BBC MONITOR 03

BBC Monitoring's six revolutions

Reopening Iran: Can Rouhani deliver?

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+ Islamic State enters Russia’s backyard

Will New Suez bring recovery to Egypt?

AUGUST 2015

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Editorial

Welcome to the August edition of Monitor, with more stories behind the headlines.

Our lead feature this month looks ahead to the internal political landscape in Iran after last month's landmark nuclear agreement. Iranian media are rich in debate, reflecting the range of political opinion from moderate to ultra-hardline. And the fortunes of even the most fierce player can fall sharply, as in the case of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad explained by our Iran analyst Ahmad Taghizadeh.

Iran is a good example of a country where years of watching political discourse helps understand what may happen next. This ability is what sets us apart, as coordinating editor Chris Greenway explains in our new column Inside Monitoring. As we turn 76 this month, we've come a long way from merely translating radio announcements – we are reflecting the dramatic changes in global media, where audiences have become active participants.

Amid these changes, we remain faithful to our mission: to observe, understand and explain the world by following what it says, in its own languages, on traditional and new media. This unique ability allows us to point out trends worth watching.

More on this in our future editions, in which we will continue to profile our staff and what they do. Meanwhile, I hope you will enjoy this month's selection of what has been exercising the media around the world.

Lucio Mesquita

Who We Are

BBC Monitoring provides news and information from media sources around the world. Our round-the-clock monitoring of TV, radio, press, internet and news agencies is provided to the BBC and a range of customers – commercial clients, including media organisations, foreign governments, NGOs and universities, and the UK government.

BBC Monitoring is part of the BBC World Service Group. It employs 370 staff and a network of contributors based in Reading, near London, and offices in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the former Soviet Union.

What We Do

We bring you words as spoken in the media around the world, as well as the "why" and the "how". Our purpose is to help customers understand the ever changing environment in which they do business.

Contact Us

BBC Monitoring Caversham Park Reading RG4 8TZ United Kingdom +44 118 948 6338 [email protected]

BBC © 2015 All rights reserved. No publication or distribution of the whole or any part of this magazine is permitted without the written consent of BBC Monitoring.

Lucio Mesquita Director, BBC Monitoring

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20 Nigeria: New leader, old problems

Africa security correspondent Tomi Oladipo sums up the challenges facing Nigeria’s new president, Muhammadu Buhari.

22 Media Bites

Sorry for the prime minister! Paula Kennedy reports on a poster campaign in Hungary mocking the government’s anti-immigration drive.

James Bond and bestsellers: Aleksandr Panin studies the Greek eurozone crisis in Russian translation.

24 Inside Monitoring

Coordinating Editor Chris Greenway looks back on how BBCM has kept pace with various changes throughout its 76-year history.

12 Back to the Silk Route

Vikas Pandey in Delhi explores India’s agenda in the ‘Stans.

15 News from Elsewhere

Blog editor Cassandra Cavallaro picks extraordinary reports from the world media.

18 Siberian largesse for China

James Vick in Moscow investigates the Kremlin’s motives as China leases a piece of the Russian Far East "the size of Hong Kong" at miniscule rates.

4 It’s a deal!

After last month’s historic nuclear agreement, Iran media analyst Ahmad Taghizadeh ponders what’s next for President Rouhani and his hardline rivals.

8 A different Chechnya war

North Caucasus specialist Leyla Akbar asks whether the recent claim by the Islamic State group to Russia’s troubled North Caucasus region spells an end to nationalist insurgency.

10 Will new Suez calm Egypt’s waters?

Can the New Suez Canal save the tanking economy? Sherine Abdel Monaim in Cairo weighs the chances.

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After the deal: What’s next for President Rouhani?


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As Iran works with world powers to implement the historic nuclear deal, media analyst Ahmad Taghizadeh assesses its impact on the country’s economy, politics and social discourse.

Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on 14 July, capping more than a decade of on-off negotiations with an agreement that imposes strict limits on Iran's nuclear programme in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.


When Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posed for pictures in Vienna next to his six negotiating partners, millions back home knew it was a moment to celebrate.

Iran and the so called P5+1 countries talked hard for more than two weeks to sign the deal.

The agreement was one of President Hassan Rouhani’s poll promises and he found an able partner in Zarif to achieve his goal. The deal, however, could not have come about without the green light from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The deal is done and the country is in celebratory mood. So what’s next for Rouhani and Zarif?

Their job is far from over. The agreement will bring some expected and also some unforeseen changes in Iran's economy, domestic politics and foreign policy.

Infusing economic energyThe revival of Iran’s suffocated economy is likely to be at the heart of these changes.

Tehran hopes to revive its oil industry once international restrictions on its main source of income are lifted.

Iran's oil sales decreased from 2.3m to just 1.2m barrels per day (bpd) in 2012 because of several rounds of international sanctions imposed on the country.

A Reuters report estimates that Iran is capable of increasing its exports by 500,000 to 800,000 bpd within six months after sanctions are lifted.

