Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 25 -- 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 110th 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 Say Putin
Backs the Siloviki and Oligarchs, Not the Russian People. Russians tell pollsters that they view
Vladimir Putin as the defender of the siloviki and the oligarchs and as someone
who doesn’t pay much attention to the rest of the population (thinktanks.by/publication/2017/11/22/opros-putin-zaschitnik-spetssluzhb-i-oligarhov.html, dw.com/ru/опрос-путин-выражает-интересы-силовиков-и-олигархов/a-41458516 and novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/11/20/137165-rossiyane-nazvali-glavnym-minusom-a-otsutstvie-zaboty-o-prostyh-lyudyah).
They say that one of the Kremlin leader’s biggest “minuses” in their mind is
his selection and retention of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister (politsovet.ru/57230-odnim-iz-glavnyh-minusov-a-rossiyane-schitayut-medvedeva.html).
Russian businessmen aren’t happy with Putin either, complaining that he has
failed to free them from onerous levels of taxation (echo.msk.ru/news/2095792-echo.html and rbc.ru/business/20/11/2017/5a1269c99a794766a7304d80). And he may be even more unpopular in some
quarters than that: His press spokesman said that people had called in more
than 60 false bomb threats along Putin’s route in St. Petersburg (riafan.ru/998005-peskov-rasskazal-o-popytkakh-zaminirovat-put-sledovaniya-kortezha-a-v-peterburge).
There was one reassuring report this week: one Russian commentator says that
whatever happens, there will never be another Putin (newsland.com/community/8211/content/vtorogo-a-byt-ne-mozhet/6091448).
2.
Did Moscow
Encourage Trump to Run for President? There is growing evidence that Moscow in
various ways sought to promote the election of Donald Trump as US president,
but this week Politico reported that Trump had never thought about running for
president until he visited Moscow in the 1980s, implying that Russians even
then may have encouraged him to run (newsland.com/community/5882/content/politico-o-karere-politika-tramp-zadumalsia-posle-poezdki-v-moskvu/6089095). According to one Moscow report, Putin has
been dragging his feet in announcing his candidacy for re-election in the hope
of some deal with Trump (newsland.com/community/5325/content/putin-tianet-s-vydvizheniem-na-vybory-v-nadezhde-dogovoritsia-s-amerikantsami/6086374),
and Moscow media have returned to their original notion that Trump will help
Russia if he can overcome the resistance of the American establishment (svpressa.ru/blogs/article/186782/). But Russians
are angry with the US for many reasons, and one of their responses is to
promote legislation that would officially recognize the killing off of American
Indians as an act of genocide (politikus.ru/events/101879-genocid-severoamerikanskih-indeycev.html).
3. ‘It’s Not Easy to Get Russians to Vote for Putin.’ That is the
judgment of a Siberian regional deputy who is supposed to be supporting him (babr24.com/kras/?IDE=167557). In other election news, the Kremlin hasn’t
yet decided whether to allow Kseniiya Sobchak to register even though her
candidacy was promoted by the central authorities (profile.ru/politika/item/122109-devushka-zhdet). One reason for
that appears to be the investigation of her remarks about Crimea (echo.msk.ru/news/2097858-echo.html). LDPR leader
Vladimir Zhirinovsky has launched his flamboyant campaign with promises to
paint the Kremlin white if he wins and to ensure that the media will never give
bad news more than 10 percent of the space (newsland.com/community/1793/content/zhirinovskii-v-sluchae-izbraniia-prezidentom-poobeshchal-perekrasit-kreml-v-belyi-tsvet/6093059 and newsland.com/community/8218/content/zhirinovskii-nameren-ogranichit-v-rf-kolichestvo-plokhikh-novostei/6090087);
he also says that there was more democracy under the tsars than there is in
Russia today and that Russians lived better then as well (newsland.com/community/6399/content/zhirinovskii-pri-tsare-byla-demokratiia-i-rossiia-zhila-luchshe/6086730). The justice
ministry continues to harass the Navalny campaign effort but the opposition
leader did pick up support from Aleksey Kudrin who said Navalny must be allowed
to run (meduza.io/news/2017/11/24/minyust-ob-yavil-o-vneplanovoy-proverke-fonda-kampanii-navalnogo and newsland.com/community/6399/content/kudrin-podderzhal-uchastie-navalnogo-v-prezidentskikh-vyborakh/6095236). Russian
businessmen are talking about nominating one of their own to oppose Putin (vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2017/11/24/742922-sopernikom-putina-mozhet-stat-predstavitel-biznesa). And the Kremlin
appears ready to allow more regional referenda to occur next march in a bid to
boost participation rates (fedpress.ru/article/1902167).
