Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 10 -- 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 each week
presents a selection of 13 of these other and typically neglected stories at
the end of each week. This is the 86th such compilation, and it is
again a double issue. Even then, it is only suggestive and far from complete,
but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of broader interest.
1.
Is Putin Now Going
to Learn to ‘Love the Bomb?’ Oliver Stone gave Vladimir Putin a copy
of Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1964 film, Dr.
Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, at the end
of an interview in which Putin said among other things that he didn’t have any
“bad days” because “I am not a woman” and declared that Western Russophobia is the equivalent of
anti-Semitism (newsland.com/community/5652/content/chto-stoun-podaril-u/5864442,
cnbc.com/2017/06/06/-i-am-not-a-woman-so-i-dont-have-bad-days.html
and newsland.com/community/politic/content/-sravnil-antirossiiskie-deistviia-zapada-s-antisemitizmom-zakanchivaite-davaite/5856602).
Two Moscow commentators had this to say about Putin now and in the future: One
observed that Russians are as tired of Putin as the Israelites were of Moses
when he led them through the desert for 40 years (echo.msk.ru/programs/personalno/1993914-echo/),
and another said that the transition in Spain from the fascist Franco to a
monarchy shows that countries can recover from authoritarianism without
violence (takiedela.ru/2017/06/perekhod-k-demokratii/).
2. Trump is to Blame for Everything, Russian Banker Says. Russians have
been as entranced as anyone else by the goings on in Washington this week, but
most seem to have settled back into the mode that they adopted with Barack
Obama and now say, as one Russian banker put it, that it is safe to assume the
American president is to blame for everything that goes wrong in Russia and the
world (https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/347801).
3.
Russian Economy
Now More Dependent on Export of Raw Materials than It Was. Despite
expectations, the Russian economy is now more dependent on the export of raw
materials than it was before the crisis, an indication that Moscow has utterly
failed to change the country’s economic direction, one analysis shows (echo.msk.ru/blog/nikolaev_i/1994846-echo/). Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin admitted that poverty in
Russia is now “worse than planned” (ng.ru/news/583367.html), and the divergence between rich and poor is
worsening, with those at the top largely unaffected even as the poor get poorer
(newsland.com/community/4765/content/chinovniki-i-siloviki-ne-zametili-krizisa-na-kotoryi-zhaluiutsia-78-rossiian/5864756).
Inflation for the poor is running ten to 10 times the official rate because of
differences in consumption patterns (kolokolrussia.ru/novosti/inflyaciya-dlya-bednh-raskrla-pravdu-o-sostoyanii-ekonomiki),
and wage arrears which hit those at the bottom harder than others now
increasing again (profile.ru/omics/item/117701-dolgi-po-zarplate)
and banks turning town increasingly impoverished Russians who are applying for
new loans (svpressa.ru/omy/article/173953/). People at the top are able to protect themselves
with 40 percent of businessmen declaring themselves non-residents and so not
paying taxes and with Putin’s efforts to return offshore accounts backfiring (svpressa.ru/omy/article/174052/
and newsland.com/community/129/content/kak-plan-putina-vernut-milliardy-iz-ofshorov-dal-obratnyi-effekt/5862469). Not surprisingly, few Russians think the crisis
will end in a year, and many think things will get still worse after the
presidential elections (ng.ru/economics/2017-06-05/4_7002_crisis.html and newsland.com/community/1713/content/posle-marta-2018-goda-poiasa-naseleniiu-zatianut-eshche-tuzhe/5856534). Other depressing economic news includes: housing
prices in Moscow have fallen ten percent over the last year (realty.rbc.ru/news/5937b0d69a7947519f5b5c1d),
personal indebtedness of those at risk of bankruptcy has reached 25 billion
rubles (iz.ru/603060/anastasiia-alekseevskikh/dolg-potentcialnykh-bankrotov-dostig-25-mlrd-rublei),
and Russian airlines lost 10 billion rubles over the last year as well (fedpress.ru/news/77/omy/1799475).
4.
