Putin Is Projecting Strength In the Face of Coronavirus. But the Image is Cracked. Russia’s leader has removed himself from the spotlight as his country’s COVID-19 problems become harder to hide.
The Kremlin is trying to project an image of competence and power as the pandemic roils the world, and aiming to conceal a darker reality back home: an uneven healthcare system, a vulnerable military, weakening centralized control, and a largely absent authoritarian leader. At the end of March, as the United States implemented social-distancing guidelines that put the economy into shock, the Kremlin took the easier route of just giving people the week off: a paid “holiday” that Putin then extended. But Russia’s infected numbers reached an official 47,121 on Monday, and despite some signs that the growth rate is declining, even Putin concedes that deaths will continue to climb. Many Western observers believe the official figures vastly understate the actual problem.
In fact, Russia has begun to buy large amounts of protective gear from China. Oil Windfall Allows Moscow to Use Surplus on Social Programs (Russian TV News) Moscow planned its budget around a $42 barrel; rising oil prices mean Russia is now flush with cash.
The government expects 3% growth and will focus expenditures on the wellbeing of its people: social programs, raising birthrates, raising the minimum wage. Transcript: The swing in oil prices due to the events in Saudi Arabia has already affected Russia's budget. According to Dmitry Medvedev, despite crude oil prices being pretty high now, the main financial document was composed based on the expectation that a barrel would cost $42. Today, the government approved the main aspects of the document. 'It's Only a Joke, Comrade!' Saturation There is no doubt that many Soviet citizens venerated Stalin, but in political humour we can hear many others sharing critical opinions about him and his Cult on a day-to-day basis that rapidly presents us with a very different, more complex image.
Let’s consider two anekdoty which turned up numerous times in the archival sources: Stalin summoned a number of economists and told them he wanted to hold a feast for all the people, a feast so great they would revel (пировать) for weeks. A typical day in the life of a person living in Moscow — from what they eat for breakfast to how they spend their free time. A few bad apples: Stalin, torture, and the Great Terror. Between the summer of 1937 and November 1938, the Stalinist regime arrested over 1.5 million people for “counterrevolutionary” and “anti-Soviet” activity and either summarily executed them or interned them in the Gulag.
This was the period that has come to be known as the Great Terror. During this time, large waves of arrests targeted political, national, and social categories of the population as Stalin endeavored to be rid of a purported “Fifth Column” within the borders of the Soviet Union. The mass arrests of largely innocent people was accompanied by widespread torture as the security agencies (the NKVD) forced confessions, largely false, out of their victims. On 10 January 1939, Stalin wrote that the Central Committee of the Communist Party had permitted the use of what was euphemistically called “the application of physical measures of persuasion” in interrogations from 1937.
To date, there is no extant written order on the use of torture during the Great Terror. A reporter who lived in Russia for four years reveals what it was like being stalked by Russian spies. Luke Harding, journalist and author of "Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win," explains what it was like to live in Moscow under FSB surveillance.
Following is a transcript of the video. Luke Harding: My name is Luke Harding. I'm a journalist and a writer, and my new book is called "Collusion," and it's about Donald Trump and Russia. The Feisty Face of Russia's Foreign Ministry. The Finnish journalist didn’t immediately register what had happened.
He knew the question he’d asked during a routine press conference in Moscow — about the savage treatment of gays in Chechnya, a southern Russian region — would provoke a rebuke from Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry’s hard-nosed spokesperson. But he wasn’t fully prepared for what followed. After dismissing his inquiry and demonstratively taking down his particulars — “Erkka … Mikkonen … ” — the stylish blonde looked into the camera and addressed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, famous for his alleged human rights abuses: “Could you organize a fact-finding trip to the Chechen Republic for this particular journalist, where he’ll be able to find the answers to all his questions?” Several minutes of bickering ensued, primarily over whether Mikkonen would take up the offer. Later, as she was wrapping up the presser, she glanced once more at the flummoxed Finn and fixed him with her eyes: “You’re not afraid, are you?”
Atlasobscura. It was June 1977 when American photographer Nathan Farb first arrived in Novosibirsk, Siberia.
He carried a 4-by-5-inch Polaroid camera, and an additional Polaroid 195, for his role in an upcoming Photography USA exhibition. It had been arranged by the United States Information Agency (USIA), whose remit was to promote American interests at height of the Cold War. For Farb, this was a unique chance to see inside the Soviet Union—not Moscow, which was more than 2,000 miles away, or St. Petersberg. “Vice President Spiro Agnew and the conservative right talked about middle Americans,” he later recalled, “so I wanted to go to a ‘middle Russian’ city.” Future - The ghostly radio station that no one claims to run.
