No Senior Russian Official Should be Allowed to Hold Any Office for More than Eight Years, Yaroshenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 7 – Aleksey Yaroshenko, a prominent analyst of Russian regional affairs, says that his country must adopt a law that would ban officials from remaining in senior positions for more than eight years, a step that would reduce corruption and give the state apparatus more flexibility.

            This call for a radical form of term limits, he argued, will not only do that but will encourage younger people who will then know that they will have greater chances at advancement rather than being held back by their seniors who remain in place for years (absatz.media/news/170812-v-rossii-predlozhili-zapretit-chinovnikam-zanimat-post-dolshe-vosmi-let).

            But the main advantage, Yaroshenko says, is that it will ensure “the rotation of personnel” and thus ensure that over time there will be “more different people with different opinions and approaches,” something that can only make the implementation of central policies more effective.

            There is virtually no chance that his proposal will even be considered seriously let alone adopted in Putin’s Russia: too many heads would have to roll and there would be enormous chaos in both the political system and the bureaucracy. But the fact that this idea has now been proposed indicates how angry some Russians are about officials remaining in office for so long.

            Indeed, Yaroshenko’s words are a way of talking about the departure of Putin and his entourage from power in a way that is less likely to lead to persecution or prosecution and represent yet another example of the slippage of public support for the Kremlin leader, however much the author of this idea might dissent from that possibility.

International Conference in Azerbaijan Calls on Moscow to Recognize ‘Genocide of Circassians and Other Peoples’ and Stop Forcing Non-Russians to Fight Its War in Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 7 – An international conference in Shusha organized by Azerbaijan’s Center for Cultural and Ethnic Diversity called on the Russian Government to admit to “the genocide of Circassians and other peoples” and to stop forcing members of ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation to fight in Putin’s war in Ukraine.

            Representatives from ten countries took part in a meeting that reflects the continuing anger of many Azerbaijanis about Russia’s attacks on ethnic Azerbaijanis last year (echofm.online/news/v-azerbajdzhane-proveli-konferencziyu-uchastniki-kotoroj-potrebovali-ot-rossii-prekratit-prinuditelno-otpravlyat-predstavitelej-etnicheskih-menshinstv-na-front-v-ukraine).

            What makes this meeting and its declaration so important is that it is a clear example about how anger concerning Russia’s current crimes is leading those upset to focus on Russia’s crimes of more than a century ago, in this case, the genocide by killing and forced expulsion of the Circassians more than a century and a half ago. 

‘Only Fragments’ Remain of Soviet Network of Light Aviation which Linked Thousands of Russia’s Settlements Together, Officials Acknowledge

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 7 – In Soviet times, the government developed and maintained a system of light aviation including both planes and helicopters to link settlements and smaller cities with larger urban centers and each other. But privatization and sanctions have destroyed this system leaving “only fragments” in its place, officials say.

            The number of aircraft and pilots working in this segment of the transportation network has collapsed: there are now too few planes to service all these places and too few pilots to fly them even where the pilots exist, sometimes because of sanctions and sometimes because of lack of funding (nakanune.ru/articles/124819/).

            As a result of the loss of this integument, ever more villages and even smaller cities already have disappeared or are on the brink of doing so, something that is having the most deleterious consequences for Russia’s demography and even raising questions about national security because it is leaving so much of the country without any population.

            Moscow has announced programs to address this problem, but they have been underfunded or not carried out with any urgency. Planes don’t have motors, pilots aren’t being maintained, and runways are not being kept in shape for planes to land or take off. Reversing this will be difficult if not impossible at least in the short term.

            Some Russian officials believe that they may be able to end run these problems by using drone technology to pilot planes and then shifting resources away from training pilots for light planes into maintenance of airfields. But that will compromise general pilot training and may not be attractive to potential passengers who may not trust such technology.

Russian Defense Ministry Preparing Law to Limit Ability of Wounded or Infected Soldiers to Separate from Service

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 6 – The Russian defense ministry is preparing a law that will severely limit the ability of soldiers wounded in combat or infected with serious disease to seek separation from the service and instead force them to continue to serve and even to be returned immediately to the front lines.

            The measure, the text of which is available at regulation.gov.ru/projects/169064/ and discussed in detail at ehorussia.com/new/node/34848, appears to put in the form of law what have been a number of disturbing practices that the Russian army has practiced during Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine.

            It is thus disturbing not only because it takes away rights that Russian soldiers had enjoyed earlier to seek separation from service if they suffered from serious injury or disease but also because by legalizing the arrangements it highlights both just how much the army must now seek to retain soldiers given its losses and suggests Moscow wants to be ready for more wars.

            Up to now, Russian law has specified that a soldier seeking separation as a result of injury or infection is to be sent to a special military medical commission consisting of a large number of specialists and that separation is required if it is found that the soldier in question has a disability that is listed in military regulations.

