Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 16 -- 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 87th 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.
Putin Increasingly
Authoritarian at his ‘Direct Line’ Session. While some Western commentaries
suggested that the Kremlin leader had assumed his preferred role as Mr. Fix-It,
someone Russians could turn to in order to get their problems solved, in fact,
Vladimir Putin used his annual session with the Russian people to take out an
ever more authoritarian and even neo-Soviet position on a variety of issues –
when he wasn’t openly lying or being contemptuous of the suffering the Russian
people are experiencing because of his policies. He said that NATO countries are US “vassals
rather than allies” (polygraph.info/a/-claims-nato-members-are-vassals-not-allies/28538577.html),
that the US supports Chechen terrorists and Al Qaeda against Russia (graniru.org/Politics/Russia/President/m.261696.html),
that the demonization of Stalin represents an attack on Russia (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/06/16/132561--rasskazal-ob-izlishney-demonizatsii-stalina), that Moscow doesn’t control the Russian media (newsland.com/user/4297864731/content/-zaiavil-chto-gosudarstvo-ne-kontroliruet-smi-v-rossii/5875151), that Russians and Ukrainians are “almost one
people” (newsland.com/user/4297864731/content/-zaiavil-chto-gosudarstvo-ne-kontroliruet-smi-v-rossii/5875151), that Russia’s demographic losses in the 1990s were
comparable to those of the Soviet population during World War II (nakanune.ru/news/2017/6/15/22473226/), that a Russian cancer victim shouldn’t complain
because “there are problems with health care everywhere” (newsland.com/community/4109/content/bolnaia-rakom-devochka-zadala-u-neudobnyi-vopros/5875459), that the repressive Yarovaya package is good for
the country (rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/5942089e9a7947f39ed5ef70?from=main), and that the economic crisis was over even though
more Russians are becoming poor (politsovet.ru/55610--krizis-preodolen-bednyh-stalo-bolshe.html). When
cornered with issues where there is no easy answer, Putin generally punted in
the best political tradition: Concerning the dispute about St. Isaac’s
cathedral in St. Petersburg, he essentially said both sides have a case and
some “compromise” needs to be found (portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=25687).
2.
Will Russia’s
Cemeteries Come In for Putin in 2018?
Proposals to allow the dead in World War II to vote in next year’s
presidential election continue to swirl in Moscow. Were these corpses, which
some now estimate at 42 million, be allowed to vote, Vladimir Putin would have
no trouble reaching the 70-70 level he hopes for, given that he and no one else
could say for sure how these people would vote (newsland.com/community/4852/content/professor-iz-ran-predlozhil-dat-pravo-golosa-pogibshim-v-velikoi-otechestvennoi/5867336
and lenta.ru/news/2016/05/20/golosa/).
3.
Trump’s
Pro-Russian Positions Said Blocked by US Establishment. Russian
commentators who have had to struggle with their earlier expectations that
Donald Trump would open the way to warmer ties between Washington and Moscow
and the reality that the situation is going in the opposite direction have now
come up with a more-or-less settled position. Trump they say wants to have
close ties with Putin but the US establishment won’t let him (ng.ru/world/2017-06-16/1_7009_crisis.html).
But that is far from the only thing Russian writers are saying: Some insist
that Trump will be “the last US president” (newsland.com/user/4297827813/content/pochemu-imenno-tramp-stanet-poslednim-prezidentom-ssha/5871190),
and others continue to have fun with his statements and tweets. One favorite
concerns the way in which Smirnoff Vodka, a product with origins in Russia but
that now is produced in the US, has launched a new advertising campaign based
on the slogan “Made in America. But we will be happy to talk about our links
with Russia under oath” (znak.com/2017-06-14/brend_vodki_smirnoff_v_svoey_reklame_potrollil_administraciyu_trampa_iz_za_svyazey_s_rf).
4.
Inflation in Food
Prices Ten Times Overall Rate.
