Russia 110505 Basic Political Developments

Russia 110505

Basic Political Developments

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  Cooperation in missile defense to dominate NATO-Russia Council today
  
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  Russia, U.S. to sign memorandum of cooperation in fighting terrorism
  
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  Moscow welcomes Palestinian reconciliation
  
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  Russia Considers Export Tax on Gas to Ukraine, Kommersant Says
  
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  Opening new chapter with Russia urged - Ambassador (r) Tariq Fatemi has hoped President Zardari will be able to open a new chapter with Russia in his forthcoming visit to Moscow… He said Russia is going to be a bigger country and Pakistan in no case should ignore Moscow and stop acting as a satrap of Washington.
  
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  Serbia could join CSTO - high-ranking source: "Serbia's accession to the CSTO is quite possible, and consultations on this score are already under way," he said.
  
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  Russian military to hold night rehearsal of Victory Day parade
  
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    Russian and British veterans will celebrate 9 May 2011 Victory Day on HMS Belfast in London
    
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  Vietnam, Russia strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation - A Vietnamese delegation led by Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Duc Kien is on a working visit to Russia from May 3-7.
  
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  Russian president submits agreement with Azerbaijan to Duma for ratification
  
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    Russian parliament to ratify Russian-Azerbaijani border agreement
    
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  Russian chief drug enforcer expects G8 to discuss Afghan drugs - A G8 ministerial conference in Paris on May 10 will discuss drug trafficking from Afghanistan, Ivanov said. "I will make a related report as the head of the Russian delegation [to the conference]," he said.
  
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  Tajikistan won't agree to bring back Russian border guards to border with Afghanistan – source
  
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    Russia in Border Talks With Tajikistan - Russia is in talks with Tajikistan to send up to 3,000 border guards to the country to protect its border with Afghanistan against militants and drug smugglers, said security sources and analysts.
    
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    Russia Troops to Return to Afghanistan's Border? - Russian news agency Interfax is reporting [6] that Russia is pressing Tajikistan to allow its troops to resume border defense duties in an effort to stem the flow of drugs coming from Afghanistan.
    
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  Belarusian police release Russian human rights activists
  
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    Presidential council for human rights will monitor situation with Russians detained in Minsk
    
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  US prosecutors told not to call Viktor Bout “Merchant of Death” in court
  
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  Equatorial test launch gives new spin to Soyuz - A Russian Soyuz rocket is preparing for a dry-run at the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana, as part of an ambitious joint space project with Europe.
  
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  Russia orbits military communications satellite - A Russian Meridian series military communications satellite has been put into a designated orbit, a spokesman for the Russian Space Forces said on Thursday.
  
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  ISS orbit to be readjusted for Soyuz TMA-20 return
  
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  Medvedev signs bill extending PCRF members office term
  
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  Mironov Faces Dismissal - Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov may lose his seat in the upper chamber by mid-May, Interfax said, citing the St. Petersburg legislature, which nominated him as senator in 2001.
  
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    Mironov faces dismissal from Federation Council
    
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  Superjet may be bought for RF president - The Chaika (Seagull) ship, bought on the secondary European market for the needs of the Russian president, will arrive in Sochi this May, head of the presidential property management department Vladimir Kozhin said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
  
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  Russia Antarctic expedition to finish in Petersburg
  
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  In Chechnya during a special operation three MVD RF troops wounded
  
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    Three servicemen injured in armed clash in Chechnya
    
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  Putin Picks 30 Caucasus Projects Worth $5Bln
  
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    Government to step up support to investors in North Caucasus
    
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  Magnitsky case discussed at Russia-EU human rights consultations -"We gave some explanations based on the information from our law enforcers, including the Investigations Committee. The investigation continues; it is not over yet. Certain progress has been made. So, the impression that nothing is being done is erroneous," Russian delegation head, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights Oleg Malginov told Interfax.
  
