Staunton, December 9 -- 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 61st
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 Increasingly
Viewed as ‘the Russian Trump.’
Many Western commentators have suggested that US President-Elect Donald
Trump is an American version of Vladimir Putin, not only because of his
admiration for the Kremlin leader but because of his personal style. Now ever
more commentators Russian and otherwise are suggesting that Putin is in fact
the Russian Trump, someone with a similar electoral bases (echo.msk.ru/programs/personalnovash/1886562-echo/) and also given to making off the cuff remarks like
talking about his retirement plans or imposing breathalyzer tests on senior officials
(kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5845B84931B4D).
But however much they may have in common, other commentators are warning Putin
that he had best not try to deceive Trump given Trump’s record of reacting
badly to such actions (ru.krymr.com/a/28161432.html). Whether Putin sees this reversal of the usual
comparison as a good thing or bad given the increasing willingness of many to
compare the Kremlin leader with everyone from the North Korean dictator to the
pope is unknown, but Putin probably was pleased this week when Russia’s top
Father Frost, the Russian counterpart to Santa Claus, said it was a good thing
for Russian parents to give their children toy guns to prepare them for
adulthood (newizv.ru/society/2016-12-06/249858-glavnyj-rossijskij-ded-moroz-razreshil-darit-detjam-igrushechnoe-oruzhie-na-nov.html).
2.
Russia Now has
Most Unequal Income Distribution in the World. Not only do
international experts say that Russian has the highest degree of income
inequality in the world (echo.msk.ru/blog/nossik/1885346-echo/) and has Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev admitted that
real incomes are falling for most (newsland.com/community/politic/content/medvedev-realnye-dokhody-rossiian-umenshilis/5584184), but adding insult to injury are reports that the
minimum income in Russia is now being set by people who spend more than that
amount in a single dinner at a Moscow restaurant (http://echo.msk.ru/blog/oreh/1886604-echo/).
The spate of bad economic news for
most Russians has grown so large that some Moscow media outlets are simply
providing weekly lists of the ten worst examples (zhartun.me/2016/12/1002.html). Among some
of the most notable of these reports this week are the following: More than
half of all Russians are now seeking alternative sources of income (newsland.com/community/4765/content/bolee-poloviny-rossiian-vynuzhdeny-iskat-alternativnye-istochniki-dokhoda/5587435),
Muscovites are lining up for cheese at the Italian embassy (ura.ru/news/1052270360) and they are buying foreign currency at a rate not
seen since 2014 (newsland.com/community/6437/content/rossiiane-vstali-v-ochered-za-dollarom-rossiiane-skupaiut-valiutu-kak-v-2014-godu/5585077),
officials are talking about imposing
tolls on all Russian roads (apn.ru/index.php?newsid=35767),
residents of some cities are now living on their credit cards with no sense
they will ever be able to pay them back (idelreal.org/a/28156642.html),
and a new law if passed will mean that the ill and the dying will be assessed
taxes for not having a job (charter97.org/ru/news/2016/12/2/233040/). Perhaps the only bright spot this week is a story
that some Russians have decided to make light of their problems: a bar called “Sanctions”
has been opened where perhaps some can go to drink and forget their problems (politobzor.net/show-114176-zapadnyy-emigrant-v-vostorge-ot-rossii-ya-videl-bar-pod-nazvaniem-sankcii.html).
3.
Will Russians Soon
Walk Down Sverdlovsk Street to Get to Nicholas II Square? The incomplete
renaming craze in Russia, along with the demands by various groups to take down
or put up monuments has created an absurd situation, some commentators say with
streets named for the murderer of the last tsar coexisting with streets named
for the tsar himself (rusk.ru/st.php?idar=76664)
and prompting some cities to simply stop naming streets altogether which is
creating other problems (globalsib.com/ulitsa-bez-nazvaniya-obnaruzhilas-na-territorii-tyumeni/). Among the battles
on the monument and nomenclature fronts this week are the following: a statue
of Sadri Maksudi has gone up in Kazan (turantoday.com/2016/12/sadri-maksudi-monument-kazan.html),
Moscow is going ahead with renaming two streets for Castro (newizv.ru/society/2016-12-06/249888-v-chest-fidelja-kastro-v-moskve-mogut-nazvat-dva-proezda.html) but Makahchkala doesn’t want to rename even one for
the late Cuban dictator (kavpolit.com/articles/kastro-30080/), a statue of the
notorious anti-Semite V.V. Shulgin has been erected in Gorokhovets (stoletie.ru/territoriya_istorii/im_voskhishhalis_i_jego_proklinali_311.htm
), the Russian Orthodox Church has declared Ivan III a national hero (ng.ru/ng_religii/2016-12-07/6_411_ivan3.html),
the Komi have put up a statue to a mythical national hero who fought the spread
of Christianity in the Middle Volga (ng.ru/ng_religii/2016-12-07/6_411_etno.html),
the Krasnodar Cossacks have put up a memorial to Alistair Crowley (ng.ru/ng_religii/2016-12-07/6_411_93.html),
some human rights activists are upset that benches in Oryol look like something
from the Third Reich (meduza.io/shapito/2016/12/05/v-orle-postavili-skameyku-s-podozritelnymi-orlami),
communists have complained about the increasing rapprochement between Kremlin
officials and the family of the Romanov pretenders to the throne (orum-msk.org/material/kompromat/12555249.html),
some want a memorial to those who were killed in the October 1993 storming of the
Russian parliament (http://svpressa.ru/blogs/article/161957/),
and an increasing number of people want to collect money to build a memorial to
those who died in the GULAG (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/12/05/70780-kremlevskaya-stena-i-stena-skorbi
and novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/12/02/70753-ne-pokayatsya-no-otrechsya).
