VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Germany voiced its support yesterday for the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The statement followed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's comments expressing doubts about whether Europe needed the pipeline, RIA Novosti reported, citing Reuters.
A CIS summit of heads of government is starting in Chisinau today. The meeting is planned to adopt a CIS economic strategy through 2020. Moldova will be assuming CIS chairmanship from 1 January 2009, and this will give even greater significance to the event, said Sergey Lebedev, Head of CIS Executive Committee, at a meeting with the President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin.
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have proposed similar economic bailout plans. Just like Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent State of the Nation address and a speech by US President-elect Barack Obama, both documents have many common aspects but differ in details.
Experts say that the Russian President's state-of-the-nation address met with smaller interest than before, and blame this on the financial crisis.
A regular Russia-European Union summit will be held in the French resort town of Nice on November 14. The main topics to be discussed are a new long-term Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (the previous agreement expired on December 1, 2007), anti-crisis measures within the Group of 20, and European security. The agenda has long been agreed on and will not be changed. However, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (who will not go to Nice - the Russian delegation will be led by President Dmitry Medvedev) caused a sensation yesterday by suggesting another vital topic for the summit. He said, "The Europeans must decide whether they need gas in the amounts that they are getting. If not, we will not build the pipeline (Nord Stream - Gazeta), we will build liquefied gas plants and ship gas to the world markets by tanker." And he added, "Only, it will cost you more. You can easily calculate it on the computer".
In November, Vladimir Putin fulfilled the promise he made during his visit to the Ulyanovsk-based Aviastar-SP aircraft factory in September, signing a decree to introduce zero import duties on aircraft with a capacity of over 300 seats.
The statement about a more flexible currency rate and the trend of a minor weakening of the rouble made by the Central Bank Chairman Monday became an instant hit. In fact, it required a lot of courage, as politicians are there to reassure the public and prevent panic, without, however, getting too far away from reality.
United Russia will measure pre-strike sentiments at major industrial facilities. The party leadership circulated this edict yesterday among the regional branches. The local branches have been told to monitor discontent among workers and report the data to Moscow, without taking independent actions to squash tensions. The information from the enterprises will be conveyed to the party's leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The heads of CIS Governments will meet in Chisinau at the end of this week. Concurrently, Vladimir Putin will pay a working visit to the Moldovan capital. This will be the first visit to Moldova by a top Russian leader in the last five years. That is, if one does not count the cancelled flight to Chisinau in 2003, when Putin learned shortly before boarding the plane that the Moldovan President would not, after all, sign the plan for settlement of the Transdnestr conflict that had been prepared at the Kremlin and agreed with the Moldovan leadership.
The Bank of Russia will continue efforts to curb the outflow of capital, as President Dmitry Medvedev supported Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's efforts by saying that cash liquidity supplied to the market was not to be immediately converted into foreign currency. Analysts say that the record outflow witnessed in October, $50 billion, will not be repeated, at least not this year. Unable to channel their assets abroad, banks are now sending the money back to the regulator. Their deposits with the Bank of Russia have grown by 200 billion roubles since November 1.
With Russia, Qatar, and Iran having agreed upon the establishment of a big gas alliance in October 2008, the big trio has every chance to now grow into a quartet. At a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on November 11, his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Nazif said that Cairo was interested in a constructive dialogue within the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF). According to Mr Putin, the Egyptian delegation expressed willingness to participate in a gas producers' meeting in Moscow on November 18.
A well-known TV anchor admitted in a recent interview that the word "crisis" in reference to the Russian situation is banned from television. The behaviour of the TV bosses and the possible consequences of that behaviour and the way the Russian TV channels present the crisis were discussed with Novaya Gazeta by Olga Makhovskaya, a social psychologist, PhD (Psychology), senior researcher with the RAS Institute of Psychology who has been a consultant to many TV projects.
In his first Address to the Federal Assembly, President Dmitry Medvedev unveiled a range of important political initiatives. Many experts and commentators, without bothering to analyze them, hastened to proclaim a "revision of the Putin legacy". Some hail (for an umpteenth time) the start of a "thaw" or "liberalisation". Others warn of an approaching "freeze". In reality, these initiatives reveal a total continuity of policy.
The Russian economy, or rather, some of its branches, are ill and in need of prompt state assistance, the Government House announced. Nonetheless, it is unwise and wasteful to distribute money to all who ask. On Friday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin approved a plan of action, listing 55 steps to cure the economy of the effects of the global financial crisis.
The plan specifies measures to bail out enterprises in crisis conditions and is expected to increase the state's role in economic management. "The sooner we activate new development and growth factors, the more confidently we will pass through the period of global instability," said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as he signed the plan.
It is no accident that the first foreign leader who came to Moscow after Mr Medvedev delivered his address to the Federal Assembly was Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Tentative results of measurements conducted by TNS-Russia on how Muscovites over the age of 18 watched a live broadcast of President Medvedev's Address to the Federal Assembly on Channel 1 and Russia Channel were unveiled yesterday. Mr Medvedev's first major public speech was watched by more people than normally watch these channels.
Medwedjew, dem aus unerfindlichen Gründen zeitweilig der Ruf eines Liberalen anhing, hat sich mit seiner gestrigen Rede endgültig als der Hardliner präsentiert, wie er in der russischen Führungsriege gebraucht wird. Er kündigte unter anderem an, Russland werde in der Region Kaliningrad an der Grenze zur Nato neue Raketen vom Typ „Iskander" aufstellen.
Er sprach auch über tief greifende innenpolitische Veränderungen, z.B. über die Verlängerung der Amtszeit des Präsidenten. Sollte bei der Wahl 2012, wie allgemein erwartet, erneut Wladimir Putin antreten und gewinnen, stünden Russland und der Welt weiter zwölf Putin-Jahre bevor.
Last week, Russians enjoyed discussing the odd habits of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, who was on an official visit in Moscow. When he travels abroad, Mr Qaddafi prefers to live in a Bedouin tent, the type of accommodation he feels most comfortable in. The issue took a bit of negotiating with bewildered security services, but eventually, a huge tent was pitched at Taininsky Park, inside the Kremlin. Meanwhile, the Libyan leader was wasting no time: he met with Medvedev and invited Vladimir Putin and Mireille Mathieu to his "tent" for a "modest tea party". This newspaper wondered whether the exotic tent was some kind of trap. Historical precedents exist, and they are not very comforting.
Environmentalists regard the felling of trees on the Grushevoi Ridge as the start of the destruction of a unique natural preserve, the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus has declared. Ecologists regard the commercial interests of big companies as a threat. According to the group, trees are being cut on the territory which is simultaneously part of two protected areas, Sochi National Park and the Sochi State Reserve. By now, about 40 trees have been cut without authorisation.
