The upper chamber of Russia’s parliament has voted 132-1 to approve a bill that raises fines 150-fold for people taking part in unsanctioned rallies. The much-debated legislation now needs only the president’s signature to become law.

The Federation Council voted after a short debate, in contrast to the lower house, where MPs discussed it for 11 hours before the pro-Kremlin United Russia rammed it through at midnight.

The opposition factions in the Duma put forward several hundred amendments in an unprecedented attempt to stymie the bill’s passage, reflecting a new willingness to stand up to the Kremlin.

The bill raises fines from the current 2,000 rubles (£40) to 300,000 rubles (£5,970). The legislation has been seen as a response to a series of anti-government protests and aimed at discouraging further street protests challenging Vladimir Putin.

Gazeta.ru has created a helpful infographic for understanding the voting process; we’ve translated it here:

Russia’s state-sponsored media is largely ignoring the leaked cables, while more independent online and newspaper media sources have been discussing them more actively. As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty argues, most Russians are already “well aware of rampant corruption among their country’s ruling elite” and may be unfazed by the revelations.

But the ruling elite itself is clearly irked. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the United States had acted “with arrogance, rudeness, and unethically,” and his political party, United Russia, released a statement late on Thursday complaining that corruption is a problem in every country and Russia was being unfairly stereotyped. “This can only be done with one goal: to prevent Russia and its foreign partners from entering a new level of cooperation. Such a policy is, at a minimum, unwise and unmeasured,” read the statement.

The number of allegations, analyses, and observations in these materials is already so vast as to easily overwhelm the reader. Given that only 608 of the total 250,000+ leaked cables have been released so far, this is likely only the tip of the iceberg. Below is a set of summaries of some of the most scathing articles on Russia and the cables.

WikiLeaks cables condemn Russia as ‘mafia state’
The Guardian
A rundown of several leaked cables that label Russia as a “corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy” that is “using [the] mafia for its dirty work” and where law enforcement agencies “operate a de facto protection racket for criminal networks.” Years of investigations by a Spanish prosecutor back the allegations.

Additionally, Prime Minister Putin is accused of hiding “secret wealth” in overseas accounts.

Dmitry Medvedev ‘plays Robin to Putin’s Batman’
The Guardian
Jokes about this comparison have already fully permeated the global news media. But, as this article describes, the entirety of what was said in this cable paints a more complex picture of the rulers’ relationship. That idea that Putin and Medvedev are akin to Batman and Robin was only one of three camps adhered to by US diplomats’ Russian contacts. The other two sides argued that Medvedev was either slowly gaining power or was no different than Putin.

In an interesting side note, US officials argued that “gullible Europeans and Americans who believed Medvedev was more enlightened than Putin were probably fooling themselves.”

Questioning Putin’s Work Ethic
via the New York Times
Former US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle contends that Putin resents his workload as prime minister and has taken to “working from home.” In light of his frequent absence from the Russian White House, the bulk of ministerial duties have been left to First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. This lead to delays in project implementation because “the Russian system was geared to top-down decisions and paralysis was often the result of Putin’s inaction.”

Alexander Litvinenko murder ‘probably had Putin’s OK’
The Guardian
Daniel Fried, the former top US diplomat in Europe, questioned in one cable “whether rogue security elements could operate, in the UK no less, without Putin’s knowledge,” and “described the Russians as increasingly self-confident, to the point of arrogance.” The article also cites additional evidence of Russian governmental involvement in the murder.

In response to the revelations, Litvinenko’s widow, Marina Litvinenko, summed up a common sentiment regarding the cables in general: “For years we have been trying to get the authorities in the west to view my husband’s murder as a state-sponsored crime. Now it appears they knew it all along.”

Moscow mayor presided over ‘pyramid of corruption’
The Guardian
Ambassador Beyrle describes Moscow under recently fired Mayor Yury Luzhkov. That city, he says, constituted “a system in which it appears that almost everyone at every level is involved in some form of corruption or criminal behaviour.” In his frank assessment of “Moscow’s criminal world,” Beyrle states: “Luzhkov is at the top. The FSB, MVD [security services and police – ed.] and militia are at the second level. Finally ordinary criminals and corrupt inspectors are at the lowest level.”

