After a few weeks break Sean’s news roundup makes its reappearance. Coverage of the anniversary of Ukraine’s revolution, an anti-fascist rally in Moscow, plenty on the story that NGOs in Russia will now be required to register with the government, or face closure, and much more.

Apologies for the lack of posting over the last week or two. I started a new job a few weeks back, and time for blogging has become somewhat scarce. I’m hoping to get back in the groove this week, and post a little more regularly.

The first thing I needed to do was catch up on what’s been happening in Russia this last seven days - and where better to start than Sean’s weekly roundup of Russia news? This week he’s got some interesting thoughts on who will choose Putin’s replacement (I’ll give you a hint - it’s not the general public), and on whether an increase in state control will actually damage the Russian economy.

The news roundup at Sean’s Russia Blog seems to be developing into a regular weekly feature. As always, a great summary of what’s been happening in Russia over the last seven days.

Sean has all the details of this week’s news from Russia.

If anyone out there is missing the old weekly news updates that I used to post on siberianlight.net (in case you were wondering, they just got too time consuming and began to get in the way of my writing actual posts), you’ll be pleased to hear that Sean’s Russia Blog has an excellent roundup of this week’s Russia news.

A few interesting news stories from today that I don’t have time to comment on:

• Looks like Russians are no longer in vogue in the NHL.  For the first time in 15 years no Russian has been picked in either the first or second round of the draft.
• The Orthodox church has launched its own privately-funded tv channel named Spas (Saviour).
• Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic may serve his jail term for war crimes in Russia.  Both the UK and US are said to have agreed to the plan, suject to confirming that Russia won’t simply release him on health grounds.  Rumour is that Milosevic also approves, and won’t appeal any conviction if he is sent to Moscow.
• Four Russian children were beaten in Warsaw on Sunday by 15 Polish teenagers.  The Russian Foreign Ministry believes the beatings are related to an ongoing series of (largely petty) disputes between the two countries and I’m inclined to agree with them.

Russia spent this weekend celebrating Orthodox Easter, and will be spending the rest of this week on the buildup to the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of VE Day.  Despite that, 1.2 million people found the time to take part in rallies across Russia, a defense minister interrupted his schedule to announce that Russia has scrapped 1,740 nulcear warheads in the last five years, and Soviet plans to invade Blackpool, a British coastal resort, were revealed… 

Domestic

• May Day saw 1.2 million people take part in rallies across Russia.  Some called for greater democracy, others lamented the death of Stalin. 
• Russia has scrapped 1,740 nuclear warheads in the last five years, says Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Kislyak.
• For the first time in 10 years, the Russian arms industry will sell more equipment to the Russian military than it exports abroad.  Sales to Russia are expected to be worth $6.8 billion, compared to sales of $5.1 abroad.
• The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its 2005 report of the "Most Murderous Countries for Journalists."  Russia made the top five, with contract killings being noted as a particular problem.
• Heinz have bought a stake in Russia’s second largest ketchup firm.

Near Abroad

• 14 Russian pro-democracy activists have been released after their sentences were reduced.  They were arrested during a rally in Minsk, Belarus to mark the 15th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.  Their five Ukrainian compatriots remain in jail, as do 12 Belarussians arrested at the rally.
• Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia have signed an agreement that will link the three countries by a railway able to ship 20 million tonnes of cargo per year.

International

• North Korea will conduct a test of a "nuclear device" this June, reports Russian Duma representative Konstantin Kosachev.
• Former Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov has been arrested in Switzerland.  The US has requested he be extradited on charges of stealing up to $10 million of money sent to increase security at Russian nuclear sites.
• The European Union has thrown its weight behind the clamour for Russia to recognise that the USSR occupied, rather than liberated, the Baltic states during the Second World War.

And finally…

• Did the Soviet Union really plan to invade Blackpool?

In the last seven days: President Putin gave a rambling and largely pointless speech to the nation, ex-Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky was told he must wait until after George Bush has visited before his guilt is confirmed, Putin tried to make friends on his tour of the Middle East and a man stole a rubber doll from a sex shop.  Just another normal week in Russia

Domestic

• President Putin gave his annual State of the Nation address on Monday (transcript here).  While he made headlines around the world for claiming that the end of the USSR was a "major geopolitical disaster of the century" the speech itself was generally inconsequential.  Putin took the opportunity to reflect on the kind of society he wanted Russia to become - a democratic one of course - but decided not to offer anything in the way of concrete policy.  He did, however, manage to apportion blame for the failures on his watch on pretty much everyone but himself.
• The verdict in Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial has been postponed until May 16th, a date which conveniently falls after US President George W Bush’s visit to Moscow.
• Aerospace giant Boeing has announced plans to invest up to $3 billion in the Russian aerospace industry by 2010.
• The navy will take possession of two re-fitted nuclear submarines in 2006.  Both will be armed with Bulava-M Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

