This thread is about Russia and any events, political or otherwise, that are or might be worth discussing.
Any news, links or posts pertaining to the situation involving Russia, Crimea and Ukraine must be put in the 'Crisis in Ukraine' thread.
Group of deputies wants Gorbachev investigated over Soviet break-up.
Above in the Guardian version.
Putin's war against Russia's last independent TV channel.
No discussion regarding nuclear war. As nuclear weapons are not being used by either side, nuclear war is off-topic.
Edited by MacronNotes on Feb 27th 2022 at 11:26:10 AM
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
Does Russia even have its own equivalent of Donald Trump? An infamous billionaire who seemingly has sold his soul to the devil in order to keep his bankrupted businesses afloat, has been repeatedly investigated by the government, insists on having as much of his property being the color gold, subsists on junk food, and is looked down upon by other wealthy barons?
Or is this simply your typical oligarch?
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
This is generally your typical oligarch only they're not a TV personality usually.
And Putin has either killed, seized the assets of or brought most of the oligarchs under his boot for the most part.
edited 5th Nov '17 6:01:40 PM by LeGarcon
Oh really when?
Oh, bother.
Well, maybe not that junk food thing.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Yeltsin probably would have counted, but the context of his oddness is much different from Trump's...
And why is that? You have a country fifty time their size at their border who likes to casually steal land left and right and is currently funding an insurrection on foreign soil. What kind of moron would dismiss them as a non-significant threat? I mean, even if there indeed was no strategical reason for Russia to annex Lithuania or Latvia, do you really expect them to stop caring about the giant next door?
France did that in the thirties with Germany - thinking it was safe - and, surprise, it didn't end well. Not to say that Putin is as bad as Hitler, but history tends to favor the paranoid ones, not the hopeful ones. Especially as Russia in the recent years has invested significant resources to put some friendly faces in charge of foreign powers, using means that weren't exactly public and above-the-counter.
I would love to know where the good faith towards Russia should come from really. What actions have been taken to make Baltic or Eastern Europe countries feel like they overreacted and they shouldn't be so hostile to anything coming from there. Because you can't expect to behave like a middle school bully and be highly considered by everyone at the same time, at some point, you need to refresh your sympathy capital by not being a total dick.
Russian Trump - Come on, people, Zhirinovsky! That's our Trump! Not a businessman, but somehow even more wild, incoherent and morally repugnant.
edited 6th Nov '17 5:02:33 AM by KnitTie
Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
How Russia's high-tech start-ups are looking beyond oil
In a crowded lobby of an office building near the centre of Moscow, between a fish tank and a hamster cage, Denis is strapping on a robotic skeleton. With a loud whirring, he heaves himself upright and sets off down the corridor.
"It's amazing!" he says.
This would be less impressive if it wasn't for the fact that Denis is paralysed from the waist down. The exo-skeleton he is demonstrating is made by Exo Atlet, one of Russia's new breed of tech companies, a sector that the Russian government hopes will help move the economy away from its reliance on energy.
Ekaterina Bereziy, chief executive and co-founder of Exo Atlet, says the machine doesn't promise that paralysed people will suddenly walk unaided. Instead it's more likely to be used for stroke rehabilitation.
But Ekaterina's company is unusual. Russia is a country rich in natural resources with an abundance of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas and this is what the economy is based on.
"We in Russia literally do not have presidents being people, it's oil being the president of Russia," says Andrey Movchan, an independent economist at the Moscow Carnegie Centre think tank. "When oil is cheap, living is bad... essentially when Putin came [to power] oil started to climb and we had good times. Now we have decent times."
This reliance on oil is underlined by Russia's exports, 80% of which are directly related to hydrocarbons, according to Mr Movchan. But is this really such a problem?
"Yes and no," he says. "If you look from the Kremlin everything is OK. The budget deficit is 2% of GDP, which is absolutely affordable. For the ministers, for the government and for the president the situation in Russia is very stable and very good."
