Russia 110513 Basic Political Developments

Russia has good chance in Turkish tender for anti-aircraft missile system – Rosoboronexport

http://www.militaryaerospace.com/index/display/avi-wire-news-display/1416474362.html

Russia & CIS Military Newswire

May 12, 2011

Russia is a worthy bidder in Turkey's international tender for air defense systems. Results of the tender will be announced soon, Chief Advisor to the Rosoboronexport General Director Anatoly Aksyonov, who leads the Rosoboronexport delegation to IDEF 2011, told reporters on Thursday.

"We are entering into the decisive phase of the tender, and we are a worthy bidder," he said.

The tender organizers thanked Russian specialists for their colossal work, which solved problems related to critical technologies, industrial participation and offset programs. The prospective clients were able to see the serial production of an anti-aircraft missile system and peculiarities of its use in the Armed Forces, he said.

"Our Turkish colleagues saw everything with their own eyes. They told us they were sure that the anti-aircraft missile system offered to them really existed, was produced serially and used in the Russian Armed Forces," Aksyonov said.

Turkey described the offset program offered by Russia as "adequate, balanced and feasible," he said.

The United States is Russia's main rival in the tender. France and China are the other bidders. "Our main rival is the Americans with their well-known product. This is a serious rival," he said.

Earlier reports said that Russia offered the S-300 long-range anti-aircraft missile system at the Turkish tender.

Copyright 2011 Interfax News AgencyAll Rights Reserved

Russia & CIS Military Newswire

Russia to deploy 2nd S-400 air defense regiment near Moscow

http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110513/163998509.html

01:33 13/05/2011

A second regiment equipped with advanced S-400 Triumf air defense systems will be put on combat duty near the Russian capital on May 15, the Defense Ministry said.

The first S-400 regiment has been deployed in Electrostal, also near Moscow, as part of the air and missile defense network around the Russian capital.

The S-400 (SA-21 Growler) air defense system is expected to form the cornerstone of Russia's theater air and missile defenses by 2020.

The S-400 system can engage targets at a maximum range of up to 400 km at an altitude of 40,000-50,000 meters. The system uses a range of missiles, optimized for engaging ballistic and cruise missiles.

An S-400 air defense regiment consists of two or three battalions equipped with four systems each. Russia is planning to arm 56 battalions with S-400 systems by 2020.

MOSCOW, May 13 (RIA Novosti)

May 13, 2011 10:48

Popular Front doesn't come under law on equal access to media – CEC

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=243268

MOSCOW. May 13 (Interfax) - The All-Russia Popular Front will have the right to engage in party campaigning, formally remaining outside the field of the election campaign, Central Election Commission member Yelena Dubrovina told the commission on Thursday, according to Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

"If it does not become a political party it will not come under the law on political parties' equal access to the media and will remain in 'free floatation,'" Dubrovina said.

The Congress of Russian Communities has every chance to become a political party within a month, if it is joined by the required number of members and sets up the required number of regional braches, she also said.

"It will not be difficult technically. They will need to hold a congress and become reorganized into a party," Dubrovina was quoted as sayi9ng.

Sd

Russia reforms fail to halt rights abuses – Amnesty

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/05/13/idINIndia-56984420110513
7:55am IST

By Alissa de Carbonnel

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev's reforms to rid Russia of police violence, legal impunity and unfair detention have been "piecemeal" and done little to curb frequent rights abuses, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Three years after Medvedev succeeded Vladimir Putin and promised to fight Russia's tradition of graft and widespread flouting of the law, allegations of police torture and corruption in the judicial system are widespread, the rights group said in its annual report.

"In spite of a stated desire for police reform, corruption and collusion between the police, investigators and prosecutors were widely perceived ... There were frequent reports of torture and other ill-treatment by law-enforcement officers," it said.

"Judicial reform continued to be presented as a government priority. However, reforms remained piecemeal and had only a limited impact."

