What the Papers Say, July 12, 2013

Kommersant

1. Natalya Gorodetskaya et al. report headlined "Close-up of Russia" says the Federation Council's speaker, Valentina Matviyenko, has again raised the issue of merging Russian regions to make them larger and more financially independent; pp 1, 3 (755 words).

2. Svetlana Mentyukova article headlined "Customs Union to supply Ukraine for dessert" says Russian chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko has brought claims against a Ukrainian confectionery, Roshen, while other member-states of the Customs Union may raise import duties on Ukrainian chocolate; pp 1, 7 (528 words).

3. Khalil Aminov et al. report headlined "Higher School of Economics aims at military facility" says the Higher School of Economics head, Yaroslav Kuzminov, has asked President Putin to hand over some facilities in Moscow and St. Petersburg to the school. HSE wants to get facilities costing some 7 billion rubles (around $212 million); pp 1, 10 (568 words).

4. Aleksnadra Bayazitova and Svetlana Dementyeva article headlined "Bankruptcy not worth efforts" says the new version of the law on individual bankruptcy has become more loyal to banks and imposed stricter conditions on money borrowers; pp 1, 8 (685 words).

5. Valery Lavsky and Sergei Goryashko article headlined "Presidential envoy's aide ousted from United Russia" says Novosibirsk branch of United Russia has expelled an aide to the local presidential envoy, Viktor Ignatov, from the party due to his support of a Communist candidate running for regional ombudsman; p 2 (501 words).

6. Vadim Visloguzov article headlined "Finance Ministry links pluses and minuses" says the Russian federal budget had a 1 percent surplus in the first six months of 2013. The situation in the second half of the year may worsen and the government may start spending the reserve fund money; p 2 (513 words)

7. Viktor Khamrayev article headlined "Citizens inspired by feelings of anxiety and approval" reviews a survey by the Strategic Development center showing that Moscow is no longer Russia's leader in protest activity. Large regional cities are showing greater protest sentiments; p 3 (560 words).

8. Taisia Bekbulatova et al. report headlined "Sergei Sobyanin's rivals selected" says the Moscow city electoral commission has finished receiving applications from mayoral hopefuls. The authors forecast that acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin will not have more than five rivals; p 3 (523 words).

9. Kirill Belyaninov article headlined "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleads not guilty" gives details of the first appearance in court of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the main suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings; p 4 (633 words).

10. Alexander Zheglov article headlined "Hermitage fund guilty in absentia and posthumously" says British businessman William Browder is unlikely to serve his nine-year prison sentence despite the fact that Moscow's Tverskoy court has found him guilty of tax evasion in absentia; p 4 (510 words)

11. Maxim Yusin article headlined "Egyptian revolution changes sponsors" says Persian Gulf monarchies are to provide financial support to Egypt. The funding Cairo will receive, $12 billion, is to help the new Egyptian authorities restore the country's economy; p 5 (444 words).

12. Pavel Tarasenko article headlined "Englishmen take upper hand over British" outlines a reform facing the U.K. House of Commons; p 5 (423 words).

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

1. Ivan Rodin article headlined "Alexei Kudrin speaks out for Golos" says the Civil Initiatives Committee headed by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will take upon the functions of the election monitoring association Golos, considered a 'foreign agent' by the Justice Ministry; pp 1, 3 (854 words).

2. Mikhail Sergeyev article headlined "State corporation Russia" says the ruling United Russia party has come up with a recipe for resolving the Russian economic problems by setting up one huge state corporation; pp 1, 4 (922 words).

3. Sergei Kulikov article headlined "Americans support weakening ruble" says the rouble's depreciation is expected to continue despite growing prices on oil, as Moscow has prescribed a "soft devaluation" recipe to the national currency; pp 1, 4 (755 words).

4. Alexei Gorbachev and Daria Garmonenko article headlined "Sentence without defendants" gives details of the verdict announced against late lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and U.K. businessman William Browder, who was not present at the trial; pp 1, 3 (602 words).

