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A Russian Chronology: July to September 2008 Advanced Research and Assessment Group ISBN 978-1-905962-58-7 November 2008 08/27 Dr Mark a Smith

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A Russian Chronology: July to September 2008 Advanced Research and Assessment Group ISBN 978-1-905962-58-7 November 2008 08/27 Dr Mark a Smith Advanced Research and Assessment Group Chron ology Series 08/27 Defence Academy of the United Kingdom 08/27 Russian Domestic Policy: A Chronology July – September 2008 1 July 2008 The Investigations Committee under the Prosecutor-General's Office brings new charges against the former owner of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the former head of the Menatep group, Platon Lebedev. They are accused of embezzlement. 1 July 2008 The head of the Investigations Committee under the Prosecutor- General's Office, Aleksandr Bastrykin, says Russian law-enforcement agencies have information about which Western European country the person who directly carried out the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya has taken refuge in. 1 July 2008 Protective duties on wheat and barley, which were active for half a year, are cancelled. Grain will be exported at a zero rate of duties. The vice- president of the Russian Grain Union, Aleksandr Korbut, states: I think it will have a positive impact on grain prices, as additional competition from exporting companies will emerge. Grain prices are falling now, which is logical: we have good stocks from last year and high expectations for crops…Another important point is that Russia will continue to strengthen its presence on the world grain market, and make its contribution to resolving the world food crisis. According to the forecast of the Agriculture Ministry, exports of grain this year may total 15 million tonnes with a harvest of at least 85 million tonnes. 1 July 2008 The head of the Main Directorate for Combat Training of the Armed Forces, Lt-Gen Vladimir Shamanov, says a reorganization of garrisons on an Army and Navy scale in accordance with the new general military regulations will start in autumn 2008. A large-scale reorganization of garrisons according to the territorial principle was to commence on 1 July. However, some military districts and fleets have not been able to approve new garrison boundaries. The large-scale reorganization will start at the end of the summer training period. 70 territorial garrisons will be set up. Their boundaries will largely coincide with the borders of the constituent parts of the Russian Federation. There will also be 109 local garrisons. 1 July 2008 A large exercise of border troops and the army (Shield 2008) takes place in the North Caucasus. It stretches from the Caspian to the Black Sea and covers the territory of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabarda-Balkaria, Karachay- Cherkessia and Krasnodar Territory. It will last till 5 July. 1 July 2008 Vasily Likhachev, representative of the People's Assembly of the Republic of Ingushetia in the Federation Council blames the West for instability in Ingushetia: 1 A Russian Chronology: July to September 2008 Advanced Research and Assessment Group ISBN 978-1-905962-58-7 November 2008 08/27 Dr Mark A Smith As of now, no-one is satisfied with a stable economic development of the Russian Federation. Our enemies, including those in Washington, London, Brussels and other capitals, are extremely interested that on the territory of the Russian Federation (RF), which has taken a course of recognizing democratic values and standards, were sore spots, different types of critical mass, which would explode and weaken the RF. I have an impression that with regard to Ingushetia as well as the RF, within the ideological centres of the US intelligence, along the line of MI5 and MI6, ideological centres of the European Union and the North Atlantic bloc, they have plans to actively work in the directions of Chechnya, Ingushetia and North Ossetia. We have to be honest to ourselves: the fate of Ingushetia, its security is the security of the RF, it is the security of the region under the name of North Caucasus. 2 July 2008 Dmitry Medvedev sets out the details of a draft national plan to tackle corruption, at a session of the Legislative Council devoted to legislative provisions to counter corruption. He also says that there should be "two state officials at most" on the boards of directors of state-owned firms. Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich says independent directors are to replace officials on the board of directors of companies that are 100 per cent owned by the state. The need to replace officials with independent representatives on the board of directors of state companies was announced at the beginning of 2008. 2 July 2008 Prosecutor-General Yury Chayka says Russian prosecutors checked over 700,000 violations of social and labour rights in 2007. 2 July 2008 Regional human rights ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev says that a total of 4,825 people are listed as missing in the Chechen Republic in the period since 1994. 