Outrage over the 2009 prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who colleagues say was denied access to adequate medical care in pretrial detention, spurred Medvedev to propose legal reforms and order a special rights inquiry into the case.

Leaked details of the inquiry by a commission of rights lawyers last month found the case against Magnitsky was fabricated, but no one has been prosecuted over his death.

"It's of course positive that Medvedev has repeatedly expressed respect for human rights organisations and independent media, called for greater independence of the courts, but so far this has not realised itself into real action," Amnesty's Russia expert Frederica Behr told Reuters.

The watchdog group cited the December sentencing of ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is to remain in jail until 2017 following his conviction in a second trial, as an example of political pressure on the justice system.

"MIXED MESSAGES"

Amnesty also accused Moscow of sending mixed messages on freedoms, saying that while the official rhetoric has changed and activism is growing, police crackdowns on protesters and attacks on journalists continued in a climate of impunity.

There have been 19 unsolved murders of journalists in Russia since 2000, including the 2006 killing of Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

"In the last three years people have less fear to go out into the streets. ... We have seen a growing activism among the population," said Behr. "But at the same time we have seen harsher methods by the authorities to clamp down on dissent."

Less than a year before a new election, a perceived lack of results has disappointed rights activists, liberals and critics of Putin who hoped Medvedev's presidency would bring more tangible reforms.

Putin, president from 2000-2008 and now prime minister, has hinted he will seek to return to the Kremlin in the March 2012 vote or endorse Medvedev for a second term.

"WORRYING TREND" IN UKRAINE

In the neighbouring ex-Soviet republic of Ukraine, Amnesty said the human rights situation had deteriorated since President Viktor Yanukovich took office in February 2010 and quickly consolidated political powers.

"In a worrying new trend, the picture darkened in Ukraine for human rights defenders," it said. "They were physically attacked, and faced harassment from law enforcement officers, in connection with their legitimate human rights work."

Amnesty cited the case of Andrei Fedosov, the chairman of a mental disability rights group, who was assaulted by unidentified men last year and then briefly detained on charges of committing a crime 10 years ago, which were later dropped.

In another case, a court ordered trade union activist Andrei Bondarenko to undergo a forced psychiatric examination after prosecutors said he had displayed "excessive awareness of his and others' rights and his uncontrollable readiness to defend these rights in unrealistic ways".

(Additional reporting by Richard Balmforth in Kiev; editing by David Stamp)

10:43 13/05/2011Russia

FSB officer killed in armed clash in Dagestan http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c34/141496.html

MAKHACHKALA, May 13 (Itar-Tass) —— Major of the Border Department of the Russian Federal Security Service for the republic died in an armed clash in Dagestan’s Tsumadinsky region.

As ITAR-TASS learnt at the Interior Ministry for Dagestan, “at about 19.00 Moscow time on Thursday, unidentified people fired from automatic arms at law enforcers during the holding of a counterterrorist operation in a forest of the region, as a result an officer of the Border Department died.”

Criminal proceedings were instituted.

At dawn, the operation to spot and liquidate the attackers was resumed. The number of the attackers is not reported.

GOOGLE TRANSLATION

Terrorist attack prevented in Kizlyar district of Dagestan

http://www.interfax.ru/news.asp?id=189746

May 13, 2011 11:16

Makhachkala. May 13. INTERFAX.RU - Explosive device was found on the outskirts of the Dagestani village Pervokizlyarsky, it was defused by sappers of the Federal Security Service, told Interfax on Friday, the press service of the Russian FSB in Dagestan.
According to the interlocutor of agency, found the night before the bomb was destroyed by erosion of superimposed charge.
Improvised vzryvustroystvo is a 12-liter bucket filled with a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder, and balls of bearings as submunitions. Next to the bomb was a bag, it was container with flammable liquid. Radio-controlled bomb.
"Power devices is estimated at 10 kg of TNT, "- said the agency interlocutor.