July 5:
With the death of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov earlier this year, his RPR-PARNAS party was thrown into political disarray. Now, some six months later, the opposition faction is regrouping. The Moscow Times reportsthat, at its most recent convention, the party (now known simply as PARNAS) elected former prime minister - and current opposition figure - Mikhail Kasyanov as its chairman. Kasyanov, for his part, has his eyes on two other prominent dissidents, former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and blogger Alexei Navalny. While neither is currently a member of PARNAS, Kasyanov told reporters that he believed that "in the future" they would join the ranks of his faction.
July 6:
Four Russian long-range bombers flew near the territory of the United States on Independence Day, reportsABC News. The first two bombers were spotted near Alaska around 10:30 EDT on July 4th, while the other two were intercepted about half an hour later off the coast of Central California. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) intercepted the four planes within America's Air Identification Zone. According to NORAD, the bombers remained in international airspace and at no time violated U.S. sovereignty. Nevertheless, officials say, the development is concerning, because while air intercepts near Alaska, which is close to Russia, are a normal occurrence, intercepts off California remain relatively rare.
July 7:
Some 2,200 Russian extremists are now fighting in Iraq and Syria, the country's Foreign Ministry has estimated. Currently "around 2,200 people from Russia are engaged in the fighting in Syria and Iraq," Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov has told the Itar-TASS news agency in comments carried by state-controlled television channel RT. "Among them, about 500 came from Europe, where they had earlier obtained citizenship, residence permit or refugee status."
Nearly half of all Russians prefer economic prosperity to personal freedoms, a new poll has found. According to The Moscow Times, a recent survey by the Moscow-based Levada Center found that "more than 40 percent" of respondents would be willing to "forgo the right to free speech" and the "freedom to travel abroad" if the Russian government was able to ensure that they received "decent" wages and benefits. The results compare negatively to those of a similar survey taken in 2008, when "54 percent of Russians preferred freedom of speech and travel to salaries, and only 35 percent cared more about their income."
[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.]
July 8:
Russia's Central Elections Commission has instituted a new set of regulations aimed at popular bloggers,reports The Moscow Times. The new rules target bloggers with daily readership of over 3,000 people, and requires them to post "objective and verifiable information about candidates and parties that doesn't infringe on candidates' equality" during campaign periods. Local election committees will be in charge of monitoring and verifying blogs. The new rules were announced just as Russia's upper house of parliament - the Federation Council - approved of legislation moving up elections for the State Duma by three months, a move that some analysts believe is an attempt to ensure the continued control of Vladimir Putin's "United Russia" Party.
Want these sent to your inbox?
Subscribe