Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 14 -- 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 these other and typically neglected stories at the end
of each week. This is the 91st such compilation, and it is again a
double issue with 26 from Russia and 13 from Russia’s neighbors. Even then, it
is far from complete, but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of
broader interest.
1.
Is Putin ‘De-Mining
Russia’ or about to Blow It Up?
Many Russians welcome Vladimir Putin’s decision not to extend the
power-sharing accord between Moscow and Kazan, viewing that agreement as a
threat to the territorial integrity of Russia. One commentator has even called
Putin “a sapper” for what he says in the Kremlin leader’s removal of a delayed
action “mine” under Russia (newsland.com/community/7268/content/vladimir-putin-reshilsia-na-razminirovanie-rossiiskoi-federatsii/5914763). But others see what Putin is doing as likely to
have exactly the opposite effect (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=596716654952B).
Meanwhile, as the Putin cult continues to grow (newsland.com/community/8171/content/artemu-dreminu-iz-novocherkasska-v-den-rozhdeniia-podarili-portret-putina-s-ego-lichnym-avtografom/5914412), Putin displayed both his paranoia and his
boorishness at the G20 meeting, his paranoia by having his plane avoid airspace
over NATO countries on his way to and from Hamburg (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/7/8/255662/) and his boorishness by showing up too late to get
in the G20 group photograph (business-gazeta.ru/news/350968).
One thing his propagandists did do for Putin, however, was to insert him in
another picture where he in fact was not present to try to make him look more
important (ru.1492news.com/news/44228_1499526229). Meanwhile,
he got some good news in China and some bad news at home. In China, officials
said they would take down from the Internet any criticism of the Russian
president (newsland.com/community/politic/content/putin-udostoilsia-nevidannoi-privilegii-v-kitae-knr-zapretilo-liubuiu-kritiku-putina-v-sotssetiakh/5912917),
but at home, it was discovered that he had failed to list a motorcycle on his
official declaration (spektr.press/news/2017/07/10/62456/).
2.
Navalny Says He
Believes Putin and Trump Colluded on US Election. Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny
says that he thinks Vladimir Putin colluded with Donald Trump in the US
presidential election (haaretz.com/us-news/1.800848), a view some other Russian outlets are echoing (forum-msk.org/material/news/13433175.html).
Polls suggest Russians overwhelmingly think that Putin outplayed Trump at their
Hamburg summit, although the share having a positive view of the US leader
doubled as a result (egnum.ru/news/polit/2300481.html
and svpressa.ru/politic/article/176827/). Government-controlled media outlets were
unimpressed with Trump (themoscowtimes.com/articles/kiselyov-58347),
but some analysts argued that Trump had provided Putin with an important form
of legitimation among Russians (nr2.lt/blogs/Igor_Jakovenko/Trampozavisimost-125790.html).
3.
At the Macro and
Micro Levels, Russian Economy Continues to Deteriorate. Despite Kremlin claims, the Russian economy
continued to deteriorate this week, with almost all basic indicators heading in
a negative direction and human suffering as a result on the rise. Among the plethora of bad economic news were
the following stories: Duma members want Russia to leave the WTO (svpressa.ru/omy/article/176814/), Russia’s regions are losing jobs and
population (regnum.ru/news/society/2300544.html),
bad weather has led to a bad harvest and falling incomes in rural areas (iz.ru/617635/grigorii-kogan/agrarii-ne-smogli-zastrakhovatsia-ot-neurozhaia),
capital flight rose by 70 times from two weeks ago (rosbalt.ru/business/2017/07/10/1629327.html),
officials announced that there is no money in the government budget for roads
or other infrastructure projects (nakanune.ru/news/2017/7/10/22475742/
and ng.ru/omics/2017-07-11/4_7026_ways.html),
inflation accelerated to 4.4 percent in June (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=78502), expectations spread that the ruble will decline in
value (profile.ru/omics/item/118393-rubl-soshel-s-relsov),
many Russians say they won’t live to see the end of the economic crisis (newsland.com/community/1003/content/grazhdane-ne-veriat-v-vykhod-iz-retsessii/5910672),
housing prices fall by another 15 percent over the last month (kp.ru/daily/26702/3727786/),
fewer Russians are being paid for overtime (newsland.com/community/5882/content/tolko-11-rossiian-poluchaiut-kompensatsiiu-za-pererabotku-zaiavili-v-rostrude/5911175),
Russia’s current trade balance goes negative (vedomosti.ru/omics/articles/2017/07/12/720821-schet-defitsitnim), troubles in banking sector prompt government to
suggest bankers should be restricted from travelling abroad (newsland.com/community/7285/content/tsb-predlozhil-ne-vypuskat-za-rubezh-rukovodstvo-bankov-s-priznakami-vyvoda-aktivov/5913004),
the finance ministry says 70 percent of the economy is “ineffective” (newsland.com/community/7285/content/minfin-priznal-neeffektivnost-70-rossiiskoi-ekonomiki/5912881),
the Kudrin Center says the Russian economy is rapidly degrading (newizv.ru/article/general/12-07-2017/tsentr-kudrina-finansovyy-rynok-rossii-prodolzhaet-degradirovat), and to add insult to injury, Russian automobile
manufacturers are talking about relocating plants from Russia to Zimbabwe (rusjev.net/2017/07/13/rossiya-pereneset-svoi-avtoproizvodstva-v-zimbabve-ne-shutka/). More seriously, Russian officials say that
Moscow is leaving millions of tons of oil in the ground that it should be
pumping (versia.ru/v-zabroshennyx-neftyanyx-skvazhinax-spyat-milliony-tonn-chyornogo-zolota),
and top scientists are warning that methane explosions from the melting
permafrost could disrupt gas pipelines to Europe (siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/gas-pipelines-supplying-europe-in-real-danger-from-exploding-tundra-top-scientist/).
4.
Muscovites Buying
Anti-Depressants at Record Rates.
Faced with economic problems and bad weather, residents of the Russian
capital are buying boots and anti-depressants at a record rate, experts say (newizv.ru/news/economy/12-07-2017/moskvichi-massovo-skupayut-dozhdeviki-rezinovye-sapogi-i-antidepressanty). Other bad news from the social front this
week included: a finding that Putin and not Yeltsin destroyed Russia’s rural
schools (https://www.facebook.com/Yuriy.Bryansk/posts/1939241259696740),
complaints that Moscow’s policies are destroying higher education outside of
the Russian capital (vomske.ru/news/3475-vladimir_razumov_federalnye_eksperty_igrayut_v_kaz/),
vandals attacked a homeless animals shelter in Daghestan (kavkazr.com/a/28609991.html),
gambling operations have returned to the shadow economy from which they had
begun to emerge (profile.ru/economics/item/118394-azart-v-podpole),
Muscovites have attacked their mayor for building churches while closing
hospitals (newsland.com/community/politic/content/meru-sobianinu-vashi-200-khramov-ne-zameniat-i-odnoi-bolnitsy/5913283), officials report that all Russian theaters now are
running deficits and many may not survive (rbc.ru/magazine/2017/08/5965fb039a79473c03d86af0?from=main),
and 130 LGBTs have sought evacuation from the North Caucasus, of whom 60 have
been helped to leave (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/306041/).
Meanwhile, one Orthodox commentator (Andrey Kurayev) says that anti-gay
propaganda has become a national idea, one in which Putin has exploited
hostility to LGBTs in order to get Russians to support all his policies (echo.msk.ru/programs/personalnovash/2017126-echo/).
