(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Apr. 9, 2024) The Congress of the League of Free Nations which took place in Estonia April 6-7 provided not only many insights about the direction such groups are now moving (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/04/conference-in-estonia-brings-together.html) but also an occasion to reflect about some larger issues as well. A commentary by the IdelReal portal about the […]
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“… The cause is primarily the rapid onset of warm spring weather meeting lots of winter snow, causing a sudden melt and quick filling of rivers. [The University of Reading’s Maria] Shahgedanova said about half of all floods in this region have started this way, with another third attributed to rainfall and about 15% due to ice blockages in rivers. […]
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“The trial and conviction of an activist in the Ural Mountains region sparked one of the biggest outbreaks of social unrest since the start of the war.” “The trial of a minority rights activist in Russia … sparked one of [Russia’s] biggest outbreaks of social unrest … since the start of the [Russo-Ukrainian] war … highlighting the strain … on […]
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(Moscow Times – Dec. 4, 2023) Moscow broke a daily snowfall record on Sunday when nearly 11 millimeters of precipitation fell over just 12 hours, meteorologists in the Russian capital said. Sunday’s snowfall, powered by a strong cyclone that formed over southern Europe last week, marked the absolute daily record in Moscow since observations began in 1878, according to meteorologist […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 3 Things to Know In the past month, Russian forces have gained 16 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while Ukraine gained 7 square miles, according to calculations by Katherine Davidson, associate of the Belfer Russia-Ukraine War Task Force.1Yet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has this week denied his top general Valery Zaluzhny’s recent claim that the war has reached […]
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“… Putin [reportedly] has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until least 2030 …. After defusing an armed mutiny by the leader of the Wagner mercenary group … Putin has moved to shore up support among his core base in the security forces, the armed forces and with regional voters […]
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6 Things to Know Commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces Valery Zaluzhny has admitted that his forces’ offensive has reached a stalemate, while the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces and architect of last year’s successful counteroffensive Oleksandr Syrskyi has described the current conditions along the 600-mile frontline as “difficult” and “challenging.” “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough … […]
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“In theory, Russian law applies everywhere within Russia’s borders. But over and over, the Chechen republic proves exempt from those rules, no matter how blatant a violation might be.” “… Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov posted a video … show[ing] his teenage son brutally beating up a Russian prisoner … sa[ying] he was ‘proud” of his son’s actions. … [M]any Russians […]
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“Muscovites go about their daily lives with little major disruption. But the war’s effects are evident — in the stores, at the movies and in the increasingly repressive environment.” “… Muscovites are experiencing dual realities: The war has faded into background noise … yet … remains ever-present in … daily lives. … Advertisements to join the military are … on […]
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(Moscow Times – Pyotr Kozlov – Sept. 9, 2023) Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin is expected to win re-election by an overwhelming margin in this weekend’s mayoral elections following the elimination of virtually all other opposition and independent candidates. Sobyanin has led Russia’s capital, a city of 12 million people, through waves of mass protests, the Covid-19 pandemic and, today, regular […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, June 14, 2023) Many émigré politicians, Russian and non-Russian, talk about the looming collapse of Russia, a position that is understandable but fundamentally defective because it is a classic example of wishful thinking, of believing that what one wants to happen is what will, Tatyana Vintsevskaya says. The Siberian activist, who herself […]
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“Funerals have taken on a grim routine in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, and as the fighting grows more intense during the counteroffensive, gravediggers say they are bracing for more bodies.” “… Fierce battles are playing out … in the … east and south …. A British defense intelligence report said … Sunday … both armies were suffering significant casualties […]
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“… The buzzword for the future of Russia is ‘decolonisation.’ For many people this means a challenge to the current state’s imperialistic mindset, in respect of both its neighbours and the minority nations inside its borders. For others, the term has come to mean dismemberment. … The current Federation has some 190 or so ethnic groups, and most are not […]
