Kremlin aide says Medvedev wants second term: sources
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin’s top economic aide said he believes President Dmitry Medvedev wants to seek a second term in Russia’s 2012 presidential election, the BBC reported on Friday.
When asked whether the president wanted another term in the Kremlin, Arkady Dvorkovich answered: “I believe he does.” He also said he believed Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had not yet decided who will run.
Kremlin aide says Medvedev wants second term–BBC
MOSCOW, Dec 10 (Reuters) – The Kremlin’s top economic aide
said he believes President Dmitry Medvedev wants to seek a
second term in Russia’s 2012 presidential election, the BBC
reported on Friday.
When asked whether the president wanted another term in the
Kremlin, Arkady Dvorkovich answered: “I believe he does”. He
also said he believed Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
had not yet decided who will run.
Russia, Afghanistan agree to beef up heroin fight
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan agreed with Russia on Wednesday to step up efforts in fighting the Afghan heroin trade which kills at least 30,000 Russians a year.
“We are neighbours linked by the same piece of land, and we have the potential to strengthen our work in fighting a global menace,” Russia’s anti-drugs tsar Viktor Ivanov told his Central Asian counterparts.
On Tolstoy centenary, Russian Orthodox won’t lift excommunication
The Russian Orthodox Church refused to rehabilitate him and the state chose to ignore him, but the official silence surrounding the 100th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy’s death has not muffled praise or quelled debate.
Unlike the 150th anniversary of writer Anton Chekhov’s birth this year — which prompted an emotional outpouring from President Dmitry Medvedev and spurred a nationwide festival — the November centenary of one of Russia’s most universally acclaimed writers has been met with surreal silence.
“Deathly” silence fails to bury Tolstoy centenary
By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Yana Soboleva
MOSCOW (Reuters Life!) – The Russian Orthodox Church refused to rehabilitate him and the state chose to ignore him, but the official silence surrounding the 100th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy’s death has not muffled praise or quelled debate.
Unlike the 150th anniversary of writer Anton Chekhov’s birth this year — which prompted an emotional outpouring from President Dmitry Medvedev and spurred a nationwide festival — the November centenary of one of Russia’s most universally acclaimed writers has been met with surreal silence.
Medvedev seeks tougher Russian corruption fines
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused some law enforcement officials on Tuesday of having direct links to organised crime and called for stiffer fines to punish bribery, but his anti-graft promises drew scepticism.
In his annual state of the nation speech, Medvedev referred to endemic bribe-taking, and documented cases of the torture and death of people in custody that have earned Russian police a fearful reputation.
Russia’s Medvedev seeks tougher corruption fines
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused some law enforcement officials on Tuesday of having direct links to organized crime and called for stiffer fines to punish bribery, but his anti-graft promises drew skepticism.
In his annual state of the nation speech, Medvedev referred to endemic bribe-taking, and documented cases of the torture and death of people in custody that have earned Russian police a fearful reputation.
Russia’s Islamist rebels mull language switch to Arabic or Turkish
(Photo: Workers clean blood from the sidewalk outside the parliament building in Grozny October 19, 2010 following a suicide attack there that killed four people/Kazbek Basayev)
Militants waging an Islamist insurgency in Russia’s mainly Muslim North Caucasus region have proposed using either Arabic or a Turkic language as a lingua franca for their affairs. The insurgents now communicate with each other largely in Russian, also the main language of the dozen or so Islamist web sites they are affiliated with, and of their video addresses.
The insurgency leader, Chechen rebel Doku Umarov, suggested earlier this month that a “state” language be formed for the self-styled Caucasus Emirate, a grouping of Muslim republics including Chechnya and Dagestan that want to quit Russia.
Travel Postcard: 48 hours in Moscow
MOSCOW (Reuters Life!) – Glitzy and decadent, the non-stop Russian capital is famed for its exorbitant prices, extravagant nightlife and freezing winter temperatures.
But there is a lot more than glamour and excess: it has fabulous art, a slew of Soviet-era gems, exotic cuisine from the Caucasus and Central Asia, and simple pleasures rare in the West. Local correspondents help you get most out of a stay in this vast city of almost 11 million.
Russia could shun European rights court–top judge
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s top judge said it may no longer honor judgments handed down by Europe’s influential Court of Human Rights, but a Kremlin official played down the idea, calling it a “backwards” step.
Russia — a member of the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog under which the Court operates — lodges the largest amount of cases with the court in what activists say is a sign of the country’s poor rights record.
-
About Amie
-
Follow Amie
