Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 4 -- 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 56th
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.
Is Putin a Russian
Trump? Many in Russia and the West have suggested
that US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is an American Vladimir
Putin, but now there are indications that the reverse may be true as well. This
week, the Kremlin leader fell victim to one of his own propaganda stories -- which
wasn’t true -- because no one around him is prepared to speak truth to power (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=58199182B26FA,
kasparov.ru/material.php?id=580F0425B9FE9,
and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=580F0425B9FE9). Putin had a bad week in other respects
as well: he was named one of the world’s greatest enemies of media freedom by
Reporters without Borders (gordonua.com/news/worldnews/putin-kadyrov-lukashenko-erdogan-i-igil-voshli-v-spisok-vragov-pressy-ot-reporterov-bez-granic-157125.html),and
a Russian commentator suggested that Putin couldn’t stop talking about the
Boston marathon bomber because he has a guilty conscience about the case (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5818302A1E611). In
response, Putin has taken the step so many world leaders have when they find
themselves in trouble. He’s making no effort to change his policies, but he is
hiring Western public relations firms to improve his image (prweek.com/article/1414140/russia-seeks-pr-agencies-improve-image-abroad).
2.
More Bad Economic News on All Fronts. Bankruptcies have become so frequent that “Kommersant” has
been forced to publish additional pages this week just to list all of them.
China been able to purchase a quarter of Russia’s goldmining industry at
firesale prices (newsland.com/community/7285/content/krupneishaia-zolotodobyvaiushchaia-kompaniia-rossii-mozhet-okazatsia-pod-kontrolem-kitaitsev/5536776) while Ford
has announced that it is ending production at its St. Petersburg plant (themoscowtimes.com/news/ford-to-halt-production-in-leningrad-region-55964). The
Russian state is now slated to run a deficit until at least 2034 (rosbalt.ru/business/2016/10/29/1563065.html)
and even military pensioners aren’t getting the one-time payments they were
promised (rbc.ru/economics/28/10/2016/581362809a7947415556088a?from=newsfeed).
Still worse, 60 percent of Russian employers say they will be cutting back on
employment (sobkorr.ru/news/58174301CBD4D.html),
and the real value of pensions fell by 3.3 percent in September alone (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5818C5C739FFF).
Not surprisingly almost half of Russians are prepared to be paid off the clock
and in the shadow sector of the economy (newizv.ru/society/2016-11-01/248584-pochti-kazhdyj-vtoroj-zhitel-rossii-gotov-poluchat-seruju-zarplatu.html).
For some Russians, the situation is becoming truly dire: there are reports that
school children in Chelyabinsk are being fed with soup made from worms (by24.org/2016/11/01/in_the_russian_kindergarten_children_eat_soup_with_a_worms/),
that deaths from flu are up by 300 percent because there isn’t enough medicine
available (ng.ru/economics/2016-11-01/1_6849_gripp.html),
and that ever more Russians are choosing to die at home rather than go to the
hospital for possible treatment (newizv.ru/society/2016-11-01/248572-rossijane-stali-chashe-umirat-doma.html).
3.
Will Russia’s
Statue Wars Never End? Each week brings fresh evidence that fighting over
statues and other memorials is for many Russians the most important thing going
on in their lives both because of what it says about the past of their country
and its future. Among the most notable
developments in this sector over the last seven days: LDPR leader Vladimir
Zhirinovsky wants to rename Moscow’s Lenin Prospekt for Ivan the Terrible (echo.msk.ru/blog/day_video/1866866-echo/).
Others want to declare Ivan the forefather of Putin’s new Russian nation (idelreal.org/a/28092852.html). Another
commentator has suggested that everything started going wrong when Stalin was
removed from the mausoleum on Red Square (vpk-news.ru/articles/33327). At the same time, some statues are being taken
down or vandalized, sometimes by the population and sometimes by the
authorities (kavkazr.com/a/ne-restavraziya-a-vandalizm/28082119.html,
snob.ru/selected/entry/115743,
ixtc.org/2016/10/neveroyatnye-priklyucheniya-pamyatnikov-ivanu-groznomu-v-rossii/,
and idelreal.org/a/28087931.html).