Health Care
Becoming Less Accessible, 75 Percent of Russian Doctors Say. Putin’s health
optimization is significantly reducing public access to health care, according
to three-quarters of Russian doctor (newsland.com/community/politic/content/vrachi-konstatirovali-snizhenie-dostupnosti-medpomoshchi/5861711),
with many smaller cities no longer having the medical facilities they need (polit.ru/article/2017/06/06/ps_novkunskaya/), pensions are so low that many elderly are dying prematurely (newsland.com/community/4788/content/zhit-bedno-no-nedolgo/5858986), and Russian medical education deteriorating so
fast that many medical school graduates shouldn’t be allowed near patients (lenta.ru/articles/2017/06/05/medvuz/). Russians are drinking less alcohol purchased in
stores but probably more if samogon and surrogates are taken in to account,
with ethnic Russians drinking vastly more than Muslims (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/06/09/nynche_statistika_prevratilas_v_politiku/
and iz.ru/603163/stolichnyi-region-okazalsia-samym-piushchim-v-2016-godu).
Young Russians are facing ever more problems: fewer than a third of them are
now working in the jobs for which they were trained (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/06/09/duhovnaya_dezorientaciya_ili_nevostrebovannost_molodyh_kadrov/), a fifth ready to move abroad if
possible (newsland.com/community/4765/content/piataia-chast-molodezhi-namerena-uekhat-iz-rossii/5863887),
and those who haven’t receiving much lower pay than they expected (newizv.ru/news/society/08-06-2017/zarplatnye-ozhidaniya-vypusknikov-vuzov-na-50-vyshe-ih-buduschego-zarabotka). Other unfortunate news from the social front includes: most St.
Petersburg beaches this year are unfit for swimming (fedpress.ru/news/78/society/1802016),
patients in one hospital are starving and not being given medicines either (politsovet.ru/55559-prokuratura-pacienty-uralskoy-bolnicy-golodali-iz-za-medikov-i-ufas.html),
housing construction in Moscow has collapsed given the large number of unrented
apartments (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=593A55DB828D4
and iz.ru/602907/pavel-chernyshov/v-moskve-sdali-vdvoe-menshe-zhilia),
invalids and especially invalid children suffering more than earlier (newsland.com/community/3550/content/invalidov-v-rossii-gosudarstvo-podverglo-novoi-pytke-osobenno-postradali-deti/5856802),
the number of Russians suffering from identity theft has risen dramatically (znak.com/2017-06-08/obem_ukradennyh_konfidencialnyh_dannyh_v_rossii_vyros_v_100_raz), rapes have gone up for the fifth year in a row (svpressa.ru/society/article/174118/),
one region sought briefly before retreating to require doctors to report to the
authorities the names of young women who lost their virginity (meduza.io/news/2017/06/07/minzdrav-saratovskoy-oblasti-otmenil-prikaz-obyazyvavshiy-vrachey-soobschat-o-lishivshihsya-devstvennosti-shkolnitsah) while in another parents
demanded more sex education than religious instruction (newsland.com/community/5652/content/rossiiane-khotiat-dlia-shkolnikov-bolshe-urokov-fizkultury-i-polovogo-vospitaniia-nezheli-religii/5862159), and the number of bookstores in Russia is declining,
especially in the North Caucasus (kavkazr.com/a/28528975.html and kavtoday.ru/35426). Meanwhile, adding insult to injury, the Duma discussed
giving poor Russians 50 cents a day for food (newsland.com/community/5652/content/v-gosdume-poobeshchali-platit-nuzhdaiushchimsia-v-ede-rossiianam-bolshe-27-rublei-v-den/5862406),
and Russians recognized that Putin’s requirement that officials and their
families declare their income and wealth was too narrow: the adult children and
other relatives of officials are now holding wealth so that it can be concealed
(versia.ru/chem-zanimayutsya-vzroslye-deti-i-byvshie-zhyony-rossijskoj-yelity). Not surprisingly, given all this, an international
rating of social wellbeing shows that Russia has now declined to the level of
Mongolia (newsland.com/community/4788/content/rossiia-rukhnula-do-urovnia-mongolii-v-reitinge-sotsialnogo-blagopoluchiia/5856900).
