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PRAGUE, August 4, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Moscow's new diplomatic assertiveness was on display for the world to see during last month's G8 summit in St. Petersburg. And one controversial topic that dominated the run-up to the summit has remained in the spotlight -- Russia's repeatedly stated intention of following its own democratic path, dubbed "sovereign democracy." The concept was formulated by Vyacheslav Surkov, the deputy chief and prime ideologue of President Vladimir Putin's administration. Surkov began floating the new ideology during speeches to activists of the pro-presidential Unified Russia party in February and May. Sovereign Democracy As outlined by Surkov...

Moscow legislators backtracked on claims that they are considering the return of a monument honoring the founder of the Soviet secret police to the center of the city. The city parliament made no plans concerning the return of the statue of Felix "Iron Felix" Dzerzhinsky, legislature speaker Vladimir Platonov said on Ekho Moskvy radio Saturday. City lawmakers have no right to pitch such initiatives anyway and can only rule on their funding, said Platonov, a member of the ruling United Russia party. Fellow city lawmaker Andrei Metelsky said earlier Saturday that the Dzerzhinsky statue was a historical landmark and could...

The Georgia conflict has reduced hopes that a Barack Obama presidency could help mend U.S.-Russian ties, but the Democratic candidate would still be a better partner for Moscow than his Republican rival, John McCain, a senior lawmaker said. Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, said the fact that Obama's stance on Russia has moved closer to that of McCain's since the war with Georgia would complicate relations with the next U.S. administration. "Both Obama and McCain took a very hard stance … and this will certainly be an abiding factor for developing ties with Russia for...

MOSCOW — Early this month, a young opposition-minded member of the Russian parliament spoke for about 10 minutes at a Capitol Hill conference on U.S.-Russia relations. Back home, it’s as if he was found with the Kremlin plans in his boots, ready to hand them over to the CIA. On Friday, the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament asked the ethics committee to investigate Dmitri Gudkov. He accused the 33-year-old Duma member of calling for American interference in Russia’s domestic affairs — treachery at its worst here and something President Vladimir Putin often warns against. No doubt Gudkov...

Russian officials voiced fear Wednesday that the rise of the Republican party could threaten President Barack Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia. “We all understand the reason for this [defeat]: disappointment that Obama isn’t a magician,” said Sergei Markov, a senior legislator from the ruling United Russia party. “ Unlike voters in the U.S., we in Russia already knew he wasn’t a magician.” He and other Russian officials voiced fear that the rise of the republican party could threaten Mr. Obama’s “reset” of relations with Russia. On Wednesday, the chairman of a key committee in the Russian parliament said it...

Russia's parliament on Friday voted to boost the powers of the successor to the Soviet KGB, allowing it to summon people it believes are about to commit a crime and threaten jail for those who disobey its orders. Rights groups said the proposed regulations could be used by the FSB security service to detain opposition activists and independent journalists and undermine President Dmitry Medvedev's promises to foster civil rights. "It's a step toward a police state," said Vladimir Ulas, a member of the opposition Communist Party. "It is effectively a ban on any real opposition activity." The bill, which would...

Two Russian newspapers, Nezavisimaya gazeta and Moskovsky korrespondent, reported today, March 28, that Vladimir Putin will be named head of United Russia at a party congress that will be held in April. Noting that Putin used the occasion of a United Russia congress last October to announce that he would head the party’s federal list of candidates in the December 2007 State Duma election, and then used the occasion of a United Russia congress in December to accept Dmitry Medvedev’s invitation to serve as prime minister under a future Medvedev presidency, Nezavisimaya gazeta reported that Putin will use a United...

Putin-A Happy Face by: Emmanuel Opati, December 14, 2007 With the recent Russian economic boom, many Russians now see Putin as their Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S. President that served four terms. President Vladimir Putin led his party, United Russia, to a 64% majority victory in the recent Duma elections. It is believed Putin went all out to ensure victory and tailored the election to be a vote of confidence on his leadership. This meant a crackdown on the opposition by arresting and denying them media coverage. “Opposition parties were not able to get their message out, especially in...

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir V. Putin today backed First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a candidate to succeed him, abruptly snatching away the shroud of secrecy that has obscured the hunt for a new Russian leader. Still, news of Putin's surprise endorsement startled many analysts as it raced through the capital today. Medvedev, an ambitious young Kremlin bureaucrat with strong business ties, had earlier been seen as a likely successor to Putin. But in recent weeks, as an increasingly strident Putin railed against foreign influence and basked in the naked adoration of the Russian masses, Medvedev's name was hardly...

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has backed First Deputy PM Dmitry Medvedev to replace him as President next year, Russian media report. "I fully support this candidacy," Mr Putin was quoted as saying. Mr Medvedev was nominated by Mr Putin's United Russia Party and three other pro-Kremlin parties on Monday. Mr Medvedev was previously Mr Putin's Chief Of Staff and is chairman of the gas giant Gazprom. He hails from Mr Putin's native St Petersburg. The 42-year-old former lawyer managed Mr Putin's election campaign in 2000. As first deputy prime minister he has overseen national programmes in the areas of health,...

President Vladimir Putin's party won a huge majority in Russian parliamentary elections Sunday tainted by fraud allegations, early results showed, paving the way for the Kremlin leader to retain power after leaving office. The United Russia Party won 62.3 percent of the vote, according to official results with 12 percent of the ballots counted and with opposition complaints mounting. United Russia and its allies, A Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party would enter the State Duma with a collective 86.3 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll by the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion....

MOSCOW — Its only known address is a half-collapsed abandoned building, and its only telephone number doesn't work. But somehow a secretive lobby group, with reputed links to Russia's intelligence services, has emerged as a possible source of inspiration for President Vladimir Putin's state-of-the-union speech. When Mr. Putin gave his annual televised address on May 10, military analyst Ivan Safranchuk immediately thought the President's words about national defence sounded different from the rest of the speech. "That part seemed out of place," the Moscow director of the World Security Institute said a few hours after Mr. Putin's appearance. "Maybe there...

MOSCOW July 18, 2004 — Masked attackers broke into the home of a local leader of the pro-Russian party in the separatist Chechen republic and shot her to death early Sunday, according to Russian media reports. Tamara Khadzhiyeva of the United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, was killed in the town of Shali, southeast of the Chechen capital Grozny, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported. Investigators believe Khadzhiyeva was the victim of a contract killing because the attackers opened fire immediately after entering her home and took nothing as they fled, ITAR-Tass reported, citing Chechen police. There...

MOSCOW - Allies of President Vladimir Putin won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections, but human rights officials condemned the vote Monday as short of international legal requirements and a retreat from Russia's democratic reforms. With more than 98 percent of the vote counted, United Russia — a pro-Putin party led by Cabinet ministers — won 37.1 percent, leaving its rivals far behind, Central Election Commission Chairman Alexander Veshnyakov said at a news conference. The Communists were next, with 12.7 percent, followed by the party of flamboyant nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky — the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia — at 11.6...

President Vladimir Putin, addressing the United Russia congress Saturday, said his unexpected appearance was in gratitude for the party's support. President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced appearance at United Russia's congress on Saturday and left no doubt that the party is his choice to win the Dec. 7 parliamentary elections. He said he had voted for the party in the last elections, in 1999, when he was prime minister and that he did not regret it. United Russia, he said, "was able to create a group of centrists in the Duma that backed, without any exaggeration, the government position...