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(Moscow Times – Kirill Ponomarev – May 28, 2023) When animation artist Varvara returned to Russia earlier this year for the first time since fleeing abroad after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the main emotion she felt was surprise. Not by how much had changed in her homeland after over a year of war — but by how little. […]
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(Moscow Times – Leyla Latypova – April 19, 2023) On a recent cold March afternoon, a handful of people gathered on a square in downtown Ulyanovsk, a mid-sized Russian city on the Volga River, to demand the return of direct elections for the city’s mayorship. Despite a large police presence, the gathering — which featured speeches from local activists and […]
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(Article text Copyright © 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036. – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – March 9, 2023 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/russia-opposition-fractured-navalny-venediktov/32310660.html) A major new investigative report by the team of imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny charges that the Moscow […]
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“… Russia will not become a democracy until it falls apart. That’s because Russia is not really a nation-state but the same premodern multiethnic empire living on geographic expansion and resource looting as 300 years ago — and is thus doomed to reproduce, again and again, under whatever ideological cover, the same prison-ward-like political structure that alone keeps it together. […]
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“As … Putin doubles down on his war in Ukraine …. [s]ome observers have predicted that [Putin] could be overthrown; others even hope for a breakup of the country. … Could Russia splinter? Russia’s geography makes cohesiveness elusive. Spanning 11 time zones, it is the largest nation … by landmass. Twenty percent of its population is not ethnically Russian but […]
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“Russia’s chaotic mobilization of troops has ended, its goals largely met. But the public is still coming to grips with the psychological stresses of the process – and of the ongoing war in Ukraine.” “Under Russia’s Constitution, men have the right to seek alternative service if their health or personal beliefs preclude being drafted into the army. … [T]he Movement […]
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Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2022 From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> Subject: Farewell to the Mobilized Farewell to the Mobilized By Sarah Lindemann-Komarova Has lived in Siberia since 1992. Was a community development activist for 20 years. Currently, focuses on research and writing. Text with photos: echosiberia.medium.com/farewell-to-the-mobilized-11502c0d93c8 October 22 was an unseasonably warm Saturday night in the Altai Republic. 8PM and thousands […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, June 14, 2022) Russians who live in major cities and those who live in villages receive a great deal of attention. Together, they form the overwhelming majority of the population. But those who live in smaller cities and towns seldom get much attention, Sergey Nechayev says. But if one visits one of […]
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(Moscow Times – April 18, 2022) Around 200,000 employees of foreign companies in Moscow could lose their jobs due to sanctions over Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the city’s mayor said on Monday. “According to our estimates, about 200,000 people are at risk of losing their jobs,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a blog post. He said authorities had […]
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Pukhayev and other local Stalin critics are left casting around for explanations …. “Stalinism is our national Stockholm syndrome,” he said, referring to a psychological condition in which hostages develop an emotional bond with their captors […]
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Street fairs, ice skating, curling, and lots and lots of Christmas trees. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Dec. 13, 2021) Despite concerns about coronavirus, the Moscow city government decided to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with its annual festival. Called “The Journey to Christmas,” the festival began this past weekend and will go until Jan. 9. Russia celebrates Christmas […]
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On Tuesday Moscow opened ten new metro stations on the Big Circle Line (BCL) — the ring of stations that surrounds the original Circle Line in the city center […]
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has announced a non-working week … Oct. 28 until Nov. 7 to ‘break the maximum number of disease transmission chains …'[…]
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From big gas projects to closer military cooperation and improved bilateral trade that reached a record of more than $110 billion in 2019, the China-Russia relationship has reached new heights [. ..]
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Independent data scientists and analysts said that half of all the votes attributed to United Russia in the official results were probably fake — a level of falsification previously unseen in Russian parliamentary elections [. ..]
