Staunton, September 3 -- 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 98th 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.
Will ‘a Woman, a
Monkey or a Horse’ Run Against Putin Next Year? No one thinks that any opponent could defeat Vladimir
Putin in next year’s presidential race, but the Kremlin leader and his regime
are concerned about boosting participation which threatens to be quite low
given that everyone knows what they outcome will be. Among the strategies being discussed, Moscow
observers say, is running “a woman, a monkey and a horse” against him to add
interest (newsland.com/community/7973/content/sopernikami-a-na-vyborakh-mogut-stat-zhenshchina-obeziana-porosenok-i-loshad/5978906 and rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/09/01/1643055.html). While Putin’s
poll numbers remain high inside Russia where saying one doesn’t support him
could lead to problems, Russians abroad are increasingly turning away from him
(newsland.com/community/4109/content/russkie-zhivushchie-za-granitsei-protiv-a/5973977 and sueddeutsche.de/politik/thinktank-auslandsrussen-gegen-putin-1.3642479), in part because fact-checking shows he often
doesn’t get things right (7x7-journal.ru/item/98163), in part because of increasing repression (newsland.com/community/129/content/avtor-knigi--na-mirovoi-arene-nikolai-zubkov-arestovan-sudom-za-prizyvy-k-ekstremizmu/5978036), and in part
because of ever more evidence of a hyperbolic personality cult (ura.news/news/1052302881). Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, Putin
won’t attend the UN General Assembly meeting in New York (echo.msk.ru/news/2048232-echo.html), and at home, he faces problems protecting his
daughter and the daughter of his press secretary from legal harassment (graniru.org/Politics/Russia/President/m.263642.html and newsland.com/community/4765/content/doch-peskova-obvinili-v-oskvernenii-khrama/5971624). That has
sparked suggestions that Putin’s circle is narrowing or even that the US is
trying to set Russian big businessmen against him (rusmonitor.com/krug-druzejj-a-suzilsya.html and newsland.com/community/1713/content/ssha-tolkaiut-krupnyi-biznes-rf-na-miatezh-protiv-a/5978060). But if the latter is the case, Washington appears
to have failed. According to the Bloomberg news agency, Russia’s billionaires
have seen their wealth grow by 17 billion US dollars since the start of this
year (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/09/02/134946-bloomberg-rossiyskie-milliardery-s-nachala-goda-stali-bogache-na-17-mlrd-dollarov).
2.
Moscow Calls US
Visa Slowdown Act of Genocide. The Russian
foreign ministry in its increasingly hyperbolic way accused the US of
“genocide” against Russians by its announcement that Russians would face longer
wait times to get American visas, an implicit recognition of just how desperate
some Russians are to get to the US for medical treatment or other reasons (znak.com/2017-08-28/zaharova_obvinila_ssha_v_genocide_rossiyan_iz_za_zamorozki_vydachi_viz). Moscow said it wouldn’t respond immediately
to this mistaken American action, but in fact, it has, increasing its Internet-based
attacks on the US since the Charlottesville demonstrations (themoscowtimes.com/news/zakharova-russia-wont-respond-to-us-visa-58778 and bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-01/russia-linked-bots-hone-online-attack-plans-for-2018-u-s-vote).
Some Russians are upset that they are losing jobs following the Moscow-mandated
reduction in US personnel in Russia (politsovet.ru/56400-genkonsulstvo-ssha-v-ekaterinburge-uvolilo-bolshe-poloviny-rossiyskih-sotrudnikov.html),
but others are so enthusiastic about the break that they want Moscow to close
all US consulates in Russia, including the one in Vladivostok (beregrus.ru/?p=9962). And Russia got a black eye when the US closed the
Russian consulate in San Francisco, a major espionage center directed at
Silicon Valley, when some of its employees asked for political asylum in the US
rather than being required to return to their homeland (newsland.com/community/4765/content/rabotniki-konsulstva-rf-v-san-frantsisko-prosiat-politubezhishche-v-ssha/5979149).
