Category: Economy

Public Television in Russia May End Up Satisfying No One | Features, Opinion & Analysis | RIA Novosti

President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for a new public television platform last December conjured visions of a Russian BBC for the country’s liberals. Yet worries are now growing that the president’s control over the new television station could prevent it from broadcasting opinions critical of the government. Medvedev has maintained that the new station will be the freest television channel in Russia. But like a number of other liberal initiatives that Medvedev has undertaken in the waning days of his presidency, the television station is increasingly being seen as a half-measure meant to mollify the public.

Medvedev signed a decree creating the new public station on Tuesday, saying it would likely be released by next January. Speaking at his “Open Government” initiative, Medvedev said that “measures have been taken to relieve needless government influence on the activities of this public institution.”

Now, controversy is centering on just how independent Russia’s public television will be.

via Public Television in Russia May End Up Satisfying No One | Features, Opinion & Analysis | RIA Novosti.

Public Television in Russia May End Up Satisfying No One | Features, Opinion & Analysis | RIA Novosti

President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for a new public television platform last December conjured visions of a Russian BBC for the country’s liberals. Yet worries are now growing that the president’s control over the new television station could prevent it from broadcasting opinions critical of the government. Medvedev has maintained that the new station will be the freest television channel in Russia. But like a number of other liberal initiatives that Medvedev has undertaken in the waning days of his presidency, the television station is increasingly being seen as a half-measure meant to mollify the public.

Medvedev signed a decree creating the new public station on Tuesday, saying it would likely be released by next January. Speaking at his “Open Government” initiative, Medvedev said that “measures have been taken to relieve needless government influence on the activities of this public institution.”

Now, controversy is centering on just how independent Russia’s public television will be. The decree signed by Medvedev gives the president the right to appoint the general director and the editor-in-chief of the new station. Moreover, the station’s board of directors, entrusted to provide for public oversight of the station’s content, will also have to pass through a presidential filter.

via Public Television in Russia May End Up Satisfying No One | Features, Opinion & Analysis | RIA Novosti.

Justice for Sergei: are some people really untouchable? Not so.

“Deliberate neglect and torture.” An independent medical report implicates Moscow prison authorities in the death of a Russian lawyer who accused the police of corruption.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/16758309 w=400&h=225]

Justice for Sergei – English tv-version from ICU Documentaries on Vimeo.

This is a huge story in the world, and it is definitely worth knowing about; watch this short documentary, and see and explication of the extensive corruption occurring today.  This is a breaking story, those responsible for what the physicians for human rights study determined as torture are coming closer to seeing punishment.

Please Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Putin; I beseech you to act swiftly to show that you will not tolerate this blatant corruption, abuse, torture, such vile acts.  Show that Russia is changed, that Russia can be a responsible global citizen, where other nations may not act towards justice.  Embarrasment is better than a rotten core.  Do not continue to pile cover-ups on top of injustice, become a leader, rather than a victim of intenational criminal actions.  Corruption hurts Russia, it hurts Russians, it will not remain contained in rural regions, without action rampant corruption can degrade your ability to move forward as a nation.

Sergei Magnitsky was a 37 year-old tax lawyer and auditor who worked for the Moscow legal and audit firm, Firestone Duncan. He was married and a father of two.

Sergei was born in Odessa, Ukraine in 1972, and emigrated with his family at the age of 9 to Southern Russia. As a child Sergei loved to read. On family vacations, while the rest of the family and friends would be splashing in the sea, Sergei would sit under a tree with a book. His studiousness was quickly recognized and at the age of 15, he won the Republican Physics and Mathematics Olympiad. When he was 18, he moved to Moscow and attended the prestigious Plekhanov Institute.

The “Russian Untouchables” page collecting videos on Mr. Magnitsky’s murder is a great source for clips on the topic.

To learn more about what happened to Sergei Magnitsky please read below

The death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, a young Russian lawyer, remains one of the darkest scandals in the blotchy history of Russia‘s criminal justice system. One year on, this HD documentary brings the full details of his tragic story to light.

“Conditions were terrible. In one of the cells the toilet broke and flooded the room with sewage. A mentally ill person would sleep with the prisoners some nights.” These were the conditions in which Sergei lived out his last days in Butyrka Prison in Moscow. After making 450 official complaints about his treatment, and suffering the constant stabbing pains of Pancreatitis, his investigator ‘Silchenko’ tightens the screws – issuing a file stating that Sergei had already been medically treated. “There is a clear feeling he had been put in such conditions, which could bring him to death”, says the independent watchdog who investigated Sergei’s case.

