Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 19 -- 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 these other and typically neglected stories at the end
of each week. This is the 96th such compilation, and it is again a
double issue with 26 from Russia and 13 from Russia’s neighbors. Even then, it
is far from complete, but perhaps one or more of these stories will prove of
broader interest.
1. Russians Search Online for Porn Three Times as Often
as They Do for Putin.
A new survey finds that when Russians go online, they search for pornography
three times more often than they do for Putin. The study also found important
regional differences in the kind of pornography residents of Russia like and in
the length of time they spend at porn sites (snob.ru/selected/entry/127995
and lenta.ru/news/2017/08/12/porn_russia/). The Putin
“shirtless challenge” has spread across the Russian blogosphere with numerous
people posting pictures of themselves in Putin poses (echo.msk.ru/blog/day_photo/2037342-echo/).
And Putin this week was compared with Mussolini and Nicholas II, comparisons he
may not welcome (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/8/13/259620/ and newsland.com/community/3550/content/nikolai-vtoroi-putin-istoricheskie-paralleli/5958143).
And it is entirely possible he might have been compared with Chingiz Khan had
Russian media not censored the interview with Game of Thrones creator George
Martin (themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-translator-censors-putin-questions-during-game-of-thrones-with-george-martin-58676).
2. Russians Notice
Trump Condemns Everyone Except Putin and Neo-Nazis. A Moscow newspaper has pointed out that US
President Donald Trump is quick to attack and condemn everyone except Vladimir
Putin and neo-Nazi extremists, implicitly suggesting a link between the two (ng.ru/politics/2017-08-16/3_7053_usa.html). Meanwhile, the
Russian media has distorted results from an international poll in order to
claim that Trump is now less popular than the Kremlin leader (business-gazeta.ru/news/354683?utm_source=top24-news and themoscowtimes.com/news/how-russian-media-skewed-a-pew-poll-on-putin-58684).
3.
Putin System
Fraying at the Edges. Various news reports this week suggest that
however powerful Putin remains, his system is beginning to fray at the edges
with subordinates acting increasingly at odds with what he might prefer or in
ways that will only land the Kremlin leader in greater difficulty. Among these stories are the following: Moscow
sought to ignore or at least downgrade any commemoration of the 26th
anniversary of the August 1991 coup (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59959B067FCAA), Sakha residents
want “against all” brought back to ballots thereby reversing one of Putin’s
innovations (regnum.ru/news/society/2310310.html), polls show that
half of Rusisans think a current high profile court case is nothing but “a show
trial” (meduza.io/news/2017/08/17/vtsiom-polovina-rossiyan-nazvala-protsess-nad-ulyukaevym-pokazatelnoy-aktsiey),
Russians are complaining openly that it is hard to get a government job without
connections or bribes (kp.ru/daily/26717/3743426/)
and that the only cuts in staffing are at the bottom of the pyramid and not
those near the Kremlin (forum-msk.org/material/news/13560249.html), the Accounting
Chamber has found that more than a trillion rubles (16 billion US dollars) has
disappeared without a trace from the government budget (newsland.com/community/4109/content/schetnaia-palata-iz-biudzheta-uteklo-bolshe-trilliona-rublei/5954314), and most
tellingly of all, Putin has been forced to warn government agencies not to
think that their internal decisions can take precedence over Russian laws (lenta.ru/news/2017/08/16/pozavetam_stalina/).
4.
A Virtual War has
Broken Out Between ‘Last Soviet Fathers’ and First ‘Post-Soviet Children.’ Underlying much
of what is going on in Russia today, a virtual war has broken out between “the
last Soviet fathers” who still rule the country and the first generation of
“post-Soviet children” who don’t but who now form an increasing fraction of the
population and will soon make up more than half, according to one Russian
commentator (kp.ru/daily/26717.7/3742514/).
5.
