Russia, Ukraine Prosecute US Musician for Flag Desecration

A US musician who apparently desecrated the Ukrainian flag has been banned from entering the country for five years, the Ukrainian Security Service reported. The ban followed an incident  in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, when US rock group Bloodhound Gang’s bassist Jared Hasselhoff allegedly urinated on a Ukrainian flag. The next day, the bass player also apparently desecrated a Russian flag. Ukrainian authorities have opened criminal cases over both incidents and are investigating them. Russian authorities subsequently canceled the band’s scheduled appearance at the Kubana rock festival. The band, who arrived in Russia by then, reportedly left the country soon afterward. Russia’s Interior Ministry said Monday it had opened a criminal case over the Russian flag desecration.

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130807/182617918/Ukraine-Bans-US-Musician-for-5-Years-for-Flag-Desecration.html

Lady Gaga: Russian Government Is Criminal

The American pop star known the world over as Lady Gaga is all but taunting Russian authorities in response to reports they may prosecute her for violating the terms of her visa by giving a performance in Russia last year. Gaga has been vocal in her support of gay Russians. Now Russian authorities – who recently enacted a law that forbids communicating anything about the homosexual lifestyle to a minor – say she did not have a proper visa to perform in Russia and may be prosecuted. “The Russian government is criminal. Oppression will be met with revolution. Russian LGBTs you are not alone. We will fight for your freedom,” Gaga wrote in a tweet.

http://en.ria.ru/world/20130806/182611036/Lady-Gaga-Fires-Back-at-Russia-in-Twitter-Rant.html

Moscow Police Arrest Thousands in Market Raids

Moscow police carried out yet more raids targeting migrants and marketplaces Wednesday, detaining hundreds of people. A special sweep operation involving some 400 police officers took place at the Sadovod market, a sprawling area in southeastern Moscow trading a variety of goods that employs many migrants. Over 1,000 people have been held there as of Wednesday morning, the police reported, but they did not say on what grounds they were detained. The operation is part of the city’s recent drive to “decriminalize” Moscow with checks of market places and other sites which house and employ many migrant workers. The city’s law enforcement authorities detained thousands of people in a string of raids, launched last week, following an attack on a police officer who was seriously injured at a Moscow market when attacked by an angry mob as he was trying to arrest a rape suspect.

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20130807/182622512/Police-Hold-Hundreds-More-in-New-Market-Raids.html

Russian Supreme Court Cuts Jail Term for Khodorkovsky by 2 Months

Russia’s Supreme Court issued a ruling reducing the jail terms of jailed former head of oil giant Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner to 10 years and 10 months at their Tuesday appeal. The decision means that they will be released two months early. Khodorkovsky's term will now end in August 2014 and his business partner Platon Lebedev's in May the same year. The case against the two businessmen became one of the decade’s most high-profile legal cases in Russia and was widely criticized by human rights groups as being politically motivated.

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20130806/182603960/Russian-Court-Cuts-Jail-Term-for-Ex-Oil-Tycoon-Khodorkovsky.html
http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1130430-echo/

Russia Bans Ukrainian Confectionery

Russia on Tuesday barred confectionery imports from Ukrainian firm Roshen citing health concerns. This move is the latest in a string of trade restrictions on both sides. Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement on Tuesday it had found a carcinogenic substance in Roshen's chocolate and was barring imports of all products made at four of Roshen's Ukrainian plants. Earlier this month, Russia said it planned to levy additional duties on imports of Ukrainian chocolate, coal and glass in retaliation for a Ukrainian emergency import tax on cars which is likely to hurt Russian producers, among others. Ukraine says it has imposed the emergency car tax in March under the World Trade Organisation's "safeguard" rules, which allow countries to protect a sector if there is a threat of serious damage to producers from a surge in imports. However, a number of WTO members, including the European Union, have accused Ukraine of breaking the global trade club's rules.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/russia-ukraine-chocolate-idUSL6N0G04IN20130730

Russia's Anti-Internet Piracy Law Faces Backlash

President Putin signed the anti-piracy bill into law last month. It is championed by some as a new weapon to defend content-makers and decried by others as a blunt tool that could extend censorship of the net. One thing's for sure - Russia's new anti-piracy law is proving controversial. The law allows copyright holders to request the court to block contested content before ruling on its legality without requiring them to try to contact the uploader before going to court. "Access to online content should be free and global because it is people's right to freely receive and distribute information, as well as it is their right to consume art," says Natalia Malysheva, of the Russian Pirate Party. On Sunday, the party held a protest in central Moscow against the law, now in force, which allows sites to be blocked if they do not tackle complaints that they are aiding copyright infringement within three days of being notified. About 300 people, who were waving black pirate flags, attended the peaceful event.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23510065
http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_information/20130802/268424650.html

Russia Gives Snowden Asylum, Obama-Putin Summit in Doubt

Russia rejected U.S. pleas and granted American fugitive Edward Snowden a year's asylum on Thursday, letting the former spy agency contractor slip out of a Moscow airport after more than five weeks in limbo while angering the United States and putting in doubt a planned summit between the two nations' presidents. The United States wanted Russia to send Snowden home to face criminal charges, including espionage, for disclosing in June secret American internet and telephone surveillance programs. The White House signaled that President Barack Obama may boycott a September summit with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Snowden, whose disclosures triggered an international furor over the reach of U.S. spy operations as part of its counterterrorism efforts, thanked Russia for his temporary asylum and declared that "the law is winning."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/02/us-usa-security-snowden-russia-idUSBRE9700N120130802

Russia Creates Immigrant Detention Camp

More than 1,000 suspected illegal immigrants detained in a wave of raids at Moscow markets this week will be placed at a specially organized tent camp until decisions on their deportations are made. Police arrested around 1,400 people, most of whom are allegedly Vietnamese citizens, Interfax reported Friday. Others are believed to be natives of Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Moscow police senior official Vyacheslav Kozlov told BBC Russia that the identification process of the migrants would take up to two days since most of them didn't speak Russian and either lacked documents or had false ones. "We have no places to keep foreign citizens. There are only 400 places for such people in Moscow police offices; that is why we asked the government to organize the tent camp," Kozlov said. He added that food, water, toilets and medical assistance will be provided for those in the camp's 20 tents. The migrants will also be under constant police surveillance.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/1000-detained-immigrants-held-in-tent-camp/484008.html
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/829057.html

Putin: Navalny Sentence 'Strange'

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he finds it "strange" that Kremlin and Putin critic Aleksei Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison while a co-defendant in the case who testified against Navalny received a suspended sentence. Putin, speaking at a Kremlin-organized camp for young activists in Seliger, in the Tver region north of Moscow, on August 2, made the comment without mentioning Navalny or the co-defendant, Vyacheslav Opalev, by name as he answered questions from youthful supporters. Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison last month partly due to Opalev’s testimony that Navalny had conspired to defraud the government of the northern Kirov region of more than $500,000 in a timber deal. Navalny and rights groups have accused Russian authorities of politically motivated persecution. Despite receiving a five-year prison sentence, Navalny was later released and will compete in the upcoming Moscow mayoral election in September.

http://www.rferl.org/content/putin-navalny-case-sentence/25064894.html
http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1128196-echo/ (video)