Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1859

November 22:

Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin marked a return to Kremlin politics with his attendance at the inaugural meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s economic council. Once considered the third most powerful man in the Kremlin, Kudrin was fired by then-President Dmitry Medvedev (notably absent from the meeting) in 2011 for insubordination. He has most recently served as dean and professor at St. Petersburg State University. Kudrin applauded the council’s first meeting and its goal of developing economic policy, voicing the hope that it will aid Putin in creating an economic agenda “aimed at remaking the model for economic development and resuming economic growth.” The council’s first meeting did not produce any specific recommendations, the Moscow Times reports, and was instead “predominantly academic in nature.”

November 23:

Russian officials say they will not comply with the demands of an international court to release the Greenpeace ship seized back in September. The ruling came from the International Tribunal on the Law for the Sea in Hamburg, RIA-Novosti reports, where the Netherlands filed an official complaint. The Court’s ruling did not comment on the legality of Russian officials initially seizing the vessel, but called instead for both the ship and all thirty people on board to be released on bond of 3.6 million euro ($4.8 million). “We have no plans to participate in this process,” insisted one Kremlin administrator, pointing out that Russia does not recognize the court’s authority, based on exceptions it made in 1997 when ratifying the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea. “The question will be solved on a judicial, not political plane,” added another official, “based on Russian legislation, not someone’s political wishes.” While the ship remains in Russian custody, all but one crewmember have been released on bail.

November 25:

A new amendment to Russian healthcare law will introduce a ban on abortion advertising. Abortions are legal in Russia, and have been since the Soviet era, RIA-Novosti reports, but in recent years the political tide seems to have turned. Many now blame the high abortion rate for Russia’s demographic struggles, and several officials in the Orthodox Church recently blasted the practice, comparing it to “mutiny against God.” The number of abortions has reportedly fallen by nearly twenty-five percent over the last five years, but officials estimate that nearly one million abortions still take place in Russia every year.

November 26:

Indian officials have expressed frustration over their low level of participation in the joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft. Russia and India are equal financial partners in the project, Defense News reports, and India has placed an order worth more than $30 billion for the new planes. Indian Defense Minister A.K. Anatoly discussed the issue with his Russian counterpart on recent visit to Moscow, requesting that India’s role increase to fifty percent in development and production of the new aircraft. Russian officials claim that New Delhi’s participation in the project is limited by the country’s capabilities “in military aircraft research and industrial infrastructure.” The joint development agreement was signed back in 2007, but the project remains in the prototype stages, and the final design, research, and joint development contract, estimated to be worth more than $10 billion, has not yet been signed.

November 27:

Fifteen suspected radical Islamists were detained following a raid in eastern Moscow, along with a cache of explosive devices and assorted weapons. Russian authorities believe the detainees are members of Takfir wal Hijra, a radical group based in Egypt, and banned in Russia since September 2010. Authorities found three homemade explosive devices, along with detonators, guns, grenades, bullets and extremist literature, CNN reports, but there has been no word on whether the group was planning a terrorist attack. A number of those arrested hail from Russia’s restive North Caucasus region, where militant groups have sworn to disrupt the Sochi Olympics in February.

November 29:

The summit in Lithuania passed without an agreement signed between Ukraine and the European Union. EU leaders did not hesitate to place blame in Moscow. “We may not give in to external pressure,” said EU President Herman Van Rompuy, “not the least from Russia.” EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso agreed, adding that “the times for limited sovereignty are over in Europe.” Last minute negotiations with Ukrainian leaders did take place at the summit, CTV News reports, but there seemed little hope of reaching an agreement.

Ukrainian officials complained that the EU didn’t offer enough financial incentives, but French President Francois Hollande was dismissive of the claim. “The partnership remains open,” he said, “but it is up to the Ukrainians first to want it...We cannot, like the Ukrainian president would like it, pay Ukraine to get into an association agreement.”

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych must now face not just the displeasure of the West, but that of his own people. Protests are a daily occurrence since the announcement that Ukraine would abandon closer ties with Europe, and as many as 10,000 demonstrators gathered in the latest rally in Kyiv, demanding the signing of the EU deal. “Yanukovych appears to have got very little from Vilnius,” noted one expert, “and now risks going back to Kyiv empty-handed.” Ahead of talks next week with Russia, “his hand seems quite weak now.”