RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Dec 15, 2011
TODAY: Putin begins TV Q+A; United Russia stalwart Boris Gryzlov resigns; protest march scheduled for Dec 24, permission granted for turnout of 50,000; Kommersant journalists express anger. Russian humanitarian convoy blocked amid tensions in Kosovo; South Ossetia impasse; fire on nuclear icebreaker
Commentators have remarked that Vladimir Putin has been somewhat taciturn since the elections. Today he will break the silence with his annual televised public Q+A session. ‘The programme, which usually lasts for hours and is a forum for Putin to promote his cult of personality, comes as the prime minister faces an unprecedented challenge to his 12-year domination of Russian politics’ says the Guardian. The newspaper is running a live blog covering the event. Parliamentary speaker and United Russia veteran Boris Gryzlov has resigned after eight years in the role, in a move widely seen to be an attempt to quell public anger over the election results which many maintain were falsified. ‘[U]nder Gryzlov the Duma had deteriorated into an appendix of the presidential administration’ says the Moscow Times. RFE/RL’s Brian Whitmore considers, with some surprise, the suggestion, raised yesterday, that Medvedev might resign.