Paul Goble
Staunton, November 11 -- 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 presents a selection of 13 of these other and
typically neglected stories at the end of each week. This is the 57th 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.
Trump’s Election
Creating Domestic Problems for Putin. However much Vladimir Putin may have
welcomed Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election – and the
evidence already is that any honeymoon is likely to be short (themoscowtimes.com/articles/a-short-lived-honeymoon-russia-curbs-its-enthusiasm-for-trump-presidency-56087) – the
Kremlin leader can hardly be pleased by the two messages that Moscow media have
unintentionally highlighted for Russians. Unlike in Russia, their reports point
out that in the US, elections aren’t manageable and predictable but can produce
unexpected results and that the working class can revolt against a globalized
elite. In response, Kremlin allies are
putting out the word that the voters in the US did not dislodge the oligarchs
there (svpressa.ru/politic/article/160417/),
that Trump’s victory was somehow organized by a shadowy American elite for its
own nefarious and anti-Russian purposes (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2016/11/11/o_trampologah_i_povyshennom_trampotizme/), or even
that Trump’s election was not the result of the voters but instead was an act
of God (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2016/11/11/na_vyborah_prezidenta_ssha_pobedil_gospod_bog/). Two other
domestic groups in Russia also have suffered as a result of the US vote:
bookmakers who lost big on the election (regnum.ru/news/society/2203602.html)
and those concerned with the purity of the Russian language who have watched as
a flood of “trumpisms” have overwhelmed public discourse (snob.ru/selected/entry/116376).
2.
Russia Wanted to
Be the Third Rome But Is Becoming a Second Zimbabwe. Russia’s
economic slump has become so deep that one Moscow commentator this week said
that Russia may have wanted to become the Third Rome but it has ended up as “the
second Zimbabwe” (economics-prorok.com/2016/11/blog-post_84.html). Among this week’s bad economic news: the real
incomes of Russians have fallen five to six percent so far this year, according
to the government (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=58236233329D3),
the authorities, to save money, have reduced the temperature of hot water going
to Russian apartment houses this winter (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=582332DEB0DCA),
40 percent of Russians say they now have to choose between food and clothing (newsland.com/community/4109/content/bolee-40-rossiian-zaiavili-o-nekhvatke-deneg-na-odezhdu-i-edu/5546305),
and Moscow has blocked Linked In thereby making it more difficult for Russians
to find work abroad (interfax.ru/russia/536474).
Moreover higher prices for gas, parking and cigarettes are all predicted to
kick in this January (newsland.com/community/4765/content/novogodnie-siurprizy-gosudarstva-sigarety-vino-i-benzin-podorozhaiut-na-20-30/5541834
and meduza.io/news/2016/11/08/stoimost-parkovki-v-moskve-predlozhili-uvelichit-v-tri-raza).
3.
Drug Abuse
Responsible for Seven of Ten Deaths among Young Russians. 70,000 young
Russians die each year now as a result of the misuse of drugs m a figure that
explains 70 percent of mortality among that cohort (interfax.ru/russia/351424). Meanwhile,
HIV/AIDS has reached epidemic proportions in ten regions and is responsible for
the death of 50 to 60 Russians every day (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=76407). Budget
cuts in the health sector are pushing up mortality rates across the board,
officials say, with some now speaking of a health care disaster in Russia (regnum.ru/news/economy/2202329.html).
4.
Fights Over
Monuments Continue to Spread Across Russia. Anti-Stalinist activists in Komi succeeded
inn closing down a memorial there to the NKVD officials who built the GULAG (komionline.ru/node/75403). Chechens and Russians have clashed over
memorials to Russian military leaders who occupied the North Caucasus (caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=21515),
officials and activists are collecting funds to put up monuments to Nicholas II
and Rasputin and to open a historical theme park in the Northern capital (m.fontanka.ru/2016/11/10/171/, fontanka.ru/2016/11/10/207/ and
fondsvv.ru/activity/charity/pamyatnik-svyataya-tsarskaya-semya-v-diveevskom-monastyre/),
and Buddhists are protesting the opening of so-called “Buddha bars” in major
Russian cities (asiarussia.ru/news/14182/).