Perhaps one Russian nationalist has come up with a useful idea given this
cacophony: he suggests that Russia’s coat of arms should be Malevich’s Black
Square (snob.ru/selected/entry/117496).
That way each person could read his own symbols into it. Meanwhile, there were
two other controversies this week about names. Some object to the name of the restaurant
in the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg. It is BarBoris. One can imagine that
both supporters and opponents of the former Russian president might have
problems with that (momenty.org/restaurants/i169433/). And some Russians undoubtedly were unhappy to
learn that the famous Molotov cocktail was not invented by a Russian but rather
by Finns who were fighting Stalin’s aggression against that country (http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5847C4DA0698A).
4.
Once Again ‘a
Person from the Caucasus’ to Define What a Russian Is. Stalin, a Georgian defined what nations in
general and the Russian nation in particular were in Soviet times. Now under
Putin, a person from the Caucasus, Magomedsalam Magomedov, a Dargin who once
headed Daghestan, is drafting the new law on the Russian nation, something that
at least a few Russians and others will find ironic (zhartun.me/2016/12/zakon.html). That
was just one of the intriguing political developments this week. Others
include: a call by a Duma deputy to conclude “a non-aggression pact” with the
Soviet past (newsland.com/community/129/content/vozmozhen-li-v-nyneshnei-rossii-pakt-o-nenapadenii-na-ee-sovetskoe-proshloe/5587929), complaints by some Duma deputies that they are
having to work too long and too hard (politsovet.ru/53917-nekogda-muzhey-kormit-zhenschiny-deputaty-pozhalovalis-na-tyazhelye-usloviya-truda-v-gosdume.html), and poll results showing that the share of
Russians who believe that the Constitution effectively defends their rights has
fallen from 48 percent last year to 38 percent now (newsru.com/russia/08dec2016/const.html).
5.
More Reasons for
Stripping Russia of Right to Host 2018 World Cup. Even as Russian cities begin issuing “fan
passports” for the 2018 football competition (newizv.ru/sport/2016-12-07/249921-v-peterburge-otkryli-pervyj-centr-vydachi-pasportov-bolelshika-chm-2018.html),
ever more reasons are surfacing for stripping Russia of its right to host those
games. The IOC has extended its
sanctions on Russia for doping (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=58483C96E9D60), and the
Russian Olympic Committee has added representatives from the illegally annexed
Crimea and Sevastopol (regnum.ru/news/sport/2215251.html). Meanwhile, American athletes are mulling not
going to a competition in Russia if it remains in Sochi, the site of Moscow’s
most massive doping scandal (insidethegames.biz/articles/1044480/american-athletes-reportedly-consider-ibsf-world-championships-boycott-should-event-remain-in-sochi).
The Russian authorities have reacted as one would expect, seeing all these
attacks as a concerted effort to denigrate Russia and Russians (svpressa.ru/sport/news/162032/)
and announcing plans to investigate FIFA for promoting homosexuality, something
that is illegal in Russia (echo.msk.ru/news/1886390-echo.html).
6.
More Russians
Seeking Political Asylum in the US and More Gastarbeiters Entering Russia. For a variety of reasons including not just
economic ones, more Russians have sought political asylum in the US this year
than at any time in the last 20 years (znak.com/2016-12-06/rossiyane_podali_rekordnoe_za_20_let_chislo_hodataystv_ob_ubezhiche_v_ssha).
