Russians value Medvedev for intellect, professionalism and modesty

Russian citizens still trust their president. The majority of Russians see Medvedev as a smart, decisive man, a man of character, with whom they associate their stable existence in the future.

On September 14, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev celebrated his 46^th birthday. All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center tried to find out the attitude of the Russian people to Mr. Medvedev. As it turned out, the portrait of the president in the eyes of Russian citizens consists of presumably positive qualities.

Most of all, please value the president's intellect (56%), activity (39%), professionalism (36%), stability, (29%), determination (20%), honesty (22%), as well as simplicity and modesty (19%). Only one in every five respondents said that Medvedev was passive (4%), unprofessional (5%) and unstable (1%).

Thus, the majority of Russians believe that Medvedev is a vigorous and decisive man (30%), an experienced and far-sighted politician (16%), who guarantees stability in the country (29%) and who is ready for compromises between various political forces (13%).

When answering the question about which values and ideas Medvedev supports, many respondents said that the president supports the increase of the living standard of the Russian population (11%), the revival of Russia and its authority in the world (10%) and social politics (4%). Eleven percent of the polled said that Medvedev defends the interests of oligarchs and of his own. The rest recollected other initiatives of the president: the struggle against corruption, the introduction of innovations, the development of science, etc.

As for most significant achievements, the respondents named the social sphere (expanding the opportunities of maternity capital, healthcare and education reforms, raising pensions, taking care about veterans and pensioners). Others named foreign politics, including Russia's successful efforts during the conflict with Georgia, the defense of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Twenty-three percent of the polled said that Medvedev did not have any special achievements at all.

As for failures, the majority of Russian citizens believe that the sitting head of state does not have many of them.

Five percent of the polled said that Medvedev had not created the professional team, so he was unable to control the execution of his decisions. Four percent of the polled reproach Medvedev for the growing inflation rate. Alas, no leader in Russia's contemporary history has been able to avoid this phenomenon. Three percent of the polled believe that the president does not take enough anti-corruption efforts.

One may thus conclude that despite a number of problems, the majority of the Russian people highly evaluate the intellectual and professional potential of the incumbent president.

Valery Fyodorov, the director of the above-mentioned research center, said that the researchers presented open questions to respondents.

"There were no variants offered. The people were saying the things that they had on their minds. So what do they have? Current events obviously distract people from strategic topics. It is impossible to reform the Interior Ministry in one day, of course, not even in one year, and everyone is aware of that. The president said in the very beginning that it was a strategic goal which he would be dealing with gradually. If something important happens - a plane crashes, for instance - then the event pushes everything else into the background, especially such complex issues. Therefore, I would not say that the results of the poll are not satisfactory for the president. Quite on the contrary, I believe that the poll showed positive results.

"There is another factor, though, and it's about the way how journalists should work with information and how they deal with objective, honest approaches and biasness and wishful thinking.

47 percent of the polled Russians could not name any achievements of the sitting president. First off, 47 percent could not say anything at all. If people are asked an open question, the share of the undecided will be approximately the same. This is a peculiarity of this method. The people who know that - they simply take this factor into consideration during analysis, and they don't make a drama out of it. If we count the number of those people who spoke about victories and success, they will outnumber those who spoke about their absence.

"We are dealing with the classic usage of sociological information by mass media. They may withhold important facts, shift accents, and reformulate the facts to match the editorial policy of a certain publication rather than of a separate journalist."

Medvedev changes presidential envoys

Head of the Presidential Department of Internal Policy, Oleg Govorun, has been appointed presidential envoy for the Central Federal District after the district’s former envoy Georgy Poltavchenko was moved to become St. Petersburg Governor.

Before Govorun became a civil servant he worked at Alfa Bank, and was the head of their department of communication with the state, where the current first deputy head of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov also once worked.

Sources say that the move is a Kremlin’s attempt to replace Surkov’s team after the deputy head of government Vyacheslav Volodin’s positions strengthened, Moskovskiye Novosti reported.

Govorun will help with elections

Govorun was sent to Central Federal District to strengthen the Kremlin’s hand before the elections, political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko told Gazeta.ru.

“There are problems with Moscow and Moscow region, because United Russia’s ratings are not very high, and their party list in Moscow, based on the results of the primaries, is particularly weak, there are almost no ‘locomotives,” he said, using the term “locomotives” as a metaphor for popular personalities put on election lists to draw votes.

Deputy head of Political Technologies Center, Boris Makarenko, told Moskovskiye Novosti that the reasons for Govorun’s appointment will be more apparent after the presidential election.

