RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct. 21, 2008

TODAY: Putin tells international investors that Russia can withstand an economic crisis; Oligarchs ask the Kremlin for help; Dutch government investigates the death of journalist in Georgia; Russia bails out Iceland; the Communist Party passes the hat; and seven Russian athletes are banned for doping. Putin tells foreign investors that Russia can withstand the global economic crisis, since “We have taken into account potential threats while building financial and economic policies…We can to a great extent fund economic growth from our internal resources.” Infusing the economy with an extra $7.6 billion) from the Deposit Insurance Agency won’t hurt, either. Meanwhile, an American magazine tabulates the losses of Russian billionaires, many of whom are now turning to the Kremlin for help. The crisis seems to have spared the average Russian, while encouraging elites of the need for greater state assistance.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State says Russia hasn’t met its cease fire obligations in Georgia, although “They’re in compliance with some of it.” (At least Russia has Nicaragua’s support, though, in recognizing the annexation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.) In other Georgia news, Saakashvili’s political opponents are calling for mass protests next month, while an investigation by the Dutch government concludes that a Russian cluster bomb killed a Dutch journalist in Georgia in August.Oh, sweet irony: the 1986 nuclear disarmament summit in Reykjavik may have led to the 1991 August coup against Gorbachev, but now Russia gets to be Iceland’s economic savior. For some, the bailout package suggests a new world order in which “the Kremlin wants to state its capacity to act unilaterally, challenging the U.S. hegemony and eventually proving the existence of a multipolar world.” This cuts both ways, though: due in part to tension caused by the Georgia crisis, the Russian navy may be eased out of its digs in Sevastopol, on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, where it has been stationed since the 18th Century. (Which is longer than the country’s Communist Party, which is seeking handouts.) Meanwhile, a new study suggests few Russians use the Internet, while many Russian athletes seem to enjoy doping.But lest you have firm opinions, Russia may help broker a Middle East peace deal. If this suggests a mixed Russian message to the world, Europe’s message to Russia these days is pretty garbled, too. American neocons, for their part, are pretty easy to read.