Near Abroad

• The Presidents of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova met in Moldova this weekend, to discuss separatism and regional cooperation.  Uzbekistan, the fifth member of the GUUAM grouping did not attend, as the Uzbek government has indefinitely suspended its membership of the organisation.
• Russia and Georgia have "agreed in principle" that Russian troops will be withdrawn by 1st January 2008.  Nothing has been signed yet, however, and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has hinted that he may refuse to attend the May 9th celebrations in Moscow unless an agreement is put down on paper.
• Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko visited Moscow to discuss, among other things, the potential Russia-Belarus union.
• Members of the Belarus opposition tried to hand in a petition to to President Lukashenko, demanding to know what he was doing to solve the problems of Chernobyl.  They were arrested.
• Felix Kulov has officially announced that he will run in the upcoming Kyrgyz Presidential election amid speculation that he is negotiating a power-sharing deal with interim President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
• Iran and Tajikistan have signed a defence co-operation agreement.
• Armenia marked the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey on Sunday 24th April.

International

• On the first visit ever by a Russian leader to Israel, President Putin denied that Russian policy was destabilising to the Middle East and restated his claim that the delivery of Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Syria would not threaten Israel’s security.  Except if they wanted to fly their jet-fighters over Syrian territory.
• President Putin also visited Egypt, where he and President Mubarak discussed the "road map" for peace between Israel and Palestine
• Two destroyers under construction in St Petersburg caught fire on Wednesday, and two men were killed.  The ships are due to be delivered to the Chinese navy in 2006.
• The Indian navy, meanwhile, has taken receipt of a diesel powered sub, upgraded to carry cruise missiles.

And finally…

• A Russian cosmonaut on the International Space Station wants to be given a daily ration of wine or brandy while circling the earth.  He thinks it will help to relieve psychological stress. 
• A frustrated middle aged man robbed a Moscow sex-shop.  After threatening the shop assistant with a knife, he escaped with a rubber doll and enough underwear for his own private party.

Hogging the news this week are Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Moscow and Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to the Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.  Someone whacked Garry Kasparov over the head with a chessboard, too.

Domestic

• A new law that will effectively bar small parties and independent candidates from the next Duma has been approved by the current Duma. The law will require parties to gain 7% of the national vote to get seats.
• Russian intelligence reports that a power struggle is taking place among Chechen rebels following the death of former President Aslan Maskhadov.  Money is reportedly at the heart of their dispute.
• Chechnya’s state gas company is under investigation for evading $1.9 million of tax payments to the Russian federal government.  How ungrateful.
• A criminal investigation has been launched into ecological damage caused by Russia’s oldest nuclear reprocessing plant.
• Residents of the Krasnoyarsk region and the Evenki and Taimyr districts have voted to join together into one big Siberian super-region.  In Krasnoyarsk, more than 90% of those polled voted in favour, and more than 70% of Evenki and Taimyr residents expressed their support for the proposal.
• Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion turned political wannabe, was bashed over the head with a chessboard by a man allegedly affiliated with Nashi, a pro-Putin youth movement.
• 5,000 people rallied in support of Bashkir President Murtaza Rakhimov in the main square of Ufa on Saturday.  Their rally comes a couple of weeks after 10,000 attended a march calling for his resignation.
• Russia has pledged to destroy its stocks of chemical weapons by 2012.  Five new disposal plants are under construction and due to come online by 2005 and 2006.
• The Patriots of Russia coalition has formed a new political party.  Their leader Gennady Semigin left the Communist party recently, presumably because they were too right-wing for his tastes.
• A car bomb killed two people in Dagestan.  The dead mean were thought to have been trying to kill the local prosecutor.
• The changing of the guard has been reinstated within the walls of the Kremlin.  From now on, every Saturday at noon, tourists can pay to watch the spectacle.

Near Abroad

• NATO foreign ministers are meeting for the first time in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
• The European Union has declined the opportunity to lead a monitoring mission on the Georgia-Russia border.
• US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has made a surprise visit to Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.  RIA Novosti thinks his visit was "on the sly"
• Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has promised to announce to the waiting world the identity of the next post-Soviet regime to fall into the evil clutches of the United States and adopt democracy. He’ll take us off our tenterhooks on April 22nd.
• Russia has begun withdrawing troops from the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border.  All Russian border guards are scheduled to leave Tajikistan by 2006, although the 201st Motorised Rifle Division will remain in a permanent base.
• Ukraine is upset that the Russian Black Sea fleet is polluting Sevastopol harbour.
• Turkmenistan has announced a deal to supply 50-60 billion cubic metres (bcm)of gas to Ukraine.  This about all the gas that Turkmenistan can produce, and they’ve unfortunately already agreed a deal for a similar amount with Russia.  And a further 15bcm per year to Pakistan.  Somebody’s gonna be cold next winter…
• Rumours are surfacing that new Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko had a hand in the illegal sale of cruise missiles to Iran and China.