Production is one issue, but the country will also face stiff competition from other nations, which have ramped up their output in the past decade.

Tehran is likely to struggle to get a slice of Asian and other emerging markets which rely on Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Iran has the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, with an estimated production potential of four million barrels a day.

The country needs foreign investments to increase production in various energy sectors like gas and petrochemicals.

But before foreign money starts to pour, Iran hopes to get some immediate relief from its frozen assets.

Estimates say around 100bn dollars, equivalent to 25 per cent of Iran's Gross National Income, will be released after the implementation of the deal.

The money will help President Rouhani fund unfinished development projects and decrease the unemployment rate, which currently stands at 10 per cent.

Some economists, however, have warned that the government needs to cautiously manage the inflow of dollars to balance imports and domestic production.

Diplomatic test

Rouhani is known as a moderate politician in domestic and international diplomatic circles.

His style of politics can be given credit for solving this decade-long deadlock with the West.

The success of the deal will allow him to reopen Iran for trade with the world, especially with Europe.


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And any improvement in relations with the West will swing the balance of regional power in Iran’s favour.

Other regional powers like Saudi Arabia and Israel fear that such an outcome will embolden Iran’s strategic presence in the region.

While Iran’s relations with Europe are likely to improve, a similar outcome cannot be predicted about the country’s ties with the US.

Despite the taboo of holding direct talks with the US being broken during the nuclear negotiations, it is unlikely that the two countries will restore bilateral ties.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say over such sensitive issues, has stressed many times that negotiations with the US government over the nuclear issue should not be interpreted as rapprochement.

In line with Khamenei's statement, hardliners in Iran – known as "the concerned ones", are likely to ratchet up anti-US rhetoric to send a strong message to those groups who want to restore ties with America.

BBC Monitoring publishes regular media guides to a range of countries.

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Political fight on home turfThe deal is likely to have an impact on political alignments ahead of the parliamentary polls and elections for the Assembly of Experts in 2016.

The mood in the country is optimistic after the deal and Rouhani’s image is likely to be buoyed further once the ailing economy is on the road to recovery.

The pro-Rouhani camp and even moderate conservatives, who had backed the nuclear negotiation team, will try to maintain this momentum and take credit for resolving this major foreign policy challenge.

They will aim to gain a majority in the 10th parliamentary elections and also attempt to make their presence stronger in the Assembly of Experts.

The Assembly of Experts is the country's top clerical body which appoints or dismisses the Supreme Leader.

Ultraconservative hardliners, who steadfastly oppose the deal and Rouhani, are likely to be further sidelined in domestic politics.

The ultraconservatives' pressure on the government, however, will probably shift to other fields such as cultural issues, where they enjoy the support of traditional conservatives and senior clerics.

Ahmad Taghizadeh is a member of our Media Analysis team, specialising in Iran.

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Dim prospects for former leader

Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears unlikely to stage a political comeback and many in his circle face corruption charges, according to reports in Iran’s media.

Former vice-president for executive affairs, Hamid Baqai, was arrested in mid-June on several charges, including misappropriation of funds.

Earlier this year, former First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi was sentenced to over five years in prison for corruption.

Said Mortazavi, who served as head of Iran's Anti-Smuggling Task Force and head of the Social Security Organization under President Ahmadinejad, is facing trial in charges of torture and killing.

Iran's Intelligence Ministry has an "open dossier" against Ahmadinejad's media advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin over his alleged involvement in "acts of espionage", according to the opposition website Saham News.

Other top figures from Ahmadinejad's circle have already served prison sentences, including the former presidential media advisor, former head of the Retirement Fund, former head of Iran's National Museum and the former managing director of giant car maker Saipa Group.

This has not deterred Ahmadinejad from seeking to contest the 2016 parliamentary election. The former leader, who had avoided publicity since leaving office in 2013, has been touring provinces, making speeches and has launched a website and an Instagram account

In June, Ahmadinejad's former cabinet members held an inauguration ceremony for their new party Yekta (Unique). When asked at the event about their former allies' jail sentences, the former officials "merely smiled", Iranian media reported.

Another hardline group, Steadfastness Front – many of whose supporters still sympathize with Ahmadinejad despite his fall from grace – also started its election campaign in April.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has remained silent while his top aides continue to attack Ahmadinejad’s record. Moreover, the conservative-dominated Judiciary, which works under Khamenei’s direct supervision, continues to examine charges against the former leader’s friends.

This has led even conservative commentators to conclude that the former nemesis to Western leaders is a spent political force.


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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has presided over decades of conservative rule, has the final say on all issues of domestic and foreign policy and remains fundamentally opposed to any rapprochement with the United States.

Hardliners in Iran are likely to ratchet up anti-US rhetoric


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Ten months after threatening a war in Russia's North Caucasus, the Islamic State militant group (IS) recently claimed the region as a province of its so-called caliphate. North Caucasus expert Leyla Akbar assesses the implications for the government and the separatist movement.


