New Law All but Bars Russian GPS Sites in U.S.

Russia first broached the idea of erecting the domed antenna structures here nearly two years ago, saying they would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of its version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers bomb-bearing warplanes to their targets and wayward motorists to their destinations.

Congressional Republicans, however, harbored suspicions that Russia had nefarious motives behind its plan, which the State Department supported as a means to mend bruised relations between the two rival nations. The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency sided with congressional critics, concerned about handing the Russians an opening to snoop on the United States within its borders.

The monitor stations have been a high priority of President Vladimir V. Putin for years as a means to improve Moscow’s global positioning network — known as Glonass, for Global Navigation Satellite System — not only to benefit the Russian military and civilian sectors but also to compete globally with GPS.

As the White House sought to reconcile the internal squabbling among government agencies, skeptical members of the intelligence and armed services committees in Congress intervened in recent weeks to deal a near-crippling blow to the prospect of Glonass stations in the United States.

Under the new law, unless the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence certify to Congress that the monitor stations would not be used to spy on the United States or improve the effectiveness of Russian weaponry — or unless they waive that requirement altogether on national security grounds — the plan is dead.

“The idea was to make it next to impossible, if not impossible, to do this,” said a House Republican aide involved in the legislative process, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of committee rules prohibiting officials from talking publicly to the news media. “We also took the State Department out of the loop since they were the ones who caused all the trouble in the first place.”

The snub to the Kremlin’s request came as the White House received a State Department report on Friday trumpeting United States-Russian cooperation in a wide range of areas, including national security and science. Glonass did not make the cut.

American relations with Russia are now at a nadir because of Moscow’s granting asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, and its backing of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Administration officials on Friday sought to play down the significance of the new constraints, saying that discussions with the Russians continue but that no decisions have been reached. The Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred questions to the State Department, which is taking the lead on the issue for the government. A State Department statement said, “Any decision taken will be in compliance with all relevant legislation.”

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington did not return phone or email messages. The Russian effort is part of a larger race by several countries, including China and European Union nations, to perfect their own global positioning systems and challenge the dominance of the American GPS.

“There isn’t any question that their system would be more accurate and reliable if they had some stations somewhere in the northern half of the Western Hemisphere,” said Ralph Braibanti, a former director of the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “The more stations you have, the more corrections you can make, and the more reliable the system you have.”

Mr. Braibanti said that rebuffing the Russians would deal a blow to efforts by the State Department to work with other countries to make their positioning systems more accurate.

“There is a significant argument in favor of going the extra mile to accommodate what the Russians feel are their needs,” he said, because it would improve all systems amid demands from consumers for more accurate GPS readings, he said.

After The New York Times reported in November that there were divisions between the State Department and the intelligence agencies about whether to allow the Russian structures, congressional Republicans publicly opposed acquiescing to the Russians’ request.

The new law requires the certification from the Pentagon and intelligence agencies or a waiver from the defense secretary and director of national security to ensure that any data collected or transmitted from the monitor stations are not encrypted; that anyone involved in building, operating or maintaining the structures is an American; and that none of the stations are near “sensitive United States national security sites.” The waiver would also require that the stations not pose a cyberespionage threat or weaken the American GPS technology for consumers.

“The provision,” said Roger Zakheim, a former general counsel of the House Armed Services Committee, “certainly creates a high bar for the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence to authorize or permit this type of construction.”

DealBook: Alfa Group to Offer Rival Bid for Russian Cellphone Operator

LONDON — A bidding war has broken out for the cell phone operator Tele2 Russia.

The Russian investment firm Alfa Group said on Thursday that it would offer up to $4 billion to buy the cell phone operator, the Russian unit of the Swedish telecommunications company Tele2. The Alfa Group announced the bid after Tele2 agreed to sell the unit to the VTB Group, a Russian bank, for $2.4 billion, plus debt.

The Alfa Group, whose chairman is the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, said VTB’s offer for Tele2 Russia undervalued the cellphone operator, adding that it was also considering an offer to buy the rest of Tele2’s operations.

The Alfa Group “is interested and willing to agree to a purchase price for the remaining assets of Tele2 over a very short period of time,” it said in a statement on Thursday. The Alfa Group also holds a majority stake in the Russian cellphone company VimpelCom.

Shares in Tele2 rose 3.5 percent in morning trading in Stockholm on Thursday.

Moscow Journal: Russian Web Site Roszkh Fights Corruption Through Housing

In a city where it is often impossible to get a plumber or any other repairman, somebody just figured out how to fix the pipes — and replace light bulbs, scrub off graffiti and patch leaky roofs. Throughout Moscow and other Russian cities, such elementary building repairs are suddenly in full swing as the city’s craftsmen, their reputations for surliness, laziness and drunkenness undiminished, are hurrying from one appointment to another.

Delighted Muscovites are crediting a new Web site for the unaccustomed Calvinist work ethic. Called Roszkh, it streamlines the process for filing complaints about maintenance of the communal areas of apartment buildings, like hallways and entryways, that remained public property after post-Soviet privatizations.

