Alexander Stubb, famous in the Barents Region for branding the north as the world´s most sexy region, is put on track to take over after Jyrki Katainen.
Oslo asks Moscow for an explanation after BarentsObserver earlier today reported that Russia’s sanctioned Deputy Prime Minister suddenly appeared on Svalbard.
Conservative leader Erna Solberg forms a minority government with the Progress party with parliament backing from the Liberals and Christian Democrats based on an agreement not to open for controversial Arctic oil drilling.
In his inauguration speech today, Dmitrii Medvedev highlighted that peoples freedom, the rule of law, economic prospering and the development of civil society will be main keywords for his presidential rule.
More than 20 contributions were submitted in a competition on the new official hymn of Murmansk Oblast. The winning contribution is named Be Proud, Murmansk Oblast!, and is composed by a civil servant in the regional administration.
Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre will in todays meeting with Russias Sergey Lavrov propose the establishment of special cross-border travel permissions for the people living in the Norwegian-Russian borderlands.
A new federal law proposes to transfer more than 400 new powers to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his government, a press release from the President’s office says.
The powerful United Russia Party is elaborating a list of efficiency demands for its party representatives in the regions. The rating might mean trouble for the party offices in Northwest Russia.
Norwegian authorities had high ambitions for the introduction of an extensive regional reform. Now, experts conclude that the reform is boiling down to nothing.
The international finance crisis is about to hit Russian regions. Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin yesterday said that Moscow next year will have to cut subsidies to the regions and that the regional administrations should reduce costs and credit obligations.
A rating on Russian governors’ achievements concludes that eight governors will be dismissed in the near future. One of them is governor in the Republic of Karelia, Sergey Katanandov.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has given Murmansk Oblast Governor Yury Yevdokimov “one last warning” and told him to concentrate on solving domestic problems instead of “fooling around abroad”.