5.
Anti-Gay Actions
Driving Some in North Caucasus to Join ISIS. The anti-LGBT actions of
officials in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus are not only
morally wrong but are having a serious and negative practical effect: they are
leading more people there to flee and join the ranks of ISIS (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303475/ and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/251513/).
Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov continued to build his cult of personality by
renaming the republic’s football team (echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1995604-echo/,
https://meduza.io/short/2017/06/06/kak-nazyvayut-vse-v-chechne-v-odnoy-kartinke
and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303893/).
Meanwhile, there was a report that ethnically mixed marriages in his republic
are anything but easy for those involved (snob.ru/selected/entry/121096).
Anti-Kremlin attitudes and activism among Cossacks is increasing and the
Kremlin is responding by suppressing what opposition figures among the Cossacks
it can (nr2.lt/blogs/Alexander_Dzikovitsky/Hronika-Putina-Podavlenie-oppozicii-sredi-kazakov-125588.html). And in a
tragic example of life imitating art, the rising waters of the Volga are
washing away graves in a German cemetery along its banks (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/06/02/72669-bereg-skeletov).
6.
Protests and
Strikes Spread.
In addition to the long-haul truckers strike which has attracted some attention
and the conflict over demolition of the khrushchoby in Moscow which has
attracted more because of where it is taking place, protests and strikes of
various kinds have increased in number and targets across Russia, with
officials frequently making the situation worse by punishing people for things
that aren’t crimes even by the Russian government’s elastic standards. An example
of the latter is a fine that was imposed on a Navalny organizer for calling on
people to join a legally permitted protest (meduza.io/news/2017/06/09/koordinatora-shtaba-navalnogo-v-habarovske-oshtrafovali-na-150-tysyach-rubley-za-prizyvy-k-uchastiyu-v-razreshennom-mitinge). Among the
protests and strikes reported this week were: a picket against juvenile justice
laws in Volgograd (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303725/), a Cherkessk demand that a senior justice ministry
official be fired (onkavkaz.com/news/1714-cherkesskie-stareishiny-prosjat-moskvu-uvolit-rukovoditelei-upravlenija-ministerstva-yusticii-p.html?fromslider), a strike broke out on a Russian cargo ship (newsland.com/community/129/content/na-sukhogruze-gornozavodsk-nachalas-zabastovka-ekipazha/5856960), and Nikel residents demonstrated against the
collapse of health care in their city (thebarentsobserver.com/en/life-and-public/2017/06/border-town-nikel-locals-rallied-against-failed-healthcare).
So many actions are occurring that one group of analysts has now rated the
cities of the country in terms of their potential for protest (rusmonitor.com/peterburg-novosibirsk-ekaterinburg-i-samara-imeyut-samye-vysokie-nye-riski.html), and another has prepared an interactive map of the
number of participants and the number of arrests in the March 26 demonstrations
(meduza.io/feature/2017/06/07/naya-karta-rossii).
7.