5. Tatyana Ivzhenko article headlined "Kiev admits genocide of Poles" says a conflict may spark between Poland and Ukraine over the present-day assessment of the events dating back to World War II , when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was reportedly killing Polish civilians; pp 1, 6 (1,161 words).

6. Yevgenia Novikova article headlined "Old World expecting jihad of lone persons" says the U.K. parliamentarians have for the first time raised an issue of security in Europe jeopardized by the Syrian conflict. In a special report, they noted the danger of rebels getting hold of chemical weapons; pp 1, 7 (532 words).

7. Oleg Vladykin article headlined "Distribution of military budget goes on" says corruption keeps growing in the Armed Forces, according to Chief Military Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky. The damage caused by the corruption to the budget has increased by 450 percent in a year; p 2 (605 words).

8. Editorial headlined "About abolition of filter in Moscow and Moscow Region" says the situation in which United Russia municipal deputies are instructed to support opposition candidates in order to make the elections in Moscow and the Moscow region more legitimate proves the municipal filter to be a useless and undemocratic procedure; p 2 (492 words).

9. Oksana Skripnikova article headlined "Navalny accepts signatures of United Russia members" says not all the opposition members have approved a decision by their candidate for Moscow mayor Alexei Navalny to accept some help of the ruling party during the election; p 2 (300 words).

10. Vladimir Mukhin article headlined "Carte blanche: Collective security of amorphous nature" comments on the recent military exercise held by the Collective Security Treaty Organization and notes that the organization should understand its tasks to make its work effective; p 3 (656 words).

11. Vladimir Skosyrev article headlined "Prisoner of Sheremetyevo gets passport" says the World Service Authority NGO has issued a world citizen passport to CIA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. However, it is still unclear how he can travel from Moscow to Venezuela without the U.S. getting hold of his aircraft; p 7 (484 words).

Vedomosti

1. Anastasia Fomicheva article headlined "Blavatnik to deal with electric energy" says businessman Leonard Blavatnik is to buy a stake in energy generating plants of Inter RAO; pp 1, 13 (652 words).

2. Maria Zheleznova article headlined "Protest goes to regions" says Moscow is no longer a protest leader in Russia. Economic problems in Russian regions may give rise to fresh protests, a survey by the Strategic Development center shows; pp 1, 3 (600 words).

3. Editorial headlined "Crime and punishment" comments on the Tverskoy court ruling in the Hermitage Capital fund case; pp 1, 6 (430 words).

4. Editorial headlined "Well-fed and hungry" says a report by the Strategic Development center shows a huge gap between Moscow and the Russian regions as Muscovites seem to give up political struggle and become satisfied with their living standards, while the rest of the country is in a difficult economic condition; p 6 (351 words).

Izvestia

1. Petr Kozlov and Yulia Tsoy article headlined "Kremlin singles out problematic regions ahead of elections" says United Russia and the candidates supported by the authorities can face problems in six regions at the autumn elections; pp 1, 3 (714 words).

2. Dmitry Yevstifeyev and Yelena Sheremetova article headlined "Said Amirov transferred from detention center to hospital" says former Makhachkala mayor Said Amirov has been brought to hospital for medical examination. Doctors will decide if his condition is good enough to stay in prison; pp 1, 4 (578 words).

3. Alexander Yunashev and Yegor Sozayev-Guryev article headlined "Kremlin to track down open letters to president" says the presidential administration is developing a special search system to monitor appeals to Vladimir Putin published in blogs and on the internet forums; p 5 (400 words).

4. Yury Matsarsky report headlined "Egypt closes borders" says Egypt has introduced visas for Syrians; p 7 (400 words).

5. Konstantin Volkov article headlined "America threatens not to give money to Cairo" says the U.S. is revising its financial and military assistance to Egypt due to the unstable political situation in the country; p 7 (462 words).

6. Maxim Sokolov commentary headlined "Moscow Helsinki view on special services" criticizes oldest human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva for denouncing U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden; p 9 (500 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

1. Mikhail Falaleyev et al. report headlined "Detained in 24 hours" says the police have detained four Makhachkala residents suspected of attacking lawmaker Roman Khudyakov; pp 1, 4 (500 words).

