In June 2013, the ruble was slightly devaluated with a view to increasing ruble budget revenues amid slow-down in economic growth. A.Ulyukayev was appointed a new Minister of Economic Development, replacing A. Belousov, which most probably means an attempt to observe moderation in government...

In July 2013, Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was sentenced to fi ve years in prison. It appears, however, that he would be allowed – on procedural grounds, since no appeal hearing has been held yet – to run for mayor in mayoral elections in Moscow on September 8, 2013. A...

In August, Victor Ishaev was dismissed from his post as Russia’s Minister for the Development of the Far East – his extravagantly costly approaches to solving the region’s problems without having made even a feeble attempt at setting any priorities, had finally infuriated both the RF...

In March 2014 Russia announced the accession of Crimea based on the results of the referendum held on 16 March 2014. In response the U.S. and EU introduced visa sanctions and a ban on the possession of assets in their jurisdictions for Russian officials (and in the U.S. this also extended to...

The situation in Ukraine ratcheted up sharply in April 2014 in the Dontesk and Lugansk Regions, where armed insurgents seized the regional administration buildings. Negotiations in Geneva between officials from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union came to an agreement on...

The top news story of November was the indirect polemical dispute between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, centered on the RF Investigative Committee’s attempt to restore at least one of its previous established powers – the right of investigators to open tax fraud cases without a request...

In November 2012, RF Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdiukov, accused of abetting corruption in his ministry, was sacked from office; former Deputy Minister of Regional Development was arrested; criminal proceedings against the managers of Rostelekom and the former top officials of the RF Ministry of...

In December 2012, the so-called ‘Magnitsky Law’ came into force in the United States. This law empowers and obliges the U.S. President to compose the list of persons responsible for the death of the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund’s counselor Sergey Magnitsky and persons...

February saw yet another flare-up in the ongoing turf war between economic clans, first of all be¬tween Ivan Sechin’s and Arkady Dvorkovich’s groups of influence. The latest flare-up was so strong that it even spilled over into Russia’s state-owned TV channels. Thus, in one of its...

In April 2013, rumors of the RF Government’s impending sacking suddenly became much more than simply rumors after Vladimir Putin had announced that this option was now on the table. He made that statement at a government meeting at Elista, and the corresponding footage of the event was then...