Word: kremlin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...victims of Stalin's regime, President Dmitry Mevdedev said that Russia "must not allow those who destroyed their own people to be defended under the banner of restoring historical justice. ... There can be no justification for repressions." But his plea, issued in a video blog on the Kremlin website, largely fell on deaf ears. The blog posting reached nowhere near as many people as the Putin call-in show, which was broadcast on state-run TV channels across the country. Medvedev's video also got scant attention in the Russian media. (Read: "Death In The Kremlin: The Heart Stops Beating...
...going to tell his countrymen," says Alexander Brechalov, vice president of Opora, a Russian lobbying group for small businesses. "Who is going to want to come to Russia after hearing that? It's an epidemic that needs to be contained." (See pictures of Russian police breaking up an anti-Kremlin rally...
...Magnitsky's death has triggered a wave of public discussion in Russia - reaching as high as the Kremlin - about the squalid conditions in the country's jails and bureaucratic incompetence. But it has also renewed focus on an odious criminal practice that embodies what President Dmitry Medvedev describes as the "legal nihilism" pervading the country. It's known as reiderstvo, or "raiding," a term that describes an array of illegal tactics - including identity theft, forgery, bribery and physical intimidation - used by corrupt policemen, tax officials, lawyers and financiers to seize a person's business or property. (See pictures of Hillary...
...Then, on Dec. 15, came a sign that authorities may be cracking down on individuals suspected to be involved in the raid on Hermitage's assets. The Kremlin said that Medvedev had dismissed Anatoly Mikhalkin, the head of the tax crimes department of the Moscow police. Police spokeswoman Zhanna Ozhimina denied the move was linked to the Magnitsky case, saying that Mikhalkin had stepped down because of his age. But Hermitage says Mikhalkin may have been fired because he had signed off on documents used in the seizure of its subsidiaries. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...
...Some pundits, pointing to Putin's wish to regain full control of the Kremlin as soon as possible, believe he may return to the presidency next year by asking Medvedev to take the fall for the financial crisis and resign. That would trigger a snap election, which Putin would be sure to win. His approval ratings are still around 65%, despite a year that saw an economic recession, spiking unemployment, a sharp currency devaluation, the murder of several human-rights activists and persistent terrorist attacks. (Read "The Man Behind Russia's Deadly Train Blast...