Last Thursday, Sergei Magnitsky was convicted of tax evasion. The only problem was he was not there to hear the verdict read. Magnitsky was killed in Moscow’s Butyrka prison in 2009, likely as a result of beatings and a lack of medical treatment. His crime was uncovering a $230 million tax fraud involving members of […]
Even Russia efforts to modernize have been undermined by systemic problems routed in an outdated system of isolation and control. Russia has failed to reap the benefits of its membership in the WTO while still suffering from many of the drawbacks of joining the system.
[This article reports on new criminal complaints filed in relation to the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the GLONASS satellite navigation programme—Ed.] The Interior Ministry has filed a criminal complaint against the former managers of M2M Telematics, an IT company and a subsidiary of Sistema, JSFC. The company is suspected of involvement in the […]
Boris Nemtsov has occupied many roles in post-Soviet Russia, both in government and in the parallel polis that is oppositional politics. He was first elected governor of Nizhny Novgorod, whose successful economic reforms in that region carved a political pathway that would ultimately take him into the deputy premiership under the Yeltsin government. Nemtsov has […]
[On June 11, the All-Russia People’s Front is set to host its inaugural party congress, at which Vladimir Putin is expected to be in attendance. Rumors are circulating in the Russian press that the Front will replace United Russia, a party put together a decade ago as a vehicle for Putin’s Kremlin ascendancy, as the […]
[Russia’s security services have shocked the public by arresting Said Amirov, the Mayor of Makhachkala in the Republic of Dagestan, alleging his involvement in conspiracy to murder and involvement in the narcotics trade, among other serious crimes. Amirov has dominated Dagestani politics for fifteen years, and his arrest has raised questions of whether the state […]
Here’s a quick summary of today’s biggest news: -The intrigue surrounding former KGB official Alexander Litvinenko’s 2006 assassination by radiation poisoning continues with the coroner overseeing the investigation into Litvinenko’s murder calling for a public inquiry. The coroner is calling for a public inquiry in response to British Foreign Secretary William Hague demanding that the […]
[The following article describes the latest developments in the investigation into the embezzlement of funds from the GLONASS satellite programme. Investigators have revealed that the management of a company affiliated by the programme are suspected of taking part in the theft, and the CEO of NPP Metromark Infosystems has been arrested—Ed.] There have been new […]
Police have detained officers of the Center for Financial and Legal Support of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise of the Russian Federation Administrative Department of the President, suspected of extorting bribes for help in signing leases on buildings in the center of Moscow. The government officials charged 10 million rubles for their services. According to […]
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will review a supervisory appeal of the December 2010 sentencing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev by the Khamovniki Court. The Supreme Court took it’s time deciding what to do with that verdict: over the past three years the businessmen’s attorneys appealed to the highest court on a […]
