Research & Assessment Branch 09/03 Defence Academy of the United Kingdom 09/03 Russian Domestic Policy: A Chronology January – March 2009 1 January 2009 One of the leaders of the Solidarity opposition movement, Boris Nemtsov, says he thinks that 2009 will be a year of social protest, due to the economic crisis: This will result in the end of Putinism. This is the deal between Putin and citizens. The deal was money in exchange for rights. Putin gave citizens money - pensions, salaries, work etc - and in exchange took away from citizens their rights - the right to independent information, the right to elect its authorities, the right to independent courts, the right to opposition activities. Co-chairman of the Right Cause party Leonid Gozman says "the transformation of the economic and social crisis into a political one, mass unrest and the situation getting out of control and sliding into the extralegal field cannot be ruled out" in the new year. He says it is preferable "that stability remains in the country in the next two to three years if only to bar from power people in comparison with whom Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will look white and fluffy". 2 January 2009 Yabloko leader Sergey Mitrokhin says that in 2009 "we may witness mass unrest across the country, a further clamp-down in connection with this unrest and the country being brought to a dangerous point." 2 January 2009 Vesti TV reports that many of the largest iron and steel mills in Russia are putting production on hold, due to the global financial crisis. 3 January 2009 North Ossetia's Interior Ministry sets up an additional rapid reaction battalion to reinforce borders. The battalion comprises five companies. Four of them are subordinate to district police departments and the fifth is a reconnaissance one. The rapid reaction battalion is in charge of North Ossetia's Pravoberezhnyy, Kirovsky, Mozdoksky and Prigorodnyy districts. 4 January 2009 The deputy chief of the General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, says that the General Staff of the Armed Forces fully supports the position of the Navy chief command on the need to establish naval bases abroad. Nogovitsyn says that Russia will carry on with testing the Bulava sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile despite another failed test launch on 23 December 2008. 6 January 2009 President Dmitry Medvedev attends the main Orthodox Christmas service, which is being held at the Christ the Saviour cathedral in Moscow. 8 January 2009 The Moscow city authorities prevent a motorists' group from conducting a rally. 10 January 2009 The CPRF organises protests against raising imported vehicle duties in the Maritime Territory. 1 A Russian Chronology: January – March 2009 Research & Assessment Branch ISBN 978-905962-65-5 April 2009 09/03 Dr Mark A Smith 11 January 2009 Dmitry Medvedev says the government is working too slowly in the implementation of its anti-crisis package. 11 January 2009 The Presidential envoy to the Duma Aleksandr Kosopkin is killed in a helicopter crash in the Republic of Altay. 11 January 2009 Deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for Regulation of the Use of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) Oleg Mitvol becomes head of a new inter-regional environmental public movement called Green Alternative. 11 January 2009 The head of the Investigations Committee under the Russian Interior Ministry, Major-General Aleksey Anichin, is appointed deputy interior minister. Anichin has been heading the Committee since 2006. 12 January 2009 The Russian government website publishes a decree issued by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on 24 December 2008, which outlined the plan for the optimization of the network of the Russian Defence Ministry's military educational establishments "for the purposes of improving the system of training specialists for the Russian Federation Armed Forces". 12 January 2009 Dmitry Medvedev submits to the Duma a draft law aimed at strengthening the role of the Prosecution Service in the protection of Russians' social rights. Dmitry Medvedev sets up a Presidential Council for Cossack Affairs and appoints Aleksandr Beglov, a deputy chief of the presidential administration staff, to the position of the Council chairman. 12 January 2009 The commander-in-chief of the Internal Troops, Army General Nikolay Rogozhkin, is appointed deputy interior minister while keeping his position as chief of the Internal Troops (MVD). Other new MVD appointments are as follows: Major-General Mikhail Korneyev is appointed first deputy head of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs and head of the criminal police for Rostov Region. Police Colonel Viktor Nilov is appointed an aide to the interior minister of the Russian Federation. Police Major-General Vladimir Bulatov is appointed head of the support centre for operations to counter extremism of the MVD and Mikhail Pokazanyev deputy head of the department for countering extremism. The commander of the Urals Regional Command of the Internal Troops, Lieutenant- General Vladimir Romanov discusses the reform of the Internal Troops in the Urals district. 