have the right to discuss the laws in the country where the Olympic Games are organized.” Rights activists declared themselves “furious but not surprised” at the announcement, and several groups vowed to take their case to sponsors and governments taking part in the games.

September 27:

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has offered an official excuse for the continued sluggishness of the Russian economy, blaming the slump (perhaps unsurprisingly) on the EU and the United States. “The European economy is teetering on the edge of recession, and has slowed growth in all BRICS countries,” Mevedev wrote in an announcement posted to the Kremlin’s website, continuing that “The U.S. economy cannot fully recover with high unemployment, and many individual Americans are just beginning to crawl out of debt.” RIA-Novosti notes that Russia based its GDP calculations on a European revival, and even the Kremlin has lowered its yearly growth projection to 2 percent this year. “We must continue to move towards a post-industrial economy and an ‘intelligent’ state where people are the primary focus,” Medvedev said, concluding that “the world does not stand still, and global competition will become fiercer than ever.” The announcement was made on the heels of the World Bank, the IMF, and Russia’s Ministry for Economic Development downgrading the country’s economic outlook to 1.8 percent this year, a stark contrast to the Kremlin’s early 3.3 percent projection.