Throughout the day new reports have been published on the death of Sergey Magnitskiy, the imprisoned Russian lawyer who had worked for William Browder and Hermitage Capital Management.  Some interesting quotes have come up so far, like this one:"He was a key witness and his evidence was very important," said Irina Dudukina, spokeswoman for the prosecutors' investigative committee. "The tragic news about his death came as an absolute surprise. He had complained about the conditions of his detention but never about his health," she said.Well that's just an outright lie.  Read the submission he made here, which details the repeated written and oral requests for treatment relating to his stomach illness, and the cruel and reprehensible refusal by the prison officials to provide basic care.Then, there is also this devastating critique of the president's failure to act on this ...

Adrian Pabst, an academic from the University of Kent, has a well written if not entirely surprising opinion article in The National arguing that a real separation emerging between the Medvedev and Putin camps - "a growing split within the ruling regime on ideology and policy that presages a vigorous contest over how Russia should be ruled." I'm glad to see at least someone found something to talk about from the president's big speech.  Wouldn't it be great if it actually mattered what the president of Russia said he wanted to do?

The question is why Mr Medvedev has not yet delivered on his promising overtures. There are two rival hypotheses. He may indeed be part of a managed democracy and merely provides the liberal cover that helps legitimate Russia's increasing authoritarianism. Or Mr Medvedev does have his own ideas but lacks internal support

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The International Energy Agency increased its forecast for 2010 global oil demand as the pace of economic recovery in Asia and the Middle East quickens, but has apparently cautioned that rising oil prices could jeopardize the green shoots of recovery. President Medvedev called for an end to Russia's 'humiliating' dependence on commodities in yesterday's state of the nation speech, whilst it is rebounding oil prices that are palliating Russia's current economic problems. Gazprom plans to increase its investment program by 5% next year, to $27.94 billion. The heads of the Russian state giant and Naftogaz are to meet to discuss the Ukrainian company's parlous financial status and issues related to the November supply of gas. Russia will apparently produce next-generation nuclear reactors and new types of nuclear fuel by 2014. Gazprom has confirmed plans ...

'The primitive structure of our economy', was one of President Medvedev's keynote complaints in his second annual address, which emphasized the need for technological innovation. The speech was 'disappointing from an investment point of view [...] it was very light on any specific point of action, just a reiteration of what we have already been hearing', comments one strategist. Excessive state involvement in the economy was another point raised: three state corporations, Russian Technologies, Rusnano and Vneshekonombank will lose their status as such as early as next year. The President did suggest that it should be the job of the Foreign Ministry to systematically encourage foreign investments, by reducing bureaucratic hurdles. The economic decline has apparently eased during the last quarter after record lows. Rusal may offer stakes in mines to Chinese companies to contribute to the success ...

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. ...

Nikolai Zobin in today's Moscow Times laments that President Medvedev persistently highlights the level of corruption in Russia, whilst, by all accounts, the problem of graft has increased during his Presidency. (See yesterday's 'corruption blast' for the latest examples).  When the President is nominally one of the most powerful men in Russia, why is it that Medvedev seems incapable of transforming word into deed? Deeds, such as, quite simply, firing people:After all, Medvedev is not only the president of all Russians -- he is the leader of all bureaucrats, who act as his representatives at every level government. He is the only person in the country who has the power to remove anybody at any time. ...

Today has not been a good day for the respectability of Russia's organizations.  Firstly we have the weekend's  police corruption You Tube video, whose revelations about alleged case fabrications and all manner of other dishonest practices have put quite a dampener on Police Day.  Secondly, it has been announced today that 22 criminal cases have been opened into 'ineffective sending of state funds' among state-run enterprises.  Thirdly, we have Alexander Morozenko, the mayor of Korolyov, who has been put under investigation for misuses of state funding.  Two Moscow region officials have also been charged with embezzling more than $105 million from the local budget as part of an extortion ruse engineered by the area's ex-chief financial official, ...

President Medvedev proclaimed in his recent Der Spiegel interview that there is little difference between the rights record of Russia and that of its European counterparts: 'Our values are the same as yours. I don't see any major differences in terms of freedom and human rights, especially in comparison to the new EU member states'. Kati Marton and Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists and authors of the "Anatomy of Injustice" report would beg to differ (and doubtless they wouldn't be the only ones.)  In an op-ed in the New York Times, they explain why it is crucial that international diplomacy redoubles pressure on Russia to stop the killing of journalists with impunity, following the lead, they say, of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "It's time to stop treating Russia as ...

TODAY: Youtube policeman faces slander investigation; Omsk students threatened with expulsion; Committee to Protect Journalists urge global attention to threats against media in Russia. Merkel thanks Gorbachev; Medvedev approves new military bill; advocates abolition of death penalty. Delay for Gazprom eyesore?; Nobel Prize winning physicist dies; Kalashnikov goes on; gangsters' idea of cemetery chic. Corruption-highlighting policeman Alexei Dymovsky is now facing three investigations after posting a video address to Putin lamenting the state of the police, including an Investigative Committee examination of whether the policeman's accusations hold any truth; another investigation is against Dymovsky himself, for slander.  Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has already ordered an investigation into the Novorossiisk police force and suspended Dymovsky ...

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 ...