FINROSFORUM

FINROSFORUM

FINROSFORUM  //  The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum strives to promote cooperation between the peoples of Finland and Russia by supporting civic initiatives for democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech.

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Dec 9 / 2:51pm

FINROSFORUM 2011 | Speaker Profiles

by Kerkko Paananen

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The fifth annual conference of the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (FINROSFORUM) begins on 10 December 2011 at the Sofia Cultural Centre in Helsinki's Vuosaari district. Guest speakers include a number of grassroots civic activists and experts from Russia, Finland, and elsewhere. Below, short introductions of the speakers.

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Filed under  //  Conference   Corruption   Democracy   Environment   FINROSFORUM   Finland   Human Rights   Russia  
 
May 25 / 2:00am

Home-buyers: Do not invest in Russia!

by Kerkko Paananen

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Home-buyers from Russia's northern capital, St Petersburg, have organised a demonstration in connection with the second EU-Russia Innovation Forum in the Finnish border city of Lappeenranta on 25 May 2011. The demonstrators are holding a meeting outside Lappeenranta city hall, urging foreign investors to avoid investments in Russia.

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Filed under  //  Corruption   Demonstration   Economy   Finland   Innovation   Investment   Lappeenranta   Rule of Law   Russia   St Petersburg  
 
Apr 22 / 11:21am

Russia Ruled by Corrupt Clans

by Kerkko Paananen

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A group of experts in Russia have established a new website, Election 2012, ahead of the Kremlin's decision on who will take on the post of President in 2012. The group, Expert Monitoring Group, intends to publish seven reports about the state of the country. The first report takes a close look at the corrupt clans ruling Russia.

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Filed under  //  Clan   Corruption   Elections   Government   Medvedev   President   Putin   Russia  
 
Mar 31 / 12:20pm

Putin.Corruption

by Kerkko Paananen

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Russia's opposition party, People's Freedom Party, has produced a report accusing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of presiding over a boom in corruption and enriching his inner circle over the past decade. The report, titled "Putin.Corruption," was authored by former First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, former State Duma Deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov, and former Deputy Energy Minister Vladimir Milov.

The report details how once relatively obscure businessmen used their ties to Russia's powerful prime minister to amass personal fortunes over the past decade. Nemtsov says the general public is largely unaware that people like Swiss-based oil trader Gennady Timchenko, Putin's former judo partner Arkady Rotenberg, and Bank of Russia boss Yuri Kovalchuk enriched themselves due to their ties to Putin.

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Filed under  //  Corruption   Kovalchuk   Milov   Nemtsov   Putin   Rotenberg   Russia   Ryzhkov   Timchenko  
 
Feb 23 / 6:10pm

Russian Forest Coalition Appeals to EU

by Kerkko Paananen

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A coalition of Russian environmental organisations has appealed to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, to halt the participation of European financial institutions, including the EBRD and EIB, in motorway projects in Russia.

The coalition in defence of the forests of Moscow region called on the EU to withdraw its support for the projects until the rights of local residents were taken into account. The forest coalition includes WWF Russia, Greenpeace Russia, the Biodiversity Conservation Center, the Russian Birds Conservation Union, the Social-Ecological Union, and the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest.

The coalition pointed out that almost all major motorway projects currently under construction or planned in the near future in Russia have been "carried out without taking into account the principles of sustainable development, conservation of biodiversity, or public opinion." The coalition noted the continued violations of human rights that environmental campaigners have been subjected to in connection with the motorway projects.

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Filed under  //  Avtodor   Barroso   Corruption   EBRD   EIB   EU   Environment   Greenpeace   Human Rights   Khimki   Medvedev   Moscow   Putin   Russia   VINCI   WWF  
 
Jan 19 / 12:42am

Premier Pu's Palace

by Kerkko Paananen

"Russian WikiLeaks" RuLeaks, established by the Russian Pirate Party, has published pictures of a luxurious Italian-style palace that is reportedly being built for the personal use of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the village of Praskoveevka on the Black Sea shore.

