Russland

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Yahoo! News, September 16, 2010: A group of Russia's most prominent opposition leaders formed a coalition Thursday to challenge the ruling duo of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Boris Nemtsov, who once served as deputy premier under President Boris Yeltsin, said the new coalition aims to compete in next year's parliamentary elections and field a presidential candidate in 2012. Nemtsov lambasted Putin, now prime minister, for his alleged intention to run for two more presidential terms after already serving two terms as president. Putin's hand-picked successor Medvedev also extended Russia's presidential terms from four years to six years, beginning 2012. "The prospect of having the great Putin till the year 2024 in our country is a disaster for Russia," Nemtsov said. Garry Kasparov, the chess titan who has been one of Russia's top opposition figures, was out of the country Thursday. Nemtsov said he would try to persuade Kasparov to join the coalition - Russian opposition challenges Putin, Medvedev

Russian Political Alliance Established With Gorbachev's Support

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Haaretz, September 20, 2010: Syria has already received shipments of advanced surface-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles from Russia, Western diplomats said yesterday. The weapons, they said, reached the Syrian Army at some point in the last few weeks despite intense Israeli pressure on Moscow to scuttle the deal. The diplomats told Haaretz that Damascus continues to proclaim its desire for peace with Israel, but at the same time is deepening its ties with the radical regional axis of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas - Syria has received Russian missiles, diplomats say

Syria-Russia missile deal ‘problematic,’ Netanyahu says
Israeli official: We'll sell arms to Russia's enemies

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The Daily Telegraph, September 20, 2010: Russian aircraft have buzzed a US navy frigate in the Arctic Ocean in a Cold War-style show of force as the Kremlin steps up its campaign to claim much of the resource-rich region. Reinforcing the message, a Ka-27 submarine hunter helicopter took off from a Russian warship the following day and again flew perilously close to the American ship. The two incidents were deemed so serious that Admiral Gary Roughead, the head of the US navy, raised the matter with Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, his Russian counterpart. Although both countries are well used to tracking one another's naval movements, the aggressive nature of the Russian "reconnaissance" raised eyebrows in the Pentagon and alarmed the commanders of the USS Taylor, who feared an accidental collision. Moscow is claiming ownership of a large swath of the Arctic including the North Pole but faces competition from the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway - Russian jets buzz US navy frigate in Arctic in Cold War-style show of force

Russia to fire 100,000 bureaucrats in next three years

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Bloomberg, September 21, 2010: Russia plans to spend $613 billion over the next decade to equip its armed forces with the latest weaponry, including what may be the first purchases of U.S. military technology since World War II, according to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. The Defense, Finance and Economy Ministries are in the final stages of approving a plan to increase the 2011-2020 arms budget by 46 percent from the previous estimate of 13 trillion rubles, Serdyukov said yesterday, after returning from talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington. Serdyukov is looking abroad for arms Russian companies can’t provide, breaking with predecessors who sought to keep the country autonomous in weapons procurement. He has been lobbying for a bigger budget since at least May, when President Dmitry Medvedev said the military should triple the ratio of “state- of-the-art” equipment in its arsenal to 30 percent by 2015. The Defense Ministry’s proposal will push that figure to 70 percent by 2020, Serdyukov said. To achieve the targets, Russia wants to acquire technology from its former Cold War adversaries in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, including the U.S., Serdyukov said - Russia Boosts Arms Spree to $613 Billion, Seeks U.S. Technology

Russia May Sell More Weapons to Syria as U.S., Israel Protest Missile Deal
Georgia Warns Of 'Threat' From French Warship Sale To Russia

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Commentary Magazine, October 4, 2010: As Americans turn their attention inward, China and Russia are beginning to make geopolitical moves that evoke nothing so much as the environment of the 1930s. I have written elsewhere about China’s dispute with Japan over the Senkaku Islands and Beijing’s resort to a direct confrontation over them in September. Russia added to Japan’s troubles last week, when Dmitry Medvedev planned to make an unprecedented visit to the Kuril Islands in the north, which have been disputed by Japan and Russia since the end of World War II. Medvedev’s trip was curtailed by bad weather on this occasion (a verifiable excuse, incidentally). But his government has affirmed that he will visit the islands in the near future. In fact, it has doubled down by calling Japan’s claims to the Kurils a “dead end” and flatly warning Japan against complaining about the visit - Japan: Russia Piling On

US group attacks Russian 'meddling' in Kyrgyzstan election
Russia's Medvedev attacks Belarus President Lukashenko
Hugo Chavez to start visit to Russia on October 11
Russia increases combat capabilities in Arctic

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RIA Novosti, October 15, 2010: Russia will soon supply another shipment of tanks to Venezuela, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday. "Thirty-five tanks will be delivered soon," he said. Putin also said Venezuela is Russia's "reliable partner." Chavez said the two states would speed up military cooperation. Venezuela is building a plant to manufacture Kalashnikov assault rifles. Since 2005, Venezuela has bought over $4 billion worth of Russian weapons, including warplanes, helicopters, and Kalashnikov assault rifles. Earlier on Friday, Russia and Venezuela signed an agreement on the construction of a nuclear power station in the South American state - Russia to deliver 35 tanks to Venezuela - Putin

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Bloomberg, October 18, 2010: Russia’s leadership should start listening to the people or risk mass protests and disorder, said Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. “Our government fears its own citizens,” Gorbachev said, warning the patience of Russians with “a swamp of stagnation, indifference and corruption” may eventually snap. “When people finally realize that their opinion is ignored and that nothing depends on them, they’ll go out on the street,” he said - Russia Risks Mass Unrest Under Current Regime, Gorbachev Says

