Contents tagged with Putin

  • Russian media: Medvedev resigned after failing to reach compromise with Putin on constitutional reform

    Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev may have resigned because he disagreed with the constitutional reform proposed by President Vladimir Putin during his address to the Federal Assembly, Kommersant reports.

    According to the newspaper, at the end of 2019, Medvedev supported the merging of presidential and executive government. In such a scheme, the president would be the de facto head of executive government. Putin proposed that the prime minister and “civilian” part of the Russian …

  • Putin-appointed prime minister announces cabinet reshuffle and total control over Russians’ incomes

    Mikhail Mishustin, the head of Russia’s Federal Tax Service who was nominated for the position of prime minister by President Vladimir Putin, said that changes will be made to the composition of the new government.

    Mishustin spoke about this during a meeting with MPs from the United Russia party in the State Duma, a source familiar with the proceedings told TASS, and this was later confirmed by Sergey Neverov, head of the Duma’s United Russia members.

    “Mishustin said that he will discuss …

  • Putin nominates tax chief for prime minister

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed that Mikhail Mishustin, Head of the Federal Tax Service, should become the next prime minister. According to the official Kremlin website, he put forward the suggestion during a work meeting.

    Mikhail Mishustin agreed to the proposal, and so Putin put forward Mishustin’s candidature for consideration by the State Duma.

    A doctor of economics, Mikhail Mishustin is 53 years of age, and has headed the tax service for nearly 10 years. He is married with …

  • Putin proposes extensive changes to Russian constitution

    For the first time ever, Putin’s address to the Federal Assembly took place immediately after the New Year’s holidays. During his address, he announced that he was proposing “a number of constitutional changes” which could be the most far-reaching amendments ever made to Russia’s constitution, which was adopted in 1993.

    Several hours later, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced that his cabinet would be resigning, saying that “the government should give the president the opportunity to make …

  • Putin’s friend Rotenberg loses lawsuit against Scandinavian banks in Finland

    The Russian businessman Boris Rotenberg, who has come under US sanctions due to the conflict in Ukraine and his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, lost a lawsuit against four Scandinavian banks in a Finnish court on Monday.

    “The Helsinki District Court has dismissed Boris Rotenberg’s lawsuit regarding the right to banking services and damage from discrimination,” the court said in a statement.

    Rotenberg, who also has Finnish citizenship, filed a lawsuit against Nordea, Danske …

  • Putin to Assad: Invite Trump to Damascus

    During his recent visit to Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin advised his Syrian colleague Bashar al-Assad to invite US President Donald Trump to Damascus, according to a story presented on the TV channel Russia 1 during the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin”. The topic came up while the leaders of the two countries were meeting with Patriarch John X of Antioch and discussing a statement about the Apostle Paul, who went to Damascus.

    Commenting on the story, Assad joked that if Trump were to …

  • ‘President’ of Abkhazia resigns after meeting with Putin’s aide Surkov

    Raul Khajimba, the so-called “President” of Russia-occupied Abkhazia, a part of Georgia, has handed in his resignation.

    “Yes, I’ve resigned,” Khajimba told Interfax on the evening of Sunday, January 12. He did not specify, however, whether he would be running in the snap “elections”.

    The so-called “president” made his statement in the wake of mass protests and visits by senior Kremlin envoys to Sokhumi.

    On January 12, Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov visited the capital of Abkhazia. …

  • Merkel: construction of Northern Stream 2 gas pipeline has to be completed

    At a briefing after the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it is necessary to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which should allow Russian gas to flow to Germany bypassing the Ukrainian gas transportation system.

    "We talked about the Nord Stream project, of course. This project is legitimized through new European legislation. We need to see it through. Germany and other European countries will benefit from the Nord Stream. Everyone is …

  • Putin demands that Donbas special status be included in the constitution of Ukraine

    At a press conference after the talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Kyiv should include the "special status of the Donbas" in the Constitution of Ukraine.

    According to the Russian president, this is part of the Minsk agreements.

    "The extension of the law on the special status of Donbas is a good step in the right direction, but the law should become indefinite, as stipulated in the Minsk agreements. It is necessary to consolidate …

  • Putin commissions Turkish Stream pipeline which will never pay itself off

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan commissioned the Turkish Stream gas pipeline at an opening ceremony on Wednesday.

    As he turned the symbolic valve, Putin put an end to the project which grew out of the wreckage of South Stream, and in which the Kremlin was hoping to see the long-awaited replacement of transit through Ukraine.

    These hopes were in vain. Initially Gazprom was expecting a pipe with four lines, each with a capacity of 15.75 billion …