Democracy would be calamitous for Russia: this is the message we are hearing today from chief Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov, via Reuters.  Certainly, we can concur, there's nothing like democracy to wreck a highly tuned and iron wrought power vertical, of which Surkov is seen as a founding father. In a rare interview in Itogi magazine, published yesterday, the Kremlin's media-shy "Grey Cardinal" stepped out of the shadows to rebuff calls for democratic reforms, precipitated by the election results falsification outcry.  Such measures, he argues, would impede economic development and provoke nation-imperiling instability.  The good news is that apparently Russia doesn't need a Pinochet.  Small blessings. "Even now when power is rather consolidated and ordered, ...

TODAY: Third anniversary of the killing of Anna Politkovskaya; Kadyrov wins his lawsuit against Memorial, launches another.  Gay marriage bid rejected; critical posters displayed around Moscow.  Medvedev gets his new speech writer; no independence recognition trade-off with Turkey; Russia denies its scientists are helping Iran with bomb.Three years on from the slaying of Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta editor Sergei Sokolov says that new suspects have emerged in the murder case.  Russia has denied visas to two members of Reporters without Borders, who planned a trip to Russia for the anniversary of the journalist's death.  The move has been criticized by her son Ilya Politkovskaya.  K. Anthony Appiah in the Washington Post laments the fact that in Russia ...

TODAY: Chief of staff denies decisions on Kaliningrad plan; Churkin criticizes US 'cold war attitude'; arms reduction talks not progressing as smoothly as they may appear.  Israel maintains choice in Iran; Russia suggests onus on NATO to improve ties; ship plans for Abkhaz waters.  Moscow court rejects appeal for Vasily Aleksanyan; 'anti-Soviet' restaurant feels Mitvol's wrath.Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin has said that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates's insistence that the decision on missile defense was not about Russia reveals 'a rather difficult negotiating partner, a partner who is loaded in many ways by a Cold War mentality'.  The Chief of Russia's general Staff has stated that no decision has yet been made on plans to deploy ...

Andrew Wilson of the European Council on Foreign Relations has a piece on Transitions Online which takes a look at some opinions of Gleb Pavlovsky and Yevgeny Gontmahker to debate what the Pikalyovo incident did and did not teach us about politics in Russia.Pikalyovo was also an attempt to address the inefficiencies in Putin's authoritarian project by creating what Russians call obratnaya sviaz ("reverse connection"). The system works, but only just. Russia still needs a modernization project, albeit not the "prosperity project," backed by good finances and sound macroeconomics, which the Putin-Medvedev tandem was originally supposed to implement. Not only will Russia have to proceed with fewer resources, it will have to tackle the flip side of a stronger state, what even Pavlovsky calls "severe monopolism in all social spheres," not just in government and the economy, but in the mass media and in society at ...

Good 'ole Norway.  You'd never hear a peep from them about human rights or democracy shortcomings over in Russia, and in exchange they are gifted with some large contracts for the state energy company.  Nobody ever said it was a good strategy to keep their assets safe.  While perhaps Gazprom and the environmental and tax gestapo is held at bay, it doesn't account for other private groups using the Kremlin to their business advantage ... hence the court-ordered sale of Telenor's stake in Vimpelcom over to Mikhail Friedman of Alfa Bank.There are a lot of arguments that one could make about what this transaction means for foreign business in Russia, but we should stop calling it "a test" of Russia's investment climate.  There is no test and there is no investment environment - we're in the middle of ...

Per Bob's earlier post on the growing divide in Russia policy circles over what the Obama Administration can expect from today's Kremlin, here Russian political analyst Andrei Piontkovsky (survivor of an extremism trial) answers some of the arguments put forth in recent publications.  Unfortunately the sound was lost on some other parts of the interview.

TODAY: Diplomat accuses US of overplaying threat from Iran; what did Putin tell Bill Clinton?; Russia-Belarus tensions flare on loan; Amnesty slams human rights standards; reclaiming Soviet-confiscated art Russia will not object to a new UN Security Council resolution over North Korea but will continue to oppose sanctions.  According to the Guardian, senior diplomat Alexander Sternik has criticized the US for grossly exaggerating the nuclear threat posed by nations such as Iran.  The Moscow Times reports that at a private meeting in January, Prime Minister Putin offered assurances to ex-US President Bill Clinton that Medvedev is not his puppet and that the Kremlin and Washington would be able to come to an agreement on missile defense.  Poland is apparently pushing the US to ...