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/AR2010022504848.html

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

Two extreme right activists were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murder of the human rights lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, and the anti-fascist journalist, Anastasia Baburova. It turned out that the two arrested, Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, were close to the far-right nationalist organisations, Russky Verdikt ("Russian Verdict") and Russky Obraz ("Russian Character"), which were encouraged and directed from the Kremlin. Both far-right activists and anti-fascists regard Russky Obraz clearly as a Kremlin-led project.

Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy director of the SOVA Center, predicted a sharp reaction to the arrests of Tikhonov and Khasis. Indeed, soon after the arrests, Neo-Nazis murdered the anti-fascist activist, Ivan Khutorskoy. Following the murder, the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article tarnishing Khutorskoy's image. The daily's political editor, Dmitry Steshin, was personally acquainted with Khutorskoy's suspected killers. The Kremlin is said to use Komsomolskaya Pravda to spin its talking points and to "dumb down" the masses.

Read the original article (in Russian) on News Facts Analysis: http://bit.ly/7wXURH

Vasily Yakemenko, head of Russia's Federal Agency on Youth Affairs (RosMolodezh) and former Federal Comissar of the Putinist youth movement, Nashi, was refused a visa to Italy. Yakemenko was declared persona non grata in Estonia in 2007 due to his role as the main organiser of the Nashi blockade of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow. Yakemenko is thus barred from entry in the entire Schengen Zone. Interestingly, Italy could have granted Yakemenko a national visa, but did not.

http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=4B52F68B857E1

Russia's government has launched a crusade against alcohol abuse, describing it as a "national disaster" and aiming to halve consumption by 2020 and root out illegal production and sales. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin approved a national plan that envisions criminal punishment for illegal production and sale of alcohol, restrictions on advertising, and efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Men in Russia have an average life expectancy of just 60 years, compared to 77 years in Western European countries, according to the World Health Organization. Alcohol consumption per capita in Russia is currently about 18 liters a year, which is double the critical norm set by WHO. Much of the alcohol consumed is either homemade or non-beverage alcohols, such as perfume.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100114/157541676.html

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has given the country's business elite right to attend government sessions. Putin made the decision at a meeting with Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), on 11 January 2010.

Putin noted that Mikhail Shmakov, Chairman of the [pro-Kremlin] Federation of Independent Trade Unions, regularly attends cabinet meetings. “Perhaps, for the sake of fairness, it would not be a bad idea to invite businesses as well,” Shokhin asked. Putin's reply was short: “I agree.”

RSPP participation in government meetings could be just the beginning of better interaction between business and power. The possibility of an increase of power of the wealthy raises some fears of a return to the situation in the 1990s when oligarchs ruled the day in Russia.

http://rt.com/Politics/2010-01-12/business-elite-government-meeting.html/print

Сопоставление рейтинговых таблиц за 2009 и 2008 годы показывает, что российская правящая элита отличается очень высокой стабильностью. Лидером годового рейтинга является глава правительства РФ Владимир Путин (9,52; в 2008 году – 9,30). На втором месте – президент РФ Дмитрий Медведев (9,14 и 8,99 соответственно).

В составе пятерки лидеров изменений вообще не произошло. При этом, министр финансов Алексей Кудрин (3-е место), замыкавший топ-5 в 2008 году, в 2009-м опередил первого заместителя руководителя администрации президента Владислава Суркова (4-е место, в 2008-м – 3-е) и вице-премьера Игоря Сечина (5-е и 4-е места соответственно).

По итогам 2009 года преобладает федеральная административная элита (63 человека; в 2008 году – 59). В рейтинге также 21 представитель бизнес-элиты (20), 9 партийных деятелей (11), 8 региональных боссов (10). Федеральная административная элита более чем в полтора раза численно превосходит все остальные субэлитные группы, вместе взятые.

http://www.ng.ru/ideas/2010-01-13/5_top100.html

Freedom House lists Russia as "not free" in its annual report, Global Erosion of Freedom 2009. The report, which looks at the freedom of the political system and the civic society around the world, notes that the situation in Russia worsened.

Arch Puddington, Freedom House's director of research and one of the authors of the report, said the steady erosion of political rights and civil liberties in Russia was a consequence of what he called the "Putin effect."

"We see a decline in political conditions in a number of countries in the Russian neighborhood, and we see that as having been in part driven by Putin's diplomacy." Puddington said most of the countries in the region are following the Russian model.

"Countries like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are strongly influenced by Russia; they have political systems that are quite similar to Russia's. We will see Russia influencing the democratic direction of the whole region for decades to come," Puddington said.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Report_Democratic_Decline_Continues_Across_Former_Soviet_States_/1927675.html