Page 22 - RusRPTSept20

2.10 Politics - misc
In a turnaround for the books, for once it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who was warning the West not to interfere in the internal politics of another country, during a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the fraught situation in Belarus on August 18. "The parties thoroughly discussed the situation in Belarus following the presidential election," a Kremlin press service statement on the call read. "Russia pointed out that foreign attempts to interfere in the country’s domestic affairs were unacceptable and could further escalate tensions." Merkel’s comments in the phone call were said to be more restrained. The German chancellor stressed that the Belarusian authorities must give up the use of force against peaceful demonstrators, the German Cabinet of Ministers’ Spokesman Steffen Seibert said, as cited by Tass.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law which allows voting in elections and referenda to be held for three consecutive days. The law was published on the official web portal for legal information on July 31. Russia will hold important regional elections in September.
Poland’s anti-monopoly office UOKiK fined the Russian gas company Gazprom PLN213mn (€48.27mn) for “failure to co-operate” in UOKIK’s investigation into the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the office said on August 3. Nord Stream 2 will double Russia’s capacity to pump gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea. Poland, Ukraine and other CEE states are wary that the new pipeline will be as much a business venture as Moscow’s pressure tool on the region, Ukraine in particular. UOKiK is probing whether the companies involved in the construction of the controversial pipeline have legally banded together to finance the project. The companies in question are Gazprom and its international partners in the Nord Stream 2 project: France’s Engie Energy as well as Uniper, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell and Wintershall, all via registrations in the Netherlands.
After Vedomosti was scuppered by its new pro-Kremlin leadership, a new outlet has risen from the ashes. The journalists that left Vedomosti this summer are starting a new publication called VTimes. The outlet will publish the same business and politics news that you know and love, with a few new topics, like healthcare and environmentalism, added in. Check out the new site here and their Twitter page, where VTimes has been publishing stories as its web designers work their magic in developing a homepage.
The first doses of Russia’s COVID vaccine, Sputnik V, will be available for medical workers in August, the health ministry has announced. Russia is hoping to earn $19 billion from the vaccine. According to calculations, the global market for a COVID vaccine is worth $75 billion at roughly 3-5 billion doses. Russia hopes to capture a quarter of this market with Sputnik V, producing 1 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Exactly one month ahead of the regional elections, clouds are gathering on the horizon for the Kremlin: United Russia is widely expected to perform worse than last year in the races for the regional and city parliaments, while the ongoing protests in Khabarovsk could make the 18 gubernatorial elections more troublesome. Kommersant writes that United Russia won less than 50% of the vote (on party list) in the last Duma elections in seven regions that will see elections next month. For the gubernatorial elections, the Kremlin-backed candidates are getting some help in the form of an increasingly rigid municipal filter. The rule, which ostensibly aims to prevent sham candidacies by requiring
22 RUSSIA Country Report September 2020 www.intellinews.com