There are also more complaints among Russians that some of the statues reflect
the elite’s interest in monarchism (http://publizist.ru/blogs/107999/15114/-
and ruskline.ru/news_rl/2016/11/01/vladimir_medinskij_my_vosstanavlivaem_pamyat_o_lyudyah_kotorye_otdavali_vse_sily_svoej_strane/).
4.
Russians
Increasingly Uneasy about Putin’s War in Syria. While support
among Russians for the military operation in Syria remains above 50 percent,
according to a Levada Poll, there are signs that it is softening with fewer
people expressing unqualified backing for the effort than did earlier (themoscowtimes.com/articles/syria-55983).
5.
Three More Reasons
Russia Should Not Be Allowed to Host World Cup. The stadium in
St. Petersburg despite massive cost overruns has failed to meet FIFA standards
(themoscowtimes.com/news/zenit-stadium-fails-fifa-world-cup-standards-55989). There have
been more clashes of Russian soccer louts beyond the ability or willingness of
the Russian police to stop them (newizv.ru/sport/2016-10-29/248500-fanaty-spartaka-i-cska-po-puti-na-derbi-ustroili-massovuju-draku-v-metro.html). And there are indications that a new wave of
Russian doping scandals are about to break (golos-ameriki.ru/a/russia-sports-doping/3579432.html).
6. Instagram Beats Out Facebook in North Caucasus. Ramzan Kadyrov’s use of Instagram has
attracted the most attention, but people in the region say that that social
medium is vastly more popular in the North Caucasus generally than is Facebook,
with the number of friends on it ten times or more than of thee number on
Facebook (the-village.ru/village/city/city-interview/248845-kavkaz). Meanwhile, some of the smaller language communities
in the Russian Federation are exploring the ways they may be able to use the
Internet to save their endangered languages (tuva.asia/news/tuva/8818-anons.html).
7.
Russians Delighted Sovietology Making a
Comeback in the West. In many ways, Russia behaves like a small country
rather than a great power and is obsessed with the attention good or bad it
receives anywhere in the world. Some websites track how many articles appear
about Russia in this or that country. Now, “Novaya gazeta” has published a
large survey of what it calls “the return of Sovietology” in the United States (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/11/02/70386-vozvraschenie-sovetologii).
In a not necessarily related development, the Russian media have begun talking
about the supposed existence of a Russian military medal to be awarded for “the
occupation of Washington, D.C. (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5818295DB3A3A).
8. Russia’s Buddhists Say They have Law
but Not Always Officials on Their Side. Russia’s Buddhist community is becoming
increasingly active, and its leaders say that now they have law on their side
but not yet officials who are charged with enforcing it. As a result, there is
open discrimination against them in places where they are supposed to have full
rights (asiarussia.ru/buddhism/14049/).
Unfortunately, that pattern holds for most of Russia’s religions where new laws
are being used by officials not to go after extremism but rather after in
particular those Christian denominations that the Moscow Patriarchate doesn’t
like (ruvera.ru/articles/aleksey_besgodov_intervyu).
9.
Number of
Political Prisoners in Russia Doubled over Last Year, Memorial Says. The Memorial human rights organization which
is increasingly being hamstrung by Russian officials says that the number of
political prisoners in Russia has doubled over the course of the last year to
more than a hundred (newizv.ru/society/2016-10-28/248474-memorial-soobshil-ob-udvoenii-chisla-politzakljuchennyh-v-rossii.html).
10.
For Russian Media,
Liberals Play the Role Witches Did in Earlier Centuries. A “Novaya gazeta”
commentary suggests that under Putin, liberals have come to play the role
witches did in earlier centuries, a powerful and evil force that must be
vanquished again and again (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/10/28/70340-kolduny-i-my).
Meanwhile, on Halloween, parents in Moscow were urged not to let their children
wear Hitler, Stalin or Putin masks because these might prove too frightening
for others (vk.com/wall4700354_4386).
11.
