LIVE UPDATES: Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov continues to dominate the headlines as the stories of his threats against the Russian opposition and the impending end of his term continue to reverberate.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
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Karaulova, who followed an online ISIS recruiter who said he would marry her, left Moscow in May 2015. In June she was arrested on the Turkish-Syrian border with a group of 12 other Russian citizens, then returned to Russia. She will spend about a month under psychiatric examination mandated by a December 2015 court order. In December, her pre-trial arrest was extended to March 27.
While at first investigators said they would call her as a witness in a case about ISIS recruitment, eventually they charged her with attempt to join ISIS herself, and she admitted her guilt.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
“We have absolutely no grounds to suppose that this incident was somehow connected to alcohol,” he said.
The stopping of the military attache in Leningrad Region occurs at a time when the US and Russia are in a reciprocity war.
“These are companies, which are already in the plan for privatization. These are public companies that are quoted on the market and by virtue of that, technically and legally best of all prepared and known best of all to the investor. We will start with these companies.”
Bashneft had already been purchased by oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov, when the Kremlin decided to find fault with the acquisition six years after the fact, and placed Yevtushenkov under house arrest on fraud charges and seized his Bashneft shares. A court ruled the nationalization was legal but eventually Yevtushenkov was released and cleared of the charges. He did not seek to regain his property.
Now the government is talking about privatizing Bashneft again.
“The transfer of shares into private hands is only possible if the buyer has a strategy for development of the acquired company. The new owners of the privatized shares must be located in a Russian jurisdiction.”
“We have already long spoken about de-offshorization, and under these conditions going into a new privatization, allowing further offshorization of the Russian economy would be wrong.”
But the existing plan for 2016 only mentions Sovkomflot, although the Ministry of Economic Development has called for privatizing Rosneft. Previous plans going back to 2013 have not been realized; last year the plan talked about the government getting out of Rosspirtprom, the liquor company, as well as Obyedinyonnay Zernovaya (United Grain) and Rostelekom, the telecom company but this did not happen, nor were the amounts of shares reduced in a number of other companies including ALROSA and Russian Railways.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Likina wrote on her VKontakte page shortly before her death (translation by The Interpreter):
“Do what you want and don’t let anyone influence your choice and the decisions you have make, take reponsibility for your life. And be drawn in your relations to the strongest and the best. That will give you correct orientations and will definitely bring you closer to your dreams.”
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Kadyrov himself mentioned the expiration of his term on Instagram, adding coyly that he he had “not given thought as to whether he would run for elections again,” that it was “too early” to speak of them and that he “did not want to get distracted.” He then noted that the candidate for the head of Chechnya “must be the choice of the president of Russia” — although according to the Chechen Constitution, the head is no longer appointed by the Russian president but is supposed to be directly elected by the people of Chechnya.
RBC.ru reported that presidential administration spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that he was not aware of any decree being prepared regarding the expiration of Kadyrov’s term, but said there was “a fair amount of time” before it expired.
According to RBC.ru, Mikhail Kasyanov, chair of the opposition Parnas party and former finance minister, has submitted complaints to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Investigative Committee about Kadyrov’s post on Instagram – since removed by Instagram moderators – threatening Kasyanov and Vladimir Kara-Murza, Jr. with a video clip of surveillance tape while they were in Strasbourg, shown through a sniper’s scope.
Kadyrov claimed they were in Strasbourg to pick up EU money; the two were in fact testifying at a hearing about the case of the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. The scope was likely spliced in later; Kadyrov tried to diminish the post, first claiming the opposition were cowards, then saying the crosshairs were only from “a periscope.”
The European Union has also weighed in on Kadyrov’s threats. Amb. Vygaudas Ušackas, the EU envoy to Russia, after speaking with Kasyanov, issued a statement saying he was shocked by the “repulsive unconcealed threats of murder” and urged the Russian government to respond.
The statement said such threats were “unacceptable in a democratic society.”
Interfax reported that the EU statement then evoked a response from Kadyrov’s press secretary, who said the Chechen government was “extremely surprised” and demanded “clarifications” regarding which statements by Kadyrov on Instagram contained “unconcealed threats.”
“We would also be grateful to know on which linguistic analyses your conclusions about ‘theats of murder’ were based on,” the statement said.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick