From RFE/RL's News Desk:
PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WON'T RESTRICT INTERNET ACCESS
President Vladimir Putin says Russia is not planning to limit access to the Internet or put it under total state control, but will need to ensure the stability and security of its Russian segment.
Putin, speaking at a meeting of his presidential Security Council, said Russian Internet domains have faced a growing number of cyber attacks.
Putin appeared to seek to defuse speculation over possible restrictions amid escalating tensions with the West over the conflict in Ukraine.
He said Russia will consistently and legally close sites disseminating or promoting extremism, xenophobia, terrorism and child pornography.
And just when you though it couldn't get any weirder, Valery Zorkin destroys your illusions.
That's Valery Zorkin, the chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court. Zorkin penned an article last week in "Rossiiskaya gazeta" (that's the official Russian government newspaper, by the way), calling for -- wait for it -- a return to serfdom. A big h/t to Elena Holodny at Business Insider for flagging this.
Here's the money quote:
"Even with all of its shortcomings, serfdom was exactly the main staple holding the inner unity of the nation. It was no accident that the peasants, according to historians, told their former masters after the reforms: 'We were yours, and you — ours.'"
Zorkin also took a shot at Pyotr Stolypin, the 19th century reformist prime minister (and a hero of Vladimir Putin's), and his judicial reforms.
"Stolypin's reform took away communal justice from the peasants in exchange for individual freedom, which almost none of them knew how to live and which was depriving their community guarantees of survival."
I wonder what that portends. Zorking also compared the abolotion of serfdom to the post-Soviet reforms of the 1990s.
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
RUSSIAN, NORTH KOREAN FMs HOLD TALKS IN MOSCOW
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow has plans to expand relations with North Korea in "various fields."
Lavrov made his comments at a press conference with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong in Moscow on October 1.
Lavrov said his talks with Ri would focus on bilateral relations, economic ties, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Ri noted the "long tradition of relations" between Moscow and Pyongyang and said ties between the two countries are "bonded with blood."
Ri, who is one a 10-day visit to Russia, is also expected to discuss the resumption of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Pyongyang suspended the talks in 2009.
Lavrov said Russia puts "high value" on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's statement that bilateral relations would continue on course.
(Based on reporting by Interfax and TASS)
From RFE/RL's News Desk:
RUSSIAN, KAZAKH LAWMAKERS OK EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION
Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans for a Eurasian Economic Union are coming closer to reality.
Russia's upper parliament house and Kazakhstan's lower chamber ratified treaties on the EES on October 1.
The EES was established on the basis of the Customs Union by member states Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in May. It is scheduled to officially start functioning from January 1, 2015.
Moscow has been pressuring former Soviet republics to join the Customs Union and the EES, saying the latter will be modeled after the European Union.
Armenian Prime Minister Ovik Abramian said in July that an agreement allowing his country to join the EES will be signed by the end of October.
Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has said that Kyrgyzstan will join the Customs Union by the end of 2014.
(Based on reporting by KazTAG and Kazinform)
Meanwhile, oil prices are dropping fast, according to Business Insider:
Whoa!
Oil just totally crashed. One possible culprit is this Reuters story, showing that OPEC production is surging.
There are a host of other factors that might be driving down oil as well.
What are they? Read the whole piece here.
The Russian media is making a lot of hay about the alleged discovery of "mass graves" in Donetsk.
But Tom Parfitt of "The Daily Telegraph" is checking out the details and raising some doubts:
As Russia switches to a war economy, social programs continue to take a hit.
From RFE/RL's News Desk
RUSSIAN ARMY DRAFTING MEN FROM CHECHNYA FOR FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS
Young men from Chechnya are being drafted into Russia's armed forces for the first time in 20 years.
Some 500 men aged 18-27 will be drafted this autumn.
Officials at Russia's Southern Military District said on October 1 that drafting commissions had started working in Chechnya's 17 districts and that the first group of conscripts will be sent to military units in 10 days.
Mandatory military service in Russia is 12 months.
Chechen youth stopped being drafted to the Russian Army in late 1994, when the Kremlin sent the military into Chechnya to try to crush its separatist leadership.
Government forces drove separatists from power in a second war and Moscow announced in 2009 that its "counter-terrorist" operation in Chechnya was over.
Chechen separatist fighters gradually turned into Islamic insurgency and spread to other parts of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.
(Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS)
The Russian government is backing legislation that would compensate Russian businessmen with taxpayer's money should their assets be seized abroad.
"Vedomosti" has the details. See also this report in "Slon."