Patriotism and Sovereignty Outrank Life and Mercy as Traditional Russian Values, Putin Aide Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 13 – Aleksandr Kharichev, head of the Presidential Administration’s office for monitoring and analyzing social processes, says that patriotism and the defense of Russian sovereignty outrank the defense of life and the showing of mercy as traditional Russian values.

            Four years ago, the Kremlin published a laundry list of values it said were “traditionally Russian;” and last week the Duma passed legislation that will make violating those punishable by law (meduza.io/news/2026/11/13/patriotizm-vyshe-zhizni-i-miloserdiya-v-kremle-reshili-sdelat-ierarhicheskuyu-vertikal-dlya-traditsionnyh-tsennostey).

            Now, Kharichev has provided the clearest indication yet that for the Kremlin some values are much more important than others, with those about patriotism and national defense at the top and those concerning the defense of individuals and their rights and the display of mercy far down the list.

            Such a ranking is hardly surprising, but it is important to note because it undercuts the arguments of those who defend the Putin regime regarding traditional Russian values by making it very, very clear that for the Kremlin, it is security of the state rather than the characteristics of Russian people that it is concerned about.

‘To Be Precise’ Says There are Many More Cases of Slavery in Russia Than Moscow Brings Charges Against or Even Investigates

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 13 – Moscow says that it convicted nine Russians for using slave labor in 2025, a figure about twice that in each of the previous 15 years but one that gives little information about just how much slavery is actually present in the Russian Federation, according to the To Be Precise portal.

            Slavery-like cases, the portal says, are often investigated under other articles of the criminal code because such charges  are easier to investigate and bring to trial” or they are ignored altogether until scandals break out (tochno.st/materials/osudili-za-ispolzovanie-rabskogo-truda-v-rossii-v-2025-godu). Between 220 and 880 cases of slavery “were hidden” under such alternative articles between 2010 and 2024, it estimates.

            Ninety-two percent of these additional cases, To be Precise says, involved sexual exploitation and prostitution. This focus is perhaps understandable, but even it is incomplete: often officials ignore the problem and add the charge of slavery only as a result of media coverage and public outrage.

Moscow City and Not Just the Russian Government Profoundly Affects Development of All Other Federal Subjects, Shirov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 13 – In a paper that has not been published, Aleksandr Shirov, the head of the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, says that Moscow “directly determines the development of the economy and the financial well-being of the federal subjects.”

            Some of this dominance reflects the fact that it is the seat of the central government but much of it reflects the enormous power of businesses centered in the capital which simultaneously aid and exploit the economies of the federal subjects, Shirov says (http://club-rf.ru/news/65597).

            In many cases, the Russian economic prognosticator says, Moscow is responsible for 40 percent or more of the GDP generated in the regions, to judge from excerpts of his paper that have been published, according to a report by the editors of the experts of the Club of the Regions portal.

            That Moscow is predominant is widely recognized by independent experts, but it is seldom acknowledged so directly by someone like Shirov who is close to the center of power. Indeed, the fact that his paper hasn’t been published in full reflects the judgment of the Kremlin that this is not the kind of information it wants distribute.

            After all, his figure of 40 percent dependence of the federal subjects on Moscow is much higher than many in the regions now think and therefore it is likely that as the numbers in his paper do leak out, it will exacerbate anti-Moscow feelings in many of them, given the economic stringencies the regions are now subject to because of Moscow’s policies.

Putin, 74, Knows He Must Rejuvenate Russian Leadership and He has a Plan, Pastukhov and Petrov Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 13 – Vladimir Putin, 74, is surrounded in the Russian leadership by people who are within the range of being five years older or five years younger than he is and knows that for his system to survive his own passing, he needs to rejuvenate the top ranks of the Russian government, Vladimir Pastukhov and Nikolay Petrov say.

            In a 33page report for the New Eurasian Strategy Center, the two outline Putin’s thinking and what he has already done to implement a change in generations but not a change in thinking in Russia (nestcentre.org/transition-without-a-successor/; summarized at ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/11/13/tranzit-2030-ili-smena-pokolenii-putinskoi-eliti-a211261).

            The details are important, but what is even more significant is that this report sends a warning to those who think that Putin’s passing will be the end of Putinism as such. What the Kremlin dictator has done is to install younger people in positions near the top who share his vision and can be counted on to carry it out even after he passes from the scene.