Stymied by a loss of momentum after street protests, Russian opposition leaders had been casting about for other approaches to remain relevant through what promises to be a long tenure for President Vladimir V. Putin. Aleksei Navalny, a blogger and political activist, hit upon the idea of the Web site, which is run under the auspices of his Foundation for Fighting Corruption.

“It’s difficult to say when the next wave of protests will come,” Mr. Navalny said in an interview about his new site, named after an acronym Russians use for their combined utility and building maintenance bills, ZhKKh.

Roszkh was an instant sensation. Since the site went up on Nov. 8, 28,354 users have filed 45,835 complaints, mostly in Moscow and other large cities. So far, repairmen have fixed about 2,600 reported problems. That may not sound like much, but in Russia it qualifies as extraordinary.

“I live in an old five-story building where the hallway has no light and no windows,” one Muscovite, Boris Frantskevich, wrote in a post. It seemed it would be that way forever. But on a lark, he tried logging a complaint on the Web site.

“Just today, I walk out of my apartment and an electrician is digging in the wires,” Mr. Frantskevich wrote. “Wow, he’s fixed the light.”

Mr. Navalny attributes the site’s success to official sensitivities to a deep vein of public anger over the deplorable state of housing in Russia, and particularly in Moscow. In a leaked letter, Russia’s chief housing inspector issued an order that the complaints on Mr. Navalny’s Web site be addressed immediately.

The inspector, Nikolai Vasyutin, clarified the government response in a letter to subordinates: Applicants needed to be helped immediately, not in spite of the site’s political character, but because of it.

“It’s become obvious this is a policy by the opposition to discredit all levels of the government,” the letter said. “But this shouldn’t confuse the organs of the state housing inspection.” It instructed city officials to counteract the tactic by fixing problems quickly.

Public opinion surveys indicate that the steady rise in ZhKKh fees is the issue that upsets Russians most; a planned increase was delayed during presidential elections last winter, only to kick in this year.

The fees have been rising faster than inflation. Many Russians are incensed about paying more — currently about $130 a month in Moscow, and less in other cities — while hallways, even in upscale buildings, are often yawning black tunnels, splattered with graffiti and reeking of septic odors.

These problems have become a vulnerability for Mr. Putin, but one largely of his own making. The governing political party, United Russia, went to great pains to ensure that it dominated not only national but also regional and local politics, often suppressing opponents to do so. The party also dominates city councils.

As Mr. Navalny, a former real estate lawyer, has been gleefully pointing out, this means that every broken light bulb and burst pipe is now the party’s problem.

“We are trying to attract people who can fight corruption together with us,” Mr. Navalny said. “It’s clear that an ordinary person has a hard time helping us fight corruption at Gazprom,” the big state energy company. “But unfortunately in Russia, corruption surrounds a person everywhere. We are trying to create a mechanism for people to fight corruption themselves.”

The site asks users to enter their address and choose from a menu of common Russian repair problems: water flowing a rich orange color from rusted pipes, say, or a boiler failing in midwinter.

The program then automatically pastes on a lengthy legal text composed by Mr. Navalny and his volunteer group of lawyers for the benefit of the receiving bureaucrat, citing ordinances that mandate a response or repair, usually within 45 days.

The site automatically routes complaints to the appropriate municipal authority in thousands of cities in Russia’s 83 regions. So far, though, Muscovites and residents of a few other large cities where Internet use is high have filed most of the complaints.

The site is easy to use. It saves profiles, allowing angry Russians to return whenever they have another leaky pipe or a new buildup of filth in a hallway.

In St. Petersburg, building inspectors initially declined to respond to several thousand complaints generated on the site. Whether that was for political reasons or out of laziness remains unclear.

But by early December, the office was working overtime to fix communal areas, and a housing maintenance official had been arrested for mismanagement, one of several moves by the government in an apparent effort to get ahead of the issue.

Even as complaints pile up, site moderators urge users to keep on filing.

One man, Sergei Sadko, wrote that an entire delegation of city officials promptly visited his apartment after he complained about a leaky roof.

“They said they would fix it in the spring,” he wrote. “Should I change my status to ‘problem solved’?”

The response: “File another complaint. They are required to fix everything immediately.”

Russian Bills Would Increase Control Over Internet and Nonprofits

A series of initiatives have been introduced as President Vladimir V. Putin begins a six-year term, facing an increasingly assertive opposition. The government has imposed draconian fines for people who participate in unsanctioned protests, and legislators voted to reinstitute criminal charges for slander, rolling back a reform adopted seven months ago by Dmitri A. Medvedev, Mr. Putin’s predecessor.

The bills approved on Wednesday would allow the government to block Web sites deemed dangerous to children and require nonprofits to identify themselves as “foreign agents” if they receive financing from outside Russia and are considered by the government to be engaged in political activities.