International

• US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting Moscow for talks ahead of President Bush’s visit in May.  After being briefly diverted by a bomb threat against her hotel she met with President Putin, and several other senior members of the Russian government dishing out criticism and praise in equal measure.  She also found time to meet and offer support to members of the Belorussian opposition in neighbouring Lithuania.
• Russia is negotiating the sale of two helicopters and up to 50 armoured cars to Palestine.
• Patriarch Alexei II has welcomed the appointment of Pope Benedict XVI, and expressed hope that the the Orthodox and Catholic churches can work together in the future.
• World Bank statistics (not always the most accurate of indicators) show that Russia has the world’s 16th largest overall GDP - Russia made $433 billion in 2003.  Per capita GDP, however, was not so hot.  $2,610 per person leaves Russia a disappointing 97th in the world rankings.

And finally…

• An amnesty has been announced for all World War 2 veterans currently doing time in Russia’s jails.  200 battle scarred octogenarian criminal masterminds are about to be let loose on the streets.

As another week draws to a close - on a Wednesday, of all days - it is time to investigate what’s been happening since the last week ended - also, co-incidentally, on a Wedesday. 

Domestic

• Mikhail Khodorkovsky made his closing statement in court on Monday.  Khodorkovsky, who is charged with fraud and tax evasion, proclaimed his innocence, and claimed once again that the case against him was politically motivated.  A judgment is expected on 27 April. 
• President Putin has ruled out running for the Presidency in 2008.  He went on to say that, although he could technically run again in 2012, he would probably not want to.  This has led to a rash of speculation about how he might remain in power without remaining President.  The current favourite among the pundits sees Russia becoming a parliamentary system, with Putin as its Prime Minister.  My personal favourite, though, has to be Pavel Felgenhauer’s idea that Russia and Belarus would merge, with Putin as the Union’s new President and current Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko as his Vice President.
• Former FSB General Anatoly Trofimov was killed in Moscow on Sunday.  No-one seems quite certain as to whether his assassination was motivated by a business conflict, or political reasons. One theory is that he lost a feud with Anatoly Chubais, who escaped an assassination attempt in March.
• 4,000 students took to the streets of Moscow yesterday, protesting that their $14 monthly stipend is too low. 
• 300 Sunni Muslims fought each other in a Mosque in Durbent, Dagestan over the election of a new imam.  200 were arrested, and more than 20 injured.
• Cossack brigades are to return to the Russian army after an 80 year absence, if a new draft law submitted by President Putin is adopted.
• Top reporter Yelena Masluk has quit the Rossiya tv channel, after it refused to air her programmes. 
• It has emerged that former Chess World Champion, and long-time opponent of Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky signed a recent letter calling for Jewish groups to be banned from Russia on the grounds that they were inhumane and committed ritual murders.
• Nuclear powered battle-cruiser The Admiral Nakhimov is undergoing a re-fit which should keep her in service for another 20 years.  Only four of the Kirov class ships were built - they were designed to knock out US aircraft carriers.

Near Abroad

• Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has decided not to visit Russia as scheduled, after Russia’s Prosecutor General confirmed that criminal charges are still in force.
• The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Georgia was wrong to extradite 13 Chechens to Russia without a giving them a fair chance to appeal.
• Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said that trying to persuade a CIS state not to join NATO would be ‘futile’, and that Russia should not try.  However, he is confident that no CIS state will join NATO in the next 5-7 years.
• US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is to visit Kyrgyzstan later this week.  He’s officially going to discuss defence co-operation, but getting an impression of the new Kyrgyz government is also sure to be high on Rumsfeld’s agenda.
• Kyrgyzstan’s new Presidential election, by the way, has been set for July 10th.
• Turkmenistan’s loony President seems to be getting election fever, too.  The glorious Turkmenbashi has announced that there will be a Presidential election in 2009.  As he has already proclaimed himself President for Life, does this mean he’s feeling poorly?
• The Uzbek government has closed Uzbekistan’s sole remaining Russian language tv station.
• Ukraine has confirmed it will withdraw its 1,650 troops from Iraq, although the date has not yet been decided.

