Persoverzicht Tsjetsjenië - september 2013

• 2013-10-09
• Europa in de wereld

Persoverzicht Tsjetsjenië — September 2013

2 september 2013

Blogs monitoring

“Russia 10” contest
In connection with the end of voting for the symbol of Russia within the 'Russia 10' contest, bloggers have discussed the results of the voting. The majority of bloggers consider that the idea to organize such a competition is good, but the way it was finally carried out is outrageous. Bloggers highlight the problem of fraud with the number of votes. Thus, Khoper Reserve in the Voronezh region suddenly moved from 8th place to 34th in the list. People link it to the fact that the government intends to build mines just near the Reserve. Another scandal was provoked by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's announcement regarding the second place of 'Heart of Chechnya' Mosque in Grozny. He is sure that the results have been falsified and the Mosque should have taken the first place. He also accused telecoms companies of sabotage while receiving voters' sms during the last days of the contest. Blogger Anton Orekh notices that it could indeed have been quite frightening as a trend - to choose a Muslim mosque as a symbol of Russia. On the other hand, bloggers stress the fact that those who were really interested in the results gave hundreds of votes instead of one, which means that the whole thing was just a competition of financial resources that individuals were ready to give in order to win. Therefore the results of the contest must be annulled, according to bloggers.
http://echo.msk.ru/blog/mnog/1148256-echo/
http://echo.msk.ru/blog/rrevunov/1147796-echo/ http://echo.msk.ru/blog/varlamov_i/1147144-echo/ http://echo.msk.ru/blog/pochinok/1146514-echo/ http://echo.msk.ru/blog/oreh/1145316-echo/

4 september 2013

Vladikavkaz market attack case : The North Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has started hearings in a trial of a group of militants suspected of involvement in a September 2010 terrorist attack at a market in Vladikavkaz (North Ossetia) which killed 19 people. (Kommersant) 5 september 2013 Putin murder plot suspect pleads guilty: (i) Reportedly, a national of Kazakhstan Ilya Pyanzin, who is suspected of plotting to kill President Putin, has admitted his guilt and concluded a pre-trial deal with the investigation. (ii) A suspect in last month's killing of head of Ingushetia's security council Akhmed Kotiyev has been detained in Chechnya. (Izvestia, MT )

9 september 2013

Regional elections : acting Moscow mayor Sobyanin wins elections, Navalny comes second: (i) With 100% of the ballots counted, acting Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin gained 51.37% of the vote in Sunday's early mayoral elections in Moscow. Opposition activist Alexei Navalny gained 27.24%. Communist Party's candidate Ivan Melnikov came third with 10.69%. RBK daily notes that Sobyanin's result would be better than that of Vladimir Putin, who got 47% of the vote in Moscow in the 2012 Presidential elections. Press highlights the low voter turnout (about 30%) in the Moscow mayoral elections. In the view of some analysts, low turnout played into the hands of opposition candidates. Media point out that observers recorded less violations than during the previous election campaigns. Experts speak of Navalny's great success. Meanwhile, Navalny said that a second round should be held. His supporters plan to hold an authorized rally today on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square. Reportedly, more than 50,000 people gathered on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square late on Sunday for an action in support of Sobyanin. Preliminary results indicate that incumbent governors are leading in all the eight regions where direct gubernatorial elections were held on Sunday: in addition to Moscow, these regions include the Moscow region, the Republic of Khakassia, the Magadan region, the Khabarovsk territory, the Vladimir region, the Chukotka autonomous district. In the Transbaikal territory, acting governor and Fair Russia's candidate Konstantin Ilkovsky is also leading in the gubernatorial elections. His candidacy was backed by United Russia. Acting governor of the Moscow region Andrey Vorobyov received nearly 80% of the vote in the gubernatorial elections in the Moscow region. He is followed by Communist Party's candidate Konstantin Cheremisov (7.7%) and Yabloko's candidate Gennady Gudkov (4.4%). (ii) The legislature of Ingushetia on Sunday elected Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as the head of Ingushetia for a new term. Dagestan's legislature on Sunday elected Ramazan Abdulatipov as the head of Dagestan. ( Gazeta.ru, Izvestia, Kommersant, MK, NG, Novye Izvestia, RBK daily, RG, Vedomosti; EkhoMoskvy )

Kerimov withdraws from Uralkali?: The press office of Uralkali said it had no information about the sale by Suleiman Kerimov of his 21.75% stake in Uralkali. The rumours were circulating that the major shareholder of the Russian biggest potash producer, senator from Dagestan, Kerimov, had sold for $3 billion the stake to the St. Petersburg banker Vladimir Kogan. ( Kommersant, Izvestia )

10 september 2013

Putin calls to step up efforts to combat terrorism threats in North Caucasus : (i) At a Russian Security Council meeting on Monday, President Putin said that terrorism threats and security concerns have not been removed in the North Caucasus and stressed the need to step up efforts to ensure the security during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Putin also said that Russia should respond to 'groundless accusations' by some foreign media and rights organizations about massive violations of human rights in the North Caucasus. (ii) The Government is expected to consider by November a federal program on the North Caucasus development. It is planned to allocate RUR40 billion (about $1.2 billion) for the program. ( Izvestia, MT, RBK daily, RG )

