POLITICS

Fifty-five percent of Russian nationals polled by Levada Center said the presidential administration makes decisions that are of vital importance to Russia. They approve of the “centralized power vertical.”

(Kommersant)

A former representative of the Chechen separatists in Tbilisi has accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of being responsible for terrorist attacks in Russia.

(The Moscow Times)

Saudi Arabia will soon submit the sanctions issue for consideration to the UN General Assembly. The country aims to transfer discussions around Syria from the Security Council, where Russia and China have the veto right, to a wider field, thus suggesting international isolation of Moscow and Beijing. Russia has to conduct serious work to change the situation.

(Kommersant)

Russia’s nuclear potential is enough to defend the country, but Moscow will not enter an arms race, President Vladimir Putin said in Sochi.

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Direct foreign investment in the first quarter of 2012 decreased 53 percent in annualized terms.

(Kommersant)

SOCIETY

Ruling United Russia party deputy Sergei Zheleznyak and A Just Russia deputy and opposition activist Ilya Ponomaryov have submitted to the State Duma a bill to oblige all parliamentarians and state officials to officially declare their deposits in foreign banks and property abroad. Ponomaryov also wants to oblige such state officials to call themselves “foreign agents.”

(Kommersant)

As hundreds of opposition supporters rallied Thursday on behalf of a dozen people arrested in connection with violence at a May 6 demonstration, investigators signaled that the Kremlin was hardening its stance toward the opposition, detaining two more people and searching their homes.

(The Moscow Times)

Opposition leader, anti-corruption blogger and lawyer Alexei Navalny demanded that Russia’s chief investigator Alexander Bastrykin be fired for having a company in the Czech Republic, which, he says, is inadmissible for him at his current position.

(Vedomosti)

Almost half of drivers in Moscow are willing to give up their wheels in favor of public transportation, according to a study by Romir research company.

(The Moscow Times)

AGRICULTURE

The number of Russian regions declaring drought-linked states of emergency crept upward, making the official forecast for the size of this year's harvests appear increasingly optimistic.

(The Moscow Times)

For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at http://en.ria.ru.