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Insurgency has continued in Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan since two wars for independence in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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In a video filmed in Russia’s republic of Chechnya, IS said it had received a pledge of allegiance from militants in the North Caucasus, giving rise to fears that jihadists there could pursue more brutal methods of terrorism.

Chechnya's Moscow-backed governor Ramzan Kadyrov has tried to play down the threat.

"I don't think that a few surviving bandits who are still hiding in the woods can provide serious help to radicals from the so-called Iblis [satanic] State," he said.

Nevertheless, security officials and the media have urged the government to take the threat seriously.

In March, Russian Security Council chief Nikolay Patrushev drew attention to the risk that rebels who had fought with terrorist groups "could bring skills of sophisticated terror" when they returned home.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Aleksandr Bortnikov has urged collaboration between former Soviet republics and international partners in the light of IS's "intention to destabilize the situation" in the wider region.

IS’s proclaimed North Caucasus "province" has also raised concerns in Georgia, especially in Muslim-dominated Pankisi region near the Russian border, prompting the two long-standing rivals to consider resuming contact.

Georgia’s Defence Minister Tina Khidasheli said Tbilisi and Moscow should consolidate their efforts against this threat instead of fighting against each other.

Russian internet newspaper Vzglyad has warned that insurgents "will get new resources and new weapons and, most importantly, new supporters in the Caucasus."

Some Chechen insurgents have espoused Islamist causes, such as Al-Qaeda's "Caucasus Emirate" shown here as posted on the group's Twitter account. Experts say IS brutality will alienate supporters of independence.

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Other media outlets have called IS "a real threat to Russia".

"In 2007 the separatist underground became Islamist, now it is a question of its further radicalization. One way or another, an alignment is taking place with an organization that, in its expansion, does not stop at mass terror," Gazeta.ru news website warns.

Former brothers

IS expansion in the area comes at the expense of the Caucasus Emirate, an umbrella of small Al-Qaeda-aligned groups in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, whose leaders appear sidelined from the new IS province.

It seems that the switch of allegiance has already prompted infighting in the Caucasus similar to that seen in other regions where Islamic State has trodden on Al-Qaeda toes.

In early July, pro-IS militants in the North Caucasus warned "former brothers" against maintaining adherence to the emirate, threatening that they may find themselves in the orange jumpsuits usually worn by IS victims.

While the fear persists that an IS presence in the North Caucasus will strengthen rebel activity in the region in the short term, experts believe that infighting, as well as the use of IS tactics, will have a disastrous effect on the Caucasus insurgency because the local population will not approve of IS-style atrocities.

"If those who have sworn allegiance apply IS tactics, they will simply doom themselves because such tactics will only turn the population away from them," says local pundit Akhmet Yarlykapov.

What is the Caucasus Emirate?

With roots in the Chechen separatist movement of the 1990s, the Caucasus Emirate was formally proclaimed by Chechen militant leader Dokka Umarov in 2007. It is now headed by Magomed Suleymanov.

The emirate claimed sovereignty over the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus but has never actually controlled any territory. It professed solidarity with Al-Qaeda, but largely focused on insurgent warfare against Russia’s rule in the Caucasus.

It suffered a serious blow in 2013-14 due to Russia's crackdown on the Caucasus insurgency in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which is located near the North Caucasus.

A serious impact was also caused by the outflow of volunteers to fight in the Syrian civil war against the government in Damascus. Although they initially supported jihadists in Syria, emirate leaders later said that the outflow of potential militants had weakened their jihad back home.

Sergey Melikov, Russia’s presidential envoy to the North Caucasus, says 1,500 people from the region are fighting in Syria and Iraq. Some of them pledged loyalty to IS leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, while others have become members of IS's rival groups.

Leyla Akbar monitors the North Caucasus media from our Baku office.

Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said IS does not pose a serious threat, but Russia's national security officials are concerned.

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Second Suez: great expectations

Sherine Abdel Monaim in Cairo asks whether the new canal will bring calmer waters to Egypt’s economy.

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The digging and dredging is over: Egypt opens its new waterway this month.

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President Sisi's challenge is to revive an economy ravished by political turmoil.

Waiting for sponsors: the government hopes to attract foreign investments to fund infrastructure projects along the banks.

The 72 km-long waterway, parallel to the old Suez Canal, is opened in an international ceremony on 6 August attended by 500 heads of state and government and other dignitaries.

The 15-billion dollar project will allow two-way movement of ships, significantly increasing transit capacity and, the government hopes, revenues.

The authorities will also develop an industrial and logistics zone expected to create one million jobs over the next 15 years.

Egypt wants to mimic the success of the original canal which connects the Middle East and the Red Sea and is one of the main sources of hard currency.

The government hopes the new route will revive the failing economy, which has suffered from political turmoil since the 25 January 2011 uprising, Finance Minister Hani Qadri has told state-run Al-Akhbar daily.

Why now?

Although Egyptians took to the streets in 2011 to call for freedom, they also called for social justice and bread.

More than 26 per cent of Egyptians live in poverty and the unemployment rate is at around 13 per cent, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in 2014.

President Abd-al-Fattah al-Sisi’s key challenge is to resurrect Egypt’s ailing economy and create jobs for the country’s young and restless population.

His ousted predecessors, Husni Mubarak and Muhammad Mursi, had the project in their sights, but it was under Sisi it finally reached completion.

How was the work funded?The 8.6bn dollars for digging and dredging work has mainly come from public subscription.

Such a massive response was seen by many as a second mandate for al-Sisi because the money was collected in less than one week.

Foreign investors are expected to fund other infrastructure projects around the canal area. It is hoped that services in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, information and communication technology, and energy projects will attract investments from abroad.

The project provided jobs for at least 25,000 workers over the last year, and the trend is likely to continue with high expectations of extra revenues.

Having two lanes will cut the canal crossing time from 22 to 11 hours.

Sherine Mahmoud watches the Middle East media from our Cairo office.

What is expected?The government plans to create 1 million jobs over 15 years, build 2 million residential units over 15 years and develop 13,000 hectares of land for cultivation and developmental purposes around the banks of the canal.

Official estimates say the capacity of the waterway will double and revenues are likely to rise from 5.3 billion dollars in 2014 to 13.2 billion in 2023.

But Sisi’s critics have questioned these projections.

They say the 24m-deep canal will not allow big oil tankers to cross, offering no alternative to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope as previously announced. The Panama Canal is reportedly about to complete its own set of bigger locks by April 2016 presenting another competitor in the Asia-US container market.

"No increase in the number of ships transiting the canal is expected before five years," the opposition Arabi21 news website pointed out.

And with Egypt’s flat tax rate of 22.5 per cent, there has been no news of foreign investment yet.

The government hopes the new route will revive the failing economy, which has suffered from regime change since the 25 January 2011 uprising

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Back to the Silk Route

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to five Central Asian countries has reinvigorated India's traditional ties with the region. Asia analyst Vikas Pandey reviews the PM's whirlwind tour.

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"We see an important place for Central Asia in India's future," Modi said in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek.

The statement shows his government's commitment to increasing Delhi's footprint in the region.

Dr Athar Zafar, Central Asia analyst at the Indian Council of World Affairs, says India's academic, business and diplomatic community has always wanted Delhi's ties with the five nations to go beyond cultural exchanges.

Has Modi achieved this?

He says the PM has certainly signalled India's interest in playing a bigger role in the region.

During Modi's visit, India signed several deals in energy, trade, culture and security sectors with the five nations.

EnergyThe five Central Asian countries became independent in the 1990s and have made steady economic progress in the past two decades.

The region is known for its resources like hydrocarbons, mineral deposits, hydroelectric power potential and gold.

India signed a fresh deal with Kazakhstan to secure 5,000 tonnes of uranium over the next four years. Kazakhstan is the world's largest producer of uranium and the deal has ensured a steady supply of fuel for India's 21 operating nuclear reactors.

India's state-run oil firm ONGC Videsh Limited has a minor stake in Kazakhstan's Satpayev oil exploration blocks. Mr Modi wanted additional blocks for India's investments, but no specific announcement was made by the two sides on this front.

Modi is known as one of the most active global leaders on social media and he lived up to the expectations during his tour in the region. He tweeted every detail of his schedule in each country, and often in local languages.

His tweets in local languages may have won admirers in Central Asia, but some Indians found the strategy amusing.

The Indian PM said, however, that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev "responded positively to my request to consider additional mature blocks".

In Turkmenistan, the long-awaited TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline was discussed and Modi termed the project as a "key pillar" of economic engagement between the two countries.

The pipeline plan may face hurdles because of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. But the two countries have showed their sincerity in realising the project that would bring gas from Central Asia to South Asia.


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TradeThe economic development of Central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, has sparked a construction boom and development of sectors like IT, pharmaceuticals and tourism.

India has expertise in these sectors and deeper cooperation will give a fresh impetus to trade relations with these countries. India's trade ties with Central Asia have been performing well below their true potential.

"India's struggle to reform its economy, reconstruct relations with major powers after the Cold War and reconstitute ties with neighbours meant Central Asia was never high on Delhi's foreign policy agenda," writes C Raja Mohan in the Indian Express.

Poor connectivity has also contributed to the below-par trade between India and Central Asia.

But Dr Zafar says India has found a way to solve the problem. Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan recently inaugurated a railway line connecting the two countries with Iran.

"India has invested in Iran's Chabahar port and that will allow Indian products to reach Iran and then to Central Asia through the rail link," he explains.

The successful nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers will also make it easier for Delhi to do business with Tehran.

Central Asian countries have shown their keen interest in allowing India to play a bigger role in the region. Russia has been a dominant force and China has made inroads here in recent years.

Caught in a fine balancing act between Russia and the West, the five capitals want to diversify their foreign relations. And Modi seems to have leveraged Central Asia's quest for diversification to India's advantage.

Vikas Pandey covers the Asia media from our Delhi office.

SecurityTajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan share borders with Afghanistan and fear that any instability in the neighbourhood will affect them.

India has traditionally stayed away from playing any military role in Afghanistan. But experts say Modi may have to find a middle path to play "military diplomacy" in the region.

"Modi also needs to end India's traditional reluctance to embark upon an expansive military diplomacy in the region." Mohan says. So far the prime minister has convinced the leaders of the five nations that India stands united in their fight against Islamic State – seen by them as an emerging threat in the region. "Overcoming India's inertia will certainly take a while. But Modi is well positioned to make a fresh start in Central Asia," Mohan says.

But military talks have not gone further than solidarity pledges. Modi’s visit to the Tajik capital of Dushanbe passed without the crucial mention of the Ayni air base, which India helped to renovate in 2007 and which is extensively used by Russia. This means Modi has not succeeded in overcoming Russian opposition to letting India use the base.

For now at least, expansion in military ties remains limited to construction, exercises and diplomacy.

India and Central Asian countries share a common concern over Afghanistan's security.

Modi sees Central Asia as a key market for India's manufacturing.

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The News from Elsewhere blog is a partnership between the BBC News Magazine and BBC Monitoring. It aims to provide readers with an insight into life in other countries through their media, using short posts to illustrate the differences between cultures.

It also highlights unusual stories being reported around the globe, spots trends in social media, examines the use of propaganda by governments and others, and attempts to see events through the eyes of foreign reporters.

The blog is based on contributions from BBC Monitoring journalists around the world, which are curated by our multimedia producer Cassandra Cavallaro. In addition to BBC Monitoring she has worked in a number of BBC newsrooms, bringing stories to a variety of UK and global audiences.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/news_from_elsewhere

Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

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A long-awaited bridge connecting two separate parts of Croatia has finally been given the go-ahead, it's reported.

At the moment any Croatians hoping to drive south to the popular seaside city of Dubrovnik first have to pass through a 14km (8.7 mile) stretch of coast belonging to neighbouring Bosnia. Once completed, the new bridge will take cars from the mainland across a sliver of the Adriatic Sea to the Peljesac peninsula, the Balkan Insight website reports. Croatia's government says construction is likely to start in spring 2016, at a total cost of 380m euros ($417m; £267m). "Above all there is this desire to connect Croatia so that one no longer has to travel to and from Dubrovnik through the territory of another state," says Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic.

Police initially said banners calling for gay marriage and abortion rights were forbidden.

The construction of an access road for the bridge started in 2007, but the project stalled.

Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

Paraguay: Police back down on Pope event placard banParaguay's police was forced to back down over controversial restrictions it had imposed on banners brought to public events attended by Pope Francis.

In preparation for the Pope's visit last month, police issued a list of rules for those planning to attend his public appearances. But alongside a ban on carrying weapons and the consumption of alcohol, it stipulated that "banners containing references to social struggle groups (in favour of abortion, gay marriage and the landless movement)" were prohibited at the events. Police spokeswoman Elisa Ledesma told Radio Cardinal that the Pope's visit was "not the occasion to request such things".

The news prompted a wave of criticism on social media and among high-profile public figures, with some accusing the police of behaving as if Paraguay was a dictatorship. "In a democratic country you cannot limit free speech," Monsignor Adalberto Martinez, Paraguay's military bishop, said in a radio interview. "The Catholic Church has not issued any prohibition on carrying placards during the Pope's visit." The gay rights group Somos Gay announced it would respond by erecting anti-homophobia billboards along the route that Pope Francis is scheduled to travel.

It seems the backlash was effective: only hours after Ms Ledesma's interview, the police issued a new statement. It specified that the only banners prohibited at the events will be those which obstruct other people's view.

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The idea of connecting the two sections of land first surfaced in the 1990s, and construction even got under way in 2007. But it subsequently stalled and was later cancelled due to lack of funds. Bosnia has also raised concerns that the bridge could block ships from accessing its territory. But the country's transport minister recently said that the neighbours are cooperating on the issue, and are likely to form a joint commission to ensure that both countries' needs are met.

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Croatia: Delayed bridge bypassing Bosnia goes ahead

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Hackers have targeted Russia's public contracts website and posted a fake tender offering control of the country for six years, it's reported.

An official-looking notice appeared on the government-run site calling for bids to "rule the Russian state and turn a profit for yourself, your friends and your relatives", the Ura.ru news website reports. The mock document has since been removed, but not before several news websites took screenshots. It offered control over the whole of Russia, "a population of 146 million people, lots of oil, gas, forests, land and whatnot".

The post had a clear political bent – for the hefty sum of 50.5 trillion roubles ($860bn; £570bn), the "winning" bidder would take control for six years, the same length as a presidential term, the Newsru website reports. It also described the country as being "burdened" with millions of officials "who also have the right to their share of the income from the Russian Federation".

