RUSSIA Press Digest

Registration rules for foreign specialists

noreply@blogger.com (From France) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:40:00 +0000

Ria Novosti, Medvedev eases registration rules for foreign specialists

President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a law relaxing registration rules for highly-qualified foreign professionals coming to work in Russia, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Foreign specialists now need only confirmation of their status from their employer to receive a three-year work permit.
Medvedev wants to attract foreign specialists and investment to innovative industries, including his flagship Skolkovo research hub project, in a bid to ease Russia's financial dependence on its oil.
Dubbed Russia's answer to Silicon Valley, the Skolkovo project is being built from scratch just 20 kilometers outside of Moscow.

Ruling tandem is broken down?

noreply@blogger.com (From France) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:10:00 +0000

The New York Times, Leaders’ Spat Tests Skills of Survival in the Kremlin

It was a strange week for Russia’s political elite.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia last month at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.

On March 21, officials were confronted with a rare moment of open disagreement between the two men who run the country. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin issued a lacerating critique of the allied attacks on Libya — the kind of protest that accompanied Western interventions in Iraq and Kosovo. President Dmitri A. Medvedev, who had articulated a more pro-Western position, rebuked his mentor, calling Mr. Putin’s language “unacceptable.”

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