5. ‘Russia’s Greatest Healthcare Crisis
is Denying There Is One.’ Experts say that the situation in
the health sector is so dire because of Putin’s “optimization” program that
“the greatest healthcare crisis in Russia today is denying that there is one” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59687860E3135). It is becoming increasingly obvious that the
Kremlin leader hopes to balance the books by taking away healthcare from those
who need it most (newsland.com/community/1841/content/lishionnye-nadezhdy-ekonomiiu-reshili-nachat-s-samykh-nezashchishchionnykh-m-panova/5913160)
and that his approach is not only encouraging HIV/AIDS deniers (https://iq.hse.ru/news/207420524.html) but leading to more deaths among that subgroup as
well (rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/07/12/1630183.html). Moreover, ever more evidence is growing that
Russians are suffering and dying from environmental causes that the government
is not addressing, including noise and radiation (politsovet.ru/55849-dve-treti-sverdlovchan-stradayut-ot-shuma-i-radiacii.html
and newizv.ru/news/tech/07-07-2017/hirosima-u-murmanska-kak-razgruzyat-yadernoe-toplivo-s-plavuchey-bazy-lepse).
Emblematic of the entire problem, some say, is that funeral agents are now
arriving at the residents of the sick before ambulances do (newsru.com/russia/11jul2017/funeral.html).
6.
Does Putin Now
View Patriarch Kirill as ‘Last Oligarch of the 1990s’? Some commentators
are suggesting that Vladimir Putin views the head of the Russian Orthodox
Church as “the last oligarch of the 1990s” and wants to either rein him in or
force his ouster (dsnews.ua/world/posledniy-oligarh-iz-90-h-pochemu-putin-hochet-izbavitsya-10072017100000). But Kirill seems unafraid of any attack: he
orchestrated the installation of an Orthodox deacon as head of a science center
(politsovet.ru/55863-nauchnyy-centr-ran-vozglavil-diakon-rpc.html)
and attracted praise and derision for calling on priests to restore the
practice of casting out demons (sobkorr.ru/news/59647522C1823.html).
Russia’s Muslims also had some news: the opening of another mosque in the
Russian capital brings the total there to six for the city’s 2.5 million
Muslims, if as officials like to, you count the mosque inside the Iranian
embassy compound (islamio.ru/news/society/ekspert_v_moskve_deystvuet_ne_menee_shesti_mechetey_/). More seriously, the government announced that it
would create a committee to help impose halal standards on food (ansar.ru/rfsng/v-rosstandarte-poyavitsya-komitet-po-halyalyu).
And reflecting a trend Moscow doesn’t like to talk about, some commentators
urged that Russia begin to track religiously mixed marriages because they say
these are increasing in number (snob.ru/selected/entry/126693).
7. Ethnic Issues Coming to a Boil in Many Places. Across the
Russian Federation, ethnic issues from the smallest groups to the largest are
intensifying, the result of the economic crisis and counter-productive official
actions. The debate over whether the Russians are in fact an ethnic community
or instead a socio-cultural one is spreading and growing with people on both
sides of that argument staking out ever harder lines (newsland.com/community/politic/content/ne-nuzhno-meriat-cherepa-davaite-pogovorim-ob-etnicheskom-voprose/5911886).
Tbe Nogay ethnic crisis in Daghestan is becoming an all-Russian one now that
leaders of that Turkic nation have appealed to both the presidential
plenipotentiary and to Putin himself (nazaccent.ru/content/24720-nogajcy-obratilis-k-putinu-iz-za-vyborov.html and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/306064/).
