February 4, 2010 By Citizen M

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Feb 4, 2010

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TODAY: Memorial nominated for Nobel Peace Prize; Medvedev’s think-tank releases report demanding political reform; Kasparov interview; Moscow home-razing to continue? Putin invites Polish PM to remembrance ceremony; RIA Novosti denies support of Russia Today. Eutelstat.
Svetlana Gannushkina and her human rights group Memorial have been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize (along with the Internet).  The Institute of Contemporary Development, the Moscow-based think-tank headed by Dmitry Medvedev, has published its report on modernizing the country, calling for political reforms that would bring Russia in line with western-style democracy, including cutting the presidential term back to five years instead of seven, and abolishing the FSB. The BBC says the report reads ‘like a catalogue of criticism‘.  The Moscow Times noted: ‘Analysts cautioned that the proposals were far from realistic and most likely an attempt to rally public opinion behind Medvedev’s modernization drive.‘  The report (in Russian) can be found here.  An interview with opposition leader Garry Kasparov covers topics such as Russia’s focus on China (‘it will inevitably cause our country to lose geopolitical subjectivity‘), Russia’s role in Europe, and explains why he thinks of the Institute for Contemporary Development as ‘our ideological opponents‘.