Paul Goble
Staunton, April 9 – Below are 26 more stories from Russia this week that deserve to be noted because they shed significant light on Russia, its government and its people, but that I was unable to write up as full-scale Windows:
1. Duma Wants to Identify More Russians as Foreign Agents. The Duma is pushing forward a bill that would extend the label “foreign agent” to additional categories of people including those who are simply friends with those already so given that discriminatory sobriquet (newizv.ru/news/politics/09-04-2021/vragov-stanet-bolshe-duma-hochet-dobavit-k-inoagentam-affilirovannyh-s-nimi-lits).
2. Theology is a Science, Russian Government Says. Supporters of theology have finally won the recognition they have sought from Moscow: the Russian government has declared that theology is a science like any other (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=89170).
3. Chechnya’s Kadyrov Now Longest Serving Regional Head. After others were dismissed, Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, has become the longest-serving governor in Russia. He has been in office more than 16 years (echo.msk.ru/news/2818888-echo.html). His “anniversary” was marred by scandal as reports circulated that he has two wives and that they have enriched themselves because of his position (snob.ru/news/proekt-vtoraya-zhena-kadyrova-finalistka-chechenskogo-konkursa-krasoty-u-pervoj-dva-pasporta-obe-vladeyut-imushestvom-na-800-millionov-rublej/).
4. Kremlin Says Russia Doesn’t have Enough Migrant Workers but Many Russians don’t Want Them. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says that as a result of the pandemic, Russia now does not have enough migrant workers to complete “ambitious” projects, but a new poll shows that many Russians don’t want them to return in large numbers (echo.msk.ru/news/2818564-echo.html and echo.msk.ru/news/2818466-echo.html).
5. Petersburg Parents Don’t Want Naked Classical Statues in Museums. A group of parents in St. Petersburg says that museums should remove classical statues which show human figures naked (stoletie.ru/vzglyad/david_prikrojsa_457.htm).
6. 80 Percent of Largest Russian Firms Say They aren’t Concerned about Protecting Environment. A new survey of the 100 largest Russian firms finds that 80 percent of them do not say they are concerned about protecting the environment (iq.hse.ru/news/458547536.html).
7. Jehovah’s Witnesses Can’t Disseminate Their Texts Via Mobile Devices. A St. Petersburg court has ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot disseminate texts via mobile aps because that is an illegal form of missionary activity (sova-center.ru/religion/news/extremism/counter-extremism/2021/03/d43962/).
8. Native Language Foundation Victim of Major Theft. As if Russia’s minority languages didn’t have enough problems, the foundation set up to help them survive has been the victim of a major theft (idelreal.org/a/31189417.html).
9. Orenburg Man Convicted of Extremism after Calling for Expulsion or Destruction of Russia’s Jews. A man in Orenburg who called for the government to expel or destroy Jews has been convicted of extremism, one case where such a legal action was entirely justified (nazaccent.ru/content/35476-zhitelya-orenburgskoj-oblasti-priznali-vinovnym-za.html).
10. Russian Blogs Making Far More than Print Outlets. The Interactive Advertising Bureau reports that blogs in Russia are making at least three times as much money as are print outlets and may be making even more than that (echo.msk.ru/news/2818024-echo.html).
11. Zhirinovsky Wants Russia to Join the Rest of the World as Far as the Calendar is Concerned. LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky says Russia should adopt the Gregorian calendar and thus celebrate important holidays on the same day people in the rest of the world are doing so (credo.press/236518/).
12. Emigration of Jews, Germans and Urban Russians to Blame for Russia’s Descent into New Dark Ages. A Russian commentator says that the exodus of Jews, Germans, and urban educated Russians is responsible for the country’s rapid descent into “a new dark ages” (newizv.ru/news/society/07-04-2021/massovaya-emigratsiya-evreev-priostanovila-razvitie-rossii).
13. Archaeologists Seek to Block Gazprom Building Plan in Northern Capital. A group of archaeologists has weighed in against Gazprom’s plan to build an enormous corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg on a site that the scholars say contains many ancient monuments and has not been fully excavated (gorod-812.ru/universitetskie-arheologi-protiv-planov-gazproma/).
