Russia is like George Orwell's Animal Farm, where the pigs set the rules, writes independent journalist Dmitry Sidorov, former bureau chief for Kommersant Publishing in Washington, D.C., in Forbes.

Since Putin became Russia's undisputed leader, he has rapidly eliminated critique and dissent. The Kremlin has tens, or hundreds, of thousands of sheep capable of endlessly bleating "Putin and Medvedev are good, the opposition is bad." For hundreds of years Russia has known no other rules, making every resident mimic the pattern of elite behavior no matter how much money he had or didn't have. Together they stole, and stole big, throughout the history of the country.

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How long can Moscow ignore the mounting evidence against its Chechen puppet?

In the summer of 2004, two years and four months before she was gunned down in the entrance to her Moscow apartment, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya made a bold visit to Chechnya to interview 27-year-old Ramzan Kadyrov, who had recently become (with the Kremlin’s blessing) the republic’s de-facto leader. It proved to be a harrowing experience. When they met face to face, Kadyrov could not contain his rage at Politkovskaya for reporting on his brutal rise to power, even threatening to have her shot. Politkovskaya concluded later that “a little dragon has been raised by the Kremlin. Now they need to feed it. Otherwise it will spit fire.”

Politkovskaya was all too right. Since becoming president of Chechnya in 2007, Kadyrov has made the republic into his own fiefdom, which he rules by violence and terror. He has also, apparently, had his gunmen carry out a series of brazen killings of his perceived enemies in Moscow, Dubai, Istanbul and the North Caucasus.

Until recently, the Kremlin, which has provided military and economic support to Kadyrov’s regime, consistently brushed off the murder allegations against him. Since April, prosecutors in two separate cases—a murder in Vienna and a murder attempt in Moscow—have for the first time implicated Kadyrov directly. And in the weeks since those revelations, the Kremlin leadership appears to be showing misgivings about its unconditional support for Kadyrov. How these cases play out could have profound effects on the future of Moscow’s Chechen policy.

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the reduction of the term of compulsory military service one should think about introducing initial military training in schools. According to Putin, one should also consider reviving DOSAAF, the Soviet-era Voluntary Society for Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy.

"This is one of the things we are concerned about and this is actually very important: preparation for service in the Armed Forces. This is relevant in connection with the reduction of the term of compulsory military service," Putin said at a meeting with veterans in Novorossiysk. He was answering a question about bringing back military training to schools.

The veterans also drew the attention of the Prime Minister to the fact that it is necessary to increase the number of hours for teaching the history of the Great Patriotic War in school. Putin agreed and noted that it was not only the number of hours that was important "but also the content of what is being taught".

"We should, of course, pay particular attention to this. Attempts to do this are being made but they should be of a systemic nature. We shall do this," Putin said. Speaking of the situation with history textbooks, he said: "One has to take a look at what is being written in the textbooks, who is writing them, who is paying for this and with what purpose".

Source: Interfax, 7 May 2010

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former head of Russia's biggest oil company, YUKOS, has thrown down the gauntlet to Vladimir Putin, the man many believe personally ordered his arrest. The oligarch who was once Russia's richest man, has challenged the Russian Prime Minister to answer in court a series of questions.

Mr Khodorkovsky claims that the prosecution's case is full of flaws, and challenges Mr Putin to explain his actions relating to Russia's state-owned oil company Rosneft, which acquired major YUKOS assets at state-run auctions. Rosneft's chairman is Igor Sechin, a Kremlin insider and a close associate of Mr Putin.

Meanwhile, YUKOS has won injunctions complicating payments by foreign customers to Rosneft, jeopardising delivery of up to a fifth of Russia's oil exports, Reuters reported. "Under a worst case scenario, there could be chaos with payments and a complete deadlock of Rosneft's exports," a trader with a global major said.

Political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin says the Russian ruling system, and Mr Putin, work by "Stalinist, bandit logic", whereby releasing Mr Khodorkovsky would be seen as a sign of weakness, not of compassion. The regime may also be worried that Mr Khodorkovsky could become a figurehead for opposition forces.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/mikhail-khodorkovsky-to-vladimir-putin-you-owe-me-answers-1922385.html

An online petition calling for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's removal from power has been signed by virtually all active members of the Russian political opposition and a growing rank of ordinary citizens. Here is the anti-Putin manifesto in its entirety, as posted on RFE/RL:

Citizens of Russia! The recognition that the ruling elite has led our country into a historical dead end has prompted us to issue this statement.

The transfer of virtually unlimited power by the [Yeltsin-era] Family, which was trying to guarantee its own security, to a man of dubious reputation, who was distinguished neither by talent nor by the requisite life or professional experience, has resulted predictably in the serious degradation of all institutions of state governance.

