Update 11/11/10: Fuller context added to Pleshcheyeva’s remarks.

Members of Russian law enforcement, mass media, government agencies, advocacy groups, and pro-Kremlin youth organizations spoke yesterday during a Public Chamber session dedicated to the ghastly beating of Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin. While most presentations denounced the attack and focused on the need to step up efforts to prosecute assailants of Russian journalists, one speaker accused the journalists of bringing these attacks on themselves.

According to the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, passions ran high during the two-hour session, with journalists, lawyers, and activists decrying Russia’s chronic failure to solve cases of attacks on journalists. Editor-in-Chief Yevgeniya Albats of the New Times magazine spoke directly to representatives of law enforcement present in the auditorium, saying that the government has provided vast amounts of support to large organizations that have long been hounding Kashin and numerous other journalists.

The editor was referring to government-sponsored pro-Kremlin youth movements that routinely harass journalists whose views contradict their own, some of whose representatives were present at the session. Nashi Commissar Irina Pleshcheyeva turned out to be an actual member of the Public Chamber, and issued a sharp rebuke against those who she felt practice “political terrorism.” Noting that she did not consider Kashin to be a talented journalist, the commissar argued that the journalists themselves are responsible for such attacks:

When a journalist is attacked or murdered per order, when he’s dealing with some case, then journalists take it, come together, and continue the case. They don’t need to provide reasons to murder them. Not everyone is going to be killed. If a person – the people who commit crimes – they don’t think they’re going to be caught. None of the criminals think they’re going to be caught. But if their goal is to change the situation – so that a person doesn’t write, doesn’t investigate – he should know that, in the future, the journalists are going to take the case and continue it. The editorial staff will take it. All the journalists will take it. I don’t know. But that investigation will continue. Then there won’t be any necessity to explain to people that fists don’t solve anything.

Pleshcheyeva went on to say that she herself feared being attacked for what she wrote on blogs and other Internet media, and that this is a problem shared by Russian society on the whole. Moreover, she argued, lots of people get killed in Russia while fulfilling their professional duties – soldiers, businessmen, teachers, doctors – so journalists are no exception. While the commissar briefly touched upon the importance of investigating such attacks, she stressed that society has to focus on the fact that “they don’t let us speak,” and not “that somebody got crippled.”

The speech was disturbingly reminiscent of remarks by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in August that opposition protesters intentionally provoke the police into “bludgeoning them upside the head.”

Also present at the session was Andrei Tatarinov, a leading member of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Guard and member of the Public Chamber. He supported Pleshcheyeva and added that while his organization has not always been on great terms with Kashin, its website has posted condolences and denounced the attack. He did not explain, however, why this page was accompanied by what Nezavisimaya Gazeta described as “staged photographs mocking people expressing sympathy.”

A presentation by Moscow’s chief investigator, Vadim Yakovenko, provided an abrupt summary of Kashin’s case: the work is ongoing; 30 witnesses have been questioned; there is a wealth of information.

Vladimir Vasiliev, head of the State Duma Committee on Safety, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the auditorium was clearly unsatisfied with Yakovenko’s laconic speech. Therefore, Vasiliev spoke about the lack of sufficient budgetary funds for the needs of Russia’s law enforcement system, which results in complex cases being doled out to “boys” to solve. According to the newspaper, Vasiliev’s remarks were taken as evidence that we shouldn’t count on seeing any results from the investigation in the foreseeable future.

After undergoing two operations on his skull and a partial amputation of one of his pinky fingers, Oleg Kashin awoke from a coma Wednesday morning in a Moscow hospital. Doctors say his condition is critical but stable, and that he should be able to talk in the coming days. Colleagues and supporters continued calling for his perpetrators to be found and brought to justice for the fifth day in a row.

Rally organizer and coalition co-founder Konstantin Doroshok said that a founding assembly was held on Wednesday, but leaders have yet to settle on a name for the new union.

The January 30 protest in Kaliningrad, in which between 7 and 12 thousand people participated, was notable both for its massive size and for the diversity of political forces represented. The new coalition features similar diversity, including the Kaliningrad branches of the parties Solidarity, Justice, A Just Russia, Patriots of Russia, Yabloko, and the Communist Party.

According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, coalition leaders invited the local branch of the Right Cause party to join the union, but leader Mikhail Tsikel declined the proposal. The ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party is also not included in the coalition.

Doroshok said that the union’s main goal is “to break the political monopoly of United Russia,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ruling party, which has dominated the country’s elections at every level since its inception in 2001.