A group calling itself the Ural Cyber Partisans said in a separate document uploaded to the site that it was behind the hacking, and that selecting Russia's ruler by public tender is "more honest than holding elections with a predictable result". The group is thought to have been behind a similar stunt on the same government website earlier this year. On that occasion a fake notice said the Kremlin was up for sale, in order to raise money for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

China: "Petty graft" app feature sees tip-offs soarPublic tip-offs about corruption in China have soared since the launch of a new whistleblower function within a government mobile phone app, it's reported.

The app is run by the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and now allows users to upload both text and images as evidence of local party members' "discipline violations", the Xinhua news agency reports. The commission says it received a surge in tip-offs after the new feature launched on Thursday – more than 1,000 compared to around 300 on a normal day. "At one point, we were getting three tip-offs a minute," a commission official tells Xinhua.

Anyone using the new feature can choose between 11 categories of transgressions, including party officials dining out in pricey restaurants at the public's expense, or hosting luxury weddings or funerals. One person reported a flashy new local government building, which was thought to breach the party's frugality policy. Chinese President Xi Jinping has run a relentless anti-corruption drive since coming to power in 2012, making it clear he wants to catch "both tigers and flies" – meaning low-level officials are under scrutiny alongside high-profile figures.

Hackers previously issued a fake notice saying that the Kremlin was up for sale. The new feature aims to make reporting low-level corruption more convenient, party officials say.

Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter. Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter.

Russia: Hackers target official public tender website

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Some Chinese social media users are sceptical about using the new tip-off feature, though. "Who dares to report real names?" asks one person on the Sina Weibo social networking site. "This is high risk, no good can come of this." But others welcome it as a positive step, with one user saying: "I clap my hands for every little bit of progress."

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Bearing gifts: can Russia’s land buy China’s love?

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Russian authorities have recently signed a 49-year deal to lease a plot of land in the country's TransBaikal Territory to Chinese agricultural firm Huae Xingbang, for less than five dollars per hectare a year. The terms of the contract, as well as the size of the plot – larger than Hong Kong, – have drawn criticism from Russian public figures, pundits and businessmen, James Vick reports from Moscow.

The harsh climate makes TransBaikal an unlikely target for agribusiness.

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The deal has come under heavy criticism from a number of federal political figures.

State Duma deputy Vladimir Pozdnyakov recently said that China wants to take over the entirety of Russia's Asian territory.

Fellow MP Andrey Tumanov also told a tabloid: "The Chinese will squeeze everything from the land, then leave."

But not everybody shares this view.

Metropolitan Savvatiy, the head of the neighbouring Buryatia archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose opinions often echo the Kremlin's position, has supported the initiative.

Writing on the blogging website LiveJournal, he argued that critics of the deal had "no moral right to sound off and create hysterics". He called on the critics to settle in the area themselves "if [they] care so much about us and about Siberian land".

Controversial purpose

According to the Kremlin-funded English-language news channel RT, the Chinese firm plans to use the land to grow grain, oilseeds and herbs, amongst other things.

But Natalya Zubarevich, a leading researcher at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, questions this assessment.

She argues that the inhospitable climate in the Russian Far East means that "the agricultural yield in this region is low".

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While a deal for a much smaller plot of land would not raise an eyebrow, a lease of this size seems "unrealistic" unless there are other, political motives behind it, she told centrist daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Rewards from the KremlinMoscow has a history of rewarding its political allies with favourable deals on land and other commodities. Russia's Customs Union allies, Armenia and Belarus, receive gas for a heavily-discounted rate of under 200 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres, according to figures provided by Radio Liberty.

Earlier this year, the controversial pro-Putin motorcycle club Night Wolves was provided with a plot of land in annexed Crimea on a 10-year lease at one-thousandth of the usual rate.

And China appears to be no exception.

Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom sealed the largest supply contract in its history with Chinese state oil and gas concern CNPC last year, pledging to provide Beijing with a natural gas supply for a 30-year period.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkadiy Dvorkovich went a step further in February, saying Moscow would consider offering China a 50 per cent stake in Russia's strategic oil and gas fields – the cornerstone of the country's economy.

"If there is a request from China, we will seriously consider it. And I see no political obstacles at the moment," he said.

Limited choicesRussia has been very vocal about its desire to build and fortify its ties with China. During a Q&A session at this year's St Petersburg International Economic Forum, President Vladimir Putin – who has often spoken of his personal friendship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping – referred to the "unprecedented" level of trust between the two nations and the need for "mutually beneficial" cooperation.

Dmitriy Trenin, the head of the Moscow Carnegie Centre, attributes Russia's new-found affection for China to its very public fall-out with the West over the Ukraine crisis.

"After Ukraine, Russia has very limited choices of potential allies and is forced to come closer to China".

