POLITICS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak at the OSCE foreign ministerial meeting in Dublin to suggest that the international election monitoring system be reformed and single regulations for all countries be approved. If other ministers disagree, Moscow may cut financing for the organization.
(Kommersant)
Activists who took part in large-scale protests against the Kremlin over the last year are putting their hopes in new political parties that could be used as a platform for opposition leaders like Alexei Navalny. With public enthusiasm for protests seeming to have waned after a year of mass demonstrations, members of the opposition are building political parties to give people a new vehicle to put forth their demands.
(The Moscow Times)
Russian President Vladimir Putin will address the Federal Assembly on December 12, the presidential press service reported.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Kommersant)
The Egyptian opposition wants to topple President Mohamed Morsi the same way Hosni Mubarak was deposed. But Morsi does not plan to cancel his constitutional declaration that split society.
(Kommersant)
Now that Palestine has received the status of a UN observer state, the Palestinian authorities want to achieve reconciliation with Islamist group Hamas to establish an “international anti-Israel front.”
(Kommersant)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Russia will inevitably have to change its energy strategy on foreign markets, the International Energy Agency said.
(Vedomosti)
DEFENSE
The US Senate adopted an amendment to the 2013 defense budget, which stipulates that the Pentagon should be ready for possible military intervention in the Syrian conflict.
(Kommersant)
SOCIETY
The presidential human rights council will draft amendments to the new controversial NGO law.
(Kommersant)
Even as the government wages a high-profile anti-corruption campaign, Russia remains in the bottom third of Transparency International’s corruption index. The nation ranked on par with Kazakhstan, Iran and Honduras.
(The Moscow Times)
Mazda, Lada and Toyota are the most frequently stolen cars in Moscow.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at http://en.ria.ru.
