What the Russian papers say
Russia, U.S. to sign new START before Obama receives Nobel Peace Prize / No recognizing S.Ossetia, Abkhazia - no Russian loans for Ecuador / Top Russian court asked to rule on death penalty moratorium / Most Russians believe country needs political opposition /
MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti)
Russia, U.S. to sign new START before Obama receives Nobel Peace Prize / No recognizing S.Ossetia, Abkhazia - no Russian loans for Ecuador / Top Russian court asked to rule on death penalty moratorium / Most Russians believe country needs political opposition /
Kommersant
Russia, U.S. to sign new START before Obama receives Nobel Peace Prize
The White House is in a hurry to sign a new U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction treaty before December 10, when President Barack Obama receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. And Moscow is ready to comply.
On Thursday, Obama's National Security Adviser, General James L. Jones, submitted a package of U.S. proposals to the Russian side in Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the proposals "highlight progress at the talks."
Washington and Moscow declined to comment on the new proposals. "As both sides consider this a sensitive issue, it has been decided not to disclose the details of the talks before the agreement is signed," a Russian negotiator told the paper.
Previously, the sides were divided on mutual nuclear-warhead delivery-vehicle cuts and Russia's demand to formalize the link between strategic defensive and offensive arms in the treaty.
A Russian negotiator said the delivery-vehicle issue and the problem of linking offensive and defensive arms had been settled.
"Although the sides have compromised on these parameters of the treaty, we have still failed to reach agreement with the United States on a number of Russian concerns. Nevertheless, we are making headway," he said.
With the current START-I treaty set to expire on December 5, 2009, the sides are saying the new agreement will be signed on time, but are declining to comment on specific disagreements and achievements.
"The negotiators will, most likely, acquaint the presidents with the results of their work in the run-up to the November 14 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore and will propose that they adopt a decision on the most difficult issues," a Kremlin source said.
He said the White House also wanted to finalize and sign the treaty on schedule. "On December 10, the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in the Oslo City Hall. Our partners want the document to be signed before Barack Obama receives the Peace Prize. And we don't mind," the source said.
Kommersant
No recognizing S.Ossetia, Abkhazia - no Russian loans for Ecuador
Having heard a lot of praise about Russia's greatness from his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, however, hasn't heard him recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. The visiting Latin American official will leave Moscow without taking home a loan agreement with Russia.
Russia has intensified contacts with the region lately, at least with regard to recruiting supporters of the two former Georgian republics' independence. Nicaragua and Venezuela have led the way, making the friendly gesture. Correa during Thursday's talks said a lot about the proximity of the two nations' positions. However, by the end of his long speech, even the most unflagging optimists realized that he was not going to mention the two republics.
Moscow had expected Correa to trade the magic words for a weapons loan like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Thursday that Ecuador had asked Russia for a loan. Head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Mikhail Dmitriyev confirmed Ecuador's interest in new Russian weapons.
Russia was planning to allocate $200 million for this purpose - a modest sum compared with $1 billion provided to Nicaragua and $2.2 billion given to Chavez. It looks like the parties failed to agree on the amount of the deal.
According to sources among Russian negotiators, other factors played a role here, too. Correa's position is much more stable than those of Chavez or Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, whose regimes became vulnerable due to the global meltdown.
The Ecuadorian president recently changed the country's constitution and easily got re-elected in April; his party has a parliamentary majority, and his personal popularity rating never goes below 50%. Plummeting oil prices have certainly hit Ecuador's budget, but the country has recently raised $1.5 billion in long-term loans and is therefore in no immediate need of cash.
Moreover, Correa is careful not to spoil relations with the United States, the key customer for Ecuadorian oil at present. China, another rich customer and potential partner, is also eyeing Ecuadorian resources.
"China is willing to participate in any project in Ecuador, allocating huge loans and setting very low requirements," said Yan Burlyai, Russian Ambassador to Ecuador.
