December 2005

December 27, 2005: Kremlin Aide Quits, Says Russia no Longer Free: Andrei Illarionov, the Kremlin’s outspoken economic adviser, offered his resignation on December 27, saying he could no longer work in a government that had done away with political freedoms. "It is one thing to work in a partly free country, which Russia was six years ago. It is quite another when the country has ceased to be politically free," he said. Illarionov, who has also criticized what he says is a return to inefficient state control of the economy, complained that he was no longer able to speak his mind. "I considered it important to remain here at this post as long as I had the possibility to do something, including speaking out," he said. "Until recently, no one put any restrictions on me expressing my point of view. Now the situation has changed." (Source: Reuters.)

December 19, 2005: Russia Misses Target to End WTO Talks: Russia will fail to meet a target date to complete World Trade Organization membership talks this year, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said. Joining the 149-member WTO requires negotiating bilateral agreements with member countries, and Russia is still stuck in talks with the United States, Switzerland, Australia and Colombia. Even as the Russian delegation in Hong Kong reaches agreements with most WTO countries this week, key differences with the United States remain. (Source: The Moscow Times.)

December 19, 2005: Russia's Energy Politics Prick Post-Soviet States: Russia's increasingly hard line in talks with its neighbors over vital natural-gas supplies reflects a new willingness by the Kremlin to use the terms of energy deals to reward the loyal and pressure the intransigent former Soviet states. After popular revolutions brought pro-Western governments to power in Georgia and Ukraine in the past two years, Russia began rethinking its policy of supplying post-Soviet states with cut-price gas supplies. As winter settles in, Russia's government-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom has in recent weeks emerged as the Kremlin's preferred tool for its new, tougher foreign policy approach towards neighbors like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, and the Baltic countries who have hewn a pro-Western line in foreign policy. Gazprom insists the policy is driven exclusively by economics, since it gets much higher prices for the natural gas it ships to Western Europe. But the suddenness of the increases and the targeted countries suggest otherwise. "This is largely a political decision," Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said in an interview last month. As proof of this political motivation, governments that toe the Kremlin's line have gotten much gentler treatment. Belarus, whose authoritarian president also faces elections in March, will continue to pay about $49 a thousand cubic meters for Russian gas next year, basically unchanged from this year. Armenia, which also has been a loyal supporter of the Kremlin, similarly isn't facing any gas ultimatum this year. (Source: Wall Street Journal Europe.)

December 13, 2005: OPINION: Gerhard Schroeder's Sellout: The Washington Post published an editorial asserting that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder should be condemned for his decision to work for Gazprom, Russia’s state owned gas monopoly. “On a broader level, Mr. Schroeder's decision to swap his job with the German government for a job funded by the Russian government should raise questions for German voters about their country's relationship with Russia. During his seven years as chancellor, Mr. Schroeder went out of his way to ignore the gradual suppression of political rights in Russia and to play down the significance of Russia's horrific war in Chechnya. Throughout his term in office, Mr. Schroeder thwarted attempts to put unified Western pressure on Russia to change its behavior. We can only hope that Germany's new chancellor, Angela Merkel, uses this extraordinary announcement as a reason to launch a new German policy toward Russia, one based on something other than Mr. Schroeder's private interests.” (Source: Washington Post.)

December 7, 2005: OPINION: Moscow's Empty Red Square: The New York Times published an op-ed by Senator John Edwards and former Congressman Jack Kemp in which they write, “When we visited Moscow earlier this fall, almost everyone we talked to agreed that Russia is becoming steadily less democratic. Our visit convinced us of the vitality and potential of Russian civic groups and nongovernmental organizations, much like the ones Western Europeans and Americans know in their own countries. Unfortunately this sector - human rights monitors, environmental groups, policy research institutions, even public health advocates - is now at risk.” If the recently passed anti-NGO legislation becomes law, “It will roll back pluralism in Russia and curtail contact between our societies. It will flagrantly breach the commitment that President Putin has made to numerous Western leaders to strengthen such ties... It will... bolster the arguments of those who say that Russia has no place in the G-8 at all.” (Source: The New York Times.)