All The President’s Power
Two more terror attacks taking place in Russia’s large southern city of Volgograd (following an attack in October) challenge both the security arrangements of the coming February 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Putin’s anti-terrorism strategy in general. Lack of coordination between various law enforcement agencies may lead to further changes in that domain.
A broad amnesty was signed into law in December to mark the twenty-year anniversary of the Russian constitution. Among those already released from prison were those largely considered political prisoners. The oil tycoon arrested on economic grounds (but for obvious political reasons), Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was also eventually released in December 2013. The move demonstrated that Putin sees no rivals among current or potential politicians in Russia and it also stripped the opposition of some important political rallying cries dealing with freedom for political prisoners.
Russia’s largest and most professional news agency, state-owned RIA Novosti was dissolved along with the world’s oldest international radio broadcasting service, the Voice of Russia, to form a new international communication agency, Rossiya Segodnya (which translates into Russia Today, although not yet merged with the TV channel). The change came as a result of the agency’s domestic rather than its international coverage, as it was often not entirely aligned with the Presidential Administration’s demands. This will lead not only to a transformation into a single news agency, but also to greater self-censorship in general.
A new anti-corruption directorate was established within the Presidential Administration, as the Kremlin continues the fight against corruption that has brought almost no results so far. The new structure will oversee the work of federal agencies and develop policy recommendations for the President.
Russians do not object to surrogate motherhood, which is becoming increasingly popular in the country. Less than one-fifth of the overall population believes that surrogate motherhood is unacceptable, and the proportion is even smaller among people with higher education.
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