What the Papers Say, April 8, 2014

Kommersant

1. Maxim Yusin et al. report headlined "Donetsk applies for republic" says pro-Russian activists who seized the local administration office in Donetsk have declared setting up a "people's republic" and are now planning to hold a referendum on its future independence. Although, the article adds, they may ask Moscow to send peacekeeping forces to the region, the Russian authorities say they are not planning to do that; pp 1, 8 (932 words).

2. Sofia Samokhina and Natalia Gorodetskaya article headlined "Amnesty being expanded towards Crimea" says former Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has come up with an idea to hold another amnesty to cover prisoners of Crimea. The State Duma lawmakers note that some of Crimean prison inmates already have chances of getting included in the ongoing Russian amnesty; pp 1, 3 (627 words).

3. Roman Rozhkov and Anna Zanina article headlined "UCP not in VKontakte [in touch] with Telegram" says United Capital Partners fund has declared ownership of several companies dealing with Internet messenger, Telegram, owned by Pavel Durov, founder of the popular Russian social networking website VKontakte. UCP is going to sue Durov over the Telegram ownership, the article adds; pp 1, 13 (626 words).

4. Pavel Belavin article headlined "They will have to pay extra for foreign films" says Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the government to draft protectionist measures for Russian filmmakers. The authorities are going to impose duties on foreign films shown in Russian cinemas, the article says; pp 1, 13 (571 words).

5. Andrei Kolesnikov article headlined "Vladimir Putin persuades security service officers with shield and sword" reports on President Vladimir Putin's speech at the Federal Security Service board meeting where he spoke on the Ukrainian crisis and the role of foreign funded NGOs in it. He also set tasks for the Russian secret services for 2014; p 2 (821 words).

6. Maxim Ivanov article headlined "United Russia joins Crimea" says United Russia's regional branches have been set up in Crimea. They are headed by local politicians, the article adds; p 2 (629 words).

7. Andrei Pertsev et al. report headlined "Anatoly Lokot enlists support of decisive voter" says the Kremlin has approved the results of the mayoral election in Novosibirsk and the State Duma lawmaker representing the Communist Party who won the polls, Anatoly Lokot, pledged to cooperate with all political forces in the city; p 3 (769 words).

8. Sergei Goryashko interview with Margarita Simonyan, head of RT television channel, former Russia Today, speaking on the pressure journalists working for the channel have to face due to their stance on the Ukrainian crisis and Crimea; p 4 (519 words).

9. Kirill Belyaninov and Sergei Goryashko article headlined "U.S. takes closer look at RT television channel" says the U.S. authorities have charged the U.S. counteragent of RT television channel with tax fraud. Moscow is going to stop cooperating with the businessman, RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan says; p 4 (592 words).

10. Pavel Tarasenko article headlined "Scotland 41 percent independent" says the number of people seeking independence in Scotland is growing. Separatists are going to win the polls in September, the article suggests; p 7 (513 words).

11. Sergei Strokan article headlined "Pakistan and Iran to secure each other" says U.S. ally Pakistan has joined efforts with the U.S. foe Iran in fighting against terrorism; p 7 (351 words).

12. Kirill Belyaninov and Yelena Cherneneko article headlined "Radioactivity of American sanctions increases" says the U.S. has decided to wind up cooperation with Russia as part of Nunn-Lugar program, Washington will stop allocating funds to improve the Defense of Russian nuclear facilities due to the Ukrainian crisis, the article says; p 8 (709 words).

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

1. Tatyana Ivzhenko article headlined "Donbass declares itself to be republic" says the situation in the east of Ukraine has aggravated and the presidential election may be disrupted as pro-Russian activists seized the local administration offices in Donetsk, Kharkiv and Lugansk; pp 1, 6 (1,960 words).

2. Alina Terekhova article headlined "Queues disrupt information revolution" says the electronic government services launched by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are still inefficient, as people submitting documents online still have to wait in queues; pp 1, 4 (961 words).

3. Ivan Rodin article headlined "Masked police checkups only with prosecutor's office permission" says the State Duma is drafting a bill to strip the police of the right to check up entrepreneurs' work. The prosecutor's office should authorize the procedure, the bill suggests; pp 1, 3 (804 words).

4. Yekaterina Trifonova article headlined "Governors to be held responsible for ethnic conflicts" says the Regional Development Ministry is drafting a system of monitoring ethnical conflicts threats in Russian regions based on public opinion polls; pp 1, 3 (651 words).

5. Igor Naumov article headlined "Rospotrebnadzor takes up arms against half of world" says Rospotrebnadzor, Russian consumer rights watchdog, has imposed sanctions against six Ukrainian dairy companies, European pork and Australian beef in response to the Western stance on the Ukrainian crisis; pp 1, 4 (816 words).