“It will be clear whether he was promoted or demoted with the new head of state. He will most likely keep his job, as they could not find a place for him in the administration,” he said.

Envoy in Northwestern Federal District Ilya Klebanov, was also fired, and former Urals Federal District envoy Nikolai Vinnichenko was appointed in his place.

Envoy in Northwestern Federal District Ilya Klebanov, was also fired, and former Urals Federal District envoy Nikolai Vinnichenko was appointed in his place.

Vinnichenko was replaced by his deputy Yevgeny Kuyvashev.

Experts say that Ilya Klebanov’s dismissal, however, does not fit Medvedev’s logic of “horizontal rotation.”

He was appointed envoy of Northwestern Federal District in 2003, and since then has changed the governors in his 11 regions nine times.

“As opposed to Poltavchenko, he is a very conflicted person. His squabbles with regional elites while causing annoyance at the federal level,” said Political Conjuncture Center expert Oxana Goncharenko.

Medvedev backs Libya sanctions

President Dmitry Medvedev gave his backing to a UN Security Council resolution which authorized international military action in Libya.

In a decree posted on the Kremlin’s website on Friday, Medvedev banned all Libyan flights in Russian air space with the exception of humanitarian flights and authorized searches of ships for weapons or military personnel.

The decree also bans all financial operations involving the assets of Gaddafi and members of his family and his aides.

Russian President Medvedev meets with journalists

The Kremlin drove 800 journalists to President Dmitry Medvedev's showplace business school outside Moscow on Wednesday for the first major news conference of his presidency, an all-day logistical endeavor that led to high expectations for a big announcement.

Medvedev, however, used his 2 hours 15 minutes with Russian and foreign journalists to tell them he has not yet decided whether to run for another term as president, assure them that he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin think very much alike, and suggest that the New START nuclear treaty with the United States could fall apart if Russia perceives that the proposed missile defense system in Europe is aimed at Russia, despite U.S. assurances to the contrary, according to the Washington Post..

Russia will boost its strike nuclear capabilities if NATO refuses to cooperate with Moscow in the European missile defense project, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.

"I hope that they [NATO] would respond to the questions put forward by President Barack Obama and me, and we will be able to forge a missile defense cooperation model. If we don't, then we will have to take retaliatory measures... then we will have to force the development of our strike nuclear potential," Medvedev said,

Obama hails Medvedev

US president Barack Obama has lavished praise on his counter part Dmitry Medvedev in a Russian TV interview, raising questions about loyalties in the Russian presidential election.

Washington and Moscow have enjoyed a steady thaw in ties since Medvedev and Obama took their respective offices after both Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush suffered somewhat strained relations.

But the 2012 question about whether Medvedev or Putin will be president in future means any implicit shows of support from the Oval Office will raise eyebrows – even if they will have little impact on the outcome of the race for the Kremlin.

“The US government has had a consistent strategy throughout Obama’s presidency of favoring Medvedev, encouraging Medvedev and partially predicating the reset on Medvedev being there,” Ben Judah at the European Council on Foreign Relations told The Moscow News.

With comparatively bold words Obama laid out his support for Medvedev as a partner in their countries reset in a TV interview broadcast on Rossiya 24.

“Immediately after the election I contacted President Medvedev and, in my opinion, we have formed a very successful partnership in our reset plan,” Obama said.

Putin was not forgotten and Obama briefly mentioned the prime minister’s support for the reset, but he moved swiftly back onto Medvedev, “because of all this, it seems to me, the relationship has improved dramatically in the last two years,” Obama said.

It’s far from the first time America’s Democrats have given tacit backing to a second term for Medvedev.

On a visit to Moscow in March Vice President Joe Biden came close to giving the sitting president the White House seal of approval.

And Obama and Medvedev have cultivated a friendly image for the cameras, typified by the “burger diplomacy” on display when the pair went out for fast food during Medvedev’s stateside trip last summer.

Andrei Kortunov, president of the Eurasia Foundation, said that Obama’s administration had “invested heavily” in relations with Medvedev, “More than once Obama has raised his voice in support of Medvedev and his policies,” he said.

But this comes with a caveat, as Putin or another candidate a could replace Medvedev in 2012. “That might be interpreted as a foreign policy defeat because the Republicans, for example, might say you made a huge investment and now we have to start almost everything from scratch,” Kortunov said.

Judah adds that American support is unlikely to keep Medvedev in the Kremlin, as there are other pressures bearing down.

“The Kremlin policy of using Putin to speak to the east and Medvedev to the west has come back to haunt them. In Beijing there is clear antipathy towards Medvedev who is seen as pro-Western and likely to reload the reset,” he said.