On the other hand, he argues: "If you look from a regular window from a regular 24-storey house in a Moscow suburb, the situation is bad, incomes are going down and it's harder and harder to maintain the standard of living."
Russia is emerging from two years of recession. The huge decline in the worldwide oil price in 2014 caused the economy to contract sharply. On top of that the US and EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The value of the rouble fell with the oil price and consumers stopped spending as incomes were squeezed. The Russian economy is forecast to return to annual growth this year.
So what hope is there of finding an alternative to oil?
Ekaterina Bereziy of Exo Atlet is optimistic for tech companies like hers. "Ten years ago it was completely impossible to do anything in this area - we could never get any grant money for research and development. But now it's possible. Now there are a lot of initiatives."
Exo Atlet received money and support from Skolkovo, a government-funded organisation for the high-tech sector in Russia that was set up by then President Dmitry Medvedev seven years ago. It was ambitiously billed as Russia's answer to Silicon Valley.
Skolkovo is a new city in the making an hour's drive beyond the suburbs on Moscow's traffic-clogged roads. The centrepiece is the techno-park where about 25% of the 1,700 companies supported by Skolkovo are already installed.
It provides grants, worth a total of $20m (£15m) a year, as well as support in areas such as marketing and access to laboratories and equipment. The companies are also exempt from paying tax.
However, critics say that too much state money has gone into Skolkovo. It's cost about $2.2bn (£1.7bn) to build, with little financial return. And, as with some other big Russian state projects, in the early years it was dogged by allegations of corruption.
"It was a difficult period of time, the first years of the project," explains Igor Drozdov, chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation, "because many people didn't believe that it was possible to create something here. I think all the problems came from this."
Clearly Skolkovo has not replicated the success of Silicon Valley in California but Mr Drozdov insists that "if we're talking about Skolkovo start-ups I would say around 40 to 50 companies are already global leaders in their niches."
But doing business in Russia is unpredictable, as I found out from one company with an office at Skolkovo. Tion makes air purification systems for industry as well as households.
Most of the company is based in the Siberian town of Akademgorodok. Last summer, after having updated the air purifiers it makes for use in hospitals, its boss, Dmitri Trubitsyn, was placed under house arrest, accused of breaching a 2015 law that made selling unregistered or counterfeit medical equipment a criminal offence.
He denies the charges and 5,000 people signed a petition appealing to the president to halt the case. In Russia you have to certify products whenever you modify them, not just when they are released, a process which may take years.
Mikhail Amelkin, Tion's chief technical officer, told me that "there was a situation when we didn't manage to get all the certificates in time". But he also believes that "somebody didn't like the fact that Tion is growing so rapidly and Tion dominates several markets".
Andrei Trubnikov has built up a cosmetics empire based on Siberian plants. He set up Natura Siberica with $5,000 in the late 1990s.
Today it has an annual turnover of about $300m (£225m), employs 4,000 people worldwide and exports to 45 countries. Andrei is a man of few words but as we walked around his flagship central Moscow store he was keen to tell me: "I'm not a political man you know. I don't like politics."
His biggest challenge at the outset was persuading Russian women to buy Russian cosmetics. But when sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2014 and President Putin retaliated with counter-sanctions, he says Russians began to take Russian-made products more seriously.
The recession and fall in the value of the rouble had also made imports much more expensive.
In spite of the difficulties businesses in Russia face, many do survive and even thrive. But bureaucracy, corruption and a weak legal system are all cited as barriers to entrepreneurship and, until that environment changes, wholesale diversification of the Russian economy is highly unlikely.
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
Reuters exclusive: Two Russian refineries are exploiting a customs loophole to avoid paying export duties on "dark oil" products.
The practice takes advantage of a loophole in customs rules and has this year saved the refiners tens of millions of dollars which would otherwise have gone into the state budget, according to the government data and sources.