Russia Becomes
More Repressive
Day by Day. Vladimir Putin’s regime
has not imposed repression all at once, something that might have provoked more
outcry at least abroad. Instead, it has taken steps, some small, some large, bit
by bit so that things are getting much worse but without generating the kind of
reaction that one might expect. This
week was a clear example of that. Among the many things Russian officials did
were the following: The Federation Council proposed applying the foreign agent
restrictions to individuals as well as NGOs (politsovet.ru/55537-sovet-federacii-predlozhil-obyavlyat-inostrannymi-agentami-ne-tolko-nko-no-i-grazhdan.html), the Duma voted to ban anonymizers to make it more
difficult for people to end run Internet bans (meduza.io/news/2017/06/08/v-gosdumu-vnesli-zakonoproekt-o-zaprete-anonimayzerov-i-vpn),
the culture minister called for boosting the share of Russian films in Russian
theaters to 30 percent (echo.msk.ru/news/1997056-echo.html)
– had Ukraine done this, there would have been howls of complaint – more NGOs
were raided by the police (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/06/08/132314-v-ofis-rusi-sidyaschey-prishli-s-obyskami
and ovdinfo.org/express-news/2017/06/08/doma-uaktivista-dvizheniya-14-idet-obysk),
Putin’s Russian Guard opens camps for Sverdlovsk youth (politsovet.ru/55523-policiya-i-rosgvardiya-sozdali-shtab-po-detskomu-otdyhu-v-sverdlovskoy-oblasti.html),
the Moscow authorities announced that the Panama dossier on corruption will
remain classified (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/41575), the first sentence in
Russia was handed down against someone who fought Russia in Ukraine (idelreal.org/a/28533447.html),
Russia expands the use of facial recognition technology to assist in monitoring
protesters (life.ru/t/расследования/1014701/vsiekh_uchastnikov_niezakonnykh_mitinghov_raspoznaiet_sistiema_sova),
the former director of the Ukrainian library in Moscow is given a four-year
suspended sentence for extremism (ixtc.org/2017/06/eks-direktor-biblioteki-ukrainskoy-literatury-natalya-sharina-poluchila-chetyre-goda-uslovno/), the Federation Council sets up a body to monitor
and fight foreign influence (echo.msk.ru/news/1995022-echo.html), more opposition publications are closed or end their
print versions (echo.msk.ru/blog/day_photo/1993840-echo/ and afterempire.info/2017/06/02/no-politics/), Sochi residents fined for distributing books not
held to be extremist (echo.msk.ru/news/1993208-echo.html), proposed new law would allow more generals and
marshals to become members of Federation Council (sobkorr.ru/news/59317686E9378.html),
the first trial of a Russian charged with being a foreign agent begins (sobkorr.ru/news/59315BF00BA83.html),
and the interior ministry is pressing for a law that would make “slavish
obedience” to the police a legal requirement (newsland.com/community/4765/content/v-mvd-khotiat-uzakonit-rabskoe-povinovenie-politseiskim/5856800).
8.
Urals Group
Collects Money to Mint ‘Judas Medal’ for Gorbachev. Anti-Perestroika
activists in the Urals are collecting money to mint a five-kilogram silver “Judas
medal” for the first and last president of the USSR (https://ura.news/news/1052292437).
That was perhaps the most amusing action on the monuments front this week.
Other skirmishes included: an expanded debate on just where to put a new
cathedral in Yekaterinburg (znak.com/2017-06-05/v_ekaterinburge_snova_obsuzhdayut_mesto_dlya_hrama_svyatoy_ekateriny_tri_varianta),
another statue of Feliks Dzerzinsky goes up on Lenin Street in Kirov (newsland.com/community/politic/content/dzerzhinskii-na-lenina-v-kirove/5865865) while a memorial to Nicholas II goes up in Ryazan (newsland.com/community/6399/content/v-riazani-na-vokzale-ustanoviat-memorialnuiu-dosku-v-pamiat-o-gosudare-nikolae-ii/5865596) and a statue of Lenin is torn down in Kaluga (newsland.com/community/4765/content/v-kaluge-s-tsentralnoi-ploshchadi-ubrali-pamiatnik-lenina/5858591), a statue honoring Russian missionaries goes up in
the Altay (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/06/02/velichiyu_podviga_apostolov_altaya/)
while a memorial to the revolutionaries of 1905 is taken down in Perm (regnum.ru/news/cultura/2285841.html),
conflicts over renaming streets in Stavropol intensified (opengaz.ru/stat/o-staryh-geroyah-i-novyh-vremenah), and conflicts raged over just where to put a
statue of Ivan the Terrible (regnum.ru/news/society/2284661.html). Meanwhile,
Yeltsin and the Yeltsin Museum continued to be at the center of controversy,
the former because of his widow’s insistence that the 1990s should be viewed
positively, prompting demands that she be dispatched to a convent (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/06/06/glupost_ili_podlost/)
and the latter because of its apparent financial difficulties (newsland.com/community/4765/content/eltsin-tsentr-priachet-finansovuiu-otchetnost-a-region-mozhet-nachat-prodavat-imushchestvo-dlia-ego-spaseniia/5862190).