“This is my country and I don’t want such things to happen here. Such lawlessness- I will fight it.” Sergei’s story begins with twenty plain-clothes government officials storming the offices of three Hermitage Fund companies and seizing hundreds of official documents. Investigating the incident, company lawyer Sergei discovered the largest tax fraud in Russian history; $230 million of tax refund – the exact amount the Hermitage Fund companies had paid in taxes the year before – had turned up in the bank accounts of the government officials. When the officials started threatening the company’s lawyers with criminal action, head of Hermitage, Bill Browder said: “‘This isn’t worth it. Get out of harm’s way'”.

Yet Sergei would not be silenced. He testified against the officials, and was immediately thrown into pre-trial detention, without bail, trial, or phone contact with his family. According to the wife of one of Sergei’s cell mates, prisoners were told to inflict “humiliation and beatings” upon Sergei to try to get him to withdraw his confession. And though we hear a confident and well-prepared Sergei in the recordings of his first hearing, his arguments were ignored.”You wanted to scream at the prosecutor who laughed and told jokes whilst [Sergei] spoke”, cries Sergei’s aunt.

“The pain was so intense I couldn’t lie down” Sergei writes in August 2009, “the guard promised to call a doctor, but no doctor arrived”. As Sergei’s health deteriorated rapidly, his investigator Silchenko offered him a deal: ‘testify against Hermitage and go free’. At his second trial, his mother and aunt noticed an extreme physical change in Sergei “he looked exhausted, but he still smiled”. It took only fifteen minutes for Judge Stashina to extend his detention. His heartbroken family left him chained to a radiator in a hallway. Four days later he died. “The death of Sergei showed that there was something severely wrong in Russia”, says his friend Vladimir, “we must acknowledge this, and do something to change it”.

After global outrage at the death of Sergei Magnitsky, Russian President Medvedev ordered an investigation. One year later not a single person has been indicted or charged. All of the Russian officials involved denied an interview.

Russian Untouchables. Episode 1: Artem Kuznetsov

Russian Untouchables. Episode 2: Pavel Karpov

Russian Untouchables. Episode 3. Olga Stepanova.

The Physicians for Human Rights have recently released a report that is the culmination of in depth examination of the facts in the Magnitsky case.

**********************************************

To date, no one has been charged or prosecuted in Russia. Russian investigations have concluded that sudden heart failure caused Mr. Magnitsky’s death.

On April 15, 2011 U.S. Representative James McGovern (D-MA), helped introduce “The Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act (H.R. 1575) to “make certain individuals ineligible for visas or admission to the United States and to revoke visas and other entry documents previously issued to such individuals, and to impose certain financial measures on such individuals, until the Russian Federation has thoroughly investigated the death of Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky and brought the Russian criminal justice system into compliance with international legal standards, and for other purposes.”

Speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives, Rep. McGovern said, “In the absence of a formal and independent investigation into his death, the exact circumstances leading to his death remain shrouded under a veil of government secrecy.”

On July 13, 2011 President Obama met with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and discussed issues of democracy and human rights, including the tragedy surrounding the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

In the fourth medical study of the case released in early July 2011, official Russian experts admitted that inadequate medical care had a cause and effect relationship on Mr. Magnitsky’s death. However, the investigation ignored significant findings about the continuously worsening and cruel conditions Mr. Magnitsky endured. During Mr. Magnitsky’s final hours, he did not receive any necessary medical attention.

A team of PHR forensic experts reviewed official documents made available through the victim’s mother. Our report Our report concludes that:

  • Mr. Magnitsky suffered prolonged severe pain, was denied regular contact with his family, denied medical evaluations for his complaints, fed meals irregularly, and kept under inhumane conditions.
  • The official Russian autopsy protocol (on which all subsequent Russian medical studies were based) was inconsistent with best international practice and deviated significantly from standard US protocols.
  • Tissues from injuries found on Magnitsky’s body after his death were not removed during the autopsy and their forensic analysis has not been carried out.