Meanwhile, Forbes magazine quoted Yuriy Solovyev, the deputy chairman of major Russian bank VTB, as saying that "Chinese banks have significantly curtailed their involvement in [Russian] foreign trade deals". Forbes chalked this up to Chinese lenders not wanting to "get caught up in the drama" resulting from Western sanctions introduced after Russia's annexation of Crimea – an annexation which, for all of the Kremlin's talk about "strategic partnerships", China has yet to legally recognize.

As ties with the West continue to deteriorate, Russia has wooed China with fuel and land deals.

James Vick is a journalist at BBC Monitoring’s Moscow office.

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New president, old challenges in Nigeria

Muhammadu Buhari took his oath as Nigeria’s new president at the end of May in testing circumstances. Two months on, Africa Security Correspondent Tomi Oladipo looks at how the president is dealing with the country’s challenges.

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Soon after his election President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to recover oil money stolen by corrupt officials.

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President Buhari inherited multiple problems: an economy hit by falling oil prices, a government paralysed by corruption and a security sector beset by insurgency.

The escalation of violence led by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has destabilised the country’s northeast, leading to over 13,000 deaths and displacing more than 3 million people since 2009.

The president began his tenure with a key meeting between the leaders of neighbouring African countries affected by the violence and other international partners at the G7 summit.

But he needs to do a lot more given the scale of the challenge.

Boko Haram has lost control of some towns and villages but continues to remain an active threat.

Violence has not stopped, with a surge in bombings during Ramadan.

The government needs a stronger strategy to curb extremism because poverty, unemployment and poor education makes young people vulnerable to radical ideologies.

One of the main challenges is developing the Niger Delta region, which remains impoverished despite producing most of Nigeria’s wealth. Militancy in the region has disrupted oil production in the past.

In the run-up to the 2015 elections, the militants had threatened to return to the creeks if Goodluck Jonathan, from the region’s Ijaw ethnic group, did not win the elections.

While the militants have not stirred any major violence just yet, they remain a significant threat to the lucrative petroleum sector, the lifeline of Nigeria’s economy.

This sector has been riddled with fraud and mismanagement. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is seen by many as one of the most corrupt bodies in the country.

Buhari, who is seen to be a strict disciplinarian from his time as a military ruler in the 1980s, is expected to apply some of that rigour to tackling corruption.

Impunity has allowed many powerful politicians and their cronies to avoid prosecution even after being publicly exposed.

The average Nigerian finds it difficult to believe that the country is prospering even when shown impressive growth figures.

Plunging world oil prices have also exposed the vulnerability of the country’s economy.

Nigeria's currency the Naira has suffered greatly in foreign exchange markets and the effects are widespread.

Nigerian citizens living in desperate poverty simply want a habitable country, without having to seek better fortunes abroad.

They have high expectations of Buhari, and if he is able to solve at least one of the many challenges, he will leave a lasting legacy.

Tomi Oladipo reports on Africa security issues from our bureau In Nairobi and across the continent.

A G7 summit's outreach session in June brought Buhari together with neighbours affected by Boko Haram militancy. The group stepped up its attacks during Ramadan.

Many Nigerians live in poverty, which makes young people vulnerable to radical ideologies.

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"If you are the prime minister of Hungary, you must obey our law!" reads an amusing line from a poster.

Activists Gergely Kovacs and Katalin Erdelyi started the spoof poster campaign to counter an initiative by the Hungarian government.

The official information campaign was aimed at publicizing its anti-immigration policies, which have been criticized for appearing to incite xenophobia.

Kovacs and Erdelyi say that the counter campaign is meant to poke fun at the government's position.

"We have an obligation to show the world and ourselves that, despite having such a government, we are not so primitive," Kovacs, a former street artist, said in an interview with the Nepszabadsag newspaper.

The two activists have got wide-ranging support and have been able to crowd fund their campaign.

Poster wars over Hungary’s immigration policy

Erdelyi, who works as a journalist and curates a blog titled the Vastagbor or Thick Skin, has revealed that they have raised more than 33m forints (about 117,000 dollars or 104,000 euros) for the campaign.

The spoof poster campaign does not stop at the government's anti-immigration policies. It also takes on corruption.

The reference to a space station in one of the posters pokes fun at a pet project of the football-loving Prime Minister Viktor Orban – a 3,500-seater stadium completed last year at a cost of 3.8 billion forints (about 16 million dollars or 14 million euros), and situated just yards from Orban's country estate.

As the population of Felcsut is less than 1,700, many Hungarians see the stadium as little more than a huge vanity project, while government’s critics describe it as the epitome of official corruption.

A spoof ad campaign takes aim at the government’s attitudes to immigrants, Paula Kennedy reports.

Paula Kennedy is a staff writer on our global news desk.

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The official message: "If you come to Hungary, don't take the jobs of Hungarians!", and the spoof version: "If you come to Hungary, don't steal: the government will not allow competition!"

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Say it like it is: Russian TV explains Greek crisis

Rossiya 24 has created a glossary of the Greek crisis, in what seems like an attempt to make the turmoil in some viewers’ favourite holiday spot easier to grasp.