Even a significant portion of the ruling “elite” feels that a change is necessary, as attested by the loud reaction to [President Dmitry Medvedev’s] opus “Forward, Russia!” But Medvedev’s modernization project bears a distinctly artificial character and is aimed at a single goal -- to redo the decorations while maintaining the nature of an authoritatian-kleptocratic regime.

We state that the sociopolitical construction that is killing Russia and has now bound the citizens of our country has one architect, one custodian, and one guardian. His name is Vladimir Putin.

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The Kremlin is again considering the creation of yet another political project for "right-wing democrats." RBC Daily reports that the idea to establish a new Kremlin-sponsored political party to unite right-wing businessmen comes from the former head of the presidential administration, Alexander Voloshin.

The new party would be headed by Tatyana Dyachenko, daughter of Russia's late president Boris Yeltsin, who is making a comeback into public life. The new party would replace the defunct Right Cause (Pravoe Delo) project and would promote President Dmitry Medvedev's idea for modernising Russia's economy.

Russia's ruling United Russia party, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has called another meeting of its "liberal wing," which will bring together representatives of Russian business and culture. Sources in the presidential administration say that the gathering will serve as the launchpad for the new right-wing party.

http://www.rbcdaily.ru/2010/03/16/focus/464694

A recent week in Moscow left one clear impression: The Putin model of crony state capitalism is dead. For years, the structure that Vladimir Putin crafted looked invincible, with its steady, high growth rates and effective, mild repression. But the system only distributed ample oil rents to the elites and the ordinary people, creating neither moral nor economic value", says Anders Åslund in a column in The Washington Post.

There are, however, positive signs of a thaw, he concludes: "Russians are becoming less afraid than in recent years and are even ashamed of their prior cowardice. Those jumping on the bandwagon include the respected finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, who publicly criticized Putin's United Russia party, and Sergei Mironov, the Putin loyalist who chairs the Russian Federation Council.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR20100225048...

Putin never lies, steals or even makes a mistake. His reputation is irreproachable. Few Russians know about the corruption allegations brought against him in the early 1990s. Few know how many of Putin’s friends were given CEO positions in Russia’s largest corporations, helping them make their way onto the Forbes billionaire list in only a couple of years -- nor would they believe any of this if they found out about it.

Putin responded to Western media reports alleging that his net worth is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars. In his signature style, he said commentators invented this rubbish by picking the information from their noses and spreading it across their newspaper pages and internet sites. End of discussion. In an open society, these and other allegations would be aired, investigated and made part of the public discussion.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/the-wizard-of-russia/398737.html

On Friday, Putin warned against the dangers of totalitarianism and despotism:

We should not allow the "Ukraine-ization" of political life in Russia but we should on no account slide in the other direction, towards totalitarianism and despotism.

Putin also called for cautious reform of the Russian political system:

We need to bring in necessary amendments but we need to act extremely carefully. Any effective political system needs a healthy level of conservatism. A political system should not wobble like liquid jelly every time it's touched.

Putin harshly rejected a call for officials to examine complaints on the Internet about vote rigging in the recent regional elections:

On the Internet, 50 percent is porn material. Why should we refer to the Internet?

Putin was speaking at a major meeting chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev and attended by Russia's political elite. Putin's stern comments contrasted with a speech by Medvedev, who called for a shake-up of the country's political system to promote opposition parties, criticising "non-existent" competition in local government. The more tech-savvy Medvedev is also a keen user of the Internet and has a video blog.

Source AFP.

Alexey Navalny already had a reputation as a rabble-rouser when he showed up at the annual general meeting for Rosneft, a Russian oil firm, in Moscow in June 2009. With a small stake in the company, Mr Navalny wanted to question Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin, a confidant of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, about management strategy and the lack of dividends for stockholders.

"I looked around and noticed a bunch of beefy-looking fellows sitting around me," Mr Navalny said in an interview in his sparsely furnished offices in Moscow. "I am well known in Rosneft, and they're not always happy to see me." Mr Navalny said he approached Mr Sechin afterwards and asked why he had been surrounded by guards. “He chuckled and said it was for my own safety,” Mr Navalny said.

It is, perhaps, no surprise that questions of personal safety arise wherever Mr Navalny goes. Cocksure and irrepressible, he has become Russia's most vocal and obnoxious minority shareholder, hounding the country’s largest companies with muckraking campaigns against corporate malfeasance and incompetence. Mr Navalny has a small stake in almost every major state-owned company in Russia.

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100125/FOREIGN/701249805/1135