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Three charged over murder of journalist

Anna Politkovskaya wrote for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta. She frequently travelled to Chechnya and the North Caucasus where her dispatches described some of the horror of a war where most of the casualties were civilians. She was shot dead outside her home in Moscow on 7 October 2006. Colleagues believe that her murder was linked to her work reporting on abuses by federal troops in Chechnya.

On 18 June three men were charged with her murder. The three men, Sergey Khadzhikurbanov, Dzhabrail Makhmudov and Ibragim Makhmudov all come from Chechnya. In May officials named the man suspected of firing the gun as Rustam Makhmudov, but he remains at large. He is the oldest of the Makhmudov brothers.

The Investigative Committee said a fourth man, Pavel Ryaguzov, an officer with the country's security service, had also been charged with extortion and abuse of office. The four have been held since their arrests last August, but only now have formal charges been laid. Charges against a fifth man, a Chechen local government official who allegedly provided the address of Anna Politkovskaya, have been dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Politkovskaya’s former colleagues said the case was not yet solved. "I have said many times that this is only the first part of the case," deputy editor Sergei Sokolov said. "It's not over yet, there will be a second and a third part."

Officials have alleged that Politkovskaya's killing was ordered by someone living outside Russia with the aim of discrediting the Kremlin. This has been widely interpreted as referring to exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky, a fierce Kremlin critic who now lives in London and is wanted in Russia on embezzlement charges. He has said that he had nothing to do with Politkovskaya's death, and newspaper Novaya Gazeta has said the mastermind is likely still to be in Russia.

British Council in court for tax bill.

The British Council is in another dispute with the Russian authorities, this time over taxes. It comes less than six months after it was forced into closing its offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. The Council said on 18 June that the disagreement hinged on a tax bill it received in May that it has only partially paid.

There were particular aspects of the tax demand with which the Council said it did not agree. “The British Council is registered with the tax authorities, it regularly pays taxes ... and carries out all the demands of the Russian tax authorities.”

The tax case was to be heard in Moscow's Basmanny District Court on 19 June. A British Council official played down a newspaper report that said tax officials had threatened to send bailiffs to seize property, including books, furniture, poetry and computers, from the Council's Moscow office unless the bill was paid in full. That would be standard procedure in cases where tax authorities believe that there is still an outstanding sum. "This is simply what Russian tax law stipulates," he said.

In 2007 the British Council came under intense pressure to curtail its activities in Russia, a demand clearly linked to the diplomatic dispute over the 2006 murder in London of former Russian security services officer Alexander Litvinenko, when Russia refused to extradite the man suspected of the murder, Andrei Lugovoi.

The disputes with the British Council have rather more been on the nature of the organisation. The Russian Foreign Ministry maintains that the council is a commercial organization and must pay the requisite taxes and follow the relevant regulations. The British Council insists that it is a non-profit organisation whose sole function has been to promote cultural exchange.

Russia and Norway attempt to solve Barents Sea border dispute

Russia and Norway began two-day talks on 9 June on the long-running dispute over their maritime border in the Barents Sea. It is a part of the Arctic that could hold large oil and gas reserves, and the Barents Sea is likely eventually to be an important new source of oil to supply Europe. Development has been hindered by the dispute.

"I am convinced that we will make progress in the negotiations," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said before the talks with his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Stoere.

But a Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said no sign of progress had yet been seen. "Of course when ministers meet in that part of the world, [the border dispute] is a natural part of the agenda," she said. "It is difficult to predict how the negotiations will proceed."

A year earlier, Russia and Norway had agreed to set the border for a small swathe of sea through one fjord, raising hopes of progress on the entire area, which is about half the size of Germany. Norway's StatoilHydro has the only offshore oil development in the Barents Sea. Russia's Barents Sea waters hold the undeveloped Shtokman gas field, one of the world's biggest, which StatoilHydro is to help Gazprom develop.

President Medvedev meets with CIS leaders

President Dmitry Medvedev took part in an informal summit on 6 June, meeting several presidents from the 12-nation Commonwealth of Independent States. His first two meetings at the lavish Konstantin Palace in Strelna, on the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg, were with Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

Voronin set a warm tone for their talks by telling Medvedev that two paintings stolen from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg had been found days ago in Moldova and would be returned. Moldova has mended ties with Russia after previously turning sharply towards the west.

Yushchenko, however, hinted at the disputes straining relations between Russia and Ukraine, saying before his closed-door talks with Medvedev: "There are many questions that demand discussion." Both Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili have angered Moscow with their efforts to shed Russian influence and bring their countries into NATO.

Medvedev, now at the end of his first month as President, has said relations with former Soviet republics would be a main priority in foreign policy. He continues the policy of Vladimir Putin in giving priority to links with other CIS members.