2 July 2008 The chairman of the Russian Federation Public Chamber commission for the affairs of veterans, military personnel and their family members, Aleksandr Kanshin, says about 600 officers and generals of Russia's force structures have been convicted of various crimes in 2007. He says the state is losing up to 30 per cent of the money it spends on the force structures as a result of kickbacks and middleman services. He says by the end of 2008 Russian force structures may have lost up to two military battalions in non-combat losses. 2 July 2008 The commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, says the basing system of the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) will be extended in connection with its increased activities in the southern marine direction. He meets in Novorossiysk with commanders and officers of the Novorossiysk naval base. 2 July 2008 Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signs a resolution that radically reduces the list of international organizations whose grants attract tax breaks. All large private foundations disappeared from the list which earlier comprised 101 organizations, leaving only 12 inter-governmental associations. 3 July 2008 The Supreme Court rejects a case by the URF, which was challenging the results of the State Duma election held last December and demanding their cancellation. 2 08/27 A Russian Chronology: July – September 2008 3 July 2008 Dmitry Medvedev says the rouble could become a reserve currency. He states: Our starting now to develop stock exchange trading in petroleum products and other fuels for roubles is precisely a step towards the transformation of the rouble into one of the possible regional reserve currencies, especially because the rouble's internal and external convertibility - the goal which we were setting for ourselves several years ago - has been achieved. The main thing now is for the rouble to be perceived as a safe instrument into which savings could be placed, by using which one can carry out appropriate transactions. This is perhaps an aim for a somewhat longer term, but in my opinion it is quite an achievable aim. 3 July 2008 Dmitry Medvedev signs a decree increasing the number of deputy interior ministers from three to five. A state secretary and the chief state road safety inspector have become the deputies of the interior minister. Medvedev signs a decree relieving Veronika Milinchuk of the post of Russia's representative at the European Court of Human Rights and deputy justice minister. 3 July 2008 Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn is appointed chairman of the military-scientific committee of the General Staff and deputy chief of the General Staff. He replaces Colonel-General Aleksandr Skvortsov. The commander of the Space Troops, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin, is appointed deputy defence minister for armaments. In his new post, Popovkin replaces Army Gen Nikolay Makarov, who was in June appointed chief of the General Staff. The head of Plesetsk cosmodrome, Major-General Oleg Ostapenko, is appointed commander of the Space Troops. 4 July 2008 The Party of Social Justice merges with Spravedlivaya Rossiya. 4 July 2008 The Moscow Basmannyy Court extends the period of detention of former Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak until 9 October. Storchak is accused of attempting to embezzle 43.4m dollars from the state budget while settling Russian-Algerian debt. 4 July 2008 The first deputy commander of the Internal Troops of the Interior Ministry (MVD), Colonel-General Sergey Bunin, says it is intended to carry out a large-scale operation aimed at eliminating terrorists in the mountain area of Chechnya. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov says he favours joint operations to combat illegal armed formations together with Russian MOD units, the Yug and Sever battalions and the special-purpose police regiment No.2 named after Ramzan Kadyrov. 4 July 2008 The head of the Russian Interior Ministry's financial-economic department, Svetlana Perova, says funding for the MVD will increase by 50 per cent by 2010 in comparison with 2008. 5 July 2008 The Council of the National Assembly - an alternative parliament of the opposition in Russia, organized by the Drugaya Rossiya coalition accepts 69 new members to the assembly and approves a plan of action and a date for the next meeting. 3 08/27 Dr Mark A Smith 6 July 2008 A Union of Political Prisoners is set up at a congress of former political prisoners in Moscow. 6 July 2008 North Ossetian President Taymuraz Mamsurov says certain forces abroad are nurturing the idea of uniting North and South Ossetia into one independent country, which would subsequently have to decide with whom its future lies. He says: "They (the foreign envoys and representatives of international structures) try to flatter us, saying that Ossetians...should be in Europe. But (they say), since Europe itself has come to you via Georgia...you can correct a historical injustice - join NATO via Georgia, it's right next door." 7 July 2008 The board of directors of the TNK-BP management company votes against annulling the contract with TNK-BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley.
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