Ekho Moskvy reported that Kaliningrad residents have been threatened with losing their jobs or having their wages slashed if they take part in the coalition’s upcoming rally on March 20. Likewise, students have been promised that they will be expelled.

Meanwhile, the Kaliningrad Public Chamber was set to meet on Thursday with the Public Chamber of Russia to discuss the situation in the region, which has been a media spotlight since January’s massive rally. A relatively new institution, the Public Chamber is an oversight body intended to monitor government activities.

Protesters in the January 30 rally gathered in Kaliningrad to collectively demand that high vehicle tariffs be annulled and that Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos and Prime Minister Putin both resign. Boos immediately cancelled his vacation plans and promised to meet with opposition leaders, although he cancelled multiple times before finally meeting with Doroshok on February 26.

Another rally of more than a thousand Kaliningrad residents was held in the city of Yernyakhovsk on February 28, and a demonstration of comparable size to the one on January 30 is scheduled for March 20.

The amendment would affect pending legislation that would govern state aid to NPOs, and would only allow the words “Russia” or “Russian Federation” to be used in the titles of those able to obtain the government’s permission.

Political parties and social and religious organizations currently do not require state permission to use Russia in their titles.

According to the ministry, NPOs would be allowed to lay claim to such titles if their organization was of the significance, character, magnitude, and dealt with a range of activities that are deemed to be in the interest of Russian citizens and the state itself.

Supervisory authorities will also take into account NPOs’ memberships to international institutions for their final decisions.

Organizers of the draft amendment say that if an NGO is found to provide services unique to Russia, then it will earn the right to be named “Russian.”

Experts believe that such an approach will give authorities free reign to impose limits on NGOs that they deem to be undesirable.

Lev Ponomarev, executive director of the Russian organization For Human Rights, said that it was obvious that opposition NPOs would not be allowed to use “Russia” in their titles. “It will be an absolutely arbitrary approach if the Ministry of Justice becomes based on such criteria,” he said in a statement to Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Ponomarev noted that there was a visible tendency in Russia to toughen the legislation regulating citizen society.

The Russian State Duma recently approved President Dmitri Medvedev’s proposal to weaken state supervision and decrease the number of administrative checks for NPOs. The proposal called for the state to provide financial, informational, and consultation aid to socially-oriented NPOs, as well as provisions for tax breaks and government contracts. Legislators will take the draft under consideration in January.

The non-profit organizations in question that would receive such aid work throughout Russia to provide charity, protection for the environment, social support for the poor, pro-bono legal aid, educational, cultural, health-related, and scientific development, and services for the ill, elderly, disabled, and orphaned children.

Sergeyev, who writes for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, delves into the statistics, which seem hardly promising, and suggest an economic recovery is still far in the future.

In the rearguard of the former USSR
Mikhail Sergeyev
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
August 6, 2009

Russia has shown some of the worst results in economic decline, inflation rate, and income decline among the CIS countries

The statistical data of the country’s socioeconomic development for the first half of the year looks gloomy. The domestic economy is experiencing shocks much worse than those of developing countries, i.e. members of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), and neighboring CIS countries.

Statistical offices of the CIS countries have recently published data on the development of national economies for the first half of the year. They could not withstand delivering a blow to the Russian ego. The largest economy in the post-soviet territory had once again, just as in the last quarter of 2008, displayed some of the worst results in the key indicators – the severity of GDP decline, rate of inflation, and income trends. The only results that were worse were those of the second largest economic power in post-soviet territory – Ukraine. Excessive dependency on foreign capital and monopolization of the economy are some of the reasons listed by experts for the domestic misfortunes.

On Tuesday, Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) suddenly announced that in July, contrary to the initial calculations made by the officials, the consumer market inflation rate surpassed last year’s indicator making it 0.6% versus 0.5%. As a result, since the beginning of the year, prices increased by 8.1%.

Compared to last year’s indicators, one tenth of a percent difference, at first glance, does not seem significant. However, what’s more important is the fact that the summer inflation slowdown anticipated by the authorities did not occur. In the beginning of July, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Central Bank Aleksey Ulyukaev said that, according to July’s results, a zero inflation rate could be fixed in the country, and in August – deflation (fall of prices). Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aleksey Kudrin shared similar hopes of an inflation rate decrease. In the beginning of July, he proudly reported on the fall of price rate increase. “In annual terms, by March, inflation was about 14%, by June – compared to 2008 – it was slightly below 12%. We are already living with the inflation rate of less than 12%,” emphasized the finance minister.