6. Anton Khodosevich article headlined "Minsk prints banknotes without zeroes" says Belarus people are expecting their national currency to be devaluated as one U.S. dollar cost nearly 10,000 Belarusian rubles; pp 1-2 (572 words).

7. Editorial headlined "Limited dominance of Russian conservatism" says a recent public opinion poll has suggested that more than half of Russians support conservatism in domestic and foreign policy while only one-third of respondents oppose it; p 2 (459 words).

8. Anton Denisov and Daria Garmonenko article headlined "FSB board meeting marked by Ukraine" looks at the Federal Security Service board meeting, attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the security service officers noted that the "operating environment" in Russia had aggravated; p 3 (700 words).

9. Daria Tsilyurik article headlined "Putin gets supporters in Europe" says some European politicians have expressed support to Vladimir Putin's policy in Ukraine and his resoluteness in defending Russia's national interests; p 7 (657 words).

10. Yevgenia Novikova article headlined "Pashtun or Tajik to head Afghanistan" reviews early results of the Afghan presidential election and predicts the composition of the next cabinet; p 7 (667 words).

Vedomosti

1. Tatyana Voronova and Daria Trosnikova article headlined "Sberbank depositors take 70 billion rubles away" says the Ukrainian crisis has urged Russians to withdraw money from their bank accounts. Sberbank, Russian Savings Bank, alone lost 70 billion rubles, about $1.9 billion in March; pp 1, 4 (500 words).

2. Editorial headlined "Dot above Yo" comments on Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's decision to wind up his car making project, hybrid electric car Yo-mobil; pp 1, 6 (400 words).

3. Alexei Nikolsky and Vitaly Petlevoy article headlined "Donetsk waiting for answer" looks at the latest developments in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk where pro-Russian activists occupied the administrative office and declared setting up a "people's republic". According to the article, Russia's reaction to the Donetsk developments will depend on the Kiev authorities' further actions; p 2 (500 words).

4. Pavel Aptekar article headlined "Covering states" says the practice of surrounding a country with buffer states that look like independent ones, but in fact are influenced by more powerful neighbors is outdated and obsolete. The author urges the Russian authorities not to follow the practice; p 6 (400 words).

5. Kirill Yankov article headlined "Ukrainian mirror of Russian federalism" says that the Russian officials voicing their support for federalization of Ukraine do not understand clearly how the Russian federalism works in practice; p 6 (650 words).

Izvestia

1. Lyudmila Podobedova article headlined "Government refuses to reduce export duty on petrol" says the Economic Development Ministry has refused to lower export duty on straight-run petrol manufactured from gas, as the budget could lose too much revenue; pp 1, 3 (1,166 words).

2. Ruben Garsya article headlined "President to meet with All-Russia People's Front before his phone-in session" says President Putin is to meet with All-Russia People's Front activists on April 10, representatives of Crimea are to attend the meeting; pp 1-2 (635 words).

3. Alexandra Yermakova article headlined "Gazprom affiliate buys silver pens" says that while the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is going to cut gas supplies to 700 companies debtors in 57 regions, one of its affiliates Gazprom Transgaz Tomsk is buying 118 pens made of silver; pp 1-2 (605 words).

4. Svetlana Subbotina article headlined "Special telephones with trustworthy software to be entrusted with state secret" says a bill has been drafted by State Duma lawmakers to ban officials from using their mobile phones if the devices do not meet the state security requirements. Special secure software is to appear on the market soon, the article says; pp 1, 7 (587 words).

5. Natalia Bashlykova interview with newly elected Novosibirsk mayor, Communist party deputy Anatoly Lokot, who speaks on his plans on the new post; p 2 (816 words).

6. Alena Sivkova article headlined "They want to set defense industry crimes equal to treason" says that, according to a new initiative, crimes in Russian military-industrial complex may be set to treason; pp 1, 4 (800 words).

7. Daria Tsoi article headlined "Donetsk residents proclaim republic" looks at the latest developments in Ukraine's Donetsk where pro-Russian activists seized the local administration office and declared setting up a "people's republic"; p 8 (550 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

1. Petr Likhomanov article headlined "Stake on Ukrainian map " says pro-Russian activists have seized administrative buildings in three cities in the east of Ukraine and are getting ready to fight with law-enforcers coming from Kiev; pp 1, 8 (955 words).

2. Article by Valery Zorkin, Russian Constitutional Court head, headlined "Tabula rasa" defending the Russian constitution and criticizing some activists willing to amend the document; pp 1, 11 (3,378 words).

3. Igor Zubkov article headlined "Bargaining appropriate here" says the Ukrainian crisis has not affected Russian work with foreign partners within the World Trade Organization; pp 1, 3 (968 words).

4. Kira Latukhina article headlined "Opposition without extremism" reports on President Putin's speech at the meeting of the Federal Security Service board where he set tasks for the Russian secret services; p 2 (813 words).

