Medvedev

 
President Medvedev made the following announcement on his blog yesterday evening!
 

Ella Pamfilova, President Medvedev's chief human rights adviser, has resigned her post having voiced sharp criticism of Russia's domestic policies and what she describes as the government's "failure to engage with civil society."

 
The institutions of the European Union might take note of the fact that in the Kremlin the office lights burn not only late at night, but also through the weekend. It was no surprise to me at all therefore to find a number of communications in my inbox this sunny Sunday morning, including this very interesting press release on a "draft Federal Law On Security" as submitted by President Medvedev to the State Duma.
 
 

President Medvedev conducted a small reshuffle last week, which has been completely overlooked in the west, but which may represent a further marginalisation of Prime Minister Putin as the two men prepare to compete in upcoming Presidential elections in 2012.
 

Today's mid-term regional elections will be seen as an indicator of Dmitry Medvedev's popularity, and results will be likely to dictate the tone of the 2012 presidential campaign.
 

The thorny issue of the missile defence shield is still live, and deployments of US patriot missile systems in former Soviet states close to the Russian border are starting to rankle with the Kremlin. Moscow will, of course, be aware of the policy of “encirclement” that it pursued during the Cold War, and the unsettling effect that it had on the west. Indeed, the policy brought the world to the brink of nuclear war when Russian missiles were deployed in Cuba in 1962.

The meeting summed up the results of the Defence Ministry’s work in 2009 and clarified its objectives for 2010.
 

President Medvedev has been on his second working visit to France this week, and met with President Sarkozy on March 1st. Preparations for the forthcoming G8 and G20 summits were high on the agenda, as was the Iranian nuclear programme.
 

On February 5th, President Medvedev approved Russia's new military doctrine at a meeting of the permanent Security Council. Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Naryshkin, Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Deputy Prime Mini

The development of relations between Russia and the EU, the President of Russia’s initiative regarding a European Security Treaty, and a visa-free travel regime for citizens of Russia and EU member-states were among the subjects discussed, when Dmitry Medvedev met with former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez on February 9th.