In the middle of a Russian swampland, not far from the city of St Petersburg, is a rectangular iron gate.
Beyond its rusted bars is a collection of radio towers, abandoned buildings and power lines bordered by a dry-stone wall. This sinister location is the focus of a mystery which stretches back to the height of the Cold War. It is thought to be the headquarters of a radio station, “MDZhB”, that no-one has ever claimed to run. What Fits Into Russia. Nation Rich in Land Draws Workers From One Rich in People. Olga Kravets for The New York Times.
A Chinese laborer on a Chinese-owned farm in Ostanino, Russia. Olga Kravets for The New York Times From left, Zhang Wei Dong, Yong Quiang and their employer, Vladimir Balasanyan, at the farm. The land, deep in rural Russia, was also largely devoid of people. Russia’s Bridge to Nowhere - By Anna Nemtsova. VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — Tears ran down Nadezhda Voronstova's face as she recounted her story with a sense of bitterness and hopelessness.
The trouble started last month when two men who introduced themselves as representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development broke the news that Moscow had decided to demolish her house along with her entire village on Russky Island, just off the coast of the Russian city of Vladivostok, the site of this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The 52-year-old Vorontsova intended to spend the rest of her peaceful life with her daughter and grandson in their house on mostly uninhabited island in the Sea of Japan, 4,000 miles east of Moscow.
This Can Happen Only in… …Russia, of course! Nevermind how many pictures from or about Russia we post, it is never enough – that country is so big and there are so many people that the inspiration is eternal! Drunk law enforcers, children drinking and amazing solutions about keeping stuff safe are just some things you’ll find in this gallery. Comments. Educated Russians Often Lured To Leave.
Hide captionRussia is suffering from an exodus of educated, talented citizens, including scientists. Here, scientists rally in Moscow to demand the government increase funding for science last October. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images. VLADIMIR PUTIN TRIBUTE БЕЗ КОМЕНТАРИЯ ВЛАДИМИР ПУТИН ИНДИЙСКИЙ АПОФЕОЗ ब्लादिमीर पुतिन श्रद्धांजलि WLADIMIR PUTIN TRIBUTE بوتين يشيد 弗拉基米尔·普.
CourseSmart Analytics, Whispercast: The danger of software that monitors students’ e-reading. Photo by Lex Van Lieshout/AFP/Getty Images. There are good reasons to be excited about the immense potential of digital technologies to help spread knowledge. For instance, “massive open online courses” (or MOOCs) have rightly been the center of much media attention.
Thanks to for-profit ventures like Coursera and Udacity and nonprofit initiatives like edX (a collaboration of Harvard and MIT that now also includes the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Texas), thousands of lectures have become available at no cost—and soon, some students might even be able to get academic credit. Russia: The Unhappy People. The Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow was founded in 1524. Unlike other Moscow cloisters, it has remained virtually intact since the 17th century.( Photo: iStockphoto)) The Russian sense of melancholy is not personal, but rather a social mood, a feeling of loss and a strong collective sense of being the people who carries the cross, through revolutions and upheavals, on behalf of the world. More Than 1,000 Russians Injured In Freaking Coolest Event Ever.
CHELYABINSK, RUSSIA—Following the unexpected arrival of a 10-ton meteor that reportedly broke up above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk early Friday morning, more than 1,000 people have been seriously injured in what sources confirmed was the most awesome fucking thing ever. The absolutely badass meteor explosion, which authorities claimed left hundreds of Russian men, women, and children in critical condition, sent flaming debris throughout the city’s industrial and residential neighborhoods and is reportedly the most amazing shit you will ever see.
“It was horrible, we were all so scared,” said local woman Anya Zlobin, 48, who was just one of thousands of people who got to look out her window and see a meteor—a goddamned meteor, sources verified—streaking through the sky at balls-out speed like something out of a freaking movie, for God’s sake. “There was a very loud explosion, and then the windows shattered and we were all on the ground. It's Russian Mardi Gras: Time For Pancakes, Butter And Fistfights : The Salt. Russia’s innovation city Skolkovo: Plagued by doubts, but it continues to grow. Kill Putin! 40004. Theconversation. How Police Stop Cars in Russia.