Russia Blogs Review

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: EU Envoy Says Serbia, Kosovo Reach Agreement To End Border Deadlock

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:48:15 -0400

Serbia and Kosovo have reached an agreement to end their standoff at the border, European Union envoy Miroslav Lajcak said after talks in Brussels between the two sides.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: FSB Searches Apartments Of Investigative Journalist And His Parents

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:38:31 -0400

Federal Security Service (FSB) officers have raided the apartment of Roman Dobrokhotov, chief editor of the investigative website The Insider, which was recently added to Russia's controversial registry of "foreign agents."

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Eight People Convicted Over Deadly Siberian Mall Fire

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:22:23 -0400

A court in Siberia has found a group of eight people guilty of negligence in a 2018 fire in the city of Kemerovo that killed 60 people, including 37 children.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Russia Urged To Release Anti-Putin Shaman From 'Punitive Psychiatric Treatment'

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:03:26 -0400

Amnesty International has condemned a Russian court's rejection of an appeal by a Yakut shaman against a decision to confine him to a psychiatric clinic as he campaigned to drive President Vladimir Putin from the Kremlin.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Russia: Playing at Politics: Manufacturing Russia's Parliamentary Parties

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 06:57:07 -0400

For the in-system political parties, the presidential administration simply sets some general ground rules. For the new administrative parties, the presidential administration is not just an overseer, but their immediate boss.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Russia

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: U.S. Company Confirms Man Shot Dead By Belarusian KGB Was Employee

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 05:36:26 -0400

U.S.-based software firm EPAM Systems has confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the man killed by Belarusian security forces in a raid on his apartment in Minsk earlier this week was an employee of the company.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Outspoken Critic Of Turkmen Government Released From Deportation Center In Istanbul

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 04:45:25 -0400

A Turkmen activist and outspoken critic of the tightly controlled Central Asian state's government has been released from a deportation center in Istanbul, where she is based.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Russia Blocks Work Of UN Committees Monitoring Sanctions On African Countries

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 02:25:43 -0400

Russia is delaying the appointment of panels of independent experts to monitor violations of UN sanctions on several African countries, diplomats say.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Johnson's Russia List: Iran Cements Alliance With China, Russia In Clear Message To Washington

JRL Russia List — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:42:58 -0400

The seismic, multi-generational Iran-China deal is set for full roll-out. Full membership of the economic, military and political, SCO alliance will lead to major strategic investments in Iran’s up-and-downstream sectors [...]

Johnson's Russia List

Johnson's Russia List: Russia Posts Record Daily COVID-19 Death Toll For Second Day In A Row

JRL Russia List — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:32:27 -0400

Russia has reported 857 new coronavirus-related deaths, a single-day record since the pandemic began, as the country continues to see a surge in infections linked to the Delta variant [...]

Johnson's Russia List

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Visiting EU Commission Chief Urges Kosovo-Serbia Reconciliation

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:50:35 -0400

During a visit to Pristina, the head of the European Union's executive branch called on Kosovo and Serbia to resolve their disputes through dialogue and to de-escalate recent tensions over license plates.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: Belarusian Version Of Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda Blocked

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:42:34 -0400

Belarus's Information Ministry has blocked access to the website of the Belarusian version of the popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: German President Vows Support For Moldova Reform Program

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:15:12 -0400

During a visit to Chisinau, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier committed Berlin to an assistance package of 10 million euros ($11.6 million) to support the reform program launched by Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Window on Eurasia -- New Series: Global Warming Forces Moscow to Postpone Construction of New Arctic Port

paul goble (noreply@blogger.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:49:55 -0400

Paul Goble

Staunton, Sept. 26 – A decision by the Russian authorities to postpone the construction of a deep-water port in the Nenets Autonomous District because of global warming is a reminder that for Russia as for other countries climate change is a two-edged sword, opening some paths for new development but foreclosing others.

For more than a decade, Moscow has planned to build a major port in Indiga on the Arctic Ocean and connect it by new railroads extending to Arkhangelsk to the West and Sytyvkar in the south. Construction of the port was slated to begin in 2023 but now has been pushed off to third and fourth quarters of 2024 (tass.ru/ekonomika/12325801).

Potentially, the new court could handle even more traffic than Arkhangelsk and thus promote the use of the Northern Sea Route and the development of the Russian North in important ways. But climate change means that building it is going to be far more difficult than the Russian government had anticipated.

The reason for this delay – and further delays are not only possible but likely – has less to do with the port itself than with the rail lines connecting it with mines and oil fields inside the Russian Federation. Ships can move more easily to the port because of decreased ice coverage, but the melting of the permafrost means that building rail lines is more difficult.

And without the rail lines, the port would be much less valuable to the Russian economy. Consequently, it appears the authorities at the center have decided to slow down until they can figure out how to lay track more reliably over the rapidly subsiding ground in the former permafrost zone.

For background on these problems, see thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2021/09/indiga-seaport-construction-postponed-due-changing-climate-conditions, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/for-northern-sea-route-to-operate-year.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/05/plan-for-fiber-optic-cable-along.htmland jamestown.org/program/moscows-aspirations-in-north-melting-along-with-permafrost/.

Window on Eurasia -- New Series

Window on Eurasia -- New Series: Azerbaijani-Turkish Exercises in Nakhichevan Prompt Iranian Military Moves

paul goble (noreply@blogger.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:31:36 -0400

Paul Goble

Staunton, Sept. 26 – Baku and Ankara are conducting joint military exercises in Nakhichevan for several years; but this year’s maneuvers are the first after last fall’s war and after Baku, Yerevan and Moscow agreed among other things to restore a transportation corridor through Zengezur between Azerbaijan proper and Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan.

For that reason, as well as because concerns about Azerbaijan’s growing ties with Israel and its imposition of delays on Iranian truck traffic northward, Tehran views this year’s joint action as a threat to its interest and as a violation of the agreement of the Caspian littoral states on excluding the military presence of other countries.

The Iranian government has taken two steps to underscore its displeasure at what Azerbaijan and Turkey are doing. On the one hand, it has dispatched more weaponry to Iranian units along the border. And on the other, its mullahs are demanding further actions against what they describe as a Turkic threat to Iran.

In reporting these developments, Regnum commentator Stanislav Tarasov suggests that Iran could hardly do less given the loss in influence in the region it has suffered as a result of Azerbaijan’s victory last fall but that Iran has few options and all that it does have risk leaving it in a still weaker position (iarex.ru/articles/82690.html).

As a result, he suggests that Iran may back down once the exercises are over, possibly even taking part in talks with Turkey and Azerbaijan about future arrangements. But this week’s moves by Iran show just how dangerous the situation is and how easy it would be for troop movements to precipitate a serious conflict.

Window on Eurasia -- New Series

Window on Eurasia -- New Series: Russians Recovering from Covid Reportedly Suffer from Vastly Higher Rates of Depression than Expected

paul goble (noreply@blogger.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:11:35 -0400

Paul Goble

Staunton, Sept. 26 – When the pandemic began, Russian medical experts predicted that 20 percent of those who became infected but then recovered would suffer from depression and other psychological problems. But the real rate, St. Petersburg State University scholars say, is now 29 percent (tass.ru/obschestvo/12503065).

That higher figure, Andrey Nesmiyan who blogs under the screen name El Murid, reflects the way in which the impact of the disease has been exacerbated by the repressions that the authorities have been visiting on the population during the pandemic and promises to result in more Columbines and other asocial actions (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=614F3E461288D).

Today, the Russian authorities reported registering 22,498 new cases of infection and 805 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as the pandemic continued to intensify in many places with increased restrictions following (t.me/COVID2019_official/3596 and regnum.ru/news/society/3379238.html).

There was mixed news on other fronts of the pandemic. On the one hand, a Russian who had been vaccinated died in Yekaterinburg, a development that will do nothing to push up stagnant rates of those getting the shots. And on the other, a Russian expert teaching at an American university says international bodies will approve Sputnik-5 by the end of the year (regnum.ru/news/3381329.html and novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/09/25/pandemiia-pozhiraet-liudei-tam-gde-net-vaktsinatsii).

Window on Eurasia -- New Series

Robert Amsterdam: Departures Podcast with Patrick Wyman, Author of ‘The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World’

Editor — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 10:43:18 -0400

History is not a single continuum. There are certain stretches in which momentous change occurs in a very compact timeframe. The forty-year period between 1490 and 1530 is one of these bursts of revolutionary change.