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Duma warns Ukraine not to join NATO

On 4 June the national Duma (parliament) recommended that the Kremlin consider pulling out of a friendship treaty with Ukraine if it were to take further steps to join NATO.

The Russian government has been opposed to Ukraine joining NATO, saying that would threaten Russian security and jeopardise an arrangement under which Russia leases Ukraine's Black Sea port of Sevastopol as a base for its Navy.

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Putin intends to get rid of foreign-made cars

Now Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin approved in early June the introduction of prohibitive import tariff rates for cars made more than five years ago. In addition, insurance and the tax for old cars will be raised too. The move seems part of a campaign to support the Russian car industry and to put competitive pressure on foreign-made cars.

At a recent special meeting on the future of the Russian car industry, Putin said that the industry provided 3% of the nation’s GDP and millions of jobs for Russian citizens. In 2007 there were three million cars sold in Russia, but most of them were foreign-made cars. Traditional Russian car brands made up only a quarter of that amount. “About 80 percent of cars sold in Russia should be made in our country,” the Prime Minister said.

The current prohibitive import tariff has applied to the cars made seven or more years ago. The new rules are thought likely to reduce the time limit to five years.

About 380,000 used foreign-made cars (14% of the market) were imported in Russia in 2007.

BP boss summonsed for questioning

The head of BP's oil venture in Russia is to be questioned as part of a tax evasion probe. The Interior Ministry has issued a summons to TNK-BP chief executive Robert Dudley. Speculation suggests that a state-controlled firm will attempt to buy a share in TNK-BP. The tax evasion probe may in fact relate to TNK - the non-BP side of the business

In May the security services raided Moscow headquarters of BP for the second time in two months.

Foreign energy companies have come under increasing pressure in Russia as the government has been trying to increase its control over oil and gas assets. TNK-BP was told in 2007 that it was in danger of losing its production licence for a Siberian gas field for not meeting production targets. It resulted in a stake in the Kovykta field being sold to the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom. Similarly Royal Dutch Shell was forced to hand over part of its stake in a massive Siberian gas field.

New President inaugurated On 7 May Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as the new President, succeeding Vladimir Putin and becoming Russia's third president since the Soviet Union ended in 1991.  Medvedev promised to preserve and extend civil and economic freedom. "Human rights and freedoms ... are deemed of the highest value for our society," he said at the Kremlin ceremony in St Andrew's Hall. Medvedev had won a landslide victory in the March presidential election, winning even more votes than his predecessor Vladimir Putin. Medvedev, as expected, promptly nominated his mentor Putin as prime minister. Putin himself had been barred by the constitution from running for a third presidential term, and unlike his counterpart in neighbouring Belarus, made no suggestion that the constitution should be altered to prolong power. Yet it is clear that as PM he will find it difficult to relinquish power, even though traditionally the Prime Minister and cabinet have been very subordinate to the President. In a short speech Putin described the significance for Russia of the handover of power after eight years. "It's extremely important ... to continue the course that has already been taken and has justified itself." Medvedev thanked Vladimir Putin for his personal support, hoping he would would continue to enjoy his backing in the future. Dmitri Medvedev, a liberal in economics, had previously been first deputy prime minister, and before that chairman of Gazprom - Russia's enormous national gas monopoly, campaign chief. His relationship with Putin goes back even further. Trained as a lawyer, Medvedev was an assistant professor at St Petersburg State University in the 1990s, and became an expert consultant for Putin when he was the city's mayor. Dmitry Medvedev 46 year-old Dmitry Medvedev usually wakes up at 8 am and goes to bed at 2 am. He logs on the internet every morning to check all leading news websites. Every morning and evening he spends an hour swimming in a pool and does morning exercises, as much as 2½ hours a day on physical training. As a young man he used to go rowing, and once practised yoga five or six times a week. He has one son Ilya, now 12 years-old. He hardly ever punishes his son, saying that parents should communicate with their children respectfully and on equal terms. With his family he has travelled all over the country. He gave up driving a car some years ago, but enjoys riding a snowmobile or quad bike. Medvedev does not drink alcohol, taking a glass of red or white wine only on special occasions. He prefers high quality healthy meals, which include fish dishes and Japanese sushi, and he usually drinks fruit juices and green tea. His taste in literature is traditional, liking the great Russian writers such as Anton Chekhov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and in music he is relatively conservative liking Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but also listening to jazz and classical music. He has a large collection of records at home, including rare recordings on vinyl LPs. He rarely goes to the cinema and prefers to watch Russian and European serious films at home, although he likes watching Hollywood comedies at times. He likes watching football and hockey games on TV and tries to attend matches when Russian national teams participate.

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Link:  Russian government website (по-русси)