5.
Russian Efforts to
Protest Putin’s War in Syria Blocked by Authorities. Moscow officials
have refused groups which want to hold protests against Putin’s war in Syria,
an indication both of shifting Russian attitudes about that conflict and
official concern about that shift (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5825855130AB5). Meanwhile,
on the first anniversary of their original protest, long-route truckers in St.
Petersburg have resumed their demonstrations against Moscow’s taxes and fees (rosbalt.ru/piter/2016/11/11/1566276.html).
6.
Where a Real Cold
War is Going On – Peoples of the North versus Russian Developers. Members of some of the numerically smaller
peoples of the Russian far north are retreating from the cities and organizing
themselves in what activists call “a cold war” against the depradations of
Russian oil and natural resource extraction companies (ura.ru/articles/1036269426). That is only the most dramatic development
this week in non-Russian activism against Moscow’s Russocentric policies. A former head of Buryatia says the next head
of his republic must be an ethnic Buryat (asiarussia.ru/persons/14221/). Tatarstan plans to keep its presidency and is
considering requiring pupils to study the constitution of the republic (idelreal.org/a/28108091.html
and idelreal.org/a/28107701.html). And two more Moscow decisions are likely to
spark even more anger among the non-Russians: a discovery that Moscow is using
a variable of under the table methods to cut Russian language use (nazaccent.ru/content/22333-shkolniki-respubliki-altaj-otkazyvayutsya-izuchat-nacionalnyj.html)
and an end of federal money for new roads, something that will hit the non-Russian republics especially hard
(ura.ru/news/1052267123).
7.
A Rechtstaat Isn’t
Necessarily a Just or Liberal One. Ever more repressive and illiberal ideas
are being enshrined in Russian laws even though they contradict not only the
Russian constitution but Moscow’s undertakings as a signatory to various international
rights accords. Among the most
notorious developments in this area over the past week are the following: The
Duma took up a draft bill specifying how to “correctly” beat one’s wife (forum-msk.org/material/news/12459918.html). A court has found Nazi symbols in an ancient
Russian manuscript (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=58243374EA88D).
Russian officials say that having a visa does not give a visitor the right to
pray in Russia (sclj.ru/news/detail.php?SECTION_ID=459&ELEMENT_ID=7245). Tortures have become so widespread under new
laws and regulations that Russian newspapers have listed the kinds of violence that
prisoners can expect from the police and jailors (ng.ru/ideas/2016-11-07/9_6852_barricades.html). And a Duma leader wants to impose criminal
punishments for any mockery of Russian patriotism (themoscowtimes.com/news/deputy-speaker-of-russian-state-duma-wants-to-stop-internet-users-from-mocking-patriotism-56022). The future only promises to get worse: laws
are being developed to reestablish a new GULAG next year and even to have its
facilities operated by for-profit private companies (newsland.com/community/politic/content/v-rossii-vozrozhdaiut-gulag/5544170
and newsland.com/community/5652/content/v-rossii-mogut-poiavitsia-chastnye-tiurmy/5544541).
8.
More Bad Behavior
by Russian Football Fans. Russian fans “mooned” their Turkish opposite
numbers, yet another reason why Moscow should be stripped of the right to hold the 2018 World Cup (newsonline24.com.ua/golyj-zad-vsemu-miru-rossijskie-fanaty-shokirovali-nepristojnym-povedeniem-v-turcii?_utl_t=fb).
9.
Get Your 2017 Stalin
Calendars Now.
A new calendar for 2017 featuring pictures every month of the Soviet dictator
has now gone on sale in Russia (facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1361856167178560&set=a.817065288324320.1073741826.100000625681933&type=3&theater).
10.
Moscow’s Support
for Separatism Abroad May Boomerang on Russia. A Catalonian activist has visited
several non-Russian republics, something that reflects Moscow’s support of
separatism in the West but that may provoke even more interest in separatism
among non-Russians and Russian regionalists in Russia itself (kavpolit.com/articles/dagestan_glazami_katalontsa-29399/).