“In the West Medvedev is seen as a more sincere modernizer and a less abrasive negotiating partner. This strategy helped relations with both sides but now it has the potential to undermine either relationship. The presidency of [either Putin or Medvedev] will be seen as bad news for bilateral ties in either Washington or Beijing.”

Ministers back Putin’s front

Leading businessmen, politicians and officials – at least one of them a key liberal – are rushing to align themselves with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin just as his All-Russian Popular Front and the United Russia party kick off primaries to determine some 600 candidates who will run for a deputy seat in the State Duma.

Igor Komarov, chief of Russia’s biggest automaker, Avtovaz, publicly endorsed the Prime Minister to run for president next March during a dinner Wednesday in Togliatti.

"If you evaluate who has helped us in our hardest time, the answer is obvious... Mr. Putin," Komarov was quoted by Reuters as saying after a Reuters reporter asked whom he favored as the next president.

"He played the principle role. It was his risk, his decision. He said we need to rescue Avtovaz."

Putin played a high-profile role in publically supporting the struggling car plant when the economic crisis hit the country in 2009 with a billion dollar bailout and a series of visits.

The news came after Wednesday’s announcement that Putin’s first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov was joining the All-Russian Popular Front – a movement created by Putin in May to revive his United Russia party and draw a wider support base.

Shuvalov, who oversees the government’s economic programs, is seen as a key liberal and was tipped in March to head the pro-business Pravoye Delo party.

But in June its chairmanship wound up going to billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who vowed to get the party Duma seats and said that it would break from its oppositionist past.

Shuvalov became the second high-ranking government official to join the Front after first deputy prime minister Viktor Zubkov signed up earlier this summer. Asked if other members of the Cabinet were expected to join the Front, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov told The Moscow News that it could not be ruled out. He added it was too soon to tell which ministers these might be.

Earlier Vedomosti reported that four deputy prime ministers and two ministers were likely to head regional party lists for United Russia. These included Zubkov, Shuvalov, deputy prime ministers Igor Sechin, Dmitry Kozak, Alexander Zhukov and Vyacheslav Volodin, the business daily reported citing unnamed sources in the Kremlin and the government.

Reports appeared Thursday that a key founder of Just Russia, Alexander Babakov, was quitting the center-left oppositionist party to join the Front, according to a Perm-based newspaper, Sol.

This came after reports from one of the party’s leaders, Sergei Mironov, that at least three Just Russia members had broken with the party and joined the Front earlier in July.

Just Russia chairman Nikolai Levichev confirmed Babakov’s departure and said joining the Front would increase his chances of getting into the Duma. “No one at the party will regret his move,” Levichev was quoted by Gazeta.ru as saying.

Babakov’s move to join the Front was neither confirmed nor denied by Peskov or representatives of the People’s Front as of print time.

The reports came just a week after President Dmitry Medvedev purportedly hinted to a group of businessmen to make up their minds about which course the country should take. While the remark at the closed meeting was interpreted as a request to choose between him and Putin, experts cautioned into reading too much into it.

Neither Putin nor Medvedev have said whether they would run for president in the March 2012 elections, though both have suggested it is unlikely that they will both run. With Duma elections approaching, various enigmatic hints on the political scene are raising intrigue about who will be the next president.

But a leading expert said that many people were joining the Front to secure their careers rather than endorse Putin specifically.

“There is a wide sense of panic” in the elite about getting into the Duma, Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist and a coordinator of United Russia’s liberal wing said. “People are thinking, what if Just Russia doesn’t get into the Duma?”

As for Shuvalov, “when he refused to head Pravoye Delo it became clear that he wanted to remain in Putin’s team. His move to join the Front will determine his career.”

Medvedev: Cruise organizers, not only 'scapegoats' must answer for shipwreck

Gorki, July 15 (Interfax) - All agencies responsible for the tourist process must answer for the recent cruise boat disaster, President Dmitry Medvedev said.

"This means that not only people who rubber-stamp documents, not only scapegoats, but also organizers of the cruise must answer," Medvedev said at a meeting devoted specifically to the recent cruise boat disaster on Friday.

"The measure of punishment to be chosen must make it clear to each executive, irrespective of rank, that he will be held responsible for each cruise not only administratively, but also criminally. Criminal liability must be sufficiently serious," Medvedev said.

"Unfortunately, we won't be able to renew the river and sea fleets either in a year, or in a few years to come," he said.

"It is a complicated and costly project. To be honest, not a single new ship has been built or bought in the past 20 years. But this does not mean that all those responsible for clearing ships on sail must just rubber-stamp permits," Medvedev said.

