Staunton, November 25 -- 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 59th 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.
Putin Explains and
Displays His Priorities. Vladimir
Putin said this week that Russia’s borders have no end, a statement possibly
made in jest but one that is reminding many of the old Soviet anecdote that the
USSR has borders with any country it wants to (graniru.org/opinion/milshtein/m.256952.html
and ej.ru/?a=note&id=30445). In
another development, a Ukrainian portal has unearthed Putin’s first public interview
in 1991 in which he said that he saw no reason he, a former KGB officer, couldn’t
be president given that George H.W. Bush, a former head of the CIA, had become
president of the US (meduza.io/short/2016/11/25/rovno-25-let-nazad-vladimir-putin-ob-yasnil-pochemu-chelovek-iz-kgb-vpolne-mozhet-rukovodit-stranoy-tsitata).
But as always, Putin’s actions speak larger than his words: He has announced
that he is ready to empty the country’s reserve fund to pay for his spending on
military activity (thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2016/11/russia-empties-reserve-fund-makes-priority-defense-secto), and one commentator has
calculated that over the past five years, his Russia has closed 12 schools for
each of the 5,000 plus churches it has opened (burckina-new.livejournal.com/315950.html).
And another has suggested that the best Russians can hope for is not the end of
corruption but the appearance of “corruption-lite” in place of the all-embracing
corruption of today (znak.com/2016-11-22/korrupciyu_v_rossii_ne_pobedit_no_mozhno_prevratit_ee_v_korrupciyu_light https://republic.ru/posts/76413).
2. Russian State TV Calls Trump ‘an Alpha Male’ and Obama
‘a Eunuch.’ Russian state television has described US
President-elect Donald Trump “an alpha male” while denouncing incumbent
President Barach Obama as “a eunuch (twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status/800413054122991616). But as offensive as these terms are, Moscow
TV used even more offensive ones about Obama and had to edit them out
afterwards (themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-propaganda-edits-out-racist-comment-about-obama-56254). In related stories, the Cossacks of another
region have named Trump an honorary member of their community, leading some to
recall that the American Indians did the same for Stalin in 1942 (twitter.com/bbcstever/status/799931750927499264
and forum-msk.org/material/news/12513155.html). Meanwhile, Russians in two Russian regions
have staged pro-Trump rallies and asked him to help them (mobile.twitter.com/sputnikipogrom/status/800024137754234880
and rferl.org/a/russia-obninsk-pro-trump-rally/28125768.html), and a Tatar historian
has suggested that Trump is a descendant of the Jewish Khazarite kingdom (business-gazeta.ru/article/329151).
3. Putin’s Wars Increasingly Coming Home to Roost. The Russian defense ministry apparently by
accident released figures showing that it has buried more than a thousand
Russian soldiers in recent years, just one of the ways in which Putin’s wars
are coming home to Russia (rufabula.com/news/2016/11/23/soldiers-death). Other ways
include: the foreign ministry says that more than 3200 Russian citizens are now
fighting for ISIS (gazeta.ru/social/news/2016/11/21/n_9357503.shtml), a
Transbaikal resident has shot one of Putin’s National Guard (rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/58326aa89a79470f295e6762?from=main),
and activists in St. Petersburg are stepping up their protests against Moscow’s
Anschluss of Crimea and in support of the Crimean Tatars (qha.com.ua/ru/obschestvo/v-peterburge-proshla-volna-piketov-v-podderjku-krimskih-tatar/167954/).
4.
Flood of Bad
Economic News Continues. Sergey Glazyyev says that the Russian economy today
is like that of an individual who has just suffered a heart attack (ava.md/2016/11/22/v-kremle-rossiyskoy-ekonomike-postavili). Other bad news includes: figures show that in
1991, the Russian economy was three times the size of China’s while today China’s
is six times the size of Russia’s, a measure of both Chinese growth and Russia’s
decay (ng.ru/ideas/2016-11-25/5_6869_illusions.html),
declines in Russian incomes are accelerating (.apn.ru/index.php?newsid=35716),
inflation is accelerating (ng.ru/economics/2016-11-24/1_6867_prices.html the concentration of wealth is increasing (ng.ru/economics/2016-11-23/4_6866_poor.html),
and the amount of bribes needed to get medicines has dramatically increased (ngs24.ru/news/more/50169191/).