Meanwhile, an analysis of what happened after 1917 and then after 1991
concluded that “there wasn’t de-sovietization [in the latter case] but there
was de-Russification [in the former]” (newsland.com/community/6399/content/desovetizatsii-ne-bylo-a-derusifikatsiia-byla-masshtabnoi/5859628). And finally, Patriarch Kirill set the stage for
still more fights over church property when he declared that his plan for 200
new churches in Moscow was insufficient: the Russian capital needs far more
than that number (newsland.com/community/politic/content/patriarkh-kirill-zaiavil-o-nedostatochnosti-200-novykh-khramov-v-moskve/5865028).
9. More Countries Call for Russia to Be Banned for 2018
Olympiad.
A growing list of national sports federations has called on the IOC to ban
Russian athletes from competing at the 2018 Olympiad given the still unresolved
drug abuse scandal (glavred.info/sport/rossiyu-predlagayut-otstranit-ot-olimpiady-2018-zapadnye-smi-439958.html).
Meanwhile, Moscow’s preparations for hosting the 2018 World Cup have left many
Russian regions without any money for local teams, even as Russia’s premier
team loses yet another player (sobkorr.ru/news/5937BE2CA6091.html
and lenta.ru/news/2017/06/06/romanzobnin/).
And a new problem has arisen about Russia hosting any international athletic
competition: Because Moscow has ordered that X-ray units not be used in venue
cities, doctors say there is a good chance this will lead to an increase in the
number of cancer deaths (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5931641AA74F7).
10.
Russia’s Military
Industries Not Producing What World Wants to Buy Now, Omsk Governor Says. The head of Omsk
oblast says that a major reason Russia’s defense industry is in trouble is that
it is not producing updated weapons that other countries want to buy. As a
result, it is continuing to contract (omskregion.info/news/51195-omskoy_oboronke_propisali_razorujatsya/).
Russia is also losing another key group of specialists: Russia’s pilots can
make so much more money in China – often four times as much – that they are
leaving the country’s civil aviation arm much depleted (newsland.com/community/5652/content/spetsialisty-otechestvennykh-aviakompanii-uezzhaiut-v-aziiu-v-kitae-zarplata-v-chetyre-raza-vyshe/5865852). Meanwhile, there is growing evidence of the
bleeding of military equipment into private hands where it is being used for or
resold even to terrorists (newsland.com/community/6701/content/ischeznuvshee-iz-byvshikh-sotsstran-sovetskoe-oruzhie-podpityvaet-segodniashnie-voiny/5856718). That has
prompted the Kremlin to order the
Russian Guard to crack down hard on private gun ownership (newsland.com/community/5652/content/rosgvardiia-prigrozila-proverkami-vooruzhennym-dachnikam/5859385,
newsland.com/user/3566637532/content/grazhdanskaia-voina-rosgvardii-s-grazhdanami/5861058
and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59341C8F23471). And Russia is having more trouble convincing
military veterans that they will be taken care of in the way they have been
promised (zzackon.ru/blog/43095105172/Veteranam-dali-po-polkvartiryi---komu-to-kuhnya,-komu-to-sanuzel). The Russian government has come up with one
original domestic defense system: From now on, falcons will be used to
supplement the existing defenses of the Moscow Kremlin itself (kp.ru/daily/26687.5/3711281/).
11.
Rising Costs
Forcing Moscow to Cut Back Military Purchases. The cost of new military aircraft
is rising so fast that the Russian government is having to purchase fewer (kommersant.ru/doc/3319791), and a
billion dollar price tag on refitting Russia’s only aircraft carrier means that
it is unlikely to be completed on schedule (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59328001B9336 and graniru.org/War/Mil_spending/m.261384.html). The same thing may be true regarding Moscow’s
plans to modernize four nuclear submarines (fedpress.ru/news/russia/society/1798494). Meanwhile,
Russia is having other military problems both large – bears invading closed
nuclear facilities and fires burning military sites (siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/bear-causes-panic-by-invading-closed-nuclear-submarine-port-of-vilyuchinsk/
and ng.ru/news/583246.html). And it is
also having problems maintaining its force size in Syria given losses and the
decision to use North Caucasian units there (http://svpressa.ru/war21/article/173255/ and kavkazr.com/a/ingushi-vernulis-iz-sirii/28531838.html). But this week did feature a report about a
Russian defense resource that Moscow has not used very much recently: Old
Believers in Siberia are teaching Chinese troops how to live off the land in
extreme conditions (mk.ru/politics/2017/06/08/kitayskikh-specnazovcev-obuchili-vyzhivaniyu-sibirskie-starovery.html).