In The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World, Patrick Wyman, a historian and the host of the popular podcast Tides of History, argues that the turn of the 16th century was a momentous moment in history when Europe began to break off from the rest of the world and “became recognizably the global power,” ushering in the era of imperialism and colonialism – “the central problem of world history in the last 500 years.”

Rather than studying the centuries-long process that brought us into the modern era, Wyman looks at a particularly eventful period which began this “Great Divergence.” Europe at the turn of the 16th century featured the invention of the printing press, great sea voyages, the rise of modern finance, extreme taxation, among other revolutionary developments.

Of these, Wyman argues, the printing press – which allowed for the creation of mass media – is the single most important of these developments. Indeed, Colombus’ voyages were “a media event as much as they were a historical event. The two aren’t really separable.”

The period of 1490-1530 is especially notable for what Wyman describes as the “scaling effect.” While in the 21st century it seems almost obvious that a revolutionary invention would lead to rapid and massive scaling up. But at the turn of the 16th century, the rapidity of the scaling effect of everything from mass media to sea voyages “scaled in a way that would have been extremely foreign at this time.”

The Verge also tells its story through individuals which Wyman links with a broader theme. Famous figures such as Christopher Colombus and Martin Luther feature, as do lesser-known individuals such as the banker Jakob Fugger and printer Aldus Manutius. Wyman delves into an extraordinarily important period of European history that shaped our globalized present from multiple angles and refreshing nuance.

The post Departures Podcast with Patrick Wyman, Author of ‘The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World’ appeared first on Robert Amsterdam.

Robert Amsterdam

Window on Eurasia -- New Series: Russians Voted for Communists the Way They Used to Vote ‘Against All,’ Kolesnikov Says

paul goble (noreply@blogger.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 06:37:20 -0400

Paul Goble

Staunton, Sept. 25 – Before Putin eliminated the opportunity for Russian voters to vote “against all” candidates, many chose to do just that. In the just completed Duma elections, a sizeable fraction of Russians voted for the KPRF for precisely the same reasons that animated them to vote that way when it was possible, Andrey Kolesnikov says.

The Moscow Carnegie Center analyst argues that the KPRF did far better than anyone, including its leaders, expected but that it is important to understand that those who cast their ballots for the party are hardly committed communists. They did so in order to show their opposition to the current regime (carnegie.ru/commentary/85414).

“The massive voting for the KPRF doesn’t mean a return of communism,” Kolesnikov says. “More than that, it doesn’t mean a total shift to the left on the part of the electorate or a rebirth of Marxism.” Indeed, it is an open question whether even many KPRF candidates could be described as committed communists.

Both KPRF voters and KPRF candidates are opposed to the Putin system and favor an idealized image of the past as the only real alternative. This search for an alternative, now as was the case at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, reflects a low standing of the Putin regime, something that has become “the norm” in Russian political life.

It is of course true that there is a core KPRF electorate which supports the communist agenda, but most of its voters are simply in favor of a paternalistic system but one that functions to their benefit more than does the United Russia-backed system. Thus, what this election showed is not a shift from paternalism but a shift away from Putinist paternalism.

“The Kremlin may be satisfied with the official signs of victory,” Kolesnikov continues. But it has to be worried for two reasons. On the one hand, that result reflected both conformism and official pressure and even falsification. And on the other, the election showed that ever more Russians aren’t happy with the paternalism Putin and his regime offer.

“It isn’t so much that communism is making a comeback,” he says. Rather Putin has failed to meet the expectations of many Russians who used to vote for United Russia but now cast their ballots of the KPRF. And what that means is something the Kremlin cannot want: the voting showed that “the traditional social base [of the regime] is shrinking.”

And while that may not lead to the kind of immediate protests that more liberal opponents of the Kremlin would like to see, it represents an erosion of the foundations of Putin’s power – and that is something that not just the KPRF and the liberal opposition can see but that Putin’s current supporters recognize as well.

Window on Eurasia -- New Series

Window on Eurasia -- New Series: Ingush Seven Case Collapses as Tensions between Magas and Ingush Leaders Intensify

paul goble (noreply@blogger.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 06:04:25 -0400

Paul Goble

Staunton, Sept. 25 – Video clips and testimony offered this week by the defense effectively demolish the government’s twin charges against the Ingush Seven. The evidence shows that they did not form an extremist organization and did not promote attacks on siloviki. Rather, these two kinds of evidence show that the leaders did just the reverse.