Novoshakhtinsky and Mariysky refineries shipped a total of 2 million tonnes of reclassified fuel in the first nine months of this year, saving about $170 million in tax, according to the data and sources.
Novoshakhtinsky declined to comment.
When contacted for comment, Mariysky initially said it planned to respond but declined subsequent requests for comment.
The Federal Customs Service (FCS) did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Russia’s Association of Oil Refiners and Petrochemists said it had no comment.
Fuel oil and vacuum gas oil are low-value refined oil products known among refiners and exporters as “dark oil” products, and are mostly used either for shipping fuel or as ingredients to make more complex products.
Russia has been totally banned from the 2018 Olympics, due to their state-run doping scheme. Athletes who didn't fail tests can compete under another flag though, or a neutral one.
edited 5th Dec '17 12:35:38 PM by Rationalinsanity
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
The law in the night
Russia and cheating, a way of life.
I am impressed with the amount of cheating Russians are involved and I am a motherfucking Brazilian.
Inter arma enim silent leges
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
It's getting to the point you'll have to give up the crown for expressive diving to get a penalty. :/
At that point, how safe is it to bet on a Russian victory during the 2018 World Cup in Russia?
And of course everyone is coming out of the woodwork to scream about how this is totally a conspiracy to isolate Russia from global politics or something.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
Oh, bother.
It's just more of the Kremlin's tendency to shoot themselves in the foot with unnecessary cheating.
I wouldn't be surprised if Russian athletes were perfectly capable of winning without doping. But now we'll never know.
edited 5th Dec '17 5:34:38 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
The law in the night
Historically they always were, but hey, why play fair when you can cheat and make Mother Rooosya proud?
Inter arma enim silent leges
Oh, bother.
Since it came up again, I'll post the Doping segment John Oliver did a while back:
@Latvia whitewashing SS war crimes.
Yo, I admit I don't follow local politics as closely, but this sounds like pure WHAT. When did that happen? And more importantly, why? There is no benefit for this kind of stance. No one likes nazi's here so why would anyone whitewash their actions is beyond me.
Is there a source?
It's the remembrance day for the Latvian Legion, which brings out all the debate.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Pronounced YAK-you-luss
A significant part of Eastern Europe was literally fucked both ways by both sides during World War II. If your grandmother was gang-raped by a Red Army platoon when she was nine years old (sadly, not an exaggeration), you’re going to be more sympathetic to the guys who were fighting them.
It’s also a reason why Hitler remains kind of popular in certain parts of Africa. Germany never had a huge colonial presence in most of the continent, and the Nazis didn’t really manage to get around to exterminating black people en masse (give or take the odd war crime in North Africa), so they were often seen simply as the enemies of their colonial oppressors.
edited 10th Dec '17 4:09:50 AM by Iaculus
What's precedent ever done for us?
Ah, I see. I thought our government said something stupid (they probably did it anyway in some other matter), but if it's discussion about Latvian Legion and their crimes, then it's essentially discussion about these dickbags.
edited 10th Dec '17 6:55:33 AM by Prany
You're going to have manually fix that link, since it leads to a 'Bad title' page.
Since you seem to be Latvian, can you tell what's the more general perception amongst most folks in regards to Russia?
Hard to pinpoint general perception - opinions range all over the place. There are your typical ultranationalists . Not as much now (most of them have grown up), but first advice about life in cities coming from nineties was to never speak or even wear anything with your language on it. Russian or Latvian.
Remembrance days on both sides are or at least were also controversial. Considering Red Army's behavior during their offensive and atrocities associated with soviet regime, it's not hard to see why some people get butthurt from celebrating these "heroes". Stalin and Hitler are almost seen as Big Bad Duumvirate here.