Moscow has been proud that it has kept inflation under control, but the
figures it gives ignore sectoral differences. Prices for food are now going up
at a rate ten times that of the overall figure, and because food is such a
major component in the budgets of poorer Russians, they are suffering more not
only because they have lower incomes but because they are victims of growing
wage arrears across the country (svpressa.ru/society/article/174342/, newsland.com/community/6437/content/rossiiane-otdykhaiut-ot-edy-srednii-chek-rossiianina-umenshilsia-do-512-rublei/5872141,
nakanune.ru/news/2017/6/14/22473090/ and regnum.ru/news/economy/2287917.html). But there are also macroeconomic figures that show
the Kremlin’s optimism to be false or misplaced: more than 2.2 trillion rubles
in construction has been stopped or left incomplete at the present time (1prime.ru/consumer_markets/20170615/827570275.html
2.2), capital
flight has doubled in recent months (newsland.com/community/politic/content/tsb-chistyi-ottok-kapitala-iz-rossii-vyros-bolee-chem-v-dva-raza/5866929), and Russian experts now say that projected
declines in Russia’s production of oil mean that the country can never again
rely on the sale of petroleum to save it (finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/rossiya-bez-nefti-dlya-ekonomiki-nachinaetsya-obratny-otschet-1001862462).
5.
How Bad are Things
in Russian Society? Even the Moscow Patriarchate is Complaining. Many are upset
by the condition of Russian society today, but its problems are now so great
that even the Russian Orthodox Church is complaining about the situation (newsland.com/community/4765/content/dazhe-rpts-zagovorila-o-nishchete-i-sotsialnoi-nespravedlivosti-v-rossii/5868009). Among the
most horrific problems reported this week are the following: Moscow has
defunded an HIV/AIDS prevention center (meduza.io/en/news/2017/06/13/russian-health-ministry-defunds-federal-aids-prevention-center),
Moscow has acknowledged that the country faces a shortage of doctors of all
kinds (newsland.com/community/4788/content/v-rossii-narastaet-defitsit-vrachei/5874889),
experts say that new construction is so shoddy that it often threatens the
lives of those who live or work in it (iz.ru/606225/bogdan-stepovoi-aleksandra-krasnogorodskaia/sotcialnye-obekty-sdaiutsia-s-brakom),
the OMON raided a gay club in Yekaterinburg (momenty.org/city/i173893/?big),
major industrial plants are shutting down or moving away from places where they
are the economic anchor of entire regions (thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/06/apatit-moves-out-murmansk), officials say 34,000 Russian villages have ceased
to exist over the last 20 years (newsland.com/community/129/content/vladimir-kashin-za-poslednie-dvadtsat-let-34-tysiachi-rossiiskikh-dereven-ischezli-s-litsa-zemli/5867353),
Russian deputies want to limit the number of pets Russians can keep (newsland.com/community/8111/content/deputaty-khotiat-ogranichit-kolichestvo-zhivotnykh-v-kvartire/5867226), and the Moscow Kultura television channel has had
to let go a third of its employees because of economic problems (echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/1997318-echo/).
Two other developments this week are especially noteworthy: Ever more regions
are the subject of articles detailing all their social problems (for an
example, see regnum.ru/news/society/2286118.html),
and there are increasing complaints about how expensive the 2020 census will
be, an indication that Moscow may be planning to cut back or even cancel that
enumeration to save money (newsland.com/community/5325/content/vse-rossiianskie-perepisi-grazhdane-i-spetsialisty-nazyvaiut-narisovannymi/5867376).
6.
North Caucasus
Would Need 114 New Schools Just to End Three-Shift Schedules. Many, having heard that the birthrate in the
North Caucasus has been declining, forget that larger increases earlier mean
that there are more women and hence more children even with those declines. One
measure of that is that while schools are closing throughout most of the Russian
Federation, in the North Caucasus federal district, the government would have
to build 114 new schools just to end the three-shift schedules in some of them.
Meanwhile, hundreds of others are operating on double shifts (kavpolit.com/articles/kavkaz_izbavjat_ot_trehsmenki-34311/).