14. Putin’s Russia Excluding Higher Share of Population from Running from Office than Stalin’s Did. The Soviet system was notorious in its first decades for preventing people from the wrong social classes from voting or running for office. Putin’s regime doesn’t do that but it is blocking a higher share of people from running for office because of views the Kremlin doesn’t approve of (ej.ru/?a=note&id=36022).
15. Russia Missed Its Chance to Defeat HIV/AIDS Last Year. The Russian government had a chance to use a medication that would have controlled HIV/AIDS this past year but chose not to do so for reasons the government hasn’t explained (rosbalt.ru/piter/2021/04/06/1895839.html).
16. Nearly Half of All Russians Say Navalny’s Was Justly Convicted. A new Levada Center poll finds that 48 percent of Russians say Aleksey Navalny was guilty as charged and deserved to be convicted. Only 29 percent said his conviction was unjust (echo.msk.ru/news/2816752-echo.html).
17. Payphones to Disappear from Russian Villages. Payphones have largely disappeared from Russian cities because of the ubiquity of cellphones. But they have remained in villages. Now, officials say, they will be removed from there as well (echo.msk.ru/news/2816698-echo.html).
18. After Moscow Banned Foul Language on the Internet, Russians began Using More of It. A new study says that the government’s ban on the use of foul language on the Internet has backfired. Instead of limiting that kind of language, the ban has in fact led more Russians to use it (echo.msk.ru/news/2816364-echo.html).
19. Patriarch Confirms Stripping Kurayev of His Church Status but Gives Him Time to Repent. Patriarch Kirill has confirmed a church court decision stripping Archdeacon Andrey Kurayev of his status but the church leader’s decision will only go into effect upon its publication and Kirill is delaying that to give the popular commentator a last chance to repent (forum-msk.org/material/news/17096875.html).
20. Telephone Bomb Threats Force Evacuation of 135 Churches in Moscow. Moscow police had to search 135 churches after unknown persons telephoned in bomb threats against them. Telephone terrorism has been a problem in Russia for the last several years, but this is the largest number of churches to be targeted at any one time (credo.press/236516/).
21. One in Every Three Russians Fears Being Lonely. In yet another reflection of the increasing atomization of Russian society, one resident of that country in three says that he or she fears being lonely (rbc.ru/society/04/04/2021/606852b79a7947bde3bad278).
22. Putin Signs Law Making Slandering Veterans a Crime. Under the provisions of a new law, Aleksey Navalny could have been found guilty of a criminal offense for his words about a World War II veteran (rosbalt.ru/russia/2021/04/05/1895573.html).
23. Russian Arrested for Holding Up ‘Free Political Prisoners’ Placard in Red Square. A Russian who held up a sign in front of the Lenin Mausoleum calling for the freeing of political prisoners in Russia not surprisingly was quickly arrested (svobodaradio.livejournal.com/5231255.html).
24. Siloviki Ignore Legalization of Hemp in Russia. A year ago as the pandemic began, the Russian government legalized hemp containing less than 0.1 percent of psychotropic chemicals. But Russia police and Russian businesses appear unaware of this government decision and continue to arrest people found growing hemp (meduza.io/feature/2021/04/09/pravitelstvo-rossii-nezametno-legalizovalo-promyshlennuyu-konoplyu-no-siloviki-vse-ravno-podozrevayut-konoplevodov-v-narkotorgovle-a-magaziny-otkazyvayutsya-ot-ih-produktsii).
25. Russian Government Launches Major Effort to Discredit Navalny. After not mentioning him by name because Putin refused to, Russian government outlets have launched a widespread effort to discredit the imprisoned opposition leader (ehorussia.com/new/node/23145).
26. Criminals Rarely Found in Government Offices. The General Procuracy says that only 0.24 percent of all criminals in Russia work in the organs of state power. Two-thirds of the criminals are unemployed, and 96 percent of them are Russian citizens (thinktanks.by/publication/2021/04/04/v-rossii-sostavili-portret-srednestatisticheskogo-prestupnika.html).
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