All must be criminally liable, he said, adding that, "the investigation must therefore be thorough and based on complex and sophisticated checks."

"It is our task to find out the causes - they are more or less clear now - and also to prevent disasters," he said
.

Time to ground Tu-134s - Medvedev

Russia’s Tu-134 fleet is set to be grounded, President Dmitry Medvedev said during a visit to RIA .

Following Monday’s crash in Petrozavodsk the president said it was time to retire the Soviet-era workhorses of the sky from service.

However, preliminary analysis of flight recorders suggests that the crash was not due to any technical problem with the aircraft, and pilot error is believed to be the most likely cause.

Medvedev Questions Future of BP, Post-Spill

President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday questioned the future of BP, saying its spill in the Gulf of Mexico could ultimately ruin the oil major.

"No one knows what will happen to the Gulf of Mexico, with the flora and fauna of the sea. There is even an uncertainty as to what will happen to the firm," Medvedev told a meeting on environmental regulation.

"The nature of environmental responsibility is such that it can destroy anyone," he said.

BP, which traces its history back to 1909, is the fourth-largest company in the world, with revenue of $246.1 billion in 2009. One-quarter of its global output comes from TNK-BP, a 50-50 joint venture with Russian partners.

Speaking in Finland, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the BP spill, saying nothing like that could happen with the Nord Stream pipeline.

"The Gulf of Mexico is, of course, a long way away, but we're enduring [the accident] alongside those who are now facing this catastrophe, which is taking on a global nature,” Putin said, Interfax reported.

BP has had a bumpy experience in Russia since establishing its 50-50 joint venture, TNK-BP, in 2003. The venture has suffered from a conflict between BP and its billionaire Russia-connected partners, whom BP accused of using administrative pressure and judicial connections to win a dispute over strategy and management control in 2008.

On Thursday, BP was undertaking its latest attempt, dubbed the top kill, to seal a gushing well deep underwater in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill created by a deadly blast aboard a rig, which was leased by BP, is shaping up to be the worst in U.S. history.

Medvedev also said Russia needed to "put an end to the environmental nihilism" and introduce stronger punishments for infractions, Interfax reported. Medvedev has made the fight against "legal nihilism" — his term for the country's flawed judicial system — a cornerstone of his presidency.

Yanukovych plays the Moscow card

Ukraine's new leader, Viktor Yanukovych, is betting on a strongly pro-Russian and anti-Orange stance ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev's state visit to Kiev on Monday, as he seeks to gain Moscow's help with the country's struggling economy.

With the European Union's attention focused on Greek and Portuguese financial woes, it may be just the time to play the Moscow card, analysts say.

Medvedev is set to sign a bunch of deals, variously on border demarcation, joint use of Russia's Glonass satellite system, cooperation between Russia's VTB and Ukraine's Ukreximbank and on cultural and scientific corporation, RIA Novosti reported.

In the most controversial area, energy, talks but no deals are expected.

Yanukovych has made dramatic overtures towards Moscow since his election in February. Most controversial has been the deal to extend the lease for Russia's Black Sea naval base by 25 years in return for gas savings of up to $40 billion over the next decade.

And in what looks like a well-timed move, two criminal investigations were opened against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko this week, putting Yanukovych's main opponent on the defensive ahead of Medvedev's visit next week.

Another contentious issue for Ukraine's nationalist opposition could be talks between Russian and Ukrainian security services on the resumption of patrols by Russia's Federal Security Service officers around Russia's Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol in the Crimea. A deal on the patrols could be signed on May 19, during Medvedev's visit to Kiev.

Ukraine's prosecutors have revived a 2001 bribery investigation against Tymoshenko that was halted after the Orange Revolution in 2005 and opened a new investigation into claims she skimmed hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of Kyoto emission quotas to Japan.

The investigations were launched as Tymoshenko was stepping up her campaign against Yanukovych's new government. She has called the investigations a personal attack by Yanukovych against her.

The decision on whether she will be taken into custody or not will be made on May 17, the day Medvedev is due to arrive in Kiev.

According to Sergei Markov, a senior United Russia State Duma deputy, it is unlikely that Tymoshenko will go to jail. "However, the investigation can be used as pressure on Tymoshenko's European partners," he said.

The moves against Tymoshenko are either intended as a signal to Moscow or an attempt by the Yanukovych regime to consolidate power, but either way they underpin Ukraine's new enthusiasm for Moscow, analysts said.

