Russian Press at a Glance, Monday, December 19, 2011

POLITICS At a meeting with United Russia party leaders, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the party requires urgent reform. Meanwhile, the party’s faction in the State Duma has already changed its leaders: 12 chairmen out of 15 State Duma committees will be replaced (Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia) Rallies to demand free elections were held in Russia’s major cities over the weekend, but organizers failed to gather the same number of participants as during the December 10 protests (Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was to meet with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on the sidelines of the Russia-NATO summit in Brussels in a last-ditch attempt to find a solution to the European missile defense issue. However, the meeting was cancelled at the last moment and no new talks are expected in the next few months (Kommersant) President Dmitry Medvedev has confirmed Anton Siluanov as finance minister, a sign, some analysts say, that the career economist will remain in the Cabinet after presidential elections and that the former minister, Alexei Kudrin, will not return. (The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia) United Russia on Saturday backed Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin to become speaker of the State Duma, the party said. (The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta) Russian Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko will be appointed head of the Eurasian Economic Commission and is likely to quit the ministerial post by the year-end (Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta) Unprecedented protests in Kazakhstan's oil-producing Mangistau region spread on Sunday to the regional capital, where hundreds of angry protesters faced reinforced police troops. According to official information, 13 people were killed and 99 injured in the clashes, but residents put the death toll at 30 to 70 people (The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Izvestia) The U.S. Senate approved President Barack Obama's top adviser on Russia policy, Michael McFaul, as the country's ambassador to Moscow. The new ambassador is sometimes referred to as the “architect” of the Russian-U.S. ‘reset’ (The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti) ECONOMY The World Trade Organization officially welcomed Russia as a member Friday, bringing the curtain down on the country's 18-year accession process. (The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia) IMF head Christine Lagarde gave a grim economic forecast late last week, saying that the world economy was on the verge of a new Great Depression. However, the official IMF forecasts are more optimistic on the issue (Nezavisimaya Gazeta) METALS & MINING United Company RusAl, the world's largest aluminum producer, said the euro currency crisis may cause a "cyclical panic" in the commodity markets, prompting a decline in metal demand from smaller manufacturers (The Moscow Times) OIL & GAS At least four people died when the floating Kolskaya oil rig overturned and sank with 67 people on board in the stormy Sea of Okhotsk as it was being towed to shore, 200 kilometers off Sakhalin Island. (The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia) Belarus received a discount for Russian oil. Along with gas discounts, Belarus will save $4 billion a year (Vedomosti) POWER GENERATION India plans to start up a Russian-built nuclear power plant within weeks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday, expressing confidence that the government can ease safety concerns that have prompted protests by local residents. (The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta) SOCIETY Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, died aged 75. (The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia) Russia has slipped one place in the rating of the world's biggest countries by population and now ranks eighth with 142.8 million inhabitants, the State Statistics Service said