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What the Papers Say, Feb. 7, 2013

Kommersant


1. Anatoly Dzhumaylo article headlined "Masters of copper ore" looks at the shareholders of the Urals metals and mining company manufacturing copper, which is one of Russia's closest companies; pp 1, 9 (745 words).

2. Grigoy Tumanov and Pavel Korobov article headlined "Pussy Riot writes complaints book" says that the Pussy Riot girls, convicted for the punk-style prayer in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, have complained to the European Court of Human Rights about the Russian government. Strasbourg judges are extremely interested in the issue, article says; pp 1-2 (854 words).

3. Andrey Kolesnikov report headlined "Damned springboard" describes President Vladimir Putin's visit to Sochi, where he has inspected the facilities being built for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Putin was displeased with the condition of a number of the facilities; pp 1, 3 (1,386 words).

4. Khalil Aminov article headlined "At one's own freight and risk" says that the investors, who will fail to finish the construction of hotels for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, will have to pay for the charter freight of cruise ships to put Olympic guests up; pp 1, 10 (622 words).

5. Irina Nagronykh and Maxim Ivanov article headlined "One Russia transfers regional elections to fund" says that the ruling One Russia party will establish a special elections fund, which will make it possible for regional party members to step up cooperation with experts and federal officials and will shift responsibility for election results onto regional party activists; p 2 (727 words).

6. Natalya Gorodetskaya article headlined "'Foreign agents' head for European court" says that 11 human rights organizations have complained to the European Court of Human Rights about the law on NGOs in place in Russia; p 2 (565 words).

7. Natalya Bashlykova article headlined "Communist Party takes up creative position" says that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation has decided to set up an all-Russia creative movement, called Russky Lad (Rus: Russian concord), which will unite patriotic and nationalist organizations. Party leader Gennady Zyuganov will head the movement; p 2 (523 words).

8. Natalya Bashlykova article headlined "Region of constant re-appointment" contemplates the reasons behind numerous governor replacements in Kaliningrad Region; p 4 (2,261 words).

9. Nikolai Sergeyev and Yuliya Rybina article headlined "No terrorists alive remain in metro blast case" says that the last terrorist involved in Moscow underground blasts in March 2010 has been eliminated in Dagestan; p 5 (569 words).

10. Kirill Belyaninov article headlined "About 50 countries work for CIA" says that according to a report on the 10-year results of the global fight against terrorism made by the US organization Open Society Justice Initiative, some 54 countries have assisted the CIA in searching for, transporting and torturing suspects of terrorism; p 6 (575 words).

11. Yelena Chernenko article headlined "Russian-German cooperation maintains critical level" says that the German government's authorized representative for cooperation with Russia has harshly criticized the Russian authorities for attempts to control rapidly developing society in the fear of an "orange revolution"; p 6 (684 words).

12. Sergei Strokan article headlined "Iranian president's power usurped for 48 hours" says that a serious split has appeared in the Iranian leadership; p 6 (620 words).

13. Mikhail Serov et al. article headlined "Rosneft trespasses Gazprom's domain" says that the Russian oil company Rosneft has taken the side of the Novatek independent gas manufacturer, trying to break the Russian gas giant Gazprom's monopoly of LNG exports; p 9 (786 words).

Nezavisimaya Gazeta


1. Sergei Kulikov article headlined "Americans ready to help everyone offended by Gazprom" says that Lithuania and Romania will start geological prospecting of their own shale gas fields. Meanwhile, the USA and Ukraine will jointly develop the latter's shale gas deposits; pp 1, 4 (618 words).

2. Tatyana Dvoynova article headlined "Return of disgraced mayor" says that former Vladivostok mayor Vladimir Nikolayev, who has been put on the international wanted list, has his term of sentence expired. He fled from justice in Thailand and now may return to Maritime Territory; pp 1, 5 (652 words).

3. Anastasia Bashkatova article headlined "Beginning of year resembles finish" says that the beginning of 2013 has been marked by accelerating inflation and declining economic growth; pp 1, 4 (1,124 words).