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Saransk’s entrepreneurs are divided over whether the government is on their side, but discontent is unlikely to be reflected in the upcoming Duma vote. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jake Cordell – SARANSK, MORDOVIA – Sept. 7, 2021 For barbershop owner Oleg Kechin, the first 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic were a breeze. After shutting for just four weeks […]
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On Sept. 19, Russians will vote in important elections to the country’s State Duma national parliament, the first major test of public opinion since a major crackdown […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, Aug. 31, 2021) Because so many Russians have left villages to move to the cities, it is often overlooked that many Russians choose to remain in villages and many who have moved into urban areas nonetheless view village life as preferrable in a variety of ways to the one they find themselves […]
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Representatives of the ruling United Russia Party occupy 76 percent of the 192,000 seats on the 19,000 municipal councils of the Russian Federation, according to a new study […]
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Putin … said the scale of natural disasters that have hit Russia this year is “absolutely unprecedented” as local officials ask for Moscow’s help to tackle fires and floods […]
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As September elections approach, COVID-19 takes a mounting toll and wildfires burn across huge swaths of the country …. The Kremlin crackdown on dissenters, civil society, and independent media continues […]
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“In the Russian imagination, the dacha occupies a near mythical place. Once the reserve of the landed nobility, the summer house gained popularity with urban professionals in the late 19th century; in the Soviet era the dacha became available to everyone, from writers to factory workers. Nowadays, a dacha can be anything from a two-room shack to an oligarch’s imitation […]
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With declining economic trends exacerbated by the pandemic, poor, rural areas are facing a demographic crisis […]
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… Russia’s largest, coldest region has been under a state of emergency for nearly a month due to the fast-spreading wildfires covering hundreds of thousands of hectares […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, July 1, 2021) In the course of his Direct Line television show, Vladimir Putin said he was against moving the capital of the Russian Federation from Moscow but does favor having Russian companies which operate there have their headquarters in Siberian cities and pay taxes there rather than as now in Moscow. […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, June 25, 2021) Russia’s autocratic government is modern not just because it has reversed the democratization wave of three decades ago but because it is willing to make use of modern techniques in some spheres of life under its control for its direct benefit, according to Gulnaz Sharaftudinova. The Kremlin uses various […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 28, 2021) Moscow has rolled out one of the world’s most ambitious mandatory vaccination schemes, requiring 60% of all service sector workers — more than 2 million people — in the capital to be fully vaccinated within the next seven weeks. The unprecedented push comes as the city faces a surge of cases and […]
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Most parties … participating in the upcoming Duma and regional legislative assembly elections are now including environmentalists in their list of candidates […]
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The spike was announced 24 hours after the Kremlin denied … report[s] that Russia is in the midst of a Covid-19 third wave […]
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“Aggressive intimidation tactics and court move suggest bid to silence opposition leader for good.” “… Navalny [supporters] … are facing unprecedented pressure … [with] a Moscow court … poised to designate their organisation an ‘extremist’ movement on a par with jihadi group al-Qaeda… [A]ctivists working for the opposition leader say they are in a state of siege. … shut[ting] down […]
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Latest figures continue to show the slow pace of Russia’s vaccination rollout. (Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 15, 2021) Around 820,000 Muscovites have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said yesterday, with the number who have received at least one dose of Russia’s three homemade jabs having surpassed 1 million in the capital. In a […]
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… close to a century after its founding, a city whose population approached 250,000 in the late 1980s now has fewer than 60,000 residents and is shrinking faster than any other in Russia […]
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“The Yeliseyevsky Food Emporium … is due to close its doors on April 11 after 120 years […]
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says demand for the Russian vaccine far exceeds supply in foreign countries …. But the same situation holds in many parts of Russia where there is now not enough vaccine to meet domestic demand […]
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“In its 874-year history, Moscow has grown from an obscure twelfth-century military outpost into a world-class capital city of over 20 million inhabitants. Along the way, the city has been reinvented over and over to suit the needs of its rulers. Ivan the Great made Moscow “The Third Rome” after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, raising stone cathedrals inside […]
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… Navalny’s team has announced plans to open offices in 10 cities where it believes the ruling United Russia party is most vulnerable […]
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