Word: russianizing
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...That sort of doom-laden analysis is an extreme minority view - but the fact that it is being aired at all is remarkable. The Russian political system is authoritarian and secretive, but there's no sign that Putin's supporters are preparing to abandon him. In the past, Putin has shown himself ruthless in imposing his authority - as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Yukos founder who tried to challenge Putin's power by funding rival political parties, discovered to his cost. Khodorkovsky has been in prison since October 2003, charged with offenses, which he denies, including tax evasion, embezzlement and theft...
...September, in which over 300 children and adults died after pro-Chechen rebels seized a school in North Ossetia, "underlined the failure of the Kremlin's Chechnya operations," she says. The final destruction of Yukos in December, when Baikal Finance Group, a consortium linked to the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft, bought its main oil producing unit, Yuganskneftegaz, for a knockdown price, "demonstrated the state's unwillingness to guarantee private property." And Yushchenko's victory in Ukraine showed that Russia wanted to pursue "an imperialist foreign policy but couldn't even achieve that." Shevtsova believes Putin is building...
...Fake Watch Two Americans went on trial in Shanghai last week charged with "conducting business illegally" after allegedly selling some 180,000 pirated DVDs over eBay and a Russian website. Arrested following the first joint Sino-American investigation on DVD piracy, they face up to 15 years in prison for running an "audio and video products" business without a proper license. The defendants argue that the law doesn't apply because they sold all their goods overseas. And as for the dodgy discs: "I bought the DVDs from licensed stores," said one, "so I took it for granted that they...
...certainly not in St. Petersburg on Saturday, where 10,000 brought downtown traffic to a standstill as Putin was paying a visit to his native city. Some waved signs demanding that he resign. What provoked all this violence and incivility? A new law that strips about 40 million Russian citizens of some social benefits, including the right of pensioners to ride public transport for free. (As an added affront, fares jumped by 30%.) The legislation, which replaces benefits with individual cash subsidies, is part of the Kremlin's effort to balance its books. But the government allocated just $6 billion...
...Revelations of corruption in the Ukraine election trigger a second Russian Revolution; Putin resigns...