http://wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/russ-m04.shtml
Putin-Medvedev tandem wins presidential election in Russia
By Vladimir Volkov
4 March 2008
The presidential elections held March 2 in Russia ended, as expected, in a victory for the tandem made up of the departing president, Vladimir Putin, and the former vice premier, Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev, the Kremlin’s main candidate, personally chosen by Putin as his successor and supported by the administrative, financial and media resources of the authoritarian Russian regime, won in the first round of voting by a wide margin over three other candidates.
According to data from the Central Election Committee, with 99.5 percent of the ballots counted Medvedev had won 70.23 percent of the votes; Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party, had won 17.76 percent; the head of the right-wing nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, had obtained 9.37 percent; and the leader of the tiny Democratic Party, Andrei Bogdanov, had polled 1.29 percent.
Voter turnout was 69.61 percent, a bit lower than the previous presidential election in 2004. But the Kremlin deemed the overall result sufficient to provide the appearance of legitimacy in the transfer of presidential power.
The election campaign took place under conditions of gross violations of elementary democratic procedures, similar to those which occurred in the parliamentary (Duma) elections held last December. In the earlier elections, the victory of the Kremlin-bureaucratic party “United Russia” was achieved with the aid of “administrative resources” and fraud.
In several regions the number of those voting in December reached nearly 100 percent, and in some places the official turnout even exceeded the maximum possible. At the conclusion of the elections to the Duma, nearly 200 of the 450 newly elected deputies handed over their mandates to other people. In their stead, deputy governors, mayors and other representatives, for whom no one had voted, became deputies.
The parliamentary elections were declared “a vote of confidence in Putin,” and the subsequent propaganda campaign was built around the proposition that the Russian people had already “made their choice,” which now had simply to be formalized with regard to the presidential candidate who had been selected by Putin.
The procedure of nominating and registering candidates for president in Russia at the present time is both repressive and forbidding, making it practically impossible for a figure who is not approved by the authorities to appear on the ballot.
Some three weeks were allocated for nominating candidates, during which time a prospective candidate had to prepare and conduct a meeting of no less than 500 citizens. One of the leaders of the liberal opposition, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, was not able to hold such a meeting because the administrative building where space had been rented suddenly annulled the contract. Kasparov, who has no problems with money, was not able to find another place in Moscow, and was forced to cancel his candidacy.
The second stage was the gathering of 2 million signatures nationwide, which had to be accomplished by the middle of January. The first two weeks of the new year in Russia are holidays, and many people spend the time at home or on vacation.
It is virtually impossible to gather the required number of signatures within the designated period. As a result, the election lists submitted are, for the most part, fake, allowing the authorities to disqualify candidates they consider to be unsuitable.
That is what happened with Mikhail Kasyanov, who was the premier during Putin’s first term as president in 2000-2004, and who now is one of the main representatives of the liberal opposition. Retaining his old authority in the state apparatus, and enjoying the support of big business, Kasyanov is viewed by the Kremlin as a dangerous opponent.
The Central Election Committee found that around 15 percent of his ballot papers were invalid, while the allowed number is 5 percent.
On the other hand, the election committee ruled that Andrei Bogdanov, a candidate supported by the Kremlin as a lure for the liberally inclined electorate, passed muster with only 3 percent invalid signatures. The party headed by Bogdanov had received a total of 90,000 votes in the parliamentary elections. This did not prevent him from collecting the necessary signatures to run for president—a number more than twenty times the votes his party had just received.
Medvedev’s election campaign was, in fact, an undertaking conducted by the state apparatus. His staff was run by the head of the president’s administration, Sergei Sobyanin, and the heads of the majority of regional staffs were deputy governors. The first conference of the leaders of Medvedev’s regional headquarters was held in the building that houses the Russian president’s offices on Moscow’s Old Square—the bastion of the former Soviet bureaucracy.
Medvedev refused to appear personally at the reception held for the candidate’s registration certification, even though he was in Moscow. He also refused to participate in the television debates.
He conducted his entire campaign while remaining at the post of vice premier and repeatedly appearing in public with President Putin. He participated in several important international meetings, in particular, the signing of the pact with Serbia on the construction of gas pipeline branches for the “South Stream.”
The amount of television coverage Medvedev enjoyed was three times greater than that of all the other candidates, whose television debates were broadcast early in the morning and late at night.