3. Is the Russian Revolution of 1991 ‘Devouring Its Own’
or Keeping the State a Terrorist Organization? Russian
commentaries this week continued their tradition of trying to fit the current
Putin regime into earlier Russian models. One pro-communist one suggested that
“the criminal feudal revolution of 1991-1993” was now “devouring its own
children (forum-msk.org/material/news/13642318.html). Another liberal one argued that Putin’s
regime is one in which the powers that be are little more than a terrorist
organization (soundcloud.com/yuri-rashkin/slava-rabinovich-v-rossii-net-vlasti-a-est-terroristicheskaya-organizatsiya). Meanwhile, more than half of ordinary Russians say they aren’t
interested in Russian politics at all (regnum.ru/news/polit/2315461.html), with a third saying that it would have
been better if Russia had never given up the monarchy (newsland.com/community/4765/content/opros-tret-rossiian-schitaiut-chto-bylo-by-luchshe-esli-by-v-rossii-sokhranilas-monarkhiia/5971783 and monarhist.info/news/4493). Meanwhile, two new analyses suggest that Russians still have trouble
coping with democracy, viewing elections as referenda and therefore requiring
huge majorities rather than 50 percent plus one as in other countries (ng.ru/editorial/2017-08-29/2_7061_red.html and liberal.ru/articles/7181). Finally, a St. Petersburg historian has
called for limited lustration. He says that those who have served in the KGB or
FSB should lose their rights to hold political office (news.mail.ru/society/3022262/).
4.
Is
Toilet Paper Again Going to Become a Deficit Good in Russia Today? Shortages are
spreading in many regions of Russia, leading some to speculate that toilet
paper, in infamously short supply in Soviet times, may soon disappear from the shelves
of Russian stores (ehorussia.com/new/node/14737). Perfumes
and cosmetics are among the things that have already disappeared (versia.ru/minpromtorg-ozabotilsya-problemoj-importozameshheniya-v-parfyumernoj-i-kosmeticheskoj-promyshlennosti). As ever more Russians face difficulties
finding work, Moscow says that the decline in the share of the population at
work is a good thing for Russia (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A532D38C828).
Russians are cutting back on foreign travel and spending less on their children
for school supplies (islamsng.com/sng/news/13176
and lenta.ru/news/2017/08/30/wciom/). One intriguing development is that the record
grain harvest may lead to record deflation in August (iz.ru/638795/alina-evstigneeva-valentina-dorokhova/rekordnyi-urozhai-zernovykh-nadavit-na-infliatciiu).
Other economic news this week includes: one in every three Russians relies on a
private garden for food (kp.ru/daily/26726.7/3752214/),
ten percent of Russian firms are at the edge of bankruptcy (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/44341),
the number of pensioners working has fallen by five percent this year (polit.ru/article/2017/09/01/hundredword/)
despite growing problems with pension funds (ng.ru/omics/2017-08-30/1_7062_pensfond.html),
Moscow says that it has identified 51,000 cases of wage arrears in the first
half of 2017 (iz.ru/638871/bogdan-stepovoi-angelina-galanina/za-okladom-prishel-rostrud),
and public transportation is stopping in some Russian cities because the bus
and tram lines haven’t paid their bills (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/308833/).
In adition, there are media reports that Russia’s production of oil is
declining (news.rambler.ru/business/37799904-v-rossii-snizilas-dobycha-nefti/).
5.
Even Well-Off
Russians Don’t See a Future in Russia for Themselves and Their Children. Even those
Russians who are middle class or better don’t think that they or their children
can expect to have a bright future if they remain in Russia (ura.news/articles/1036271970). In the minds of many, “nothing good” happens
in Russia (business-gazeta.ru/article/355613).
Moreover, ever more Russians are taking note of the fact that many Russians who
were born in the USSR have done far better even spectacularly so after
emigrating to the West (newsland.com/community/88/content/rozhdionnye-v-sssr/5978707).
6.
26,300 Russian
Schools have Been Closed Since Putin Came to Power. The Russian
Federation largely maintained the number of schools that had existed in the
RSFSR until Vladimir Putin took office when they began to close, especially in
rural areas, in massive numbers (apn-spb.ru/opinions/article26656.htm
and nakanune.ru/articles/113220/). In some places, rural schools no longer
provide free bus rides for pupils (idelreal.org/a/28694399.html),
and some feel that the only thing children will be taught now is that “Crimea
is Ours” (fedpress.ru/article/1846939)
and that Pavlik Morozov is a model for how children should behave (agonia-ru.com/archives/10986). As
a result, Russians are now homeschooling some 100,000 children, a dramatic
increase from almost none in 1991 (snob.ru/selected/entry/128385).