Russians’ Real
Incomes a Third Less than Government Says. Russians’ real income is now a
third less than the government says not only because inflation is much higher
for those who live on their pay than those who don’t (rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/08/15/1638567.html and polit.ru/article/2017/08/16/romir/)
but also and especially because wage arrears are accelerating at a rapid rate
and Russians aren’t receiving the money they are supposed to (snob.ru/selected/entry/128022). But even the
official figures are bad: last month, Russians’ real income according to the government
fell by more than three percent, continuing declines in all but one of the last
33 months, with no end in sight to that trend
(rosbalt.ru/business/2017/08/17/1639278.html, regnum.ru/news/omy/2311575.html and gazeta.ru/business/2017/08/17/10836194.shtml). Russians have
only been able to maintain or even increase spending by living on credit cards
or with microloans, something unsustainable for long because of stratospheric
interest rates (enta.ru/articles/2017/08/18/microhell/, svpressa.ru/omy/article/178947/ and meduza.io/feature/2017/08/11/rossiyskiy-vvp-rekordno-vyros-neuzheli-krizis-zakonchilsya). And there is no
cushion: a third of Russians say they have no savings at all (echo.msk.ru/news/2037454-echo.html). Not
surprisingly, they aren’t going out to eat as much as they did or buying as
much champagne as a year ago (ura.news/news/1052300400 and ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/08/15/rossiya_vyhodit_iz_alkogolnogo_moroka/). None of this
affects the ultrarich, however. Purchases by Russians of London property has
risen 30 percent this year over last (newsland.com/community/5134/content/london-zovet-begstvo-bogatykh-rossiian-v-dorogie-goroda-zapada-usililos/5958730). At the macro
level as well, the news is anything but
good: Russian economic growth is slowing much faster than expected (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59943EEE9C4AF), capital flight
is accelerating again (rosbalt.ru/business/2017/08/18/1639479.html), calls to
“de-dollarize” the Russian economy only highlight its weaknesses (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5994B034BE033), and Russian
banks are beginning to be cut off from the SWIFT payments system (agonia-ru.com/archives/10514).
6. Russians’ Social Well-Being Now Below that of
Philippinos. An international ranking of social well-being
finds that Russians now rank below the Philippinos on that measure (newizv.ru/news/economy/17-08-2017/reyting-sotsialnogo-blagopoluchiya-rossiya-opustilas-nizhe-filippin),
not only reflecting real problems in rural areas (newsland.com/community/4788/content/eksperty-soobshchili-o-roste-riska-bednosti-dlia-zhitelei-sel/5957676), but also in the
major cities. Moscow is now on the list of the top five cities of the world
where live has become more uncomfortable over the last year (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5994570EE042D). Social problems
are mounting as a result: divorces are now running at more than 60 percent of
new marriages (takiedela.ru/news/2017/08/13/braki-i-razvody/) and Russian
women are paid only 72 percent on average what men are (newsland.com/community/4636/content/v-chem-oshibaiutsia-russkie-zhenshchiny/5958589). But Russian
companies are taking advantage of all Russians even so: Aeroflot says it won’t
charge at least for now for coats being carried onto flights by passengers (republic.ru/posts/85824?utm_source=slon.ru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morning) but it has
dramatically boosted fares for those travelling from the Far East to European
portions of the country (regnum.ru/news/society/2311519.html).
7.
In Moscow Today,
Don’t Drink the Water or Even Breathe the Air. Water and air pollution in the Russian
capital is now so severe that it is a health hazard, experts say (sobkorr.ru/news/599553EB01AE8.html and
openrussia.org/notes/712575/). Medical care is
also deteriorating, not only because of Putin’s “optimization” campaign which
is sparking complaints (7x7-journal.ru/anewsitem/97607 and lenta.ru/articles/2017/08/15/doc/) but also because
studies show that Russian doctors are making ever more mistakes in diagnosis
and treatment (svoboda.org/a/28679401.html).
Many are turning away from the medical system altogether. Sexually active young
people aren’t engaging in safe sex and antibiotic resistant gonorrhea is
spreading, although how far is obscured by the failure of the government to
keep records (ura.news/articles/1036271800 and ng.ru//2017-08-16/8_7052_gonorea.html).
Others, no longer able to pay for ever more expensive medications are turning
to alternative treatments which often mean they cannot be cured at all (newsland.com/community/7411/content/v-rf-lekarstva-dorozhaiut-bystree-chem-rastiot-infliatsiia/5958347 and takiedela.ru/news/2017/08/15/shansy-vylechit-rak/). Not
surprisingly, all this is pushing up mortality rates, and this year, the
natural loss of the population has been four times greater than last year (newsland.com/community/4109/content/estestvennaia-ubyl-naseleniia-rossii-uskorilas-pochti-v-chetyre-raza/5958689).
