Tag Archives: Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

News, Politics, Government

Russian govt under attack from pro-Kremlin party

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The leader of the main Kremlin party in Russia‘s parliament said Wednesday that he hopes some government ministers will resign because they are unfit for their jobs.

Vladimir Vasilyev‘s attack on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev‘s government came two hours after a news website showed President Vladimir Putin threatening to dismiss unseen people. The video appeared to have been taken at a meeting on Tuesday attended by government ministers.

The website, Life News, is reported to enjoy close links with the Kremlin and is well-known for leaking documents and videos that appear to have come from authorities.

“It’s either me who does an inefficient job or all of you are doing a bad job and you have to go. I have to tell you that at the moment I’m inclined toward the latter option,” Putin said in the video, which was also aired on state television.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told news agencies later on Wednesday that the president’s outburst was directed at several regional governors who were also at that meeting, not government ministers.

Medvedev and his government on Wednesday faced a grilling in the parliament from opposition as well as pro-Kremlin factions. Vasilyev, who chairs the United Russia party faction in the lower house, said its relations with the education minister are “not working out” and called for resignations without giving names.

“We hope that in the government, too, people will start handing in their resignations because they will realize they’re unfit for the job — that’s natural,” he said, referring to a recent wave of resignations from the parliament inspired by corruption scandals.

Vasilyev also berated Medvedev’s government for submitting bills to the parliament without consulting lawmakers first.

Medvedev is the leader of United Russia. Putin formerly led United Russia but currently has no affiliation with it.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/D7KALqTrkiw/

News, Politics, Government

As Russia backs Cyprus' seizures of deposits, big money may already be out

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By Alec Luhn

As crisis-ridden Cyprus proceeds with a bank restructuring program that will take as much as 40 percent from large account holders, most of whom are Russian, the Kremlin has made an about-face and supported the plan.

Commentators wondered how Russia could go along with a restructuring that would cost its citizens an estimated four to six billion euros. The reason may be simple: The biggest Russian account holders already have gotten most of their money out of this island tax haven through a gaping loophole, according to some reports.

After a nearly two-week closure, Cyprus banks will reopen Thursday with limits of 300 euros ($383) per day on withdrawals. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund agreed with Cyprus on Monday on the conditions for a loan of $13 billion to the troubled country. The bank restructuring has sparked anti-austerity protests in Nicosia.

Under the terms of the loan, the island’s second biggest bank, Laiki, will be closed down and accounts with less than 100,000 euros will be transferred to the larger Bank of Cyprus. A levy to raise billions of euros towards the bailout then will be placed on depositors with more than 100,000 euros, resulting in a an estimated seizure of 40 percent.

Most of the deposits of more than 100,000 euros at the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank are ultimately owned by Russians, the Financial Times reported Monday. Russian account holders stand to lose a total of four to six billion euros in the deal and won’t be able to remove their remaining holdings due to sharp limits on transactions, according to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti.

Cyprus traditionally has been a popular tax haven for Russian businesses thanks to lax rules on reporting the source of the money, which has led to accusations of money laundering. The ratings agency Moody’s has estimated that Russian holdings in Cyprus banks have amounted to about $31 billion.

After some initial bluster, the Russian government has supported the Cyprus plan, albeit reluctantly. On Monday, even as Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Cyprus continues to “rob the loot,” President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to restructure its 2.5 billion euro loan to Cyprus, according to an announcement on the official presidential website.

The announcement also said that Putin “considers it possible to support the president of Cyprus‘ and the European Commission‘s efforts to overcome the crisis in Cyprus‘ economy and financial and banking system.”

The new, softer line on Cyprus puzzled some experts, who said that Russia easily could have bailed out the island nation, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

But the Kremlin’s tacit approval may reflect a realization that Russian business will emerge from the Cyprus fiasco with less damage than previously thought: According to market watchers, the new tax on bank holdings won’t impact the country’s economy significantly, as sizeable Russian holdings there already have been removed, the BBC Russian Service reported.

The possibility of default in Cyprus has been looming for more than a year, and many Russian businesses registered there were prepared for such a …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Ex-chief of Russia's Gazprom Vyakhirev dies at 78

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Rem Vyakhirev, the man who helped create Russia‘s state-run Gazprom natural gas giant and led it for nearly a decade, has died at 78.

Gazprom said Vyakhirev died Monday at his home outside Moscow. The cause of death wasn’t given.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev praised Vyakhirev as a man who helped make Gazprom a “key player on the global energy market and the backbone of Russia‘s economy.”

Vyakhirev began his career as an oil engineer 1957 and rose through the ranks of the Soviet Union‘s oil and gas industries to become the first deputy gas minister in 1986. He became Gazprom chief in 1992 and oversaw its steady growth.

Vyakhirev served as Gazprom’s CEO until 2001, when President Vladimir Putin replaced him with his loyalist Alexei Miller.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Russia pulls out of anti-crime deal with US, says it doesn't need help

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Russia pulled out of an anti-crime accord with the United States on Wednesday, the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed an order to scrap the 10-year-old agreement “because it was no longer relevant,” his office said.

The agreement covered fighting terrorism, corruption and cross-border crimes such as drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Alexei Pushkov, head of Russia‘s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told the Interfax news agency that the decision reflected Russia‘s ability to manage its internal affairs without outside help.

A U.S. embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The agreement is just one of several bilateral cooperation deals that Moscow has decided to abandon. Last year, Russia expelled the U.S. International Development Agency and also warned it wouldn’t extend the Nunn-Lugar program helping it dismantle nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons stockpiles.

On Friday, the U.S. withdrew from a joint civil society group.

President Barack Obama‘s efforts to “reset” relations with Russia has met a markedly colder wind from the Kremlin since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in May. Faced with unprecedented street protests against his 12-year rule, Putin accused the U.S. State Department of staging the protests in order to weaken Russia.

After Putin’s inauguration, the Kremlin-controlled parliament then quickly rubber-stamped a series of laws imposing new restrictions in an apparent bid to curb American influence in Russia. Non-governmental organizations funded from abroad were required to register as “foreign agents,” a term intended to ruin their credibility among Russians for whom the term sounds synonymous to spies. The Russian definition of treason was also expanded to include potentially any contact with a foreign organization.

Two U.S.-based NGOs have closed their Russian offices in response to the new laws. The business daily Kommersant reported Wednesday that the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, which ran programs championing democratic rights, moved their staff to Lithuania after Russian security officials threatened to prosecute them under the new treason law.

Amnesty International Russia director Sergei Nikitin wrote on his blog Wednesday that the closures “show the stability of the general trend: the pressure on civil society in Russia continues.”

After Congress passed a law introducing sanctions against Russian officials involved in human rights abuses, Russia responded by banning all adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans. The country’s top investigative agency is also investigating a sexual abuse case against American parents already convicted in the U.S. of abusing their adopted Russian child but given suspended sentences.

Lawmakers in the Kremlin-controlled lower house have also rushed to propose such measures as banning English phrases from Russian and limiting marriages between Russian officials and foreigners.

Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told NPR on Wednesday that the Russian adoption ban was “tragic” and the decision to expel the USAID “really hurts the Russian people.”

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News