4.
Is Putin Planning
to Dispense with Oblasts, Krays and Republics and Rely on Federal Districts
Alone? An almost unnoticed development this week
could point to a radical restructuring of the Russian federal system. The ruling United Russia Party subdivided
itself not according to oblasts, krays and republics as it had earlier but
rather in terms of the federal districts, a decision that may mean Putin plans
for a renewed Russian Federation of eight federal districts rather than more
than 80 federal subjects as now (politsovet.ru/57240-edinaya-rossiya-sozdaet-partiynyy-analog-polpredstva.html). The Kremlin
leader could present this as a cost-saving measure, but it would create many
problems, not least of which is that the smaller number of federal units, the
more likely the disintegration of the country would become, to judge from
history. It is also being reported that Putin will name eight to ten new
governors next year but only after the election (profile.ru/politika/item/121851-regiony-ne-vybirayut). All this will require constitutional change
and many are preparing the way for that with one Duma deputy saying that
“Russia’s constitution was written by liberals” and thus must be changed (ivpavlova.blogspot.com/2017/11/blog-post_18.html#more), and others
talking about the possibility of a rewrite even though the Duma failed to pass
a bill that would have established the rules for a constitutional assembly (politsovet.ru/57243-gosduma-ne-podderzhit-zakon-o-konstitucionnom-sobranii.html and
newsland.com/community/5652/content/rukovodstvo-strany-mozhet-poluchit-pravo-otmenit-osnovnye-glavy-konstitutsii/6086718). Another study
found that in the last six years, the average age of the Russian political
elite has gone up by three years (politsovet.ru/57247-za-tretiy-srok-putina-rossiyskaya-elita-postarela-na-tri-goda.html). The Kremlin has
rushed to defend an oligarch arrested in France, but prosecutors have shown no
interest in bringing a case against someone who tried to buy a governorship for
himself (themoscowtimes.com/news/kremlin-vows-to-defend-kerimov-held-in-france-for-fraud-59679 and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A16BA2DB1A67).
5. Russian Economy Stagnating While Those of Neighbors
are Booming.
As hard as it is to live in a stagnating economy, it is even worse if one can
look over the border and see that others are moving forward. That is the situation Russians now find
themselves in (newizv.ru/news/world/23-11-2017/poka-rossii-stagniruet-sosedi-bogateyut). The government
has tried to hide this by laying with the figures: its current projections of
the rate of inflation are 40 times lower than the one found by independent
experts (newsland.com/community/5652/content/ofitsialnaia-infliatsiia-otstala-ot-realnogo-rosta-tsen-v-40-raz/6092727
and newsland.com/community/7285/content/infliatsiia-snizhaetsia-tseny-rastut-kak-chinovniki-vydaiut-zhelaemoe-za-deistvitelnoe/6091087). Moreover, new
research shows that Russian products are not replacing those blocked by
counter-sanctions (newsland.com/community/4109/content/zapadnye-produkty-v-rf-ne-puskaiut-a-otechestvennym-predpriiatiiam-razvivatsia-ne-daiut/6092714),
and the wave of bankruptcies personal and corporate only underscores the
weakness of the Russian economy (newsland.com/community/1003/content/volna-bankrotstv-svidetelstvuet-o-slabosti-rossii/6094794).
6.
Nearly Half of Russian Families Can’t Afford Food and
Clothing They Need.
