MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti) -
POLITICS
The carefully picked image of an enemy Russia has to fight may work well as a PR technique during an election campaign, but using that stunt in everyday political practice is a risk for the Russian authorities, political experts who gathered in Moscow for a congress said.
(Kommersant)
Among members of the Middle East Quartet, Russia enjoys perhaps the warmest relationship with Hamas, the radical Islamist party that controls the Gaza Strip, but when Hamas and Israeli representatives sat down last week to halt a week of bloody clashes in and around Gaza, all Russia could do was watch from the sidelines as Egyptian and American mediators hammered out the deal.
(The Moscow Times)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Volkswagen Group plans to invest over 50 billion euros in manufacturing and an upgrade of its model range in the next three years.
(Vedomosti)
DEFENSE
Russia and NATO are drafting an agreement on cooperation in the disposal of outdated ammunition and armaments. The important project stipulates that Moscow will pay for disposal of Russian arsenals with the use of NATO technology to reduce the number of incidents during ammunition explosion.
(Kommersant)
SOCIETY
Russia’s Justice Ministry plans to compile a rating of nongovernmental centers providing free legal assistance.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
The UN Committee Against Torture recommended Russia to introduce the notion of torture into the Criminal Code as an independent crime. The organization also advised Moscow to revise recently adopted controversial Russian laws on NGOs and high treason.
(Kommersant)
RELIGION
The Russian Orthodox Church has developed a document regulating the procedure to elect its Patriarch. Out of four possible scenarios, one should be approved by the Bishops Council in 2013. There has been no clearly defined election procedure for the past 100 years.
(Kommersant)
IT
The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, has adopted a bill on mobile number portability that would allow cell phone users to retain their numbers when changing mobile communications operators
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
A recent Supreme Court decision increases pressure on Internet providers to block websites without direct state interference, lawyers said.
(The Moscow Times)
SCIENCE
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will hold a meeting dedicated to the space industry’s problems. Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will suggest variants of reorganization for the Russian space agency.
(Kommersant)
For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at http://en.ria.ru.