8.
All Residents of
Non-Russian Republics have Moral Obligation to Titular Nations, Chuvash Writer
Says.
In wake of Putin’s words about language and his decision not to extend the
power-sharing accord with Tatarstan, some in the republics are beginning to hit
back. Anatoly Kibech, a distinguished
Chuvash writer, says that “every resident” of a non-Russian republic, including
ethnic Russians, has “a moral obligation” to support and even defer to the
titular nation (idelreal.org/a/kazhdy-zhitel-chuvashii-v-moralnom-otnoshenii-obyazan-titulnoy-natsii/28675975.html). The head of Bashkortostan has announced that no
language teachers will be laid off, effectively freezing current instructional requirements
in Bashkir (idelreal.org/a/28675296.html). And in Tatarstan, opinion is radicalizing about
relations with Moscow, with some pushing even harder for their rights than they
did earlier and thus highlighting one of the risks Putin took in deciding not
to extend the agreement (rbc.ru/politics/11/08/2017/598db6239a7947c83a69eceb?from=main,
newsland.com/community/5652/content/chem-grozit-otsutstvie-dogovora-mezhdu-rossiei-i-tatarstanom/5952536 and business-gazeta.ru/article/354271).
Meanwhile, a new survey in the North Caucasus shows that corruption and
economic decline are undermining ethnic relations there (caucasustimes.com/ru/opros-na-severnom-kavkaze-2017-korrupcija-i-uhudshenie-jekonomicheskogo-polozhenija-podryvaet-avtoritet-vlasti-v-regione/), and controversy is swirling over a Russian effort
to ban the public performance of the lezginka (nazaccent.ru/content/25047-aktivisty-potrebovali-otmenit-zapret-na-lezginku.html). Family violence appears to be getting worse in
Chechnya (takiedela.ru/2017/08/razvod-po-chechenski/), imams in Saratov oblast are learning Kazakh
because one-third of the residents of that Russian region now are ethnic
Kazakhs (islamsng.com/kaz/news/13064),
and troubles continue in two amalgamated
non-Russian areas with Buryats from the former Agin district moving in large
numbers to Buryatia (asiarussia.ru/news/17349/), and a road that was never built, despite official
promises, in Yamalo-Nenets, now needing repairs, an indication of massive
Rusisan corruption there (https://ura.news/articles/1036271862).
9. For First Time Since 2012, Demand for Haj Places
Exceeds Supply in Tatarstan. In an indication that the economic situation in
Tatarstan is not as dire as it was and that interest in Islam is increasing in
that Middle Volga republic, for the first time in five years, the number of
Tatars seeking to go on the pilgrimage to Mecca this year exceeded the number
Moscow had allocated to them (business-gazeta.ru/article/354239).
Meanwhile, in another religion story likely to cast a shadow on the future,
Russian nationalists are denying that there was ever a mass murder of priests a
the Butov polygon, a place the Moscow Patriarchate has devoted a great deal of
effort to present as a monument to the victimization of religion under Stalin (newsland.com/community/129/content/feik-butovskogo-poligona-net-zhertv-i-dokazatelstv-rasstrelov/5952383).
10.
Talk of
Debt-Driven Regional Amalgamation Gains Ground in Urals. There was more
talk this week that the mounting debts of federal subjects will force them to
amalgamate into larger and presumably more economically viable units, thus
restarting in an indirect way Putin’s effort in that regard (ura.news/articles/1036271859). Other regional news included a report that a
museum in Pskov ignored the city’s entire history until the time it was
absorbed by Moscow (afterempire.info/2017/08/18/pskov/),
a second that civil society has degraded in Kaliningrad (fedpress.ru/article/1836300), the
rapid Ingermandlandization of toponomy in northwestern Russia (freeingria.org/2017/08/ingermanlandizatsiya-toponimiki-ingrii/),
and a third that residents in “New Moscow” will have significantly fewer rights
than those living in the original city (newizv.ru/news/society/12-08-2017/nenash-gorod-zhiteli-novoy-moskvy-imeyut-menshe-prav-chem-obitateli-staroy-af64d40d-707d-452b-990a-f4235507d51d). But perhaps
the most important report was a fourth. It noted that in the capitals, those
the regime doesn’t like are treated significantly less brutally than they are
when they are in regions far from the center and thus out of the site of
Western journalists and diplomats (newsland.com/community/129/content/v-peterburge-pederastov-razognali-pertsovymi-balonchikami-a-na-kubani-nagaikami/5958178).
