Russia’s Regional Media Largely Continue to Operate Below Moscow’s Radar Screen, Kharatyan Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 18 – Most media outlets still open in the Russian capital operate under the close supervision of the Russian authorities, but those at the regional level in many cases continue to operate below Moscow’s radar screen largely because they do not make attempts to “independently cover” federal issues, Kirill Kharatyan says.

            “By focusing on local issues,” the media specialist at The Moscow Times says, “they aim to earn the trust of readers and satisfy the demand for objective local information, a need central publications by definition cannot meet” (ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/07/18/media-v-emigratsii-i-v-rossii-adaptatsiya-k-realnosti-vo-vremya-voini-a201173).

            Such media, he continues, “often function without registering as a legal entity or obtaining a formal media license. Frequently, they do not even register their telegram channels with the Moscow authorities. In this way, they strive to attract as little attention as possible from federal officials and politicians.

            In addition, these “outlets often enjoy the support of a loya and active readership that contributes in various ways, including financially;” and they often are provided with leads by readers. Their relationships with local elites are “unique.” Some regional elites are even supportive because they see such media as useful to themselves.

            But what is critical is that “most regional and local authorities turn a blind eye to the activities of regional media.” Whether this will continue is very much an open question; but as of now, regional outlets do provide the kind of news most central ones don’t, including on occasion coverage of issues that Moscow doesn’t allow Moscow outlets to produce. 

Baku Shipyard with Tools from the West Building Ships for Itself, its Caspian Littoral Neighbors and Foreign Customers Further Away

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 19 – The Baku Shipyard is transforming trade and security on the Caspian basin and helping Azerbaijan to become a major supplier of ships of all kinds to a wide variety of countries, leading Caliber journalist to describe what is is doing as “the birth of an iron colossus.”

            Timur Rzayev, says the shipyard has achieved its current prominence with equipment from Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic, the UK, South Korea and Singapore and with orders from the region and  more generally (caliber.az/post/rozhdenie-zheleznogo-kolossa-tak-sozdaetsya-morskaya-mosh-azerbajdzhana).

            Many of the ships the yard has produced are in support of the Middle Corridor, a transport route “connecting China and Europe,” bypassing Russia and “passing through Azerbaijan whose importance as a transportation hub is increasing “every day,” the Caliber journalist says.

            But what is especially important is that the development of the Baku yards marks an important transition for a country that had been part of the Russian empire: it is not only charting its own way but now producing the equipment it needs to do so, rather than relying on supplies from the former imperial state. 

Notorious ‘Black Marias’ of Soviet Times are Returning to Russia's Streets at Government Order

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 16 – In Soviet times, prisoners were collected and transported in unmarked black vehicles that came to be known as “Black Marias.” Now, at the order of the Russian government, such vehicles are returning, albeit with the one difference that they must have a reference to the FSB or its border service painted on them.

            “During the Great Terror, NKVD officers used such so-called ‘Black Marias’ to pick up those targeted for repression,” The Barents Observer notes. Now, they are back, a small but frightening aspect of Russia’s return under Putin to notorious Stalin-era practices (ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/vozvrasenie-cernogo-voronka/454043).

            Such vehicles are likely to become ever more visible on the streets of Russian cities and towns because the FSB now has control of seven pre-trial detention centers, including Lefortovo in Moscow and Shpalerka in St. Petersburg and is increasingly involved in the detention, arrest and transport of migrants and others charged with various crimes.

Putin Excluding Individuals and Groups from Common Legal Sphere Much as Nazis Did, Shumanov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 18 – “Max Weber described the state as a structure possessing a monopoly on the legitimate use of force” but Putin’s Russia like in Nazi Germany, “the authorities have gone further: they are constructing a monopoly on the power to exclude individuals and groups from public life” and its legal protections, Ilya Shumanov says.

            The founder of the Arktida project, which defends the numerically small peoples of the Russian north, says Moscow has “established an extensive nomenclature of labels” – such as “undesirable organization” or “foreign agent” – stripping those assigned to these categories of access to the rights of others (sapere.online/ot-monopolii-na-nasilie-k-monopolii-na-isklyuchenie/).

            According to Shumanov, “the goal of these designations is not merely to punish, but to create a system of exclusion: once a person steps onto this ladder, they are gradually stripped of their rights until their continued presence in society becomes impossible.” And “each step up this ladder of escalation and exclusion strips away specific rights.”

            “A "foreign agent" is barred from teaching, running for office, monitoring elections, placing advertisements, writing books, or posting on social media without a mandatory disclaimer,” he says. Moreover, “for every status, there are protocols, corresponding registries, and rules governing both the maintenance of these lists and removal from them.

Shumanov continues: “Everything is strictly formalized to create an appearance of legality, even though there is very little actual legality in the actions of the Russian authorities. The law is inverted: instead of protecting human rights, it becomes a switch that turns off human or civil rights.”