All of this was calculated to convince the voters that Medvedev was not a candidate competing against others, but rather the inevitable winner for whom there was no alternative.
The final trump card employed by the Kremlin was the formation within the Central Election Committee, five days before the election, of a so-called “working group.” Members of this body, which was not provided for by law, were limited to representatives of the ruling party, United Russia. The “working group” was given the exclusive right to count and verify the actual ballots.
All of these efforts produced the desired results. Even without them, Medvedev might have won by a substantial margin. However, the Kremlin higher-ups understand well that the real moods in society are replete with feelings of dissatisfaction which could find sudden expression if the bulldog grip from above were relaxed.
An important factor in realizing the Kremlin’s plans was the political prostration of all of the other political forces and their readiness to accept the rules of the game as dictated from above.
None of the parties of official Russian politics—be they liberals or Russian nationalists—represent the interests of the workers. They serve instead as instruments in the hands of one or another layer of the ruling oligarchy and upper bureaucracy. They fear the growing discontent from below more than the humiliation they receive at the hands of the authoritarian Kremlin powers.
Medvedev’s election campaign proceeded under the slogan of “continuing Putin’s course,” and was accompanied by a flood of demagogy and lies. Using favorable macroeconomic indicators and the strengthened position of Russian capitalism on the international arena—as a result of the vast inflation in energy prices—Medvedev and Putin claimed that their economic “success” benefited not only the upper crust, but also wide layers of society.
Thus, in speaking last month at a session of the State Council, Putin declared: “We must free the country from the vicious practice of making state decisions under the pressure of natural resource and finance monopolies, of media magnates, foreign political circles and unbridled populists, where not only the national interest, but the elementary demands of millions of people are cynically ignored.”
Meanwhile, a central result of Putin’s rule has been a vast growth in social inequality and the impoverishment of significant layers of society.
In an opinion piece in the March 3 edition of the government newspaper Russian Gazette, Evgeny Gontmakher, head of the Center of Social Policy at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Science, wrote that “the quality of life has declined for the majority of the population (even those considered moderately well-off).”
“Thus, in particular,” he continued, “quality health care and education to an ever greater extent must be paid for. In addition, people are forced to pay unofficially. As a result, only 15-20 percent of the population are able to maintain their health at a decent level and give their children a competitive education... The rest are forced to vegetate.”
Gontmakher noted one more “troubling fact:” the ratio of the average pension to the average wage in Russia is constantly decreasing, and has now fallen to less than 25 percent, where the minimum norm is 40 percent.
In contrast, the Russian oligarchs are becoming ever wealthier. The journal Finance, in its yearly survey, noted that in one year the wealth of Oleg Deripaska, the most successful Russian businessman, almost doubled, and has reached $40 billion. In recent years, the number of dollar billionaires in Russia has almost doubled—from 61 to 101 people.
Showing posts with label Gary Kasparov. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gary Kasparov. Show all posts
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Spokesman: Bobby Fischer Has Died
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZKsZzlfUKLK8IUCthGuEGnnwvuQD8U89LL00
Spokesman: Bobby Fischer Has Died
By GUDJON HELGASON
1-18-8
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Robert James Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century.
The event had tremendous symbolic importance, pitting the intensely individualistic young American against a product of the grim and soulless Soviet Union.
It also was marked by Fischer's odd behavior — possibly calculated psychological warfare against Spassky — that ranged from arriving two days late to complaining about the lighting, TV cameras, the spectators, even the shine on the table.
Spassky said in a brief phone call from France, where he lives, that he was "very sorry" to hear of Fischer's death.
Former Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov said Fischer's conquest of the chess world in the 1960s was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game.
But Fischer's reputation as a chess genius soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies. He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments, although his mother was Jewish.
"The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess," Kasparov told The Associated Press.
Fischer lived in secret outside the United States but emerged in 1992 to confront Spassky again, in a highly publicized match in Yugoslavia. Fischer beat Spassky 10-5 to win $3.35 million.
The U.S. government said Fischer's playing the match violated U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia, imposed for Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic's role in fomenting war in the Balkans.
Over the years, Fischer gave occasional interviews with a radio station in the Philippines, often digressing into anti-Semitic rants and accusing American officials of hounding him.
He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish.