11. Church and State Begin to Distance Themselves from
Anti-Mathilda Movement. Both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian
state distanced themselves this week from the leadership of the anti-Mathilda
movement, with the former calling for prayers rather than protests and
suggesting the movement was harming the church (nakanune.ru/news/2017/8/15/22479465/
and iarex.ru/articles/54400.html) and the
latter threatening criminal prosecution of protest leaders (spektr.press/news/2017/08/15/poklonskoj-prigrozili-ugolovnoj-otvetstvennostyu/). Other protest issues included the outing of the corruption wealth of Peskov’s son by
Aleksey Navalny (themoscowtimes.com/articles/navalny-outs-kremlin-peskov-alleged-son-58689),
conflicts over a Russian Orthodox cathedral in a Muslim republic (kavpolit.com/articles/v_stolitse_dagestane_projdet_aktsija_v_podderzhku-35324/), Kalmyk protests over water shortages there (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/307849/ ), Cossack protests about land losses in Stavropol (kavpolit.com/articles/nezhelatelnyj_-35303/), an attack on a gay pride march in St. Petersburg (zona.media/news/2017/08/12/pride-i-gaz),
and a convoy by veterans of the Soviet security services in honor of the 100th
anniversary of the Cheka (politsovet.ru/56210-veterany-specsluzhb-ustroyat-patrioticheskiy-avtoprobeg-v-chest-stoletiya-chk.html). Two other developments will provide new data in
this area, a photo expedition to a GULAG uranium mine (meduza.io/feature/2017/08/13/ostatki-uranovogo-lagerya-v-magadane-fotografii-iz-ekspeditsii-muzeya-istorii-gulaga) and a new website, bigcasephoto.com/, that promises to post photographs of those charged with extremism.
12.
American Monument Dispute
Adds to Russian Monuments War. A call by the mayor of Seattle mayor to
take down a statue of Lenin at the same time as statues of Confederate leaders
has sparked outrage among some Russians (forum-msk.org/material/news/13591250.html). But the American conflict is in no way as intense
as the Russian one with fights over figures from tsarist grand dukes to
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, all of which some say is splitting Russian society irreparably
(rusk.ru/st.php?idar=78767,
/newsland.com/community/4765/content/v-permi-ustanoviat-memorialnuiu-dosku-velikomu-kniaziu-mikhailu-romanovu/5956824
and rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=78756).
But in a lead article, the editors of Nezavisimaya gazeta argue that too much
is being made of these disputes and
others about history because Russians today aren’t interested about the past
but only about their current problems (ng.ru/editorial/2017-08-18/2_7054_red.html).
13.
Culture Minister
Says Cover Harvest, Construction Projects Not Political Disputes. Russia’s culture minister has called on the
media to stop focusing on political disputes and instead report about harvests
and construction achievements, much as the Soviet media did (graniru.org/Culture/Cinema/m.263277.html).
Others too seem prepared to go back to Soviet approaches: the head of
Ingushetia calls for restoring censorship (polit.ru/news/2017/08/11/evkurov_matylda/), and investigators announced there was no evidence
of torture in a Krasnoyarsk prison despite more than 50 complaints from inmates
(kasparov.ru/material.php?id=599542C6CC50F). Also
reminiscent of the past: more journalists were beaten (echo.msk.ru/news/2036324-echo.html) as was a Moscow opposition deputy (snob.ru/selected/entry/127904). The
authorities did report one move away from repression: the number of warnings
issued to the media for using curse words has declined over the last year (graniru.org/Politics/Russia/Cabinet/m.263379.html).
14.
Putin State No
Longer Protecting Its Citizens, Gudkov Says. The Russian government is failing
to fulfill its primary obligation to protect the lives of its citizens,
opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov says (echo.msk.ru/blog/dgudkov/2036804-echo/).