International

• A source in the Russian nuclear authority has claimed that Russia will delay the first shipment of enriched uranium fuel to Iran. 
• The European Union wants Russia to take part in a project to build an experimental thermonuclear reactor in Cadarache, Southern France.
• President Putin visited Gerhard Schroeder in Germany this week, where they opened the Hanover Trade Fair.  Chechen warlord Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov came along for the ride.
• Rio Tinto, the world’s second largest mining company, blamed a new draft Russian law for its unwillingness to invest in Russia.  The Royal Dutch/Shell Group has also voiced concern that Russia will discriminate against foreign firms.
• Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella is to visit Moscow this week.  His visit comes less than two weeks after Russia wrote off Ethiopia’s $1 billion debt.
• A European Union delegation is visiting Chechnya to assess the region’s reconstruction needs.
• German company Seimens has been blocked from acquiring a controlling in Russian firm Power Machines, because of opposition by the Russian military.
• Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced that Russia will work with NATO to develop a battlefield anti-missile system.
• Russia, Bulgaria and Greece have signed a $677 oil pipeline deal linking the Caspian and Aegean Seas, allowing Russia to bypass the Bosporus Strait.
• France is to assist Russia in building a new launchpad for Russian rockets in South America.
• A joint US-Russia missile defence exercise began yesterday.

And finally…

• In a stunning victory for free speech was won this week when a Russian court ruled that US tv show The Simpsons should not be banned.  A Moscow resident had sued the tv channel that aired the show, claiming that it caused his six year old son to "become interested in drugs and insult his mother".

No revolutions this week, but plenty of news nonetheless.  Russia may finally be ready to take AIDS seriously, Moldova has finally elected its President, while Kyrgyzstan’s President has finally resigned.  An American congressman is in trouble over his 1996 trip to Moscow, and Russia and the EU are building closer relations.  Plus, of course, much much more…

Domestic

• HIV/AIDS is a threat to Russia’s national security, says Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov.  An initiative has been announced to give Russians access to HIV medication for $3,000 per annum instead of the current $10,000.  Russia currently has 300,000 officially registered HIV cases, although the United Nations estimates that around 860,000 Russians are actually infected.
• The World Bank has blamed the slowdown in Russian growth in 2005 on rapid increases in production costs and the uncertainty of the business climate.  The Bank attributes the slowdown partly, but not entirely, to concerns about the Yukos affair.
• Capital flight from Russia in 2004 was $9.4 billion, four times the 2003 level of $1.9 billion.
• Oborona, the new anti-Putin youth party held its first demonstration in Moscow on Sunday.  Ilya Yashin, the organiser of the march, was arrested by police who said they had only given permission for a peaceful rally, and not a political meeting.  He is expected to be fined.
• Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin’s Chief of Staff, has called on political elites to rally around the government, lest Russia "disappear as one state".
• Irregularities in the election of the President of Russia’s football federation prompted UEFA to send their own election monitor.  Vitaly Mutko, a St Petersburg politician described as a "close friend of Putin" won the top job.
• State-owned OAO Russian Railways plan to invest $1.1 bn on railways in Eastern Siberia, primarily to allow increased shipments of oil to Asia.
• Hackers are in the news for attacking British bookmakers, and for allegedly stealing the Russian Central Bank’s transaction database.
• 50,000 "well known public figures and church officials" have signed a petition requesting that all Jewish groups be banned because Judaism is "an extremist and racist ethnicity that hates non-Jews."  The Foreign Ministry has condemned the petition.

Near Abroad

• Vladimir Voronin has been re-elected as President of Moldova.  The Moldovan Parliament voted for the pro-EU Communist party leader by a margin of 75 votes to 1.  The 23 strong Our Moldova party refused to participate in the election.
• Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s President, is visiting the United States.  He met with President Bush, who has offered his support for Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO.
• Askar Akayev has formally resigned as President of Kyrgyzstan and is said to be planning a return to academia.  Meanwhile, Felix Kulov has announced that he will run for the presidency amid warnings of a counter-revolution.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Russia is open to ideas from the EU as to how to resolve long-running conflicts in Georgia and Moldova.
• Vladimir Putin met with Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko on Monday.  Lukashenko played with Koni, Putin’s labrador, while Putin himself presumably tried to discuss matters of state.
• Sergei Ivanov has announced that Russia is to upgrade its military bases in Tajikistan.
• A Collective Security Treaty Organisation military exercise, code named Rubezh-2005 (Frontier 2005), is to begin in Tajikistan on Saturday.  The exercise involving over 1,000 personnel from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will simulate an incursion into Tajikistan by armed militants.

International

• EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Southern Russia and they said very nice things about each other.  Their meeting came ahead of the May EU-Russia summit, during which a co-operation agreement covering the areas of economy, security, justice and culture is expected to be struck.
• Russia has written off Ethiopia’s $1.1 billion debt.  No news of an arms deal yet, but watch this space…
• Russian Regional Development Minister Vladimir Yakovlev is optimistic that the level of trade between Syria and Russia should increase from $218 million to $1 billion pa very rapidly.  I wonder if the sale of an expensive missile system may have anything to do with his optimism?
• Russia has joined the Asian Co-operation Dialogue.
• US Congressman Tom Delay’s 1997 trip to Russia is under scrutiny.  The trip was allegedly paid for by businessmen lobbying for the Russian government, although at the time Delay said the trip was funded by a Washington non-profit organisation.
• An envoy sent to Moscow by Pakistan’s President Musharraf was rebuffed in his attempt to persuade Russia not to support India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
• Singapore and Russia are on the verge of establishing military co-operation ties.