Other “ethnic” news this week includes: the head of Ingushetia said that Slavs,
including Russians, will never be Europeans (newsland.com/user/4297710442/content/glava-ingushetii-evkurov-zaiavil-chto-slaviane-nikogda-ne-budut-evropeitsami/5869209),
the kind of statement that inevitably inflames interethnic attitudes in the country
(ura.news/articles/1036271228),
many in Moscow appear to have lost confidence that the Cossacks can hold the
Russian community in the North Caucasus as the center had expected (kavpolit.com/articles/vtsiom_obsudit_potentsial_kazachestva_kak_faktor_o-34260/),
Tatarstan deputies want to put criminal teeth in their law protecting the Tatar
language from Russian encroachments (nazaccent.ru/content/24394-v-tatarstane-predlozhili-nakazyvat-za-narushenie.html),
football players in Chechnya oppose renaming their team as Ramzan Kadyrov wants
(kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/304396/),
Moscow has banned illegal immigrants from working in Russian cemeteries (nazaccent.ru/content/24345-nelegalnym-migrantam-zapretili-rabotat-na-moskovskih.html),
the wife of ousted Mari El governor turns out to be extremely wealthy (ch.versia.ru/byvshaya-supruga-yeks-glavy-marij-yel-irina-markelova-i-ego-machexa-raskryli-sekrety-blagosostoyaniya),
and Ingria is emerging as a republic in the thinking of many in northwestern
Russia (afterempire.info/2017/06/09/ingria-future/).
7.
Putin’s
Authoritarianism at New Level: Verdict Against Jehovah’s Witnesses Announced without
Trial.
A Russian verdict against the Jehovah’s Witnesses was published in a Moscow
newspaper before any trial took place, an indication of the meaninglessness of Russian
courts in politically sensitive cases (portal-credo.ru/site/?act=comment&id=2188).
Other indications of increasing repression in Russia today this week alone
include: the continuing disbanding of local self-government institutions in
Moscow oblast (afterempire.info/2017/06/11/msu-moscow/),
parliamentary recognition that the special services should take the lead in fighting
foreign influence (iarex.ru/articles/54086.html),
a court ruling that calling someone a foreign agent isn’t an insult (sobkorr.ru/news/5941268F6FA4D.html),
a Russian government ban on the Uzbek organization in Russia like the one it
earlier imposed on the Azerbaijani counterpart (fergananews.com/news/26521), accusations
by one government agency that another has blocked sites that haven’t been
banned (echo.msk.ru/news/2000488-echo.html),
an AGORA study showing how freedom of speech has been restricted in Russia
since the Crimean Anschluss (ru.krymr.com/a/28538339.html),
and a new blogger campaign suggesting that those who join Aleksey Navalny’s
anti-corruption campaign will become gays or lesbians (https://ura.news/news/1052293480).
8. ‘Better to Sit in Jail 15 Days than Live in Putin’s
Russia 20 Years.’ That remark by a participant in the
anti-corruption demonstrations on Monday summarized the feeling of many about
protests that overwhelmed the Western media coverage of Russia this week
although they were largely ignored by Russian outlets (vedomosti.ru/politics/video/2017/06/13/694083-strashno-sest-strashnee-prozhit). But in their coverage of the Navalny
demonstrations, most Western outlets downplayed the amount of repression the
Putin regime brought to bear on those who might or did demonstrate against the
Kremlin and the increasing anger of the so-called Putin majority to those who
do so (znak.com/2017-06-09/rossiyane_stali_neterpimee_otnositsya_k_yavnomu_proyavleniyu_nepatriotizma). Also generally neglected were other protests, including
gastarbeiter strikes against Russian companies for failing to pay wages in a
timely way (newsland.com/community/8171/content/v-voronezhe-gastarbaitery-massovo-ovali-protiv-zaderzhki-zarplat/5869204), debtors strikes in Volgograd (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/304110/),
and the occupation of the office of the central bank when Putin refused to take
a question from mortgagees (sobkorr.ru/news/5943940646744.html).