12. Putin’s National Unity Combines What Can’t Be Combined. A Moscow
commentator has pointed out that Putin’s “unity of the nation is when one and
the same group of people scurry into church build in memory of those who were
inoocently killed and inscribe on their banners the name of the executioner who
killed these innocents” (snob.ru/selected/entry/125281).
13. Putin Includes Ever More People in the Kleptocracy to
Save His Regime. Vladimir Putin is constantly expanding the number of
people involved in his kleptocracy so they will have a vested interest in his
and its survival (rufabula.com/articles/2017/06/07/kleptobrotherhood). Another
commentator has suggested that the real clash of civilizations in Russia is
between those who actually earn their living and those who are in a position
simply to take (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59325DCC06E93).
14. More than a Third of Russians Say Views Different than
the Kremlin’s Shouldn’t Be Expressed. A new poll finds that more than a third of Russians
oppose anyone expressing views at odds with those of Vladimir Putin, although
half say that expressing such views is entirely appropriate (meduza.io/news/2017/06/09/bolee-treti-rossiyan-osuzhdayut-vzglyady-otlichnye-ot-ofitsialnoy-pozitsii-gosudarstva).
15.
Russia builds a Road to Nowhere – Literally … Russia has in fact build a federal road
which simply runs out in a forest (meduza.io/shapito/2017/06/06/v-amurskoy-oblasti-nashli-trassu-kotoraya-zakanchivaetsya-tupikom-v-lesu-govoryat-chto-tak-i-nado).
Meanwhile, Russia’s notoriously bad roads are so bad in some places that
officials are asking for divine intervention to fix them (politsovet.ru/55522-vlasti-ekaterinburga-nadeyutsya-na-bozhestvennuyu-pomosch-v-remonte-ulicy-repina.html), and in
others, officials have declared an emergency situation because they are
impassable (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=593903EDC0DCA).
16. … And Some Want to Legalize and Tax Prostitution to
Pay for Roads.
Omsk officials are proposing that Russia legalize prostitution and then tax it
to raise money for highways (superomsk.ru/news/48683-v_omske_xotyat_remontirovat_dorogi_za_schet_prosti/).
17.
Moscow Patriarchate Gets Ahead of Kremlin on
War in Ukraine. A Russian Orthodox church near Moscow has put up a
marble plinth with the names of those Russian soldiers who have died in the war
in Ukraine, yet another way in which the Moscow Patriarchate has gotten ahead,
at least in terms of propaganda themes, of the Kremlin on this issue (newsland.com/community/1003/content/moskovskii-patriarkhat-nakhoditsia-v-sostoianii-voiny-s-ukrainoi/5863551).
18.
Kaliningraders
Have No One to Blame for Their Problems Except Putin. Commentators in the Baltic region point out
that Vladimir Putin’s insistence that the exclave be treated no differently
than any other Russian region is the primary source of the difficulties Kaliningraders
now face (nr2.lt/News/politics_and_society/V-rusofobstve-i-problemah-kaliningradcev-po-vizovomu-rezhimu-nado-obvinyat-tolko-Putina--125570.html).
19.
Moscow Rarely
Gives Refugee Status to Anyone. Only three percent of those who apply
for refugee status in the Russian Federation now receive it. Of that small
number, Ukrainians form 97 percent of the total (gazeta.ru/social/2017/06/02/10704953.shtml#page4).
20.