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Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2010: Oleg Kashin, a reporter with the daily Kommersant newspaper, was ambushed overnight near his home in central Moscow by two men who witnesses said beat the 30-year-old journalist on the head, legs and hands and then ran away. Mikhail Fedotov, the secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, pointed to the bludgeoning of Kashin's hands as particularly sinister. "What's so utterly disgusting about the case is that the attackers did their utmost if not to kill Kashin but to maim him gravely enough to prevent him from ever being physically able to write again," Fedotov said. Fedotov said Kashin's beating was the fifth attack on Russian journalists in just the last 30 days, adding to a climate of intimidation in a country that has seen growing protests over limits on personal liberties. Medvedev wrote on his Twitter blog that he had ordered the prosecutor general's office and the Interior Ministry to oversee the investigation. "The criminals must be apprehended and punished," Medvedev wrote Saturday. Fedotov said he was impressed with how quickly the president reacted to the attack. "It is an unprecedentedly prompt reaction, something which never happened before, and it is very indicative" - Russian journalist brutally attacked in Moscow

"Oleg writes a lot about the public's growing discontent, about protest actions and opposition demonstrations..."

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Enda en russisk journalist utsatt for grov vold (NB: videoen av overfallet på Kashin viser svært rå voldsbruk):

Reuters, November 8, 2010: A Russian journalist was severely beaten near Moscow on Monday, two days after assailants tried to murder a well-known reporter who worked for the prestigious Kommersant newspaper. Anatoly Adamchuk, who works for a regional paper, was assaulted by two men outside the newspaper's office, located southeast of Moscow. Colleagues say they believe the attack to be linked to his reporting on plans to log a nearby forest to build a controversial highway - Russian journalist assaulted


Video of cruel beating of journalist Oleg Kashin

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The Daily Telegraph, November 11, 2010: Russia has sent a hit squad to kill a renegade colonel in its own foreign intelligence service who fled to the United States this summer after exposing a sprawling Russian spy ring. The man, named as Colonel Scherbakov, worked for Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, a successor agency to the KGB, where he oversaw a top- secret programme to dispatch long-term sleeper agents or "illegals" to the United States. Russian intelligence sources told the Kommersant newspaper that he was the traitor who had given the FBI the names of the ten sleeper agents who made up the ring, including glamorous spy Anna Chapman. In at least one case, he is even said to have taken part in an interrogation. In an echo of the Cold War, a Kremlin source was quoted as saying that Colonel Scherbakov would not have long to savour his betrayal. "We know who he is and where he is," the source said. "Have no doubt that a Mercader has been sent after him already" - Russia sends hit squad to kill renegade colonel

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FrontPage Magazine, November 12, 2010: While markets in Russia might be freer than they were under Leonid Brezhnev, the resurgent power of the police state in the country today would make Stalin smile. The method of governing Mother Russia through a thuggish ruling class has been a central feature of the nation since Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century. Under Ivan, the secret police were the Oprichniki, who used torture and murder to root out and eliminate enemies of the government. In turn, the police were taken care of very well by the Tsar. Down through the centuries, Russian heads of state have continually emulated Ivan’s example. The names have changed from the Okhrana under Nicholas II, to the NKVD, to the KGB and all of the incarnations in between. Today, the FSB has replaced the KGB, but apart from two consonants, there doesn’t appear to be much that separates the two organizations. Unless, of course, it’s that the FSB has more money to work with than its predecessor. The mission remains the same as it ever was: to ensure that the regime in power stays in power - Russia’s Freedoms Fading Fast

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UPI, November 23, 2010: Viktor Bout, a Russian alleged to be the world's most prolific gunrunner, is languishing in a New York prison awaiting trial on terrorism charges. And that seems to be causing some concern in Moscow. The Russians appear to be worried about what Bout might divulge about their clandestine operations around the globe and, in particular, their suspected covert arms sales to foes of the United States, like Iran, to negotiate a light sentence. Bout is widely believed to have strong links to the GRU, Russia's military intelligence, which unlike the KGB wasn't dismantled after the fall of communism and continues to operate globally - Russian 'arms king' and Moscow's secrets

Kremlin says eyeing new naval bases abroad

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The Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2010: The U.S. believes Russia has moved short-range tactical nuclear warheads to facilities near North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies as recently as this spring, U.S. officials say, adding to questions in Congress about Russian compliance with long-standing pledges ahead of a possible vote on a new arms-control treaty. U.S. officials say the movement of warheads to facilities bordering NATO allies appeared to run counter to pledges made by Moscow starting in 1991 to pull tactical nuclear weapons back from frontier posts and to reduce their numbers - Russian Missiles Fuel U.S. Worries

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Space War, December 2, 2010: Russia's bid to build up its "striking forces", including nuclear weapons, if it fails to agree on missile defence with NATO is "political grandstanding", a senior NATO official said Thursday in Vilnius. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday in a CNN interview that if Russia's proposals on a planned NATO European missile shield system "are met with negative answers only" while additional threats appear, "Russia will have to ensure her own security". Russia's expanded "striking forces" would include "new missile, nuclear technology," Putin said. "We did not take it as a provocation," Lieutenant General Walter E. Gaskin told the Baltic News Service (BNS) responding to Putin's comments in Vilnius Thursday - Russia 'political grandstanding' on shield: NATO official

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Global Voices, December 7, 2010: Almost a year has passed since a former Novorossiysk police officer, Alexey Dymovskiy, shot a famous video about corruption in the Russian police that has been viewed almost a million times. Since then, several police officers have followed in his footsteps, uploading YouTube testimonies of wrongdoings within the police force. Unfortunately, nearly all have suffered arrests, beatings, firings or criminal prosecution, and justice has never been done - The Sad Fate of Russia's “YouTube Cops”