Politics, Government, Protests, Elections
The arrest and detention … of prominent opposition activist … Navalny is threatening to upend Russian politics in an already fraught year that will include parliamentary elections […]
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“Jailed anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny has called on Russians across the country to take to the streets this weekend …. Navalny appears to be hoping for a repeat of the 2013 demonstrations where thousands … gathered outside the Kremlin … to protest against his arrest at that time. … [T]he Kremlin backed down and released him, but […]
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“Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will be kept in custody until mid-February, a court ruled Monday, following his detention Sunday evening at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. In the hearing Monday, […]
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Anatoly Vishnevsky, the Russian demographer who … showed how demographic statistics can illuminate a larger slice of reality than most people had ever thought possible, has passed away […]
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… [D]espite being initially seen by some as a placeholder prime minister … Mishustin has seen his star rise, asserting his control over government appointments while seeing his popularity tick upwards to rival even his boss […]
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… The detention was met with immediate condemnation from U.S. and European leaders as well as new calls for sanctions against Russia in retaliation […]
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“Chief Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny returned to Russia from Germany … and was immediately detained. The 44-year-old opposition leader flew back to Moscow after spending several months in Germany recovering from a poisoning attack that he said was carried out on the orders of President Vladimir Putin. …” Click here for: “Navalny Returns to Russia” – Moscow Times [Navalny image […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax) – It looks like Russia has passed the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, and there is currently a trend toward stabilization, Deputy Director of Rospotrebnadzor’s Central Research Institute of Epidemiology for Clinical Analysis Natalia Pshenichnaya said. “We’re observing a certain trend toward stabilization,” Pshenichnaya told journalists on Friday. “Daily morbidity may still fluctuate, considering that Russia […]
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“… Russia’s government says 1.5m vaccines have been distributed … [with] hundreds of thousands more … ready … [but] doctors and officials … [indicate] a far bleaker reality of limited supplies and delayed shipments. … Moscow’s clinics have been busy vaccinating … [but] regions outside of the capital have struggled to secure adequate supplies, calling into question … [governmental] ability […]
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… Navalny has announced … he will return to Russia … following months of recuperation after being poisoned by a Novichok-type nerve agent …. Compelling evidence indicates he was poisoned by … FSB[] operatives …. The Kremlin has said it was not involved … but has refused to cooperate […]
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… In his recent interview, Navalny said that he is ‘against the current concentration of power in the hands of the federal center’ […]
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Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is expecting the start of recovery from the socioeconomic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic […]
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“‘Meet me.’ With those … words … just one word in Russian … Navalny announced his return to Russia [Jan. 17], after … recuperating in Berlin from an attempt to poison him with … nerve agent Novichok. … Opposition supporters … have clearly taken his message as an invitation to show up … [despite winter weather]. Most commentators … expect […]
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“A New York Times reporter juggled fears engendered by the politicized rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine with the urge to gain protection from the deadly virus.” “… Russia’s coronavirus vaccine … Sputnik V[] [is] made at a factory outside of Moscow from genetically modified human cold viruses. Like so much else in Russia, … [its] rollout … was entangled […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – RM Staff – Jan. 6, 2021) The Levada Center has just released the results of its latest annual poll on the most significant events of the past year, and, predictably, the global coronavirus outbreak tops the list. As many as 39 percent of Russians believe the pandemic was the most significant event of 2020, while […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Jan. 4, 2021) To graduate from secondary schools, Russians will still have to pass tests in Russian; but they will not be required to do so in foreign languages like English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese, the education ministry has announced (publication.pravo.gov.ru/Document/View/0001202012240006?index=1&rangeSize=1). That change effectively ends the effort of former education minister, […]
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… Putin made no statement on the unprecedented chaos in the United States when he spoke briefly with journalists after attending an Orthodox Christmas service […]
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… Even before the coronavirus upended the world, 2020 had been an extraordinary year for Russia’s usually staid politics […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Jan. 3, 2021) According to Andrey Serenko, head of Volgograd’s Analytic Center on Russian society, there were five developments in the Russian Federation during the last 12 months that are likely to play out with potentially serious consequences during 2021 (realtribune.ru/news/authority/5686). They are: 1. The quarantine regime and vaccinations. By late summer […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 31, 2020) In 2020 the number of deaths in Russia of prominent and beloved public figures was devastatingly high, many from the coronavirus, but some from other causes as well. The performing arts were particularly hard hit by Covid-19, since by the nature of the professions, people at work cannot be masked or socially […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Dec. 29, 2020) Because of the pandemic and the associated economic crisis, many Russians are being forced by circumstances to shift from being passive observers to taking more demanding positions as citizens, a change that could outlast either of the problems that generated it, according to Aleksey Levinson. The two crises, the […]
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The past 12 months were a turning point for Russia not only because of the pandemic but also because of the constitutional changes … Putin pushed through […]
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“… [In] 2020 … Putin took bold moves to cement … power at home and extend … nearly two decades in power, a likely bellwether for [2021], when … [he] could squelch remaining domestic opposition and reinforce … influence abroad. … [D]issent has simmered. Massive protests in the Far East … over the arrest of a popular regional governor quickly […]
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“Putin’s secrecy has helped fuel Russia’s black market in information which is thriving online and undermining the president’s authority.” “Vladimir Putin has surrounded himself with such a thick fog of secrecy that it’s now unclear where he is living, how many children or lovers he has, if his health is failing, or whether he’s planning to stay in power ….” […]