And finally…

• Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov has suggested that if reforms were not called reforms, and were instead called "changes for the better," they might be more successful.

Protests, protests, protests, is the story of the week in Russia and its near abroad, with Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip revolution overshadowing the demonstrations in Belarus, Ingushetia and Bashkortostan.  Details of these, plus the latest about Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial, which is now drawing to a close.

CIS

• Kyrgyzstan became the latest CIS member to experience revolution after protesters stormed government buildings in Bishkek.  President Askar Akaev fled to the safety of Moscow, to be replaced by opposition leader Kurmanbek Bakiev who has promised a new Presidential election in June.  Looting in the days immediately following the election was brought under control relatively quickly and the situation in Kyrgyzstan now seems relatively stable.  The Registan.net team covered the revolution as it happened, and continue to publish regular updates on the situation.
• 1,000 demonstrators protesting in Minsk against the rule of Belarus President Lukashenko were violently dispersed by police.  34 of the protesters were arrested.
• President Putin visited Armenia, where he and Armenian President Robert Kocharian discussed Nagorno-Karabakh and transportation infrastructure development.  The visit also prompted rumours that Russia plans to relocate some of the personnel from it’s military bases in Armenia if they are forced to evacuate.
• The Armenian government reports that Azerbaijan is moving its troops closer to Armenian positions, increasing the already tense relations between the two nations.
• The White House has announced that in May President Bush will visit Latvia (where Russia expects him to address the problems of native Russian speakers) and Georgia (where Russia expects him to tell President Saakashvili to talk about ‘peaceful conflict settlement).  He also plans to visit the Netherlands (where Russia has no stated expectations of him).
• Gazprom is considering rising the price of gas sold to Moldova to the current market rate.  Like most CIS countries, Moldova currently gets heavily discounted gas supplies and price rises of this kind are usually a sign that the country in question has displeased Moscow in some way.  In this case, Moldova has been increasing ties with the EU at the expense of relations with Russia.

Domestic

• More than 10,000 people protested in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan, calling for the resignation of President Murtaza Rakhimov.  This follows a February protest, where demonstrators called for an investigation into a brutal police operation in which hundreds of people were reported to have been detained and beaten.
• Hundreds of protesters also took to the streets of Nazan in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, demanding the resignation of President Murat Zyazikov.  The protesters were angry that Zyazikov had failed to redraw the boundary between Ingushetia and North Ossetia to reclaim land ’stolen’ by the North Ossetians.  Boris Arsamakov, leader of the Akhki-Yurt group that organised the protests was reportedly arrested, although the Ingushetian Interior Ministry has denied this.      
• Closing arguments have begun in the trial of former Yukos executives Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.  The prosecution have demanded that each should serve 10 years for tax evasion and fraud.  Meanwhile, the Federal Tax Service has demanded that the pair between them pay 17.8 billion roubles (that’s $640 million) in " back taxes and illegal use of bills of exchange."
• In a separate court case, former Yukos security chief Alexei Pichugin has been sentenced to 20 years for murder.
• Yukos has abandoned its legal action against in Texas against Gazprom, Rosneft, Gazpromneft, and Baikal Finance Group.
• President Putin has announced that the statute of limitations on privatisations will be reduced from 10 to 3 years, meaning that any ‘dodgy’ privatisations of the 1990s will no longer be open to legal challenge.  Future prosecutions for tax evasion, however, are definitely not ruled out.
• Rizvan Chitigov, reportedly the number three man in Chechnya’s rebel hierarchy, has been killed by Russian troops after spending three days hidden in a tiny compartment behind a wall.
• The trial of Nurpasha Kulaev, the sole surviving Beslan hostage taker, has begun in North Ossetia.  He has admitted that he was involved in the hostage taking, but claims he had thought their mission was to seize a checkpoint.  He denies killing any of the hostages. 
• A Russian special forces soldier has been sentenced to 11 years for beating a Chechen civilian.
• The director and curator of the Sakharov museum in Moscow have each been fined 100,000 roubles ($3,600) for "inciting religious enmity." Their exhibition Caution, Religion! contained a picture of Jesus in a Coca-Cola advert reading "This is my blood", which offended some members of the Orthodox church .
• A number of Liberal Democrats, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky were involved in a fistfight as they attempted to walk out of the Duma.  As a result, Zhirinovsky has been banned from addressing the chamber for the next month, and his position of Deputy Speaker is under question.  Who said Russian politics is dull under Putin?
• Alexander Babuchenko, a regional liberal politician, has been shot dead in Irkutsk.
• $12.1 million in back taxes have been demanded of Baltika, Russia’s best known beer company.