However, Kudrin’s optimism was premature. According to the Statistical Committee of the CIS, in Russia, in the first half of the year, comparing to the same period in 2008, price increases amounted to 13.1%, which became one of the worst indicators among the countries of the CIS. The annual rate of price increase greater than that of Russia was found only in Belarus (14.6%) and Ukraine (17.6%). Above all, in other countries that depend on exports of raw materials, inflation was several times lower. For example, in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the annual inflation rate was only 3.7% and 8.5% respectively.

Russia also markedly stands out from its neighbors in its industrial rate of decline. In Russia, industrial production fell by 14.8% in the first half of the year, but in Azerbaijan, for example, industrial production increased by 1%. In Kazakhstan it fell by 2.7%, and in Belarus – by 3.6%. Such modest decline rates seem unreachable for Russia, which was surpassed only by Ukraine where industrial production fell by 31.1% in the first half of the year, compared to last year’s figures.

Compared to other CIS countries, Russia also does not look so good in terms of the population’s real income rates, which, considering the current inflation rate, basically did not increase in the first half of the year. At the same time, in Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, if one were to believe national statistics, real income increased by 12.5%, 6.6% and 5% respectively.

Experts provide several reasons for Russia’s poor figures in levels of decline, inflation rates, and decreased income levels among countries of the CIS. “The first reason – Russia’s openness of the economy in regards to trade as well as to financial markets. The second and most important reason is the highest level of dependency on commodity market conditions. Kazakhstan depends on oil prices no less than Russia does, and its borrowing as a percentage of GDP was even greater than in Russia. But that is exactly what led to Kazakhstan being hit by the crisis in the third quarter of 2007, when financial markets were closed,” notes the Head of the Economic Analysis Unit of the Eurasian Development Bank Yevgeny Vinokurov. By the end of 2008, Kazakhstan’s economy had a chance to adapt to the crisis, while Russia reached its peak in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“The lower rate of decline of industrial production in Kazakhstan and growth in Azerbaijan are related to the predominance of the industrial structure in the mining industry: production volumes continued to grow, albeit at a modest pace. With regard to Belarus, here, relative protection of the economic system of the country was an active factor,” considers Vinokurov. The cause for the collapse of industrial production in Ukraine, the expert attributed to political instability, which superimposed the crisis and made its effects more prominent.

Experts also explain the abnormally high rate of decline of the Russian economy, as compared to other CIS countries, by a dramatic change in terms of foreign lending. “In Russia, the industries that suffered from the crisis most were those that were developing most dynamically before the crisis in construction, the auto-industry, and the financial sector. Before the crisis, real estate prices were overvalued, whereas now, construction is not at all supported by financially reliable methods. The auto-industry is experiencing a similar situation due to a significant decline in auto loans, consumers are refusing to make purchases. The Russian financial sector was also severely inflated, and very dependent on Western money.” Believes Tamara Kasianova of 2K Audit – Business Consulting. The expert explained the reason for the high inflation rate against the backdrop of other CIS countries not only to the devaluation of the rouble, but also the systemic lack of competition. “Because small and medium sized businesses have not developed in Russia, large enterprises can dictate their prices and maintain their pre-crisis rate of return,” noted Kasianova.

The highest rates of decline are observed in sectors related to investment demand – the production of machinery, and equipment. The importance of these sectors in the industrial production structure largely determined the pace of industrial production decline in Russia, adds Olga Naidenova, Financial Corporation, Otrkitie analyst. She explains high inflation rates by lack of competition and a large tax component in the price structure. In addition, according to her, the combination of high shares of imports and devaluation of the rouble negatively impacted prices.

As the first anniversary of Russia’s war with Georgia approaches, the area is showing signs that violence may flare up once again.  Last year, similar shoot-outs between separatist South Ossetian forces and their counterparts on the Georgian side steadily escalated into full-blown combat.  Is the stage being set for a second armed confrontation over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia?

Writing for the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, journalist Yuri Simonyan explores the deteriorating situation, assessing the chances of a second Russian-Georgian war.

—

SOUTH OSSETIAN DEJA VU
Yuri Simonyan
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
August 3, 2009

The situation in South Ossetia took a definite turn for the worst last weekend. The Ossetians claim that their capital city of Tskhinvali and police checkpoints come under regular fire from the Georgian territory. Tbilisi reverses the accusations and claims that it is Georgian police checkpoints that are fired at.

