Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 26 -- 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 each week
presents a selection of 13 of these other and typically neglected stories at
the end of each week. This is the 84th such compilation, and it is again a
double issue. Even then, it is only suggestive and far from complete, but
perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of broader interest.
1.
Putin Gains a
Competitor in Minds of Russians: The Relics of a Saint. Almost as a high a
percentage of Russians say they would like to see the relics of a saint now on
display in Moscow as say they support Vladimir Putin (echo.msk.ru/news/1988190-echo.html).
But despite the closeness of this “competition,” polls suggest that the Russian
people are quite ready for another term for Putin although some in the elite
are now (rosbalt.ru/blogs/2017/05/19/1616558.html), and Putin’s
own plans are less that clear especially since he stopped the setting up of
unofficial re-election staffs in a number of regions this past week (infpol.ru/news/politics/127332-v-rossiyskikh-regionakh-svernuli-formirovanie-neofitsialnykh-shtabov-a/). Meanwhile, a Barnaul politician has proposed
renaming that city after Putin so that it could become Putingrad or Putinburg (forum-msk.org/material/news/13235467.html),
and officials in other regions the Kremlin leader is scheduled to visit have
out-Potemkin Potemkin in trying to make a good impression on Putin (yugopolis.ru/news/k-priezdu-a-v-krasnodare-poyavilis-potemkinskie-derevni-103462,
yug.svpressa.ru/politic/article/146796/
and yug.svpressa.ru/politic/article/146796/).
Putin did receive praise from one perhaps unexpected place this week: the
Beijing media. Chinese commentators said that Putin is truly impressive in his
ability to maintain popular support given his economic failures at home (ng.ru/economics/2017-05-26/4_6996.html).
2. Putin Now Said Trying to Orchestrate Trump’s
Impeachment.
Those who thought the Kremlin leader was simply trying to recruit Donald Trump
and have him do Moscow’s bidding while president of the US have not understood
what Putin is about. He is interested first and foremost in destabilizing the
US as well as other countries and is quite prepared to fish in troubled waters by supporting and then undermining one and the
same individual (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=592468D3214E5
and newsland.com/community/4765/content/agent-kremlia-khillari-klinton/5837661).
3.
Russian Economy Remains in Deep Trouble. Moscow experts say that the economic
situation in Russia continues to deteriorate (mk.ru/omics/2017/05/25/eksperty-rossiyane-budut-stremitelno-bednet.html), and the
World Bank has lowered its forecast for Russian growth (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5924306161FFE).
Among the reasons for this pessimism are the following: wage arrears have
increased by 30 percent since January 1 (https://newsland.com/community/4109/content/zadolzhennost-po-zarplate-s-nachala-goda-vyrosla-na-30/5843093),
unemployment among young people is high and rising (iq.hse.ru/news/206096154.html),
real disposable incomes among Russians have fallen by eight percent over the
last year (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59230875A40B9),
housing starts have declined (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59232674E00BB),
and prospects for pensions are deteriorating (liberal.ru/articles/7165). But
experrts also say that Russians remain financially illiterate and thus may be
prepared to accept certain claims like the one Dmitry Medvedev made this week that
in two years Russian growth will lead the world (iq.hse.ru/news/205933107.html and
svpressa.ru/omy/article/172772/).
4.
More Bad News on
the Social Front.
In addition to Russia’s economic problems, it has mounting social ones. Among
those noted this week in the Russian media are the following: rural Russia is
deteriorating ever more rapidly because of what scholars say is an anti-natural
negative social selection of its population (newsland.com/community/4765/content/protivoestestvennyi-otbor-kak-rossiian-uchat-tupet/5841503), Moscow’s plans for a new highway to St. Petersburg
ignored ecological problems and environmentalists are now working to block the
road (regnum.ru/news/society/2277518.html), ever more Russians are not getting the medicines
they need (kommersant.ru/doc/3299816),
Russian courts are beginning to address problems of Russian misbehavior on
planes (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5922E8BCCE8DB),
school officials in some Russian cities are segregating students by income,
treating those from wealthier homes better than those from poorer ones (newsland.com/community/5652/content/v-shkolakh-novgoroda-deti-bogatykh-pitaiutsia-otdelno-ot-bednykh/5844606), 15,000 to 20,000 Russian children are vanishing
each year (kp.ru/daily/26683.4/3706104/),
and Russian officials now recognize that
they don’t have enough machines to handle the harvest and so are losing 15 to
20 percent of what is grown (burckina-new.livejournal.com/637058.html).
