Danila – The Other Russia

Russia In the News: September 27, 2009

Danila — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:30:32 +0000

Theotherrussia.org provides a roundup of important news stories relating to Russia:

Russian Public Chamber Officials Condemn Russia For Human Rights Violations

Public Chamber Members Aleksandr Brod and Vladislav Grib conducted a human rights monitoring effort in Russia from April to July, and their reports exposed human rights abuses in major cities including Moscow and St. Petersburg. Abuses range from economic, judicial, ethnic, and political.

Read more from The Moscow Times.

Medvedev Speaks Out On Iran

On Friday Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said that if Iran does not agree to discuss its nuclear agenda at an October 1st meeting with other world powers, alternative means need to be taken to dissuade it from pursuing a nuclear program.

Read more from The Moscow Times.

Anti-Terrorist Officers Killed In Ingushetia

Two anti-terrorist officers were reported killed by local authorities in Ingushetia, along with an anti-Wahabbism Muslim spiritual figure, Islam Bostanov.

Read more from The Moscow Times and the AFP.

Central Bank Claims Russian Economy Recovering

The Russian Central Bank has stated that the country was recovering from its economic crisis, and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the Russian economy could return to its pre-crisis position by 2012.

Read more from the St. Petersburg Times.

Medvedev Says Arms Reduction Treaty With US Possible By Yearend

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said that by the end of the year, the chances of an established arms reduction program between Russia and the US were “high enough.”

Read more from the RIA Novosti News Agency.

Russia In the News: September 13, 2009

Danila — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:34:54 +0000

Theotherrussia.org provides a glimpse into the topical news stories emerging from Russia:

Venezuela Recognizes South Ossetian and Abkhazian Independence

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states separate from Georgia. Chavez was in Moscow to meet with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and negotiate a series of arms deals.

Read more from The Moscow Times.

Putin Signals Possible Return to Presidency

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has given the clearest indication that he may return to the Presidency in 2012.

Read more from The Moscow Times.

Russian Journalist Who Investigated Hydro Plant Explosion Attacked (updated)

Danila — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:17:38 +0000

Update: Mikhail Afanasyev has now been hospitalized after his attack. The journalist told the Ekho Moskvy radio station that doctors want to keep him under watch for as long as ten days.
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An independent Russian journalist who asked questions after the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric dam disaster has been attacked in the city of Abakan. Mikhail Afanasyev, who works as the editor-in-chief of the Novy Fokus internet newspaper, related the news himself to the Kasparov.ru online newspaper on September 9th.

Afanasyev said two unknown assailants ran up to him in a schoolyard near his home, hitting him in the head. One of them asked the other “is that him?” and when the second attacker said “yes,” both men pounded him repeatedly until he lost consciousness. The journalists connected the attack with his professional work. According to the Gazeta.ru online newspaper, he did not seek medical attention after the assault.

The editor came to prominence in the days after the deadly disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant, which killed over 70 workers. On behalf of the victims’ families, Afanasyev publicly questioned the official response to the catastrophe, asking whether there may have been survivors trapped in air pockets within the wreckage of the dam. The journalist also suggested that the official death toll, which was only 10 people at that point, was entirely too low.

Local authorities in the Republic of Khakassia then pressed charges against him for alleged defamation. Sergey Shoygu, who heads the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and led the rescue effort, said it was essential to find those guilty of sowing panic after the catastrophe.

On September 1st, the case against Afanasyev was closed, although officials declined to name a reason. Speaking the day before, Shoygu had amended his statement, saying that he was “not asking for the blood” of Mikhail Afanasyev, but that he should apologize.

The same day that Afanasyev was attacked, rescuers recovered the 74th body from the ruins of the hydroelectric station. According to authorities, there is now only one woman who worked at the dam and has yet to be found.

Remaining Russian Opposition Candidates Removed from Moscow Election

Danila — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:19:45 +0000

The list of opposition candidates barred from running in Moscow’s municipal election has grown. As of Saturday, all seven candidates from the Solidarity Opposition Movement had been pulled from the race. Olga Shorina, the Movement’s press-secretary, reports that electoral officials declined each candidate’s registration on what look to be dubious grounds.

Moscow’s Electoral Commission earlier denied registration to four of the Movement’s candidates, citing technical errors with their signature lists. The last three candidates, including economist Vladimir Milov, were removed for similar reasons, Shorina said. Each was running in one of the capital’s single-mandate districts.

The candidates will now have the chance to appeal the Commission’s ruling, Shorina said. The group will use all methods at their disposal, including legal action, she added.

Another liberal democratic party experienced nearly identical problems. Three independent candidates from the Pravoe Delo party were prevented from registering by the Commission. Only one member of Pravoe Delo, Elena Guseva, was ultimately registered for the election.

Solidarity had put forth a total of seven candidates – Ilya Yashin, Igor Drandin, Ivan Starikov, Nikolay Lyaskin, Roman Dobrokhotov, Vladimir Milov and Sergei Davidis. Each one was barred registration over minor issues with their collected lists of signatures. In Yashin’s case, the Commission deemed that 100% of his collected signatures were invalid. Yashin and the other opposition politicians maintain that the decision to remove them was political, asserting that their lists were identical to those submitted by other parties.