Global

• North Korean leader Kim Il Sung has been officially invited to attend the Word War II Victory celebration in Moscow this May, according to a Russian Presidential envoy.  US President George W Bush has already accepted his invitation, raising the prospect of an intriguing encounter.
• Russia is threatening to withhold its contribution to the 2005 OSCE budget unless the organisation shifts its focus from human rights to security.
• The Russian government is said to be close to agreeing to pay off it’s $43 billion Paris club debt in full, without the discount it had previously demanded for early repayment.
• The US Ambassador to Russia has said that adoption of Russian children by foreigners is "one of the optimal solutions for this problem." 

And finally…

• Russian marines managed to ‘accidentally’ invade Ukraine.  Before the Ukrainian’s "halted the operation" the Russians managed to unload 142 marines and 28 pieces of military hardware near the town of Feodosiya in the Crimea.

This week in Russia brought an assassination attempt, plus claims that Russia is on the brink of revolution. In the CIS, Putin met with Ukrainian President Yushchenko, while protests rocked Kyrgyzstan.  Further afield, Putin announced plans to visit Israel, and Russia got into a spat with China over wargames that China wants to use to simulate an invasion of Taiwan.  Oh yes, and a local council in Poland wound up Russia by naming a roundabout after formed Chechen President Dzokhar Dudayev.

Global

• A British court has refused to extradite Natalya Chernysheva and Dmitry Maruyev, two Yukos executives wanted on charges of fraud.  The court ruled that the charges were politically motivated and that they were therefore unlikely to receive a fair trial in Russia.
• President Putin is to visit Israel in April.  The visit, which will be the first ever by a Russian head of state, comes amid mounting tensions over the sale of Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
• The Presidents of France, Germany, Spain and Russia met in Paris for a tete a tete.  Iran and Syria were on the agenda.  Russia’s sale of nuclear material to Iran doesn’t conflicting with the EU’s attempts to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear programme, according to Gerhard Schroeder.
• The EU has announced that it is committed to seeing Russia join the WTO by the end of 2005.
• Russia and China are trying to resolve a row over the location and purpose of their planned joint military exercise.  China wants the exercise to resemble an invasion and military occupation of Taiwan.  Russia doesn’t.
• Russia has voiced its support for Kofi Annan’s plans to reform the UN.
• Russia and China have joined forces, calling for talks to ban weapons from outer space.
• A Russian diplomat’s car was blown up in Stockholm - Russia thinks the bombing was linked to Chechen terrorists.
• Russia has been invited to attend the Arab summit in Algiers.

CIS

• Protests in Kyrgyzstan continued to escalate this week, mostly in the south of the country.  The cities of Jalalabad and Osh seem to be under the control of the opposition and an attempt by the government to restore order in those cities resulted in the deaths of a number of police and protesters, and the defection (willingly or unwillingly, I’m not sure) of the local police to the opposition cause.  Signs are that protests are beginning to spread to the capital Bishkek - a small (around 200 people) protest in the capital today was broken up violently by police.  The same article goes on to note that a ‘hardliner’ has been appointed to head up Kyrgyzstan’s security forces.  Registan.net, as usual, has all the breaking news.
• Estonia’s government was dissolved Monday after Prime Minister Juhan Parts resigned.  This is a relatively normal occurrence in Estonia which, despite having 11 governments in the 15 years since independence, has managed to not only remain stable but promote rapid economic growth and join the EU.
• Vladimir Putin visited Kiev for the first time since the Orange Revolution for a cordial meeting with Viktor Yushchenko.  Not much of substance came out of the meeting, but it’s a start and a good chance for two leaders who will have to work closely together to begin to build their relationship.   
• Ukraine has confirmed that 18 cruise missiles were exported illegally in 2001.  12 went to China, 6 to Iran.  The missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and their range of 1,864 miles would put Israel comfortably within striking distance of Iran.
• Azerbaijan has pardoned 53 political prisoners.
• Top political consultant Modest Kolerov has been appointed to head the presidential department for interregional and cultural ties with foreign countries.  Basically, his job is to prevent further democratic revolutions throughout the CIS.
• Georgia has arrested four Russian peacekeepers who strayed out of Abkhazia.  The soldiers claim they were searching for a lost horse.