Other developments with domestic security implications included: Moscow is
allowing the defense ministry to avoid paying for communal services (newsland.com/user/4297931848/content/dolzhna-da-ne-obiazana-minoborony-otkreshchivaetsia-ot-kommunalnykh-dolgov/5954873) and to seize land from the population (echo.msk.ru/news/2039102-echo.html), more armed crimes are being committed (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/08/18/134513-vooruzhennyy-muzhchina-ograbil-bank-v-ekaterinburge), officials often get handguns as rewards (kp.ru/daily/26717.7/3742485/), the security services want officials to drop any
use of foreign IT programs (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=599429C715458),
fights are intensifying over defense ministry spending in the next several
years (gordonua.com/news/worldnews/goldfarb-naseleniyu-vlasti-rf-obeshchayut-sokratit-rashody-na-oboronu-a-armii-rasskazyvayut-chto-budut-vypolnyat-finansovye-obyazatelstva-202882.html), the defense ministry has had to concede that it
did service some MREs that were contaminated to soldiers (rbc.ru/politics/11/08/2017/598c99a29a794752bcf2eb65?from=center_1),
and reflecting Russia’s demographic problems, women are now in aviation
training academies (newsland.com/community/5392/content/vpervye-v-istorii-rossii-kursantkami-aviauchilishcha-stanut-devushki/5952104).
15.
Iranian-Russian
Military Cooperation Continuing in Violation of UN Sanctions. Moscow and
Tehran have continued to cooperate in the military industry in violation of UN
sanctions, European papers report (rbc.ru/politics/13/08/2017/5990532d9a79472727b55913?from=main).
Meanwhile, India has shown itself ever less interested in purchasing Russian
weapons (svpressa.ru/war21/article/179313/). And Liliya Shevtsova notes that Russia has suffered
the worst possible outcome of the North Korean conflict: it has been completely
sidelined and ignored (15minut.org/articles/173276-to-chto-proishodit-sejchas-eto-realnyj-udar-po-pozvonochniku-rossijskogo-samoderzhaviya).
That may be one of the reasons that prompted it to push the story, false, that
Ukraine supplied missile components to Pyongyang.
16.
More Sports Doping
Scandals, Problems with World Cup Venues. More Russian athletes were exposed as
having used illegal drugs and suspended or stripped of medals this week (politobzor.net/show-140854-doping-skandal-s-wada-novye-mery-ot-rf-i-neozhidannyy-povorot-s-meldoniem.html,
themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-athletes-suspended-for-doping-58675 and meduza.io/news/2017/08/13/smeny-iz-rossii-zavoevali-pyat-medaley-na-chm-po-legkoy-atletike-oni-vystupayut-pod-neytralnym-flagom). Russian athletes have also been forced to compete
under neutral flags, offending many Russians but approved of by Dmitry Medvedev
(newsland.com/community/7285/content/na-chempionate-mira-po-liogkoi-atletike-publichno-pytaiutsia-unizit-rossiiu/5953107, newsland.com/community/5652/content/dmitrii-medvedev-schitaet-dopustimym-otkaz-rossiiskikh-smenov-ot-flaga-svoei-strany/5953014 and newsland.com/community/5862/content/nichi-medali-kak-rossiia-pobezhdala-bez-flaga/5954471). And there were additional reports that venues for
the 2018 World Cup are far from ready (politobzor.net/show-140968-eto-uzhas-teper-zdes-zhit-zhiteli-peterburga-zhaluyutsya-na-zenit-arenu.html and
regnum.ru/news/economy/2310863.html). To try to get out of the doghouse on illegal
doping, Moscow very publicly set up a new national anti-doping laboratory (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=599026164F7FC).
17. Russia Now has More Prostitutes than Doctors, Farmers
and Firemen Combined.
There are now well over one million prostitutes in the Russian Federation, a
figure that is higher than the combined total of doctors, farmers, and firemen,
official statistics show (snob.ru/selected/entry/128051).
18. Russia Viewed
Positively by a Majority in Only Three Countries.
Moscow devotes a lot of effort to claiming how much support it has abroad, but
international polls show that it has a majority positive rating only in Greece,
Vietnam and the Philippines. It may also garner that kind of support in
repressive countries like North Korea but polls aren’t allowed in such places (rosbalt.ru/world/2017/08/16/1639031.html).
