Paul Goble
Staunton, June 24 -- The flood of news stories from a country as large, diverse
and 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 presents a selection of 13 of these
other and typically neglected stories at the end of each week. This is the 37th
such compilation. It is only suggestive and far from complete – indeed, once
again, one could have put out such a listing every day -- but perhaps one or
more of these stories will prove of broader interest.
1. Putin Thinks He Won the Football Wars But Many
Russians Don’t. Vladimir Putin’s dismissive remarks that a
few Russian fans were able to defeat much more numerous British ones suggests
he thinks he won the football wars in Europe (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=576969C31BA74).
But given the poor performance of the Russian squad and the probability that
few Russians will participate in the Rio Olympiad, many Russians don’t, with
some observing that what the Kremlin leader has spent on sports could easily
have lifted at least two Russian regions out of depression (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5768CD4231BEF).
2.
Russians May Not Be So Forgiving of Putin’s
Remarks on US Superpower Status. Many in the West
saw Vladimir Putin’s acknowledgement in St. Petersburg that the US is a
superpower and Russia isn’t as opening the way for an easing of East-West
tensions. But Russians who have been told that the sacrifices they have been
making are all about restoring Russia to great power status may not be so
forgiving, one Moscow commentator suggests (forum-msk.org/material/fpolitic/11911275.html). That he
may be right is suggested by the contorted reasoning being used by Putin’s
defenders. One has suggested that being a counterweight to a superpower is even
a higher status than being a superpower itself (vzglyad.ru/politics/2016/6/20/816963.html).
3.
Moscow Plans to ‘Seize’
All Republics of Former Soviet Union, Duma Deputy Says. Yevgeny Fedorov says that “the goal of the
Russian Federation is the seizure of all republics of the former Soviet Union
and the restoration of the territory of ‘greater Russia’ in its 1945 borders.” Those borders were “illegally violated in
1991,” he adds. Moscow’s moves against
Ukraine are “a historical technology” for “the resolution of this task. Fedorov
pointedly noted that this is not just his opinion but that of many in Moscow (minval.az/news/123516697).
4.
‘Why Isn’t There a
Monument to Beria?’ As the dispute over the renaming of a bridge
in St. Petersburg continues, with opponents in the northern capital draping the
bridge with one of Akhmat Kadyrov’s slogan – “Kill as many Russians as you can!”
and others in Chelyabinsk renaming a bridge for one of those who fought against
the Chechen leader (radiomarsho.com/a/zakaev-ahmad-noxchi-biyca-a-baya-a-kordiina-gazakxashna/27809660.html and ura.ru/news/1052252913), one
commentator has asked why there isn’t yet a monument to Stalin’s notorious secret
police chief Lavrenty Beria who was after all a most “effective manager” (forum-msk.org/material/news/11929619.html).
One Russian official who might support this is Culture Minister Vladimir
Medinsky who this week said that Russia needs to declare war on rootless “cosmopolitans,”
a dangerous echo of a late Stalinist campaign in which Beria took a leading
role (rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/576426279a79479cad28cece).
5.
‘There’s No Money
So Let’s Go Shopping,’ Russians Say. In
the face of the deepening economic crisis, Russians are choosing to use their
credit cards and go shopping, new survey finds (newizv.ru/lenta/2016-06-22/241397-deneg-net-no-shoping-v-radost.html). But that
tactic will work only for a brief time given that regional governments are
running out of money, food and medicine shortages are increasing, and
unemployment while largely hidden is going up as well (echo.msk.ru/news/1787284-echo.html,
regions.ru/news/2583127/, and https://iq.hse.ru/news/185521342.html).
6.
‘Mongol Yoke Saved
Russia from Becoming European,’ Lavrov Says.
Most Russians have been raised to believe that the Mongol yoke was a
national tragedy, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it had a
silver lining: it prevented Russia from becoming a European country (facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208829647051575&set=a.2198528495828.120941.1625744192&type=3&theater). Meanwhile, Kazan historian Rafael Khakimov
has pointed out that under Putin, Russians are more afraid to violate the
historical myths the Kremlin insists on than they are to violate the Russian
constitution (business-gazeta.ru/article/314213),
and another commentator has suggested that Russians can’t learn anything from
history because their leaders don’t believe in facts (rufabula.com/articles/2016/06/23/country-of-unlearned-lessons).
7.
You Can’t Die This
Week; You’re Not on the Schedule, Perm Officials Say. Health officials
in Perm have told hospitals in that Russian region that they are not allowed to
report more than one death a week no matter how many there actually are and
that they must not send out ambulances more than 11 times again regardless of
how many emergency calls come in (permv.ru/2016/06/22/prikamskiy-minzdrav-vvel-kvoty-na-kol/).
8.
Negligence Now the
Universal Explanation for Disasters in Russia.
If the Soviet victory in World War II is the universal solvent in which
all Soviet crimes are supposed to dissolve, “negligence” has become the
preferred explanation for all kinds of disasters in the Russia of Vladimir
Putin (snob.ru/selected/entry/110020). That observation has been prompted by a
report that emergency officials in Karelia ignored a call from one of the children
drowned there last weekend and did not send the aid that could have saved many
lives (znak.com/2016-06-21/odin_iz_pogibshih_v_karelii_detey_sumel_dozvonitsya_do_mchs_no_emu_tam_ne_poverili_chto_oni_tonut).
9.