The situation may soon get worse. Some in the defense ministry want to link
every school to a military unit (iz.ru/639751/pavel-panov/voennye-chasti-pridut-v-shkoly).
7.
Russians, Raised
with Soviet Homogeneity, Find Diversity Daunting. Given the gray monotony of Soviet life when
everyone was encouraged to be like everyone else, many Russians find the diversity
that has emerged since 1991 a challenge, and this is a major reason they often
express distaste at those who are different (thequestion.ru/questions/38072/pochemu-sredi-naseleniya-sovremennoi-rossii-tak-plokho-razvita-lyubogo-vida-tolerantnost). Often, because whole Russian families
move to cities, their traditional way of life clashes with the new urban
realities (demoscope.ru/weekly/2017/0735/tema04.php
and demoscope.ru/weekly/2017/0735/tema08.php). And Moscow’s plans to subsidize domestic travel
may spark reactions as Russians discover just how diverse their country now is
(iz.ru/638390/evgenii-deviatiarov/turoperatoram-mogut-dat-1-mlrd-rub-na-razvitie-vnutrennego-turizma).
8.
’90 Percent of
Russians Live in Stress; the Remainder Live Abroad.’ That is a line that has been circulating
on Russian and Western social media (twitter.com/altword/status/904399846181924866).
The deteriorating economic situation is leading to more divorces and fewer
marriages and that in turn is pushing down the birthrate in many places (kvnews.ru/news-feed/omskaya-oblast-vhodit-v-troyku-samyh-razvodyashchihsya-regionov-sibiri
and ng.ru/economics/2017-08-29/1_7061_brak.html),
putting more burdens on the declining number of working-age Russians (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/8/27/261026/).
Russians have been warned that the death rate is likely to increase this winter
as a result of a flu epidemic (newizv.ru/news/society/29-08-2017/etoy-zimoy-v-rossii-ozhidaetsya-rost-smertnosti-ot-grippa),
and Russians with CML leukemia are dying who don’t have to because they cannot
obtain the new miracle drugs available in the West (iarex.ru/articles/54449.html). And STDs are spreading because Russians do not
want to have contacts with doctors to get contraceptive advice and techniques (takiedela.ru/2017/08/takaya-rossiya-semya/).
9.
Voynovich Says
Tatarstan Can Be an Independent Country. Russian émigré writer Vladimir Voynovich
says that the Republic of Tatarstan has everything necessary to become an
independent country (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/8/28/261158/). His words
have encouraged many Tatars because Moscow commentators believe that their hard
line against Kazan has blocked Tatarstan from moving in a Ukrainian direction (ruskline.ru/opp/2017/sentyabr/01/moskva_predotvrawaet_ukrainskij_scenarij_v_tatarstane/). Other news from the nationalities front this week
includes: the Besermans are headed toward extinction (nazaccent.ru/content/25228-v-udmurtii-sokratilas-chislennost-besermyan.html),
the Khakass and the Bashkirs are working to save their languages in the schools
of their republics (nazaccent.ru/content/25223-den-hakasskogo-yazyka-vpervye-otmetyat-v.html and nazaccent.ru/content/25212-vsemirnyj-kurultaj-bashkir-razrabotaet-programmu-po.html),
the demographic explosion in the North Caucasus means that the number of
children entering schools in that region has risen there more than anywhere
else in Russia (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/308866/),
the Maris have complained to the presidential plenipotentiary about their
underrepresentation in government
structures in their republic (mariuver.com/2017/08/28/polpr-obr/),
the Russian Germans mark the anniversary of their deportation (nazaccent.ru/content/25171-rossijskie-nemcy-pochtili-pamyat-deportirovannyh-rodstvennikov.html),
officials parachuted into national republics are being forced to come up with a
brand suggesting familiarity with the titular nation (afterempire.info/2017/08/29/buy-karelian/),
and Vladimir Putin has begun appointing officials at the municipal level who
will bear responsibility for the implementation of nationality policy at that
level (politsovet.ru/56410-putin-poruchil-naznachit-otvetstvennyh-za-nacionalnye-otnosheniya-v-gorodah.html).
10.
One Russian in
Four has Never Been to Moscow and Most Don’t Want to Live There. New research
shows that a quarter of all Russians have never visited Moscow and that most
Russians do not have any desire to live in the city (echo.msk.ru/news/2048200-echo.html
and echo.msk.ru/news/2047750-echo.html).