Also generally ignored were the continuing truckers’ strike and the continuing protests
about St. Isaacs and the planned destruction of the khrushchoby in Moscow and
other Russian cities (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59423CCD7454F).
Perhaps the most interesting article of
the week was one speculating on the growth and limits of social solidarity
among Russians with regard to protest activity (ng.ru/blogs/pozharsky/v-rossii-otsutstvuet-natsionalnaya-solidarnost.php).
9.
Oligarch Gets
First Statue to Living Russian. The
erection of a statue to oligarch Iosif Kobzon in the Transbaikal breaks a
hitherto effective ban on monuments to living Russians (newsland.com/community/8171/content/pervyi-v-rossii-prizhiznennyi-pamiatnik-kobzonu-ustanoviat-v-zabaikale/5873874). But that
was only one battle on the monuments front this week. Others include: a call to
eliminate all toponyms in honor of those
who killed a grand duke a century ago (ok.ru/novosti.russia/topic/67010257444948),
fights over building an Orthodox church in Daghestan and a Protestant one in
Chita (chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/patriarha-kirilla-prosyat-ostanovit-stroitelstva-sobora-aleksandra-nevskogo-v
and sova-center.ru/religion/news/community-media/communities-conflicts/2017/06/d37280/), the announcement of plans for a museum of
Stalinist propaganda art in Moscow (newsland.com/community/6207/content/muzei-dlia-latentnykh-stalinistov/5875523),
and the erection of a monument to Internet users in Samara (newsland.com/community/5807/content/pamiatnik-internetchiku-v-samare/5869486). Meanwhile, Moscow expanded the monuments war to
Armenia by complaining about Yerevan’s decision to put up a monument to a less
than pro-Russian Armenian hero (ru.aravot.am/2016/06/14/212893/).
In the past, Moscow has complained mostly about the dismantling of Soviet statuary
in the non-Russian countries.
10.
Moscow Using Slave
Labor to Build World Cup Venues, HRW Says. Human Rights Watch has documented
Moscow’s use of slave labor to build venues for the 2018 World Cup competition,
yet another reason why Moscow should be stripped of the right to host that
event (hrw.org/report/2017/06/14/red-card/exploitation-construction-workers-world-cup-sites-russia
and change.org/p/bureau-of-the-fifa-council-relocation-of-the-2018-world-cup-to-poland-and-ukraine?source_location=minibar). But there are many others: Moscow’s continuing
unwillingness to come completely clean on drug use has now put its hosting of
an international figure skating competition at risk (newsland.com/community/4765/content/rossiia-mozhet-lishitsia-eshche-odnogo-krupnogo-mezhdunarodnogo-sorevnovaniia/5872071),
racism has broken out at Russian competitions in the Federation Cup (segodnya.ua/sport/football/kubok-konfederaciy-v-rossii-eshche-ne-startoval-no-uzhe-obros-rasistskim-skandalom-1030146.html), the Federation Cup meets have shown just how
unprepared Moscow is for the World Cup (regnum.ru/news/sport/2288473.html,
kasparov.ru/material.php?id=594108DEEEAC5,
newsland.com/community/4765/content/khiuman-raits-votch-pokazal-rossii-i-fifa-krasnuiu-kartochku/5873373
and profile.ru/obsch/item/117864-svet-v-kontse-areny).
But Moscow continues to make plans for the 2018 competition, announcing that it
will ban the sale of alcohol where games are scheduled (svpressa.ru/society/article/174354/
and may introduce visas on Belarusians who want to attend (belaruspartisan.org/politic/383746/
and gazetaby.com/cont/art.php?sn_nid=126951).
11.