Putin Using
Russians Abroad Much as Hitler Did Germans Abroad Before 1940, Kirillova Says. US-based Russian
analyst Kseniya Kirillova says that Vladimir Putin’s government is now seeking
to use ethnic Russians living outside the Russian Federation in much the same
way Adolf Hitler used ethnic Germans abroad in the runup to World War II (svoboda.org/a/28522162.html).
21.
Russian Librarians
have Begun to Fear Their Books. The Russian government has declared so
many publications “extremist” that librarians in that country have begun to
fear their books, not certain which ones may fall on the prohibited list next (newizv.ru/article/general/06-06-2017/rossiyskie-bibliotekari-stali-boyatsya-knig-9d5deea8-12aa-41fb-b564-6b0aa1e754db).
22. Russian Weathermen Will Only Predict Stormy Weather
Ever Again.
Stung by calls to impose criminal penalties on those weathermen who do not
predict storms and some shocking errors, including predicting winter weather in
Moscow this month, some Russian weathermen say they will invariably predict
storms, confident that will prevent them from getting in trouble with the
government (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59378D42B8393,
meduza.io/news/2017/06/05/glava-mchs-predlozhil-shtrafovat-meteorologov-za-netochnye-prognozy and newsland.com/community/5652/content/mchs-po-oshibke-razoslalo-zhiteliam-podmoskovia-preduprezhdeniia-o-zamorozkakh-do-minus-20/5857557).
23.
Russian Opposition
Reopens Discussion of Lustration. Russian opposition parties which have
shied away from any discussion of lustration in recent years have returned to
it, arguing that it may be the only way to prevent new disasters (http://vestnikcivitas.ru/pbls/4071
and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5926E63A17658).
24.
Duma
Commits to Spending 350 Million Rubles for Polls about Itself. Having closed
down most of the channels of popular influence on deputies, the Duma now plans
to spend 350 million rubles (6.8 million US dollars) to find out what the
Russian people think about its doings (politsovet.ru/55520-gosduma-uznaet-chto-dumaet-o-ney-narod-za-350-millionov-rubley.html and kommersant.ru/doc/3318500).
25.
Central Asians Now
Outnumber Ethnic Chinese in Russian Far East.
Russians have long been worried about the influx of Chinese into the
Russian Far East, but now, local officials say, the number of migrant workers
there from Central Asia exceeds the number of ethnic Chinese (beregrus.ru/?p=9453).
26. Rasputin’s Collected Works Published for the First
Time.
Various collections of the letters and articles of Rasputin have been published
in the emigration and in Russia over the last 25 years, but now for the first
time, supporters of the Siberian monk have assembled all his known writings and
published them in a single volume (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/06/06/verigi_lyubvi/).
And 12 more from countries in
Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Ukraine Again Sets
NATO Membership as Its Goal. As
a result of Vladimir Putin’s aggression, Ukrainians want to be members of the
Western alliance, according to Vitaly Portnikov (graniru.org/opinion/portnikov/m.261533.html). A majority of Ukrainians again after 20 years
favors seeking NATO membership and the Verkhovna Rada has adopted a resolution
declaring that as the nation’s goal (obozrevatel.com/politics/53074-rada-prinyala-zakon-o-vozobnovlenii-kursa-na-chlenstvo-v-nato.htm and obozrevatel.com/society/29764-vpervyie-za-20-let-bolshinstvo-ukraintsev-podderzhivaet-vstuplenie-v-nato.htm). Perhaps equally indicative of Ukraine’s turn
to the West is that ever more Ukrainians are choosing to study Polish rather
than Russian as a second language (kp.ru/daily/26689/3713417/).
2. Moscow’s Appropriation of Ukrainian History Not
Limited to Queen Anna Yaroslavivna. A Ukrainian commentator argues that
Russia has blatantly stolen from Ukraine far more of its past than it has done
from any other country and that Ukrainians share some of the blame because they
have not consistently resisted this theft (glavred.info/avtorskie_kolonki/ne-anna-yaroslavivna-yedina-chomu-mi-dozvolyayemo-rusifikuvati-svoyu-istoriyu-439458.html).