An Omsk scholar says what many think: if Moscow would allow the regions to keep
the tax money they collect, they wouldn’t need subsidies from the center (newizv.ru/news/society/29-08-2017/professor-kostarev-ostavte-omsku-nalogi-i-nikakaya-stolichnost-nam-ne-nuzhna). One commentator in Tatarstan says that Moscow has
created a unique system, “unitary federalism,” one in which the country calls
itself a federation but in fact is a unitary state (business-gazeta.ru/article/355943).
Meanwhile, there are indications that regionalism is intensifying in many
places across the country (afterempire.info/2017/08/27/kamchatka-japan/,
ng.ru/politics/2017-08-28/1_7060_kalinngrad.html, afterempire.info/2017/08/30/first-for-siberia/
and afterempire.info/2017/08/30/suvalki/).
11. Could Moscow Make Roman Catholicism a ‘Traditional’
Russian Faith? Some are speculating that the Russian
government might decide to add Catholicism to the list of traditional faiths
given its growth in many regions and the desire of the Kremlin to ally itself
with the Vatican on conservative issues (regnum.ru/news/polit/2314594.html and capost.media/special/obzory/katolicheskiy_kavkaz_istoriya_i_sovremennost_odnoy_iz_samykh_bolshikh_konfessiy_mira_na_yuge_rossii//). Meanwhile, Russia’s leading sect fighter says
that a court decision declaring the Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses extremist
was a serious error that will complicate Russian life (pravoslavie.ru/105915.html),
studies show that Russians do not consider training children on religious
issues in schools to be important (politsovet.ru/56379-rossiyane-ne-schitayut-vazhnym-vospityvat-v-detyah-veru-v-boga-i-poslushanie.html),
the Moscow Patriarchate has taken up the cudgels for the 70,000 North Korean
Christians now in jail there putting the Russian church at odds with the Russian
state (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=78812),
Orthodox priests using reports on confessions have classified Russians’ sin
life (philologist.livejournal.com/9553610.html
and interfax-.ru/?act=print&div=20342), and the Mari republic doesn’t know what to do with
all the churches the ousted republic head built before he was arrested (mariuver.com/2017/09/01/soderzh-hramy/).
12.
Moscow has Evacuated
Russians Living Near the North Korean Border. As tensions between Pyongyang and
the US intensify, Moscow has evacuated Russians living near the Russian-North
Korean border (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A5427157882).
Other stories reflecting domestic concerns about security include reports about
spy mania sweeping the country (ru.krymr.com/a/28703011.html),
anger in social networks about film of Russians fighting in Syria (fedpress.ru/article/1844972), and
spreading incidents of violence across the country (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A3FDCE058EA, kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A3DBD778466, http://politsovet.ru/56436-v-ekaterinburge-neizvestnyy-ustroil-strelbu-vozle-detskogo-sada.html
and newsland.com/community/4765/content/v-ufe-vzorvali-byvshego-politseiskogo-kozhevnikova-obviniavshegosia-v-pytkakh/5978068). Meanwhile,
a Belarusian was arrested in Moscow when he sought to trade guns for vodka (camarade.biz/node/26066),and a Moscow
policeman was investigated for organizing a prostitution ring (spektr.press/news/2017/08/28/v-moskve-sotrudnicu-policii-zapodozrili-v-prostitucii/). And ever more Russians complained that
Kremlin spending on the Kerch bridge and various foreign adventures were
preventing officials from addressing pressing problems at home (ng.ru/regions/2017-08-29/100_kalmykia290817.html
and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A810453C2C8).
13.
Moscow Doesn’t
Want Western Observers at Zapad Exercise Lest They See Its Weaknesses, Golts
Says.
Aleksandr Golts, a leading independent Moscow military analyst, says that the
reason Moscow doesn’t want Western observers at exercises like Zapad 2017 is
that the Kremlin fears that they will see just how many problems its military
is suffering from (golos-ameriki.ru/a/nato-concerned-about-west-2017/4000817.html). Russia was further embarrassed by the crash
of one of its planes at an airshow (echo.msk.ru/news/2048268-echo.html
) as well as by reports that many Russian weapons systems have not worked
well in Syria (svpressa.ru/war21/article/180093/). Further, it was caught out by Russian sources
for understating to the UN its spending on the military by 42 percent (rbc.ru/economics/30/08/2017/59a5a8189a79470f92154521?from=newsfeed)
and by German investigations of Russian corruption of German elites (ru.rfi.fr/evropa/20170828-igor-eidman-putin-sozdal-sistemu-korrumpirovaniya-nemetskikh-elit
and thechechenpress.com/developments/13771-kak-nemtsy-platyat-za-putinskikh-agentov.html).