Military Personnel
May have to Serve 25 not 20 Years to Get Pensions. Faced with
budgetary stringencies, the Russian government is considering requiring Russian
officers to serve 25 years before getting a pension, not the 20 they now must,
an extremely unpopular move (kommersant.ru/doc/3325573). Also this week, the media
reported serious problems in the country’s shipyards and with corruption in the
military high command (lenta.ru/articles/2017/06/14/rakhmanov/
and thebarentsobserver.com/en/civil-society-and-media/2017/06/editor-booted-news-agency-after-story-about-bribes-military). In another move suggesting the authorities are
worried about the loyalty of noncoms, the defense ministry has now limited the
use by professional soldiers of social media (znak.com/2017-06-14/minoborony_obyazhet_kontraktnikov_otchityvatsya_o_svoey_internet_aktivnosti). And in an
indication of what is likely a far broader problem, a Russian news agency is reporting
that hunting clubs in Russian-occupied Crimea are illegally handing out weapons
to the civilian population (regnum.ru/news/society/2289010.html).
12.
Russian Courts
Begin Trying Russians who Fought for Ukraine. A Russian court has brought in
the first sentence against a Russian who fought in Ukraine against Moscow (newsland.com/community/437/content/dva-goda-na-fronte-pervyi-prigovor-rossiianinu-voevavshemu-za-ukrainu/5867535). Other foreign security items this week include:
Russia’s Baikonur space facility is dying even before its Vostochny one can
overcome its building problems (meduza.io/feature/2017/06/11/kosmodrom-na-chemodanah,
meduza.io/feature/2017/06/14/kosmodrom-na-chemodanah
and
newsland.com/community/4765/content/kak-kosmodrom-vostochnyi-stal-chernoi-dyroi-dlia-roskosmosa/5871117),
discussion has begun about the possibility that Moscow will build a new navy
port in Daghestan for its Caspian flotilla (chernovik.net/content/novosti/reshaet-admiral),
and Moscow has succeeded in expanding the Shanghai Cooperation Organization but
only by gutting it of any real meaning, Russian commentators say (http://carnegie.ru/commentary/71212)
as evidenced by the fact that China has stopped buying Russian natural gas (asiarussia.ru/news/16628/). But
some Russians celebrated as a triumph of Russian foreign policy the shipping
link between Vladivostok and North Korea (beregrus.ru/?p=9494).
13.
33 Million
Russians Now Paid Directly from State Budget.
One of the greatest levers the Kremlin has over the population and its
electoral behavior is the current arrangement in which 33 million workers –
nearly one Russian in four -- are paid directly by the government, all people
who know that they could lose their incomes if they oppose the regime (rosbalt.ru/blogs/2017/06/09/1622279.html).
14. Soviet Archives have Been Stripped. Many assume that once the Soviet archives are
open, everything will become known. But that ignores two things: many of the
most important documents have been removed and destroyed, and others have been
falsified in the expectations that many will believe anything that is described
as archival. Both of these problems can be seen in the case of materials about
the mass murder of Russian Orthodox churchmen under Stalin at the Butovo
polygon near Moscow (newsland.com/community/1003/content/v-moskve-utratili-dokumenty-rasstreliannykh-na-butovskom-poligone/5860670).
15. Russia’s Roads Really
May Become ‘Shitty.’ Russians and
others have long complained about the horrors of Russian roads and used a
variety of negative words to describe them, “shitty” being perhaps the least
offensive. But now there is evidence that such a designation may be entirely
appropriate: Given that spending cutbacks mean that roads won’t be fixed as
often (echo.msk.ru/blog/nikolaev_i/1999062-echo/), some people
in Ryazan have decided to pave some roads there with human excrement (newsland.com/community/politic/content/v-riazani-otremontirovali-dorogu-navozom/5869462).
16.
Calendars
Become Latest Political Advertisements in Russia. Calendars have now joined graffiti and
regular posters as political advertisements in Russia, with the penal system
putting out one showing various forms of execution, even though such things
have been ended or suspended in Russia today (newsland.com/community/4765/content/fsin-izdala-kalendar-s-shutkami-o-smertnoi-kazni/5869411
and qha.com.ua/ru/obschestvo/raspyatie-gilotina-kol-v-rf-sozdali-simvolichnii-kalendar/174940/),
and with democratic activists issuing another with pictures of some of Russia’s
most notoriously corrupt figures on it (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=593F9A5E0C16A).