There was one bright spot this week: two Russian cities were allowed to keep
the hot water flowing to residences over the summer and Moscow was allowed to
keep it going for an extra ten days because of the abnormally cold weather.
Normally, officials cut off the hot water in the summer months to save money (versia.ru/v-dvux-rossijskix-gorodax-yetim-letom-ne-budut-otklyuchat-goryachuyu-vodu).
5.
Three Non-Russian
Nations Fight to Save Their Languages. The Buryats have concluded that the only
salvation for their language is to make it more like Mongol so they can take
advantage of the existence of the neighboring independent country (asiarussia.ru/news/16382/). A group
of Volga Tatars is calling on all members of that nation to have and raise at
least three Tatar-speaking children (business-gazeta.ru/article/346366),
and Circassians have concluded that the only salvation for their language, now
that it is being pushed out of state schools, is to require that it be used in
government offices (caucasustimes.com/ru/spasti-cherkesskij-jazyk-mozhet-deloproizvodstvo/).
Other nationalities news this week included: reports that immigration officers
at Moscow airports are mistreating anyone they think is a Muslim (onkavkaz.com/news/1704-shevchenko-kak-izdevayutsja-nad-rossiiskimi-musulmanami-v-moskovskih-aeroportah-kadyrova-na-nih.html?fromslider),
an experts’ finding that oppression of journalists is worse in the North
Caucasus than in any other part of Russia (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303163/),
Russian blocking of Circassian, Chechen and Avar businessmen living in the
Middle East from returning to or even investing in their homelands (onkavkaz.com/news/1693-cherkesam-chechencam-avarcam-blizhnego-vostoka-ne-vernutsja-na-istoricheskuyu-rodinu-dazhe-cher.html?fromslider),
a call by Karelian officials to include their republic in the Arctic zone and
thus make it eligible for special subsidies (regnum.ru/news/economy/2277342.html), a widely
reported story that immigrant workers are responsible for 12 percent of the
rapes in the Russian Federation (takiedela.ru/2017/05/takaya-rossiya-iznasilovaniy/),
and the failure ofan effort by athletes to rename their football club for
Ingria (freeingria.org/2017/05/futbolnogo-kluba-ingriya-v-rfpl-ne-budet-vopreki-pozhelaniyam-bolelshhikov-ostayotsya-tosno/).
6.
Politicizing
Demonstrations Said Helping to Bring Out New Supporters. A major debate
among Russian protesters is whether politicizing them by focusing on particular
political figures helps or hurts, with ever more demonstrators arguing that it
helps (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59208B7007918). Politicizing an issue may prompt the
Kremlin to distance itself from an issue as it has with the khrushchoby in
Moscow and thus give demonstrators greater chances to influence more junior
officials (forum-msk.org/material/news/13252268.html).
However that may be, officials are working hard to limit the size of
demonstrations, banning young people from taking part (graniru.org/Politics/Russia/Parliament/Sovfed/m.261123.html
and idelreal.org/a/28503046.html),
linking protests with radicals or foreigners (newsland.com/community/4489/content/razoblachena-provokatsiia-banderovtsev-v-moskve/5838558), and putting out stories suggesting
that few people support the demonstrators or their agendas (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5922E93D22740).
7.