14.
Ever More Russians
Believe They Live in an Unjust Country. Ever more Russians believe that the Russia
of Vladimir Putin is an unjust country and a share of them are prepared to
protest against that (newsland.com/community/5134/content/v-rossii-narastaet-oshchushchenie-nespravedlivosti-gosudarstvennogo-ustroistva/5971527). Other protests included one against restrictions
on the Internet that led to arrests (newsru.com/russia/26aug2017/mosinet.html
and ixtc.org/2017/08/v-rossii-proshli-mitingi-za-svobodnyy-internet/), the arrest of someone who wanted to remember those
who protested the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (ixtc.org/2017/08/v-moskve-zaderzhana-aktivistka-za-plakat-v-pamyat-o-vyhode-na-ploschad-v-1968-godu/),
a new debate on whether anyone should be able to use crypto currency in Russia
because some see it as a form of political protest (ej.ru/?a=note&id=31504 and
chaskor.ru/news/rossijskim_chastnym_litsam_zapretyat_denezhnye_operatsii_s_kriptovalyutoj_42378),
a NIMBY protest against a cement factory in Ulyanovsk (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A6682B4B47B),
extreme Russian nationalist crimes have resulted in four deaths so far this
year (sobkorr.ru/news/59A94D90DF56F.html),
and residents of Volgograd organized a protest to demand the ouster of that
city’s mayor (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/308830/).
15.
Moscow Introduces
New Police Vehicle to Combat Mass Demonstrations. Belarusian media
are reporting that Russian police have just taken delivery of a special vehicle
designed to fight mass demonstrations (by24.org/2017/08/27/new_police_truck_with_codename_shit_for_fighting_against_protesters_presented_in_russia/). Meanwhile, the United Nations called on
Moscow to end its practice of declaring publications extremist and keeping them
on a list (sova-center.ru/racism-xenophobia/news/counteraction/2017/08/d37761/).
16. Moscow Gets an Appropriate Monument: to Gun Designer
Kalashnikov.
Moscow has many statues but none more appropriate is to the designer of the
AK-47 (themoscowtimes.com/news/ak-47-designer-kalashnikov-gets-statue-in-moscow-58798).
In other parts of the monuments front this week, officials in Chelyabinsk have
committed to spending 18 million rubles (300,000 US dollars) to restore a Lenin
statue there (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=59A54B559ACD6chelaybinsk),
the Northern Fleet has erected a statue to a Russian saint (interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=68058),
fights over memorials to Admiral Kolchak intensify (kommersant.ru/doc/3398289),
the film Mathilda will become a television miniseries in 2019 (ng.ru/news/592882.html), Russians
divided on whether they want the names
of their relatives who were victims of Stalin on monuments (echo.msk.ru/news/2044656-echo.html,
svoboda.org/a/28696654.html
and nazaccent.ru/content/25158-v-kazani-ustanovyat-tablichki-s-nazvaniyami.html), and a monument to tsarist minister Sergey Witte
has been erected in Omsk (newsland.com/community/4765/content/v-omske-ustanovili-pamiatnik-tsarskomu-ministru-sergeiu-vitte/5978604).
17.
UN Body Calls on
Russia to Root Out Racism among Football Fans. The UN commission responsible for
fighting racism has called on Russia to combat racism among its football fans,
even as yet another case of that surfaced in Germany (nazaccent.ru/content/25176-v-oon-prizvali-rossiyu-iskorenit-rasizm.html
and newsland.com/community/1039/content/rossiianina-obvinili-v-pokushenii-na-futbolnuiu-komandu-v-germanii/5974077). Meanwhile, Moscow adopted a harder line against
WADA charges of doping (politobzor.net/show-141815-ruki-proch-ot-rf-nhl-postavila-wada-na-mesto-zastupivshis-za-zaripova.html), and Russian commentators speculated that Russia
might be excluded from the Olympics (newsland.com/community/4109/content/kak-rossiiu-budut-lishat-olimpiady-chetyre-varianta-razvitiia-sobytii/5977918) even as the Russian sports minister said such an
exclusion was unthinkable (themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-minister-says-no-chance-winter-games-doping-ban-58771). Further, there were more reports that World
Cup stadiums aren’t ready and complaints that officials are destroying historic
buildings to prepare for that competition (echo.msk.ru/blog/projectsplash/2045104-echo/, kasparov.ru/material.php?id=599FCD7067FA9
and echo.msk.ru/news/2044656-echo.html).