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“As the Kremlin awaits what it fears will be a hostile Biden presidency, President Vladimir Putin is shifting course on two fronts — accelerating a drive to full-blown authoritarian control at home and escalating his defiant rhetoric against the West ….” Click here for: “In Russia, tough new laws and stepped-up defiance abroad mark Putin’s shift toward unfettered control” – […]
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“Russia’s Health Ministry … cut … a [Russian] coronavirus vaccine [study from 40,000 to about 31,000] and stop[ped] … enrollment of volunteers. … a week after developers said enrollment … slowed since Russia began giving out the Sputnik V vaccine while the late-stage study was still continuing. They also cited ethical concerns about giving a dummy shot to some of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 23, 2020) Lawmakers in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, have passed over a dozen laws this week that expand the government’s powers while imposing new restrictions on free speech and information access. State Duma deputy Dmitry Vyatkin authored many of the bills, which have moved through parliament at breakneck pace in […]
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Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny says he duped a Russian agent into revealing how the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) poisoned him with Novichok […]
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“Это невероятно. Я позвонил одному из своих убийц и поговорил с ним. Один из самых удивительных разговоров в моей жизни. Так странно обсуждать собственное убийство с одним из тех, для кого это просто работа. Мой собеседник – военный химик из ФСБшной группы отравителей – отвечает за зачистку следов химоружия после совершения преступления. Послушайте внимательно: эта запись – просто документ эпохи. […]
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After Putin, Russia’s cultural consensus will package private property together with neo-colonialism, racism and Social Darwinism. The signs are already there. (Opendemocracy.net – Kirill Kobrin – Dec. 22, 2020) Kirill Kobrin is a writer, historian and journalist. He is an editor of the Russian intellectual journal Neprikosnovennyi Zapas, and is the author of 27 books and numerous publications in the […]
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Leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny said … he tricked one of the several security officers linked to his poisoning into outlining the details of the operation […]
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An elite … FSB[] chemical weapons unit shadowed … Navalny’s movements for … three years up until his near-fatal poisoning, a joint media investigation said […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will order the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the instances of torture of persons under investigation in order to make them confess. Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, said during Putin’s meeting with its members that torture of persons under investigation has become […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 11, 2020) Russia should form its own human rights court, President Vladimir Putin said when asked by a council member on Thursday. Analysts have said the formation of such a court is likely a response to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has ordered Russia to pay out millions of euros to […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 10 (Interfax) – The Russian draft legislation introducing criteria for designating private individuals as foreign agents could be adjusted to enhance the legal mechanisms of its enforcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “We assume that this doesn’t envision prohibitive steps on the state’s part. If you think there are some risks there and if the principal aspects of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 10, 2020) Russian lawmakers have approved new restrictions on protests, prompting criticism from the opposition that they violate Russians’ constitutional rights. Deputies in Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved a pair of bills Wednesday that ban foreign funding for protest organizers as well as rallies outside law enforcement and security buildings. […]
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… [A]lmost 60 percent of Russians below … thirty view developments in Russia negatively and were on average against [Putin’s 2020 amendments to Constitution] … according to the Levada Center […]
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Those … angry at … Putin and his failures at home and abroad are not necessarily pro-Western, Kseniya Kirillova says […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 8, 2020) President Vladimir Putin has signed bills into law elevating a low-profile advisory body known as the State Council, criminalizing secession and prioritizing the Russian Constitution over international law. Putin approved the set of laws on Tuesday, 160 days after Russian voters overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms that pave the way for him to […]
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“The Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy recently hosted a panel discussion on U.S.–Russia relations and Russia’s place in the world. … The discussion was moderated by Anatol Lieven, the distinguished journalist and scholar. The panel was comprised of George Washington University’s Marlene Laurelle, the philosopher and editor Boris Mezhuev, the University of Kent’s Richard Sakwa, the University of Ottawa’s […]
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“The Russian opposition politician, who narrowly escaped death by nerve agent poisoning, remains undeterred from challenging Putin’s hegemony.” “Though not yet restored to full health, … Navalny is recovering in Germany from the poisoning that almost killed him … preparing to return to Russia to continue his fight for democracy. … Not surprisingly, the Kremlin has refused to initiate a […]
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New research shows the growth of mobile internet leads to falling trust in governments, with Navalny as the prime example. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jake Cordell – Dec. 4, 2020) The rapid spread of mobile internet around the world over the last decade has directly contributed to falling levels of trust in government and a surge in populism, according […]
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While the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in public administration is bound to grow, a machine cannot yet be the leader of a state, … Putin […]
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… Putin — like most autocratic rulers — attributes pivotal importance to personal ties […]
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… Russian president’s special representative for environmental protection and transport, Sergei Ivanov said … the whole NSR runs through Russian territorial waters or … the country’s economic zone, and said that Russia must insist on special rules […]
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… That pattern, [a] Levada Center sociologist says, reflects … the very different experiences of the two generations and the inability of the Putin government to find a common language with the rising generation … a threat to the stability of the regime […]
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… The authors of the address added that, if these bills are passed, it will become far more challenging to organize rallies, demonstrations, processions, and pickets […]
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Subject: Steve Cohen’s Anecdote Lecture — December 6, 1983/ via John/ JohnBatchelorShow.com podcast Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2020 From: Katrina vanden Heuvel <kat@thenation.com> Steve Cohen gave an annual anecdote lecture in his Soviet Politics class, first at Princeton starting in 1980, and running through his ten years at NYU — until about 2012 — Here is the 12/6/83 Lecture broken […]
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