Prime Minister Vladimir Putin introduced a cash-for-scrap-cars scheme and mortgage support at Saturday's United Russia congress, as he forecasted a 2009 GDP decline of 8-8.5%, 'which would be Russia's worst result since 1994,' notes the Washington Post.  Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says Russia's first road connecting East and West will be finished next year (over thirty years after construction began?), as part of a project to build 6,000km of federal roads. 'Russia still lags behind its BRIC partners in terms of bilateral trade with Africa, but its trade with Africa is the fastest growing -- at 15 percent annually since 1992.'  Renault may take full control of AvtoVAZ in the next four years - if it hasn't merged with KamAZ to create an autos giant by then.  Two General Motors employees in St Petersburg - one ...

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. ...

Yesterday we mentioned a New York Times piece about the lack of mass outrage regarding the falsification of election results on October 11.  All in all, there seems to be a general feeling that the outcry about vote-rigging has turned out to be a damp squib.  Nikolaus von Twickel in the Moscow Times suggests that the noise about democratic reforms, so resonant in the immediate aftermath of the event, has been all but silenced.  Two weeks after the unprecedented walkout of the State Duma's three opposition parties, little seems left of the whiff of democracy that surfaced so suddenly.President Dmitry Medvedev appeared to yield to their demands over the weekend, meeting with leaders of the Just Russia, Liberal Democrat and the Communist parties to discuss Oct. 11 regional elections that they say were blatantly falsified in ...

The first Russian-assembled Opel car, the result of a joint venture between General Motors and the Avtotor plant, has been completed.  RusAl has reported its 2008 losses, saying that it sustained a $5.98 billion hit due to the financial crisis.  The state may start guaranteeing corporate infrastructure bonds by the end of the year as the ruble continues to gain thanks to oil revenues and subsequent renewed investor interest.  The Moscow-Vladivostok time difference is hampering business relations, says United Russia's Gennady Lazarev, who wants it to be shortened.  Russia's economic activity was finally back on the rise last quarter, but 'gross domestic product was still 9.4% below year-earlier levels, underscoring the amount of damage the recession and lower oil prices have wreaked on Russia's economy'. ...

Whilst opposition leaders may still be in up in arms about October 11's sweeping United Russia victory, Clifford J Levy in the New York Times wonders why it is that the furor about allegations of vote-rigging seem to have very little in the way of grass roots support:There was none of the sort of outrage on the streets that occurred in Iran in June, when backers of the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were accused of rigging the election for him. Nor the international clamor that greeted the voting in Afghanistan, which last week was deemed so tainted that President Hamid Karzai was forced into a runoff.The apparent brazenness of the fraud and the absence of a spirited reaction says a lot about the deep apathy in Russia, where people grew disillusioned with politics under Communism and have seen ...

Outcry over the election results continues.  Sergei Mitrokhin, chairman of the Yabloko party, has an impassioned piece in the Moscow Times regarding the alleged vote-rigging in the October 11 election.  Numerous practices to impede opposition candidates were highlighted both in the run up to and following the elections, and Mitrokhin gives a full overview of these hurdles.  He refers to a number of techniques: the 'carousel system',  the 'dead souls' who boost the number of United Russia supporters, the 'house calls' made by social workers to 'help' the elderly to vote, votes which then may be 'corrected'.  It seems as if an entire vocabulary of pseudos and 'so-calleds' has developed to describe this ersatz polling procedure.  None of which are doing much to promote the notion of Russian 'democracy'.  From the Moscow Times:One exception to the falsification was the polling station where ...

Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach has suggested that the ruble could return to its 2008 high and reach 23 against the dollar next year, if oil prices continue going strong, spelling problems for exporters.  The Duma has passed the budget in a first vote, with it receiving 315 votes to go with United Russia's 315 deputies.  Vladimir Putin has met with business leaders from Germany, its biggest trading partner: German businesses are apparently faring well in Russia, despite the crisis.  President Medvedev is apparently confident that Russia's hopes to join the WTO have not been jeopardized by its dalliance with the idea of a three-party customs union bid.  First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, Gennady Melikyan, has told Reuters that financial institutions are weathering stress tests well, although a report in Bloomberg puts on different spin, quoting Melikyan ...

TODAY: United Russia sweep polls at regional elections; accusation of vote-rigging fly.  Mitvol receives unusual delivery.  Medvedev had no time for Yushchenko at CIS summit; positive on Obama's peace prize; Ecuador looking for weapons deals?; Russia bids to host World CupWith almost 90% of the votes counted in Moscow, the city's election Committee has reported that the United Russia party has garnered 66.10% of the vote, with the Communist Party coming in second at 13.28%, sufficient for three seats in the 35-member chamber.  Vladimir Putin's party is apparently likely to have dominated in other regions.  The Guardian reports on allegations of vote-rigging; talk of which has seen leading opposition candidates scorn Medvedev's promise to uphold ...

I think it says quite a lot about the freedom of press situation in Russia when a reporter is just as likely to face violence and threats for reporting about the past as they are for muckraking some contemporary politician for corruption, or another breaking news issue.  That's what is happening to the former dissident and political prisoner Alexander Podrabinek, who is getting threats of physical violence and scary Nashi-organized protests outside his apartment door (not the first time he's been targeted).  According to a story in the AP, Podrabinek provoked the ire of the nationalists when he criticized their campaign to have a restaurant change its name from "Anti-Soviet" to something more patriotic.  The article ...

Many have feared this for some time, but now it's official - Vladimir Putin plans on continuing to be in power for a very, very long time.  What's funny is that it's probably not even by choice or preference, but a function of the kind of arbitrary institution-less state he has helped build.From the Financial Times:

Dismissing suggestions that there might be a contest over the presidency, Mr Putin said: "There was no competition between us in 2007 and we won't have any in 2012."

Smilingly confidently, Mr Putin added that he and Mr Medvedev would take account of "the realities of 2012", their personal plans, and the views of United Russia, the dominant, pro-Kremlin political party.

I guess we should have known ...