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Russia continued to come out of its winter holiday slumber this week, but unfortunately not with more accreditations.
On Friday, Russia signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Serbia to make the Balkan nation a key transit point for the natural gas pipeline that Russia is building to supply Europe. In addition, Gazprom announced that it is taking a controlling stake in Serbia’s government-owned oil company. According to the Associated Press, the Russian government-controlled natural gas monopoly offered about $600 million for NIS, plus $730 million for improvements to the company’s infrastructure.
On Thursday, Russian election officials said a critic of President Vladimir Putin should not be allowed to run in the March presidential election. Reuters says that Mikhail Kasyanov has little chance of winning, but that barring him will add to the perception that the election is stacked in favor of President Putin’s choice, Dmitry Medvedev. Reuters says there are doubts Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who had been viewed as the main opposition candidate, will continue to run for the presidency.
Thursday also saw the arrest of Russia’s most notorious organized crime kingpin. Semyon Mogilevich has been wanted by both the United States and Great Britain for several decades of misdeeds, including money-laundering, illegal drugs, prostitution, the smuggling of uranium and icons, and bank fraud. According to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian, Moscow police arrested Mogilevich as he left a business meeting at Moscow’s World Trade Center.
And finally, a show of some of Russia’s most prized artworks finally opened in London. Plans for the show had been on the rocks for months, thanks to diplomatic tension between the U.K. and Russia and the threat that the descendants of some of the paintings’ original owners would seek to reclaim them. According to the BBC, some of the artwork included in the show was seized during the Russian Revolution. To secure the show, the British parliament had to pass a law giving artwork lent from abroad immunity from seizure. Meanwhile, Russian legislators took steps to authorize the return of stained glass panels taken from Germany after World War II to that country.
