GZT.RU
Russian police to get pre-revolutionary name back
President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed giving the Russian militia its pre-revolutionary name back: the police. Experts largely support the move, saying the existing name has compromised itself. But the main thing, they believe, is to reform the Interior Ministry, not just to change the signboard.
Medvedev explained that law enforcers in Russia began to be called the militia during the October Revolution. In his view, that served to emphasize their closeness to the people. However, what the country needs at present, the president stressed, is professionals who work "effectively, honestly and cohesively."
Most experts interviewed backed the president's proposal: the name militia has become discredited and has negative associations. The purpose of the new step is to change the public attitude to the agency.
Peter the Great established the police force in Russia in 1718 in St. Petersburg. In 1917, the Provisional Government issued a resolution On the Establishment of the Militia, where the militia was described as an executive body of local authority.
Some Russian human rights activists are opposed to the reform. Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Russian human rights activist, said that changing the name would not help improve the public attitude to the militia. The spending involved in the reform is another reason to criticize the president's initiative.
But Medvedev proposed renaming the militia as a side issue. The main subject discussed at Friday's meeting was a new wording of the law On the Militia. Sergei Naryshkin, chief of staff of the Presidential Executive Office, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, and Rashid Nurgaliyev, head of the Interior Ministry, took part in the discussion.
The president issued instructions for a draft of the new law on Russian police to be published on Saturday, August 7. He said the draft should be posted on the specially created website Zakonoproyekt 2010.ru. The public debate will continue for a month, until mid-September.
"This is the first time we are submitting a draft law to such a broad public discussion. This draft law concerns all of our citizens because we all have dealings with the police," the president said, adding that some draft laws are now posted on ministry websites and discussed among professionals. "If the experiment in discussing this draft law proves successful, and I hope it will be, we will use it in the future with other laws of importance for our people and society," Medvedev said.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Russia should do more to support self-proclaimed republics
The Transdnestr Republic, a breakaway region in Moldova seeking independence, has recently asked the Russian government to increase its peacekeeping force in the area to its 1992 level, when Russia and Moldova signed a ceasefire agreement. That means 2,000 troops, or four times their current number.
The region needs more peacekeepers because tensions have grown there after a collapse of the final settlement process, the Transdnestr Foreign Ministry explained. The negotiations involved, apart from Moldova and the Transdnestr Republic, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE as guarantors and mediators, and the EU and the United States as observers. However, Moscow had the final say.
The breakaway republic has repeatedly asked Moscow to develop and adopt a system of international guarantees for the region. The region, mostly populated by Russians and Ukrainians, has been seeking since 1992 some guarantees from Moldova, Europe and the United States that it will be able to decide its fate for itself in case Moldova changes its status. In other words, if Moldova forms a union with Romania, Transdnestr will be able to get out of the plan.
The region's population would be equally content to join Russia or Ukraine, but is strongly opposed to becoming a part of Romania. In fact, they had this guarantee stipulated in one of the earlier agreements between Moldova and Transdnestr, but Moldova later cancelled all the earlier agreements. That is why the Transdnestr Foreign Ministry is now asking Russia to interfere and put in place a system of international guarantees for the earlier agreements.
Transdnestr officials cite recent statements by the Moldovan government and point out the alarming trends underway there. Moldova's new government is making every effort to restore Moldova's status as part of Romania, as was the case before 1940, forgetting that Transdnestr was part of Ukraine, a Soviet republic, at the time.
Moldova's acting president Mihai Gimpu said the country will not be able to rejoin Romania without the Transdnestr region, because Europe does not like unresolved territorial issues. Therefore, the breakaway region must be brought back where it belongs and forced to obey. In fact this is a deja vu of 1992, when the sides narrowly stopped short of an armed conflict thanks to Russian peacekeepers.
Transdnestr leader Igor Smirnov emphasized that the republic insisted on a parity dialogue and a clear system of guarantees. The majority of people in Transdnestr supported integration with Russia in a 2006 referendum, he said, adding that the region could hold a similar referendum asking the population if they agreed to integrate with Ukraine. That prospect is made all the more realistic since Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's government seems more loyal to Transdnestr than Viktor Yushchenko ever was.
Vedomosti
United States is no better
Russia has accused the United States of violating START I treaty and blamed it for the 2008 armed conflict in South Ossetia.
On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry made public a list of breaches committed by the United States in the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including violations of the 1990 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). The publication follows the release on July 28 of a report by the U.S. State Department in which Russia is accused of violating START 1 and other agreements. The report has no basis in fact, the Ministry says.
When START I was in force, the United States neither informed nor relayed telemetric information to the Russian side on the flight tests of Trident-II submarine-launched ballistic missiles. The United States said the missiles belonged to the United Kingdom, which was under no treaty obligations; therefore, the basic parameters could not be monitored. The United States re-equipped five silo ICBM launchers into interceptor missile launchers without authorization and failed to supply proof that B-1 bombers converted to non-nuclear weapons could not be converted back.
