Kazakh President Passes Language Exam

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev successfully passed a Kazakh language exam which is required for participation in the upcoming presidential elections.  Meanwhile, one of the alternative candidates failed the exam and two others failed to appear.   So far the only alternative candidate who has passed the exam is pro-president politician Musagali Duambekov. The exam includes reading, writing, and speaking tests.

http://www.1tv.ru/news/world/170701
http://static.zakon.kz/page,1,1,199140-duambekov-uspeshno-sdal-jekzamen-po.html
http://news.km.ru/bolshinstvo-kandidatov-v-prezidenty-kazakhstana-ne-proshli-ekzamen-po-gosyazyku

Oppositionists Lose Libel Suit against Putin

A Moscow court dismissed the libel suit filed against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by Russian liberal opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vladimir Milov.  In a TV interview, Putin alleged that Nemtsov, Ryzhkov, and Milov (all former sate officials) had stolen billions of rubles while in office in the 1990s, and went on to add that they planned to steal even more in the event they come to power.  In arguing for dismissal, Putin’s representative suggested that his comment was an opinion and not a statement of facts. She also presented evidence of possible crimes committed by the oppositionists, reflected in printouts from various web sites (such as Wikipedia, etc.), which the court accepted.  While the court dismissed the libel suit, the full-text of the court's written opinion will not be made available until a later date.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=1585628&NodesID=7

Court Press Secretary: Judge Danilkin Did Not Author Khodorkovsky Sentence

Natalia Vasilieva, a judicial assistant and the Press Secretary for the Khamovnichesky Court, gave an interview to online news service Gazeta.ru, stating that Judge Danilkin, the Khamovnichesky Court Chairman, was not the author of the sentence for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev which Danilkin announced in December 2010. According to Vasilieva, the sentence was written by judges of the upper Moscow City Court, and imposed on Danilkin against his will. Vasilieva stated that days before the sentence was announced, Danilkin was called to the Moscow City Court to meet with some high-ranking official (higher than the Moscow City Court Chairperson), and he returned from the meeting in a distressed state of mind. Vasilieva says that Danilkin began to write his own sentence, but his superiors sent him a replacement after apparently finding Danilkin’s version unsatisfactory. Allegedly, the last portion of the sentence containing the prison terms (both defendants were sentenced to 13.5 years) was delivered to Danilkin after he had already begun to announce the sentence.  Vasilieva said the reason for her revelations was her disappointment in the Russian judicial system, and she further told the interviewer that she was prepared to be fired from the Khamovnichesky Court as a result.

http://gazeta.ru/politics/2011/02/14_a_3524202.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW2P70J25Sw (video)



UPDATE: Danilkin: Vasilieva's satatement is criminal defamation
http://www.infosud.ru/judicial_news/20110214/251840471.html

Russia Expels British Journalist, Then Allows Him to Return

Luke Harding, a Moscow correspondent for the British newspaper, The Guardian, was denied entry in a Moscow airport when he returned to Russia after two-month absence. Harding was sent back to the UK on the first available plane, with his visa annulled and his passport only returned to him after he took his seat on the plane.  Harding was given no specific reason for the decision, although a state security officer told him: "For you Russia is closed." Harding is known for his recent coverage of WikiLeaks publications. In particular, he published an article reporting that, in the opinion of Washington's top diplomat in Europe, Vladimir Putin was likely to have known about the planned assassination of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.  Several days after Harding's deportation, after a scandal arose with the UK's Foreign Office, the Russian Foreign Ministry allowed Harding to return, and explained the incident by saying that Harding had previously failed to collect his acreditation card.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/07/guardian-moscow-correspondent-expelled-from-russia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12444625

UN Recommends ADR for the Ukrainian Financial Services Sector

The UNDP Blue Ribbon Analytical and Advisory Center and the law firm of Dovgan & Partners have drafted a law that would establish a Financial Ombudsman Services (FOS) in the Ukraine.  The FOS would serve consumers as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism in the financial services sector.  The law suggests that the FOS should have both state and private funding, and that its services should be free for consumers.  The Ombudsman would be elected for 6 years and would be vested with power to conduct discovery.  The purpose of the FOS is to simplify and decrease the cost of dispute resolution, as well as to encourage consumers’ trust in the insurance companies and financial institutions.

http://www.kommersant.ua/doc.html?docId=1583295
http://brc.undp.org.ua/img/publications/Financial_Ombudsman_Report.pdf

Ukraine–EU Free Trade Zone Agreement Negotiations Continue

The 15th round of negotiations on the Free Trade Zone Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union has been held in Kiev. While the parties anticipate that the negotiations may be completed by the end of the year, an Agreement will not come into force before 2013. The parties have yet to reach an agreement on a number of issues, including geographical names, the auto transportation services sector, energy supply, and grain trade. Two additional rounds of negotiations will be held in April and June of 2011.

http://www.kommersant.ua/doc.html?docId=1583276

Russia Abolishes Seasonal Clock Shifts

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev announced the abolishment of the daylight-saving time system (also known as DST or “summer time” in Russia). Russia has been shifting to DST for the last 30 years. To be exact, what will actually be abolished is “winter time,” because the last clock shift is supposed to be made this spring. Medevedev stated that the DST clock shift causes psychological stress and disease. Medvedev went on to add that cows and other animals also “do not understand the clock shift and do not understand why dairymaids come to them at a wrong time.”

http://lenta.ru/news/2011/02/08/zimynebudet/
http://top.rbc.ru/society/09/02/2011/540420.shtml
http://www.rian.ru/video/20110208/331956341.html (video)

Japan: Medvedev's Island Visit “Unforgivable Outrage”

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan criticized Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit last November to one of four Russian-held islands as an “unforgivable outrage".   The Soviet Union seized the islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group shortly after Japan’s surrender in World War II in 1945, but Japan continues to claim the islands as well.  Prime Minister Kan vowed to seek a settlement of the territorial dispute which has prevented the two countries from signing a postwar peace treaty. The islands are known in Japan as the Northern Territories, and in Russia as the Southern Kurils.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/kan-leads-rally-for-return-of-islands-from-russia

START Treaty Enters into Force

The new Russian-U.S. Treaty on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) came into effect after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchanged the ratification instruments in Munich, Germany. Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama signed the treaty (intended to replace an older treaty that expired) in Prague, the Czech Republic, in April 2010. The U.S. Congress ratified the treaty in December 2010, and Russia's Federal Assembly did the same in January 2011. Both ratification instruments contain a number of reservations that sceptics say may sink the treaty because of the current U.S.-Russian controversy over the NATO missile defense system in Europe.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/02/156037.htm
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15926251&PageNum=0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18HkAelwHtQ (video)