            Now, under the terms of the new law, this decision will be made by a regular military medical commission without specialists and with broad powers to declare that a soldier is not so unfit that he cannot continue to serve and must be returned to the front lines immediately without a chance to recover or separate from the service.

            That will make it far more difficult for soldiers in this position to seek redress in Russian courts, something they have been able to do and have regularly taken advantage of since 2022, and give commanders the whip hand as far as making decisions about who will be separated and who will not.

 

Residents of Overwhelmingly Ethnic Russian Nenets AD Drink 17 Times More Alcohol Per Capita than Do Residents of Muslim Republics of North Caucasus, ‘To Be Precise’ Portal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 7 – Adults in the overwhelmingly ethnic Russian Nenets AD in the north drink seventeen times as much alcohol as do their coevals in the overwhelmingly Muslim republics of the North Caucasus, 0.7 liters of pure alcohol per week in the case of the first and less than two liters a year in the case of the latter, the To Be Precise portal says.

              What is still worse, the portal continues, is that between 2019 and 2024, the among of alcohol Nenets AD adults drank rose from 16 liters to 35 liters, a pattern shared by other regions in the north despite declines in alcohol use over that period in major cities (tochno.st/materials/v-kakix-rossiiskix-regionax-bolse-vsego-piut-i-umiraiut-ot-alkogolia).

              Non-Russians in the north are affected by the high level of consumption of alcohol by their ethnic Russian neighbors and by the shortage of medical facilities, something that leads them to “self-medicate” with alcohol because they cannot get the treatment they need in hospitals or clinics.

              In major cities, alcohol consumption in Russia is falling as young people take more pains about their health, the To Be Precise portal says; but alcohol consumption in the north is disastrous, far above the nine liters a year of pure alcohol that international experts identify as the level at which such consumption harms health and even genetics.

              Consequently, while one should celebrate the progress Russia has made in the large cities as a result of generational change rather than any bans, one can only be horrified about how much worse things are and are becoming in the northern regions of the country for both ethnic Russians and non-Russians alike. 

Businesses and Intellectuals Promoting Re-Germanization of Kaliningrad, Dmitriyev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 6 – One can only welcome Kremlin aide Vladimir Medynsky’s article on “The Russian City of Kaliningrad” and its lashing out against the toponomical assault on all things Russian there (svpressa.ru/society/article/522671/), although one needs to question his sincerity given his liberal pro-Western past, Andrey Dmitriyev says.

            But Medynsky’s article should not lead anyone to ignore the combined efforts of businessmen and intellectuals in promoting the re-Germanization of what is today a Russian region, even though the reasons that each group is doing so are different, the editor of the APN North West portal says (svpressa.ru/society/article/522671/).

            Businessmen see the Germanization of street and store names as a way to make money because such things will attract more tourists than Russian names less familiar to Europeans; and intellectuals hope that this will root not just Kaliningrad but Russia as a whole in Europe, something they have never given up on, Dmitriyev says.

            Both must be fought, he continues; and that is important so that the people in Kaliningrad will view the restoration of German influence and the possibility of some “fourth Baltic republic” just as negatively as Russians in the Far East would view the emergence of some Japanese or Chinese-backed statelet within what is now Russian territory.

            What is most noteworthy and even disturbing about Dmitriyev’s comments is not his attack on members of the Russian intelligentsia but rather his criticism of Russian businessmen who, in pursuit of profit, are helping the intelligentsia achieve its goals and harming Russia, something seldom mentioned in the past.

Decline in Approval Rating of Putin Reflects Problems that Must Be Addressed but Does Not Mean His Rule is Unstable Let Alone Under Threat, Yezhov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 5 – Dmitry Yezhov, a political scientist at Moscow’s Finance University, says that the recent decline in public approval of Vladimir Putin is a natural consequence of mounting problems in Russia that must be addressed but does not mean that his rule has become unstable.

            In an interview given to Svobodnaya Pressa, the scholar argues that Putin’s rating, while lower than it was, is still extremely high compared to those of the leaders of other major countries. Indeed, he says, they would be envious of anything approaching the poll numbers the Kremllin leader has (svpressa.ru/politic/article/522472/).

            Support for a national leader is always in motion, going up when things are going well and going down when they move in the opposite direction.  Today, in Russia, Yezhov says, Russians are troubled by inflation, gasoline shortages and problems with the internet. And “part of society is tired” of the war in Ukraine.

            Indeed, these various factors reenforce one another, he continues; and in other countries, such a combination could be expected to drive the approval ratings of the leadership down far more than it has been the case in the Russian Federation. Obviously, there are problems that need to be addressed; but this is no political crisis, he concludes.

            Those who jump from the small declines in approval ratings Putin has experienced to the conclusion that his rule and even the Russian government as a whole are entering into a period of self-destruction are deluding themselves. Looking at what is happening to leaders elsewhere with far less support should be enough to convince everyone otherwise.