18. North Korean Dictator Guarded by
Former Russian KGB Officers.
Tokyo’s Asahi Shimbun reports
that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is guarded by officers who served in the Soviet
KGB, a report that raises serious questions given Captain Aleksandr Nikitin’s
famous remark that “there are no ex-KGB officers just as there are no ex-german
shepherds” (meduza.io/news/2017/08/26/ohranoy-kim-chen-yna-zanyalis-byvshie-agenty-kgb).
19.
Putin Cuts Back on
Environmental Inspections. Russian media have trumpeted the fact that the
number of Russians charged with environmental crimes has fallen by more than 80
percent over the last seven years. But this decline has more to do with a
significant cutback in enforcement efforts over that period rather than any
improvement in the behavior of Russian companies and officials (newsland.com/community/8090/content/kolichestvo-ekologicheskikh-prestuplenii-v-rf-umenshilos-vdvoe-za-sem-l/5971773 and ecoportal.su/news.php?id=93781).
20.
Soviet ‘Detroit’
Dies in Sea of ‘Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Alcohol.’ The city of Tavda
in Sverdlovsk oblast, once known as “the Soviet Detroit,” is dying with its
population taking refuge in the only things still left to it: “sex, drugs, and
cheap alcohol” (theins.ru/obshestvo/68672).
21.
Children of
Immigrants Account for All the Increase in New Pupils in Russia. Moscow officials
have celebrated an increase in the number of children entering school this
year, but a close analysis shows that all of the increase came from children of
immigrant workers from Central Asia and the Caucasus rather than from children
of indigenous ethnic Russians (burckina-new.livejournal.com/802248.html).
22. Chinese Tourists Flood into Russia to Visit 1917
Revolution Sites. The centenary of the Bolshevik revolution is
attracting thousands of Chinese tourists into Russia (asiarussia.ru/articles/17472/). Many of them
are staying in illegal, unregistered hotels that Chinese firms have set up and
act as if they own the places already (http://babr24.com/baik/?IDE=164281).
And some Russian commentators warn that there are now so many Chinese in the
Far East that Beijing could invoke Putin’s Crimean strategy to take the Russian
Far East and parts of Siberia whenever it wants (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/9/1/261601/).
23.
Rural Doctors and
Teachers Rely to Internet to Keep Their Sanity. Newly-minted
doctors and teachers who are given supplementary pay to work in rural portions
of the Russian Federation say that the only thing that keeps them sane is the
availability of Internet connectivity (snob.ru/selected/entry/128391).
24.
Internet Growth
Forces Moscow TV to Respond by Changing Programming. The clearest
indication that the Internet is now a power in Russia is that central Russian
television channels are changing their programming to respond to and even
correspond with Internet media outlets, something the television networks
earlier had been reluctant to do (edpress.ru/news/77/policy/1847312).
25.
Communists Picking
Up Support from Disappointed Young. Young Russians, upset both by the
closure of social lifts and the absence of social justice in their country, are
turning to the KPRF and other communist groups, some observers suggest (rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/09/01/1643099.html).
26.
Fulfilling the
Plan: Road Built Right Through a House in Novosibirsk Oblast. The plan must be fulfilled, whatever the obstacles,
at least among highway builders in Novosibirsk. There, the road builders simply
destroyed half a house to put a road through without telling the absent
residents who, on their return, discovered that they needed to set up a tent to
have a place to sleep now that their house has been wrecked (amarok-man.livejournal.com/2431281.html#t33410353).
And 13 more from
countries in Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
More Bad News from
‘Big’ and ‘Little’ Zones in Russian-Occupied Crimea. Russian occupiers are using electroshocks to
torture prisoners in Crimea (ixtc.org/2017/08/pravozaschitniki-zaderzhannyh-krymskih-tatar-pytali-tokom/),
and even those residents of the Ukrainian peninsula not in prison are also
suffering with suicides having jumped to record levels in Sevastopol (sobkorr.ru/news/59A428A255E3C.html).