According to a new survey, almost 40 percent of Russian families say
they don’t have enough income now to pay for the food and clothing they need (newsland.com/community/politic/content/pochti-40-rossiiskikh-semei-zaiavili-o-nekhvatke-deneg-na-edu-i-odezhdu/6093281), and half of all
families are financing their daily expenditures with credit card debt (newsland.com/community/129/content/bolshe-poloviny-rossiiskikh-semei-zhivut-v-dolg/6091091).
Payday loans are becoming ever more common (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A16B50D40971 and more than
half of Russians are behind in debt repayment (regnum.ru/news/omy/2346933.html and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A128E7EA8EBF). The decline in incomes has accelerated by a
factor of four over the last year (newsland.com/community/4788/content/padenie-dokhodov-rossiian-uskorilos-v-4-raza/6091021), with 70 percent
of Russians now saying they are unhappy with their rate of pay (echo.msk.ru/news/2097878-echo.html). But Russians
face other problems driven by the economic crisis: Governments are cutting back
on the heating of apothecary shops and beauty salons (politsovet.ru/57246-v-ekaterinburge-apteki-i-salony-krasoty-mogut-ostatsya-bez-tepla-i-vody.html), pensioners who
work will not have their pensions indexed for inflation (sobkorr.ru/news/5A16AF49AF3CF.html). Intercity bus
lines are being suspended because there is no money for fuel (sobkorr.ru/news/5A1426946053D.html). Wage arrears
are up dramatically across the country (newsland.com/community/4109/content/rosstat-obnishchanie-rossiian-stremitelno-rastet/6090002 and kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A129B351D945), with the poor
getting poorer and the rich richer (newsland.com/community/129/content/bednye-bedneiut-bogatye-bogateiut-surovaia-realnost-rossii/6086647). Prices for
consumer services rose four percent in October alone (newsland.com/gidepark/interesting?page=10). The number of
freelancers has almost doubled to 18 percent of all workers in the last year (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A17DE667DDDF), and estimages
of the number of Russians working off the clock range from 13 to 40 million (ng.ru/economics/2017-11-24/4_7122_nalogi.html). Despite a
record harvest, the peasants are poorer this year than last, and the quality of
bread in the cities is down (svpressa.ru/omy/article/186898/). And when they
mark the new year, Russians will have to make do with cheaper foods because the
prices of their favorite holiday meals have shot up (vpressa.ru/omy/article/186775/ and lenta.ru/news/2017/11/23/hamon/).
7.
A Third of
Russians Don’t Believe Government Promises of a Bright Future. They may support
Putin, but three Russians out of ten tell pollsters that they don’t believe
that the future for them is going to be good (newsland.com/community/1003/content/tret-grazhdan-ne-poverili-v-svetloe-budushchee/6091644). In other social
news, Russia has fallen behind even Kazakhstan as an attractive place for
highly educated specialists (rbc.ru/society/21/11/2017/5a13e2b09a79477f95a7cdeb?from=newsfeed),
and it is ever less attractive even for low skill gastarbeiters as well (newsland.com/community/4765/content/tadzhikam-i-uzbekam-rossiia-uzhe-ne-ochen-interesna/6095393, ansar.ru/rfsng/v-rossii-sokratili-kvotu-dlya-migrantov and http://nazaccent.ru/content/26015-v-rossii-sokratyat-kolichestvo-inostrancev.html).
Russia’s cookie cutter approach to urban planning is reducing the
attractiveness of many cities (znak.com/2017-11-22/ekspert_po_aglomeraciyam_pochemu_rossiyskie_goroda_potyanulis_drug_k_drugu and rbc.ru/opinions/society/24/11/2017/5a17d5c59a7947545c001e90?from=center_11). In a feel good
action most experts say will have no effect, the Duma has voted to ban criminal
subcultures like AUE (profile.ru/obsch/item/121871-kriminalnaya-subkultura and novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/11/20/74615-na-tri-bukvy).
The environments in Russian cities is deteriorating (stoletie.ru/lenta/nazvany_10_gorod_rf_s_khudshej_ekologijej_170.htm). Black Friday in
Russia came and went without significant markdowns (svpressa.ru/society/article/186780/). The Russian
government is making it almost impossible for private museums to exist (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A16AC2E3B9CE).
