Vladimir Putin has been ranked number 3 in the Forbes list of the most powerful people in the world, President Medvedev comes in 43rd, after Deputy Prime Minister, siloviki chieftain and Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin at number 42. (See the editor's choice for Russia's top seven.) Forbes has got a special feature on the politician the Russian press apparently call 'the scariest person on earth'. There is little solid information about the man. Like many of Putin's cronies, Sechin is a St. Petersburg native. In the 1990s he worked in city government. Before that, it's widely believed he was a spy; Moscow sources confirm that he was a member of the GRU, the KGB's foreign-intelligence arm. ...

TODAY: Markelov murder suspect reportedly confesses; vengeance a possible motive?  Activist abducted in Moscow.  Spy chief issues warning on Georgia; Lavrov surprised at Poland soliciting US help.  Medvedev reserves army use for emergencies. Luzhkov lays into Abramovich; new vodka pricing; toy story. The Moscow Times reports that revenge may be the motive behind the shooting of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov.  Apparently the alleged gunman Nikita Tikhonov may have been a suspect in the stabbing of anti-fascist activist Alexander Ryukhin in 2006, whose mother Markelov was a lawyer for.  The other suspect, Eugenia Khasis, 24, appears to have no prior convictions.  Apparently the killer has confessed - the Other Russia reporting it to be ...

The following is a translation of an article about the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky published in the French weekly magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur.

The Convict who Frightens the Kremlin From our special correspondent in Moscow

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of oil company Yukos, is serving eight years in prison in Siberia. He is again judged in a trial in which the arbitrary rivals absurdity. The Russian power in the hands of Putin, does not want to see out of prison the person who was formerly the richest man in the country...

It is in this tiny and outdated courtroom No. 7 on the second floor of the Khamovnitchesky District Court of

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I live to this day as well...

Grigory Pasko, journalist

Instead of an epigraph: «Endpiece of a modern fairytale: «And had the not been rehabilitated, they live to this day as well» -- Jerzy Lec

Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда.It goes without saying that I am disappointed by the decision of the European Court of Human Rights. But no more than that. The ECHR decision in any case is belated and doesn't change anything in my life. Much worse is that this decision, in essence, is a spit into the souls of thousands of people: both those who are still waiting for positive decisions with respect ...

Kafkaesque. The former Russian oil tycoon, who stood up to Putin, is back before his judges. Here is the story. [The following is a translation of an article published in the French publication Le Point.]

Le Point, October 15, 2009

Accused Khodorkovsky, Stand Up!

From our special envoy Marc Nexon

He stands up, opens his spiral notebook and pulls out 3 sheets of paper he has scribbled with his fine handwriting. He pats the microphone installed in his glass cage. "Can you hear me?" he asks, addressing the judge. Then he starts with a clear voice: "I know that in his eyes I embody absolute evil, but I would like to ask quietly a few questions to the witness of the prosecution..."

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TODAY: Lavrov keeps eagle eye on Georgia; Netanyahu's fears about Russian rogue scientists; Chubais takes the fall for hydropower plant disaster.  Litvinenko widow despairs over apparent British moves towards rapprochement.  Luzhkov-Baturina to take Nemtsov to court. UN report pessimistic on Russia's demographic decline; Ban Ki-moon voices approval for ecological care.According to the Moscow Times, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Russia will survey shipping in the Black Sea to monitor Georgian 'provocations' which are a 'serious concern'.  Jorg Himmelreich in the International Herald Tribune suggests that much analysis of last year's Georgia-Russia conflict has overlooked the crucial matter of President Bush's Georgia policy.  Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko says that he believes that the ratification of the Lisbon treaty would benefit ...

TODAY: EU chief has faith that Russia will not stand in the way of sanctions against Iran; US reproaches Russia on human rights; hope for WTO bid?  Yushchenko suggests NATO bid would receive popular backing; ethnic haters charged; new accusation for Berezovsky; chess matches and political clashes. Drama at the Bolshoi. EU foreign policy head Javier Solana has said that he does not believe that China and Russia will oppose new sanctions against Iran.  US diplomat Douglas Griffiths has told the UN Human Rights Council that 'in Russia we are concerned about killings with impunity of human rights defenders and journalists in the North Caucasus'.  First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said that Russia ...

At the end of August, I telephoned the well-known Kazakh human rights advocate Yevgeny Zhovtis and asked how things were going on "the front" with the criminal case that had been opened in relation to him. Yevgeny replied that in connection with the celebration of the Day of the Constitution of Kazakhstan, the trial had been postponed until 2 September. I also asked him, as a lawyer, what the punishment could be with respect to the charge that had been brought against him of having committed a DTP [a "road transport event", known as a "motor vehicle accident" in English--Trans.], as the result of which a person died? Inasmuch as the person who died was himself at fault

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A blogger for Reuters has grabbed some sharp quotes from the always interesting oligarch Alexander Lebedev on the sidelines of the Investment Summit:

"The conditions for entrepreneurship in Russia are simply horrible," Lebedev told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.

Lebedev has plenty of suggestions how to cure the disease. One of them would be to fire at least half the bureaucrats. "They are wealthy people. Let them go to Saint-Tropez," he said.

One could wonder how billionaire Lebedev gets away with criticism of the Kremlin while his peers who had dared to challenge authorities had to flee to London or are serving prison terms in Siberia, like the oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Lebedev, a former KGB agent like Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, says Putin is open to criticism and these are mainly mid-level bureaucrats who are causing trouble. "Putin is

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Twenty years ago this week the Berlin Wall came down, radically and suddenly changing the trajectory of Russian history.  There's been a flurry of reminiscing in the media, but this one from Michael Binyon in the Times of London is especially interesting.  I wonder if Putin and co. might see a lesson in these Politburo archives about what can happen after so many years of a controlled media, no free speech, and a complete disconnect from the masses.Why had Moscow not done anything to prevent the prospect of a united Germany? Mitterrand and the French Establishment, Mr Gorbachev's colleagues reported, were having nightmares. One, Jacques Attali, even said that he would go and live on Mars if unification occurred.But Mr Gorbachev was determined not to fall back on the old response of a wounded Russian bear. He was not going to ...