Izvestia
Putin to Look into Russian Child Removal Cases in Finland
Alleged violations of the rights of Russian nationals in Finland has been brought to the attention of the Russian President.
“Vladimir Putin has not yet received a report from children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov on the removal of children from Russian national Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya. As soon as the report is on his desk, the president will read it carefully and give instructions to the Foreign Ministry and the other agencies concerned,” the president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Izvestia.
Finnish child protection services have taken four children away from a Russian woman. Anastasia Zavgorodnyaya, who lives in Vantaa with her husband, was suspected of child abuse. The children were taken away because the couple’s six-year-old daughter Veronika told someone at school that her father had slapped her, which the girl’s teacher reported to the child welfare service. First Veronika and her two-year-old siblings were taken away. Last Friday, the child protection services took away Anastasia’s baby girl, who was born only a week ago.
This is by no means the first case of Russian nationals having their children taken off them in Finland.
There have been an increasing number of these tragic incidents, like those that happened to Anton Salonen, Robert Rantala and Zavgorodnyaya, because of the extremely invasive and uncivilized actions of the Finnish social services, children’s rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov wrote on his Twitter account.
Astakhov later declared that Russia may have to break off many agreements with Finland and even impose an embargo because the Finnish authorities are refusing to discuss the child removal cases with Russia without a court order.
“This has to be stopped. Otherwise any Russian moving or traveling to Finland with their children will be in danger. Finland must be declared a country unsafe for Russian families with children. It’s hard to do anything specific about it apart from protesting. We have to enter into some kind of an agreement or break off treaties with Finland, or even impose an embargo. The situation is absolutely unacceptable,” Astakhov said.
Kommersant
Ingushetia May Have New Leader Next Year
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said he might not run for reelection in Ingushetia in 2013. Experts believe he has not received the Kremlin’s approval. The local United Russia branch has not yet started looking for candidates.
“I will announce my decision in mid-2013,” Yevkurov said, adding that if he decides to run for reelection he would not conduct an election campaign. Expert from the Carnegie Moscow Center on the North Caucasus Alexei Malashenko said this may mean that Yevkurov has not received the go-ahead from the Kremlin. He said Yevkurov has lost credibility with the people and is unlikely to run for a second term without Moscow’s support.
Magomed Tatriyev (United Russia), deputy chairman of Ingushetia’s parliament, said they had not yet discussed possible candidates. He believes that “if Yevkurov decides to run in the elections, we would probably support him.” Although any party can nominate candidates, United Russia has the absolute majority in all municipal governments of Ingushetia, where parties must collect the signatures of 10 percent of the municipal deputies and heads of municipal entities in order to nominate a candidate.
Yevkurov became the head of Ingushetia in October 2008 upon the recommendation of then-President Dmitry Medvedev, after Murat Zyazikov resigned at the insistence of the Ingush opposition. The Kremlin decided that replacing the republic’s leader would prevent social unrest.
Yevkurov launched a dialogue with the opposition, offered some of them posts in his administration and, most importantly, pledged to fight corruption. The public believed that the new leader could succeed, because he had not lived in the republic before and hence was free of any onerous ties. “He has not fulfilled any of his promises,” opposition leader Magomed Khazbiyev said. He has not stopped the arbitrariness of the law-enforcement agencies, “who mistreat innocent people under the guise of fighting terrorism.” Khazbiyev said that infringements of civil rights and arbitrary executions are among the reasons pushing young people into the hands of terrorists.
The public was outraged when Yevkurov decided to relinquish the Prigorodny District to North Ossetia. The district was previously part of the Chechen-Ingush republic before Stalin’s deportation of the Ingush. “We will insist on the fulfilment of the law on the political rehabilitation of persecuted people,” Khazbiyev said.
According to Malashenko, the Kremlin may be dissatisfied with Yevkurov’s efforts to suppress the terrorists. “The number of terrorist attacks has not decreased, which points to the absence of dialogue in society,” he said, adding that another reason could be the border conflict with Chechnya. “The federal center would rather support Ramzan Kadyrov, because finding a replacement for Yunus-Bek Yevkurov is easier,” the analyst said.
The list of possible candidates includes Khamzan Gutseriyev, a former Interior Minister of Ingushetia and brother of RussNeft chief executive Mikhail Gutseriyev; State Duma Deputy Bilan Khamchiyev; businessman Musa Keligov; and Yevkurov’s predecessors Ruslan Aushev and Murat Zyazikov. Political analyst Ruslan Martagov said that of the latter two only the candidate who is supported by the Kremlin could hope to win the election.
Kommersant
Pro-Kremlin Parties Affirm Support for Putin
Two patriotic parties have reaffirmed their allegiance to President Vladimir Putin: DON, a voluntary movement in support of the army, navy and defense industry, and the Rodina (Motherland) party which merged into A Just Russia in 2006 but was reinstated last weekend.
The hotel hosting the DON convention was decorated with banners declaring “For the Motherland, For Putin.” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who chaired the meeting, said the president will not be able to achieve the goals he has set for himself and his government “without massive popular support.” He also called for the “protection of cultural values,” adding that the “five women’s stunt in the Christ the Savior Church” happened “because we allowed it” and that the recent civil wars in the Middle East and North Africa “began with similar blows to the cultural code and traditions underpinning society.”
Alexander Prokhanov, editor-in-chief of the ultranationalist newspaper Zavtra, cited the 1930s policy of industrialization in calling for “the entire nation” to be “mobilized” for the current “renaissance.” Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin, who attended the event, said “patriotic forces” will be better able to convey to the government “how people see their future.”
Since the Rodina party convention was using the same room, the black-and-orange hangings were promptly replaced with red-and-yellow banners stating “God in Heaven, Russia on Earth.” However, its former leader Rogozin did not stay. The revived Rodina is led by Alexei Zhuravlyov and Dmitry Shishkaryov from the United Russia group in the Duma.
Zhuravlyov said the new party will take over from Rodina as it was in 2004, but will not be in opposition to the government: “Rodina is a patriotic party, and a patriot is someone who has no other choice but to support the government which is keeping the country together.”
Rodina emerged as an election bloc in 2003, winning 9% of the vote in the Duma elections. In 2005 it was banned from the Moscow City Duma campaign because of an allegedly racist TV ad when it emerged from under the government’s control. Rogozin stepped down as its leader “to preserve the party,” and Rodina merged with two other parties to form A Just Russia.
United Russia does not see a revived Rodina as a threat and believes that “they will cooperate on issues related to patriotism.” It may even join the Popular Front, a source said.
“Rodina has always viewed United Russia as a bitter enemy,” said former Rodina deputy Andrei Savelyev. “And now a United Russia member is chairing the Rodina meeting.” He said the new Rodina is more likely to continue the Kremlin policy of “diluting the patriotic electorate” and maintaining the pretence that all Russian patriots support Putin. “But that is not the case,” he said.
Analysts do not believe Rodina will be successful, because it is aiming for United Russia’s niche. Several political groups including Rodina are being revived as potential spoiler parties for A Just Russia and the Communist Party, they say.
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