Regional and local elections: The outcome of Sunday's regional and local elections is the focus of media reports. Special attention is paid to the Moscow mayoral elections in which acting mayor Sergey Sobyanin gained 51.37% and his main rival, opposition activist and mayoral candidate from the RPR-Parnas party Alexei Navalny 27.24%. Experts explain Navalny's electoral success by mobilization of the so-called protest electorate. Observers highlight the low voter turnout (32.07%) in Moscow. Gazeta.ru notes that low voter turnout was recorded at elections in other Russian regions, but adds that it was to the advantage of the opposition candidate only in Moscow. Meanwhile, Navalny insisted that a second round should be held. Police said that about 9,000 people took part in a rally on Monday in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in support of Navalny, while journalists estimated the number of participants at up to 20,000-25,000. Speaking at the rally, Navalny described the outcome of the elections as a victory, saying that a genuine opposition has been born in Russia. Commenting on the results of regional legislative elections in 16 regions, Vedomosti writes that the ruling United Russia party will dominate in all regional legislatures. Kommersant reports that low voter turnout in played into United Russia's hands. Media also mention a victory of well-known anti-drug campaigner Yevgeny Roizman in the Yekaterinburg mayoral elections and acting Moscow region governor Andrey Vorobyov's landslide victory in the gubernatorial elections in the Moscow region: Vorobyov got around 79% of the vote. Novye Izvestia calls Roizman's victory a 'predicted sensation'. Despite expectations of an intrigue at the mayoral elections in Voronezh, United Russia's candidate Alexander Gusev is leading with 43.62% of the vote. He is followed by a candidate from the Green Alliance Galina Kudryavtseva (26.68%) (Rossiyskaya Gazeta). Dailies also mention a success of Patriots of Russia, supported by businessman Anatoly Bykov, in the Krasnoyarsk city council elections and a victory of Yabloko-backed candidate Galina Shirshina in the Petrozavodsk mayoral elections. ( Gazeta.ru, Izvestia, Kommersant, Novye Izvestia, RBK daily, RG, Vedomosti; Ekho Moskvy )

17 september 2013

Suicide car bomb kills 3 in Chechnya : Three Russian policemen were killed and six others wounded Monday in a pair of car bombings in the restive Caucasus region. Another attempted attack on a police station was stopped, authorities said. It was not clear if the incidents in the southern republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia were coordinated, but Russian officials said they believe one of the region's armed groups was responsible for all the attacks. The bloodiest attack was in Chechnya, where a suicide car bomber killed three police and wounded four other when a vehicle blew up before dawn outside a police station in the village of Sernovodsk. Russian news reports cited local officials as saying the car was speeding toward the station and exploded after police raised a barrier at the station. (Rossiskaya Gazeta, Interfax, The Moscow Times )

19 september 2013

Nationalism is growing: poll : According to the findings of the poll on national issues in society and political life, conducted on order of the Russian Public Chamber, nationalism in Russia is growing. The poll was conducted in 400 cities of Russian Federation among 4070 respondents. According to the results, 37% of Russian population feel to be humiliated. This number is higher in Moscow, Moscow Oblast and St. Petersburg, where 46% say that they are humiliated. 51% of respondents would like to return nationality column into passports. The results also show that Russia is split into two parts: Russian Federation and Northern Caucasus, with the latter living in accordance with its own laws and traditions. Some national republics can be identified as Islamic. Islam, for example, is growing in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan as a form of social protest. ( Kommersant )

20 september 2013

Suspected of killing Russian diplomat arrested: According to prosecutor’s office in breakaway Abkhazia and Russia’s Investigative Committee, a Russian citizen from Chechnya, Yusuf Lakayev, who was wounded in a shooting incident with police in Georgia’s Black Sea town of Batumi, is suspected of killing a Russian diplomat and his wife in Sokhumi. Dmitry Vishernyov, first secretary at Russia's embassy in the regional capital Sukhumi, was killed by a gunshot to the head in the garage of his home on September 9. His wife was wounded in the attack and died in the hospital on September 14. ( Kommersant )

24 september 2013

Theft of oil : According to Chatham House, the theft of oil in Russia is roughly the same as in Nigeria, namely 150,000 barrels per day. Oil is smuggled from Caspian offshore fields, and Transneft's pipelines in Dagestan. According to Transneft, in 2013 — 2012, there were 4,779 illegal tapping into its trunk oil pipelines. Dagestan was the leader of the theft in 2011 (105 of all the volume of pumped oil). Meanwhile, the Samara region came out on top in 2012 (1,322 tapping). ( Vedomosti )

27 september 2013

Judge and son slain in Dagestan: A senior Dagestani judge and his son died Wednesday night of wounds sustained in a street gun attack carried out by two unidentified men earlier that day. At least two attackers fired shots at Dagestani Supreme Court judge Mukhtar Shapiyev and his son Kamil in the entrance of an apartment building in Makhachkala, the capital of the volatile North Caucasus republic. The authorities suspect the attack to be connected to Shapiyev's work but have not disclosed details of the perpetrators' motives. The assassination is the second attempt upon the life of a Dagestani judge this year. ( Rossiskaya Gazeta )

Sale of Uralkali mixed with politics: A possible sale of the stake in Uralkali owned by Suleiman Kerimov to the banker Vladimir Kogan could fall apart. Allegedly Suleiman Kerimov advanced some new informal conditions for the sale. Kerimov is interested to restore his influence in Dagestan which was weakened when Ramazan Abulatipov became the President of Dagestan this year. Kerimov is interested to acquire control over the airport and sea port in Makhachkala. ( Kommersant )