Russia’s Northern peoples are protesting against new government policies
restricting their ability to fish in traditional areas (nazaccent.ru/content/24713-korennye-malochislennye-narody-sahalina-provedut-piket.html),
to which Moscow has responded by organizing a southern ethnographic complex in
Sochi, thousands of miles from where the Northern peoples live (nazaccent.ru/content/24716-samyj-yuzhnyj-etnokompleks-narodov-krajnego-severa.html). Polygamy has reemerged in Chechnya as an issue
with some saying the government is promoting it and others denying that (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/306000/
and kavpolit.com/articles/muftijat_chechni_nazval_lozhnoj_informatsiju_o_pri-34771/). And Moscow continues to display its
nervousness about the Circassians, forcing some of them to celebrate the
anniversary of something that the Circassians don’t view as appropriate and
trying to prevent them from moving toward a unified and non-Cyrillic alphabet (kavkazr.com/a/lzheprazdnik-dlya-naroda/28603430.html and onkavkaz.com/news/1766-strahi-moskvy-ot-obedinenija-kavkaza-s-cherkesami-turcii-do-sozdanija-edinoi-adygskoi-pismennos.html).
8.
Immigration
from Central Asia, Caucasus Continues to Fall. Rosstat says that immigration from CIS
countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus continues to decline, something that
Moscow has simultaneously sought to prevent and has caused (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1499666160).
On the one hand, it is now allowing workers from Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and
Kazakhstan to use their own drivers’ licenses in Russia because these countries
include Russian as an official language (lenta.ru/news/2017/07/14/kirgiz/).
But on the other, it has forcibly resettled Armenian refugees in Moscow sending
fear through other communities as well (meduza.io/feature/2017/07/08/bezhentsev-iz-azerbaydzhana-pri-luzhkove-poselili-v-dome-na-yugo-zapade-moskvy-teper-ih-vyselyayut-bez-suda).
9.
Non-Russian
Diasporas inside Russian Federation Increasingly Active. Moscow talks all the time about ethnic
Russians in the former Soviet republics, but few give much attention to the
presence of non-Russian diasporas in the Russian Federation, both those from
neighboring countries and those from non-Russian republics within Russia. The
Ukrainian “wedges” are perhaps the best known, but others are becoming more
active as well. A case in point this week involved the restoration of a
Belarusian church in Irkutsk (nazaccent.ru/content/24693-v-irkutskoj-oblasti-vosstanovyat-hram-postroennyj.html).
10. Navalny Saturday Got More Attention, but Protests
about Trash were More Widespread. Because the authorities arrested more
than 130 participants in the Navalny “subbotnik” last weekend, they attracted
more attention and more official repression (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5961EC1F68132, spektr.press/shariki-vne-zakona-kogo-i-za-chto-zaderzhivali-na-bolshom-subbotnike-navalnogo/
and sobkorr.ru/news/5965CA123468C.html).
But more widespread were Russian protests in various places about the
authorities’ failure to cope with mounting piles of trash and uncontrolled
dumps (newsland.com/community/129/content/podmoskove-okhvatil-musornyi-bunt/5913427).
11.
Putin Era Approach
to Independent Art Recalls Black Hundreds Actions of Pre-1917 Russia. The Putin regime uses approaches to independent
artistic and intellectual activities that all too often recall the way tsarist
officials used the Black Hundreds before 1917 (ttolk.ru/2017/07/10/как-в-царской-россии-православные-и-че/).
At the same time, of course, and reflecting Putin’s commitment to a single
uninterrupted stream of Russian history, his approaches in this area also reflect
Stalin era actions as when officials arrest people and can’t find a criminal
code provision to charge them (sobkorr.ru/news/5967290964840.html)
or when the GULAG becomes so large that economics rather than politics appears
to be driving penal policy (newizv.ru/article/general/11-07-2017/raby-nemy-kak-ustroena-ekonomika-rossiyskogo-gulaga).