19.
Russia
‘All the Same isn’t an African Country.’
Most Russian discussions on where that country fits into the world either
stress its uniqueness or its European ties, but a spate of comparisons with
some of the most impoverished countries in sub-Saharan Africa, comparisons
which often do not show Russia at an advantage, have let some Russians to
insist that “all the same, Russia isn’t an African country” (newsland.com/community/4109/content/rossiia-vse-taki-ne-afrikanskaia-strana/5953000).
20.
Lavrov Warns
Washington Against Interfering in Upcoming Russian Presidential Vote. Russian Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Washington must not interfere in the upcoming
Russian presidential elections or it will face serious consequences. This has sparked new discussions about
American assistance to Boris Yeltsin and his re-election effort in 1996 (newsland.com/community/5392/content/lavrov-rossiia-predosteregaet-ssha-ot-vmeshatelstva-v-nashi-vybory/5952025).
21.
Moscow Warns
Russians of Bubonic Plague in US.
Russian propaganda efforts are becoming ever more hyperbolic, with
health officials warning Russians against going to the US because of a supposed
mass outbreak of Bubonic plague (spektr.press/news/2017/08/17/rospotrebnadzor-predupredil-rossiyan-o-bubonnoj-chume-v-ssha/). Another
propaganda creation, one so extreme that commentators have labelled it “The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Part II,” circulated a completely made-up
interview of a former British intelligence officer (rusmonitor.com/sionskie-protokoly-2-0-putinskikh-trollejj-razoblachili-s-falshivym-intervyu-byvshego-glavy-mi-6-o-zagovore-protiv-rossii.html).
22.
Russians Favor Increasing
Security over Boosting Prestige. A new poll shows that Russians believe
that their government should pursue a foreign policy intended to boost their
security rather than one that raises its prestige, exactly the opposite view to
the one the Kremlin has sought to promote (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59954FF93CF4C).
23.
Zinovyev’s Widow
Says Source of Russophobia is Russia Itself. Olga Zinovyeva, the widow of the
novelist and essayist Aleksandr Zinovyev, says the source of Russophobia is to
be found in Russia itself rather than in the machinations of elites in other
countries (kp.ru/daily/26717.7/3742643/).
24.
NKVD Sought
Medicine to Make Soviet Leaders Immortal. A new study says that officers of the
Soviet secret police sought to produce a drug that would allow Soviet leaders
to live forever, a goal many have had and still have including perhaps some of
the leaders of post-Soviet Russia (newsland.com/community/6635/content/alkhimiki-nvkd-bilis-nad-retseptom-bessmertiia-vozhdei-sssr/5952171).
25. First Load of Nuclear Waste Arrives
in North Russia. Ecologists are worried that Russian
actions to store nuclear waste in the Far North will have serious environmental
consequences, a fear exacerbated by the fact that there are more than 18,000
nuclear objects left over from the Soviet period at the bottom of the Arctic
Ocean (thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2017/08/first-load-nuclear-waste-andreeva-bay-arrives-mayak and http://bellona.ru/2017/08/14/tayni-glubin/).
26. Moscow
Inspectors Thought They’d Find a Courtroom; Instead, They Found a Pool Hall.
Inspectors from the Russian Accounting Chamber thought they would be inspecting
a new court facility in the Yamal peninsula, but instead, they discovered that
the money had been spent to build a pool hall (newsland.com/community/5652/content/schetnaia-palata-obnaruzhila-na-iamale-vmesto-zala-suda-biliardnuiu-komnatu/5954921).
And 13 more from countries in
Russia’s neighborhood:
1. Last Lenin Statue Falls in Ukraine. Kyiv has declared
victory on one segment of its struggle with the communist past: the last statue
of Lenin has been removed and either destroyed or sent to the dump (http://www.centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1503034080 ).
2. Ukrainians
Unfurl Largest Ever Independent Chechen Flag.
Ukrainians and pro-independence Chechens joined together to unfurl the largest
flag of Ichkeria in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, a symbolic act of support for the
Chechen national cause and something certain to infuriate Moscow (qha.com.ua/ru/video/na-maidane-razvernuli-samii-bolshoi-v-mire-flag-ichkerii/5987/).