Moscow has finally imposed significant criminal penalties for those who are
cruel to animals (newsland.com/community/5652/content/gosduma-odobrila-nakazanie-do-5-let-kolonii-za-izdevatelstva-nad-zhivotnymi/6091189).
According to officials, 40 percent of the cognac sold in Russia is adulterated
or simply fake (newsland.com/community/6399/content/v-pravitelstve-nazvali-40-koniaka-na-rynke-falshivkoi/6090904);
and to save money, Russians are giving up cigarettes and going back to the
odious makhorka (ng.ru/economics/2017-11-24/1_7122_mahorka.html).
8.
Rural Russia Dying
from Putin’s Health Optimization – and Cities Suffering as Well. Putin’s health
optimization plan is killing off rural Russia, experts say and care in the
cities has deteriorated as well. As a result, Russians are overwhelming unhappy
with the state of health care (regnum.ru/news/society/2347428.html, newsland.com/community/5652/content/bolshinstvo-rossiian-nedovolny-otechestvennoi-meditsinoi/6085682
and rosbalt.ru/moscow/2017/11/24/1663422.html). Tuberculosis
has broken out in parts of the country (regnum.ru/news/society/2349191.html) as has polio (regnum.ru/news/society/2346900.html).
According to the World Health Organization, Russia is now the second most
unhealthy country in the world (newizv.ru/news/society/25-11-2017/voz-sostavila-reyting-samyh-nezdorovyh-stran-e269c199-ca98-4395-8e0e-0c5d8cd7a7b2).
The Russian government wants a law to ban the sale of alcohol to those who are
already drunk (newsland.com/community/4636/content/skolko-piut-russkie-muzhia/6089115 and regions.ru/news/2613620/). Many vaccines
are not available, and inexpensive medicines are predicted to disappear more or
less completely by early 2018 (openrussia.org/notes/716458/ and openrussia.org/notes/716137/). Highlighting
just how bad Russian medical facilities are was a video clip that went viral
showing a seriously ill man on the floor of a hospital who was completely
ignored by passing doctors and nurses (themoscowtimes.com/news/man-collapses-ignored-by-hospital-staff-59668),
and underscoring just how unreliable Russian government claims are in this area
is an expose of how the fight against drug abuse in Chechnya was more or less
invented out of whole cloth (kavkaz.versia.ru/borbu-s-narkomaniej-zhiteli-chechni-nazyvayut-pokazuxoj-kotoraya-ne-dast-realnyx-rezultatov).
9.
Half of Russians
Say They Won’t have Children Because of Poverty. The Russian
economic crisis is having a serious impact on Russian demography, with half of
the population now saying that they won’t have children because of the costs of
doing so (newsland.com/community/7285/content/realnaia-rossiia-polovina-rossiian-otkazalas-ot-detei-iz-za-bednosti/6095222). In other
demographic news, Russia retains its status as the country with the greatest
difference in life expectancies between men and women (rufabula.com/author/yaroslav-butakov/1700), Rosstat’s
demographic figures have been shown to be problematic at best and outright
falsifications at worst (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A0DC6C1B8B1C), and two
headlines this week raise questions no healthy society is going to be asking:
Does Russia need people at all? Or does it just need “new people” (rosbalt.ru/russia/2017/11/23/1663137.html and rosbalt.ru/piter/2017/11/21/1662390.html).
10.
Sobyanin Sees No
Need for Migrants to Adapt to Russian Norms. The Moscow mayor has set off a
firestorm of criticism by suggesting that the Russian authorities need not
bother trying to adapt gastarbeiters to Russian realities. In his opinion, they
can continue to live apart from their Russian neighbors (nazaccent.ru/content/26005-sobyanin-zayavil-chto-migrantov-ne-nado.html). North
Caucasians returning from fighting for ISIS have landed in Russian prisons
despite Moscow’s promises (kavpolit.com/articles/iz_sirijskogo_ada_v_dagestanskuju_kletku-36598/).
The Russian government has announced plans to introduce special passports for
members of the numerically small peoples of the North and also to force them to
pay for the land on which they have traditionally lived (nazaccent.ru/content/25994-v-sovfede-predlozhili-vvesti-pasport-dlya.html and nazaccent.ru/content/25978-obshiny-korennyh-narodov-s-novogo-goda.html).
