RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – May 13, 2009
TODAY: Anti-corruption initiatives fail to ‘dizzy’ so far; Sochi faces IOC inspection and reports of ecological violations; governor’s official earnings’ declarations raise eyebrows; Lavrov finds US approach to arms issue ‘constructive’; same sex marriage denied
President Medvedev seems to have no illusions about the efficacy of his anti-corruption measures: ‘there is actually no success so far’. Is this a reflection of Medvedev’s ‘glasnost-lite‘ as a Guardian commentator would have it? Or a further indictment of the President’s lack of power, the subject of an op-ed piece in the Moscow Times? Authorities are reportedly refusing to look into the harassment faced by an United Civil Front party leader who has been bombarded with death threats. Kaliningrad Governor Georgy Boos has revealed the highest earnings of 20 governors who have announced their salaries, declaring an income of $3.8 million, whilst St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko has reported the lowest, at $53,600. She may be making up for it in furnishings; the Telegraph balks at the £650,000 budget the city’s mayor submitted to decorate four rooms at her official home.