Moreover, the future looks even bleaker now than it did only a week ago:
pensions may not simply be cut but even in some cases eliminated (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/11/24/70655-pochemu-u-nas-ne-budet-pensiy),
the transportation ministry says that it is going to reduce the amount of road
repair by 67 percent (newsland.com/community/4765/content/mintrans-predlozhil-v-tri-raza-rezhe-remontirovat-dorogi/5566165),
the government is preparing to raise taxes on tobacco and alcohol (newsland.com/community/129/content/gosduma-povysila-aktsizy-na-alkogol-tabak-i-dizelnoe-toplivo/5559766), and the
Russian government has classified details on military sales abroad, an
indication that they may be falling (apn.ru/index.php?newsid=35719).
5.
Russia’s Social
Problems about More than Economics. Increasingly, young Russians feel that
there is no hope for the future (narzur.ru/article/9578), at least in part
because of the reactionary attitudes of key institutions like the Russian
Orthodox Church that wants Putin to close a factory making condoms (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2016/11/19/eto_plevok_na_nashu_istoriyu/), because an increasing
number are being force to drop out of universities (iq.hse.ru/news/196832337.html), and because there are increasing
reports that most prison guards engage in torture (xsovietunion.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/ninety-percent-of-prison-service-should.html?view=magazine).
Other age groups are also unhappy: 60 percent of Russian firms say they won’t
hire anyone over 50 (ng.ru/economics/2016-11-18/1_trump.html). Three other social issues this week: Patriarch
Kirill absorbs all Armenians in the diaspora into Russian society (ru.aravot.am/2016/11/22/227243/),
more Russians say they are Orthodox but not believers (snob.ru/profile/27058/blog/116934),
residents of more than half of Russia’s federal subjects do not have clean
water supplies (izvestia.ru/news/646060#ixzz4QzhuMeIl),
and new statistics show that Petersburgers don’t live as long as Muscovites but
both live far longer than other Russians (demoscope.ru/weekly/2016/0703/rossia01.php#7).
Russian experts and officials in turn are either in denial or prepared to try
to hide the obvious with one declaring that there are no class conflicts in
Russia (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2016/11/21/v_rossii_ne_suwestvuet_klassovogo_protivostoyaniya/)
and another expanding on the argument that the government should not allow the
publication of any data about the nationality of those charged with crimes (nazaccent.ru/content/22435-hloponin-prizval-ne-ukazyvat-nacionalnost-prestupnikov.html).
6.
A New Front Opens
in Russia’s Monument Wars. This week, a
new front opened in Russia’s fight over memory and monuments with the publication
of a data base listing some 40,000 of Stalin’s executioners, a reminder that
once people are able to focus on the past, they will find as much to divide
them as to unite them (themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-ngo-publishes-nkvd-personnel-database-from-stalin-era-56286). Meanwhile, the earlier battles in this war
have continued: a Samara woman dismantled a statue celebrating Soviet symbols
while Astrakhan dedicated a statue to Soviet soldiers and vandals defaced a
statue to the victims of Stalin with a picture of the Soviet dictator (www.idelreal.org/a/28130541.html,
regnum.ru/news/cultura/2208216.html,
newizv.ru/accidents/2016-11-21/249340-vandaly-narisovali-potret-stalina-na-memoriale-zhertvam-repressij-v-tomske.html
and meduza.io/news/2016/11/23/memorialnuyu-dosku-kolchaku-v-peterburge-zavesili-plakatom-s-volan-de-mortom). Meanwhile,
Oryol officials dug in in their defense of the statue of Ivan the Terrible (newizv.ru/society/2016-11-20/249300-pominovenie-s-objasneniem.html
and interfax.ru/russia/538393). And
finally, there were two other developments in these campaigns: the Soviet actor
who played Stalin in 12 films has died (newsland.com/community/5652/content/umer-glavnyi-stalin-strany-kotoryi-dolzhen-byl-igrat-v-rostovskoi-pese/5559683), and a Russian nationalist
is calling for Daghestan’s capital of Makhachkala to be given its earlier
Russian name Petrovsk now that an Orthodox cathedral is going up there (http://beregrus.ru/?p=8346).