Moscow
Patriarchate Wants More than Just What Used to Belong to It. There are growing suspicions about and anger
toward what many see as a power grab by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian
Orthodox church which many think is trying to grab as much property as possible
whether it ever belonged to the church in the past or not and allowing itself
to be used by the authorities to impose tighter control on the population and
on anyone, including deputies, who opposes the church (regnum.ru/news/society/2277258.html, rbc.ru/politics/25/05/2017/592680669a794784e699d24d?from=main,
and
8.
regnum.ru/news/polit/2279440.html). Perhaps because of the growth of these suspicions,
many are fighting the church and even having some success. Tomsk residents, for
example, blocked plans for a new cathedral there (sobkorr.ru/news/591EF7205A209.html), and Yekaterinburg officials appear to
be backing away from plans to build a cathedral on the water (politsovet.ru/55406-proekt-hrama-na-vode-razocharoval-veruyuschih.html and ura.news/news/1052290439).Elsewhere
on the monument front, communists pressed for erecting a memorial to Pavlik
Morozov in Moscow (govoritmoskva.ru/news/120830/),
residents put up a statue to the city’s namesakes in Borisoglebsk (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=78078), and one Lenin statue was defaced while another was
taken down in regions far from Moscow (fedpress.ru/news/28/society/1791842
and forum-msk.org/material/news/13237885.html).
Meanwhile, officials tried to muddy the water of 19th century
Russian imperial expansion by erecting a monument in Cherkessk to all the
victims of the wars that involved and not just those who were killed or
expelled by the Russian army (nazaccent.ru/content/24130-v-cherkesske-otkryli-pamyatnik-zhertvam-kavkazskoj.html).
9. Moscow Approves Anti-Doping Plan. The Russian government
has approved an anti-doping plan in hopes of regaining access to international
athletic competitions and ensuring that it will retain the right to host the
2018 World Cup (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5924425867E96). The
IOC welcomed this step but the WADA was skeptical saying that it wanted
informers in place to ensure Russian compliance. That sparked a reaction from
Vladimir Putin who suggested that any use of informers was inherently dangerous
because it could spread to other areas of life (business-gazeta.ru/article/346708,
kp.ru/daily/26681/3705431/ and
regnum.ru/news/sport/2279534.html).
One danger sign about Russian compliance: Since Moscow broke ranks with the international
sports community and legalized the use of Meldonin, sales of that
performance-enhancing drug there have gone up 250 percent (znak.com/2017-05-23/vedomosti_prodazhi_meldoniya_vyrosli_v_2_5_raza_posle_dopingovogo_skandala).
10.
Russia’s Defense
Build-Up Literally Hollow. In all the
hullaballoo about the launch of a new atomic-powered Russian warship, few
noticed that the ship did not contain any power plant or other machinery to
allow it to function (versia.ru/pochti-vse-dostizheniya-goskorporacii-za-poslednie-10-let-mozhno-nazvat-butaforskimi). That is just one of the ways in which the
budget crunch is hitting the Russian defense system. Others include: the CIS
missile defense shield will cost Russia more money that it may have (ng.ru/politics/2017-05-26/2_6996_zontic.html),
budget cuts already mean that Russia will test fewer missiles in the coming
years (versia.ru/roskosmosu-stoit-poprobovat-xotya-by-chastichno-zhit-na-svoi),
Moscow has conceded that it won’t get a helicopter carrier for five years (regnum.ru/news/polit/2279935.html),
and experts are questioning whether such ships make sense given that Russia
can’t afford to support a real aircraft carrier (forum-msk.org/material/news/13250324.html and ng.ru/armies/2017-05-25/100_kuzprichal.html). But there is an even more serious problem for
Russia’s defense system: Vladimir Putin continues to privatize defense plants
and many of their new owners value strip them, leaving Russia without key
factories (regnum.ru/news/polit/2279848.html).
11.
Russia’s Siloviki
Retirees are Not Happy. The first rule
of an autocracy is to make sure that the military and police are content with
their lot. The second rule is that those who work for the force structures need
to be able to count on a good retirement.