In any case, repression continues to increase. Among the stories this week: a
Russian was arrested for reading a Ray Bradbury novel (om1.ru/news/incident/115713/),
Moscow wants to give mayors access to secrets so that it can restrict their
right to travel abroad (politsovet.ru/55878-rossiyskih-merov-sdelayut-nevyezdnymi.html),
an invalid was sentenced to 4.5 years in jail for supposedly attacking armed
police (newizv.ru/news/society/11-07-2017/invalid-kolyasochnik-sel-na-4-5-goda-za-izbienie-spetsnazovtsa),
the government wants to impose huge fines on those who don’t take objectionable
information off their webpages (themoscowtimes.com/news/united-russia-tries-to-fight-fake-news-58376),
the interior ministry wants to hold those who invite foreigners responsible if
the latter overstay their visa period (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/07/14/133482-mvd-predlozhilo-shtrafovat-rossiyan-za-narusheniya-priglashennyh-imi-inostrantsev), the Russian government is releasing lists of
demonstrators in order to try to frighten them and others (themoscowtimes.com/news/protests-58350),
and some politicians want to force Russians to pay a tax to Moscow if they
travel abroad (ura.news/news/1052296641). The big
scandal of the week involved the pulling of a ballet about Nureyev because of
his homosexuality and the efforts of officials to blame others and of
opposition figures to demand ballets about Putin or Lenin instead (politsovet.ru/55861-glavred-eha-moskvy-za-sryvom-premery-nureeva-stoit-episkop-tihon.html,
politsovet.ru/55859-premeru-nureeva-v-bolshom-teatre-otmenil-lichno-ministr-medinskiy.html,
snob.ru/selected/entry/126782,
kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59646A30411BA and newsland.com/community/4765/content/kommunisty-prosiat-bolshoi-teatr-postavit-balet-o-lenine/5912211).
12. Fearing Attacks, Russian Guard Calls for Tighter Gun
Control.
Putin’s Russian Guard, having discovered illegal arms caches and fearing that
its forces may be attacked, is calling for significantly tightening Russia’s
gun control laws (rbc.ru/newspaper/2017/07/12/59648dd79a794719fe5ce272
and fedpress.ru/news/32/incidents/1816595). A first move in that direction is a Duma bill that
would block those convicted of a crime from having access to guns (fedpress.ru/news/77/society/1817960). Four other domestic security issues this week: a
Putin attacker has asked for a pardon (themoscowtimes.com/news/inmate-putin-citizenship-torture-58362
and themoscowtimes.com/news/putin-58359),
radioactive leaks in St. Petersburg raise questions about security at Russian
plants and research facilities (newsland.com/community/4765/content/radioaktivnoe-zarazhenie-v-peterburge-masshtaby-kotorogo-neizvestny/5913960 and newizv.ru/news/incident/12-07-2017/nemirnyy-atom-utechku-yadernoy-vody-v-radievom-institute-skryvayut-pyat-let), serious problems have been identified in Russia’s
air traffic control system (ura.news/news/1052296756), and Russians
are angry that spending on occupied Crimea is preventing Russia from building
new infrastructure as in the case of a bridge planned for over the Lena River (newsland.com/community/4109/content/most-cherez-lenu-ne-postroili-iz-za-okkupatsii-kryma/5907412).
13.
Without Modernization,
Russian Navy Won’t Be Able to Replicate Syrian Operation in 10 Years, IISS Says. London experts
say that Russia must modernize its navy if it hopes to be able to replicate its
Syrian support operation a decade from now (svpressa.ru/war21/article/176525/),
but Russians experts say Moscow can’t afford to build new ships at anything
like the rate it needs (regnum.ru/news/polit/2300700.html
and charter97.org/ru/news/2017/7/13/256203/). Moreover,
it doesn’t have the manpower and is even now casting about to find others, this
week it was Belarus’ turn, who might send forces to Moscow-led operations (belaruspartisan.org/politic/386726/). One bright
spot for Moscow: it is selling more arms abroad but it is increasingly losing
out to others at the high end of that market (lenta.ru/news/2017/07/13/rosoboronexport/).
14.
A Quieter Week on
the Monuments Front.
Fights over monuments dwindled this past
week as conflicts shifted from the streets to the court rooms about Orthodox
Church efforts to seize property that it claims should belong to it. There were
disputes about the Yeltsin Center and the remains of the Imperial Family as
well, but the most prominent development were the erection of a Nicholas II bas
relief in the railroad station in Vladivostok (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/07/14/napominanie_o_velichii_russkogo_samoderzhaviya/)
and the vandalization of various monuments in Belgorod oblast (regnum.ru/news/accidents/2299342.html).