Guarantor of Abkhazian and South Ossetian security, the Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement warning the Georgian authorities to give a thought to consequences of the failure to put an end to “provocations against a sovereign republic, its citizens, and Russian servicemen”. A year ago, analogous warnings, accusations, and skirmishes had escalated into a shooting war.

Official Tbilisi maintains in all earnest that provocations are engineered by Moscow and Tskhinvali.

That Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said the Russian Defense Ministry was lying through the teeth to justify presence of “the occupiers on the territory or Georgia”. “No Georgians ever fired at Tskhinvali or checkpoints, including the checkpoints near the village of Eredvi.
Making all these bold statements, Russia hopes to justify the presence of the occupiers in the region. Fortunately, the international community knows better. Russia hopes to draw us into these provocations. It will fail,” Yakobashvili announced. The state minister dismissed another shooting war as unlikely “even though it is predicted by doomsday prophet Felgengauer”. This Russian expert had recently evaluated chances of another Russian- Georgian war at 80%.

The Georgian Foreign Minister appraised the statement issued by the Russian Defense Ministry as an open threat to “a sovereign neighbor”. “Aggressive rhetorics of the Russian Defense Ministry and some senior officers of the Russian Armed Forces reveals existence of some plans with regard to Georgia,” it said and urged the international community to appraise the statement issued in Moscow.

That Tbilisi will once again secure the international community’s support goes almost without saying. Lacking access to the territory controlled by Tskhinvali, the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) refused to confirm the fact of firing at the South Ossetian capital. EUMM spokesman Steve Bird told journalists that observers had failed to find evidence of firing at Tskhinvali or any other South Ossetian settlement from the Georgian territory. The official statement made by the EUMM in the meantime included a reference to the necessity of access to the territory or South Ossetia, something Tskhinvali was denying EU observers.  The EUMM backed the Georgian claims that the checkpoint near Zemo Nikozi had come under mortar and automatic rifle fire from the direction of South Ossetia.

South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Jioyev dismissed the EUMM’s verdict as prejudiced. “Neither do they notice rapid remilitarization of Georgia, growth of its military potential, or aggressiveness of its leaders with regard to South Ossetia… All of that plainly shows that the August 2008 events have taught the Georgians nothing,” Jioyev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Military expert Irakly Sesiashvili in his turn disputed the assurances of the official Georgian authorities that an armed conflict was unlikely. Last Friday, President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity voiced territorial grudges against Georgia and said that the Trusov Gorge (currently controlled by the Georgians) had always been Ossetian. “There are some serious territorial issues we want brought up. The Trusov Gorge which is currently part of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti Administrative District of Georgia is ancestral Ossetian land turned over to the Georgian Social Socialist Republic in the Soviet period for some inexplicable reason,” Kokoity said. “Time to demand its return to Ossetia.” As far as Sesiashvili was concerned, Kokoity’s statement signalled “the resolve of Tskhinvali to expand its territory and the desire on Moscow’s part to expand the security zone.”

Tbilisi claims in the meantime that deterioration of the situation in South Ossetia is Moscow’s way of reminding everyone that it does not want Mikhail Saakashvili as the president of Georgia. It is also alleged that Moscow’s stiffly-worded statements are expected to inflame and encourage the Georgian
opposition that pins the blame for the loss of territories [Abkhazia and South Ossetia] on Saakashvili alone. Applying pressure in the region, the Kremlin sends a message to Tbilisi that it won’t let go while Saakashvili remains the president.

Political scientist Paata Zakareishvili who visited South Ossetia the other day disagreed with this hypothesis.  Zakareishvili called the latest deterioration “petty and local”.  “The Georgian law enforcement agencies arrested an Ossetian gunman by name of Pukhayev, the one who had gained notoriety through exceptionally cruel eradication of the Georgian village of Kurta in the August war. The Ossetians responded by opening fire at Zemo Nikozi. The Georgian probably returned it, and so on,” Zakareishvili said.

Translated by Aleksei Ignatkin

Gennady Gudkov, the deputy chair of the State Duma Security Committee, told the newspaper that the effects of the crisis were constantly growing. “It could happen,” he said, “that no amount of Internal Forces will be enough.”

The main office of the Internal Forces, Russia’s equivalent of a national guard, denied that troops were being moved. Interior Ministry press-secretary Vasily Panchenkov said enough units were already in place, but added that OMON special forces could be sent in if public meetings and demonstrations turned violent.

The paper also notes an increase in suicides related to job loss and the economic crisis.