The U.S. report criticized Russia for the unlawful presence of Russian troops in Moldova and Georgia. But the Foreign Ministry said that the United States sold 18,400 rifles and carbines to Georgia in 2008, as well as 40 heavy machine guns, in violation of the OSCE Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons. Therefore, it says, the United States "shares the responsibility" for the conflict.
Russia and the United States exchanged these mutual accusations on the non-fulfillment of START I as the New START Treaty signed in April was being prepared for ratification. The international committee of the upper house of Russia's parliament recommended the treaty be adopted in July. The relevant committee of the U.S. Senate postponed the vote until September.
The Foreign Ministry's move is a response to the State Department's report, whose publication is connected with the battle of the titans waged by Barack Obama administration for the ratification of the treaty, says analyst Fyodor Lukyanov. In their comments on the report, U.S. officials emphasized that the treaty violations were not critical, the analyst said, while discrepancies in the interpretation of treaties always occur.
The opponents of the New START Treaty in the U.S. Congress seek to present it as a document that is difficult to check and execute, and in this sense the Foreign Ministry's publication did not help the Obama administration, which wants it ratified. Instead it gives additional ammunition to the treaty's opponents, says Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Global Security Institute in Washington. The analyst believes the ratification procedure may be drawn out indefinitely.
Rossiskaya Gazeta
South Ossetia marks 2nd anniversary of Georgian aggression
In the early hours of August 8, people lit candles on Tskhinvali's central square to pay their respects to the victims of the war and prayed for lasting peace.
The mourning ceremony "The Living Light of Memory" began at 11:35 p.m., at the exact time when first artillery shells fell on the sleeping city. Georgian troops employed state-of-the-art military equipment, heavy artillery and aviation to attack the civilian population and Russian peacekeepers. They bombed hospitals, kindergartens and schools and killed defenseless people and captives. This barbarian war resulted in the deaths of 1,634 South Ossetians and 64 Russian soldiers.
There was not a single person on Tskhinvali's central square who had not lost a friend or a family member. A few large stones became altars where people laid flowers, placed candles and prayed for the victims.
Ossetian traditional mourning songs and Russian and Ossetian verses were performed on the square. Footage of Valery Gergiev's 2008 concert in the liberated Tskhinvali broadcast on a large screen sparked strong emotions. The Mariinsky Theater orchestra played somber music.
"We did not start this war, but it is no comfort to those who lost their relatives and loved ones," South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said. "I ask the mothers of Ossetia and Russia to forgive me for not saving the lives of their sons. I would like to express my special gratitude to the journalists who were with us from the first seconds of Georgian aggression and told the international community the truth about the acts of violence the so-called democrats committed here."
Eduard Kokoity told journalists that the republic's government did not forget the Russian soldiers and officers who had helped defend South Ossetia's independence. Servicemen who were injured or disabled in the war undergo regular rehabilitation in the republic. Answering the question if there was a possibility of establishing dialogue with Georgia, the South Ossetian president emphasized that it was inconceivable to negotiate with Saakashvili's criminal regime.
On August 7, a memorial stone was installed on the spot where Hero of Russia Denis Vetchinov died. When a column of Russia's 58th Army was ambushed on August 9, 2008, Major Denis Vetchinov saved the lives of Russian journalists. He faced two bursts of rifle fire and managed to neutralize the enemy's firing unit before he was killed, thus giving the journalists some time to find shelter. The memorial stone will be replaced by a monument to all those who stood up against Georgian aggression and gave their life's blood for the independence of South Ossetia.
RBC daily
Industry looks forward to September
Crediting of industry is expected to grow
Analysts say that the July industrial production index is a sign of an unstable economy. Enterprises report a low domestic demand and display low activity themselves, according to the Institute for the Economy in Transition and the Center for Current Politics at the Higher School of Economics. However, the experts remain optimistic: the crediting of industry will go up by fall.
According to the Federal Service for State Statistics, the growth of industrial production stood at 9.7% in June compared with the same period last year. However, the industrial production output fell by 0.4% compared with May 2010. "The industrial performance is unstable, and the absence of positive trade tendencies stagnate the output growth," the institute's analysts say. A study conducted by the institute in July revealed that a rapid drop in surplus stock of end products in the second quarter led to their disappearance. Only 8% of enterprises can build up stocks in the near future.
The domestic demand fell in July, but the performance evaluation balance remained positive, falling by 3 percentage points compared with the previous month, and stood at +7% (-3% in July 2009), according to the center.
The ratio of the current demand level to the end products in stock and the expected output has been falling within the last two months, experts report. The index improved each month starting from November 2009 (-15%) to May 2010 (-2%), the center's analysis shows. However, the index stopped growing in June and July, having retained the May level (-2%).
Still, even such data make experts optimistic. "The industrial growth will continue, but at a lower rate. The slowdown will be caused by the fast growth of imports," said Deutsche Bank's group economist Yaroslav Lisovolik. "The crediting of industry will also become positive despite the absence of growth in the first quarter." Lisovolik believes that in general the index will stand at 10-15%.
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MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti)