Domestic

• Anatoly Chubais, head of the state electricity monopoly Unified Energy System of Russia, survived an assassination attempt on Thursday.  A landmine exploded as his car passed by.  Chubais admits that he has many enemies, and plenty of rumours are flying around about who would want to kill him, including one of road rage, and another of a vengeful neighbour.  Vladimir Kvachkov, an Afghan war hero and subject of a movie about his exploits, has been arrested in connection with the attack.
• Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov has told students in a speech that Russia is on the brink of a revolution.   Luzhkov has claimed that he will not run for President in 2008, or for re-election as Mayor in 2007, but I’m not so sure.
• President Putin has signed a new law allowing for tighter airport security.  New measures mean that police can now ‘accompany’ flights and that carriers must provide police with passenger ticket data.
• An Australian man was arrested after he tried to break into the cockpit of an Aeroflot Tokyo-Moscow flight.  He also threatened to blow up the plane unless it was diverted to Chechnya.

And finally…

• Poland has provoked Russian ‘indignation’ for naming a roundabout after Chechnya’s former President Dzhokhar Dudayev.  Perhaps it was a comment on Russian policy towards the republic.

Top headlines this week include: Russia harboring Bosnian war criminals, opposition lose heavily in Kyrgyz elections and details of a new Chamber, appointed by Putin of course, to oversee the Duma. 

(This week’s roundup, by the way, is numbered 13a as I accidentally posted number 13 a couple of hours early, before I had finished writing it).

Global

• Russia has been accused of harboring Bosnian-Serbs wanted for war crimes by the International Tribunal in the Hague, including some men suspected of involvement in the massacre at Srebrenica.  The news comes following the surrender of Gojko Jankovic, who appears to have spent the last four years in the company of a government minder in Moscow.
• The EU is trying to negotiate an open-skies deal with Russia and China.
• Russia has confirmed it’s support for the ‘one China’ policy following the adoption of an anti-secession law by China in relation to Taiwan.  Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have joined the chorus.
• In an attempt to quiet Israeli concerns about the sale of the Strelets anti-aircraft missile system to Syria, Russia has offered to give a demonstration of the missile’s effectiveness, or rather, its ineffectiveness, to Israel.
• The WW2 execution of up to 15,000 Polish officers at Katyn was not a genocide, Russian prosecutors have said.  The criminal case, brought last year, has now been closed.
• The NATO-Russia council has convened in Moscow.
• A number of Russian ships from the Black Sea Fleet are to join NATO’s Operation Active Endeavour, which patrols the Mediterranean monitoring shipping and attempting to disrupt terrorism.
• The EU has dodged a Russian ban on vegetable and plant imports.

CIS

• The Kyrgyz parliamentary elections have concluded with second round run-off votes in 39 of the 75 constituencies.  Unsurprisingly the opposition took a beating and ended up with only 6 seats in the new parliament.  Anti-government protests continue outside of the capital - one local governor has been taken hostage.
• CIS observers have declared that the election in Kyrgyzstan was free and fair.  Despite - perhaps because of - not being invited into Moldova, they felt confident enough to declare that the election in Moldova was rigged by the anti-Russian Communist government.
• Georgia and Russia have announced they will hold talks on 23-24 March about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia.
• Up to 4,000 people took to the streets of Akhalkalaki, Georgia to protest against the closure of the Russian base there.  It employs 15% of the town’s workforce. 
• Anti-government protests continue in Azerbaijan.
• Russia has promised to bring up the issue of unfair treatment of Russian speakers in Estonia and Latvia at the UN.  It has meanwhile warned the EU and US not to seek a UN vote on human rights violations in Chechnya.

Domestic

• The Duma has approved President Putin’s plan for a Public Chamber to oversee the Russian parliament.  The first 42 members will be appointed by Putin.  These members will then go on to appoint the next 84 members.
• Garry Kasparov, world champion for 15 years, has quit chess for politics.  He is chairman of Committee 2008, which aims to rid Russia of Putin.  Kasparov is a liberal who has dabbled previously in politics, but with little impact.
• A reward 0f $10 million has been paid by the Russian government to informers who gave them the whereabouts of Chechnya’s rebel President Aslan Maskhadov, killed last week.  The same amount is on offer for information leading to the capture of Shamil Basayev.
• Rumours are surfacing that the Kremlin plans to wind down the United Russia party and form a new one in time for the 2007 parliamentary elections.
• It looks like the on-again, off-again Gazprom-Rosneft merger is on-again.  It should be completed by June, says the state energy minister.
• Russia has 27 dollar billionaires, says Forbes.  Roman Abramovic is Russia’s richest man, although his $13 billion isn’t quite enough to buy him a place in the world’s top 20.  The former Soviet Union’s other six billionaires reside in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
• An airliner carrying 49 passengers has crashed while landing in Northern Russia.  There are conflicting reports about the number of casualties, and reports of up to 23 survivors.
• The IOC is visiting Moscow this week, assessing the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
• 3 men from Kyrgyzstan have been deported for preaching Wahhabism.

And finally…

• Stem cell injections are the latest health craze sweeping Russia.  The injections, which are offered by unlicensed clinics, are said to make people look and feel years younger.