Meanwhile, this year also saw a surge in the number of gastarbeiters coming to
Russia from the Caucasus and Central Asia (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5846E8D939E83). One major driver of emigration is the
increasing obscurantism and authoritarianism promoted by the regime and the Moscow
Patriarchate; but another is the collapse of the Russian medical system. Moscow
is restricting ever more imports of medical equipment and medications,
something that means that ever more Russians who remain in that country are at
risk of death (chaskor.ru/article/izvinite_lekarstv_net_41225,
svpressa.ru/health/article/162004/,
kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5847A69D5B99E
and echo.msk.ru/news/1887762-echo.html).
Some Russians who can’t leave are taking out their frustrations on Russian
doctors. As a result, the health ministry is calling for a new law that would
equate doctors with police and impose higher penalties on those who attack
doctors than other ordinary citizens (apn.ru/index.php?newsid=35780). Two other non-economic developments which may
have an impact on the future: the number of pagans is dramatically on the rise
in Russian prisons (rosbalt.ru/russia/2016/12/06/1573468.html
and ng.ru/ng_religii/2016-12-07/5_411_rus_gods.html),
and Russians are fascinated and perhaps angered by reports that their government
which can’t ensure them a decent life expectancy is now spending massive
amounts of money to try to bring back extinct species, something they imagine
they could be counted among (siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0800-extinct-tigers-dogs-deer-and-bison-to-join-woolly-mammoths-being-cloned-back-to-life/).
7.
Nearly One-Third
of Russian Champagne is Fake, Officials Say. According to Russian government
agencies, 30 percent of what is marketed as Russian champagne is in fact
carbonated sweet soda, an announcement that will further exacerbate debates on
how or even whether Russians should celebrate the new years holiday (imperor.net/en/latest-news/roskachestvo-30-of-russian-champagne-is-sweet-soda/, versia.ru/rossiyane-ne-sobirayutsya-sokrashhat-novogodnie-traty
and forum-msk.org/material/news/12563157.html).
Meanwhile, Russia’s communist party has contributed to confusion on just when
that holiday should be marked: the KPRF wants the government to change the
calendar so that New Year’s Day will be on January 14 new style as the Russian
Orthodox Church says rather than on January 1 as the rest of the world thinks (politsovet.ru/53877-kommunisty-predlozhili-perenesti-novyy-god-v-rossii.html).
8.
Moscow Closes More
Psychiatric Hospitals but Wants to Create Register of the Mentally Ill. Both for
economic reasons and because of the worldwide trend at de-institutionalizing
the mentally ill, Moscow has closed many of the country’s psychiatric
hospitals: there are now only three in Moscow for its 12 million people (themoscowtimes.com/articles/a-bitter-pill-moscow-closes-its-psychiatric-hospitals-56473).
With so many of the former patients now on the street, Moscow officials want to
create a register of the mentally ill, something that could be a rational step
or a new means of extending the political use of psychiatry onto Russia’s
streets (newizv.ru/society/2016-12-07/249897-v-rossii-predlozhili-sozdat-reestr-psihicheski-bolnyh.html).
9.
Passports May
Become Another Means of Government Control. Some Russian officials and
politicians want to have the passports Russian citizens carry have a line
noting whether or not the bearers voted in elections, the latest effort to step
the rapid decline in what are increasingly meaningless elections there (profile.ru/obsch/item/113474-moskalkova). In another passport-related matter, activists
for the numerically small peoples of the North are insisting that a nationality
line be restored to passports as a means of protecting the smallest nations
against assimilation and mistreatment (regnum.ru/news/society/2213591.html).
10.
‘Kadyrov Says What
Other Federal Subject Heads Think.’
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is often viewed as a complete outlier in
the Russian political system, saying and doing what others cannot. But one
Russian analyst says that almost all leaders of the federal subjects think much
as he does but lack the courage or opportunity to say so. In the event of a
crisis, that could mean that what seems exceptional could spread quickly (svpressa.ru/politic/article/162080/).
And another commentator says this could happen also because most Russians
identify first and foremost with their villages, cities or regions rather than
the country as a whole (afterempire.info/2016/12/07/1000towns/).
11.
Aircraft Carrier
Joins Cannon and Bell as Another Russian Project that Doesn’t Work. The obvious
shortcomings of Russia’s lone aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which
has had serious problems not only in making its way in the sea but also
launching and retrieving aircraft, strongly suggests that it will soon join the
famous Russian bell in the Kremlin that cracked before it could be run and the
equally famous Russian cannon there that never was fired as a monument to
unfulfilled Russian aspirations (businessinsider.com/russia-gave-up-airstrikes-kuznetsov-aircraft-carrier-2016-12).