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  Russia may order arrest of Hermitage Capital CEO - paper
  
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  Gunmen raid money collector, steal $1.3 million in Siberia
  
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  RIA Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, May 5, 2011
  
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    The St. Petersburg branch of Russia's ruling United Russia party has notified Sergei Mironov that a procedure to dismiss him as head of the upper house of parliament had been launched (Kommersant, Izvestia)
    
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    The Kremlin has asked the United States for legal guarantees that a planned U.S. missile defense base in Romania will not target Russia's strategic nuclear forces (Kommersant)
    
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    Russia is to adopt on Thursday a color code system to measure the threat of terrorism in the country at any given time. A high threat will be marked with red, medium with yellow, and low with blue (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
    
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    The Russian government has selected 30 investment projects worth 145 billion rubles ($5.3 billion) in agriculture, tourism and information technology as part of an ambitious program to develop the volatile North Caucasus region through 2025 (Kommersant, Moscow Times)
    
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    A Moscow court has issued an international arrest warrant for former Bank of Moscow head Andrei Borodin and his deputy Dmitry Akulinin. Both fled Russia for Britain after a dispute with state-controlled VTB bank (Vedomosti, Moscow Times)
    
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    Russian aircraft industry regulator Rosaviatsiya has asked Russian air companies to shift all their charter flights to night time (Kommersant, Vedomosti, Izvestia)
    
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    Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov spoke out on Wednesday against the division of the Caspian Sea shelf into national sectors and said Russia would exclusively use zero liquid discharge technology for the production of oil and gas in the region (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
    
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    Russia may introduce new taxation rules for oil exports. Higher global oil prices would lead to lower taxation of exported crude oil, but higher taxation of exported oil derivatives Kommersant, Vedomosti)
    
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    Russia's Finance Ministry wants to raise mineral tax on natural gas and return to gas export duties, forcing energy giant Gazprom to contribute an additional 150 billion rubles ($5.5 billion) a year to the state budget (Kommersant, Moscow News)
    
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    Russian gas giant Gazprom has lost about 8.7% of its value in the past two days (Vedomosti)
    
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    U.S. President Barack Obama's public opinion ratings have reached an all-time high after a successful operation to eliminate al Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden (Vedomosti)
    
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    Almost 100% of Russians do not believe that state officials declare all their incomes and property for taxation purposes (Kommersant)
    
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    Moscow may soon build filling stations for electric cars. Experts believe the authorities should first experiment with hybrid models (Izvestia)
    
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    Russian lawmakers want to make studying traffic rules a compulsory subject at high schools (Izvestia)
    
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    Russian investigators have launched a new criminal investigation into four former senior prosecutors who are suspected of helping organizers of illegal gambling (Vedomosti)
    
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    In an escalation of a legal battle between Hermitage Capital and Russia's Interior Ministry, a Moscow court ordered the arrest of one of the firm's partners, and the case's investigator said Hermitage founder Bill Browder had been placed on an international wanted list (Moscow Times, Vedomosti, Izvestia)
    
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    Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a law that raises fines for giving or taking bribes to up to 100 times the amount of the bribe. The maximum fine is 500 million rubles ($18.3 million) (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
    
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  Corruption Fatigue - Russians, suffering from corruption fatigue, have had a rather ho-hum reaction to the Golikova and Khristenko scandal. It is long been accepted as a given that the higher an official’s rank, the more opportunities he or she has to embezzle.
  
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  Former Presidential Rights Adviser Says Russian System Turned Into 'Rock-Solid Insult To All Of Us' - Ella Pamfilova: "If you ask me why I decided to quit politics, I respond with a question: Is it possible to quit something that doesn't exist?"
  
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  New nationalist movement forms in Russia - Members of a banned nationalist group re-form, call for the creation of a government based on ethnic principles.
  
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  Kidnapping Russia’s Rich - The Children of Russia’s Wealthy Remain Key Targets for Kidnappers. By Andrew Roth Russia Profile
  
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  Russia awaits 'Kremlin poodle' trial as rocker takes on critic Troitsky
  
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  The national non-payment system -The scandalous bill on the National Payment System (NPS) will be reviewed by deputies in May. Member of the State Duma Financial Markets Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, told Izvestia that the section, which practically prohibits the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard from operating in Russia, remains unchanged.
  
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  The status of the Caspian Sea -Russia considers the Caspian Sea to be a unique inland reservoir and “objects to the division of its aquatic area into national sectors.”
  
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  Pravda: USA and Romania target missile defense against Russia