The fight over native language instruction continues in Tatarstan and in other
non-Russian republics (ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/11/22/na_russkoyazychnyh_aktivistov_tatarstana_okazyvaetsya_davlenie_regionalnymi_silovymi_strukturami/, http://nazaccent.ru/content/26004-meriya-kazani-poka-ne-soglasovala-miting.html and idelreal.org/a/finno-ugorskiy-tatarstan/28871565.html).
11. Patriarch Kill Says West Today ‘Worse than Soviet
Union.’
The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church says that by its immoral laws, the
West today is much worse than was the Soviet Union (politsovet.ru/57254-patriarh-kirill-sovremennyy-zapad-huzhe-sovetskogo-soyuza.html).
He also has launched a new website of his remarks, yet another step in
promoting a cult of personality, even though Vladimir Putin has suggested he
shouldn’t be working so hard (politsovet.ru/57233-rpc-zapustit-sayt-s-citatami-patriarha-kirilla.html and politsovet.ru/57238-putin-pozhelal-patriarhu-pomenshe-rabotat.html). Despite the
fears of some and the hopes of others, experts say there is no chance for a
revolution within the Moscow patriarchate even if Bishop Shevkunov continues to
win more support. Kirill has simply packed with hierarchy with too many of his
own supporters (mk.ru/social/2017/11/21/vozmozhna-li-revolyuciya-v-russkoy-pravoslavnoy-cerkvi.html, portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=26277, portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=26274 and politcom.ru/22855.html). Meanwhile, a
leading Russian Muslim commentator has warned the Kremlin that the country’s
Muslims will be watching what the government does to them and to other
religious groups (onkavkaz.com/video/598-orhan-dzhemal-musulmane-rossii-ne-budut-molcha-smotret-kak-rezhut-ih-bratev-vlast-eto-ponjala.html).
12.
Russia Today is
‘Moscow Against Everyone Else.’ Increasingly, the dividing line in
Russian politics is along the ring road around Moscow, dividing the city into
which all money and power flow from everyone else (afterempire.info/2017/11/25/2budgets/). The Kremlin is trying to counter this by imposing
satraps in all regional posts but that is only dividing the regional
governments from the population of the regions
(afterempire.info/2017/11/22/satrap/). Ever more
regions are considering the implications of the Catalonia conflict for
themselves and their future (idelreal.org/a/takie-raznye-i-odinakovye/28864510.html), and some
regions, most notably Siberia, are insisting that they speak their own language
(afterempire.info/2017/11/17/languages-after/). Meanwhile, in
Kaliningrad, officials are worried about the pro-German tilt of local studies
at the university (stoletie.ru/politika/krajevedenije_na_germanskij_lad_338.htm).
13.
Protesters Now
Turning Russian Government Slogans Against the Government. The Russian
authorities have failed so often to live up to their promises that some
anti-government protesters are now using earlier government slogans against
Moscow (ura.news/articles/1036273046 and fedpress.ru/article/1902244). Support for the
renewal of the long-haul trucker strike is growing (chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/dalnoboyshchiki-soobshchayut-o-bolshih-ocheredyah-na-dagestanskoy-tamozhne and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/312858/). Anti-abortion
activists sent a petition with one million signatures to Putin asking him to
ban abortions (rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=79521)/ Yabloko leader
Grigory Yavlinsky has launched a new website, “Is Crimea Ours?” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A17EDFC653C3), and the mothers
of Russia’s increasing number of political prisoners say they are proud of
their children (openrussia.org/notes/716463/).
14.