"Unexpectedly, Ukraine has moved closer to Moscow in the last couple of days, politically and economically," Alexander Rahr, a Russia and Eastern Europe expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told The Moscow News. "It looks like Ukraine is steadily moving towards becoming a member of the single economic space," an ambitious reunification program Russia pledged to complete by 2012 with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Though Ukraine is increasingly looking eastwards, the country has no intention of giving up on closer ties with Europe, analysts said.

"Neither Ukraine nor its partners can count on a quick resolution of its economic problems" unless it gets help from Russia, said Dmitry Danilov, head of European Security Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Europe.

Yanukovych had initially proposed a three-way consortium between Naftogaz, Gazprom and European investors to rebuild Ukraine's dilapidated gas transport system. But those plans appear to be scuppered after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin instead proposed a straight two-way merger between Gazprom and Naftogaz, which would see the Russian energy giant practically swallowing up the undercapitalised Ukrainian company.

Yanukovych's government has not yet reacted to the offer, and officials no such deals are expected during Medvedev's visit. But analysts said it was a proposal that Yanukovych would certainly be considering.

"Right now Yanukovych is interested in stability, particularly energy stability," Danilov said. "Ukraine got a very nice offer - it was a step forward. Though Yanukovych will be criticised for selling out to Russia, he is effectively taking advantage of the situation and getting gas concessions."

Ukraine understands that the European Union is currently too preoccupied with Greece and Portugal, and with its own economic problems, said Rahr, of the German Council on Foreign Relations. "It can expect less from the European Union than it can from Russia."

The EU, faced with its own budget problems, has "irresponsibly lost Ukraine" from its field of vision, Rahr said. "I have heard nothing concrete about any steps in the partnership with Ukraine."

Europe is not giving up on Ukraine, but there is an acknowledgement that there is little it can currently offer. Meanwhile, Russia has mutual interests with Ukraine, Rahr said.
Those interests appear to be more economic than political, said Markov, of United Russia. "The integrated assets of Russia and Ukraine will be more capitalised, and they will bring more profit for both sides," he said.

Russia's Medvedev says he may seek second term

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he may run for a second term in the 2012 presidential election.

Medvedev's predecessor and mentor, Vladimir Putin, has previously said they will decide between them who will run. Putin is widely considered to remain the nation's most powerful politician despite moving into the prime minister's seat. Most observers expect him to seek a return to the presidency in 2012.

Medvedev told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten in an interview posted on the Kremlin Web site Saturday that he "doesn't exclude" seeking re-election in 2012.

He said that he would make a decision on whether to run if the public is satisfied with his work during the first term and if he is confident of his electoral performance.

Sarkozy supports Medvedev’s modernization programme

Nicolas Sarkozy vowed support for Medvedev's course for modernization and talked about selling Russia four Mistral ships.

After Medvedev's official visit the French president said that Russia might buy not one, but four Mistral helicopter-carrying ships. At the press conference after the meeting Sarkozy said that "exclusive talks" on the purchase were taking place and that two of the ships were to be built in the French Saint-Nazaire and two in Russia under license. The deal could be worth as much as $3 billion.

It is seen as a turnaround in the French-Russian relations.After Sarkozy was elected in 2007 he distances himself from Russia, criticizing its poor human rights record and actions in Chechnya, yet in 2008 he negotiated ceasefire in the conflict with Georgia. The Russian President's visit "marked a shift from hostility to warm embrace."

During the dinner that closed Medvedev's visit to Paris Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his support for Medvedev's modernization initiative. "Mr President, I am aware of your personal contribution to the reinforcement of the relationship between France and Russia. I am also aware of your desire to modernize Russian society and we would like to help you with it up to the completion of the modernization and the implementation of your plans aimed against corruption and towards the development of legal state," Sarkozy said at the beginning of the dinner.

During the business forum that was part of the visit Medvedev invited the French businessmen to the economic forum in St Petersburg in June. President Sarkozy said that he would be happy to visit the forum with a delegation of French companies that trust Russia and want to invest in it. He underlined that at the moment French investments in Russia exceeded those of their American friends.

The two presidents stressed that the relationship between the two countries was deeply historic and that Russian and French cultures had a lot in common.

Medvedev Invites Ukraine President - Elect To Moscow

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia invited Ukrainian president-elect Viktor Yanukovich on Monday to visit Moscow, aiming to consolidate improved relations with Kiev after years of acrimony under the outgoing president.