3. New Crimean
Tatar Radio Begins Broadcasting. A new
Ukrainian-backed Crimean Tatar station, Radio Hayat, has begun broadcasting to
Russian-occupied Crimea from unoccupied Ukraine, thereby helping to break the
information blockade the Russian authorities have sought to impose (qha.com.ua/ru/obschestvo/nachalos-veschanie-radio-hayat/177289/).
4. Russian Occupiers
of Crimea Run Out of Gas – Literally. The Russian
occupation forces in Ukraine’s Crimea have almost completely run out of gas for
their vehicles, a symbolic indication of the problems those forces face in
controlling the peninsula all the hoopla about it notwithstanding (dsnews.ua/politics/v-krymu-uzhe-pochti-net-benzina-15082017081500).
5.
Lukashenka
Wants to But Can’t Double Belarus Population.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka says that he would like to see the population of Belarus
double in the coming years, but the Belarusian leader is unlikely to be able to
achieve his goal. Not only are many Belarusians seeking to escape his
authoritarian rule by fleeing abroad, but fertility rates in Belarus are
dropping rather than increasing as would be necessary (lenta.ru/articles/2017/08/13/rozhdaemost/).
6.
Lukashenka Plans
to Put Teachers in Uniform. The Belarusian leader is more likely to succeed with
another of his projects: he wants to put teachers in his country in uniform,
yet another authoritarian return to the past (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/8/12/259480/).
7.
Alexiyevich Says
Belarusian National Idea is Independent State with Its Own Language. Belarusian
Nobelist Svetlana Alexiyevich says that the national idea of Belarusians is to
have an independent state which uses its own language rather than the language
of another (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/8/13/259621/).
8.
Moscow Again Tries
to Make an Issue of Latvia’s Latgale.
Despite indications that it won’t be successful in doing so, Moscow
appears to be again focusing on the impoverished region of southeastern Latvia,
Latgale, whose people speak their own dialect or Russian rather than formal
Latvian, as a possible wedge to be used against Riga (lenta.ru/articles/2017/08/18/latgalia/).
9.
Some Armenians
Want to Block Andranik Migranyan from Entering Their Country. A group of
Armenians offended by the statements and actions of Andranik Migranyan, an
ethnic Armenian who has become a Russian nationalist spokesman more Orthodox
than the Patriarch in both Russia and the West, are seeking to have him put on
a list of those who are not allowed to enter Armenia (ru.1in.am/1197264.html).
10. Four Latin Scripts for Kazakh Now Under Active
Consideration.
Scholars and officials in Astana are studying four possible Latin-based scripts
for Kazakh which is now written in a Cyrillic alphabet but is slated to go over
to Latin in the coming years (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1502775720). Kazakhstan
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has sought to calm Russian fears about this: he
said this week that the alphabet change will affect only Kazakh and not Russian
(ansar.ru/rfsng/nazarbaev-kazahstan-ne-otkazhetsya-ot-russkogo-yazyka-i-kirillicy).
11.
Uzbekistan
Opens Consulate in Vladivostok. Reflecting the
increasing flow of Uzbek gastarbeiters not to Moscow and St. Petersburg but
rather to the Russian Far East, Tashkent is opening a consulate general in
Vladivostok (migrant.ferghana.ru/newslaw/во-владивостоке-откроется-генконсул.html).
12.
Collapse of Social
Lifts, Not Foreign Agents, Behind Islamist Radicalism in Central Asia. Russian and Central Asian experts say that
economic problems and the lack of possibilities for upward social mobility among
young people are playing a bigger role in the rise of Islamist radicalism in
Central Asia than any combination of foreign influences (regnum.ru/news/polit/2310269.html).
13.
Moscow Thinks
Returning Migrants Can be Soft Power Resource for Russia in Central Asia. Russian observers are suggesting that Central
Asians who have worked in Russia and then return to their homeland can serve as
an instrument of “soft power” for Moscow because of their knowledge of Russian
and Russian life (regnum.ru/news/economy/2309993.html). That contrasts
with the observation of many that such returnees having been exposed to Russian
xenophobia are even more hostile to Russia than they were before working there.
No comments:
Post a Comment