7.
Alcohol
Consumption Variations Hitting Some Regional Budgets Harder than Others. While residents of the Russian Federation
drink more than those of any other country, there are significant differences
among the regions. People living in Magadan drink the most, while those in
Muslim Chechnya drink the least (echo.msk.ru/blog/daily_digest/1879156-echo/).
Not only does that affect patterns of diabetes and other diseases, but it is having
a dramatic effect on regional budgets. Those whose populations are drinking
less have less money to spend on other issues, leading some in the regions and
in Moscow to think about boosting rather than reducing alcohol consumption (kavpolit.com/articles/kabardino_balkarija_popala_pod_suhoj_zakon-29839/).
8.
Alchemy
Comes in Many Forms in Russia. Some
Russian researchers say they have come up with a chemical process that will
turn coal into gold (rt.com/news/367821-coal-gold-technology-russia/). Meanwhile, one Moscow official says that
having prisoners work for state companies as the Russian government now plans
will convert them to democratic values and in other ways contribute to the
growth of the country (finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/golodec-ispravitelnye-raboty-v-goskompaniyakh-pomogut-razvitiyu-demokratii-1001537290).
9.
Reasons Russia
Should Be Stripped of 2018 World Cup Continue to Mount. Moscow tried to buy its way in to the World
Anti-Doping Agency by offering that body 300,000 US dollars. WADA rejected the
offer (graniru.org/Society/Sports/m.256834.html). Meanwhile, there was more bad behavior by
Russian fans and Russian athletes (versia.ru/rossijskie-konkobezhcy-ustroili-pyanyj-debosh-v-nagano
and ntv.ru/novosti/1711456/). And Russia’s ranking in FIFA falls to its
lowest level ever (sport.rbc.ru/news/5836b9be9a79478acf452578?from=main). Russia’s stadiums aren’t ready for the 2018
event despite Moscow’s importuning of regional governments to pay more and the
reassurance by Vitaly Mutko that everything will be ready closer to the date
the competition is scheduled to open (meduza.io/short/2016/11/24/vitaliy-mutko-garantiroval-chto-v-peterburge-dostroyat-stadion-tsitata-na-angliyskom
and .kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5836A399EF9B5).
10.
Two Russian
Anniversaries Most Countries Wouldn’t Celebrate. Two anniversaries were marked in Russia this
week that most countries would try to ignore if something analogous happened in
their histories: the 460th anniversary of the first punishment of a
Russian found guilty of bribery (stoletie.ru/vzglyad/vorujut_371.htm) and the centennial of
the founding of the notoriously anti-Semitic organization, the Union of the
Russian People (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=76496).
11.
Moscow Always
Forgets the Little Things. It is a longstanding Russian tradition to launch
gigantic projects but ignore the small things that really matter. Tour firms in the Republic of Sakha say in
this regard that the authorities would attract far more visitors if they would
drop plans to spend money on building Moscow-promoted “tourist clusters” that
often do little besides funnel money into the hands of friends of those in
power and instead focus on ensuring that people coming to the republic have
access to warm indoor toilets rather than be forced to use outhouses (regnum.ru/news/society/2207650.html).
12.