North Caucasians
Whose Houses are Damaged During Counter-Terrorist Operations Can’t Hope for Compensation. Budget cuts are having another serious
consequence for people in the North Caucasus. Those whose residences or farms
are damaged by Russian siloviki during counter-terrorist operations now have no
hope of getting any compensation, something that will only add to their anger
at Moscow (kavkazr.com/a/esli-dom-sgubili-v-kto-i-ne-nadeisya-na-kompensatsiyu/28085126.html).
12.
Russian Blogger
Suggests Opening Danzig-Like Corridor to Kaliningrad. A Russian
blogger says that Moscow should use force to create a Russian corridor through
Belarus and/or Lithuania so that the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad won’t be
isolated. He argues that this is especially important because of rising
military tensions in the Baltic region (newsland.com/community/5234/content/kak-naproch-sviazat-kaliningradskuiu-oblast-so-vsei-rossiei/5532958).
That Kaliningrad is now in trouble is suggested by reports that the city’s
mayor has put his town hall on the market in order to try to raise money to
bridge a budget gap (yahoo.com/news/economy-kaliningrad-bad-one-mayor-143710354.html).
13.
Russians Don’t
Recognize Russians Wearing Traditional Dress as Russians. There is a famous
story about two 19th century Slavophiles who dressed up as Russian
peasants and who each assumed that the other was a Persian or some other
foreigner as a result. Now, in an updated version of the same story, a group of
Russians has tried wearing traditional Russian dress in Russian cities only to
discover that other Russians can’t imagine where they are coming from (newsland.com/community/5134/content/esli-vy-nosite-russkuiu-natsionalnuiu-odezhdu-to-posledstviia-budut-liubopytnymi/5535865).
And six more from
countries in Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Ukrainian
Intelligence Agency Symbol Appears to Be Striking Russia with a Sword. Ukraine’s national intelligence service has
adopted a new symbol and because it appears to have a sword ready to strike
Russia, many in Moscow are furious (http://www.newizv.ru/world/2016-10-29/248493-na-novoj-embleme-ukrainskoj-razvedki-sova-pronzaet-mechom-kartu-rossii.html).
2. Ukraine Finds Pulling Down Communist Symbols May Not
Be Having Desired Effect. Some Ukrainians are concerned and some Russians are
delighted by new polls showing that in Ukraine, the pulling down of
communist-era statues is not at least yet contributing to the elimination of all
sympathy for the Soviet past (politnavigator.net/ukrainskaya-propaganda-shokirovana-vopreki-dekommunizacii-na-ukraine-rastut-simpatii-k-sssr.html).
3.
Tajik Officials No Longer Allowed to Have
Russian Dual Citizenship. In yet another sign of the unpacking of empire,
Dushanbe has ruled that Tajik officials must not have dual Russian citizenship.
If they want to keep their jobs, they must give up such attachments (http://www.islamsng.com/tjk/news/11537).
4.
Uzbekistan,
Kyrgyzstan Reach Border Accord. Tashkent and Bishkek have defused a
potentially explosive situation by reaching agreement on 49 disputed areas
along their common border. Those have been the site of violence in the last
several months (fergananews.com/news/25555).
5.
Kazakhstan Should
Be Written as Qazaqstan in English, Astana Officials Say. Senior parliamentarians in Kazakhstan say
that the name of their country should be written in English as Qazaqstan and
not Kazakhstan. That may seem a small
thing, but it in fact opens the way to a larger shift away from the Russian script
to a Latin script in that Central Asian country (tengrinews.kz/kazakhstan_news/majilismenyi-vyiskazalis-izmenenii-angliyskoy-transkriptsii-305304/).
6.
Baltic Countries
Prepare Their Citizens for War, as Russians Buy Up Land in Finland. Estonia and Lithuania have issued special
pamphlets for their citizens explaining what they should do if Russia invades (charter97.org/ru/news/2016/10/29/229349/ and rufabula.com/news/2016/10/31/estonia).
Meanwhile, in a sign that Putin’s “hybrid” war has yet another aspect, Finnish
officials report that Russians are buying up property in Finland that could be
used as military staging areas in the event of a Russian invasion (rosbalt.ru/world/2016/11/01/1563710.html).
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