Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 5 -- 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
will present a selection of 13 of these other and typically neglected stories
at the end of each week. This is the twenty-second such compilation. It is only
suggestive and far from complete – indeed, once again, one could have put out
such a listing every day -- but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove
of broader interest.
1. Should Street in Front of Russian Embassy in
Washington Become ‘Nemtsov Place’?
First, Russian propagandists put up a poster in front of the American
embassy in Moscow attacking US President Barack Obama. Now, they pledge to
erect a memorial to the genocide of the indigenous populations of North America
there (observer.com/2016/01/russia-to-construct-american-indian-genocide-memorial-in-front-of-u-s-embassy/). At the end of the Cold War, Washington
responded by renaming the block in front of the Russian embassy in the US
capital “Sakharov Plaza.” Might that
location now be renamed in honor of the murdered Russian opposition figure,
Boris Nemtsov?
2.
With Putincare, Russians are Suffering and
Dying.
Vladimir Putin’s medical care “optimization” – a euphemism for serious cutbacks
– is already leading to serious health problems in Russia. One town of 5,000 people
can now get medical care only 30 kilometers away (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=56B2FFB55F30B).
In Moscow itself, there is now only one urologist on duty for emergencies in
the entire city (apn.ru/publications/article34624.htm).
And basic medicines are disappearing across the country because of the Kremlin’s
counter-sanctions (novayagazeta.ru/society/71682.html).
3.
Moscow Libraries
Can’t Afford Subscriptions This Year. The intellectual degradation caused by
the Putin government’s shift of resources from society to the military continues
apace. Moscow libraries have announced that they cannot afford to subscribe to
most of the newspapers and journals they had been getting (ng.ru/regions/2016-02-04/5_biblio.html). And a study of citations shows that Russia is
rapidly falling out of a leadership position in many branches of science (chaskor.ru/article/rossiya_poka_eshche_zametna_na_nauchnoj_karte_mira_39966).
4.
Putin was
Preparing to Seize Crimea in 2004, Newly Discovered Video Shows. Each week provides more evidence that the
Kremlin leader was planning his aggression against Ukraine far earlier and at a
time when he enjoyed good relations with Western leaders. Now, a newly
discovered video shows that he was making plans to seize Crimea at least as
early as 2004 (apostrophe.com.ua/news/world/ex-ussr/2016-02-04/poyavilos-video-iz-rf-12-letney-davnosti-s-obsujdeniem-zahvata-kryima/48909).
5.
Duma Deputy Wants No
Elections in Russia Until Sanctions Lifted. In another indication that sanctions
are having an impact on Russia, a Duma deputy has proposed cancelling all
elections in Russia until Western sanctions are lifted, an attempt to force the
West to back down lest it retard the development of Russian democracy (ria.ru/politics/20160204/1369442707.html).
6.
Is Russia about to
Run Out of Prison Space? Moscow
detention centers are now holding 30 percent more prisoners than they were
designed for, an indication that the Putin regime may be running out of space
in its prisons as a result of the rise in crime and its own repressive policies
(newizv.ru/society/2016-02-01/233858-eks-glava-onk-moskvy-valerij-borshev.html).
7.
Northern Peoples
Forced to Violate Law to Survive. One of the management techniques of
Soviet totalitarianism was to create a situation in which everyone would have
to violate some law in order to get by and thus be at risk of punishment for
such “real” crimes. That has now
happened again for the peoples of the North who are so hamstrung by Moscow’s
rules about fishing that they can only survive by violating the law (rg.ru/2016/02/02/reg-szfo/pravila-rybolovstva.html).
8.
Moscow Accuses
Estonia of Using Nation of 64 People to Overthrow Russian Power. In a story somewhere between “The Mouse that
Roared” and “Our Smallest Ally,” Russian commentators have accused Estonia of
trying to undermine Russian power by supporting the Vod, a Finno-Ugric nation
that now numbers only 64 people (regnum.ru/news/polit/2069147.html).
At the same time, these writers are attacking Lithuania for planning a meeting in
Vilnius of Russian opposition figures supposedly to plot a new Russian revolution
(rubaltic.ru/article/politika-i-obshchestvo/040216-vilnyus/).
9.
Kadyrov Postures
as Defender of Freedom of Speech.
Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov complained that the decision of some
Internet portals to take down his own post showing him putting Russian opposition
figures in the crosshairs of his gun constituted a violation of his freedom of
speech (qha.com.ua/ru/politika/kadirov-raskritikoval-instagram-za-narushenie-svobodi-slova/154453/).
10.
As Times Get
Worse, Russians Drink More -- and Moscow Tries to Profit. Despite official claims that Russians are
drinking less, most observers say that they are drinking more, albeit shifting
to cheaper types of liquor (argumenti.ru/society/2016/02/433295). And the Russian government is working to profit
from something it says isn’t happening, moving to restore its monopoly on
alcohol production (versia.ru/gosudarstvo-vozvrashhaet-sebe-monopoliyu-na-spirt).
11. Duma Doesn’t Want a Russian Groundhog Day. Although Russia seems to be a country that
could be described as the embodiment of groundhog day as the same things
continue to happen again and again, vigilant Duma deputies want to ban the
importation of groundhogs lest that holiday spread to their country (ng.ru/titus/2016-02-03/1_filantropia.html).
12. Moscow Patriarchate Worried about Spread of
Sectarianism among Russian Officer Corps.
Officials at the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church are
expressing concern that significant numbers of Russian officers are turning
away from the national church and following Protestant and other “sectarian”
groups. They have called for a new struggle to root out this threat to Russia (ng.ru/ng_religii/2016-02-03/4_rodnovery.html).
13. Zhirinovsky Wants to Purge Letter Ы from Russian
Alphabet Because of Its Mongol Origins.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the flamboyant leader of the LDPR Party, has
called for eliminating the yerry from the Russian alphabet because he says it
has its origins among the Mongols. He also wants to eliminate the word “hurrah”
for the same reason. But he has not
explained what he would put in its place (asiarussia.ru/persons/11053/).
And three
additional stories this week from countries bordering on Russia:
14.
Ukraine and
Belarus Introduced European Culture to Russia. As Russians
debate whether they are a European country or not, a group of scholars in Kyiv
has given them another reason to decide against that idea. The Ukrainians
document that half a millennium ago, people from what is now Ukraine and
Belarus introduced European culture to Russia (ttolk.ru/?p=26098).
15. Russian Churchman in Ukraine Calls Putin and Kirill ‘Bandits.’
A metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church of the Moscow Patriarchate says that Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill
have behaved like “bandits” in their attacks on Ukraine, yet another indication
that the Moscow church in Ukraine is increasingly informed by Ukrainian
patriotism rather than Moscow loyalty (ukrreal.info/ua/suspilstvo/86985-mitropolit-moskovskoy-tserkvi-bandit-putin-vmeste-s-kirillom-predali-pravoslavnykh-lyudey-v-ukraine).
16. Uzbek Singer Says She Was Victim of ‘VIP Xenophobes’
in Moscow. When
people talk about xenophobic outrages in Russia, they usually focus on the
actions of lumpen groups. But Nargiz Zakirova, a popular Uzbek singer, says she
was attacked by “VIP xenophobes” at one of the Russian capital’s better
restaurants, a warning that Russian xenophobia now affects some in all classes (catv24.com/izvestnaya-uzbekskaya-pevica-nargiz-zakirova-stada-zhertvoy-vip-ksenofobov-v-moskve/).
No comments:
Post a Comment