Vladimir Putin’s Russia is violating at least the second because
siloviki retirees are now complaining ever more often about the size of their
pensions and the way they are treated after ending their careers (forum-msk.org/material/news/13231332.html). Two other stories also highlight some
problems for Moscow as far as domestic security is concerned: Dmitry Rogozin
says that the Russian Guard must be “armed to the teeth” in order to do its
work” (newsland.com/community/129/content/rogozin-zaiavil-chto-rosgvardiia-dolzhna-byt-vooruzhena-do-zubov/5844574), and some analysts are making the argument
that promoting demographic growth would do more for Russia’s national security
than any number of new Iskander missiles (newsland.com/community/8/content/trista-millionov-russkikh-gorazdo-nadezhnee-iskanderov/5842171).
12. Russians Ask: Is Antarctica Now ‘Ours’? Now
that Russian explorers in Antarctica have erected a Russian Orthodox church,
some Russians are asking whether this shows that “Antarctica is ours as well” (newsland.com/community/7451/content/antarktika-i-nasha-tozhe/5838317).
13.
Would Jesus have Accepted a Land Cruiser?
Russian Bishop Says ‘Yes.’ A Russian
Orthodox bishop has responded to criticism of the lavish lifestyles that he and
other church hierarchs maintain by arguing that Jesus Christ would have been
more than happy to accept a Land Cruiser if one had been offered to him (themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-bishop-says-jesus-christ-would-have-accepted-this-land-cruiser-too-58068).
14.
Moscow’s First
Channel Launches Biopic Series on Stalinist ‘Heroes’ like Beria. To the horror of those who know about the
crimes of the Stalin era but apparently to the delight of the current rulers in
the Kremlin who are basing their own legitimacy on Stalin’s manner of rule,
Moscow’s First Channel is airing a series of programs celebrating the
second-tier of the Stalinist totalitarian machine, including one dedicated to
“Dear Comrade Beria,” the notorious head of the secret police (newsland.com/community/5652/content/dorogoi-tovarishch-beriia-zachem-pervyi-kanal-slavit-stalinskikh-palachei/5844069).
Such programming helps to explain why Russians are increasingly positive about
Stalin and tolerant of the use of torture (vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2017/05/23/690964-rossiyane-otnositsya-repressiyam
and politsovet.ru/55371-chetvert-rossiyan-opravdyvaet-stalinskie-repressii.html).
15. Moscow Renovation Fight about More than Moscow. If officials go forward with their plan to
demolish and partially replace the five-storey khrushchoby apartment blocks,
they won’t have any money left for roads or housing or other things elsewhere
in Russia (newizv.ru/comment/boris-kagarlitskiy/22-05-2017/ili-moskva-ili-rossiya-tretiego-ne-dano).
Nonetheless, the Just Russia Party is calling for the wholesale demolition of
antiquated housing (znak.com/2017-05-24/spravedlivaya_rossiya_podgotovila_zakonoproekt_o_snose_pyatietazhek_po_vsey_rossii). That would
lead to massive disappointment but also to situations like one reported in
Kaluga this week where officials are pushing people out of their old apartments
before any new ones are completed (regnum.ru/news/economy/2277535.html).
16.
In Russia, Nearly Everyone Charged is Found
Guilty but Few are Really Punished. The Russian legal system finds almost everyone it
charges guilty, but in order to avoid having to pay for places of
incarceration, many who are found guilty are not subject to serious punishments
(novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/05/24/72544-lyuboe-nashe-povsednevnoe-deystvie-mozhno-kvalifitsirovat-kak-prestuplenie). One group that is punished in a special way
are those siloviki who have violated the rules of their organizations: When
they are incarcerated – which doesn’t happen often -- they are housed in
institutions separate from the rest of the prison population (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/05/25/72569-ya-realno-rab-u-fsina).
17.
Kremlin Gave
Silent Approval to Repression of Gays in Chechnya, HRW Says. Human Rights
Watch says that the Kremlin gave its silent backing to the repression and
torture of gays in Chechnya (kavkazr.com/a/ohota-na-geev-s-odobreniya-vlastey/28508660.html
and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303291/).
In addition, there are reports that the Chechen parliament speaker was present
at the torture sessions, thus further implicating Ramzan Kadyrov and his regime
(polit.ru/news/2017/05/26/daydov_gays/).