Where is Gogol
When Russians Need Him? A Russian businessman has taken a step Gogol would
have found hard to top: he’s used an entire village which he owns and the
residents in it which he doesn’t as collateral for a loan at a Magnitogorsk bank
(znak.com/2016-06-16/biznesmen_iz_pod_magnitogorska_reshil_zalozhit_v_banke_celoe_selo_vmeste_s_zhitelyami).
10.
Russian TV
Sometimes Accidentally Presents the Truth.
As a result of what some are certain to call “editorial negligence,”
Russian state television broadcast evidence that Moscow is using cluster bombs
and other kinds of illegal ordnance in Syria, something Russian officials have
long denied (meduza.io/en/news/2016/06/20/russian-state-television-accidentally-broadcasts-evidence-that-moscow-uses-cluster-bombs-in-syria). But this is only a blip of its record of
lying to Russians and the world, as a new list of the top 240 Russian claims
that haven’t turned out to be true shows (russialies.com/russias-top-240-lies-international-edition/).
11.
Russia’s Regions
Must Stop Thinking of Themselves as Moscow’s Provinces, Buryat Says. Too many people in Russia’s regions and
republics have accepted the notion promoted by people in the Russian capital
that their lands are provinces and their people provincial, according to
Mikhail Slipenchuk. That must end if
they and indeed the country are to have a better future (ulanmedia.ru/news/society/16.06.2016/512578/mihail-slipenchuk-buryatiya-ne-dolzhna-vosprinimat-sebya-provintsiey.html).
12.
Ulitskaya Says
Russians Genetically Inclined to Aggression. Many observers have speculated
about the reasons Russians especially now under Putin are so aggressive toward
their fellow citizens and other countries. Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya says she believes the reason is
that they are predisposed in that direction by their genes (glavpost.com/post/15jun2016/Society/87684-prichina-agressii-rossiyan-genetika.html).
13.
‘Russian State is
Like a Dog that It’s Best to Avoid’ – and Other Words of Wisdom from Russian
Students. A group of scholars has searched the essays Russian
students must write to pass their examinations and identified dozens of pearls,
perhaps the brightest of which is that “the Russian state is like a dog; it may
bite; and it is best to avoid it altogether” (i38.ru/obrazovanie-kommenti/vospitivat-detey-nado-tak-kak-putin-amerikantsev--teleinform-predstavlyaet-svezhuiu-kollektsiiu-perlov-s-ege-po-obschestvoznaniiu).
And six more from countries in the
neighborhood of Russia:
14. Russia’s FSB Blames Ukrainian Agents for Problems with
Crimean Occupation Regime. The FSB says that many of the problems the
occupation regime in Crimea is having are the result of the work of Kyiv’s
agents who have penetrated institutions on the Ukrainian peninsula, a charge
that provides Russian forces with yet another excuse for their failings and
that opens the way for even more repression ahead (politikus.ru/v-rossii/78893-fsb-predpolagaet-chto-vo-vlasti-kryma-nahodyatsya-agenty-sluzhaschie-kievskomu-rezhimu.html).
15.
Russia’s Deportation Monument a ‘Spit in the Face
of All Crimean Tatars.’ Many Crimean
Tatars are furious that the occupation forces have used the same sculptor who
created the monument to the “polite” people who seized their region to come up
with a sculpture in honor of the victims of the 1944 deportation of their nation
to Central Asia. Such a choice, they say, represents “a spit in the face” of
all of them (khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1466118961).
16.
Another Stalinist
Measure in Russian-Occupied Crimea.
The police in Crimea are now employing a measure long associated with
the Stalin period in the Soviet Union by going after and imposing punishments
on the children of those adults that have been repressed (nr2.com.ua/News/world_and_russia/Rossiya-prevrashchaet-Krym-v-territoriyu-straha-121102.html).
17. Young Men in Tajikistan Taking Kyrgyz Citizenship to
Avoid the Draft. Young men in Tajikistan have come up with a
new tactic to avoid serving in their country’s military: they are becoming
citizens of Kyrgyzstan, something that will do little to improve relations
between those two countries or enhance Tajikistan’s security in the face of
threats from Afghanistan (knews.kg/2016/06/20/v-tadzhikistane-poluchayut-kyrgyzskoe-grazhdanstvo-chtoby-izbezhat-armii/).
18.
Are the Gagauz Outplaying Moscow – or Working
for It? Some in the Russian capital are concerned that
the Gagauz leader they thought was in their pocket has had a secret meeting
with Turkey’s president who has announced that he wants the Gagauz to open a
representation in Ankara just as it has done in St. Petersburg (regnum.ru/news/economy/2147721.html
and regnum.ru/news/polit/2148931.html). Russian officials have long assumed that the
Turkic speaking but Orthodox Gagauz are their reliable ally against the
Moldovan central government, but these latest developments suggest that Moscow
may have been outplayed by one of its smallest allies. Alternatively, of
course, this could be yet another Moscow move directed against Chisinau and its
European choice.
19. Kazakhstan Now Absorbing a Million Migrant Workers
Every Year. One reason for the recent unrest in
Kazakhstan is that that Central Asian country has been absorbing about a
million migrant workers annually over the last several years, opening the way
for radical penetration given that most of these people are from other parts of
Central Asia and sparking problems with the local Kazakh population (tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/milliona-migrantov-vyezjayut-kazahstan-ejegodno-ekspert-297008/).
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