Kremlin Alleges U.S. 'Oligarchs List' Aims To Influence Election
By RFE/RL
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that Moscow believes a hotly anticipated U.S. list of rich Russians seen as close to President Vladimir Putin is an attempt to meddle in the country's March 18 election.
Peskov made the remarks on January 29, ahead of the expected release by the U.S. Treasury Department of what is known as the "Kremlin Report."
"We really do believe that this is a direct and obvious attempt to time some steps to coincide with the election in order to exert influence on it," Peskov told journalists.
The report was mandated by Congress in a law aimed to increase pressure on Russia after the U.S. intelligence community said that Putin ordered a concerted hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed to influence the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
President Donald Trump, who called for warmer ties with Russia during the campaign, reluctantly signed the bill into law in August 2017.
It gave the Treasury Department, the State Department, and intelligence agencies 180 days to identify people by “their closeness to the Russian regime and their net worth.”
Russian business leaders and others named on the list -- part of which may be kept classified -- will not immediately be hit with sanctions but could face them in the future....
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First things first, apparently
Sobchak to lobby against Russia sanctions during her election-season visit to the U.S.
'The Mathematics Of A Boycott'
In Snob.ru, political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin crunches the numbers and looks at the utility of an election boycott by Putin's foes. It's an interesting look at the mathematics of a boycott that is well worth a read.
He acknowledges the tactic's desirability to some, but also suggests that there are other tactics that could send a message, too, such as spoiling a ballot or voting for anyone but the incumbent.
Opposition candidate Dmitry Gudkov argues for Meduza that the election is more a struggle with country's past than a contest against Putin.
Are Communists trying to pinch barred opposition leader Navalny's anticorruption mantle?
Newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta seems to think so, as it notes that the Russian Communist Party's latest plenum was dedicated entirely to combating corruption, while their election candidate, Pavel Grudinin, recently called for a National Anticorruption Bureau to be set up. The paper suggests the Communists are trying to court and co-opt the protesting segment of the population that is disgruntled with graft.
Video of Yabloko co-founder and expected candidate Grigory Yavlinsky slamming Russian state TV journalists for coming to all of his events but never broadcasting anything he says. Very interesting exchange.
Yavlinsky going to the voters with a new (Lenin-inspired?) look. His campaign will file its signatures with the Central Election Commission tomorrow.
Photo of Putin making a campaign visit to a maternity hospital, via independent journalist Oleg Kashin's on Facebook. That's a mannequin down there "giving birth."
An FB post by Ekho Moskvy editor Aleksei Venediktov argues that candidate Sobchak's trip to Grozny proves her campaign is a Putin project.
"The opportunity with a guarantee of comfort and security to fly into the realm of Ramzan Kadyrov and hold a campaign show in order to pick up some points on the moral plane is tasteless vulgarity, in my view -- extraordinary even by our standards."
Here's video of the police in the office of Navalny's Anticorruption Foundation, interrupting their coverage of the boycott protests and taking them off the Internet.