11.
Yekaterinburg
Officials Prohibit March of Heterosexuals.
In a move that recalls a Mad magazine
parody of the absurdity of some US politicians, officials in the Urals city
have refused permission to a group of heterosexuals who want to promote their
lifestyle (ixtc.org/2016/11/v-ekaterinburge-zapreschen-miting-geteroseksualov/). The city fathers also denied permission to a
group of nudists who wanted to demonstrate as well (echo.msk.ru/news/1869766-echo.html). Meanwhile a teacher in Daghestan lost her job
for stripping in front of her class in that Muslim republic (newizv.ru/accidents/2016-11-07/248765-prepodavatelja-razdevshegosja-pered-studentami-v-mahachkale-uvoljat.html).
12.
History has Become
‘a Military Operation’ in Russia. Military and educational officials say
that history is now “a zone of military operations” in which Moscow must fight
off everything they deem to be a
falsification of Russian history and must promote myths rather than facts in
order to serve the Kremlin (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/11/07/70441-falsifitsiruya-edinstvo
and http://avmalgin.livejournal.com/6589552.html).
Among the falsifications that they say must be fought are Western “inventions”
like the well-documented secret protocols to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact by
which Hitler and Stalin divided up Eastern Europe (russian7.ru/post/5-falsifikaciy-istorii/).
13.
The Continuing
Shadow of an Ancient Evil. Polls show that 57 percent of Russians think that
Jews care more about money than about other people, an indication that anti-Semitic
stereotypes remain strong there (nazaccent.ru/content/22305-sociologi-57-rossiyan-schitayut-chto-evreyam.html).
And six more from countries in
Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Minsk Says that It
Can’t Afford to Conduct a New Census.
The Belarusian government says it doesn’t have enough money to carry out
a census and is seeking assistance from other governments or private sources (charter97.org/ru/news/2016/11/11/230706/).
2.
Moscow Complains
Belarus Failing to Protect Russian Orthodox Priests. As part of its ongoing campaign to blacken
the image of Belarus in the international media (belaruspartisan.org/politic/361704/),
Russian media outlets are complaining that Belarusian officials are not doing
enough to protect Russian Orthodox priests in that country from anti-Russian
attacks (regnum.ru/news/polit/2201929.html).
3.
Ukraine Imposes
Quotas to Boost Ukrainian Songs on Radio.
In order to promote Ukrainian, Kyiv has imposed quotas requiring
broadcasters to air a certain percentage of Ukrainian language songs on their
programs (qha.com.ua/ru/obschestvo/vstupil-v-silu-zakon-o-kvotah-dlya-ukrainskih-pesen-v-radioefire/167499/). Meanwhile, a Ukrainian has celebrated his language
and its distinctiveness by pointing out the many words that exist in Ukrainian
that don’t exist in Russian (snob.ru/selected/entry/116234).
4.
FSB Again Proves Itself
an Incompetent Falsifier in Occupied Crimea.
A Ukrainian commentator has pointed out that Russian claims about a
supposed Ukrainian terrorist unit collapse on their own weight because the FSB
got so many facts wrong about the Ukrainian groups it sought to link these “terrorists”
to (graniru.org/opinion/portnikov/m.256492.html).
5.
Chisinau Politician
Says Gagauz Would Benefit if Moldova Joined Romania. A Chisinau
politician says that the Orthodox Christian Turkic minority would only benefit
if the two countries combined (economics-prorok.com/2016/11/blog-post_84.html).
And also this week, the US announced that it is funding a Gagauz folklore
project (turantoday.com/2016/11/gagauz-folklore-usa-grant.html).
6.
Central Asians
Profoundly Divided on What a Trump Presidency Will Mean for Them. When The Open
Asia portal surveyed opinions in the region about that, it found that there
were at least nine different predictions ranging from a dramatic improvement to
an equally dramatic deterioration in ties between their countries and
Washington (theopenasia.net/articles/detail/pobeda-trampa-9-prognozov-dlya-tsentralnoy-azii/).
No comments:
Post a Comment