MOSCOW – The Kremlin has not had a good week with its putative allies. Russia’s ban on imports of Belarussian dairy products (under claims they failed technical requirements) has stirred a strong political response from Minsk. The excuse of their failure to meet technical requirements has stirred a strong political response from Minsk. President Alexander Lukashenko skipped the Moscow summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and Minsk declared all summit decisions illegitimate due to Belarus’s non-attendance. Minsk even rejected the conference agreement to create a collective rapid response force.
MOSCOW – The June 4-6 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum shed a spotlight on Russia’s economic situation, clearly indicating that the Russian leadership is uncertain about the scope of the economic downturn and how to deal with it. President Dmitry Medvedev’s much anticipated keynote address was a great disappointment. He did the best he could to avoid offering precise assessments of the present and future state of Russia’s economy, instead reiterating the Kremlin’s ambitious old ideas.
MOSCOW – In conjunction with the St Petersburg Economic International Forum, speculations over Russia’s accession to WTO have picked up steam. On the sidelines of the Forum, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said Moscow stands a good chance of joining WTO by year end. The negotiations with the European Union seemed to help settle some problems over export tariffs imposed by Russia on raw timber and technical barriers to foreign trade. United States Trade Representative Ronald Kirk, following his talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Nabiullina, announced …
Moscow is viewing the EU’s new project – the Eastern Partnership – with suspicion. The Kremlin believes the decision to establish the group (made up of the six post-Soviet nations – Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia) would weaken Russia’s clout in the post-Soviet space and hurt Moscow’s politic and economic interests in its “special interests zone.” The Kremlin is unhappy about the fact that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, that are traditionally mistrustful of Russia’s policy in Europe, are the Eastern Partnership’s main driving force. However, …
This past April saw signs that Russian-NATO relations, frozen in the wake of the Russian-Georgian August 2008 conflict, might start looking up. A diplomatic meeting in the Russia-NATO format even took place in Brussels. But parallel to this event the Russian news media unleashed an unprecedented campaign protesting the NATO Cooperative Bow 09/Cooperative Lance 09 exercise that the Alliance is to hold in Georgia. Moscow is carefully sidestepping the fact that the exercise is nothing but a staff game, with no combat forces attending. The Kremlin is deliberately ignoring the …
Unemployment is increasingly raising its profile in Russia’s crisis-hit economy. Last March it was at a record 40-percent high. The official data show that its level over the first quarter jumped from 6 to 7.5 million people, which is around 10 percent of Russia’s labor force. According to independent assessments, unemployment could well be even higher – 7.8-8.5 million. The authorities have responded to a sharp increase in the numbers of those laid off in a purely bureaucratic manner. If the government dislikes certain statistics, it only needs to suppress …
Last week the Kremlin formally announced its decade-long anti-terror operation in Chechnya over. In practical terms, it translates into puling out the federal forces and repealing stringent restrictions related to freedom of movement for civilians in Chechnya. This measure aroused little enthusiasm in Russia, though. In point of fact, the internal conditions in Chechnya and the North Caucasus at large are continuing highly explosive. Actually, peace in Chechnya has been reached owing to massive infusions of cash by Moscow into the breakaway republic’s political and economic infrastructure. The Kremlin managed …
The past week saw an unprecedented number of President Dmitry Medvedev’s public acts towards civil society institutions. He was interviewed by the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, met with representatives of civil rights NGOs and had a protracted televised talk on NTV channel deemed the most liberal of the government-run television channels. The President said the right things – that Russia’s democracy was similar to everybody else’s and did not need to be adapted, that political rights and freedoms cannot be traded for stability and prosperity and NGOs are an inalienable …
Amid a severe economic crisis Russia, along with many other nations, is facing grave difficulties in replenishing the federal budget. With the government continuing to task the government agencies in charge of the budget with ensuring maximum revenues, Federal Tax Service, the Economics Development Ministry and the Finance Ministry are coming out with various proposals for covering the budget deficit. Federal Tax Service has been extremely anti-market in its proposals. One of the most odious is to impose a levy on all financial transactions at a fixed rate of 0.5 …
The past week saw a specter of a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine rising again, reviving fears of dramatic economic and political consequences for both the two nations and Europe at large. These developments were caused by an agreement between the European Union and Kiev designed to overhaul its gas pipeline network. Under the Brussels accords, Ukraine is set to receive from big Europe over $2.5 billion to upgrade its gas grid. In return, Kiev guarantees gas transit transparency and equal access to the gas pipelines. This agreement drew …