President Dmitry Medvedev made the invitation in a letter to Yanukovich released by the Kremlin press service.Ukraine's electoral commission confirmed on Sunday Yanukovich's win over his rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a runoff on February 7, paving the way for his inauguration. Tymoshenko says she intends challenging the result in court.If Yanukovich accepts the invitation, it could be his first foreign trip as president, reinforcing expectations that he will steer the former Soviet republic back towards Moscow's orbit.In a pointed reference to outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko, Medvedev's letter said the election showed that Ukrainians "desired to end the historically doomed attempts to sow discord between the people of our countries."Both Yanukovich and Tymoshenko said they wanted better relations with Moscow after five years of estrangement under Yushchenko, who was swept to power on a wave of anti-Russian sentiment and wanted Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO.Western leaders have also congratulated Yanukovich on his win and praised the poll for meeting democratic standards.During campaigning, Yanukovich stressed the "historical partnership" of Ukraine and Russia that goes beyond strategic relations. But he has also promised to tackle the country's economic problems and move it closer to the EU.

Medvedev Orders Deep Police Reforms

President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday pressed ahead with a drive for reforms in the scandal-plagued Interior Ministry, ordering sweeping personnel cuts in the ministry's massive bureaucracy and promising harsh punishment for police who break the law.

At a meeting with top Interior Ministry officials, Medvedev said he had ordered the number of personnel at the ministry's head office to be halved to about 10,000. He also dismissed two deputy interior ministers and 16 senior police officials.

Medvedev vowed to take personal control of the reforms and said wave of violent crimes committed by police officers over the past year had "eroded" the authority of police.

"A series of incidents have caused a strong public reaction, eroding the authority of the Interior Ministry and its personnel," Medvedev said. "The responsibility of Interior Ministry personnel on all levels will be strengthened."

He said he had given Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev one month to formulate measures to combat police abuses and attract better recruits to the police force.

Critics have dismissed previous attempts to implement police reforms as half-hearted and superficial, but the personnel cuts announced by Medvedev on Thursday were far from minor. He fired two of Nurgaliyev's deputies — Nikolai Ovchinnikov and Arkady Yevdeleyev — and replaced them with senior members of the presidential administration: Sergei Gerasimov and Sergei Bulavin.

The move indicates that Medvedev may be trying to install his own people in key positions in law enforcement agencies. Bulavin is a former police general, while Gerasimov worked as a deputy prosecutor general before joining the presidential administration.

Medvedev also sacked the top police officials in eight regions and replaced them with new appointees.

Former police general Alexei Volkov, a State Duma deputy with the ruling United Russia party, told The Moscow Times on Thursday that the political will exists to carry out substantive reforms. "There is an … understanding that doing nothing is not an option," said Volkov, deputy head of the Duma's security committee who attended Thursday's meeting with Medvedev.

A poll released by the respected Levada Center this week showed that more than two-thirds of Russians do not trust police.

A supermarket shooting rampage last year by Moscow police major Denis Yevsukov, who killed two and injured seven, has become the most egregious example of police abuse over the last year. But reports of police harassment, violence and corruption are routine.

Medvedev told Thursday's meeting that authorities had opened about 15,000 criminal cases involving corruption, but that the figure was "just the tip of the iceberg."

Nurgaliyev, meanwhile, told Thursday's meeting that police officers themselves are increasingly being threatened with violence and blackmail by civilians. The ministry's internal affairs department received more than 1,000 complaints from police officers last year involving purported crimes committed against them by citizens, Nurgaliyev said.

Experts and police officers themselves say meager police salaries breed corruption, and Medvedev on Thursday said salaries would be boosted for police officers, who earn on average anywhere between $300 and $660, depending on their region.
 
As part of the reforms, the Interior Ministry will also transfer the country's network of drunk tanks to the Health and Social Development Ministry. Established during Soviet times, drunk tanks faced increased scrutiny in recent months after a Russian journalist in a Tomsk drunk tank was beaten to death by a police officer on duty.

Medvedev Invites Ukraine President - Elect To Moscow

MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia invited Ukrainian president-elect Viktor Yanukovich on Monday to visit Moscow, aiming to consolidate improved relations with Kiev after years of acrimony under the outgoing president.
President Dmitry Medvedev made the invitation in a letter to Yanukovich released by the Kremlin press service.Ukraine's electoral commission confirmed on Sunday Yanukovich's win over his rival Yulia Tymoshenko in a runoff on February 7, paving the way for his inauguration. Tymoshenko says she intends challenging the result in court.If Yanukovich accepts the invitation, it could be his first foreign trip as president, reinforcing expectations that he will steer the former Soviet republic back towards Moscow's orbit.In a pointed reference to outgoing President Viktor Yushchenko, Medvedev's letter said the election showed that Ukrainians "desired to end the historically doomed attempts to sow discord between the people of our countries."Both Yanukovich and Tymoshenko said they wanted better relations with Moscow after five years of estrangement under Yushchenko, who was swept to power on a wave of anti-Russian sentiment and wanted Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO.Western leaders have also congratulated Yanukovich on his win and praised the poll for meeting democratic standards.During campaigning, Yanukovich stressed the "historical partnership" of Ukraine and Russia that goes beyond strategic relations. But he has also promised to tackle the country's economic problems and move it closer to the EU.