One Russian Orthodox priest has suggested a solution: he says that if a priest
blesses a Russian rocket, it won’t fall out of the sky (portal-credo.ru/site/?act=news&id=123213). Presumably
that means that the prison transport vehicles that his fellow priests have already
blessed will succeed in transporting Russians to jails and camps (ixtc.org/2016/12/svyaschennyy-avtozak/).
12.
Russian Foreign
Ministry Says Her Use of Fake Jewish Accent Promotes ‘Friendship of the
Peoples.’ Mariya Zakharova, the Russian foreign
ministry spokesperson, says her use of an exaggerated Jewish accent last month,
something for which she was much criticized and denied having done, was in fact
an effort on her part to promote “friendship of the peoples” (ixtc.org/2016/12/roman-arbitman-poslanie-evreyam-ot-mida/). Having thus given that Soviet-era term new content
– or more precisely given it back the content that wags at the time said it had
– the Russian foreign ministry has joined with other government agencies in
promoting the idea that the Russophobe is the new “enemy of the people” in Putin’s
times (echo.msk.ru/programs/just_think/1885398-echo/).
13. Russians May Drink ‘Rossiano’ but
Karelians Want Their Very Own ‘Kareliano.’ Residents of the Karelian Republic say they
don’t want to drink Rossiano but rather their own coffee brand, Kareliano, yet another
mark of the divisions in the Russian Federation that many, including in the
Kremlin, refuse to take seriously (nazaccent.ru/content/22563-v-otvet-na-rusiano-v-karelii.html).
And
six more from countries in Russia’s neighborhood:
1. Despite Moscow’s Disinformation, Ukraine will Host
Eurovision 2017. Over the last two weeks, Russian-government
outlets have put out stories claiming the Eurovision 2017 contest will not be
held in Ukraine because Kyiv isn’t ready and that organizers will be forced to
shift the competition to Moscow. These claims are false, and both the Ukrainian
government and the Eurovision organizers say that the competition will occur in
Ukraine, whose representative won last year (gordonua.com/news/politics/groysman-ob-informacii-o-perenose-evrovideniya-2017-v-moskvu-eto-ocherednaya-popytka-diskreditacii-ukrainy-v-mire-162315.html
and qha.com.ua/ru/kultura-iskusstvo/evrovidenie2017-ne-planiruyut-perenosit-v-moskvu/168482/). In a
related development, the EU moved toward granting visa-free travel to
Ukrainians (and to Georgians) (ndependent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-visa-free-travel-ukraine-georgia-a7462631.html).
2. Kyiv Calls on World Community to Recognize Holodomor as
Genocide. The
Ukrainian parliament adopted a resolution calling on the countries of the world
to recognize the 1932-33 terror famine as an act of genocide (gordonua.com/news/politics/rada-prizvala-mirovoe-soobshchestvo-priznat-genocidom-golodomor-193233-godov-162722.html).
3.
Belarusian Opposition Sees Solution to Minsk’s
Problems in Soviet Anecdote. At the end of Soviet
times, a joke circulated that the way Estonia was going to obtain independence
from the USSR was to declare war on Finland and immediately surrender. Now a
Belarusian opposition leader has come up with an analogous idea for his
country: Belarus, he says, should declare war on a Scandinavian country and
immediately surrender as well (belaruspartisan.org/politic/364022/).
4.
Uzbekistan to Drop
Visa Requirements for Citizens of 27 Countries. With the passing
of Islam Karimov, Tashkent has announced plans to open up to the world by taking
a number of steps including dropping as of January 1, 2017, all visa
requirements for citizens of 27 countries around the world (gazeta.uz/en/2016/12/06/visas/).
5.
Nazarbayev Says
Kazakhstan was Once Russia’s Colony but Won’t Be Again. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev
says that his country was at one time “a colony” of Russia’s but that it is not
now and will not be again (turantoday.com/2016/12/nazarbayev-russia-history.html). To that end, his government has been cracking
down on pro-Moscow separatists, imposing this week a five-year jail sentence on
one of them (rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-russa-separatist/28157663.html).
6.
Turkmenistan
Officials Call in for ‘Conversations’ Those who Use Social Networks. The government of Turkmenistan is now applying
an old Soviet technique at intimidation to a new challenge: it is calling in
for “conversations” all those it determines are going on line and participating
in social networks (rus.azathabar.com/a/28152170.html).
No comments:
Post a Comment