Stalin’s Grandson Loses Libel Suit

A Moscow court dismissed a lawsuit by Josef Stalin’s grandson Evgueny Dzhugashvili against Novaya Gazeta newspaper. Dzhugashvili had claimed $300,000 in damages and a retraction of statements in the newspaper accusing Stalin of crimes.

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/10/13/refuse2/

Conviction for Abducting Son from Finland

A Finnish court sentenced a Russian citizen to a suspended 1.5 year prison term for abducting her 6-year-old son to Russia. The court also ordered her to compensate her ex-husband for moral harm (€20,000) and to pay expenses related to the boy's return to Finland (€5,000). A Finnish consul who brought the boy to Finland in his car trunk was declared persona non grata in Russia. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1255332

Guinea Seeks Nationalization and $1 billion from Rusal

The Guinean government that came into power after a 2006 coup is seeking the return of the privatized Friguia bauxite and alumina complex from Russia's Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer, as well as $1 billion in damages including underpaid taxes and royalties. The government claims that the terms of the arbitration were unfair. Rusal is contesting, in Paris arbitation and in Guinea, a recent Guinean court order reversing the privatization.

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/10/13/rusal/

Russia Liable for Restricting Speech

The European Court or Human Rights issued two decisions against Russia for violating journalists' right to freedom of expression under the European Human Rights Convention. In one case, a Ekaterinburg newspaper editor was convicted of criminal libel for publishing a report that a homosexual relationship led a regional administrator to use public funds to buy an apartment for an official in Moscow. In the second case, a civil libel action, founders of a newspaper in Vladivostok were held liable for publishing an open letter that criticized a local administrative department of the Supreme Court, which had a quota to sell timber, for undocumented cash sales to foreign companies.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1254501&NodesID=7

Owner Refuses to Take Hijacked Ship from Navy

Finnish company Solchart, the owner of Maltese-flagged bulker Arctic Sea, which was seized by the Russian Navy near Cape Verde after it had been allegedly captured by Estonian pirates in the Baltic Sea, has refused to accept the ship from the Navy unless the owner’s losses from the seizure, estimated at €700,000, are compensated. The ship is stranded in the Mediterranean because no country has allowed it to enter a port with Russian military personnel aboard.

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/10/12/arctic/

Armenia Normalizes Relations with Turkey

Armenia and Turkey signed an agreement to normalize relations. The agreement, which is subject to ratification by both countries’ parliaments, provides for establishing diplomatic relations, open borders. recognizing each country’s territorial integrity, and creating a commission to study historical records related to the countries’ dispute over whether Turkey committed genocide of Armenians at the end of World War I. Another remaining source of tension is Armenia’s conflict with Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where Armenia’s occupation of an ethnic Armenian enclave led to the closure of the Armenian-Turkish border in 1993.

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/10/10/sign1/
http://lenta.ru/news/2009/10/11/critic/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/world/europe/11armenia.html

Prosecutors Oppose Variable-Interest Loans

A letter from the General Prosecutor's Office to the Association of Russian Banks states that banks may not unilaterally increase interest on loans to individuals, even if permitted by the loan agreement. This position is expected to lead to more inspections of banks by prosecutors and to court challenges by banks.

http://russian-law.livejournal.com/50902.html

Medvedev Promises Cleaner Tenders

In his blog, President Dmitri Medvedev stated that a computer system will be unveiled in October that combats the use of Latin letters in government tenders in order to prevent potential bidders from finding requests for proposals. (For background, see September 25 posting in this blog, Rэs Ipsa Loquitur).

http://www.gazeta.ru/financial/2009/10/08/3270875.shtml

Kazakhstan Judge Accused of Attempted Murder

A judge in the city of Kostonai, Kazakhstan was questioned by local police in connection with accusations by his ex-wife, herself a former judge, that he tried to murder her by running up to her car and shooting in while it was stopped at a red light. The two have been in dispute over ownership of a brick factory.

http://lenta.ru/news/2009/10/08/detain1/