The ambassador’s sources disagreed whether city officials paid off top Kremlin insiders with suitcases “full of money” or “via a secret account in Cyprus.”

According to the Guardian, Beyrle’s description of corruption in the Russian government and security agencies “offers the most detailed and apparently authoritative account so far.” The newspaper notes that the Kremlin will likely be embarrassed by the allegations, given President Medvedev’s stated attempts to thwart corruption.

Another cable details Luzhkov’s use of the city budget to both line his own pockets and finance “his nationalist foreign policy agenda.”

Russian move to airbrush Stalin ‘too half-hearted’
The Guardian
Attempts by the Kremlin to whitewash dictator Joseph Stalin’s bloody reputation were not strong enough to constitute a real threat to academic freedom in Russia, and were mostly made for political ends, says the US embassy in Moscow. At the same time, leaked sources cite disturbing tactics to this end, including by ordering professors to turn in students who expressed “concepts damaging to Russia’s interests.” It also includes accusations that the Kremlin pays bloggers to influence online debates over Soviet-era human rights abuses.

The London based organization also led a seminar titled “Chechnya. The Forgotten War.”  The panel featured Akhmed Zakayev, representing the Chechen government in exile, Ivar Amudsen of the Chechnya Peace Forum, Marina Litvinenko, and Bill Bowring, a professor of human rights and international law.

—

Chechnya needs a fair political settlement

The Guardian, Monday 23 February 2009

Today is World Chechnya Day. On this day in 1944 Stalin deported the entire Chechen population of 500,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where almost half of them perished in 13 years of exile.

Sixty-five years on, the Chechen people are still suffering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Chechnya existed as an independent state in all but name before Russian troops invaded in 1994. Following a bloody war, a peace accord was signed and democratic elections were held in Chechnya in 1997, only for Vladimir Putin to order its invasion in 1999, resulting in the displacement of several hundred thousand refugees and the death of another 100,000 civilians.

The Kremlin now claims that the war is over and that there is peace and stability in the region. The reality is that the intensive bombings have been replaced with a regime of fear and oppression which has eroded civil society in Chechnya and suppressed any open and democratic voice. Visits are carefully choreographed for western journalists and dignitaries. They do not see the daily realities of Moscow-imposed Ramzan Kadyrov’s rule.

The facade of stability is dangerous. The only way to establish lasting peace in Chechnya is through free and fair elections, which last took place over 10 years ago. On this World Chechnya Day, we urge President Medvedev to find a genuine political settlement that will finally put an end to an entire people’s suffering.

Ivar Amundsen Director, Chechnya Peace Forum,
Malcolm Rifkind MP, Andrew Motion, Ken Loach, Prof AC Grayling, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, Andre Glucksmann, Aki Kaurismäki, Prof Brendan Simms, Jonathan Heawood, Glen Howard, Danny Alexander MP, Raymond Jolliffe, Nicolas Rea, Peter Tatchell

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

The seven-page document was written by High Representative Javier Solana and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who believe, in part, that global warming will strain Europe’s security concerns. The fundamental issues will surface as results of “intensified competition over access to, and control over, energy resources.”

The authors note that melting ice in the Arctic will precipitate a battle over underwater resources. “The rapid melting of the polar ice caps, in particular the Arctic, is opening up new waterways and international trade routes,” the report says. “The increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geostrategic dynamics of the region.”

Global warming has already led to “minor tensions” between Russia and Norway over fishing rights in the Spitsbergen archipelago, according to the report. “The islands of Spitsbergen … have large deposits of gas and oil that are currently locked under a frozen continental shelf,”the paper states. “If global warming were to allow this to become a viable source of energy, a serious conflict could emerge between Russia and Norway.”

In August 2007, Russian scientists led an underwater geological investigation that tested soil samples and determined that a mountain range in the Arctic Ocean called the Lomonosov ridge could be considered Russian territory. A later expedition found that the area was connected to the Russian continental shelf, and planted a Russian flag underneath the North Pole.

In September 2007, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources backed that claim. The territory is thought to contain some 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources.