Kommersant
1. Dmitry Butrin et al. report headlined "High-jumping championship" outlines different approaches to the Russian economic development to be discussed at the meeting of the government, the presidential administration officials and experts in Sochi today; pp 1, 6 (1,166 words).
2. Viktor Khamrayev et al. report headlined "State Duma parties become personnel" says the State Duma factions are drafting their lists of candidates to fill vacant jobs in different government bodies. The lists are to be handed over to the Kremlin, however, the opposition does not believe that it would be able to affect the Kremlin's personnel policy; pp 1-2 (674 words).
3. Svetlana Mentyukova et al. report headlined "They will get complaint about EU in Mauritania" says Russia is to complain to the WTO about the violation of its interests as the EU is allocating too generous subsidies to the fishing sector in Mauritania; pp 1, 12 (778 words).
4. Olga Shestopal article headlined "Block-reserve" says a court ruling has suspended the purchase of Absolyut Bank by the Blagosostoyanye private pension fund; pp 1, 9 (732 words).
5. St. Petersburg-based Anna Pushkarskaya article headlined "State Duma fails to overcome threshold of 'non-free voting'" says the Civil Code reform launched by Dmitry Medvedev a year ago is carried out too slowly. New amendments to the Civil Code were approved by the State Duma after the government had made changes to the bill; p 2 (681 words).
6. Alexandra Larintseva article headlined "We have not learnt to hold honest elections yet" says a congress of Ingush people has decided not to hold the direct elections of the republic's head; p 2 (717 words).
7. Ivan Safronov article headlined "To last until Vostochny [cosmodrome] is ready" looks into the Russian plans to use the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan; p 4 (1,927 words).
8. Vyacheslav Kozlov article headlined "They want to place foreign agents outside law" says the human rights council under the Russian president wants to revoke the controversial law on foreign-funded NGOs; p 5 (489 words).
9. Alexei Tarkhanov article headlined "No one to write off colonel's money" reports on the beginning of a probe into the allegations that former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi funded French President Nikolas Sarkozy's election campaign; p 7 (529 words).
10. Sergei Strokan article headlined "Russia makes America worry" says a recent report on human rights violations made by the U.S. State Department has listed Russia along with the countries with worst violations of human rights. The document shows the growing alienation between the two countries, the author notes; p 8 (574 words).
11. Article by Dmitry Polikanov, vice president of PIR Center, in opinion column headlined "Price of issue" says the U.S. seems to be unwilling to spoil relations with Russia completely despite some "unfriendly" moves; p 8 (331 words).
12. Kirill Belyaninov article headlined "He was looser and could not manage his affairs in U.S." says the U.S. authorities suspect the elder brother, Tamerlan Tsarnayev, of organizing the Boston blasts. The author looks into the reasons which could make the immigrants commit the crime; p 8 (967 words).
13. Mikhail Serov and Vladimir Vodo article headlined "Minister seen off via gas pipeline" says the Russian project to enlarge the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline has triggered dismissals in the Polish government; p 8 (667 words).
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
1. Anastasia Bashkatova article headlined "Rosstat saves president from economic slowdown" says economic experts are skeptical about the figures of the economic growth in Russia made public by the Federal Statistics Service, Rosstat, ahead of President Putin's phone-in session; pp 1-2 (1,200 words).
2. Alexandra Samarina and Ivan Rodin article headlined "Not every region to be entrusted with direct elections" says the Stavropol region is likely to become the only region in the North Caucasus to hold direct elections of governors, the rest of the regional heads are to be appointed; pp 1, 3 (1,257 words).
3. Artur Blinov article headlined "America suffers from Chechen terrorists" says the Chechen brothers who reportedly organized the twin blasts in Boston seem to have become Islamists while living in the U.S. and notes that the bombing shows that Russia and the U.S. should step up cooperation in fighting with terrorism; pp 1, 7 (867 words).
4. Igor Naumov article headlined "Postmen fail Internet-trade exam" says Russia proved to be not ready for globalization as the post office has 400 tons of parcels stuck in Moscow. The situation resulted in the sacking of the postal service head; pp 1, 4 (1,134 words).
5. Alexei Gorbachev article headlined "Opposition charged with developer and dollars" looks into new charges that have been brought against opposition lawmakers Ilya Ponomaryov and Dmitry Gudkov and says scandals involving the opposition spoil the image of opposition activists; pp 1, 3 (748 words).
6. Andrei Serenko article headlined "Volgograd anarchists go to people" reports on the growing political activity of anarchists in Volgograd, as they are using local socioeconomic problems to attract public attention to themselves; pp 1-2 (562 words).
7. Vladimir Mukhin article headlined "Territorial claims of law enforcement nature" says Chechnya and Ingushetia still have not succeeded in coming to agreement over the disputable Sunzhensky district. The police of the two republics had a fight over an Ingush village; p 2 (659 words).
8. Editorial headlined "Wrong war" slams the Western approach to the Syrian conflict where radical Islamists are fighting with the country's regime and pose potential threat to the regional security. The article also notes that the FBI did not take into account Russian warnings about Tsarnaev brothers and calls for the world community to show a united front in fighting with terrorism; p 2 (524 words).
9. Alexei Mukhin article headlined "Skolkovo lace" looks into the scheme that allowed opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov to receive $750,000 from Skolkovo fund; p 3 (985 words).
10. Viktoria Panfilova article headlined "Robert Blake to check Central Asian allies" says Robert Blake, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to discuss the situation in Afghanistan; p 6 (668 words).
11. Vladimir Skosyrev article headlined "Bombers fail to disrupt Iraqi elections" reports on the elections held in Iraq for the first time after the U.S. troops withdrawal; p 7 (534 words).
12. Yury Simonyan article headlined "Russian lawmakers to talk with Ivanishvili" features comments by the head of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, on forthcoming negotiations between Russian and Georgian authorities in Strasbourg; p 6 (1,000 words).
Vedomosti
1. Olga Plotonova and Maxim Tovkaylo article headlined "VTB more important than budget" says VTB will carry out only additional issue of shares in 2013, the state-controlled stake in the bank is not expected to be sold; pp 1, 14 (861 words).
2. Irina Novikova and Yelena Myazina article headlined "Limitless power" says 15 lawmakers and senior officials bought housing abroad in 2012 amid discussions of the ban on foreign property ownership for Russian officials; pp 1-2 (645 words).
3. Editorial headlined "Kudrin like Shoigu" comments on the plans to offer former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin a post in the presidential administration. The move is to turn the presidential administration into a shadow cabinet and will show the problems of Putin's personnel policy, the article notes; pp 1, 6 (431 words).
4. Ksenia Boletskaya and Liliya Biryukova article headlined "Button of checks and balances" says the Kremlin has decided not to include regional TV channels in the digital broadcast packages. TV channels to be set up by VGTRK (All-Russian State TV and Radio Company) in Russian regions will be included in the broadcast packages; p 2 (666 words).
5. Ksenya Boletskaya article headlined "TV Center becomes obligatory" says President Putin has signed a decree adding TV Center to the package of digital TV channels to be broadcast free in Russia; p 19 (442 words).
6. Another editorial headlined "Reaction to blood" says judging by the reaction of the U.S. authorities to the Boston blasts, Islamists failed to intimidate the U.S.; p 6 (281 words).
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
1. Vladislav Vorobyev article headlined "Chasing person sentenced to death" notes that the Federal Security Service used to inform the FBI about the potential danger of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but the warnings were ignored; pp 1, 7 (938 words).
2. Lyubov Protsenko interview with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin speaking on the city development plans and his daily work; pp 1, 6 (3,543 words).
3. Susanna Alperina article headlined "News from president" says that in accordance with the Russian presidential decree, TV Center will be included in the first digital broadcast package and VGTRK will set up regional digital channels; pp 1-2 (801 words).
4. Anna Fedyakina article headlined "Dzhokhar almost did not resist" report on a special operation to detain Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suspected of organizing the explosions during the Boston marathon; p 7 (423 words).
5. Kira Latukhina article headlined "Sochi, palms and pyramids" loox into the negotiations between President Vladimir Putin and his Egyptian counterpart, Mohamed Morsi; p 2 (950 words).
Izvestia
1. Anastasia Kashevarova article headlined "Alexei Kudrin forms economic block of shadow government" says former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is expected to receive a senior post in the presidential administration to supervise the investment climate in the country; pp 1, 7 (518 words).
2. Margarita Kazantseva article headlined "Russia to limit oil supplies to Belarus" says Russia is not going to supply more oil to Belarus as Minsk does not stick to its agreements to sell more oil products to Russia; pp 1, 7 (938 words).
3. Alexei Mikhaylov article headlined "Control over arms purchase may be handed over to Rosoboronpostavka" says the Rosoboronpostavka agency may be empowered with control over arms purchase for the Russian armed forces; pp 1, 7 (441 words).
4. Yulia Tsoi article headlined "Mass divorce of deputies turns out to be false report" says that some media are spreading false information about 30 lawmakers' divorces with their spouses in 2012 to avoid declaring their income; pp 1-2 (553 words).
5. Dmitry Yevstifeyev article headlined "Will I come as an investor to Skolkovo? Hell no" publishes one of the lectures by opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov in which he criticized the Skolkovo project but was paid $30,000 by the Skolkovo fund for the speech; p 2 (1,187 words).
6. Yury Matzarsky article headlined "Obama should oust them otherwise there will be a war" reports on the situation in Boston following the twin blasts and the hunt for the suspects there; p 4 (1,118 words).
7. Nikita Mogutin interview with Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, suspected of organizing the Boston blasts, who claims that his sons were innocent and were just set up; p 4 (499 words).
Moskovsky Komsomolets
1. Irina Rinayeva article headlined "Brother-3" reports on the probe into the organization of the Boston explosions and notes that the U.S. secret services are looking for a link between Tsarnaev brothers and head of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov; pp 1, 6 (800 words).
2. Mikhail Zubov article headlined "Lenin and curse of Russia" interviews the opposition politicians speaking on the role of the Lenin mausoleum in Russian life; pp 1, 5 (1,086 words).
3. Mikhail Rostovsky article headlined "'Bad' terrorist Tsarnaev and 'good' terrorist Basayev" recalls the U.S. stance on Chechen separatists and notes that it should change following the Boston blasts; pp 1, 6 (967 words).
4. Yekaterina Petukhova interview with Ingush leader Yunus-bek Yevkurov speaking on the republic's decision not to hold the elections of the regional head; pp 1-2 (788 words).
5. Ilya Baranikas article headlined "At least one of Tsarnaev brothers was extremist" says the U.S. police pin hopes on receiving evidence from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev suspected of organizing the explosions during the Boston marathon; p 6 (600 words).
RBK daily
1. Yulia Yakovleva article headlined "Vorobyev's followers" says that local deputies are being forced to sign documents saying that thei will support acting Moscow region Governor Andrei Vorobyev in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in September; p 1 (510 words).
Komsomolskaya Pravda
1. Alexander Khodyakin article headlined "Russian warned U.S." says that in 2011, the Federal Security Service warned the U.S. security services that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspected perpetrator of the Boston Marathon blast, was dangerous; p 4 (850 words).
Apr. 22, 2013/BBC Monitoring/©BBC
Related articles:
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.