Details of the palace were revealed in an open letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, written by Sergey Kolesnikov, a former partner in the project. In his letter, available at CorruptionFreeRussia.com, Mr Kolesnikov estimated the total cost of the palace at well over USD 1 billion.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian city paper, Gazeta po-kievski, calculated that Putin has altogether 18 residences. The only world leader with more palaces is North Korea's Kim Jong-il. Putin's primary residence is in Novo-Ogaryovo, 30 km from Moscow, where has has lived for over 10 years.

http://community.livejournal.com/ru_wikileaks/51292.html

Filed under  //  Berlusconi   Black Sea   Ceausescu   Corruption   Czar   Emperor   Putin   RuLeaks   Russia  
 
Dec 23 / 4:30am

Russia's Half-Capitalist System

by Kerkko Paananen

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Russia is a regime where rules are there to be broken, explains Kirill Rogov, Senior Research Fellow at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy in Moscow. If you want to understand how the current political and social order operates in Russia, you first must understand the two important and complementary beliefs upon which it is founded.

The first is society's recognition of widespread corruption at all levels of state and economic life, and a similar recognition of the extreme inadequacy of existing institutions (in the first instance judicial institutions). This particular belief is held by people of varying political affiliations and social status — shared equally by shop attendants, members of the opposition, low-ranking officials and political functionaries.

The second belief is just as widespread. It holds that for various reasons any change to the existing order is out of the question. In other words, when recognition of the sorry state of affairs of legal regulation does not lead to a corresponding demand for real improvement in law. In economics, this situation even has a name — "the institutional trap".

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Filed under  //  Bureaucracy   Business   Capitalism   Corruption   Economy   Oligarchs   Russia  
 
Dec 23 / 1:39am

Italian Palace For Corrupt Czar

by Kerkko Paananen

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You can see the sprawling, Italian-style palace on the Black Sea in satellite photos. There is a fitness spa, a hideaway tea house, a concert amphitheater and a pad for three helicopters. It is still under construction, but already the cost is said to total more than USD 1 billion.

And most amazing of all, according to a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov, it was predominantly paid for with money donated by Russian businessmen for the use of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The funds have come "mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft," charges Kolesnikov, a businessman who until November 2009 worked for one of the companies he alleges was investing money for Putin.

Kolesnikov lays out the story of this 21st-century czar's palace -- and the secret funding network that is paying for it -- in a remarkable open letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. This letter was delivered Tuesday to the Russian UN mission in New York, and a full English translation is available online at CorruptionFreeRussia.com. It is one of the most detailed allegations of the links between Putin and Russia's "crony capitalism."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/22/AR2010122203770.html

Filed under  //  Capitalism   Corruption   Oligarchs   Putin   Russia   Sochi  
 
Dec 2 / 12:39pm

Russia Is A Mafia State

by Kerkko Paananen

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While the US diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks have mostly failed to disclose anything about Russia that was not known before, the sheer volume of the documents depicting the vast system of corruption that the Kremlin's puppet masters have dubbed the "power vertical" may indeed be a revelation to Western audiences.

Going through the trove of diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks, The Guardian's veteran correspondent, Luke Harding, describes Russia as a "corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs, and organised crime are bound together to create a virtual mafia state."

Arms trafficking, money laundering, personal enrichment, protection for gangsters, extortion and kickbacks, suitcases full of money, and secret offshore bank accounts in Cyprus: the cables paint a bleak picture of a political system in which it is often hard to distinguish between the activities of the government and organised crime.

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Filed under  //  Corruption   Crime   Kremlin   Mafia   Medvedev   Moscow   Putin   Russia  
 
Nov 17 / 1:54am

ESPO: Four Billion Dollar Theft

by Kerkko Paananen

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Official documents submitted by Russia's state-owned pipeline monopoly, Transneft, to the Audit Chamber in 2008 reveal large-scale fraud committed by Transneft management, its subsidiaries and contractors in connection with the construction of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. Anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny, who is a minority shareholder of Transneft, said all facts of theft and fraud were confirmed by Transneft management.

According to Mr Navalny's rough estimate, the illegalities in connection with the ESPO project resulted in total losses of around USD 4 billion to Transneft. Mr Navalny said he intended to pursue criminal prosecution through all legal means both within and outside Russia, in countries where those responsible for the crimes may reside. Mr Navalny has called on Russia's law enforcement agencies to investigate the crimes and vows to draw public attention to the case.

http://navalny.livejournal.com/526563.html

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Filed under  //  Corruption   ESPO   Navalny   Oil   Russia   Transneft