“In just two months, we have seen a worrying shift in the legislative environment governing the enjoyment of the freedoms of assembly, association, speech and information in the Russian Federation,” said Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, in a statement released in Geneva.

The criminalization of slander, she said, could “stifle all criticism of government authorities and limit the ability of individuals to address issues of transparency, corruption and abuse of power.”

“I urge the government of the Russian Federation to avoid taking further steps backward to a more restrictive era,” she added, urging officials to soften the laws passed in recent weeks.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry responded angrily.

“We consider Ms. Pillay’s statement as unbefitting to her status as high commissioner and attempts to publicly accuse the leaders of the Russian state of failing to carry out some kinds of ‘promises’ — as outside the framework of diplomatic ethics,” the ministry said in a statement.

The law on nonprofits — which passed with a vote of 141 to 1, with one abstention — has alarmed a variety of business, charity and religious groups, uncertain whether they will have to carry the label “foreign agent,” a term that invokes cold war espionage. A lawmaker tried to calm those fears in a meeting for nonprofit leaders held by the American Chamber of Commerce, saying the law would be applied only to nonprofits attempting to “change the political system.”

“We understand that events have begun to take place at a faster rate, that the degree of tension in society is growing,” said a United Russia deputy, Aleksandr Petrov, an author of recent amendments to the bill.

“We have one goal: to try, with the help of a number of laws, to create a certain stability, to provide for the integrity of the Russian Federation,” he said. “Yes, there should be political activity, but it should not be allowed to rock the boat which is called Russia.”

Officials have repeatedly suggested that the antigovernment protests of the last six months were financed by foreign governments, and the new law requires nonprofits to deliver detailed accounting to the Ministry of Justice. Mr. Petrov said his suspicions were validated when police seized more than $1 million in cash from a safe in the home of Kseniya Sobchak, a television star and opposition leader. Ms. Sobchak has said the money was her savings.

“According to operative information, which is being discussed now, it was intended to be used for rallies,” he said. “Why must such amounts circulate on the basis of gray schemes? Why can’t this money be officially given to the opposition and show that the money has been given?”

The Internet legislation passed equally swiftly, with a vote of 147 lawmakers in favor, 3 abstaining and none opposed.

Russian Bills Would Increase Control Over Internet and Nonprofits

A series of initiatives have been introduced as President Vladimir V. Putin begins a six-year term, facing an increasingly assertive opposition. The government has imposed draconian fines for people who participate in unsanctioned protests, and legislators voted to reinstitute criminal charges for slander, rolling back a reform adopted seven months ago by Dmitri A. Medvedev, Mr. Putin’s predecessor.

The bills approved on Wednesday would allow the government to block Web sites deemed dangerous to children and require nonprofits to identify themselves as “foreign agents” if they receive financing from outside Russia and are considered by the government to be engaged in political activities.

“In just two months, we have seen a worrying shift in the legislative environment governing the enjoyment of the freedoms of assembly, association, speech and information in the Russian Federation,” said Navi Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, in a statement released in Geneva.

The criminalization of slander, she said, could “stifle all criticism of government authorities and limit the ability of individuals to address issues of transparency, corruption and abuse of power.”

“I urge the government of the Russian Federation to avoid taking further steps backward to a more restrictive era,” she added, urging officials to soften the laws passed in recent weeks.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry responded angrily.

“We consider Ms. Pillay’s statement as unbefitting to her status as high commissioner and attempts to publicly accuse the leaders of the Russian state of failing to carry out some kinds of ‘promises’ — as outside the framework of diplomatic ethics,” the ministry said in a statement.

The law on nonprofits — which passed with a vote of 141 to 1, with one abstention — has alarmed a variety of business, charity and religious groups, uncertain whether they will have to carry the label “foreign agent,” a term that invokes cold war espionage. A lawmaker tried to calm those fears in a meeting for nonprofit leaders held by the American Chamber of Commerce, saying the law would be applied only to nonprofits attempting to “change the political system.”

“We understand that events have begun to take place at a faster rate, that the degree of tension in society is growing,” said a United Russia deputy, Aleksandr Petrov, an author of recent amendments to the bill.

“We have one goal: to try, with the help of a number of laws, to create a certain stability, to provide for the integrity of the Russian Federation,” he said. “Yes, there should be political activity, but it should not be allowed to rock the boat which is called Russia.”

Officials have repeatedly suggested that the antigovernment protests of the last six months were financed by foreign governments, and the new law requires nonprofits to deliver detailed accounting to the Ministry of Justice. Mr. Petrov said his suspicions were validated when police seized more than $1 million in cash from a safe in the home of Kseniya Sobchak, a television star and opposition leader. Ms. Sobchak has said the money was her savings.

“According to operative information, which is being discussed now, it was intended to be used for rallies,” he said. “Why must such amounts circulate on the basis of gray schemes? Why can’t this money be officially given to the opposition and show that the money has been given?”

The Internet legislation passed equally swiftly, with a vote of 147 lawmakers in favor, 3 abstaining and none opposed.