Moscow City Duma elections will take place on October 11th. Candidate lists from some Parties- Yabloko, Patriots of Russia, the Communist Party, United Russia, Just Russia, and the LDPR- have been approved by the city’s Electoral Commission.

Russia in the News: September 6, 2009

Danila — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:27:57 +0000

Theotherrussia.org provides a roundup of important news stories relating to Russia:

GQ Suppresses Controversial Article in Russia

GQ magazine has gone through great measures to prevent a controversial article on Russia to appear in the country. The story questioned the role that Russia’s security agencies played in a series of devastating apartment bombings that took place in 1999. The bombings propelled Russia into a second war in Chechnya and marked the start of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s consolidation of power.

Read more from National Public Radio. A full scan of the article as well as a Russian translation are now available from Gawker.

Britain Files Arrest Warrant for Cell Phone Tycoon

On August 27 Britain filed an arrest charge against Yevgeny Chichvarkin, former chairman of Russian Yevroset cell phone company. Russian prosecutors seek to extradite him for extortion and smuggling, and the case may prove important for Russian-British relations. Chichvarkin maintains his innocence.

Four Opposition Candidates Removed from Moscow Duma Election

Danila — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:20:59 +0000

Four opposition candidates from the Solidarity Democratic Movement have been removed from the Moscow City Duma election. The candidates, who have been cut on what look to be technicalities, believe the move comes on order from above.

As Solidarity press-secretary Olga Shorina reports, the last candidate to be pulled from the ballot was human rights activist Sergei Davidis, who was running in Moscow’s Western District. The local electoral commission invalidated 913 of the 4185 signatures he collected, well over the allowed 10%, and rejected his registration. An official from the commission clarified that the problem was not in the signatures themselves, but in the date written next to them. An expert analyst had found that the handwriting of the dates did not match the signatures.

Ivan Starikov, a board member of Solidarity, was removed in a similar manner, the Kasparov.ru online newspaper reports, citing the candidate. In Starikov’s case, some 600 of his 6000 signatures were invalidated, because signatories wrote down “Moscow” and not the specific district of the city where they live. The electoral commission had not voiced any similar concern when Starikov had turned in a sample list of signatures.

Starikov said that officials admitted to him that he could not be registered due to an “order from above.” He vowed to challenge the official decision, which should be issued on September 4th, and said he would protest against the commission’s illegal actions.

Two other candidates, Ilya Yashin and Igor Drandin, had 100% of their signatures rejected. In Yashin’s case, local commission member Konstantin Sdobnov said there were “gross violations” and “improper execution.” He did not specify what exactly was wrong with Yashin’s signature lists.

Drandin said the commission had invalidated “all 104 percent” of his signatures.

The Moscow City Duma elections will take place on October 11th, and the nomination process has been closed. Six political parties have submitted party lists, and 142 candidates have registered for the 17 single-mandate districts.

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Opposition leader and Solidarity board member Boris Nemtsov commented on the news in his LiveJournal blog:

It was just reported that my friends from Solidarity – Ilya Yashin, Ivan Starikov, Sergei Davidis and Igor Drandin- were removed from the elections. Removed on absolutely absurd pretenses. If the cowardly and thieving regime thinks that in doing so it has won, it is deeply mistaken. The battle will continue. In the streets. Watch for developments.

Russia in the News: August 31, 2009

Danila — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:50:20 +0000

Theotherrussia.org provides a glimpse into the topical news stories emerging from Russia:

Georgian Coast Guard Intercepts Trade Vessels between Turkey and Abkhazia

The Georgian Coast Guard recently intercepted an Abkhazian cargo ship filled with scrap metal bound for Turkey and a Turkish cargo ship filled with fuel as part of Georgia’s economic blockade of the breakaway region. The incident raised already high anti-Georgian sentiment in Abkhazia, a de facto independent region backed by Russia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia remain in a strange state of international and legal quagmire one year on from Russia’s land war with Georgia.

Read more from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Russia Arrests Eight for Hijacking Ship with Dubious Cargo

Russia has charged eight men from Estonia, Latvia, and Russia with hijacking a Russian ship named the Arctic Sea last month. Media reports have said that the ship may have been carrying arms or nuclear material to the Middle East.

Read more from Reuters and the Canadian CBC News.

Kyrgyz Teenager Assaulted in Petersburg: Despite Evidence Contrary, Investigators Claim Violence Was Not Ethnic Hatred

Kyrgyz ninth-grader Tagir Kerimov and a friend were assaulted in Petersburg in February by a group of 25-30 who shouted, “Beat the khuch” and “Russia for Russians” along with other racist and nationalistic slogans. On Friday investigators said that the assault was not incited by ethnicity or nationalistic intent, stunning human rights activists.