Therefore, Moscow's modest commercial offer, which would politically bind Ecuador to Moscow too tightly, was not good enough for the president of Ecuador.
Gazeta.ru, Vedomosti
Top Russian court asked to rule on death penalty moratorium
In his upcoming state-of-the-nation address, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will state that the Kremlin will find a way to retain the death penalty moratorium. A possible option is to delay trials by jury in the Chechen Republic.
A plenary meeting of the Russian Supreme Court asked the Constitutional Court, which is empowered to rule on whether or not certain laws or presidential decrees run counter to the national Constitution, to explain how to retain the death penalty moratorium in a situation when the previous moratorium's terms have become null and void.
In 1999, the Constitutional Court introduced a moratorium on death penalties pending trials by jury all over Russia.
On January 1, 2010, trials by jury will be introduced in the last Russian region, the Chechen Republic.
"The Supreme Court believes the relevant Constitutional Court ruling could lead to contradictory law-enforcement practice in courts," the Supreme Court request said.
Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said Russia had voluntarily pledged to abolish the death penalty by 1999 while joining the Council of Europe, and that the European Union had met Moscow halfway when it repeatedly put off the decision under various pretexts.
Although Russia has signed Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty, the State Duma failed to ratify it.
A source close to the Presidential Executive Office said Russia was not yet ready to abolish the death penalty or to ratify the protocol, and that specific legal mechanisms to delay the introduction of trials by jury in Chechnya or other options for settling the issue were currently being examined.
A member of the staff of Chechen human rights ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev said trials by jury were unlikely to be introduced in the republic starting January 1, 2010, and that no preparations were underway.
Prominent lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, head of the Russian Public Chamber's commission for oversight over security agencies, said the best way was to remove death penalty clauses from the Criminal Code.
A Presidential Executive Office official said the death penalty moratorium would not be abolished, and that the president would state it in his state-of-the-nation address.
A source close to the Supreme Court said the Constitutional Court could delay the adoption of specific decisions for a long time, and that Moscow wanted to continue using the death penalty issue as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with Europe.
Gazeta.ru, RBC Daily
Most Russians believe country needs political opposition
Over 70% of Russians say that the country needs a political opposition, strong enough to affect political life, according to a major survey. The number of such people has been growing since the early 2000s. At the same time, few are happy with the existing opposition movements.
As many as 71% of the 1,600 Russians surveyed by the Levada Center pollster on October 16-19 said the country needs public movements or parties in opposition to the current authorities which would "have a tangible influence on the country's life." In 2002, only 56% of Russians shared this opinion; 61% in 2005; and 66% in 2007.
On the other hand, 16% said they saw no need for an opposition during the recent poll, down from 20% in 2007.
According to the latest top officials' popularity ratings, also calculated by the Levada Center, 72% of Russians approve President Dmitry Medvedev's policies and 78%, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's actions - around the same number as those who say they need an opposition.
Political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin says this is only logical: "People see the improvement in their living standards and the law and order maintained in the country as directly linked to the current government policies. On the other hand, they are gaining social experience: some are disappointed in elections, others don't like the statement that parliament is not a place for discussion, still others are dissatisfied with the fact that certain obviously productive decisions have been rejected by the government. People begin to realize that an alternative is needed."
Some analysts believe that the parties most people see as "opposition" are in fact controlled by the Kremlin. "In 2002, the country was not as stable as it is now, and many feared that a strong opposition could cause turmoil," said Alexei Makarkin, deputy director general of the Center for Political Technologies, a Moscow think tank. He added that today's opposition is dramatically different from the one a few years ago.
"They are part of the system, and it is hard to imagine the Communist Party or LDPR as threats to stability," he said.
The recent actions by the Communists, LDPR and A Just Russia, who walked out of parliament during the discussion of the October 11 elections results, did nothing but demonstrate the opposition's true ambition - to get a share of power, said Konstantin Simonov, the president of the Center for Current Politics.
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