Outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev used his final State of the Nation address to promise a “comprehensive reform” of Russia’s political system. Key proposals include directly elected regional governors, making it much easier for new political parties to register for parliamentary and presidential elections, and a form of proportional representation in the State Duma. Reform [...]
CSTO slams door on US bases in Central Asia
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) today announced that no-one will be able to establish military bases on the territory of a CSTO member state without the express agreement of all other member states. In practice, this is a setback for the United States, who will find it next to impossible to establish a new [...]
Russia Jupiter mission agreed with ESA
Russian space agency Roscosmos today announced that it had agreed in principle to undertake a number joint missions with the European Space Agency. The agreement was reached at a meeting in Moscow between Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Roscosmos and Jean-Jacques Dordain, the ESA’s Director General. The first, and most headline-worthy, is a mission to Jupiter [...]
Russian Presidential Elections Roundup
It’s been a busy few days for Russian elections news, so I thought I’d roundup a few of the key stories that caught my eye. Webcams in every polling station In his recent marathon TV interview, Vladimir Putin proposed placing webcams in every single polling station during March’s Presidential election. The proposal came in reaction [...]
Soviet Cars
When you think of some of the classic vehicles to emerge from the Soviet era it’s easy to build an image of a lumbering stereotype; a kind of dull, functional car that looked and felt extremely similar to other models. While that may be true to some extent – it has to be said that [...]
Maria Putin
Much is known about the Russian Prime Minister’s political and military career but until very recently, his family life was largely unknown. All that was to change however when Vladimir Putin’s daughter Maria burst on to the celebrity stage. Family rebel? One of the most used photographs of Maria Putin dates from 2009 and shows [...]
This Week in Russia Blogs #3
After an enforced break (a doctor jabbed a very sharp needle into my thumb joint – long story) TWiRB is back to update you on what Russia bloggers have been talking about in the last week – which as it turns out was one of the most interesting weeks in Russia for ages. As there’s [...]
Mikhail Prokhorov: Russia’s next Prime Minister?
Mikhail Prokhorov’s dramatic entry into the 2012 Russian Presidential race has caused confusion among analysts. Put simply, no-one can fathom why Russia’s third richest man would want to have another stab at entering Russian politics. After his humiliating failure this summer – Prokhorov announced to great fanfare that he would turn Right Cause into a [...]
Moscow Protests: For now or the future?
Protests took place in Moscow on Monday as people unhappy at United Russia’s manipulation of Sunday’s Russian Duma election took to the streets. Numbers are difficult to judge, but it appears that around 5-6,000 people protested earlier in the day, breaking off into a smaller group of around 1,000 that then went on to Triumfalnaya [...]
How United Russia stole victory
United Russia won 49.54% of the popular vote in this weekend’s Duma Election, which was just enough to secure it an overall majority in the Duma. By and large, election observers felt that the ballot itself was run fairly across the country, BUT, there were a few ballots in which the results were just absurd. [...]