A Baker’s Dozen of Neglected Russian Stories This Week

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 11 – The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse and often strange as the Russian Federation often appears to be is far too large for anyone to keep up with. But there needs to be a way to mark those which can’t be discussed in detail but which are too indicative of broader developments to ignore.

            Consequently, Windows on Eurasia will present a selection of 13 of these other and typically neglected stories at the end of each week. This is the first such weekly list. It is only suggestive and far from complete, but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of broader interest.

1.      In Tuva, the Lenin Museum has become a Museum of Buddhist Culture (uva.asia/news/asia/8217-muzey.html).

2.      In Mari El, residents erect a new three-meter-tall statue of Stalin (echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1619646-echo/).

3.      Some Russians are saying that pensions are now “a survival of the past,” something that will soon pass away completely (topwar.ru/82028-pensiya-perezhitok-poshlogo-ili-nesbytochnoe-buduschee.html).

4.      Ten percent of residents of one district in Bashkortostan plan to vote against all candidates by not voting at all (kyk-byre.ru/1844-kazhdyy-desyatyy-planiruet-isportit-byulleten-na-predstoyaschih-vyborah-tem-samym-progolosovat-protiv-vseh.html).

5.       Russia as a whole is not yet a monarchy but some regions, cities and districts are already acting as mini-monarchies with positions being passed from father to son (forum-msk.org/material/region/10984584.html).

6.      Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy appears to come from various dystopian novels rather than from the writings of foreign policy experts (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=55F07A8942A77).

7.      Trophy wives, long a phenomenon in some Western countries, have now arrived in Russia (snob.ru/profile/9723/blog/97657).

8.      Trusts now being used to transfer wealth from one generation of Russians to another, with all the consequences that Western experience suggests this will have (ng.ru/economics/2015-09-09/4_nasledstvo.html).

9.      A Duginist writer argues that no one who has been trained abroad should be allowed to teach in Russian educational institutions (evrazia.org/article/2726).

10.  A rising tide of violence by one person against another is the whirlwind Russia is reaping because of Putin’s hate campaign (facebook.com/groups/elan.kazak/1048618855163480/).

11.  Even the dead aren’t being left in peace as conflict intensifies over construction of new housing block near a Russian cemetery in the Daghestani capital (kavpolit.com/articles/mahachkala_kladbischenskaja_istorija-19480/).

12.  At commemoration of Beslan tragedy, sign declaring “Putin is an executioner” goes up and then is quickly taken down (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/268276/).

13.  International travelers say Moscow is the most unfriendly city in the world (kommersant.ru/doc/2801339).