Russia-Belarus Gas War Unleashed

Russia began the reduction of the amount of natural gas supplied to Belarus. This happened after the parties failed to reach a settlement in relation to Berlarus’ debt for the gas supplied earlier in 2010. Belarus insists on reducing the price; Russia has thus far refused.

http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/21/stop/

Sberbank Head Testifies in Favor of Khodorkovsky

German Gref, a former Minister of Economy and now the head of Sberbank, testified in the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, former managers of the defunct oil giant YUKOS. Gref said that there was nothing inappropriate about YUKOS buying oil from its subsidiary companies at prices below those in the European market. Gref also expressed doubt that 20% of all oil extracted in Russia could possibly be stolen (of which Khodorkovsky and Lebedev are accused). “If it had been so, I would have known,” the ex-minister said.


http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/21/gref1/

Police Seize Anti-Putin Books

The St. Petersburg police seized 100,000 copies of the book “Putin. The Results. 10 Years on”, authored by opposition politicians Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov; the police claimed that the shipping documents were "faulty." As a result of the seizure, the book, which is highly critical of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s activities, is unlikely to be handed out at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum as originally intended.

http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/16/doklad2/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7833181/Police-seize-100000-anti-Vladimir-Putin-books.html

Mass Media Law Interpreted

Russia’s Supreme Court, Plenum, adopted (after a second reading) legally binding rules that instruct lower courts on how to interpret current mass media legislation. In particular, the much disputed issue of whether a mass media company is responsible for readers’ comments posted on its website was resolved. The Court ruled that a “mass medium” (newspaper, etc.) is obliged to delete or edit a questionable comment only after receiving a request to do so from the pertinent state supervision agency, Roskomnadzor. (Roskomnadzor insisted that the medium must edit readers’ comments by itself or face liability.)

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1387108&ThemesID=568

Ethnic Clashes in Kyrgyzstan

In South Kyrgyzstan ethnic clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks left at least 170 dead and hundreds injured. Thousands of Uzbeks fled to neighboring Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyz interim government declared a state of emergency and requested that Russia send troops to Kyrgyzstan; Russia declined the request.

http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/15/traur/

UPDATE
Estimates: 1,900 dead, 400,000 refugees
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1387772&NodesID=5
http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/17/uprooted/

Lawyer Steals $17 Mln in Cash

Novosibirsk attorney Yevgeny Skoblikov was sentenced to 3.5 years of imprisonment for defrauding his clients. Hired by heirs of a wealthy businessman to complete inheritance formalities in Moscow, Skoblikov withdrew $17 mln in cash from the testator’s bank account, buried the money in a forest, and reported that unknown thieves had stolen two suitcases containing the money from his rented apartment. The police arrested Skoblikov, and, five months later, he confessed to fraud.


http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/11/skoblikov/

Jehovah’s Witnesses Win Suit against Russia

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg held that the 2004 decision of a Moscow court to dissolve the Moscow branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses was illegal. The Moscow court had found that the organization encourages its members to commit suicide and to neglect their civic duties. The Strasbourg Court found that the Moscow court’s judgment lacked a sufficient basis and awarded €70,000 to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

http://lenta.ru/news/2010/06/10/strasbourgh/

U.S. Extends Sanctions against Belarus

U.S. President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and other high-ranking Belarus officials on the grounds that their anti-democratic actions constitute an “extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” A Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman responded to the sanctions by stating that the U.S. should “depart from stereotypes of confrontational thinking.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/notice-president-continuation-national-emergency-with-respect-belarus
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1383906

Gang of Prosecutors Convicted

The Moscow City Court, following a guilty jury verdict, sentenced a group of defendants, including high-ranking Moscow prosecutors and police officers, to various punishments (ranging from a suspended sentence to 13 years of imprisonment). The defendants were convicted of instituting criminal proceedings on smuggling charges, seizing goods as evidence, and subsequently selling them to commercial enterprises at a low price.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1383899&NodesID=6