Medvedev keeps shuffling regional leaders

President Dmitry Medvedevt nominated new governors to Krasnoyarsk region, Khanty-Mansiisk, Dagestan and the Jewish Autonomous Region as part of his course of refreshing the governors' corps.
State Duma member Natalia Komarova, 55, will head Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous Region in Siberia to become the second female governor in Russia after the head of St Petersburg Valentina Matvienko. Kommersant daily said Komarova's gender was an argument for Medvedev in making his choice. Medvedev has said on several occasions that there should be more women at high official and corporate posts.
The gubernatorial job in the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region freed up after Alexander Khloponin was dispatched by the Kremlin as a powerful envoy to the troubled North Caucasus in January 2010. His replacement, 45-year-old Lev Kuznetsov, had been vice-governor of the region until 2007.
Alexander Vinnikov, 55, mayor of the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidzhan, will become governor of the far-eastern province bordering China.
Magomedsalam Magomedov, 46, nominated for the post of the Dagestani president, is the son of the North Caucasus republics former leader Magomedali Magomedov, who left the post in 2006.
Last week 52-year-old Rustam Minnikhanov took the president's post in Tatarstan replacing veteran Mentimer Shaimiyev, who ruled the region since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991.
This year the terms of 30 regional governors including Kalinigrad head Georgy Boos, Aman Tuleev of Kemerovo region and Perm's Oleg Chirkunov will expire.
In the first two years in power, Medvedev has replaced over 20 percent of governors. He has said he favoured limiting the stay in gubernatorial jobs by three four-year terms.
Nine out of 83 Russian regional governors have been in power for more than 15 years.

Kremlin Security Scare

A 35-year-old man was detained after he tried to force his way into the Kremlin, saying he wanted to marry President Dmitry Medvedev's daughter. Medvedev has a teenage son but no daughters. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Medvedev's predecessor, has two daughters.
The man, whom police identified only as Bakhtiyar from Dagestan, was sent for psychiatric tests.

Medvedev and Putin on politics and porn

Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wrestled with the thorny issue of political reform at Friday's State Council session, attended by top officials and parliamentary leaders, with the president urging lawmakers and top officials to work towards political modernisation and the prime minister warning against "Ukrainianisation".
"Our political system works. It's far from being ideal but it works," said Medvedev. However, "real political competition is virtually non-existent" and there is lack of "real... political discussion."
Putin backed the president, but counselled caution, saying a political system "shouldn't quiver like thin jelly every time it's touched," referring to Ukraine as a bad example of political infighting.
Putin also threw cold water on calls for a bigger Internet role in politics, saying that 50 per cent of the Internet was "pornographic material."