Are Ronald
McDonald and Col. Sanders About to Become ‘Foreign Agents’? The Russian Duma
is considering naming McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken foreign agents,
something that presumably would make their mascots that as well (openrussia.org/notes/716489/). Meanwhile, the
Helsinki Watch group says that every new law the Russian Duma passes makes the
situation worse for Russians (ng.ru/politics/2017-11-24/3_7122_zakon.html), although some
might say that a whistleblower protection measure that has moved forward in
committee this week was an exception to that (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/11/23/137301-komitet-gosdumy-podderzhal-zakonoproekt-o-zaprete-na-uvolnenie-soobschayuschih-o-korruptsii-rabotnikov). Nonetheless, more
Russians continue to be convicted of extremism on various pretexts (openrussia.org/notes/716209/), and more people
who are detained suffer tortures (chernovik.net/content/lenta-novostey/zaderzhannyh-zhiteley-rutula-podvergayut-pytkam-rodstvenniki). The authorities
are often aided by ordinary Russians who attack people that the regime may not:
thus some people threatened to punish the young Russian who expressed sympathy
for German POWS (themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-boy-who-gave-speech-in-bundestag-for-peace-threatened-59670), and others beat
up a Voronezh picketer who carried a sign declaring that “Putin is not my
president” (sobkorr.ru/news/5A152ACA16918.html).
15.
Russian Gun Owners
Prepared to React if Government Tries to Restrict Their Rights. Russians who own guns are concerned that recent
statements by the Russian Guard about restrictions on gun rights could limit
their ability to own and use firearms and are prepared to defend their rights (sputnikipogrom.com/weapons/79721/farewell-to-arms/). On other issues of domestic security, the authorities
are issuing more restrictive rules on the use of drones by private persons (gorod-812.ru/chto-mozhno-chego-nelzya-delat-vladeltsam-bespilotnikov/),
the Duma wants to impose a penalty of ten years in prison for those who engage
in telephone terrorism by making bomb threats (fedpress.ru/news/77/society/1901349),
the Russian Guard acquires more crowd control machinery (newsland.com/community/5234/content/rosgvardiia-poluchila-desiat-spetsialnykh-broneavtomobilei-patrul/6093679),
and in a cost-saving measure, the Russian penal authorities say that prisoners
will now have to grow food to feed themselves (lenta.ru/news/2017/11/22/junkfood/).
16. Russia Used Bots to Respond to Western Forces in the
Baltic Countries.
According to NATO, 70 percent of the online messages about the presence of
Western armed forces in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were delivered by Russian-language
bots (novayagazeta.ru/news/2017/11/25/137345-nato-70-soobscheniy-o-prisutstvii-alyansa-v-pribaltike-napisano-russkoyazychnymi-botami). A video
clip showing Russian school children pledging to “die for Putin” has gone viral
on the Runet (facebook.com/makd.smr.5/videos/315853632229436/).
Finnish historians have documented that a former Finnish foreign minister
worked for Russian intelligence (upnorth.eu/finnish-historians-former-finnish-foreign-minister-operative-russian-intelligence/).
And Russia’s atomic fleet is at risk of running out of engines because it has
no replacements for any that fail (www.ng.ru/kartblansh/2017-11-21/3_7119_kartblansh.html).
17.
Kadyrov Wants to Hand Over Stalin’s Corpse to Georgia.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, says that Moscow should give Tbilisi
Stalin’s corpse and thereby eliminate one conflict over memorials in Moscow (interfax.ru/russia/588264). Some Russian Orthodox radicals would like to
canonize Natalya Poklonskaya for her opposition to the film Mathilda (newsland.com/community/5652/content/krymchane-mogut-podderzhat-petitsiiu-za-kanonizatsiiu-natali-poklonskoi-kak-sviatoi-bezgreshnoi/6088539). Russians have proposed naming the bridge to
occupied Crimea “the President’s Bridge” (newsland.com/community/8218/content/most-v-krym-predlozhili-nazvat-prezidentskim/6087188).
Deputies are pushing for a referendum to
rename Sverdlovsk oblast (politsovet.ru/57287-deputat-gosdumy-predlozhil-referendum-o-pereimenovanii-sverdlovskoy-oblasti.html).
A proposed memorial to Russian journalists who have been killed while during
their work must leave enough room for new names, activists say (echo.msk.ru/news/2099024-echo.html
and http://forum-msk.org/material/news/14010136.html).
18.
Only
Three Percent of NGOs in Russia Get Money from Abroad.
While the non-governmental organizations that do get financing from abroad
receive the most attention from the Russian government, in fact only three
percent of all Russian NGOs now receive any money from foreign sources (iq.hse.ru/news/212286708.html).