17.
Can Russophiles
and Russophobes Find Common Ground? According to one Russian commentator, the
two groups, despite their differences, can find common ground in that they both
recognize just how important Russia is (newsland.com/community/7268/content/rusofoby-i-rusofily-mirnoe-sosushchestvovanie-vozmozhno/5872395).
18.
Efforts to bring
Reds and Whites Together Seen as Dangerous.
Moscow’s current effort to promote reconciliation between those who
support the Bolsheviks and those who back the anti-Bolshevik Whites are
dangerous not only because they call into question the values of each but
because they distract attention from the far more important task of talking
about the future, according to one Russian commentator (regnum.ru/news/polit/2286188.html).
19.
Can Moscow
Transform Far East into a Klondike? Moscow has changed
the rules governing prospecting in the hopes of attracting gold seekers to
Siberia and the Far East, but the program, intended to have positive
demographic consequences for that region, instead is likely to lead to a boom
and bust pattern that ultimately will do no one any good (versia.ru/stanut-li-dalnij-vostok-i-sibir-russkim-klondajkom).
20.
Russia to Load
Nuclear Fuel onto Floating Atomic Power Station in St. Petersburg. To the despair of
environmental activists who warn of disaster, the Russian government is going
ahead with plans to load nuclear fuel onto its new floating atomic power
station within the city limits of the northern capital, an action that could
put millions of people at risk if there is any accident. Such dangers are in addition to all those
that a floating atomic power station presents on its own (newizv.ru/news/tech/14-06-2017/plavuchaya-aes-v-tsentre-peterburga-gotovitsya-k-zagruzke-yadernogo-topliva).
21.
KPRF Organization
Disbands in Karelian City. A communist
party committee in Karelia has voted to disband itself, a reflection of
changing political winds and one that has its counterparts in the actions of
other party organizations across Russia (forum-msk.org/material/news/13335197.html).
22.
Federation Council
Blocks Plan to Establish Registry of the Corrupt. A Duma proposal
for establishing a registry of all Russians convicted of corrupt has been
blocked in the Federation Council (ura.news/news/1052293312).
23. US Sends National Day Message to Russia – Three Days
Late. After questions were raised about the failure
of Washington to send traditional national day messages to Moscow this year,
the US Department of State announced that it had done so but only three days
after the event itself (versia.ru/gosdep-opozdal-na-tri-dnya-s-pozdravleniem-rossiyan-s-dnem-rossii).
24.
Kirill
Meets with Commentators Behind Closed Doors. In
the hopes of winning over at least some Russian commentators to the side of the
Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill held a closed-door meeting with some
of them to describe his policies and call for support (vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2017/06/15/694418-patriarh-kirill).
25.
Moscow Recognizes
Theology as a Science and Gives It More Budgetary Support. The Russian
government has officially recognized theology as a scientific discipline and
given those studying it more financial support (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=78277 and politsovet.ru/55596-minobrnauki-uvelichit-chislo-byudzhetnyh-mest-dlya-teologov.html).
26.
USSR May Not have
Been a Colonial Empire but Russia Suffers from Post-Colonial Symptoms. Many Russians
react angrily to any suggestion that the USSR was a colonial empire, but some
of those who do are now at least acknowledging that the Russian Federation suffers
from the kind of post-colonial problems that other empires have, an implicit
acknowledgement of what they have long denied (polit.ru/article/2017/06/14/ps_abashin/).
And
twelve more from countries in Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Three Million Guns
Illegally in Private Hands in Ukraine. As a result of the Russian invasion and
the breakdown in order along the front, there are now three million guns held
illegally by private citizens in Ukraine, according to some estimates, a figure
that increases the potential for violence and instability in various parts of
that country and one that the Russian aggressors are likely to exploit (nvo.ng.ru/polemic/2017-06-16/2_952_red.html).