            Of course, some of them will change their tune when Putin dies; but many are those of Putiin and those close to him in age. If he succeeds in making all the changes that Pastukhov and Petrov point to, it will be extremely difficult to extricate Russia from the Putinist mold he has put in place.

            The big questions are whether he has the time and whether those opposed to what Putin has done understand the scope of the challenge ahead of them. If Russia is to change, it will require not just the departure of Putin from the scene but the wholesale replacement of those he has installed to continue to carry out his will.

            At present, unfortunately, most of those who talk about the future are not yet focused on just what that means and how difficult it will be; and consequently, they aren’t making the kind of plans that will replace not just Putin and the Putinists of his generation but the Putinists of the next he is putting in place. 

Communal Singing May No Longer Unites Baltic Peoples as Completely as It Did in the Past, New Study Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 12 – The role of communal singing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the 1980s and 1990 was so great that their recovery of independence is often referred to as “the singing revolution.” But a new study suggests that such communal singing is no longer having the same unifying impact that it did then.

            That is the conclusion of a new study prepared by scholars at Denmark’s Aarhus University with the participation of researchers in all three Baltic countries and in the Scandinavian states as well (news.err.ee/1610193580/baltic-communal-singing-may-no-longer-bring-everyone-together-study-finds).

            At a time of crisis, the authors of the study say, peoples came together and overlooked both differences within their communities and the amount of talent any individual participant had as far as singing is concerned. But as crises have eased, the differences in the communities and the self-assessment of people as singers means that many no longer take part.

            The authors also found that older and poorer people were less inclined to take part because of the costs of transportation, and thus what many had assumed as a permanent part of the cultures of these countries is becoming less central than it was, although it survives and would likely reemerge with much the same force if a crisis arises.

            Indeed, while the study doesn’t stress this, the readiness of people in the Baltic countries to take part in communal singing may be an extremely useful barometer of how citizens feel their country is doing and whether they face a crisis now or in the future. 

Unlike Most Imperialisms, Russia Justifies Its Control in Family Terms, New Book Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 12 – Colonial powers have justified their imperialism in many ways, sometimes arguing that they must “civilize” other peoples and sometimes saying that they must settle “empty” land. But Russia is different, Galina Bogatova says, it justifies its colonial agenda in family terms, with the Russians as patriarchs of those it controls.

            In a new book published by Palgrave/Macmillan, Casting War as Love: Russian Colonialism in Familial Terms, the Russian scholar who now teaches in the United States discusses where this unique Russian rhetoric comes from and what the implications of its use are (euraknot.org/russias-familial-colonialism/).

            Bogatova shows that this justification of the Russian empire arises from the Russian understanding of the state as one ruled by a single individual to whom each person is subordinate to and explains why Russians simultaneous insist that the peoples under their control are one big family that the Russians must both protect and control to ensure stability and peace. 

            While many scholars have talked about how the Russian empire is different from most others, pointing to its territorial propinquity, for example, few have offered the kind of insights Bogatova does on how this familial definition, one that arises from the nature of the Russian state, explains why Russians approach the empire the way they do.

            As such, her book seems destined to take is place among the long line of studies of the Russian empire and help both experts and others to understand better why Russia does what it does in particular cases as well as why escaping from this understanding of empire will require escaping from the Russian understanding of the state as such. 

Moscow has Put More than 3,000 Russians on Secret List of People Subject to Restrictions without Any Court Decision, ‘First Department’ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 12 – Russian officials have created a secret list of more than 3,000 Russians who are thought to be involved in extremist or terrorist activities and are subject to the same restrictions imposed on those formally identified as such by the actions of the courts, according to the First Department legal rights defense project.

            This allows the Russian authorities to place on such a list anyone it wants without any legal protections for those who are included and opens the way to the opening of criminal cases against them at any time, the project’s researchers say (dept.one/story/secret-rfm/ and currenttime.tv/a/33897779.html).

            The First Department portal has posted on line the list that it has found and is making it available to all who may be on it or who are concerned about the fate of those who are. Such a list is both dangerous in its own right and an indication of the increasing willingness of the Kremlin to end run even the limited protections Russian law and the courts provide.