THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RESULTS OF OCTOBER 2013

The political highlight in October became the mass ethnic riot in a Moscow’s uptown district of Birulyevo. The unrest proved the rise of ethnic problems in big cities. While the authorities met the rioters’ local claims (they found the killer and shut down the vegetable warehouse with a bunch of illegal migrants therein), no decision was made in the wake of the riot, and it was local authorities who were held responsible for it. Quite predictably, Mr. A. Navalny, an opposition politician, was not put behind the bars after hearing his case at the courts of appeal. However, he was deprived of an active electoral right and will now have to take a lot of pains to stake out his niche in the opposition politics where the electorate engaged in some projects easily flows to other ones. Despite Mr. V. Putin’s vows, the newly established Agency for Research Institutions will be led not by Mr. V. Fortov, the head of RAS, but by Deputy Finance Minister Mr. M. Kotyukov.