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 |  Subject: Russian press review: March 28  Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:48 pm | |
| A summary of top stories in Russian newspapers on Friday
KOMMERSANT
STUDENTS THROW OUT THEIR RECTOR: Students from the Volgograd Civil Service Academy barred entry to their new federally-appointed rector on Thursday in protest over the dismissal of the previous rector whom the Kremlin sacked, many say, for political reasons. Mikhail Sukiasyan, the former rector, had headed the academy since 1992, but angered the Volgograd region governor when he invited Boris Nemtsov, a leader from the opposition Union of Right Forces, to speak to students during the parliamentary election campaign last year. Shortly after, the presidential administration removed him from his post. On Thursday, the students practically carried the new rector, Igor Tyumtsev, from the premises and occupied the main hallways, the newspaper wrote.
GAZETA
THREATENED FROM WITHIN AND WITHOUT: Western spies, terrorist organizations, the media and human rights campaigners have all been interfering in the work of officials from Russia's Investigative Committee, the investigative wing of the Prosecutor General's Office, the agency said in a statement. In a meeting with heads from Russia's security agencies, the Committee's director said the most important task was to protect members of the committee and their families, who, he said, have come under increasing threat in recently. A spokeswoman for the Committee could not offer further information about the accusations, not could she provide evidence to back up the claims.
VEDOMOSTI
SHAKY CREDIT AT SBERBANK: An internal audit of Russia's largest bank, SberBank, of which the government owns a majority share, has shown millions of dollars in credit were given out illegally. The audit also discovered that many loans were obtained through the use of fake documents and that two Sberbank subsidiaries had compromised over 50 percent of their loans. After the news broke, the president of SberBank, German Gref, wrote to the minister of internal affairs asking him to "get his most experienced people to investigate the case."
IZVESTIA
FREEDOM TO SMALL BUSINESS: Dmitry Medvedev has proposed loosening restrictions and laws governing small businesses in Russia. Small business, which the Russian government hopes to promote as part of an economic improvement package, is currently encumbered by bureaucracy and subject to numerous fees and inspections, the president-elect said recently in Tobolsk during a meeting of the Government Council. Among the most ridiculous laws, the newspaper wrote, is one requiring that all small businesses have a gas mask on the premises? Mr. Medvedev suggested eliminating all needless inspections.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
KAZAKH PRESIDENT'S FORMER SON IN LAW SENTENCED: Rahat Aliyev, the former son in law of Kazakstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was sentenced in absentia to twenty years in prison on Thursday on charges of plotting a coup. Mr. Aliyev, who currently lives in Vienna, denied any culpability and compared the charges leveled at him with Stalin's purges of the thirties and forties. In an interview with the newspaper, Mr. Aliyev said that he did not recognize the authority of the court and called Mr. Nazarbayev an authoritarian leader on a campaign of personal vengeance against him. Despite being a wanted man, Mr. Aliyev said he has not given up on returning to Kazakstan and eventually participating in the country's political life.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/europe/28russiapress-review.php |
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