Fiscal terms such as bond and bestseller have been given a flippant treatment.

The channel explains that while the word bond may evoke the British agent 007, in the Greek context it means economic indebtedness or "one form of obligation".

Similarly, bestseller may be a popular book, but to the Greeks "it is a stock exchange commodity in very high demand".

Troika in Russian may mean an "old vehicle drawn by three horses, or a three-piece suit", but in Greece it is a term used to describe its creditors: the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF.

And in case it is all Greek to Russians, the channel broadcast a video explainer of these and other aspects of the crisis for several days ahead of the 5 July Greek referendum.

The Greek economic crisis can be difficult to explain, but a Russian TV channel has found just the solution, writes our Moscow-based analyst Aleksandr Panin.

Aleksandr Panin covers the Russian media from our Moscow office.

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From Russia, with love of facts and figures: viewers prepped for their Greek holiday.

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INSIDE MONITORINGA Story In Six Revolutions

BBC Monitoring is 76 and ever changing: Coordinating Editor Chris Greenway looks at our past and future.

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BBC Monitoring celebrates its birthday this month. The signing on 23 August 1939 of the non-aggression treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union made it clear that war was imminent, so the British government asked the BBC to put its plans for a monitoring service into action. Work began on 26 August, in time for the invasion of Poland five days later.

In 1943, we moved to Caversham Park, 40 miles west of London, which has remained our HQ ever since. Today, however, most of the monitoring work takes place in more than a dozen offices overseas.


TelevisionMajor changes in our work since 1939 have been driven by six revolutions: three technological, one political and two conceptual.

First came the satellite revolution. Although used in broadcasting since the 1960s, it didn't become practical for us to monitor satellites until the USSR introduced a new generation in time for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. This meant our satellite monitoring was in place well in time for the Gorbachev era and the end of the Cold War.

Satellites allowed the large-scale coverage of television. Our sources had up to then largely been limited to radio broadcasts, supplemented by news agency output.

The end of the 1980s saw our second revolution, as our editorial operation was computerized.

Source explosionThe end of the Cold War brought a third revolution, driven by political change: a big growth in the number of broadcast sources, a development not confined to former communist countries.

This explosion of sources challenged BBCM's coverage abilities, as they were often local radio or TV stations that did not transmit to a wider area. We solved this in various ways, from remote receivers and partnerships with sources, to the hiring of local contractors and the establishment of new overseas offices.

The fourth revolution was the arrival, from the mid-1990s, of the internet. This added to the number of things to monitor, but also provided its own solution to the problem of source access.

The user may not know the best sources to follow, or have time to do so, and they may not be in the language they understand

Britain's ear: BBC Monitoring's first home at Wood Norton Hall, Worcestershire.

Radio broadcasts which dominated open source media in the 1940s-1960s eventually gave way to satellite TV.

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Chris Greenway coordinates BBC Monitoring’s daily output.

Rethinking monitoringThe next two revolutions were conceptual, upturning some of the assumptions on which we had worked.

Social media, which showed their power in the 2009 disputed Iranian presidential election and the 2011 Arab Spring, meant that we were no longer restricted to following developments "from above", as presented by officially-controlled outlets, or from the detached viewpoint of independent sources. Instead, we began to see, from below, a multitude of raw voices – often disjointed but heavily engaged – of individual participants in events.

Alongside sources and technology, the needs of our users have changed. The internet already puts their own personal "monitoring service" on their desks – and their smartphones – so what can we offer?

Part of the answer is the same as before: the user may not know the best sources to follow, or have the time to do so, and they may not be in a language they understand.

Insight and analysisThe rest of the answer lies in BBCM's ability not just to report what the media are saying, but to use the expertise of its staff to explain events, set them in context and outline how they might develop.

And some things don't change. From the start, 76 years ago, certain principles have guided our work: the importance of watching the best sources – accuracy – consistency of approach – balancing the need to prioritize with the benefits of watching a source or a country even in quiet times.

These are timeless values, and with our more recent emphasis on providing insight and analysis we seek to be as valuable as ever.

Computerized: the Caversham newsroom in the early 1990s.

Today's monitoring journalists sift through an ever-growing number of sources on TV, Internet and social platforms.

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We were no longer restricted to following developments "from above", as presented by officially-controlled outlets, or from the detached viewpoint of independent sources. Instead, we began to see, from below, a multitude of raw voices – often disjointed but heavily engaged – of individual participants in events

Insight and analysis: the Caversham newsroom today.

BBC © 2015 All rights reserved. No publication or distribution of the whole or any part of this magazine is permitted without the written consent of BBC Monitoring.

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BBC Monitoring observes, understands and explains media throughout the world, providing deep insight and enabling organisations to make better, more informed decisions. Our teams monitor and analyse developments in areas including geopolitics, terrorism and other security-related issues and our clients include governments, NGOs and major corporations worldwide.

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