A similar system existed in Nazi Germany. It was promoted by Carl Schmitt who argued that “the sovereign is the one who decided on ‘the state of exception’ – that is, the one with the power to create exceptions to the rules. The same logic is now evident in the Russian context where the state established this set of exceptions.”

This is very much the case with the ways in which Moscow deals with ethnic minorities, the activist says. “The state encourages their cultural diversity, viewing them as a kind of ethnographic subject; but when anyone talks about genuine political rights -- such as rights to land, self-determination, or environmental protection – these are denied.

In short, Shumanov says, “culture is permitted but political agency is not.”

According to him, “approximately 100 indigenous initiatives in Russia have been designated as terrorist or extremist” by the Russian state; and the state is increasingly “delegating the functions of state-sanctioned violence to proto-state or non-state actors,” like the Wagner PMC and the Russian Community.

“these groups serve as a buffer for the Russian state, ensuring that the fallout from acts of violence does not attach to the state itself or further undermine trust in institutions of power that are already compromised,” Shumanov suggests, as “the state can easily label a grassroots initiative ‘radical and disavow it as necessary.”

When hundreds of thousands of veterans return from Putin’s war in Ukraine, this trend will almost certainly increase and even lead to the possible creation of a veterans party that will aid the Kremlin in putting even more individuals and groups beyond the protection of the law. 

Disaster Ahead This Winter for Russian North, United Russia Deputies in Arkhangelsk Parliament Warn

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 17 – United Russia deputies in the Arkhangelsk parliament have appealed to Moscow to provide “emergency financial assistance” because they lack the funds to ensure that residents will be provided with heat this winter and note that fuel deliveries for northern settlements are already falling far behind because of budgetary stringencies.

            Not only does this highlight how Putin’s war in Ukraine and Western sanctions are having a deleterious effect on the Russian North, but it also strongly suggests that the most negative impact of the current gas shortage is ahead because critical deliveries won’t arrive (ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/na-grani-cs-arhangelskaa-oblast-prosit-u-moskvy-dengi-ctoby-ne-zamerznut-zimoj-izza-sankcij/454130).

            For members of the ruling party to make such public appeals is unusual, and their actions almost certainly reflect fears among them that the population will vote against them for what is going on unless they can somehow distance themselves from Kremlin policies, a move with grave consequences for the Putin regime.

            Unless Moscow comes up with the money and soon, that means that the much-ballyhooed power vertical Putin has created may begin to show more and deeper cracks as deputies pay more attention to those who nominally elect them and less to those above who in fact have selected them.

            That both reflects and could intensify a growing regionalization of political life in the Russian Federation at least while the election campaign is going on, something that will simultaneously frighten Moscow and give encouragement to regionalist and ethno-national movements as well. 

Russians Fear Returning Veterans, Thus Isolating Them and Making Them More Likely to Engage in Violence, ‘Barometer’ Sociologist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 17 – The dominant emotion Russians feel about returning  veterans is fear that they will engage in violent crime, Asmik Novikova says; and that is “very bad” because it means society will isolate those veterans, limit their re-integration into society, and thus make it more likely that they will commit crimes.

            The sociologist at the Barometer Research Group says that a recent survey by her organization found that many Russians are afraid of the returning veterans and what they will do and that this is isolating veterans and making it more likely these fears will become self-fulfilling prophecies (cherta.media/interview/vernuvshiesya-s-vojny-i-nasilie/).

            The reason this is so, Novikova says, is “simple: the higher the level of stigmatization, the greater the information blockade becomes and as a result the greater unpredictability of what can be expected from a stigmatized group.” She says that with rare exceptions, there has not been any crime wave; but the attitudes of Russians who didn’t go to war may help produce one.

Muscovites Getting More Gas, People in Regions and Republics Ever Less, CDB BENZ Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 17 – The Kremlin is fighting the gas shortage in the first instance by giving Moscow residents more gas even as the shortage of fuel increases in the other federal subjects of the Russian Federation, to judge from data gathered by a CDB Benze application almost half a million Russians have now downloaded.

            That app allows Russians to find out where gasoline is available and where it isn’t so that they can make decisions about where to go to fill their tanks. Not surprisingly, its map shows that in Moscow gas is becoming ever easier to get while in the rest of the country, shortages continue to mount (pointmedia.io/story/6a5a118d75d0d3346a25cb5c).

            This doesn’t surprise Russians. One Muscovite told Point Media that as far as Russia is concerned, “Moscow is another country.” It took her “exactly three minutes to go to a gas station and fill up while in the regions, many people have to search and search and then wait in line for hours. 

            That the Kremlin has been taking care of elites loyal to itself has been much noted; that it is taking care of Muscovites more than other residents of the Russian Federation has attracted less attention. But as this becomes more widely known, it may infuriate those beyond the ring road and even have an impact on the upcoming Duma elections.