Medvedev Steps Up Efforts to Boost Population

President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday promised to step up the fight against the country's dramatic demographic decline, boosted by the news of the first annual population increase since 1995.
But Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova warned that a host of negative factors need to be tackled, including a looming drop in women in their fertile years and sky-high abortion rates.
Golikova said Monday that preliminary statistics for last year showed that the country's population of 141.9 million had either remained stable or increased by 15,000 to 25,000 people.
The country's population has shrunk by 6 million since the Soviet collapse in 1991 because of economic hardship, rampant alcoholism and other factors.
Speaking at a Kremlin meeting of the presidential council for national projects, Medvedev said the state would focus on reducing infant and mother mortality rates, fighting alcohol and drug abuse and improving support for families and children.
Part of the government's effort is to build more maternity hospitals. The government promised back in 2008 to build 23 so-called perinatal centers by the end of this year. Medvedev said he would like to hear how construction has progressed.
Infant mortality — deaths under the age of 1 — has fallen to 8.1 children per 1,000 births nationally but still stands at more than 10 in impoverished regions like Chechnya, which had a rate of 16.7 last year, Golikova said in a statement on her ministry's web site.
According to UNICEF, the infant mortality rate in 2007 was five deaths per 1,000 live births in Britain and seven in the United States.
Golikova said last year's positive population figures were mainly achieved through an influx of immigrants, mostly from other former Soviet republics, while 1.76 million births could not replace 1.95 million deaths.
The minister told the council Tuesday that self-sustained population growth could only be achieved if the overall mortality rate were reduced by 5 percent annually through 2015, Interfax reported. Last year, she said, mortality was reduced by 4 percent.
Yet her ministry warned that the task would be complicated by an expected sharp drop in potential mothers. The share of women between 20 and 29, regarded as the most fertile age, is forecast to fall from a current 8.6 percent to 4.8 percent in 2020, the ministry said in an analysis posted on its web site.
Because of that, the ministry said, the country needs to significantly reduce the number of abortions, which is among the highest in the world.
Although abortion numbers have fallen by 23 percent over the past five years, they are still more than three times higher than in the United States. In 2008, Russia recorded 1.714 million births and 1.234 million abortions, which translates into a rate of 72 abortions per 100 births. Comparable U.S. statistics stand at 20 abortions per 100 births.
"Reducing abortions won't solve the birthrate problem by 100 percent, but by about 20 to 30 percent," Golikova told reporters Monday, Interfax reported.
Medvedev did not mention the abortion issue Tuesday, but he said the state should increase cooperation with and support for nongovernmental organizations that assist children and families.
The president also announced a 15 billion ruble ($0.5 billion) program to modernize the country's education system.
Part of the initiative is to reform teachers' salaries by adding performance-related pay, Medvedev said. "This is not just about increasing salaries but a whole set of measures to motivate those who achieve very good results," he said.
Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko announced this week that the country's pedagogical colleges, where teachers are trained, would be overhauled. "We have no shortage of teachers but a shortage of good teachers," he was quoted as saying by Kommersant.
Teachers' salaries average at 11,200 rubles ($378) nationwide and 36,000 rubles ($1,200) in Moscow, Fursenko said.
Statistics released by the Education and Science Ministry this week showed the dramatic effects of the demographic crisis on schools and universities.
While the number of first graders rose from 1.25 million in 2007 to 1.39 million in 2009 — the first increase in 12 years in 2009 — the overall number of high school students almost halved from 20.6 million in 1998 to 13.3 million last year.
The number of high school graduates fell from 1.25 million in 1998 to 900,000 in 2009 and is expected to drop to 700,000 in 2012.
As a consequence, university student numbers are expected to drop from the current 7.5 million to 4 million in the 2012-13 school year.
The country's population decline has dampened economic growth projections.
U.S. bank Goldman Sachs said in a report last month that Russia's economy could grow by 1.5 percent to 4.4 percent a year from 2011 to 2050, way behind the 3.6 percent to 7.9 percent annual growth projection for China or the 5.8 percent to 6.6 percent annual growth projection for India, Reuters reported.
The country's economy contracted by at least 8.5 percent in 2009, the biggest annual decline in 15 years.

Medvedev Reminds Kudrin to Be Polite

President Dmitry Medvedev had to remind Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to mind his manners Wednesday after a testy debate about a national payments system with Vneshekonombank chief Vladimir Dmitriyev.
Dmitriyev said a law was needed to create a national payment system that would be operated by a noncommercial entity and could include some 80 percent of Russian banks. Currently, several regional systems are operated by commercial banks, primarily state retail giant Sberbank, and these are not enough, he said.
“The idea is that [banks] could work through the operator with the public and cooperate with state bodies,” Dmitriyev told a meeting of the State Council, Interfax reported.
He said the system could be created within a year after the law was passed.
VEB is “ready to become the platform,” he said. Otherwise, a planned postal bank based on bailed-out Svyaz Bank and Russian Post could serve as the operator.
Kudrin, who also holds the rank of deputy prime minister, lashed out at Dmitriyev’s “inaccurate” comments.
“Dmitriyev, in his speech, gave a contentious, I’d even say conceptually inaccurate, approach to a national payments system,” Kudrin said, Interfax reported. “He’s confusing a powerful domestic system for handling accounts … with a national payment system.”
Kudrin said a bill to create a national payment system was being prepared by a working group, including representatives from the Finance and Economic Development ministries, the Central Bank and the banking industry.
But “the government hasn’t discussed this proposal by VEB, and these proposals came as something of a surprise for me today,” Kudrin said.
Medvedev said there would be time to discuss the payment system, which he proposed would complement his plan to make more government services available electronically.
“And there’s a second thing,” Medvedev said. “It’s small, but important. In our country, it’s historically accepted that when speaking about people who are present, we address them by name and patronymic, not in the third person.”
Turning to Kudrin, he added: “Alexei Leonidovich, I’d ask you not to forget that.”
Kudrin apologized to Medvedev, who responded that he was not the one who should be asked for forgiveness.