The Political and Economic Results of May 2015

Abstract

As far as Russia is concerned, the main news of May 2015 was the celebration of the 70th anniversary of VE day. Inside Russia, this country’s victory in WW2 was celebrated with true enthusiasm on a massive scale. However, an overwhelming majority of foreign heads of state had chosen to ignore the VE day celebration in Moscow, and so it was attended by the head of state of only one major power, China. At the subsequent negotiations with the Chinese leader, Russia managed to get some fi nancing from China, but its volume amounted to just several billion USD, which clearly indicates that, at least for now, Russia cannot rely on China as an adequate substitute for international fi nancial markets. According to available information, Angela Merkel’s and John Kerry’s visits to Moscow yielded only meager results. No details leaked out, but apparently these results were limited to the parties to the talks reaffi rming their support to the current truce in Ukraine. In a separate development, United Russia came up with a proposal to move Russia’s next parliamentary elections up three months to September 2016, a shift that will relegate the electoral campaign to vacati on season. As this initiative appears to be constitutionally contradictory, its future, for the time being, remains unclear