Russians, in peaceful protest, call for Putin to quit

MOSCOW - Several hundred Russians lined up in central Moscow on Saturday under the gaze of riot police to hand over handwritten appeals for President Vladimir Putin to quit, as similar protests took place in other cities.

Putin, who has dominated Russian politics for 17 years, has not said whether he will run in presidential elections in March 2018. But the 64-year-old politician, who enjoys high popularity ratings, is widely expected to do so.

Saturday's protest in the capital -- called "We're sick of him" -- was organized by the Open Russia movement founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once Russia's richest man, he was freed by Putin in 2013 after spending a decade in jail for fraud, a charge Khodorkovsky said was politically-motivated.

One of hundreds shepherded into a queue behind metal barriers by police before handing over their petitions one-by- one, Anna, a 16-year-old Moscow schoolgirl, said she hoped Putin would get the message and not run again.

"Nothing positive has happened in our country on his watch and I have the sense that things are getting worse, and that the main problem is the fact that those in power are the same," she told Reuters.

Her preference for president was opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who spent 15 days in jail last month after helping organize the biggest anti-government protests since 2012, which ended with over 1,000 arrests.

Saturday's event, held in bright sunshine, was more modest, though authorities were taking no chances. A Reuters reporter counted at least 30 police buses and coaches in the area, packed with hundreds of riot police.

Videos posted by Russian media showed police in riot gear detaining protesters in St Petersburg, where activists reported over 100 arrests. There was no official confirmation of the arrests.

STEPPING UP PRESSURE

Police said 250 people had showed up in Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported, while Maria Baronova, an Open Russia activist, said at least 500 people had handed over a petition.

Irina Glushkova, 64, standing in the same line as the schoolgirl, said she and many others simply didn't agree with how Putin governed.

"I'm sick of the situation," she said. "I'm the same age as Putin and I don't think I'm less intelligent than him, but my opinion is not taken into account at all."

Authorities have stepped up pressure on Open Russia in recent days. The General Prosecutor's Office ruled on Wednesday that the activity of Open Russia's British arm was "undesirable" and accused it and other organizations of trying to discredit the election.

On Thursday, police searched the Moscow offices of Open Russia's Russian branch. Activists said they confiscated 100,000 blank appeal forms which the foundation had hoped to hand out to people encouraging them to call for Putin to quit.

On Friday, REN TV, a Russian TV channel, broadcast a documentary about Open Russia activists, some of whom it accused of having criminal records, of being drug addicts, and of cultivating close links with the U.S. government.

Activists dismissed the program as a cheap stunt designed to discredit them, with at least one noting that REN TV had somehow obtained video footage stored in his mobile phone.

(Additional reporting by Andrey Ostroukh and Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by John Stonestreet)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Panama Papers database on shell companies goes online

WASHINGTON - The public gained its first access to the Panama Papers records of over 200,000 secret offshore companies Monday when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists put a searchable database up online.

The database, built on just a portion of the 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, reveals more than 360,000 names of individuals and companies behind the anonymous shell firms, the ICIJ said.

It reveals the full extent to which the world's wealthy, alongside criminals, create such nominee companies to stash and transfer assets out of sight of the law and tax officials.

Reports already published in April based on the explosive dossier linked some of the world's most powerful leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and others to unreported offshore companies.

Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, and Spain's industry minister Jose Manuel Soria, were forced to resign when they were tied to shell companies.

Until now access to the total cache of documents, originally provided by a mysterious "John Doe", was restricted to the ICIJ and a select group of international media.

'IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST'

The ICIJ said Monday it is publishing some of the information catalogued in a database "in the public interest," as a global movement against tax evasion and the secrecy accorded the beneficial owners of anonymous shell companies gains force.

The database "allows users to explore the networks of companies and people that used -- and sometimes abused -- the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries," the ICIJ said.

It said it was not making available raw records online, nor was it putting all the information from the records out, in part to prevent access to bank account details and personal data of those mentioned.

The database can be searched by individual and company name and address, and shows links between those in the database.

But it gives no information -- beyond their name -- on the full identities of those behind the companies, nor of the underlying assets linked to the accounts.

And often the names of companies are linked to other similarly anonymous companies.

Even so, the individuals associated with the firms plainly come from all four corners of the globe. Many of the names are Chinese, Middle Eastern, Latin American and European.

The data came from nearly four decades of digital archives of Mossack Fonseca, one of the leading firms in the world for creating secret companies.

It is not known how the documents came to light; Mossack Fonseca says its computer records were hacked from abroad.

However they were obtained, "John Doe" first provided them to the German newspaper Süeddeustche Zeitung, which then approached ICIJ to organize a collective analysis of them.

CRIMINALS, FILMMAKERS, FOOTBALLERS

The groups working with the ICIJ had full access to the Panama Papers, and their research has linked political leaders, celebrities and a few criminals to the companies.

- Putin's closest circle moved $2 billion through banks and shadow companies, according to the ICIJ, prompting the Russian leader to claim the Panama Papers was a US plot against him.

- Argentine President Mauricio Macri was also linked to offshore companies.

- China censored media and online social networks from mentioning links between the families of Chinese leaders with offshore entities.

- The names of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar, all came up in the database.

Mossack Fonseca on Thursday sought a court order last week to prevent the ICIJ from putting the data online, arguing it would violate attorney-client privilege.

But the ICIJ said it is important the public be able to look up information on any offshore company.

"We think that information about who owns the company should be public and transparent," Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the ICIJ, told CNN.

She stressed, however, that "this is not disclosing private information en masse."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Russia raises rates in emergency move as rouble collapses

MOSCOW - Russia's central bank raised its key interest rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent early Tuesday in an emergency move to halt a collapse in the rouble as oil prices decline and the country's sanctions-hit economy slides toward recession.

The rouble strengthened sharply after the decision, recouping some of its heavy losses on Monday, when the currency staged its largest one-day fall since 1998.

Russia has raised the key rate a total of 11.5 percentage points this year amid market turmoil linked to the Ukraine crisis, and such a high rate will likely further choke economic growth.

"This decision is aimed at limiting substantially increased rouble depreciation risks and inflation risks," the central bank said in a statement.

The outlook for Russia's economy has darkened considerably since the summer as capital flight has soared due to broad-based risk aversion to Russian assets and sanctions restricting Russian companies' access to international capital markets.

That poses a major challenge for President Vladimir Putin, whose popularity, based partly on providing stability and prosperity, is at risk from the rouble's decline, which is damaging Russia's credibility among investors.

The central bank early on Tuesday also increased the maximum volume of foreign currency it provides to Russian banks via its foreign-exchange repurchase agreement auctions for 28 days to $5 billion from $1.5 billion.

It said that in order to strengthen the efficiency of monetary policy, loans secured by non-marketable assets or guarantees for two to 549 days would be provided at a floating interest rate.

The central bank now says the economy is likely to contract in annual terms early next year and that it could shrink by around 4.5 percent in 2015 as a whole if oil prices average $60 a barrel.

Russia's economy still depends in large measure on sales of oil and gas, which account for about two-thirds of exports, despite liberal policymakers calling for structural economic reform for years.

That means swings in global oil prices have a significant impact on Russia's balance of payments, and therefore the rouble exchange rate.

Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that the rouble's slide was also due to a lack of trust in the Russian government's economic policies.

Investors took Tuesday's rate hike as positive, saying it showed the central bank's defence of the currency had teeth.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction. The real interest rate right now is significantly positive, 7 to 8 percent," said Jorge Mariscal, chief investment officer for emerging markets at UBS Wealth Management in New York.

"This should make it more difficult to short (the rouble). I think it shows they are really concerned about the speed of the decline in the rouble."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama toughens line on Putin over Ukraine at G20

BRISBANE, Australia -- U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday that Russia would remain isolated by the international community if President Vladimir Putin continued to violate international law in Ukraine, some of his toughest remarks yet on the crisis.

Putin has come under intense pressure from other leaders at this weekend's G20 summit in Brisbane over his government's backing for pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, where a conflict has killed more than 4,000 people this year.

Obama, who described his meetings with Putin this week as "blunt and business-like," said that he had made it clear Russia would remain isolated if it continued to provide support to separatist rebels.

"We are also very firm on the need to uphold core international principles. And one of those principles is that you don't invade other countries or finance proxies and support them in ways that break up a country that has mechanisms for democratic elections," Obama said at a press conference.

On Saturday, Western leaders warned Putin that he risked more sanctions if he failed to end his country's backing for the separatists. Russia has denied any involvement.

Obama said more sanctions were a possibility.

"At this point the sanctions we have in place are biting plenty good," said Obama, speaking after the Group of 20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia. "We retain the capability, and we have our teams constantly looking at mechanisms in which to turn up additional pressure as necessary."

On Syria, President Bashar al-Assad was warned against his military engaging U.S. warplanes conducting operations against Islamic State militants on its territory.

"We have communicated to the Syrian regime when we operate going after ISIL in their airspace, they would be well advised not to take us on," he said, using another name for Islamic State.

Obama ruled out a political solution to the civil war in Syria that would leave Assad in power and denied reports that his administration was conducting a formal review of its military policy in the country.

He accepted, however, that it was the "nature of diplomacy", that Washington would eventually have to deal with some of its rivals to bring peace to the war-wracked country.

"At some point the people of Syria and the various players involved, as well as the regional players, Turkey, Iran, Assad's patrons like Russia, are going to have to engage in a political conversation," he said.

Back to domestic affairs

Switching to domestic politics as he wraps up a week-long swing through Asia, Obama said that he was taking a wait and see approach to the Keystone XL pipeline bill approved by the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Friday.

A similar measure struggled to get enough support in the Senate, and Obama has indicated he might use his veto if the bill does get through Congress.

"We are going to let the process play itself out," he said.

"But I won't hide my opinion about this, which is that one major determinant of whether we should approve a pipeline shipping Canadian oil to world markets, not to the United States, is 'does it contribute to the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change?'"

Obama also promised not to allow the threat of another government shutdown to deter him from enacting comprehensive immigration reform despite opposition from Congress.

"I take Mitch McConnell on his word when he says the government is not going to shut down," he said, referring to the incoming Republican Senate majority leader.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Putin calls Hillary Clinton a 'weak' woman

PARIS - Russian President Vladimir Putin waded into US politics Wednesday describing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and possible 2016 presidential candidate -- as "weak" in some sarcastic comments about women.

In an interview with French television, Putin was asked about Clinton's recent remarks that the Russian leader was trying to redraw the boundaries in eastern Europe just like Adolf Hitler did in the 1930s.

"It's better not to argue with women," Putin replied, adding: "But Mrs. Clinton has never been too graceful in her statements."

Putin remarked that he met Clinton when she was the US top diplomat "and had cordial conversations at various international events. I think even in this case we could reach an agreement".

But as the Russian leader has come under fire in the West for his aggressive policies in Ukraine and Moscow's annexation of Crimea, he did not hide that he found Clinton's Hitler-like comments extreme.

"When people push boundaries too far, it's not because they are strong but because they are weak," said Putin, who then went on.

"But maybe weakness is not the worst quality for a woman."

First Lady when her husband Bill Clinton was in the White House, Hillary Clinton has become a political force in her own right and an idol of feminists who hope to see her become the first US woman president.

She was a presidential candidate in 2008 but lost the Democratic Party nomination to Barack Obama, who after his election victory asked her -- then a senator from New York -- to head the US State Department.

Clinton chose not to continue in that post after Obama won a second term in office in 2012, but speculation has been rife that she is planning another run for the White House in 2016.

The French reporters pressed Putin about whether he wanted to get back at Clinton or laugh it off.

"Someday I will indulge myself and we will laugh together at some good joke," he responded.

But Putin didn't stop at that.

"When I hear such extreme statements, to me it only means that they don't have any valid arguments.

"Speaking of US policy, it's clear that the United States is pursuing the most aggressive and toughest policy to defend their own interests -- at least this is how the American leaders see it -- and they do it persistently."

As for America's current leader, President Obama on Wednesday condemned Moscow's "dark tactics" in Ukraine where the new pro-West Kiev government is battling a pro-Russian insurgency in the east of the country.

Obama and Putin will come face-to-face on Friday in France at the 70th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day Normandy landings in World War II.

No formal meeting between the two is planned.

"It is his choice, I am ready for dialogue," Putin said of Obama in the interview with French broadcasters Europe 1 and TF1 conducted at his dacha in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

'Epic' Olympics opening ceremony a triumph for Putin

PARIS - The world press hailed the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics as a triumph and show of power for Russian President Vladimir Putin seeking to showcase the post-Soviet revival of the former superpower.

Despite an embarrassing technical glitch at the start, there was general praise for the dazzling spectacle in the Black Sea resort, along with a dose of criticism over these Games' unprecedented price tag of $50 billion and the host country's rights record.

"A swaggering, resurgent Russia turned its Winter Olympic aspirations into reality," wrote the New York Times.

The stunning show of light that whisked spectators through centuries of Russian history was "epic," said the Sydney Morning Herald, its "scale bordered on the colossal," according to the Washington Post, a "gasp-inducing, visual journey," according to The Daily Telegraph.

"The opening ceremony is a big moment to let the President, under the spotlight, stress the revival of the great nation," wrote Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun.

"For Russia last night it marked its revival as a post-Soviet powerhouse, confident of its seat at the top table after two decades of doubt and despondency," wrote Jonathan McEvoy in Britain's Daily Mail.

"This was an unapologetic advert -- history on Russia's terms.

"There was no doubt who was the all-action hero of this piece. The light on the presidential box remained on when all others were switched off, in case anyone did not get the message," he wrote.

"Mr. Putin's ultimate goal is to regain its pride and boost patriotism and national prestige," wrote the Mainichi Shimbun in Japan.

Missing Ring

The ceremony got off to a shaky start when one of five illuminated snowflakes which were supposed to morph into the Olympic rings failed to appear, leaving an embarrassing set of just four rings.

Many pointed out that the missing ring was one representing the Americas, home of Russia's Cold War foe the United States, with whom it has repeatedly sparred over the past several years.

The US president joined several other key Western leaders in staying away from the Games in what is seen by many as a snub over Russia's now notorious anti-gay law.

Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung called the mishap "silent propaganda."

The ceremony "highlighted the beauty of the Russian culture and strength of the Russian spirit ...(but) did little to lift the cloud of uneasiness hanging over a Games that began amid protests over Russian anti-gay laws and fear over terrorism," wrote the Los Angeles Times.

"For President Putin it is a chance to show off Russia as a resurgent superpower, but his efforts have been hampered by a plethora of problems and criticism from the gay community, human rights groups and even animal rights activists," wrote The Times in Britain.

Many Italian newspapers saw the multi-coloured uniforms of Germany -- the team's outfits were blue, yellow, green, white -- as a challenge to Russia's anti-gay law since they echoed the multi-coloured gay pride flag.

Criticism criticized

The price tag for the games in Sochi had come in at an unprecedented and staggering $50 billion amid cries of protest that corruption has seen much of the money siphoned off and that concerns for the environment had been discarded.

"Rarely have Olympic Games been personified or excessive to this point. Vladimir Putin, the Tsar of the Kremlin, worked alone for Sochi's destiny. Without worrying about the staggering costs or the flouted human rights," wrote France's L'Equipe sports newspaper.

"There was a lot of Russian-tinted pride to tell the world that the power of yesteryear is back," wrote Italy's La Stampa. But "the show was too big and costly for a Winter Olympics."

China's press said highlighting such concerns in the Games coverage only exposed the Western media bias.

"Booing Sochi only shows West's bigotry," wrote the Global Times newspaper, close to the ruling Communist Party.

"Since the ending of the Cold War, only the 2008 Beijing Games and the ongoing Sochi Games have experienced such criticism."

Russians swell with pride
Russians meanwhile gushed at the "fairy tale" spectacle, saying it restored pride missing for too long in the former superpower.

"We missed this for so many years... a pride for our country, a feeling for her power, unity and greatness. We missed this feeling, to be great people of a great power. Yesterday, we felt it," wrote the Moskovsky Komsomolets.

"Many of us feared that the ceremony would turn into a demonstration of might and power. This did not happen. It was humane and not just for export -- it was addressed at Russians as much as foreigners," wrote the Sport Express Daily.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com