July 28:
After years of careful review, a Dutch-based arbitration panel has found that the Russian government unfairly targeted the Yukos oil conglomerate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and has ordered the Kremlin to pay $50 billion in restitution. Reuters cites the Hague court as ruling that "Yukos was the object of a series of politically motivated attacks by the Russian authorities that eventually led to its destruction," and that “[t]he primary objective of the Russian Federation was not to collect taxes but rather to bankrupt Yukos and appropriate its valuable assets."
The U.S. government has accused Russia of flouting the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, adding further strain to already-frayed ties between Washington and Moscow. Time reports that, ahead of the release of a key arms control report and amid consultations between the U.S. and European nations over additional sanctions against Russia, the Obama administration has cited Moscow’s continued violations of the treaty, and called on the Kremlin “to return to compliance with its obligations under the treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner.”
July 30:
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has launched a controversial new initiative aimed at imposing restrictions on immigration into Russia from the “post-Soviet space.” A petition live on Navalny’s website (accessible at viza.navalny.ru) demands “the introduction of a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus.”
European nations and the United States have levied biting new economic restrictions on the Russian government in response to its continued meddling in Ukraine. According to the Associated Press, the new measures go further than previous ones in targeting Russia’s energy and finance sectors, and “are strong enough to cause deep, long-lasting damage within months” unless the Kremlin lessens its support for separatist elements now active in neighboring Ukraine. Under the sanctions, three more firms and eight additional individuals have been blacklisted, and restrictions placed on Russia’s arms and energy technology trades.
July 31:
Rampant alcoholism continues to ravage Russia’s male population. Citing new field research conducted by Russian scientists, London’s Guardian newspaper reports that “a quarter of Russian men die before reaching 55, compared with 7% of men in the UK and about 10% in the United States. The life expectancy for men in Russia is 64 years, placing it among the lowest 50 countries in the world in that category.”
The statistics make Russia an outlier among European nations. "The rate of men dying prematurely in Russia is totally out of line with the rest of Europe," the paper cites Richard Peto of Oxford University as saying. "There's also a heavy drinking culture in Finland and Poland but they still have nothing like Russia's risk of death."
August 1:
Freedom of the press has taken another hit in Russia with the introduction of a draconian new law governing Internet journalism. Under the measure, bloggers who log more that 3,000 hits a day on their websites are now required to register as a mass media outlet, a move that The Moscow Times reports will add to the Kremlin’s ability to “block any [websites] without a court order or even a detailed explanation.”
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