18.
Want to Know Which
Russians are Posting Extremist Things on the Internet? A List is for
Sale. An enterprising group has
assembled a list of 100,000 people who have posted what it says are “extremist”
articles and clips on the Internet and offered it for sale to all comers (izvestia.ru/news/715565).
19.
Chechen Resistance
Lost More Fighters Last Year but Gained More and Younger Recruits. A study by the Kavkaz-Uzel news agency says
that the anti-Moscow Chechen insurgency suffered more combat losses in 2016
than in the year before but gained more and more youthful fighters to replace
them, an indication that claims by Moscow and Grozny of victories are
overstated (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/303268).
20.
Russian Deaths
from HIV/AIDS Now Form Almost Half of All Deaths There from Infectious Diseases. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Russia is growing
and spreading, the result of the government’s failure to provide the necessary
medications to fight it. As a result, a far higher percentage of people who
contract HIV die of the disease than in other countries, and deaths from it now
form nearly half of all deaths from infectious diseases there (iq.hse.ru/news/206170088.html).
21. Patriotism Important for Only Four Percent of Russian
Young People.
Despite Vladimir Putin’s efforts to elevate patriotism to the center of
national identity, only one young Russian in 25 accepts that view, according to
a new poll (politsovet.ru/55378-patriotizm-okazalsya-znachimym-dlya-4-rossiyskoy-molodezhi.html).
22. Seventy Percent of Russian School Children Can’t Define
Corruption.
Despite the ubiquity of corruption in Russian, Moscow officials say, 70 percent
of pupils are incapable of defining just what it is (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/05/26/131907-vasilieva-70-molodezhi-ne-smogli-dat-opredelenie-ponyatiyu-korruptsiya).
In other corruption news, the children of Ramzan Kadyrov took home more in
income than the Chechen president last year (versia.ru/nesovershennoletnie-deti-glavy-chechni-ramzana-kadyrova-v-2016-godu-zarabotali-na-8-millionov-bolshe-chem-otec). And yet
another anti-corruption crusading journalist was murdered in Russia (themoscowtimes.com/news/anti-corruption-journalist-murdered-in-russia-58082).
23.
ISIS Said Behind Russian Suicide Groups. Internet communities promoting suicide
pacts are being used by ISIS as recruiting tools, according to one new study, a
conclusion that explains why the Russian Duma has approved a new law
prohibiting the promotion of suicide on the web (svpressa.ru/society/article/172940/).
24.
Is Russian Going
to Shift to the Latin Script via the Backdoor? Linguists in Russia say that Russians need to
learn the Latin script for their language as well as Cyrillic because of the
increasing importance of the Internet which still is primarily a Latin-script
location. They say that there is no possibility that Moscow will drop Cyrillic
anytime soon but repeat arguments made 90 years ago about why that would be a
positive step toward the integration of Russia into the West (lenta.ru/articles/2017/05/23/latin/).
25.
Sometimes Good
Sense Triumphs …
Russian officials sometimes display good sense: After an Orthodox activist
sought charges against an artist who had erected a kulich and eggs statue in a
city square, judicial authorities decided that there was no basis to bring a
charge of extremism against the creator of the statue (sova-center.ru/religion/news/harassment/harassment-protection/2017/05/d37154/).
26.
… And Sometimes It
Doesn’t. More often, it seems in Russia at least, good
sense is pushed out by bad. Russian
bloggers have come out against the demolition in the US of statues of
Confederate heroes, arguing that such actions go against the positive grain
reflected in Russia where statues to Lenin and to those who tried to overthrow
his Bolshevik regime coexist side by side (forum-msk.org/material/news/13240086.html).
And 10 more from countries in
Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Belarus is
‘Condemned’ to Be With Russia, Minsk Experts Say. However much
Belarus would like to pursue a European course, Minsk foreign policy experts
say, its geographic location and Moscow’s strategic concerns mean that it is
“condemned” to be with Russia rather than against it (rubaltic.ru/article/politika-i-obshchestvo/26052017-obrechennye-byt-s-rossiey/).