He also announced he had abandoned chess in 1996 and launched a new version in Argentina, "Fischerandom," a computerized shuffler that randomly distributes chess pieces on the back row of the board at the start of each game.
Fischer claimed it would bring the fun back into the game and rid it of cheats.
In July 2004, Fischer was arrested in Japan and threatened with extradition to the United States to face sanctions-busting charges. He spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland — a chess-mad nation and site of his greatest triumph — granted him citizenship.
Fischer told reporters that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.
"The United States is evil. There's this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil — the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers," Fischer said.
In his final years, Fischer railed against the chess establishment, alleging that the outcomes of many top-level chess matches were decided in advance.
Instead, he championed his concept of random chess.
"I don't play the old chess," he told reporters upon arrival in Iceland. "But obviously if I did, I would be the best."
Spokesman: Bobby Fischer Has Died
By GUDJON HELGASON
1-18-8
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.
Fischer died Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said. There was no immediate word on the cause of death.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, Robert James Fischer was a U.S. chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15. He beat Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century.
The event had tremendous symbolic importance, pitting the intensely individualistic young American against a product of the grim and soulless Soviet Union.
It also was marked by Fischer's odd behavior — possibly calculated psychological warfare against Spassky — that ranged from arriving two days late to complaining about the lighting, TV cameras, the spectators, even the shine on the table.
Spassky said in a brief phone call from France, where he lives, that he was "very sorry" to hear of Fischer's death.
Former Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov said Fischer's conquest of the chess world in the 1960s was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game.
But Fischer's reputation as a chess genius soon was eclipsed by his idiosyncrasies. He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, emerging occasionally to make erratic and often anti-Semitic comments, although his mother was Jewish.
"The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess," Kasparov told The Associated Press.
Fischer lived in secret outside the United States but emerged in 1992 to confront Spassky again, in a highly publicized match in Yugoslavia. Fischer beat Spassky 10-5 to win $3.35 million.
The U.S. government said Fischer's playing the match violated U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia, imposed for Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic's role in fomenting war in the Balkans.
Over the years, Fischer gave occasional interviews with a radio station in the Philippines, often digressing into anti-Semitic rants and accusing American officials of hounding him.
He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying America should be "wiped out," and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." His mother was Jewish.
He also announced he had abandoned chess in 1996 and launched a new version in Argentina, "Fischerandom," a computerized shuffler that randomly distributes chess pieces on the back row of the board at the start of each game.
Fischer claimed it would bring the fun back into the game and rid it of cheats.
In July 2004, Fischer was arrested in Japan and threatened with extradition to the United States to face sanctions-busting charges. He spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland — a chess-mad nation and site of his greatest triumph — granted him citizenship.
Fischer told reporters that he was finished with a chess world he regarded as corrupt, and sparred with U.S. journalists who asked about his anti-American tirades.
"The United States is evil. There's this axis of evil. What about the allies of evil — the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers," Fischer said.
In his final years, Fischer railed against the chess establishment, alleging that the outcomes of many top-level chess matches were decided in advance.
Instead, he championed his concept of random chess.
"I don't play the old chess," he told reporters upon arrival in Iceland. "But obviously if I did, I would be the best."
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Monitors say Russian vote unfair
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_eu/russia_election
Monitors say Russian vote unfair
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
12-3-7
Foreign observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary election victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the results as a validation of his leadership.
With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Putin's United Russia party was leading with 64.1 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said — which would give it a sweep of 70 percent of seats in parliament.
The only opposition party to make it into parliament, the Communists, trailed with just 11.6 percent of the vote, with Kremlin-allied parties claiming the rest of Sunday's vote.
The Communists, Liberals and foreign observers criticized the vote as unfair. Opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the ex-chess champion, denounced the vote Monday as "the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia."
But Putin and his allies praised the result as an overwhelming endorsement of his leadership and policies.
"Of course it's a sign of trust," Putin said in televised remarks. "Russians will never allow the nation to take a destructive path, as happened in some other ex-Soviet nations."
The election followed a tense Kremlin campaign that relied in part on persuasion and intimidation to ensure a rout for United Russia and the president, who has used Russia's energy riches in an effort to restore Moscow's influence on the global stage.
Putin is expected to claim the victory gives him the mandate to remain Russia's de facto leader even after he steps down as president in May, as required by the constitution.