15.
Putin Seen Using
World Cup to Repress Opposition, Orthodox Church. Commentators are
expressing concern that the 2018 World Cup will be used by the Kremlin leader
to crackdown on opposition politicians and even set the stage for clashes with the
Orthodox church over religious processions (sobkorr.ru/news/5965E466A1CF5.html
and nakanune.ru/news/2017/7/14/22476265/). Russians have another worry as well: Moscow says
that the Confederation Cup competition, just completed, led to a spike in
inflation (gazeta.ru/business/2017/07/11/10782446.shtml).
Russians also are upset that Moscow isn’t doing more to prepare a Russian team
for next year (rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/07/05/1628429.html). Others are worried that Moscow continues to be
very casual about doping: one Russian sports doctor said that “using cocaine
isn’t doping” (lenta.ru/articles/2017/05/07/doctorinterview/).
16.
Putin’s
‘Gangsta-Populism’ Displacing Romantic Russian Nationalism. Igor Eidman argues
that Vladimir Putin’s “gansta-populism” has replaced the romantic Russian
nationalism of the past (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5963A9716D83D),
an earlier nationalism that was symbolized by the painter Ilya Glazunov who
died last week (echo.msk.ru/news/2015158-echo.html
and echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/2015166-echo/).
17.
Making ‘The
Motherland Calls’ a Beer Advertisement Outrages Russians. A beer factory has put the iconic “The
Motherland Calls” on its factory and labels, outraging Russians who feel that
demeans an important national symbol (regnum.ru/news/society/2298785.html).
18.
Krasnoyarsk
Deputies Talk about Raising Pay for Doctors and Librarians but Do So Only for
Themselves.
The decision of the Krasnoyarsk parliament to raise salaries for its members
after discussing but deciding not to raise the pay of doctors and libraries has
outraged many in Russia (http://www.rbc.ru/politics/14/07/2017/5968bf799a79473746fa1822).
19.
Youngest
Politicians Now Have No Memory of USSR. Politicians younger than 40 have no real
memories of the Soviet Union, simultaneously reducing their inclination to want
to restore its conditions while increasing the likelihood that they will accept
rose-colored nostalgia about what life was like 30 and more years ago (lenta.ru/articles/2017/07/11/youth/).
20.
North Koreans Now
Happy to Be in Russian Concentration Camps.
The Russian authorities are keeping some North Korean workers on Russian
territory in concentration camps, but conditions are so bad in North Korea that
the inmates are reportedly happy to be there (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/07/10/73071-ray-na-shestoy-chasti-sushi).
Meanwhile, Russian tourists are going to North Korea to ski (meduza.io/feature/2017/07/11/kurorty-severnoy-korei).
21.
Stalin Selected
Quotations Being Republished in Russia. Activists are republishing selected
citations from the works of Joseph Stalin as well as the Stalinist alphabet
book used at the end of his rule (znak.com/2017-07-04/aktivisty_iz_ekaterinburga_sobrali_sredstva_dlya_pechati_kalendarya_s_citatami_iosifa_stalina and nakanune.ru/news/2017/7/13/22476117/).
Meanwhile, some Russian commentators are arguing that Moscow should be
publishing more children’s books about Stalin’s crimes so that young Russians
won’t be tempted by the current rival of the Stalin cult (https://republic.ru/posts/84917 and novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/07/14/73112-skrepa-kolyma).
22.
Russia Should
Welcome and Ally Itself with Islamicized Europe, Nationalist Says. A Russian
nationalist says that Russia shouldn’t fear but rather welcome and ally itself
with an Islamicized Europe but avoid doing so with the continent as long as it
is dominated by Protestants or Catholics, the latest iteration of Alexander
Nevsky’s decision to ally with the Muslim Mongols to fight the Catholic Church
(proza.ru/2017/07/11/1036).