19. Moscow has Become a ‘Limitrophe’ to
Russia, Ikhlov Says. Russian commentator Yevgeny Ikhlov says
that today, the city of Moscow has become “a limitrophe” for the rest of
Russia, thus applying to the center now a term of denigration that many in the
USSR and the West used before 1939 for the countries that arose after World War
I between east and west (forum-msk.org/material/politic/13985731.html).
20. Officialese Becoming a Separate
Russian Language. Under Putin, the vocabulary of officials
is increasingly becoming an entirely different language from the ones spoken by
other Russians. And in many cases, some
say, it is intentionally or not unintelligible to the population at large (afterempire.info/2017/11/23/slang/).
21.
Dugin Says a
Single Humanity Does Not Exist.
In perhaps his most racist remark yet, Aleksandr Dugin, the Eurasianist
theorist who has exercised enormous influence on Putin, says that there is no
such thing as “a single humanity” and that different rules thus are appropriate
to govern the way in which different nations act and are treated by others (politikus.ru/video/101851-aleksandr-dugin-edinogo-chelovechestva-ne-suschestvuet.html).
22.
Russia Ranks Near
the Bottom Among All Countries on Laws Protecting Women. Russia is now found among the 18 countries
with the fewest legal protections of women’s rights, according to a new
international survey (vz.ru/society/2017/11/25/896761.html).
23. Russians Upset Chinese Tourists Don’t Spend More. Chinese tourists
are coming to Russia in increasing numbers, but they spend far less than
others, a pattern that has angered many Russians who expended a financial windfall
from them (thebarentsobserver.com/en/travel/2017/11/chinese-tourists-leave-too-little-cash-russian-north).
24.
Russian Officials First Ignore, then Deny, then
Understate Radiation Leak in the Urals. In a
reprise of Moscow’s response to other nuclear accidents, Moscow officials fist
ignored reports about it in regional and European media, then denied there had
been any leakage, and, when confronted with evidence they couldn’t ignore,
played down the problem despite its impact on millions of Russians and
Europeans (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5A181041363F7,
newsland.com/community/4109/content/sterlitamak-vtoroi-chernobyl/6094906,
belaruspartisan.org/life/406871/,
znak.com/2017-11-21/grinpis_zhitelyam_urala_gde_zafiksirovan_vybros_ruteniya_uzhe_pozdno_spasatsya_ot_radiacii,
news/news/1052313441 and idelreal.org/a/28872353.html).
25.
Petersburg Police
Put to Good Use: Fighting Icicles. The police in the northern capital have
created a special unit to identify and knock down icicles hanging from the
upper floors of buildings there. Such
icicles in past years have killed dozens of people (echo.msk.ru/news/2099020-echo.html).
26.
There Really is a
Russian Bear in the Woods – and He’s Got Two Guns! The Siberian Times reports that a
bear that attacked a Russian hunter retreated after seizing and carrying off
two guns the hunter had been carrying. It warned Siberians that this Russian
bear has to be viewed as armed and dangerous (siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/beware-brown-bear-armed-with-two-guns-on-the-loose-in-siberian-region/).
And 13 others from
countries in Russia’s neighborhood:
1.
Ukrainians Want
Only Minimal Ties with Russia After Peace is Achieved. A new poll finds
that almost half of all Ukrainians want only the most minimal diplomatic ties
with Russia after peace is achieved, an indication of the ways in which Russian
aggression is casting a longer shadow on Ukraine than many now recognize (thinktanks.by/publication/2017/11/23/pochti-polovina-ukraintsev-posle-voyny-hotyat-vosstanovleniya-otnosheniy-s-rf-na-minimalnom-urovne.html). One symptom of this is the call from some Ukrainians
to stop referring to Russia as Russia but instead call it Muscovy (newsland.com/community/politic/content/na-ukraine-predlozhili-pereimenovat-rossiiu-v-moskovshchinu/6087184).
2. UNGA Says Russia is Occupying Crimea and Violating
Human Rights There.
