November 8:
Accusations of official corruption levied by a senior police officer in the southern Russian city of Novorossiisk have touched off an official probe. At issue is a video posted by Major Alexei Dymovsky, a member of the Novorossiisk police department, in which he accused city officials of rigging the results of criminal investigations and the mistreatment of officers. "I told my boss in Novorossiisk the police are corrupt," Dymovsky says in the video, which is addressed to Prime Minister Putin. "He said there's no way to remove corruption, that it's simply the local mentality."
The video has touched off a firestorm of controversy in official circles, and prompted action at the highest levels, with interior minister Rashid Nurgaliyev ordering a formal investigation into its claims. "A report will be drawn up which Nurgaliyev will present to President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin," al-Jazeera reports a spokesman as saying.
November 9:
City authorities in Moscow are moving against two human rights groups active in the Russian Federation. The Moscow Times reports that Moscow's City Hall has asked the city's Arbitration Court to evict the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Moscow branch of "For Human Rights" from municipal premises. Both organizations have been sharply critical of the Kremlin in the past, and their efforts to renew leases on city property have now been turned down.
November 14:
Russia's energy grip on Europe just got a little bit tighter. Forbes reports that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has secured Slovenia's approval for Russia to construct a controversial pipeline intended to expand Russian deliveries of natural gas to Europe on its territory. The green light, obtained by Putin from Slovenian premier Borut Pahor, is a major shot in the arm for the Kremlin's planned "South Stream" pipeline, a still-notional energy route backed by the Russian government as an alternative to the Nabucco natural gas pipeline sought by Europe, and backed by the United States. Slovenia is the fifth country to sign on to the pipeline, which is designed to carry Russian gas to Italy via the southern Balkans.
When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed to lawmakers that they reduce the number of time zones in the Russia from the current 11 to just 4, he billed it as a measure intended to allow the government to "administer" the vast country "more effectively." But, according to analyst Paul Goble, the move is likely to be controversial politically. "Medvedev’s proposal almost certainly will be viewed by many Russians both as yet another example of kowtowing to foreigners," Goble writes. "On the one hand, Medvedev’s proposed four time zones appear to ape the US in much the same way that the Decembrists proposed dividing Russia into 13 states and Gorbachev called for dividing the USSR into 50 states. And on the other, those who remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” will certainly recall Ivan’s amazement in finding out from a fellow zek that when the sun is at its highest point, the time is not noon but 1:00 pm because Moscow has ordered that. Could that mean, he appears to reflect, that Stalin controls even the sun?"
November 16:
For years, Russia's hesitance to impose sanctions on Iran over the latter's nuclear program has served as a key impediment to multilateral action. But, according to one economic consultant, Moscow's reluctance makes good fiscal sense. "Russia’s opposition stems partly from a simple calculation: It has an immense amount of money to make if the tension regarding Iran continues and a substantial amount to lose if a rapprochement occurs," writes consultant Mac Broderick in the Moscow Times.
The Kremlin's foot-dragging, moreover, is only likely to intensify. "In light of Russia’s recent realization that its financial resources do have their limit, analysts should expect economic considerations to play a larger role in foreign policy going forward," Broderick believes. "One factor above all influences Russia’s near-term stability: the price of oil... While there have been several geopolitical events affecting the price of oil, the Iranian nuclear impasse has been a significant contributor to the commodity’s dramatic price swings. Every time a new incident erupts, Russia reaps the reward of the increased oil price. The upside is even higher for Russia if tensions were to result in an actual conflict and Iranian officials were to make good on their pledges to block the Strait of Hormuz." All of which means that Moscow's strong backing for pressure against Iran is not likely to be forthcoming, under current circumstances.
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