2. Ever Fewer Russian Tourists Coming to Crimea. Moscow had
expected that Russians would flock to Crimea and boost the economy there, but
this year, tour operators say, visits to the Ukrainian peninsula are down 20
percent from the already low levels of a year ago (politsovet.ru/56374-turpotok-v-krym-upal-na-20.html).
3.
Belarusian
Opposition Warns Zapad Exercise Opens the Way to Russian ‘Hybrid’ Occupation.
Belarusian opposition figures are warning the West that the joint
Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2017 exercise in September will open the way to “the
hybrid occupation” of their country and call for Western countries to monitor
the situation closely (topwar.ru/123576-belorusskaya-oppoziciya-nazvala-ucheniya-zapad-2017-rossiyskoy-gibridnoy-okkupaciey.html).
4.
Belarusians Demand
KGB Archives be Opened. Hundreds of
Belarusians staged a demonstration to demand that Minsk allow them access to
the archives of the Soviet-era KGB so that they can learn the fate of their
relatives under Stalin and other Soviet leaders (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/8/27/261021/).
5.
Radio Free Europe
Opens New Belarusian Broadcast Facility in Lithuania. Radio Free Europe has opened a new
broadcasting facility in Lithuania to beam Belarusian language programming into
Belarus (camarade.biz/node/26069). In another
linguistic development, the Moscow Patriarchate church in Minsk has released
its first ever translation into Belarusian of the New Testament. There are already about a dozen others in
circulation (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/9/1/261598/).
6. Moldova Deports Russian General. The Moldovan
authorities blocked the entrance of a Russian general who was planning to visit
the breakaway republic of Transdniestria (begemot.media/news/deportirovala-generala/).
7.
Last
Independent News Agency Closes in Azerbaijan.
After struggling to stay afloat for many years, Turan, the last independent
news agency in Azerbaijan, has suspended operations, leaving that country
without an alternative domestic voice (belsat.eu/runews/v-azerbajdzhane-prekratilo-rabotu-poslednee-nezavisimoe-smi/).
8.
If Kazakhstan
Doesn’t Federalize, It Will Suffer Fate of Ukraine, Russian Warns. A Russian commentator says that if Astana
does not federalize Kazakhstan and give Russian areas autonomy, that country
will suffer the fate of Ukraine, a reminder if one is needed that demands for
federalization of countries neighboring Russia are a form of aggression in and
of themselves (cont.ws/@grigmironov/695301).
9. Kazakhstan May Introduce Criminal Penalties for
Offending Feelings of Atheists. Astana is contemplating taking the
logical next step in laws about offending others. Officials there are
considering introducing fines for those who offend atheists (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/08/24/134698-vlasti-kazahstana-predlozhili-shtrafovat-za-oskorblenie-chuvstv-ateistov).
10.
Islam
Karimov Monument Goes Up in Tashkent. A
year after his death, Islam Karimov now has a monument in the Uzbekistan
capital, even though some although far from all of the repressive laws he
imposed have been changed (fergananews.com/news/26805 and dw.com/ru
/год-без-каримова-что-в-узбекистане-изменилось-при-новом-лидере/a-40331932).
11.
Tashkent Fears
Cellphones Will Allow Uzbeks to Photograph Things They Shouldn’t. Officials in the Uzbekistan capital are
concerned that the spread of cellphones throughout the population could
restrict the government’s operations because people will be able to use them to
photograph actions that the authorities would prefer to keep hidden (centrasia.ru/news.php?st=1504083060).
12.
Tashkent, Bishkek
Find Agreement on Borders Easy, on Enclaves Not So Much. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have made rapid
progress on resolving their border dispute in the months since the death of
Islam Karimov. They have not made much progress, however, on the far more
difficult issue of what to do with the Uzbek enclaves within Kyrgyzstan.
Failure to support Uzbeks there will offend not only those people but many
Uzbeks in Uzbekistan (ng.ru/cis/2017-08-28/5_7061_tashkent.html).
13.
Tajikistan has
Highest Birthrate and Only Family Planning Effort in Central Asia. Tajikistan
continues to have the highest birthrate of any of the post-Soviet Central Asian
countries and thus it is perhaps not surprising that it is the only state there
actively promoting family planning measures (caa-network.org/archives/10141).
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