4. Svetlana Gamova article headlined "On opposite banks of Dniester River" says that Russia and Ukraine have backed different parties to the Dniester region conflict for the first time ever, which is fraught with a conflict between the two countries; pp 1-2 (980 words).

5. Alexandra Samarina article headlined "Deaf defense of believers' feelings" says that the president's human rights council has drafted amendments to the bill defending believers' feelings, which mitigate a number of the provisions of the future law and exclude criticism of religious organizations and their representatives from the law; pp 1-2 (690 words).

6. Vladimir Skosyrev article headlined "Tortures in CIA manner take on global character" says that according to a report by the US organization Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), 54 countries, including the UK, have secretly participated in the CIA's operations; pp 1, 7 (580 words).

7. Editorial headlined "False start of Coordination Council" contemplates prospects for the opposition Coordination Council given that a number of opposition activists recently quit it; p 2 (498 words).

8. Alexandra Samarina and Alexei Gorbachev article headlined "Experts summoned for questioning" says that the experts, who were involved in the preparation of a public report on the second trial of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev, may be prosecuted for obstructing justice; p 3 (757 words).

9. Ivan Rodin article headlined "Secret amendments from president and government" says that the State Duma security committee has approved a work program for the spring session, which lacks a bill banning Russian officials from having assets and property abroad. Meanwhile, the bill is said to have been seriously changed by the amendments offered by the presidential administration and the government; p 3 (689 words).

10. Yekaterina Degtereva and Alexei Podberezkin article headlined "Limits of consolidation" looks at the situation in the Russian defense sector and wonders how big defense enterprises in Russia should be to take the lead on the global defense market; p 3 (724 words).

11. Igor Naumov report headlined "Vladimir Putin comes to Olympic starts" looks at Putin's visit to Sochi; p 4 (946 words).

12. Vladimir Mukhin article headlined "Worm-eaten soldiers' rations" says that yet another scandal linked to low quality food for servicemen has erupted in the Eastern Military District; p 5 (607 words).

13. Anton Khodasevich article headlined "Foreign policy within scope of working issues" says that the Belarussian foreign minister has paid a visit to Russia; p 6 (497 words).

14. Artur Blinov article headlined "English people approve same-sex families" says that the UK wants to pass a law legalizing same-sex marriages; p 7 (434 words).

15. Darya Tsilyurik article headlined "Enemies bring together Egypt and Iran" says that the Iranian president has paid a visit to Egypt for the first time in the last 30 years; p 7 (677 words).

16. Yuriy Paniyev article headlined "French people in Mali to be substituted by Africans" says that France will begin to withdraw its troops from Mali in March; p 7 (565 words).

Vedomosti


1. Tatyana Voronova and Olga Plotonova article headlined "Hidden reserves of MDM" says that the Central Bank has demanded that the MDM bank increase its reserves by R8.5bn (some 283.3m dollars at the current exchange rate); pp 1, 14 (588 words).

2. Olga Kuvshinova article headlined "Citizens hamper" says that a Sberbank research center and the Levada Center have studied how non-economic factors influence Russian people's financial behavior; pp 1, 5 (963 words).

3. Editorial headlined "Magic of demography" says that Russia has failed to obtain the natural population growth; pp 1, 6 (410 words).

4. Another editorial headlined "Small tragedy" says that the Russian authorities have acquired one more domestic enemy: self-employed entrepreneurs, who are displeased with high obligatory contributions to the Russian Pension Fund; p 6 (300 words).

5. Mariya Zheleznova and Polina Khimshiashvili article headlined "To streets over 40" says that according to the Levada Center, people over 40 formed the bulk of the protesters who took part in the opposition rally in Moscow on 13 January; p 2 (367 words).

6. Anastasia Kornya et al. article headlined "To dismiss is Kremlin's business" says that Kirov Region deputies have decided not to initiate the dismissal of governor Nikita Belykh. It is the Kremlin's business, they say; p 2 (663 words).

7. Yelena Vinogradova article headlined "Malone vs. Murdoch" says that the US company Liberty Global will buy the largest British television and Internet provider Virgin Media; p 18 (350 words).