The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution describing Russia as an
occupying power on the Ukrainian peninsula and condemning it for human rights
violations there (newsland.com/community/4765/content/genassambleia-oon-priznala-rossiiu-okkupiruiushchei-derzhavoi-v-rezoliutsii-o-pravakh-cheloveka-v-krymu/6088977).
3.
To Fight Endemic Dedovshchina, Belarusians Organize
Second Soldiers Mothers Committee.
Belarusian activists have organized a second and more independent of the
government Soldiers Mothers Committee in the hopes of being able to fight the
widespread dedovshchina in the ranks of the Belarusian armed services that has
recently led to several deaths (charter97.org/ru/news/2017/11/25/270328/ and charter97.org/ru/news/2017/11/19/269654/).
4.
Thirty-Nine
Percent of Young Belarusians No Longer Watch TV. Some 39 percent
of younger Belarusians no longer watch television, thus limiting the ability of
that channel to deliver Belarusian and Russian government messages to the
population (thinktanks.by/publication/2017/11/24/zakat-bt-39-molodyh-belorusov-ne-smotryat-televizor-voobsche.html).
5.
Belarusian Arrest
of Ukrainian Spy Cools Relations Between Kyiv and Minsk. Belarus may have
won points in Moscow with its arrest of a man Minsk’s security services say is
a Ukrainian spy, but this action has led to a serious cooling of ties between
the two neighboring states (camarade.biz/node/26198).
6.
Moscow Again
Training Belarusian Youths in Paramilitary Camps in Russia. After what appears to have been a brief
pause, the Russian authorities via the mercenary company ENOT is again training
Belarusian young people in camps, this time located near Moscow. The camps
provide not only military instruction but ideological guidance of an extreme
right kind (belaruspartisan.org/politic/406990/).
7.
Erdogan Says Putin
Uninterested in Karabakh Settlement. The Turkish president says Vladimir Putin
has no interest in finding a solution to the Karabakh conflict between
Azerbaijan and Armenia (http://www.turantoday.com/2017/11/russia-karabakh-conflict.html).
8.
Moscow TV Says
Symbol of Armenia’s Ruling Party Resembles Nazi One. In an indication
of deteriorating relations between Moscow and Yerevan, the Zvezda television
network has suggested that the symbols of Armenia’s ruling part recall those of
Hitler’s Nazi party (armenia.im/2/175641.html).
9.
Turkey Demands
Turkic Republics Send Home Gulenist Teachers. Ankara has demanded that the
Turkic republics of the former Soviet Union send back to Turkey teachers who
follow the Gulenist line, but many of these teachers say that they will be
incarcerated or worse if they are sent back to Turkey (kazislam.kz/ru/songy-janalyktar/item/15382-smi-turtsiya-trebuet-ekstraditsii-storonnikov-gyulena-iz-kazakhstana-i-21-strany
and
islamsng.com/kaz/news/13756).
10. Astana Restricts Religious Activities of Government
Employees.
The government of Kazakhstan has issued a new order that bans government
employees from being active leaders of Muslim or other religious communities in
that country (kazislam.kz/ru/songy-janalyktar/item/15385-kazakhstanskim-gossluzhashchim-zapretyat-uchastie-v-religioznykh-organizatsiyakh).
11.
Kazakhstan Seeks to Limit Influence of Retuning ISIS
Fighters. Several hundred Kazakhs have
returned to their country after fighting for ISIS in the Middle East. Astana is
seeking to create a program that will quarantine such people until it can be
determined whether they are a threat (ru.sputniknews.kz/society/20171123/3834366/vozvrashchenie-terroristov-v-kazahstan-chto-ih-zhdet-na-rodine.html).
12.
Russia Now Shipping
Oil to Uzbekistan. In yet another sign of warming
relations between Moscow and Tashkent, the Russian Federation has resumed
shipping oil to Uzbekistan (fergananews.com/news/27287).
13.
Kyrgyzstan Seeks
Russian Mediation in Conflict with Kazakhstan. Relations between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
have deteriorated to the point that Bishkek has asked Moscow to help resolve
their conflict, one that Kyrgyz officials say is isolating their country from
Russia (turantoday.com/2017/11/atambayev-conference.html).
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