Moscow Officials
Go After Legal Bookmakers but Not Underground Ones. In yet another
action that will do nothing to encourage those in the shadow economy to leave
it, Russian officials have decided to declare war on legal bookmakers but to do
nothing about those who operate underground (ixtc.org/2016/11/srochno-protiv-ildara-dadina-sobirayutsya-vozbudit-novoe-ugolovnoe-delo/
and
profile.ru/obsch/item/112800-vlasti-snova-voshli-v-azart).
13. How Bad is Russian Disinformation? So Bad Some Russian
Outlets Now Condemn Others for It. The Russian media is now so full of
disinformation that a new phenomenon has arisen: Even mainstream media outlets
are now attacking others of their number for featuring propaganda stories that
are so obviously false that they strain credibility and cast doubt on the media
as a whole (kommersant.ru/doc/3143053
and
ria.ru/society/20161114/1481312362.html).
And six more from countries in
Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Number of Mosques
in Kyrgyzstan Increases from 39 in 1991 to 2743 Today. That there has been an explosive growth in the
number of mosques across the post-Soviet space since the end of the USSR is
common ground, but few figures show this more compelling than the latest data from
Kyrgyzstan (24.kg/obschestvo/40314_za_godyi_nezavisimosti_chislo_mechetey_v_kyirgyizstane_vyiroslo_v_70_raz/).
2. Kazakhstan President’s Personality Cult Still has a
Long Way to Go to Catch His Tajik Counterpart’s. Three signs this week that the personality
cult around Nursultan Nazarbayev has reached new highs: his parliament wants to
rename the capital of the country after him (regnum.ru/news/polit/2208840.html),
his face now adorns Kazakhstan currency (ansar.ru/rfsng/nazarbaev-popal-na-dengi), and his supporters are
trumpeting the fact that he is a descendant of Chingiz Khan (asiarussia.ru/news/14368/). But he has some distance to go before reaching
the level already achieved by Emomali Rahmon who now styles himself as “the
founder of the world” (camonitor.kz/26251-prezident-tadzhikistana-priznal-sebya-osnovatelem-mira.html).
3. Ukraine Plans to Build Railroads with European Rather
than Russian Width Tracks. Ukrainian officials say they are going to build a rail
line with European rather than Russian width tracks, a step that will aid their
integration into the West and mark the clearest break yet from the Russian
world (segodnya.ua/economics/transport/omelyan-anonsiroval-stroitelstvo-novoy-zheleznoy-dorogi-s-koleey-po-evrostandartu-771463.html).
4.
Moscow ‘De-Ukrainianizing’ Crimea in Small
Ways as Well as Large. The criminal
behavior of Russian occupation officials in Crimea is so great, including the
spreading use of psychiatric confinement as a means of repression (qha.com.ua/ru/obschestvo/advokati-konstatiruyut-usilenie-tempov-karatelnoi-psihiatrii/167996/)
that many fail to note the numerous small ways, including changing signs and
license plates that they are engaged in to make that Ukrainain peninsula less
Ukrainian. For a list of 12 of these smaller but nonetheless significant ways,
see echo.msk.ru/blog/belsasha/1879238-echo/.
5. Meskhetians End Their Horrible Odyssey by Moving from
Ukraine to Turkey.
The remnants of one of the most punished
peoples in the Soviet and post-Soviet space may finally have found a permanent
home. Having been deported from Georgia to Central Asia by Stalin, having found
it difficult to return to their home regions later, and feeling still out of
place in a much more welcoming Ukraine, the surviving members of this community
this week have moved from Ukraine to Turkey (turantoday.com/2016/11/ahiska-turks-turkey-ukraine.html).
6. Real Division in Ukraine Isn’t Ethnic or
Geographic, Commentator Says. The real division in Ukrainian society is not
among Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians, Russian-speaking Ukrainians and
Russian-speaking Russians or among east, west, and center but rather between those
Ukrainian citizens who are socially active and prepared to take responsibility
for their own lives and those who passively expect the state to take care of
everything, according to Pavel Kazarin. And that means that the struggle for the
future is not confined by either ethnicity or geography (nv.ua/opinion/kazarin/pod-odnoj-kryshej-278690.html).
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