RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct. 24, 2008

TODAY: Medvedev says Russia can emerge stronger from crisis; Duma approves bank bailout; the S&P casts a wary eye; Interior Ministry disputes journalist’s death in Georgia; Georgia decries Russian troop build up in Ossetia; and Kangaroos cower from Russian schoolchildren. Russian markets may be down 70 percent since May, but on a video posted on his website, President Medvedev assures the world Russia can “avoid banking, forex or debt crisis and go through today’s difficulties without losing the potential we have created.” Whatever you want to call the current economic situation, it’s clear the VEB has been thrust into the role of savior. The Duma, meanwhile, approved a plan to allow the Russian government to spend more than $18 billion bailing out Russian banks. But despite the overtures to project confidence, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Russia’s sovereign credit rating to negative, and cautioned that “the ongoing concentration of the financial system in state hands” had become a political risk. Perhaps it’s not a financial crisis or “Kremlinomics” that’s to blame, but rather, corruption in the West.

In Georgia, an Interior Ministry spokesman says Russia has deployed 7,000 troops in South Ossetia, “susicious movements” that suggest “further provocations.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, disputes the notion that a cluster bomb killed a Dutch journalist in Georgia back in August, and that “Documents and photographs from site of S. Storimans’ (the journalist’s) death presented by the Dutch are not sufficient proof that he died as a result of fire by the Russian side.” Concerning the $4.5 billion in international aid slated for Georgia, the Foreign Ministry advises against its use militarily. Ironically, the financial crisis may have shielded Georgia from greater financial ruin, since the influx of cash will, temporarily at least, prop up the country’s economy.In the UAE, a Russian diplomat breaks down the keys for Middle East Peace, while the Russian Navy asked Somalia for carte blanche to fight pirating in its waters. And Kangaroos aren’t safe from Russian schoolchildren in Rostov-on-Don, while the Russian Navy isn’t welcome in Sevastopol past 2017.Photo: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev attends a wreath laying ceremony at the Tsitsernakaberd memorial in Yerevan October 21, 2008. (RIA Novosti/Pool/Reuters)