Growing Number of Russians Living in Poverty

Danila — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:28:07 +0000

The number of Russians living below the subsistence minimum rose for the first time since 2002, the Novye Izvestia newspaper reports. Government figures indicated that some 24.5 million people, or 17.4% of the population, were living below the poverty line in the first quarter of 2009, up from 16.3% a year earlier.

Economic experts were skeptical of the official figures, and said that the figure would be magnitudes higher, at 40% or more, if internationally recognized metrics were used. Professor Ovsei Shkaratan of the Supreme School of Economics said the official subsistence level, pegged at 5,083 rubles ($160 or €111) for the first quarter of 2009, was so low that it was laughable.

“No, I do not think that 17.4% of the population is a figure to get excited over,” Shkaratan said. “The market basket in Russia has never had anything to do with minimums, subsistence or otherwise. After all, there is more to the “minimum” than the ability to buy bread and cheap trousers. It also implies the ability to repair one’s apartment and furniture… Forget the “minimum basket” the government is talking about because it is but an “impoverishment basket” and nothing else.”

Oleg Shein, the Assistant Chairman of the Duma Committee for Labor and Social Policy, agreed.

“Considering that 60% of Russians cannot afford durables like furniture or household appliances, I’d say that 40-45% of them are already below the subsistence minimum,” Shein said.

As recent economic indicators point to a prolonged recession in the Russian economy, the short-term future of the Russian middle and lower classes seems uncertain.

Russia Still Far From Economic Recovery

Danila — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:24:01 +0000

As the global economy shows positive signs of recovery, Russia continues to lag behind. Experts attribute the stagnation to dependence on natural resource prices and uncertainty about debts held by Russian companies. Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Capital, outlines the pessimistic outlook in the Moscow Times:

…but there are many serious problems still to be resolved and the seedlings of recovery will have to be extended to the consumer and small businesses if sustained recovery is to be achieved. The July data shows that the financial well-being of these important economic segments is still deteriorating. In absolute terms, the 9.3 percent year-on-year decline in GDP and the 10.8 percent drop in industrial output places Russia firmly at the bottom of the performance table of all major economies.

The risk of a second crisis wave has by no means been eliminated, although few expect the next challenges to cause the same level of destruction that we saw in late 2008 and earlier this year. But dealing with the still-unclear scale of bad debts in the banking system and restarting credit markets, at an affordable cost, as well as restoring consumer and investment confidence, are critical if the economy is to catch up with the positive trend in most major economies, which are now either seeing broadly based growth or are on the brink of it…

Too Early to Break Out the Champagne

Photo-Journalist Sues Russian TV Channel Over Deceptive Documentary

Danila — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:04:28 +0000

The bombs are no longer falling, but the spin campaign rages on. Just over a year after Russia waged war with Georgia over the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia, Russian television continues a scare-tactic campaign intent on criticizing the West and discrediting Western coverage of the war. The latest effort, a documentary airing on the state-run Channel One, is coming under fire for using the same deceptive tactics it claims to be uncovering.

The film, titled “The War of 08.08.08 — The Art of Deception” aired on the one year anniversary of the war, and alleged that Georgian propaganda efforts falsified and staged photographs of bloodshed during the conflict. Comparing photos taken in South Ossetia with images from Iraq, the film concluded that many of the images from the former were too “clean,” a sign that they were faked. There was only one problem: a photo supposedly taken in Iraq was actually the work of a Russian photographer, Arkadiy Babchenko, and was taken in South Ossetia. The image depicts a wounded Russian soldier.

Babchenko, who works for the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was furious that his work was taken out of context, and has filed suit against Channel One. Calling those who produced the film liars in his LiveJournal blog, he has requested 100,000 rubles ($3200 or €2200) for psychological damages. Babchenko believes the misuse was deliberate, as the TV station did not want to acknowledge that the critical Novaya Gazeta reported the truth. The error raises questions about the rest of the film as well, Babchenko said.

“Now I personally have serious doubts about everything else shown in this film,” he wrote.

David Axe, the journalist interviewed as a photo-expert by the documentary, says his words were twisted out of context. In describing Babchenko’s photo, Axe said it showed a seriously injured man, which would be difficult to fake. The documentary translated his words as “Here is an injured person. I shot his photo in Iraq. It would be hard to call this a fake.”

For their part, the film’s creators claim that the error was caused by a technical mistake that happened during the editing process. Sergei Nadezhdin, one of the producers, said the audio went out of synch and connected two different parts that should not have been side by side. The audience, Nadezhdin says, was not misled, since the intention of the clip was to provide an example of an undoctored photo.

Irina Laptiva, a media analyst working for Park.ru, told Russia Profile that journalists are only human and make mistakes, but that they must be quickly corrected.

“If mistakes are made,” she said, “there must be a public apology within the mass media, which would state what was incorrect and when. If they do not do this, then I believe that it is a breach of human rights and copyright.”

Channel One, well known for its other over-the-top documentaries, has yet to issue a formal apology.

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For further details on the story, read an account by journalist David Axe.