2. Yeketerina Zabrodina et al. report headlined "Worries of Friday prayer" polls Russian Middle East experts trying to forecast Egypt's further developments; pp 1, 5 (1,248 words).

3. Andrei Vasyanin interview with MIR TV company head Radik Batyrshin speaking on the editorial policy and the company's plans; p 6 (1,359 words).

Moskovsky Komsomolets

1. Mikhail Rostovsky article headlined "Why Navalny loses" analyses the opposition movement in Russia and looks at political protests in support of opposition politician Alexei Navalny; pp 1, 4 (3,401 words).

2. Igor Kazmazin and Yelena Gamayun article headlined "Pugachyov ahead of thunder storm" reports on the situation in the town of Pugachyov where local people have been protesting against North Caucasus natives and the police following the murder of a former paratrooper by a Chechen teenager; pp 1, 3 (467 words).

3. Yulia Kalinina article headlined "Why Chechens live in Saratov Region" looks into the ethnic conflict in Pugachyov, noting that Chechens stay in many Russian regions and are not returning to Chechnya due to the failure of the Kremlin's policy in the North Caucasus; pp 1, 3 (603 words).

4. Viktoria Prikhodko article headlined "Kremlin to pay 40M for knowledge of working with opposition" says the president's office would like to commission 30 researches on topics such as cooperation between the government and the opposition in the United States and Canada and on using the internet to influence public opinion; p 2 (300 words).

Novaya Gazeta

1. Irina Timofeyeva interview with Russian Academy of Sciences president Vladimir Fortov criticizing the planned academy reform; p 7 (581 words).

2. Irina Petrovskaya article headlined "Our people not fools both in cities and villages!" comments on a recent survey showing that television remains the most popular and trustworthy source of information for most Russians; p 24 (1,024 words).

3. Olga Prosvirova article headlined "Foreign agents come seriously close to president" says the Russian Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika has recently exposed noncommercial organizations (NGOs) that refuse to register as foreign agents and accused some western embassies of financing political activity of Russian NCOs; p 6 (600 words).

Noviye Izvestia

1. Anna Alexeyeva article headlined "Postmortem verdict" details the verdict handed down to late Sergei Magnitsky and U.K. businessman William Browder, who was not present at the trial; p 3 (400 words).

2. Yulia Savina article headlined "In Russia they know little of NGOs work" looks into the results of the latest Levada Center pollster vox pop and says some 30 percent of Russians are not in the know of noncommercial and nongovernmental organizations activity; p 2 (300 words).

RBC Daily

1. Yulia Yakovleva article headlined "Unfiltered stories" says the Moscow city electoral commission has finished accepting documents required for registration for mayoral election and features deputies' comments on the process of signature collection; pp 1, 3 (700 words).

2. Yevgeny Krasilnikov article headlined "Roskomnadzor threatens Roskomsvoboda" says Roskomnadzor (Federal Agency for Oversight in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technology, and the Mass Media) might close down the Roskomsvoboda website which monitors the blacklist of internet resources; p 2 (800 words).

Krasnaya Zvezda

1. Alexander Gerasimov article headlined "Dangerous consequences" says for the time being possible scenarios of the Syrian crisis prevent the U.S. authorities from interfering into the conflict; (700 words).

Komsomolskaya Pravda

1. Head of the Federation Council International Affairs committee Mikhail Margelov article headlined "Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood led country to dire state in one year" features Margelov's comments on the latest developments in Egypt; p 5 (500 words).

2. Nikolay Varsegov article headlined "Have Chechens really left Pugachyov?" details the latest developments with spontaneous protests in Saratov Region town of Pugachyov where a local resident was murdered by a Chechen; p 6 (900 words).

3. Maria Semenova article headlined "Navalny without United Russia or with it after all?" looks at the mayoral election campaign of prominent Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny; p 9 (850 words).