In June 2011, a lawyer for Mr. Magnitsky’s family filed a lawsuit demanding release of the tissue samples to the family for an independent study. A hearing is set for July 19, 2011. PHR has agreed to examine tissue samples from Mr. Magnitsky if the government releases them and Mr. Magnitsky’s mother provides them to the organization.

Download the Report (pdf)

PHR’s Forensic Experts:

Press Coverage:


-http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/breakingviews-us-gets-serious-on-russian-mega-corruption-case/

-http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/2011/06/empty-words/

-http://russian-untouchables.com/eng/2010/12/is-russia-a-mafia-state/

-http://www.economist.com/node/21013016

-http://www.youtube.com/user/RussianUntouchables#p/u

Related articles

Russia groans under the weight of its rubbish

Russia groans under the weight of its rubbish

Landfill areas in Russia are bigger than some countries and authorities call for more recycling and tougher action against pollution.

With more than 2,000 square km of rubbish and solid waste rotting across Russia, the total area is six times the size of Malta.

Only 30 per cent of Russia’s waste is recycled properly, leading to 80 billion tons being dumped across the country.

The volume increases by 7 billion tons each year, the Federation Council’s first vice-speaker Alexander Torshin said at a national ecological forum, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

Vladimir Putin has also warned that the authorities need to act if they want to change the ecological situation in the country.

The Prime Minister said that about 15 per cent of Russian territory is in poor ecological condition, Interfax reported.

“In almost all of the country’s regions air and water pollution remain high,” Putin said at a meeting devoted to improving Russia’s ecology.

Federation Council first vice-speaker Alexander Torshin suggests that in the coming years we will begin mining trash piles for secondary resources (he continues to suggest that this could rival Gas/Oil as a source of resources/wealth)

 

(Via Johnson’s Russia List)

Medvedev sets sights on cleaner public procurement with new Russian laws

Medvedev sets sights on cleaner public procurement with new Russian laws

As three government departments set about drawing up a new Public Procurement Law, President Medvedev reiterated the need for more openness in the procurement system last week, calling for tougher anti-corruption measures.

“I repeat that we need clear, transparent and effective rules in the state procurement system, especially as concerns planning state procurement needs, setting the initial purchase prices for goods and services, and managing and monitoring the way contracts are performed,” he said at a meeting to discuss the execution of presidential instructions.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, the Finance Ministry and Economic Development Ministry are drawing up new legislation that better regulates the state procurement process.

Kickbacks in state procurement programs have been a serious problem in Russia, with Konstantin Chuichenko, head of the presidential oversight administration, estimating last November that they amount to one trillion rubles ($32.5 billion) a year.

(Via Modern Russia)

Russia employs Arctic brigade to defend oil and gas reserves

Russia employs Arctic brigade to defend oil and gas reserves

The move follows a muscular series of comments from the deputy head of Russia’s Border Service Colonel-General Vycheslav Dorokhin who said the Kremlin planned to build up its forces in the region to better patrol its Arctic territorial waters.

The troops will be based in the far northern town of Pechenga on Russia’s Kola Peninsula close to the Norwegian and Finnish borders and will be combat-ready later this year.

Russian military planners said they had studied the way Arctic troops in Norway and Finland operated and had ordered in the necessary winterised clothing and arms for the new brigade which could number up to 8,000 troops.

In particular, he said Russia wanted to step up patrols of the strategically important North East shipping passage.

“Our potential there will be built up. We won’t let anyone feel themselves free (to move about as they please) in the Arctic.”

Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway are all locked in a race to grab a slice of the northern wilderness after US researchers predicted that global warming might leave the area ice-free, and therefore more easily navigable and explored, as early as 2030.

Experts say the region potentially contains one fifth of the world’s oil and gas reserves and that the swath of Arctic territory claimed specifically by Russia could be home to oil supplies double the size of Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves.

(Via The Telegraph; by the interesting journalist Andrew Osborn)

To Lure Foreign Investment, Russian President Calls for Reform

To Lure Foreign Investment, Russian President Calls for Reform

The president of Russia, Dmitri A. Medvedev, on Wednesday proposed a sweeping change to the management of the country’s many state-run companies, saying an overhaul that would remove ministers from the boards of directors is overdue.

After a decade of rolling back the results of its early post-Soviet privatizations, the Russian economy is again top-heavy with government-run companies, particularly in the oil and natural gas industries.