5. Leonid Radzikhovsky article headlined "Soil — destiny" says the Russian leadership enjoying support of the majority of population is trying to change the niche currently held by the country; p 3 (840 words).

6. Sergei Ptichkin article headlined "Satan's ball" says the new Kiev authorities' calls on developing Ukrainian own intercontinental ballistic missiles are "naive but not harmless"; p 6 (700 words).

Moskovsky Komsomolets

1. Mikhail Rostovsky article headlined "Ukrainian territory" warns that Russia will not be able to stay aside, if a real civil war breaks out in neighboring Ukraine. The author notes that the Ukrainian opposition has opened Pandora box with their protests in Kiev, so now pro-Russian activists are protesting in the east of the country; pp 1, 3 (853 words).

2. Mikhail Zubov article headlined "Surprise for Navalny" comments on LDPR MO Andrei Lugovoy's initiative to equal popular bloggers to mass media to make them follow the regulations for the press. The bill initially designed to affect opposition activists such as Alexei Navalny may in fact hit many web users hard, the author adds; pp 1-2 (922 words).

RBK Daily

1. Ivan Petrov report "Referendum against election" looks at the situation in eastern Ukraine and says that pro-Russian activists have announced the formation of "Donetsk people's republic". Ukraine's southeast is trying to repeat the Crimean scenario, article says; pp 1-2 (1,200 words).

2. Yevgeny Krasnikov report "Durov vs Shcherbovich" says that the UCP, or United Capital Partners, fund is trying to take from the founder of VKontakte, Pavel Durov, his personal project Telegram. The UCP has filed a lawsuit against Durov; pp 1, 10 (750 words).

3. Mikhail Rubin report "Putin to rehearse phone-in" says that Putin will meet activists from the All-Russia People's Front a week before his annual televised phone-in that will take place on April 17; p 2 (600 words).

4. Zhanna Ulyanova report "Authorities lose, but for a short while" says that Communist Anatoly Lokot, who has been elected mayor of Novosibirsk, may lose his powers in a year; p 2 (950 words).

Noviye Izvestia

1. Elya Grigoryeva "Russia's card" says that creation of the national payment system in Russia is unlikely to stop capital flight from the country; pp 1, 3 (1,300 words).

2. Yana Stadilnaya interview headlined "'Additional security measures needed on Ukrainian-Russian border" with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Sych, who comments on the situation in the country; pp 1-2 (1,200 words).

3. Dmitry Durnev report "Unclear event" says that local activists in Donetsk have declared independence and asked Russia to deploy a "temporary peacekeeping contingent" in the region; pp 1-2 (500 words).

4. Yana Stadilnaya report "Hoping for power of negotiations" says that the Ukrainian authorities see the "hand of Moscow" in what is going on in the east of the country. However, they do not intend to wage a war against Russia, article says; p 2 (450 words).

5. Report attributed to Russian news agencies headlined "President Putin calls on FSB to distinguish between legal opposition activities and extremism" looks at Putin's speech at a session of the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, board; p 2 (450 words).

Komsomolskaya Pravda

1. Galina Novikova report "Donetsk declares itself people's republic" says that protesters in Ukraine's Donetsk have declared sovereignty of the region; pp 1, 3 (750 words).

2. Yegor Kholmogorov report "Second wave of Russian spring" says that events of the "Russian spring in the southeast of Ukraine have grown from a protest into a revolutionary phase"; p 4 (600 words).

3. Valery Butayev report "What will people's uprising in Donbass result in?" looks at protests in southeastern Ukraine and at their possible consequences; p 5 (600 words).

4. Brief report featuring a comment by economic expert Nikita Krichevsky headlined "Region will not be able to be economically independent" looks at the economic situation in Ukraine's southeastern regions; p 5 (100 words).

5. Yelena Krivyakina report "Yarosh calls for war on Russia" says that leader of Ukraine's Right Sector Dmytro Yarosh has posted a video in the Internet calling for a war against Russia; p 6 (250 words).

6. Unattributed report "Most countries recognize Crimea's merger with Russia" features excerpts from an interview that Russia's permanent envoy at the UN Vitaly Churkin has given to NTV; p 7 (250 words).

Trud

1. Sergei Frolov article called "New dawn burning in East" looks at the situation in Ukraine and says that the events are developing very fast there and are getting out of Kiev's control. Article publishes a comment by Viktor Ozerov, chair of the Federation Council's Defense and security committee; pp 1-2 (1,200 words).

Tvoi Den

1. Andrei Muravyev report "Russia, protect us!" looks at the situation in Ukraine and says that the country's south and east have come out for independence from Ukraine; pp 1, 4-5 (350 words).

April 8, 2014 / BBC Monitoring / ©BBC