Russia 110513 Basic Political Developments

Russian Press at a Glance, Friday, May 13, 2011

http://en.rian.ru/papers/20110513/164001646.html
08:59 13/05/2011

POLITICS

In an unexpected twist indicative of a possible rift with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested that the ruling United Russia party's victory in the upcoming parliamentary election was not a foregone conclusion.

(Kommersant)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin quickly moves ahead with his All-Russia People's Front initiative. He presided on Thursday over a meeting of the coordination council which approved the manifesto of the movement.

(Kommersant, Moscow News, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia) 

Russian Central Election Committee said that foreign observers would monitor upcoming elections in Russia in accordance with existing rules and regulations.

(Kommersant)

Russia’s notorious Congress of Russian Communities nationalist group has won a five-year battle for registration with the Justice Ministry, in line with what analysts say is a Kremlin plan to create a controllable right-wing movement.

(Moscow Times)

Territorial dispute over four Kuril Islands between Russia and Japan may soon reignite with a new intensity in view of the upcoming visit to the islands of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.

(Kommersant)

WORLD

Ukraine-born Ivan (John) Demjanjuk, who was found guilty of helping to kill at least 27,900 Jews at a Nazi extermination camp and convicted to five years in prison, will be released from custody because of his declining years, a German court ruled Thursday. (Kommersant)

Denmark plans to reintroduce customs and passport controls on the border with Germany and Sweden to regulate the inflow of migrants. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Russia, the world's largest oil producer, may extend to June a gasoline export duty, which was raised by 44 percent from May to $408.3 per ton to fight local shortages, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said.

(Vedomosti)

Russia and China are likely to sign an agreement on natural gas supplies during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. (Moscow Times)

Russia’s Sberbank is planning to buy the French BNP Paribas retail business in Russia.

(Kommersant)

Inflation in Russia this year will most likely hit 8.9 percent, experts believe.

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Russian bourses continue to experience sharp downward correction. Their indexes have dropped by 12-13 percent since April.

(Moscow News)

Russian Helicopters desperately wants to penetrate the Indian market. The company offered Delhi a sweet deal which includes construction of an assembly plant in India and sales of jointly produced helicopters to third countries.

(Moscow News)

Russia may seek extradition of Hermitage Capital head William Browder from Britain and prosecute him in absentia if London refuses. (Kommersant)

Ford company has stopped producing economy models of its Focus line in Russia - Limited Edition and three-door hatchback.

(Vedomosti)

BMW automaker may build an assembly plant in Russia.

(Vedomosti)

DEFENSE

The Russian Defense Ministry has picked the developer of a new heavy ballistic missile to replace outdated SS-18 Satan. Interview with former head of the General Staff of the Missile Forces Viktor Yesin.

(Izvestia)

SOCIETY

Russia’s overcrowded prisons could release 15,000 inmates if the State Duma approves a "business amnesty" proposed by the parliamentary opposition.

(Vedomosti, Izvestia)

The pension age could be raised for men and women in Russia in 20 years, experts working on Russia’s Strategy-2020 say.

(Izvestia)

The mastermind of the infamous MMM financial pyramid in Russia Sergei Mavrodi offered Belarus help in bringing the country out of the current financial crisis.

(Izvestia)

CRIME

DNA analysis confirmed that a teenage girl found dead in April near a luxurious cottage village in the Moscow region was the daughter of a LUKoil top executive.

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

IT

Google challenges Windows with its innovative operating system Google Chrome for notebooks. Most of its applications will be stored on remote servers.

(Vedomosti)

Russia is not planning to introduce stringent control over Internet content, Communications Minister said in an interview.

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

The Russian segment of the Internet may become largest in Europe, says Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev.

(Izvestia)

A Victory Day for mothers

http://themoscownews.com/society/20110512/188662136.html
by Svetlana Kononova at 12/05/2011 19:14

The Russian government will soon begin to pay out maternity benefits directly from Russia’s Social Insurance Fund (SIF), ending the cumbersome present system by which employers are responsible for these and other types of welfare payments. The new procedure will go into effect July 1 in two of Russia’s regions – Nizhny Novgorod and Karachayevo- Cherkessia – and if successful there will be implemented nationwide.

At present, the SIF collaborates with employers using the so-called “credit principle”: employers deduct social fees from all employees’ salaries and transfer the funds to SIF; if a worker is eligible to receive social benefits, the employer applies to SIF, receives the compensation and transfers it to the worker – a lengthy process, and one that allows some employers to dodge the law.

Under the new system benefit payments will go directly to workers’ bank accounts or debit cards, or will be made as mail payment remittances. In the future, all Russians will get “social cards” to receive such benefits.

This issue first surfaced in 2009, when thousands of women were fired during the financial crisis and lost their incomes, including social payments. Some employers simply stopped paying maternity benefits, while other companies disappeared altogether.

According to Rima Sharifullina, president of Peterburgskaya Egida, a St. Petersburg-based employmentrights NGO, appealing to the courts to punish dishonest or elusive employers often proved ineffective: “Many judicial decisions [in our favour] were not executed because there was no one to implement them.” In effect, “pregnant women became ‘hostages’ to their employers.”

Anastasia Yermakova, who organised a December 2010 protest by pregnant women and young mothers in Moscow, added that while majorcentre companies that valued their reputations continued paying social welfare, there were “many cases when the rights of pregnant women were violated in the regions. Employers [simply] denied them maternity benefits under different pretenses.” Yermakova estimates that every fifth woman in the regions met with resistant employers.

“Only a few women whose rights are violated go to court. The majority can’t afford it,” Sharifullina said. “We realised that the law should be changed to protect pregnant women and young mothers from dishonest employers. We decided that it would be better if maternity benefits were paid directly from SIF…[so] we developed our proposal and put it forward to the Committee on Social Policy.”

The activists of Peterburgskaya Egida then delivered speeches to the Public Chamber and the State Duma, appealed to high-ranking officials – including St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko – and organised street protests. On the eve of March 8, as Russia celebrated International Women’s Day, 100 women who had suffered from dishonest employers, had been fired because of pregnancy or were refused maternity benefits held a street protest in St. Petersburg, chanting “Don’t give us flowers! Give us a new law!”

These tactics eventually had the desired effect. Meanwhile, Russia stands 37th in the Mothers’ Index 2011, a ranking of 164 countries compiled by the independent organisation Save the Children. The rankings are based on criteria such as female health and life expectancy; women’s status in education, economics and politics; maternity benefits; the ratio of male to female income; and children’s mortality, health and education. The Baltic States and most East European countries placed ahead of Russia.