8. Anastasia Golitsyna article headlined "Yandex outstrips Microsoft" says that the Yandex search engine has outstripped Microsoft in the number of search requests and is the fourth in the world after Google, Baidu and Yahoo!; p 10 (515 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta


1. Alena Uzbekova interview with Russian Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fedorov, headlined "Minister and cabbage", who speaks about prices of foodstuffs and the development of the agriculture sector; pp 1, 6 (2,681 words).

2. Ariadna Rokossovskaya article headlined "What will Lords say?" says that the UK House of Commons has backed a bill legalizing same-sex marriages in England and Wales; p 8 (431 words).

3. Vladislav Vorobyev article headlined "Fighting near coffin" says that the Russian Foreign Ministry has denied media reports that the Russian consulate in the Netherlands counteracted the handover of the body of opposition activist Aleksandr Dolmatov, who committed suicide in the Rotterdam deportation centre, and did not do anything to speed up the procedure. Meanwhile, Dolmatov's funeral was marked by fighting for political reasons between opposition activists, who came to pay respect to him; p 7 (652 words).

Izvestia


1. Vladimir Voloshin article headlined "Avrora cruiser to be sent from mooring for repairing" says that the Defence Ministry will pay for the repair of the historical cruiser Avrora; pp 1, 4 (383 words).

2. Margarita Kazantseva article headlined "Gazprom and LUKoil get to Caspian Sea for R10,000" says that Russia's Gazprom and LUKoil and Kazakhstan's largest oil and gas company Kazmunaygaz have finally established a joint venture to develop the Tsentralnaya oil field in the northern part of the Caspian Sea; pp 1, 4 (819 words).

3. Vladimir Dergachev and Svetlana Subbotina article headlined "Americans get down to Open Government after al-Qadhafi" says that a concept of the Russian Open Government project has been developed by the US consultants who worked on Libya's image prior to the revolt against late Libyan leader Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi; pp 1, 4 (721 words).

4. Yelizaveta Mayetnaya and German Petelin article headlined "Serdyukov gets into sanatorium-airborne case" details fraud with the Defence Ministry's property in Krasnodar Territory; pp 1, 4 (784 words).

5. Pavel Panov article headlined "Deputies suggest adopting children by last will" looks at amendments to the Russian Family Code regulating adoption of children, which have been recently drafted by a group of State Duma deputies; pp 1, 4 (556 words).

6. Anastasiya Kashevarova and Anton Lednev article headlined "Government decides on return of winter time" says that the government has decided to go back to winter time. The corresponding bill will be submitted to the State Duma shortly; pp 1-2 (572 words).

7. Vladimir Gusev article headlined "Gudkov and Ponomarev to go to Mikhail Prokhorov to teach" says that two A Just Russia MPs will lecture at the political school of the youth movement Novoye Vremya (Rus: New Time), which is sponsored by businessman Mikhail Prokhorov's party Civil Platform; p 2 (658 words).

8. Alena Sivkova article headlined "Candidates for One Russia deputies being searched for in Internet" says that next week, the pro-Kremlin youth movement Young Guard will begin to select in the Internet candidates to stand in regional elections in autumn representing One Russia; p 2 (537 words).

9. Alexandra Sopova article headlined "Bishops' meeting determines attitude to juvenile justice" features a comment by Metropolitan Ilarion of Volokolamsk on the results of the recent meeting held by the Russian Orthodox Church Bishops Council; p 3 (557 words).

10. Alexei Mikhaylov and Dmitry Balburov article headlined "Russian AWACS morally outdated prior to its development" says that the project to build the advanced long-range radar detection and command and control aircraft, A-100, has been extended to 2017; p 3 (702 words).

11. Mariya Gorkovskaya article headlined "Same-sex marriage bill splits Conservatives" says that the Conservatives have not backed UK Prime Minister David Cameron's initiative to legalize same-sex marriages, thus giving up Cameron's hopes for the party to gain more votes in the 2015 parliamentary election; p 7 (422 words).

12. Tigran Oganesyan interview with Armenian presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan who has survived an assassination attempt; p 8 (500 words).