23.
Sverdlovsk Oblasts
Builds Houses and Roads Out of Trash. Officials in Sverdlovsk are seeking to
kill two birds with one stone: they are trying to defuse Russian protests
against the mishandling of trash while improving roads and housing. To those
ends, they are now building houses and roads with trash (politsovet.ru/55888-v-sverdlovskoy-oblasti-doma-i-dorogi-stroyat-iz-musora.html).
24.
Rosstat Predicts
Working-Age Russians Will Fall 400,000 Annually by mid-2030s. The Russian state
statistical agency says that the size of the Russian working-age population
will decline by 400,000 or more beginning in the mid-2030s and extending as far
into the future as its experts can predict (ng.ru/economics/2017-07-13/4_7028_starenie.html).
25.
Medvedev Now So
Unpopular He Doesn’t Campaign for Others. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is now so
deeply unpopular that he is not campaigning for any governors, quite likely at
their request, Moscow papers say (echo.msk.ru/news/2017644-echo.html).
26. Matviyenko Challenges Medvedev in Marie Antoinette
Race. One of the reasons Medvedev is so unpopular
is his propensity for making “let them eat cake” comments. But now Federation
Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko appears to be challenging the prime
minister in that competition. At a time when housing is hard to come by even
for working Russians, she has advised university students who can’t find places
in dormitories to simply go out and buy an apartment. Such rooms won’t be
large, she says; but they will be sufficient (bbc.com/russian/features-40583317).
And 13 more from countries in
Russia’s neighborhood:
1. Half of 900 Terrorist Incidents in Ukraine have been
in Russian-Occupied Donbass. Kyiv says that there have been approximately 900
incidents that classify as terrorist since the beginning of Russia’s invasion
and that more than half of these have been in the Donbass region (apostrophe.ua/news/society/accidents/2017-07-13/sbu-raskryila-dannyie-o-teraktah-v-ukraine-s-nachala-agressii-rossii-eksklyuzivnyiy-dokument/101361
900), but officials warn that there are numerous Russian sleeper agents
elsewhere in the country ready to launch such attacks on orders from Moscow (gordonua.com/news/war/na-territorii-ukrainy-nahoditsya-ryad-rossiyskih-agentov-kotorye-zhdut-signala-na-sovershenie-teraktov-voennyy-ekspert-starikov-197336.html).
2.
Russian-Backed
Separatists in Ukraine Open Labor Camps.
Faced with resistance and the need for workers in key industries, the
Moscow-backed separatists have opened a series of labor camps across the
regions they control (deutschlandfunk.de/ostukraine-separatisten-betreiben-netz-von-arbeitslagern.1939.de.html?drn:news_id=767929).
3. 100,000 Ukrainians have Already Made Use of Visa-Free
Travel to EU. Ukrainian officials say that 100,000
Ukrainians have already taken advantage of the new visa-free travel
arrangements to visit European Union countries (segodnya.ua/politics/pnews/poroshenko-bezvizom-vospolzovalis-100-tysyach-ukraincev-1037982.html).
But surveys show that 57 percent of Ukrainians have never been abroad (lb.ua/news/2017/07/11/371128_57_ukraintsev_nikogda.html). In a related development, the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church is opening a representation office to the EU (aif.ua/society/people/upc_idet_v_evropu_zachem_ukrainskoy_cerkvi_predstavitelstvo_v_evrosoyuze).
4.
Despite
Russian Invasion and Occupation, Ukraine Opens 60 New Factories in Last Three
Years.
Despite the Russian invasion and continuing instability because of the
fighting in the east, Ukraine has succeeded in opening 60 new industrial
facilities over the last three years (112.ua/obshchestvo/za-tri-goda-v-ukraine-otkrylos-60-novyh-zavodov-poroshenko-400754.html).