As president, Mr. Putin had appointed loyal officials in his government to crucial positions on the boards of large companies dealing in energy, transportation, military industry and aviation. Igor I. Sechin, a deputy prime minister overseeing the oil industry, is chairman of the state oil company Rosneft, for example.

Mr. Kudrin is on the board of Alrosa, Russia’s diamond mining company.

Mr. Medvedev, when he served as deputy prime minister before his election as president in 2008, had also served as chairman of Gazprom, the big natural gas company.

 

Related Articles

Fighting terrorism with tourism

Fighting terrorism with tourism

The drive from Vladikavkaz airport into the North Ossetian capital passes through the village of Beslan and by the monument to 33 4 victims, – more than half of them children – of the 2004 school siege that won the region global notoriety. “A horrific tragedy; several of my relatives are buried here,” says Oleg Karsanov, the republic’s tourism minister, as we pass by the graves, the nearby mountains obscured by overcast skies.

Mr Karsanov is determined to rebrand his native North Ossetia and turn the mountainous republic into a magnet for tourists. After holding several posts in local government, he was tasked with nurturing regional tourism; he had developed a solid bank of targets four years before the federal model appeared. Oleg Karsanov’s plan is two-pronged: to build up basic infrastructure such as roads, plumbing and electricity via state grants, and to provide incentives for investors to open hotels and other amenities. The minister initially hopes for the support of the large North Ossetian diaspora in Russia and abroad, which includes such names as the former national football coach Valery Gazzaev and the conductor Valery Gergiev.

Rostislav Khortiev, 50, a businessman, has already taken the plunge, returning from Siberia three years ago to build a £1.7m hotel project 75 miles from Vladikavkaz. Employing 35 people, the hotel hosts groups from across Russia on skiing and fishing packages. “It’s a great place to make an ethnic village for tourists,” Mr Karsanov gleams.

The most ambitious element of the plan revolves around Mamison, a $1bn (£615m) ski resort under construction two hours’ journey south-west of Vladikavkaz. “Unfortunately, there are still few – if any – world-class ski resorts in Russia. Mamison will offer our countrymen the opportunity to experience world-class skiing without leaving the country,” Mr Karsanov says.

There is stiff competition across the North Caucasus for a piece of the federal funding pie. The Sochi Olympic Winter Games in 2014 will help, Mr Karsanov believes.

(don’t miss the Photo slideshow and Audio documentary on the page in the link!  [Via Russia and India Today])

A Day That Shook The World: Chernobyl disaster

A Day That Shook The World: Chernobyl disaster

On 27 April 1986, the Chernobyl atomic power plant near Kiev in the USSR exploded in the world’s worst ever nuclear disaster.

The ensuing crisis was totally mismanaged by Soviet authorities, and spread radioactive material halfway around the world, causing untold harm – and the deaths of many of the workers battling to contain the meltdown.

The disaster would put the whole future of nuclear power in doubt across the world.

Watch original British footage from the disaster after the link.

(Via The Independent.Co.Uk

Fallout from Chernobyl in Poland

Fallout from Chernobyl in Poland

 

It is not uncommon today to read, or hear that the effects of the Chernobyl accident “have been greatly exaggerated” and that “only” 31 people died immediately when the disaster occurred (particularly as people rushed to minimize the dangers posed by Japanese Reactors following the recent earthquakes).

Naturally, the former Soviet republics of Belarus and Ukraine come to mind quickly. But what about other countries?

Poland was the third country profoundly affected by Chernobyl.

It was a glorious late-spring time, sunny, warm, blue sky, light breeze. On Sunday evening, April 27th, the wind became very strong and changed direction.  Many people had similar feelings of sleeping badly that night, waking several times and sweating. “It must be that hot eastern wind”, people commented.

The sister of the journalist, aged 40 at the time, a scientist in the field of fishery and hydrobiology, spent the day working on lakes in north-east Poland, about 40 miles from the former USSR border. On April 29th, the evening news on Polish TV was interrupted by a special communiqué from Moscow. “There was an accident in Ukraine nuclear power-station. “Shortage of tincture of iodine, all sold out” – a perplexed, tired looking lady chemist announced. (Iodine tablets did not exist in Poland).

My parents had a small bottle of iodine tincture at home. Ten million Polish children continued their normal school routine getting plenty of “fresh air” in their usual sport and outdoor exercise activities.

March 18th 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of her death.

(via The Irish Times)