13. Eduard Limonov article headlined "Do not hype yourself using tragedy and you will not be beaten up" comments on the beating of Left Front leader Sergey Udaltsov at the funeral of opposition activist Aleksandr Dolmatov, who has committed suicide in the Netherlands; p 10 (765 words).

14. Sergey Roganov article headlined "Corruption of soul as national idea" contemplates the fight against corruption in Russia; p 10 (745 words).

Moskovsky Komsomolets


1. Anastasia Rodionova article headlined "Beating comrades" says that Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov has been beaten up at the funeral of opposition activist Alexander Dolmatov, who has committed suicide in the Rotterdam deportation center. Other Russia opposition activists justify this by the fact that he came to the funeral to hype himself; pp 1-2 (486 words).

2. Natalya Rozhkova article headlined "Zyuganov to offer new economic policy and fight against 'Churov's magic'" looks at the report to be delivered by the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation at the forthcoming party congress, to be held in Moscow on 24 February; p 2 (594 words).

3. Mikhail Rostovsky article headlined "Not nominal friendship" looks ahead at the Kazakh president's visit to Russia set for 7 February and contemplates Russian-Kazakh relations; p 2 (382 words).

4. Irina Bobrova article headlined "What awaits 'gambling prosecutor' in Russia" looks at the future of former Moscow Region deputy prosecutor Aleksandr Ignatenko suspected of involvement in an illegal gambling business, who will be extradited to Russia from Poland on 7 February; p 2 (822 words).

5. Chairman of the State Duma security and anti-corruption committee Irina Yarovaya article headlined "To be strong means to love one's people and strengthen country" contemplates what liberalism is today and how it correlates with patriotism in Russia; p 3 (929 words).

6. Matvey Ganapolskiy article headlined "Is Mars inhabited?" describes a morning program on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, presented by the author, during which radio listeners shared views of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Putin and expressed opinions about whether there is any alternative to Putin. The results were unexpected, the author says; p 3 (1,126 words).

7. Vladimir Chuprin interview, headlined "WTO, what to do?", with the director of a state farm Pavel Grudinin, speaking about the aftermath of Russia's accession to the WTO; p 4 (1,867 words).

Novyye Izvestia


1. Mikhail Belyy et al. article headlined "Fair-sex regiment" comments on a new trend in Russia when many women are ready to do the military to compensate for the lack of men; pp 1, 5 (1,391 words).

2. Konstantin Nikolayev article headlined "Repeat of past thing" says that riots have broken out in Tunisia; p 2 (417 words).

3. Yulia Savina article headlined "On point duty at electoral commission" says that the Public Chamber wants to act as an observer at elections. A corresponding bill is currently being drafted; p 2 (634 words).

4. Vera Moslakova article headlined "Two special opinions" says that two Constitutional Court judges have disagreed with their colleagues who recognized the decision to deprive a Just Russia MP Gennadiy Gudkov of deputy immunity as constitutional; p 2 (696 words).

RBK Daily


1. Anastasia Novikova and Ivan Petrov article headlined "Law not for all" says that the authors of the bill banning Russian officials from having assets and property abroad cannot become familiar with amendments to the bill drafted by the second reading of it; p 1 (500 words).

2. Galina Starinskaya interview with Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Fedorov speaking about the ministry's plans for 2013 and the development of the Russian energy sector; p 6 (1, 800 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta (weekly)


1. Galina Bryntseva interview with Russian children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov, headlined "War in children's world", who speaks about the future of children's homes in Russia; p 6 (1,935 words).

2. Tatyana Smolyakova and Yelena Mishina interview with the head of the Russian Federal Statistics Service Aleksandr Surinov, headlined "Load sugar in bags", who speaks about the economic situation in Russia; p 11 (789 words).

Zvezda


1. Andrey Fefelov article headlined "Russia — 100 years of good spirits" says Alcohol is a weapon of mass distraction for Russians, as it has been "washing the brains" of all: politicians, talents, the old and the young. Russians would need to stay totally sober for 100 years to reach a social, economic and cultural breakthrough, the article says; p 1 (900 words).

Feb. 7, 2013/BBC Monitoring/©BBC

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