Kommersant
Luzhkov slams Russian political system in closed lecture
Ousted Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov criticized the country's political system on Thursday, calling the United Russia party a "servant" to the Kremlin and lambasting the president's "dictatorial" power to dismiss governors.
While Sobyanin was being sworn in as Mayor in the heart of Moscow, former mayor Yury Luzhkov was in the city's leafy outskirts, giving a lecture at the Russian State University of Trade and Economics.
The university, is headed by Sergei Baburin, himself a former Russian politician, and this was the venue that Luzhkov chose to mount his verbal assault on the Kremlin.
Although Luzhkov "sincerely" congratulated Sergei Sobyanin on his appointment as Mayor of Moscow, his criticism of state censorship and Kremlin dictates was merciless.
Baburin said the timing of the lecture was purely accidental.
Luzhkov asked for tightened security at the lecture and for no press to be admitted. One Kommersant correspondent, however, did manage to sneak in.
"It is brave indeed to invite a disgraced mayor, subjected to months of slander, to talk here" Luzhkov said, thanking Baburin for his hospitality.
In his lecture entitled "Moscow's development and Russia's revival," Luzhkov said he had served Muscovites, not the federal government.
"That was one of the reasons I was ousted," he stressed.
The Kremlin wanted "someone predictable" to run Moscow prior to the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2011 and 2012.
He said the state-owned TV networks took their orders from the state, primarily from the Presidential Executive Office.
"We are witnessing government dictatorship, despite the multi-party system," Luzhkov said.
He said that over 50 percent of the economy was now in state hands.
Luzhkov called the 1990s a time of freedom, recalling how he was guided by the ideals of liberty, democracy and the market economy.
He said he had always opposed the reforms of Anatoly Chubais and the "smash-and-grab privatization" drive. Asked how he viewed the United Russia party, Luzhkov replied that he had always been wary and critical of it and had no regrets about leaving.
Luzhkov said he had no misgivings that the people of Moscow had not reacted to his dismissal.
He was not calling on supporters to protest, but only to "comprehend" the implications of the Kremlin's dictatorial ability to dismiss mayors and governors that have fallen out of favor.
When asked about the influx of migrant workers, Luzhkov said it was worrying, that Moscow no longer felt like home, and that 50 percent of local crimes were committed by immigrants.
Vedomosti
Smartphone Banking
Lending institutions are currently expanding the range of smartphone applications on offer. From information provision to a full range of banking services, one thing is clear: Mobile banking is here to stay.
Today, mobile banking is developing even faster than Internet banking. In the Britain, for example, smartphone owners check their accounts three times as often as Internet users, a recent survey by the Monitise mobile banking company showed.
There is growing demand for mobile banking in Russia, too. "True, so far mobile banking is lagging behind Internet banking in terms of the number of users, but interest in it is growing," says Yelena Degteva, head of passive and commissioned transactions at VTB 24 bank. "Half of VTB clients surveyed want a mobile service and a mobile banking cell phone application," she added.
For Alfa Bank, mobile transactions so far only account for between 2 and 15 percent of distance transactions. In the first eight months of this year, outgoing payments via its Internet bank increased by 50 percent, while those through its mobile bank increased by 90 percent, says Vladimir Urbansky, head of Alfa Bank's retail business.
Some Russian banks are already offering smartphone owners special applications, making it possible not only to obtain prompt information about the bank concerned, currency rates or even personal accounts but also to pay for mobile phone and Internet services, make transfers to other clients or other banks, and use payment forms created online.
Alfa Bank, for example, has similar applications for iPhones, including the iPhone-4 and iPad. Software for mobiles using the Android operating system (such as HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung) is being developed.
Sberbank, Russia's leading bank, offers mobile banking services to cardholders with smartphones using the Windows Mobile operating system and Java. Services include information on card transactions, payments and transfers inside the bank.
"VTB 24 offers two versions of mobile banking - via WAP or over SMS. The former gives access via a mobile browser (wap.telebank.ru), while the latter relies on communicating with the system via SMS. Both configurations allow clients to obtain information and to make payments," says Degteva.
Meanwhile, Master Bank's clients can distance-manage their accounts using their cell phones, smartphones or other devices over the Internet. No additional applications are required, says Sergei Strazhnikov, deputy board chairman of Master Bank.
In November, UniCredit Bank is planning to launch its own Internet banking service called Enter.UniCredit for smartphones, pocket computers, BlackBerries and other devices that support Java.
As a rule, all mobile applications are downloaded free, with banks charging no subscriber fees. There are, however, costs involved, only rather than being paid to the banks, it's the cell phone operators who collect.
European Court backs Moscow gay parades
The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Russia for letting Moscow ban gay parades, granting leading gay-rights activist, Nikolai Alexeyev, 29,510 euros ($41,090) in compensation.
Alexeyev filed a lawsuit with the European Court claiming discrimination after the city government repeatedly rejected his requests to organize gay parades in Moscow in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The activist wanted to organize Russia's first gay pride march to highlight discrimination against gays and lesbians on May 27, 2006, marking the anniversary of the legalization of homosexuality in Russia.
The formal grounds given for refusing his request were that a gay march could "create a disturbance." However Alexeyev blamed former Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who had publicly described homosexuality as "unnatural."
In an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station Luzhkov also said that there would be no gay pride marches in Moscow on his watch.
On May 27, 2006, gay-rights activists attempted a protest, regardless of the ban. After laying flowers by the war memorial in Alexander Gardens near the Kremlin, they marched on city hall.
The protesters were attacked by both police and an "aggressive anti-gay public," Alexeyev, who was one of many arrested at the event, wrote.
The LGBT activist then tried to get official permission to organize more gay marches in 2007 and 2008, but both requests were denied for the same reasons: to protect public order, health, morality and the rights and freedoms of others.
Russia made the same arguments at Strasbourg when trying to justify the city authorities' decisions. But the Strasbourg court deemed the approach taken by the Moscow city authorities to be in violation of European Convention articles guaranteeing the right to peaceful assembly and prohibiting discrimination.
Alexeyev believes that gay parades would in fact benefit Russian society, because they promote tolerance and respect for minorities.
The European Court agreed that democracy also involves diversity in social attitudes. Democracy must ensure balance and promote non-discriminatory attitudes to minorities, rather than simply supporting the majority all the time.
The Court also said that the Moscow authorities had provided no official assessments of the potential risks posed by gay parades, and that they essentially approved the violence shown towards the gay activists during their attempted march.
The European Court ruling "is a crippling blow to Russian homophobia on all fronts," Mr Alexeyev said after the verdict was announced.
He expects both President Dmitry Medvedev and Moscow's new mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, to take a softer line on gay rights and be more open to dialogue. The next gay march is slated for May 28, 2011.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
