The Trial of Suspects Believed to Have Partaken in Politkovskaya’s Murder Attests to the Prosecutors’ Inability to Get to the Bottom of the Case

The trial for the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, which took place in October 2006, has opened with the suspected killer still at large, the press excluded from the proceedings, and an apparent attempted poisoning of the prosecution’s lawyer. But even if the three existing defendants are found guilty, the actual masterminds of the murder have little to worry about.
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Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Time for a New Global Leader?

In a twist of fate, Russia is now emerging as a country that is ready and willing to resume the responsibilities of global leadership. In recent weeks, the Russian leadership has increasingly come to recognize its dependence on the world economy. The global financial crisis has had an impact on the Russian economy, with the Russian stock market losing more than 60 percent of its value since last May. Is President Dmitry Medvedev showing global statesmanship? Is Russia trying to position itself as a responsible global player that has the ideas and the will to lead?
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Russian and Georgian Civic Communities Try to Help Refugees to Re-Claim Their Homes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Just like the past conflicts, the recent war in the Caucasus produced a vast number of refugees—people who were forced to abandon their property and look for shelter in Georgia and Russia. But with the military action a thing of the past, most of the South Ossetian refugees have been able to return home, while their Georgian counterparts are still reluctant to come back, fearing retribution.
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Russia’s Grain Producers Feel the Credit Crunch as Retailers Defer Payments

This year, an exceptionally voluminous grain harvest may help Russia to alleviate the pain brought about by the financial crisis, which is threatening to spread from the stock markets to banks and other spheres such as real estate and employment. But not all that glitters is indeed gold – the oversupply of grain on the market could end up doing more harm than good.
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Medvedev’s New Anti-Corruption Measures Leave Too Much to the Imagination

<img hspace=”5″ border=”1″ align=”left” src=”http://russiaprofile.org/media/small-images/FrontCurrency2.jpg” alt=”" />President Dmitry Medvedev has finally introduced a set of long-awaited bills on fighting corruption. At first, the public&rsquo;s reaction was quite benevolent: many experts did not try to conceal the fact that they expected something on a much &ldquo;smaller scale.&rdquo; However, this does not mean that the draft laws are flawless.
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Dear Barack

As the American presidential election nears and the two candidates, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, intensify their campaigns, the debate as to whether Russians would prefer to see a democrat or a republican in the White House swirls on. In the opinion of our columnist Vladimir Frolov, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would rather deal with the former. Frolov supports his line of reasoning with an imaginary letter.
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Party Like It’s 1998

When the ruble defaulted in 1998, the State Duma and the Federation Council played a key role in stabilizing the situation. Today, the country faces the threat of another economic crisis, but neither institution is in a condition to play that role again.
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The Kremlin’s “Controlled” Opposition May Become a Human Shield against Unhappy Citizens

Predictably, Russia’s remaining true liberals met the demolition of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party and the formation of a new democratic party under the aegis of the Kremlin, to be composed of what’s left of SPS, the Civic Force, and the Democratic Party of Russia, with much skepticism. The new party is unlikely to help promote democracy and the freedom of choice in the county – it can only attempt to preserve the chance to bring these virtues back someday.
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Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Medvedev’s War on Corruption

Last week, President Dmitry Medvedev approved and forwarded to the State Duma a raft of anti-corruption bills that introduce sweeping measures to fight corruption at all levels of the Russian government. The new legislation will significantly tighten governmental control over state officials’ and their close relatives’ incomes and property, and introduce new "conflict of interests" disclosure rules. Will Medvedev succeed in rooting out corruption in Russia? Or is his plan doomed, as some critics suggest?
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It Is no Longer Possible to Reintegrate South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia

This week Russian forces are withdrawing from the buffer zones they established around South Ossetia and Abkhazia following the five-day war, and EU observers are arriving to preserve peace. But a final settlement of the conflicts in the Caucasus will be long in coming, and will require a dramatic rethinking of European and East-West relations
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