2.
Moscow Seeks
Permanent Military Repair Facilities in Belarus. In the lead up to this summer’s Zapad 2017
exercise, Russian military officials have said that they want to open on
Belarusian territory permanent repair facilities for military equipment, a
halfway house toward the possible opening of a base or bases there (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/5/21/250568/).
3. More than 30 Ethnic Ukrainians in Russia and
Russian-Occupied Crimea Now in Jail.
Some 30 ethnic Ukrainians are now in Russian jails often after
having been convicted on the basis of invented charges, Kyiv officials say (dsnews.ua/politics/v-tyurmah-rossii-i-kryma-po-lipovym-delam-nahodyatsya-bolee-21052017102500).
4.
Ukrainian Citizens
Form Nearly a Quarter of All Gastarbeiters in Russia. Despite the
Russian invasion, citizens of Ukraine represent almost 25 percent of all
foreign migrant laborers now working in the Russian economy, easily
outnumbering Uzbeks and others (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5927E9792CE79).
5.
Surface Area of
Aral Sea has Declined by 97 Percent Since 1960. The Aral Sea has
almost completely disappeared because of upstream use of the water that had fed
it, but now officials in the region are promoting extreme tourism on the
ancient seabed that has become dry land (gazeta.uz/ru/2017/05/25/aral/).
6.
Some Kyrgyz Call
for Killing Sarts, Ancient Name for Uzbeks.
Prior
to the Bolshevik revolution, the population of Central Asia was divided
primarily between longtime sedentaries who were known as “sarts” and
nomads. The Uzbeks were the most
prominent of the former and the Kyrgyz, then known as the Karakyrgyz, were
among the latter. That old division or at least nomenklature as resurfaced in
recent months with some Kyrgyz nationalists calling for the killing of Sarts
living in Kyrgyz lands (fergananews.com/articles/9421).
7.
Ukraine Requires
75 Percent of TV Programming to Be in Ukrainian. As part of its effort to limit the influence
of Russian and Russia, the invader nation, the Verkhovna Rada has voted to
require that Ukrainian television channels carry 75 percent of their programs
in Ukrainian (nr2.lt/News/Ukraine_and_Europe/V-Ukraine-prinyat-zakon-po-yazykovomu-kvotirovaniyu-telekanalov-i-radiostanciy--125483.html).
8.
Kyiv Seeks EU Help
to Shift from Russian to International Railroad Track Size. The Ukrainian government has asked the
European Union to provide it with assistance to change from the wider Russian
gage rail track to the narrower European or International one as part of Kyiv’s
effort to detach itself from Russia. Doing so would be enormously expensive,
but it would break Ukraine away from Russia more definitively than many other
things Moscow usually complains about (newsland.com/community/5512/content/dekommunizatsiia-zheleznoi-dorogi-ukraine-tolko-navredit/5842463).
9.
Pope Francis
Smiles On Ukrainian Soldiers.
After his meeting with Donald Trump in which the Holy Father
demonstratively did not smile, Pope Francis was beaming when he met with
members of the Ukrainian military who had been on the front lines opposing the
Russian invasion of their country (politobzor.net/133062-indulgenciya-na-ubiystvo-v-donbasse-papa-rimskiy-blagoslovil-vsushnikov.html, unn.com.ua/uk/news/1666520-papa-rimskiy-zustrivsya-u-vatikani-iz-ukrayinskimi-biytsyami-ato and http://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1666520-papa-rimskiy-zustrivsya-u-vatikani-iz-ukrayinskimi-biytsyami-ato).
10.
Estonia Expels Two
Russians from Moscow’s Consulate in Narva.
Tallinn has expelled two Russian consular officials from the
predominantly ethnic Russian city of Narva in Estonia’s northeast, possibly
because they were engaged in actions incompatible with the rules governing
diplomatic behavior (rus.delfi.ee/daily/virumaa/mid-er-podtverdil-rossijskomu-genkonsulu-i-konsulu-v-narve-vruchili-notu-oni-pokinut-estoniyu?id=78354430).
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