They were a moderating influence among the Ingush protesters and they sought to restrain those who were so angry at what officials had done with the border agreement with Chechnya that they were prepared to take more radical action (fortanga.org/2021/09/video-s-osennego-mitinga-v-magase-stalo-argumentom-v-polzu-nevinovnosti-malsaga-uzhahova/, fortanga.org/2021/09/svidetel-soobshhil-o-prekrashhenii-deyatelnosti-opory-ingushetii-posle-aresta-baraha-chemurzieva/, fortanga.org/2021/09/svidetel-ugovory-ingushskih-starejshin-pomogli-uspokoit-molodezh-na-mitinge/and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/368389/).

But sentences being handed out in related cases suggest that the powers that be will not be dissuaded from convicting the Ingush Seven, a trend that is intensifying tensions between Ingush society which appears to be largely on the side of the defendants and the government in Magas (fortanga.org/2021/09/murad-gorbakov-osuzhden-po-delu-o-mitinge-v-magase/).

Just how angry many Ingush are about what the republic government has been doing was signaled by the decision of three deputies to refuse to accept certificates from the powers that be on the completion of their service as deputies in the republic’s Popular Assembly. They said their refusal was about the land deal with Chechnya (fortanga.org/2021/09/tri-deputata-otkazalis-ot-gramot-kalimatova-v-znak-protesta/).

As popular anger has increased, the authorities have stepped up their harassment of any Ingush who can be viewed as an opposition figure including bloggers who posted articles suggesting the recent elections were anything but free and fair (fortanga.org/2021/09/ingushskij-bloger-soobshhil-ob-ugrozah-posle-publikaczii-foto-s-izbiratelnogo-uchastka/).

Window on Eurasia -- New Series

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Russia: Should Russia Be Worried by the New AUKUS Alliance?

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 05:54:06 -0400

Decisions made by NATO may be unpalatable for Moscow, but they are generally consistent and predictable. The same cannot be said of structures such as AUKUS.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Russia

Window on Eurasia -- New Series: Russian Protest Shifting from ‘Protest of Minority’ to ‘Protest of Majority,’ Gallyamov Says

paul goble (noreply@blogger.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 05:39:28 -0400

Paul Goble

Staunton, Sept. 25 – Not all political protests are the same, Abbas Gallyamov says. There are protests of various minorities against government policies; and there are protests of the majority against the very legitimacy of the government as such. Until recently, all Russian protests have been of the first kind, but now they are becoming the second.

The former Putin speechwriter and current political analyst says that “many think that the task of the opposition is the overthrow of the regime and the seizure of power. In fact, this is not exactly the case. At least now in the 21^st century. Now opposition figures must not so much overthrow a regime as discredit it” (echo.msk.ru/blog/gallyamov_a/2909460-echo/).

The reason for that is simple: “now even the most backward societies view the people as the source of political power” and therefore they try to show everyone, including those in power, that “the people are against them.” If they can do that, then, even many members of the ruling elite will feel powerless to fight challenges from the population, Gallyamov says.

As the US political analyst Crane Brinton observed, “the most important cause of the destruction of regime is the loss on the pat of elites of a sense of justice and rationality of the existing order,” that is, when “a critical mass of the representatives of the ruling class cease to believe that they occupy their place by right.”

In that event, as German-American analyst Hannah Arendt pointed out, revolutions occur quickly because those who have held power no longer feel they can keep it and those opposed to them find that power is lying in the streets and they are able to pick it up without what appears to be any resistance at all.

A third American analyst, Samuel Huntington, suggested that there are two kinds of legitimacy, economic and procedural. A regime retains the former as long as it can oversee a rise in living standards, but if it can’t do that, it must fall back to procedural, to the idea that it is in power because it has been chosen legitimately by the people.

The Russian elite, Gallyamov points out, has not been able to maintain economic growth for the population; and so it must rely on the notion that it is in power because of the legitimate choice of the population. If that is challenged by large numbers of people, it will lack the power to remain in office for long.

And when a majority of the population see that the regime lacks that kind of legitimacy too, that those in power are there only because of fraud and force, protests against them change from those of minorities to those of the majority, and the days of the regime, however powerful it may look, are numbered.

Window on Eurasia -- New Series