On the other hand there is heavy ostalgia. Most people, who experienced collapse, grew up during good part of soviet era. Cleansings and deportations were before them - all the oppressions of their time were some vocal fringe poets going to nut house or committing suicide. There was also much despised stukach (snich) network. But while life wasn't necessarily better, it sure was easier. Restored republic came with corruption, oligarchy, government inneficiency and difficulties of free market. And media that actually talks about all the negativity around.
I would however say that opinions of most people are fairly deflated. Those who dislike Russia, have better things to worry about. Those who remember soviet era fondly, don't even understand entirely what's all the fuss about. Our government or media may attempt something resembling fear mongering or mending relationships, but most people are more inclined to respond with hate on our own government because that's just how things roll around here.
One thing that should be mentioned - when it was put to vote making Russian national language on par with Latvian, it recieved resounding no. Make of it what you will!
Iaculus - With regards to Eastern Europe during WW 2, the only countries who hated the Soviets from the get-go were Poland, The Baltics and Hungary. Poland and the Baltics's reasons are obvious, while Hungary was the Nazis' staunchest ally that was never de-nazified in the same way Germany was and had a lot of troubles with the Red Army and its auxiliaries taking out their anger with Nazis on the civilian populace. Other countries were either relatively neutral, such as Austria, or outright welcoming towards the Soviets, such as Czechoslovakia. The problems there started later, when the Soviets didn't leave and started forcing communism on people instead.
Great summary! From my own perspective, I'll add that most Russians similarly don't care about the Baltics one way or another, with the notable exception of radical right-wingers and populist politicians.
With regards to Latvia whitewashing the SS - sadly, a lot of your radical nationalists are trying to lionize the SS in the same way our radical nationalists try to lionize Stalin and co., which is just as wrong. It doesn't mean that most of your people do it or condone it, but it's a thing.
Julep - We suck at football. Don't bet on us there ever.
Russia cheating - One of the saddest things about my country, really, is the fact that nobody here ever believes in fair play. Russians have been forced to cheat to survive and succeed in dysfunctional, hostile regimes for so long that almost none of us now can see that it's possible to play fair and win and that cheating isn't an unavoidable fact of life.
edited 13th Dec '17 9:47:34 AM by KnitTie
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
Talk about it, I've pointed out before that Chinese society has virtually the same issues with apathy and pessimism as Russia. It's actually an open secret here in the US at least that a number of Chinese students who study internationally have their grades and transcripts fabricated or modified. Since there's virtually no way to maintain a system of accountability, the colleges accept them anyways for the pricy tuition they are willing to pay. A number of these students are also actually spies assigned to keep tabs on their fellow citizens overseas, but that's a whole other issue.
Fun fact: the Baltics were actually the last region to fall to the Soviets following the official German surrender in April 1945. This was because Army Group Kurland that was defending it contained an unusually large concentration of Waffen-SS units recruited from non-Germans and Soviet defectors, who maintained stiff morale throughout the fighting instead of breaking like most regular German formations simply because they saw the end of the war being their Bolivian Army Ending.
The German high command saw AG Kurland's final mission as Operation Hannibal, a Dunkirk-esque evacuation of civilians and troops that was also the final major deployment of the Kriegsmarine. The army would fight a delaying action to the death so that as many refugees and troops could slip through the Baltic ports before the Soviets overpowered them after most of the ethnic German units remaining surrendered. The greatest maritime disaster occurred during this campaign, when a Soviet submarine torpedoed a German liner causing a loss of life greater than the Titanic's.
Most of the non-German units refused to surrender, preferring to take to the forests and wage an anti-Soviet insurgency that would last until The '50s, when Soviets destroyed them with the critical assistance of moles in Western intelligence agencies such as the Cambridge Five who tipped Soviet forces in the Baltics off about Western attempts to aid the insurgents.
edited 13th Dec '17 9:30:51 AM by FluffyMcChicken
And in the USA it's "we need a strong me to protect us from terrorists, North Korea, China..."
At least your strongmen can string together complete sentences coherently.
edited 5th Nov '17 5:24:50 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised