According to Lavrov, Russia reserves the right to unilaterally amend the blacklist to make it longer or shorter.

When asked if U.S. congressmen known for their criticism of Russia are on the list, Lavrov said all the necessary details have already been reported.

“The names won’t be disclosed.”

The book is not just a biography of a man, but also a historical-political research of the context.
Limonov’s name is firmly associated with scandals. A writer and a journalist, Limonov has always drawn attention to his persona by his radical political views and organization of unauthorized meetings and marches. He is also one of the main activists behind the Strategy 31 initiative, defending Article 31 of the constitution, which guarantees the freedom of assembly.
After having read the book, Eduard Limonov posted on his blog saying “Sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile. I can feel that the author is an intellectual and a bourgeois.”
“I wonder what the critics will have to say. Will any Russian publisher dare to let out this book? …Oh, I would be amused!” Limonov writes.

The Renaudot Prize was established back in 1926 by journalists and critics as an addition to the Goncourt.

The move comes two weeks after a U.S. State Department official traveled to Khimki to speak with local activists, promising to “redouble” U.S. efforts to press Russia on human rights.

The list also includes Yelena Petrovskaya of the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper; Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal and a contributor to The Moscow Times; and the outgoing editor-in-chief of the Vokrug Sveta travel magazine, Sergei Parkhomenko.

The award comes with a cash prize will be handed out on Jan. 13, Russian Press Day, which marks the date that the first Russian newspaper was published on Peter the Great’s orders in 1713.

“There were many witnesses and the car used by the attackers has been identified. We demand a swift and impartial investigation. The completely impunity enjoyed by those responsible for the many violent attacks in connection with the strike is intolerable. The authorities must end the impunity at once or be regarded as accomplices.”
Their assailants repeatedly hit them with baseball bats and used a pistol to fire rubber bullets at them. Both were hospitalized.

The strike by oil workers in Mangystau has continued for more than three months despite the use of violence by the authorities in an attempt to suppress it.

The reporter met with Nikita Likhovidov, who was found guilty and then pardoned by President Alexander Lukashenko and with journalist Irina Khalip, a wife of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov.
After interviewing Khalip two men came up to Karmazin and asked him to follow them. He was taken to a police station, searched and had all the files on his voice recorder erased. They questioned him about what he was talking to Khalip about and fingerprinted him.
Then the Russian journalist was given a paper barring him from entering Belarus, under threat of three years in prison if he was to do so.
His deportation was recorded in his passport. The journalist was then put on a train back to Moscow.

Mr Nazarbayev’s adviser, appeared to confirm this and also said that Mr Blair and his team had opened an office in Astana, the Kazakh capital.
“A large working group is here and, to my knowledge, it has already opened Tony Blair’s permanent office in Astana.
I have met with his people already and we discussed the socio-political modernisation of our country. I liked his people, the range of questions they discussed and their professionalism.”

Tony Blair Associates, Mr Blair’s company, later denied the former Prime Minister or any of his companies were currently involved in the deal.

Then 26-year-old son, Elbek Tashukhadzhiyev, was working as a petrol tanker driver when he was stopped and detained in February 1996 by a group of military servicemen near the village of Berkat-Yurt in Chechnya; he has not been seen since.

The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 2 (right to life:obligation to conduct an effective investigation) and of Article 13 (right to an effective remedy)in conjunction with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court further held, by a majority, that there had been a violation of Article 5 (right to liberty and security).

THE EU BORDERLANDS UKRAINE, BELARUS and MOLDOVA
Ukraine and Moldova sustained catastrophic economic contraction.. Belarus, under the autocratic rule of Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, suffered less. The troika has the weakest economic figures of all post-Soviet regions. Moldova has the best record of free and fair elections, BUT with return a communist (Vladimir Voronin) to power. Moldova also hosts to one of the post-Soviet space’s many frozen conflicts of the Transdniestr region Ukraine’s democratic turning point – the orange revolution of 2004 – rapidly gave way to paralysis and stalemate… In Belarus, Lukashenko has faced lengthy international isolation for crushing opposition and dissent.

THE CAUCASUS
Azerbaijan’s oil dividend makes it one of the strongest performing economies. Armenia and Georgia have both seen incipient growth through the 2000s rudely interrupted by the global recession of 2008/09. The frozen conflicts of Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan and Armenia) and Abkhazia (Georgia) ..Georgia and Russia has resulted in the only war between former Soviet republics (2008). Armenia suffers from the worst unemployment of all 15 republics, and democratic breakthroughs have been few – only Georgia has held free and fair elections.

CENTRAL ASIA
A mixed economic story: Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have expanded their economies more than 400 %. And although these are the happiest post-Soviet republics not one has held a genuinely free or fair election since 1990; central Asia is where elections are deferred or else won with 99 percent of the vote by dictators who lock up their opponents and even ban ballet and name a month of the year after their mother (Turkmenistan). Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are not post-Soviet at all: they have simply stuck with the strongmen who led them out of the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan the leader died in 2006, while Tajikistan’s Emomali Rahmon has run his republic uncontested since 1992. Only in Kyrgyzstan Soviet-era leader Askar Akayev was ousted in 2005.

RUSSIA
Russia has reversed its dramatic economic decline. .its life expectancy persisting below 70 on account of, among other factors, chronic problems with drug and alcohol abuse. Russia has the highest HIV rate (along with Ukraine), the highest homicide rate and the highest prison population of the former Soviet Union. Elections are once again foregone conclusions; governors, once elected, are now appointed. The ‘vertical’ of power centred on the Kremlin appears as strong as it was in Soviet times.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was blacklisting unspecified U.S. officials it claims were involved in the abductions of alleged terrorism suspects, the torture of inmates at Guantanamo prison, the killings of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, and abductions or abuse of Russians in the United States.

In July, the U.S. State Department banned entry to dozens of unidentified Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of Magnitsky. Magnitsky, an attorney who was jailed after accusing Interior Ministry officials of involvement in a massive corruption scandal, died in pretrial detention in 2009 after suffering abuse and medical neglect.

The Russian Foreign Ministry today said the U.S. move was a “political provocation”. It said Russia will expand the list of banned U.S.officials if the United States keeps pushing for the prosecution of those involved in Magnitsky’s death.

Previousc attempts to elect a head of state was close with theruling Alliance which has only 59 seats, while the ommunist opposition, which has 42 seats.

The country has been without a full-time president since communist leader Vladimir Voronin stepped down in September 2009 after two consecutive terms in office.