2.
Ten Percent of
Ukrainians Now have Dual Citizenship.
Including Russian occupied Crimea, one in every ten Ukrainians now has
dual citizenship, a situation that is open to exploitation by Russian forces (qha.com.ua/ru/politika/10-ukraintsev-imeet-dvoinoe-grajdanstvo-vklyuchaya-2-mln-krimchan/175038/).
3.
Ukrainians
Overwhelmingly Turn to Western Social Networks. Following Kyiv’s
ban on Russian social networks, Ukrainians rapidly and overwhelmingly have
turned to international social networks instead (newsland.com/community/5652/content/novaia-sotsialnaia-set-ukrainians-zamenit-polzovateliam-vkontakte-i-odnoklassniki/5867489
and rusmonitor.com/facebook-v-ukraine-operedil-vkontakte-uzhe-v-pervuyu-nedelyu-posle-blokirovki-infografika.html).
4. Ukainians in Occupied Crimea Refuse to Move to Russian
Far East. Despite Moscow’s blandishments, the residents
of Russian-occupied Crimea are overwhelmingly refusing calls to resettle in
Russia’s Far East (qha.com.ua/ru/obschestvo/v-rf-jaluyutsya-krimchane-ne-hotyat-pereezjat-na-dalnii-vostok/174972/).
5. Moscow Engaging
in Systematic Looting and Cultural Geocide in Crimea. The Russian occupiers are looting and thus
engaging in cultural genocide in Ukraine’s Crimea (euromaidanpress.com/2017/06/09/russia-methodically-destroys-and-removes-cultural-treasures-from-occupied-crimea-euromaidan-press/).
6.
China
May Become a Major Backer of GUAM. Initially, the United States and the EU were
the primary external backers of the alliance of non-Russian countries that has
positioned itself in opposition to the Russian-dominated CIS. Now, China is
moving to fill that role (fpri.org/article/2017/06/can-china-help-guam-diversify-away-russia/).
7.
Belarus Stops
Using Ruble as Reserve Currency. In yet another indication that Minsk is
pursuing an independent course from Moscow, the Belarusian government has
stopped using the Russian ruble as its reserve currency of choice (rufabula.com/news/2017/06/14/belarus).
8.
Aleksiyevich Says
Religious War Possible in Belarus.
Nobelist Svetlana Aleksiyevich says that a religious war could break out
in her native Belarus between Orthodox and Catholic groups as stand ins for
pro-Moscow and pro-Western forces, a claim that has been denounced by leaders
of both denominations (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=78260).
9.
Tashkent Registers
Medrassah as Higher Educational Institution. For the first time, the Uzbek
authorities have registered an Islamic medrassah as a higher educational
institution in their country and granted it the right to give recognized
degrees to its graduates (islamio.ru/news/education/v_uzbekistane_zaregistrirovano_pervoe_medrese_imeyushchee_status_vuza/).
10. Kyrgyzstan Blocks Fergana Agency Site. Bishkek has blocked the independent Fergana
news portal because of its critical coverage of developments in Kyrgyzstan (meduza.io/news/2017/06/09/v-kirgizii-zablokirovali-sayt-agentstva-fergana).
11.
Moscow
Focuses on Lithuania’s Russian Community. The Russian government has traditionally
focused on the state of the ethnic Russian community in Estonia and Latvia in
its efforts to blacken the reputation of these countries and to promote its own
influence there. Now, it is turning its
attention to the situation of the much-smaller Russian community in Lithuania
to do the same things (regnum.ru/news/polit/2288023.html).
12.
Activists Replace
Wooden Crosses at Kuropaty Mass Graves with Metal Ones. As part of their
effort to ensure that Kuropaty, the site of mass graves from Stalin’s times in
Minsk, will remain forever as a monument to the crimes committed against the
Belarusian people, activists there are moving to replace the wooden crosses
that had marked the site with more permanent metal ones (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/6/10/252758/).
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