Kommersant
Russia-NATO missile defense talks collapse over location disagreements
A planned meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the NATO Secretary General on the sidelines of the EU-Russia summit in Brussels was canceled, effectively killing what could have been the last chance to find a way out of the missile defense impasse.
Two Russian diplomatic sources confirmed to Kommersant that there had been plans to include President Medvedev’s meeting with Anders Fogh Rasmussen in the agenda for Medvedev’s visit to Brussels for the EU-Russia summit. Both sides were interested in an opportunity to avoid any escalation in the confrontation over NATO’s European missile defense plans.
Medvedev made an extremely harsh statement in late November, accusing the United States and NATO of reluctance to provide any legal guarantees that the planned missile defense system was not targeted against Russia’s nuclear potential, thus undermining Russia’s security. He also warned that Russia would make a series of defense moves in response.
Rasmussen described that statement as reminiscent of a previous age and inconsistent with the strategic relations NATO and Russia have agreed to seek. This frank exchange was followed by a NATO-Russia Council meeting at the foreign minister level, but no significant progress was made on the missile defense issue. So significant hopes were pinned on the Medvedev-Rasmussen meeting in Brussels.
The Russian side proposed holding talks at Medvedev’s hotel in Brussels immediately after the summit. However, the NATO secretary general’s office responded at the very last moment that Mr. Rasmussen had broken his arm while cycling and could not attend, asking the Russian president to visit him at home or, better still, at NATO Headquarters.
“We were astonished by that response,” the source said. “The broken arm did not prevent him from attending the December 8 NATO-Russia Council meeting.” The Russian side suggested compromising by meeting on neutral ground, such as a restaurant. But NATO continued to insist on its preferred locations. Consequently, the meeting was canceled.
A source at NATO HQ confirmed that the meeting had been canceled because of an unavoidable clash of schedules, which was no one’s fault.
Whatever the case, Medvedev and Rasmussen are unlikely to have another opportunity to meet tête-à-tête to discuss this sensitive issue in the next few months. As Kommersant learned, the Russian government is currently deciding who will attend February’s Munich Security Conference. Although a formal invitation for Medvedev arrived a year ago from the conference chairman, Wolfgang Ischinger, there is a possibility that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will represent Russia at the event.
The last time Putin spoke in Munich in 2007, he issued the harshest criticism of NATO and the United States throughout his presidency.
Vedomosti Vlast
New leaders for the new State Duma
Placemen selected by Vyacheslav Volodin, chief of the government staff, are to hold leading posts in the lower house: the president’s Executive Office ceases to be the decision-making center.
Sergei Naryshkin, head of the president’s Executive Office, has been elected speaker of the lower house of parliament and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov is to be his first deputy. Other deputies include Oleg Morozov, deputy speaker in the previous State Duma, former deputy mayor of Moscow Lyubov Shvetsova and Sergei Neverov, secretary of United Russia’s General Council. Chairman of United Russia’s Executive Committee Andrei Vorobyov will be the party’s leader in parliament.
Nearly all the committee leaders will be replaced in accordance with agreements with the Popular Front, Neverov said.
Andrei Makarov will chair the budget committee, Igor Rudensky the economic policy, innovative development and business committee and Unicon founder Natalya Burykina the financial markets committee. Former Yabloko member Irina Yarovaya will head the security and anti-corruption committee, while Stanislav Govorukhin, head of Putin’s election HQ, will be in charge of culture. Viktor Kidyayev will take on the federative system and local government committee, Eldar Gabdrakhmanov the rules committee and Gadzhimet Safaraliyev, the nationalities committee. Vladimir Burmatov will be responsible for education. Member of A Just Russia party Gennady Gudkov said Burmatov is disliked for hounding the opposition on the internet.
TVC anchor Alexei Pushkov will oversee foreign policy, while Volodin’s old buddy, Nikolai Pankov, has been put in charge of agriculture and former Deputy Transport Minister Yevgeny Moskvichev will chair the transport committee.
The presidential staff initially worked on distributing Duma committees among the parties, but the government took over, said a high-ranking United Russia member. Prime Minister Putin insisted that the Duma leadership must be overhauled and that active Popular Front members (Moskvichev, Pushkov, Shvetsova and Govorukhin) be given more prominent roles. Personnel renewal is the main public demand and the rallying cry of Putin’s presidential campaign, the source said.
Former State Duma leaders mostly represented lobbies. For example, Vladimir Vasilyev lobbied for the law enforcement agencies and Valery Yazev for the gas industry’s interests. The majority of the new leaders are party members, even though some appointments such as Yarovaya and Burmatov seem strange, political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko said. Nearly all the Duma posts are now held by Volodin’s appointees: Neverov, Pankov, Rudensky and Kidyayev. The only exception is Vladislav Surkov’s Burmatov.
New appointments in the State Duma will be followed by renewal throughout the party ranks, United Russia members say, indicating that Boris Gryzlov will soon resign as chairman of the party’s Supreme Council and that Executive Committee Chairman Andrei Vorobyov will cede his post to Sergei Zheleznyak, known for his close ties with Neverov.
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