5. Only 5.5 Percent of Ukrainian Citizens Now Identify as
Ethnic Russians.
A new survey finds that only 5.5 percent of Ukrainian citizens, just over four
million people, now identify as ethnic Russians, an indication of an ethnic
identity shift away from Russia and toward Ukraine that has accelerated since
the invasion and occupation (unian.info/society/2022811-only-55-of-ukrainian-citizens-consider-themselves-russian-survey.html).
6.
Will
There Be a Russian Base in Belarus? Analysts say that Minsk is again considering
whether to yield to Moscow’s pressure to allow the opening of a permanent
Russian military base on Belarusian territory (nmnby.eu/news/analytics/6377.html).
But despite or perhaps even because of that, Belarus has backed Ukraine rather
than Russia on an important vote at the OSCE (ng.ru/cis/2017-07-10/2_7025_belorus.html).
7.
Central Asian
Gastarbeiters Sent Six Billion US Dollars Home in 2016. Russian banks say
that Central Asian workers in the Russian Federation sent six billion US
dollars back to their homelands last year, a measure of just how important this
group is for their economies and for Russia’s as well (banki.ru/news/lenta/?id=9864314).
8.
Kazakhstan Falls
in Line with Russia on Jehovah’s Witnesses. A disturbing new trend is the
increasing inclination of post-Soviet states to fall in line with Moscow on
some of its most repressive policies. The latest example: a Kazakhstan court
has now banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses from operating in that country (fergananews.com/news/26602).
9.
Conditions in
Turkmenistan Army Deteriorating Rapidly. Turkmenistan, one of the countries now
threatened by Islamist forces from Afghanistan, faces serious problems in its
armed services with reports of corruption, desertion, and draft avoidance
increasingly widespread (http://www.chrono-tm.org/2017/07/o-zhizni-soldat-turkmenskoy-armii/).
Jiihadists who had been fighting in the Middle East are reportedly returning
home (rus.ozodi.org/a/28609661.html).
To counter them or at least make them easier to identify, the Tajik president
has asked his citizens not to wear beards or hijabs (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1499862420).
But the biggest consequence of that may be to spark more outmigration to Russia
(nsn.fm/in-the-world/zapret-na-borody-v-tadzhikistane-privedyot-k-nashestviyu-migrantov-v-rossiyu.html).
10.
Security in
Russia’s Client State of Abkhazia So Bad that Russian Embassy Cautions
Visitors. In what is
anything but an advertisement for Moscow’s policies, the Russian embassy to the
unrecognized state of Abkhazia has warned Russians visiting that breakaway
republic to be careful because of the danger of violence (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/305945/).
11.
Kyrgyzstan Calls
on Mosques to Turn Down Volume of Calls to Prayer, but Haj Demand in Central
Asia Remains Strong. Kyrgyz officials have called on mullahs and
imams to reduce the volume of calls to prayer so that they do not disturb their
neighbors (ansar.ru/rfsng/mechetyam-rekomendovali-umenshit-gromkost-azana). At the same time, however, Central Asians continue
to sign up for the haj in record numbers despite economic difficulties which
have sent haj applications plummeting in Russia (ansar.ru/rfsng/v-tadzhikistane-zavershilsya-priem-dokumentov-na-hadzh).
12. Moldovans are Orthodox But Don’t want Church to
Interfere in Politics. Most Moldovans identify as Orthodox but tell
pollsters that they oppose the kind of
interference in public life by the church as an institution frequently
on public view in Russia (euroradio.fm/ru/5-mirskih-zabav-moldavskoy-cerkvi).
13.
Estonian Public
Sector One of Most Effective in World.
The International Civil Service Effectiveness Index, prepared by the
Blavatnik School of Government in Great Britain rates Estonia’s public sector
as among the most effective in the world (estonianworld.com/business/estonia-one-effective-public-sectors-world/).
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