March 17:
Despite Western sanctions, Russia remains the world's second-biggest arms exporter. The Moscow Times cites Anatoly Isaikin, the general director of state defense conglomerate ROSOBORONEXPORT, as saying that his company exported $13.2 billion worth of military equipment last year. That figure, according to Isaikin, was a good $22 million more than had been expected. The windfall is attributable to Russia's biggest trading partners, like China, India and Venezuela, all of which are non-Western nations and have therefore continued to carry on "business as usual" with the Kremlin. ROSOBORONEXPORT officials predict the conglomerate will sell $13 billion worth of arms in 2015 as well.
Russia continues to militarize the Crimean Peninsula. According to Itar-TASS, a "snap check" of military readiness being carried out by the Russian government in coming days will include the deployment of Tupolev TU-22M3 strategic bombers to the former Ukrainian holding.
March 19:
When it happened in late February, the killing of prominent Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov generated widespread outrage in the West and within Russia itself. But less than a month later, the murder has already receded from the headlines - and is beginning to recede from the Russian consciousness. According to Radio Svoboda, more than a third (37%) of respondents in a new poll conducted by the Moscow-based Levada Center said they were "indifferent" to the politician's death. The results, Levada pollsters say, reflects a "moral and emotional deafness" among Russians.
[EDITORS' NOTE: Given the effect of Russia's increasingly authoritarian political climate on pollsters and respondents alike, the results of public opinion surveys in Russia should be viewed with some caution.]
Meanwhile, the investigation into Nemtsov's murder has taken an interesting turn. Russian investigators reportedly believe that the suspected assassins were paid 5 million rubles ($85,000) to murder the prominent opposition leader. Alleged gunman Zaur Dadayev reportedly has told investigators that he committed the murder because of Nemtsov's support of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's depiction of the prophet Muhammed. Dadayev, who worked in the Interior Ministry troops of the republic of Chechnya, claims that he did not commit the murder for the money, but instead used his funds to hire a group to help him, The Moscow Times reports. The murder, preliminary findings by Russian investigators have determined, was ordered by one Ruslan Geremeyev, an official in Chechnya's Interior Ministry and a close relative of a member of Russia's upper chamber of parliament, the Federation Council.
March 20:
The old saying that "necessity is the mother of invention" is playing out in Russia's financial sphere, where the Russian government is poised to lift restrictions on Islamic finance as part of its efforts to weather economic turbulence caused by Western sanctions and low world oil prices. A new draft law just introduced before the State Duma "proposes allowing banks to engage in trade activities, a concept central to many of the structures used in sharia-compliant financial products," The Moscow Times reports. The move, according to the paper, "is seen a first step to spur development of a sector which has posted double-digit growth in several Gulf and Southeast Asian countries, but which has struggled to get off the ground in Russia."
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