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Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Volume 12 Number 81
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Russia
FREEDOM HOUSE REGISTERS CONTINUING DECLINE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN RUSSIAThe U.S.-based NGO Freedom House on April 29 released its annual assessment of media freedom around the world, noting that Russia "saw continued and substantial decline" in 2007, "The Moscow Times" and other media reported. The country was rated "Not Free," on a par with Sudan, Yemen, Kazakhstan, and others. "Lively but cautious political debate was increasingly limited to glossy weekly magazines and news websites only available to urban, educated, and affluent audiences," the report says. The NGO noted that media freedom has been on the decline throughout most of the former Soviet Union, with worsening conditions for journalists being noted in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Turkmenistan. RC PUTIN HOLDS 'DEMANDING' MEETING WITH CABINET OFFICIALS President Vladimir Putin on April 28 held his penultimate meeting as president with key members of the cabinet, Russian media reported. "Nezavisimaya gazeta" noted that Putin was "sharp, demanding, and meticulous." Putin quizzed Regional Development Minister Dmitry Kozak on his ministry's work to improve the water-supply infrastructure. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zhukov reported on the visit to Sochi of a delegation from the International Olympic Committee (see "RFE/RL Newsline," April 23, 2008). "Moskovsky komsomolets" on April 29 published a summary of Putin's eight years as president, noting that on average he held 145 meetings with foreign heads of state each year. He issued 1,393 foreign-policy-related statements. He participated in 64 summits involving countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States, 17 EU-Russia summits, eight G8 summits, eight meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and addressed three sessions of the UN General Assembly. He made 192 foreign trips to 74 countries. RC GOVERNORS LINE UP TO MEET WITH MEDVEDEV "Vedomosti" reported on April 29 that eight regional leaders have met in the Kremlin with President-elect Dmitry Medvedev since his election on March 2. They were Sakhalin Oblast Governor Aleksandr Khoroshavin, Tyumen Oblast Governor Vladimir Yakushev, Ivanov Oblast Governor Mikhail Men, Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov, Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov, North Ossetia President Taimuraz Mamsurov, Primorsky Krai Governor Sergei Darkin, and Yaroslavl Oblast Governor Sergei Vakhrukov. The daily reported that all eight received verbal expressions of support from Medvedev. Political analyst Mikhail Vonogradov, however, told the daily he believes decisions regarding the heads of federation subjects will remain Putin's prerogative as prime minister. RC OUTGOING ITALIAN PREMIER TURNS DOWN OFFER TO HEAD SOUTH STREAM PROJECT Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller held talks in Rome on April 28 with outgoing Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Paolo Scaroni, CEO of the Italian energy giant ENI, on various issues, including the South Stream natural-gas pipeline, which will deliver as much as 31 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe. Prodi, meanwhile, turned down an offer from Gazprom to become South Stream's chairman. His spokesman Silvio Sircana said Prodi "was extremely flattered, but reiterated that he wants to take some time off to ponder after leaving Italian politics," "The Wall Street Journal" reported on April 29. The newspaper quoted Sircana as saying that Prodi, who is set to step down as Italy's prime minister when a new government is formed in May, was approached by outgoing Russian President Putin on April 4 during the NATO summit meeting in Bucharest. "Vremya novostei" reported on April 29 that the Russian government apparently thought it could repeat the success it had in convincing Gerhard Schroeder to become chairman of the Nord Stream pipeline project after he stepped down as Germany's chancellor in 2005. "It's not so important precisely who came up with the idea to hire Romano Prodi as head of South Stream," the paper noted. "It is obvious that it was considered and agreed to in the Kremlin and Gazprom. It is obvious that they decided that Prodi would be no more scrupulous in his ties than...Schroeder." As "The Wall Street Journal" wrote of the failed attempt to recruit Prodi: "Gazprom's desire to add political firepower is an indication of the growing unease stirred up by the company's rapid expansion into Europe. Politicians in Brussels and Washington are concerned that Europe is becoming too dependent on energy from Russia." JB RUSSIAN-IRANIAN TALKS CONTINUE A second round of talks between acting Russian Security