Continue Reading

A ‘President’ is killed in Chechnya, Communists win elections in Moldova, anti-government protests are held in both Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, and two Baltic Presidents thumb their noses at Russia.  Plus all the latest about pornographic opera at the Bolshoi.

Domestic

• Aslan Maskhadov, Chechnya’s rebel President, was killed by Russian forces on Tuesday after a raid in Tolstoy-Yurt, a small village in Northern Chechnya.  Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev has already been announced as his successor.  Little is known about Sadulayev just yet - some reports say he was the cleric who headed the Chechen Sharia Court while other reports, primarily Russian, claim he is a Saudi national.  What little information there is about him does not seem to indicate that he will be a moderating influence on Shamil Basayev.   
• Under new laws, President Putin has sacked Vladimir Loginov, Governor of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug.  Putin said the sacking sent a "preemptive message" to governors.
• Friday 11th March is the 20th anniversary of Mikhail Gorbachev’s appointment as General Secretary.  He is using his increased news profile this week to warn that Russia must not backslide on democracy.
• 42% of Russians want to see a "new Stalin" in the Kremlin.  52% don’t.
• 51% of Russian’s believe Russia should aim for membership of the EU.  23% don’t.
• Allofmp3.com, a massive Russian music download site, has escaped prosecution on a legal technicality - that it does not provide any physical goods.
• Over 700,000 thousand Russian children live on the streets, says Chief Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov.
• The Expedition Trophy has been won by Moscow based team.   The Moscow Sea Wolves won 10kg of gold for driving from Murmansk to Vladivostok in just 13 days.

CIS

• Sunday saw elections in Moldova.  The Communist Party won with 46.1% of the vote, which gives them a parliamentary majority - they gained 56 of the 101 seats.  The other 45 seats were divided between two opposition parties.  The next step is for the newly formed parliament to elect their next President.  Although 61 votes are needed for victory, I can’t see the opposition parties holding together for long enough to prevent the re-election of Communist Vladimir Voronin.  Russia, of course, denounced the election as unfair.
• Protesters have occupied several government offices in Kyrgyzstan following the elections held there late last month.  Other protests continue around the country calling for free and fair run-off elections on March 13, and for the resignation of President Akayev.  For regular updates check out Registan.net and ThinkingEast.net.
• Protests, too, in Azerbaijan where the death of journalist Elmar Huseyinov has aroused public anger.  Despite government warnings, his funeral turned into an anti-government rally in advance of opposition rallies already planned for this week.
• The Presidents of Lithuania and Estonia have declined a Russian invitation to attend celebrations marking the end of World War 2, on the grounds that the end of the war marked the beginning of their ‘membership’ of the Soviet Union.  George Bush, along with many other world leaders, does plan to attend the celebrations.
• Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko apparently committed suicide last Friday, although questions remain as to why two bullet holes were found in his body.  His death follows the arrest of men suspected of murdering journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, whose death former President Leonid Kuchma has repeatedly been accused of ordering.  Kuchma himself was questioned by prosecutors today.
• Former Canadian Premier Jean Chretien visited Turkmenistan this week.  During his audience with the mighty Turkmenbashi he lobbied for oil concessions.  Azerbaijan, which claims to own the oil in question, is not best pleased with Canada.
• Tough talking from the Georgian Parliament, who have passed a resolution demanding that Russia withdraw from its military bases by 1 January 2006 unless an agreement on an alternative date is agreed by 15 May 2005.  Russia reckons that it couldn’t possibly withdraw all its troops in such a short time frame.  Perhaps in 3-4 years. 
• Russia is to increase its presence at Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan.  Extra combat planes will be sent and the runway is to be lengthened.

Foreign Affairs

• The US has announced that it supports Russia’s desire to continue basing its Black Sea Fleet out of Sevastopol, Ukraine.
• NATO and Russia are to conduct a Joint Theatre Missile Defence Exercise.  They will be testing something technological which involves lots of acronyms.
• Russia has praised Syria for deciding to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
• A Seoul newspaper has claimed that South Korea plans to lease a Russian military base near the North Korean border for training exercises involving large numbers of troops and artillery.  Russia has denied the claim.
• China and Russia have postponed plans for talks on joint military exercises in 2005.  Technical reasons were stated.
• The EU has allocated 870,000 euros (approx $1 million) to human rights projects in Russia.

And finally…

• The Duma has voted 226 to 12 to launch an enquiry into Rosenthal’s Children, an allegedly pornographic opera to be staged at the Bolshoi Theatre.  In response to a Duma representative who said that, although he hadn’t read or seen the opera, he knew it was pornography, the Bolshoi’s Director Anatoly Iksanov replied: "To what times are we returning?  Even in the darkest Soviet years, those who were tasked with controlling the creative arts had at least read or seen what they were passing a verdict on."