It was "not a fair election," said Goran Lennmarker, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The election monitoring arm of the OSCE — regarded in the West as the most authoritative election monitor — did not send observers, saying Russia delayed granting visas for so long that the organization would have been unable to meaningfully assess election preparations.
Luc van den Brande, who headed the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said Russian authorities exerted the "overwhelming influence of the president's office and the president" on the campaign, skewing its outcome.
In Berlin, government spokesman Thomas Steg said Germany considered Russia's vote neither fair nor free, adding that the country could not be considered a democracy.
The Bush administration and Britain's Foreign Office urged Russian authorities to probe alleged voting irregularities.
"In the run-up to election day, we expressed our concern regarding the use of state administrative resources in support of United Russia, the bias of the state-owned or -influenced media in favor of United Russia, intimidation of political opposition, and the lack of equal opportunity encountered by opposition candidates and parties," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council.
Kimmo Kiljunen, vice president of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, called the elections "strange" and "problematic," citing reports of harassment of parties and confiscation of election materials.
"These elections, from my point of view, were done in a Russian way," he said. "I mean that there was the strange situation that the executive branch almost chose the legislative branch. It is supposed to be the other way round."
Turnout was about 63 percent, up from 56 percent in the last parliamentary elections four years ago.
The Kremlin portrayed the election as a plebiscite on Putin's nearly eight years as president. Putin is widely popular, in part because of Russia's oil-fueled economic boom and his ambition to revive Russia's status as a great power.
United Russia said it will name its presidential candidate at its congress set for Dec. 17 — most likely a figurehead who stands to be overshadowed by Putin.
Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, but he clearly wants to remain in power even though he has ruled out changing the constitution to allow him to run for another term as president.
A movement has sprung up in recent weeks to urge him to become a "national leader," though it's not clear what that would mean.
United Russia's victory would give it 315 seats in Russia's 450-seat State Duma, election officials said. The Communists would have just over 50 seats.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called the election "the most irresponsible and dirty" in the post-Soviet era and party officials vowed to challenge the results.
Two other pro-Kremlin parties — the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and populist Just Russia — also appeared to have made it into parliament, with 8.2 percent and 7.6 percent of the vote, respectively.
Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and the chief suspect in the London poisoning death of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko last year, will serve as a deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party.
"Now Mr. Putin and Mr. Lugovoi stand together as the emblem of Russia — the two people linked by a murder," Litvinenko's widow, Marina, said in a written statement. Litvinenko in a deathbed statement accused Putin of ordering his killing — which the Kremlin has denied.
No other parties passed the 7 percent threshold for gaining seats in the legislature. Both opposition liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, were shut out.
Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's electricity monopoly and a leader of the Union of Right Forces, called the vote a "disgusting" repeat of Soviet practices.
"United Russia is becoming monopolist and restoring a Soviet spirit and Soviet mentality," he said in a statement.
Many voters said they were pressured to cast ballots for United Russia, said Alexander Kynev, a political expert with the election monitoring group Golos. In Pestovo in the western Novgorod region, some said their they ballots already were filled out for United Russia, he said.
In Chechnya, where turnout was over 99 percent, witnesses reported seeing election authorities filling out and casting ballots.
European election monitors criticized changes in Russian election law that restricts voters to choosing only for a party, not candidates, and for making it more difficult for smaller parties to make it into parliament.
In previous elections, half the seats were chosen among candidates contesting a specific district, allowing a few mavericks to get in.
___
Associated Press writers Lynn Berry, Steve Gutterman, Jim Heintz, Maria Danilova and Bagila Bukharbayeva in Moscow, Natalia Zaitseva in Petrozavodsk and Irina Titova in St. Petersburg contributed to this report.
Monitors say Russian vote unfair
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
12-3-7
Foreign observers and Russian opposition groups accused authorities Monday of manipulating a sweeping parliamentary election victory for the party of President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the results as a validation of his leadership.
With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, Putin's United Russia party was leading with 64.1 percent of the vote, the Central Election Commission said — which would give it a sweep of 70 percent of seats in parliament.
The only opposition party to make it into parliament, the Communists, trailed with just 11.6 percent of the vote, with Kremlin-allied parties claiming the rest of Sunday's vote.
The Communists, Liberals and foreign observers criticized the vote as unfair. Opposition leader Garry Kasparov, the ex-chess champion, denounced the vote Monday as "the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia."
But Putin and his allies praised the result as an overwhelming endorsement of his leadership and policies.
"Of course it's a sign of trust," Putin said in televised remarks. "Russians will never allow the nation to take a destructive path, as happened in some other ex-Soviet nations."
The election followed a tense Kremlin campaign that relied in part on persuasion and intimidation to ensure a rout for United Russia and the president, who has used Russia's energy riches in an effort to restore Moscow's influence on the global stage.
Putin is expected to claim the victory gives him the mandate to remain Russia's de facto leader even after he steps down as president in May, as required by the constitution.
It was "not a fair election," said Goran Lennmarker, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The election monitoring arm of the OSCE — regarded in the West as the most authoritative election monitor — did not send observers, saying Russia delayed granting visas for so long that the organization would have been unable to meaningfully assess election preparations.
Luc van den Brande, who headed the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said Russian authorities exerted the "overwhelming influence of the president's office and the president" on the campaign, skewing its outcome.
In Berlin, government spokesman Thomas Steg said Germany considered Russia's vote neither fair nor free, adding that the country could not be considered a democracy.
The Bush administration and Britain's Foreign Office urged Russian authorities to probe alleged voting irregularities.
"In the run-up to election day, we expressed our concern regarding the use of state administrative resources in support of United Russia, the bias of the state-owned or -influenced media in favor of United Russia, intimidation of political opposition, and the lack of equal opportunity encountered by opposition candidates and parties," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council.
Kimmo Kiljunen, vice president of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, called the elections "strange" and "problematic," citing reports of harassment of parties and confiscation of election materials.
"These elections, from my point of view, were done in a Russian way," he said. "I mean that there was the strange situation that the executive branch almost chose the legislative branch. It is supposed to be the other way round."
Turnout was about 63 percent, up from 56 percent in the last parliamentary elections four years ago.
The Kremlin portrayed the election as a plebiscite on Putin's nearly eight years as president. Putin is widely popular, in part because of Russia's oil-fueled economic boom and his ambition to revive Russia's status as a great power.
United Russia said it will name its presidential candidate at its congress set for Dec. 17 — most likely a figurehead who stands to be overshadowed by Putin.
Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, but he clearly wants to remain in power even though he has ruled out changing the constitution to allow him to run for another term as president.
A movement has sprung up in recent weeks to urge him to become a "national leader," though it's not clear what that would mean.
United Russia's victory would give it 315 seats in Russia's 450-seat State Duma, election officials said. The Communists would have just over 50 seats.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called the election "the most irresponsible and dirty" in the post-Soviet era and party officials vowed to challenge the results.
Two other pro-Kremlin parties — the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and populist Just Russia — also appeared to have made it into parliament, with 8.2 percent and 7.6 percent of the vote, respectively.
Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and the chief suspect in the London poisoning death of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko last year, will serve as a deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party.
"Now Mr. Putin and Mr. Lugovoi stand together as the emblem of Russia — the two people linked by a murder," Litvinenko's widow, Marina, said in a written statement. Litvinenko in a deathbed statement accused Putin of ordering his killing — which the Kremlin has denied.
No other parties passed the 7 percent threshold for gaining seats in the legislature. Both opposition liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces, were shut out.
Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia's electricity monopoly and a leader of the Union of Right Forces, called the vote a "disgusting" repeat of Soviet practices.
"United Russia is becoming monopolist and restoring a Soviet spirit and Soviet mentality," he said in a statement.
Many voters said they were pressured to cast ballots for United Russia, said Alexander Kynev, a political expert with the election monitoring group Golos. In Pestovo in the western Novgorod region, some said their they ballots already were filled out for United Russia, he said.
In Chechnya, where turnout was over 99 percent, witnesses reported seeing election authorities filling out and casting ballots.
European election monitors criticized changes in Russian election law that restricts voters to choosing only for a party, not candidates, and for making it more difficult for smaller parties to make it into parliament.
In previous elections, half the seats were chosen among candidates contesting a specific district, allowing a few mavericks to get in.
___
Associated Press writers Lynn Berry, Steve Gutterman, Jim Heintz, Maria Danilova and Bagila Bukharbayeva in Moscow, Natalia Zaitseva in Petrozavodsk and Irina Titova in St. Petersburg contributed to this report.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