3. Many in Ukraine’s Moscow Patriarchate Churches Now
Identifying as ‘Just Orthodox.’ Many members of
parishes nominally subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate are now identifying
as “just Orthodox,” a shift not much noticed up to now but one that makes it
likely that ever more of them will eventually choose to become members of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church (dsnews.ua/society/filaretu-rano-radovatsya-pochemu-liderstvo-upts-kp-sredi-30052017220000).
4. NATO Exercises Focus on Suwalki Corridor. The
Western alliance exercises in Poland and the Baltic countries are focusing on
the Suwalaki gap (zloy-odessit.livejournal.com/2102101.html), a corridor that
Russia might exploit in some future conflict.
In relate measures, Lithuania is working to complete its wall on the
border with Russia (versia.ru/stena-na-granice-litvy-i-rossii-mozhet-byt-postroena-do-konca-goda) and it is tightening control on Russian
troops in civilian clothese transitting Lithuania to Kaliningrad, people who
could perhaps play the role of “little green men” (newsland.com/community/5625/content/v-litve-s-tranzitnogo-poezda-sniali-rossiiskikh-voennykh-v-grazhdanskoi-odezhde/5857308).
5. Two-Thirds of Russians Say Annexation of Belarus
‘Impossible.’
A new poll finds that two out of three Russians say that annexing Belarus is
absolutely impossible (http://camarade.biz/node/25787).
6. Demand for Belarusian Language Schooling Increasing in
Minsk. Ever more parents in the Belarusian capital
want their children to receive their schooling in Belarusian rather than
Russian (newsland.com/community/3782/content/sz-nedoverie-k-rossii-povysilo-spros-na-belorusskii-iazyk-v-minskikh-shkolakh/5858681).
7.
Armenians May Not have as Many Friends in
Moscow as They Think. According to a
new Russian poll, only one Russian in eight – 12 percent – says that Armenia is
a friendly country as far as they are concerned (ru.aravot.am/2017/06/06/243467/).
8. US Promotion of Sunni Alliance Creating Problems in
Azerbaijan.
Because Azerbaijan is simultaneously a Shiia majority country with a large
number of Shiia Azeris in Iran and an alliance with Sunni Turkey, the US
promotion of a Sunni alliance against Shiia Iran has created both foreign and
domestic policy challenges in Baku, especially for the Shiia-led Muslim
Spiritual Administration (.iarex.ru/articles/54019.html and onkavkaz.com/news/1708-shiitskii-muftii-pashazade-ispugalsja-sunnizacii-i-vystupil-protiv-sunnitskogo-azana-i-shahady.html).
9. 50 Percent of Ashgabat’s Population Said Unemployed. Turkmenistan’s deepening economic problems
are highlighted in a study which finds that more than half of the population in
that Central Asian country’s capital are currently without full-time work (chrono-tm.org/2017/06/bezrabotitsa-v-ashhabade-bolee-50-issledovanie-hroniki-turkmenistana/).
10.
Saudi Arabia Sets Up
Muslim University in Tajikistan. Riyadh has
opened a branch of Medina’s Islamic University in Dushanbe, a move that will
expand Saudi influence there even as it limits demand by Tajiks to study at
Islamic institutions abroad (politobzor.net/show-133898-saudovskaya-araviya-vzyala-tadzhikistan-na-pricel.html
and islamio.ru/news/policy/er_riyad_otkroet_v_tadzhikistane_filial_medinskogo_islamskogo_universiteta/).
11. Uzbek-Language Education Dying Out in Kyrgyzstan. Despite improving relations between Tashkent and
Bishkek, Uzbek-language education in Kyrgyzstan is rapidly dying out (fergananews.com/articles/9440).
12.
Tashkent Estimates There are Five Million
Uzbeks in Russia. Although Moscow says that there are fewer
than two million Uzbeks in the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan officials now put
the number at five million – or approximately one of every six Uzbeks (newsland.com/community/5325/content/v-rf-postoianno-nakhoditsia-okolo-5-millionov-uzbekov/5862139).
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