POLITICS
The A Just Russia party has moved to restore the option of voting "against all" on ballot papers, but experts say the move is unlikely to succeed. The "against all" option was taken off ballots in 2006, sparking an angry public response.
(Kommersant)
Proposals on Russia’s political development put forward by the country’s Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR) did not draw significant interest from experts. Its authors explain their failure to gain large public support by a low demand for reforms in the country.
(Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
The majority of Russians do not know Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s deputies, as well as a number of other Russian ministers, a Russian pollster has discovered. Experts say that the poll delegitimizes the Russian government, as strongman Putin remains the only minister who is recognized by the majority of Russians.
(Moskovsky Komsomolets)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
St. Petersburg residents are outraged by Russia’s energy giant Gazprom's renewed attempts to build a skyscraper in St. Petersburg that would ruin the city’s unique low-rise skyline. The move comes after Gazprom was forced to abandon its previous plan to build a complex of office buildings dominated by a needle-like skyscraper next to the 18th century Smolny Cathedral under pressure from UNESCO and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
(Kommersant)
Some 250,000 Russian companies evaded paying taxes in 2010, a Russian Central Bank report showed. Expert say budget losses may account for hundreds of billions of rubles.
(Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
SOCIETY
Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has reshuffled his subordinates in the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office, appointing its former chief Yury Syomin the head of the anti-corruption department at the Prosecutor General’s Office and replacing him with Sergei Kudeneyev, who has been head of the department in charge of supervising Russia’s penitentiary system. The reshuffle took place amid a continuing investigation into a scandal in which two Russian prosecutors were accused of protecting underground casinos.
(Kommersant, Moskovskiye Novosti)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed three top police officials, including chief Interior Ministry inspector Musa Medov, as part of his large-scale police reform. Medov had served as interior minister in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia until he had to leave his post following the killing of prominent opposition activist and journalist Magomed Yevloyev.
(Kommersant)
Russia’s presidential Human Rights Council has proposed changing the Russian authorities’ strategy in the volatile and unstable North Caucasus. The authorities should revive the justice system and focus on social and cultural projects rather than continue massive anti-terrorism raids in the region, it said.
(Moskovskiye Novosti)
Authorities in St.Petersburg have seized at least 90 percent of copies of the Kommersant Vlast magazine issued of July 4 from shops across the city. The issue offered a critical view of the departure of Valentina Matviyenko, the controversial St. Petersburg governor, from the local political scene and her expected election to the post of the Russian parliament’s upper house speaker.
(Kommersant)
SCIENCE
The Russian parliament has moved to amend laws by removing strict norms regulating the purchase of scientific equipment in an attempt to revive paralyzed research programs in the country.
(Moskovskiye Novosti)