Council Secretary Valentin Sobolev, and Said Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, is set to take place on April 29 in Tehran, RIA Novosti reported on April 29. On April 28, Sobolev and Jalili, who is Iran's top nuclear negotiator, discussed issues of bilateral cooperation and current international and regional problems, and Jalili presented Sobolev with a "packet of proposals" on resolving a variety of global problems, including those connected to fighting the threat of nuclear proliferation, RIA Novosti reported. Sobolev said the talks "are of a peaceful nature and are not directed against any third countries" and that he hoped they would help "advance Iranian-Russian relations." AP, citing Iranian state media, reported on April 28 that the two sides discussed the outlines of "serious proposals" aimed at assuring the international community that Tehran's nuclear program is peaceful. Jalili did not provide details of the proposals, but said Tehran will soon unveil them publicly. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has serious proposals about what to do to reduce threats resulting from the nuclear issue to the minimum," Jalili was quoted as saying by Iran's official news agency IRNA. Also on April 28, Gholamreza Aqazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, told a news conference that the package of proposals is "a comprehensive plan" addressed to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Aqazadeh said the package was discussed on April 28 with Sobolev during his visit to Iran but was addressed to the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China, AP reported. JB RICE COMMENTS ON PROSPECTS FOR RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY Speaking to the U.S. Peace Corps' 2008 Worldwide Country Director Conference in Washington on April 28, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commented on democratization in the former Soviet Union, including Russia. According to a transcript provided by the State Department's website, Rice said that in areas like the former Soviet Union, there "are times when it feels as if the democratic process is just an inexorable wave moving forward," such as the period of 1989-1991 and in 2005, with the Orange and Rose revolutions, and times when things "level off for a while." She added that "when people's expectations are raised that they're going to have real choices, democratic choices, for leadership, when people get accustomed to circumstances in which their personal freedoms are not abridged, if you can find the support in civil society, if you can find the support in nongovernmental organizations, if the United States stays with that program, I believe you'll see another step up." This is true for Russia, said Rice. "You know, I was in Moscow as a graduate student in 1979," she said. "Russia is not the Soviet Union. Let me be very certain for you. I was in the Soviet Union. I knew the Soviet Union. Russia is not the Soviet Union. And Russians have certain expectations about personal freedoms. They have certain expectations about economic freedoms. I think it's going to make a difference in the long run, maybe even the medium term, to what kinds of politics is actually tolerated in Russia." JB DAGHESTAN'S GOVERNMENT HIGHLIGHTS CAUSES OF RUSSIAN OUTMIGRATION First Deputy Prime Minister Ummapazil Omarova chaired a session of the government Commission for the Problems of the Russian-Language Population on April 25 in Makhachkala to assess progress in implementing a program adopted in July 2003 on improving social and economic conditions in three northern raions where the population is predominantly Russian, kavkaz-uzel.ru and riadagestan.ru reported. Speakers at the session admitted that some measures envisaged in the 2003 program have been implemented only partially or not at all, and many villages in the area remain without gas, electricity, or mains water. Lack of employment opportunities and the failure of local authorities in Kizlyar to allocate land plots were identified as key contributing factors to the outmigration of the Russian minority, which decreased in size from over 150,000 in 1989 to 121,000 at the time of the 2002 census. Russians are currently the sixth-largest ethnic group in Daghestan, accounting for less than 5 percent of the total population. LF INGUSH DIVIDED OVER HOW TO STEM CORRUPTION The independent website ingushetiya.ru on April 27 summarized the findings of a poll it conducted between March 3-April 27 on how to coerce the republic's leadership to take measures to curtail corruption and human rights abuses. Of a total of 2,333 respondents, 39.3 percent advocated staging protest demonstrations, but almost as many -- 38 percent -- favored "other means," a formula that in the context does not preclude violence or other unconstitutional actions. LF
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