12 January 2009 Vesti TV reports that a national grain company will be set up in Russia. A decree to that effect has been submitted by the government to the presidential administration. It will be concerned with exporting grain. Agriculture Minister Aleksey Gordeyev says that agriculture is beginning to steadily rank third after the energy sector and the sale of products manufactured by the military- industrial complex. 12 January 2009 The government announces that a new state armament programme for 2011-2020 is to be drawn up in Russia. The drafting of the document has been included on the plan for the drafting of bills for the implementation in 2009-2010 of the Main Guidelines for the Actions of the Government until 2012. The plan, which was approved by Vladimir Putin's executive order on 25 December 2008, has been posted on the government website. A draft state armament programme has to be presented to the government by 2 09/03 A Russian Chronology: January – March 2009 February 2010 and submitted to the Duma no later than March 2010. The MOD will draft the state programme. Vladimir Putin calls for the work of the large holding companies set up in the defence industrial complex to be stepped up, and for them to be made truly competitive. He states: When adopting special measures to support the defence-industrial complex, we proceeded from its special significance in providing security for Russia, as well as for the technological development of our economy, industry. Let me reiterate that the provision of our Armed Forces with new models of armaments, military and special hardware, spares and other necessary assets has increased substantially in recent years. Serious plans for the rearmament of the army have also been formulated for the longer term. In 2009 alone, over R1,000 billion is envisaged for these purposes; while total budget spending on them until 2011 will be nearly R4,000 billion. The federal budget for 2009-2011 also envisages state guarantees on loans to defence-industrial complex enterprises of up to R100 billion; another R50 billion is allocated for subsidizing interest rates, for measures to prevent bankruptcy, and for investment in capital assets. 13 January 2009 A VTsIOM poll says 38 per cent believe the mass media are failing to provide adequate coverage of the economic crisis and are not supplying the necessary information about what is happening. A further 20 per cent say that the media sometimes exaggerate the effects of the crisis and are stirring things up for no good reason. 27 per cent believe information on the crisis is objective. 13 January 2009 Dmitry Medvedev expresses confidence that the success of the demographic policy pursued in the country in recent years will continue. He meets Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova. In 2008 more than 1.7 million babies were born, which was 100,000 more than in 2007. 13 January 2009 Dmitry Medvedev issues a decree stating that the number of servicemen in the Russian Armed Forces will be 1,000,000 as from 1 January 2016 and the total number of people in the Armed Forces will be 1,900,000. 13 January 2009 Dmitry Medvedev signs a decree authorising the Rostekhnologii state corporation to have its own representatives within foreign diplomatic and trade missions. 14 January 2009 Dmitry Medvedev says that additional steps may be necessary to stabilize the Russian banking sector. 14 January 2009 The deputy head of Roskosmos Yury Nosenko says that the Arktika (Arctic) space monitoring and communication system will be created in Russia. 14 January 2009 The MOD states that the commander-in-chief of the Ground Troops, General Vladimir Boldyrev, and the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Troops, Colonel-General Nikolay Solovtsov, will serve until at least 2011. 14 January 2009 Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin says a total of R146 billion ($4.56 billion) has been allocated for the stabilization of the Russian banking sector. 3 09/03 Dr Mark A Smith 15 January 2009 The leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party, Eduard Limonov, invites United Civil Front leader Garri Kasparov and head of Russian People's Democratic Union Mikhail Kasyanov to unite in order to head a "structured opposition". 15 January 2009 The deputy head of the Finance Ministry's customs payments section Aleksandr Sakovich says the maximum amount of the oil export duty in Russia from 1 February 2009 will be $100.9 per tonne. This rate of the duty has been calculated taking into account the average price of Russian oil as monitored from 15 December to 14 January - $40.11 per barrel. From 1 December 2008 the duty was reduced from $287.3 to 192.1 per tonne.