On December 24th, the Levada Center polling agency published a new opinion survey, which indicates that more than 21 million Russians were prepared to join in mass-protests. The poll asked 1600 people in 46 regions about the likelihood that demonstrations would take place near where they live, and asked whether the respondent would join in the protest. 23 percent said protests were likely, and 20 percent said they would most likely participate, a slight increase from the first half of the year.

The paper apparently received a letter from the city government’s property department, and was told to vacate their building within 30 days. While the department claims that repairs need to be done to the site, two restaurants in the same building did not receive a similar notice.

Konstantin Remchukov, NG’s owner and editor-in-chief, told Interfax that the eviction was a retaliation for articles that criticized Luzhkov over statements the mayor made at the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol. Luzhkov had sparked tensions with Ukraine when he called for the port to be returned to Russia.

NG has held its Myasnitskaya Ulitsa location since it was founded in 1990.

Unnamed sources within the city administration backed Remchukov’s assertions, saying that the move was a response to the articles about Luzhkov’s speech in Sevastopol, as well as speculations by NG that Luzhkov may retire.

Sergei Tsoi, the mayor’s press secretary, meanwhile denied any hints of Luzhkov’s involvement in the eviction. “Neither the mayor nor the Moscow city government have ever persecuted media outlets and particular individuals for dissent, not to mention a publication with such a title,” he told Interfax.

It is worth noting that the editorial offices received the notice on May 26th, the day court hearings began against Boris Zemtsov, a deputy editor-in-chief at NG. Zemtsov is accused of extorting 40 thousand dollars from bureaucrats of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as drug possession. Nezavisimaya Gazeta had earlier written that Zemtsov’s arrest may be an attempt to silence the paper’s critical reporting.

Correspondents are now relegated to the press-center on the fifth floor, and the adjoining bathrooms. Federal officers will escort journalists to and from the press-center, in order to make sure that the journalists don’t wander off in the corridors of power, and don’t have the chance to make unsanctioned contact with friendly civil servants.

News agency and print journalists will now no longer be able to access the White House freely during business hours. A special list that allowed open entry Monday through Saturday has been removed, and a room that once served as permanent workspace for journalists has had its doors shuttered. As the Government press-service explained, individual lists for different events will now let reporters in. Correspondents will no longer be provided with any technical facilities.

Media personnel are also barred from the affordable employee cafeterias, although officials have promised free food if the start of work is delayed by unforeseeable reasons.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta believes President Vladimir Putin’s coming accession to the post of Prime Minister is directly tied to the crack-down on transparent access to the White House.

Igor Yakovenko, the head of the Russian Union of Journalists, shared his thoughts with the Sobkor®ru news agency, and agreed with that assessment:

“This is a serious step backwards for openness in the executive branch, and is connected with Vladimir Putin’s relocation into the Government,” he said. “This is his signature style of communication with the press, formed in his years of work at the KGB. Evidently, for a professional intelligence agent, words are an attribute to be concealed, and communication with the press is perceived as a special forces operation. And this style will continue in one form or another, regardless of any formal changes. This is a minus, but there’s no catastrophe in it, since the information landscape in the country will be determined by other factors, and not formal rules.”

As the Kommersant newspaper reports, the White House press-service explains the new changes as a response to the technological “progress in the methods of disseminating information.” The director of the press-service, Aleksandra Zharova, commented in a statement that all official reports and press-releases will be sent by facsimile and email to the mass-media outlets, and will be published immediately on the agency website.

Accredited journalists have had free access to the White House building, including technical facilities, since the attempted coup of August 1991, when hard-line Communists attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev.

An unnamed source told the paper that the generals and officers are protesting, in part, against military reforms, the privatization of military assets, as well as the reorganization and budget cuts for the administration’s headquarters. Many of the military leaders are planning to tender their resignation, and others have already turned in their documents.

The most notable of the discontented officers is Yury Baluevsky, the chief of the General Staff, whose resignation has been confirmed by army sources. The publication writes that he is protesting the politics of the reforms instituted by Serdyukov.

According to the paper’s source, the dissent is also widespread among the top officials of the General Staff and the Ministry, including General Vasily Smirnov, who leads the General Staff directorate responsible for manning the armed forces. Smirnov would neither confirm nor deny his resignation.

Serdyukov, who hails from a civilian background, has been at odds with military brass for some time. For now, military sources have refused to comment or confirm the information brought forth by Nezavisimaya Gazeta. A series of unofficial comments, however, indicate that Russia’s leadership is now doing everything it can to quash the escalating conflict between the generals and their minister.