LIVE UPDATES: Police are investigating Mark Feygin, the Russian lawyer of former Ukrainian political prisoner and MP Nadiya Savchenko.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Recent Analysis and Translations:
– NATO Got Nothing From Conceding To Russia In the Past, Why Should It Cave To The Kremlin Now?
– Who is Hacking the Russian Opposition and State Media Officials — and How?
– Does it Matter if the Russian Opposition Stays United?
– Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Has Invented A Version Of History To Meet His Needs
– Getting The News From Chechnya – The Crackdown On Free Press You May Have Missed
UPDATES BELOW
Commentators on the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum last week found that despite President Vladimir Putin’s best efforts, even supportive Westerners were not able to stop EU sanctions, which were approved again for another six months.
The forum, which once drew leading international figures hoping for a chance to get Putin’s ear now seems to have dwindled in importance.
A video from a speech at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum by MIT Prof. Loren Graham, a historian of science, was posted by anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny and many other Russians.
The YouTube of his talk, titled “You Want Milk Without the Cow,” seems to sum up a lot of Russia’s problems with innovation efforts and economic reform in general.
Said Graham (in reverse translation from Russian by The Interpreter):
“Dudes, you will not get any innovation or any Skolkovo as long as the government suppresses political opponents and bans freedom of assembly.”
Navalny pointed out that Graham’s university, MIT, had donated $300 million to the Skolkovo project, begun ambitiously by then-president Dmitry Medvedev. Since then the project has faltered, Western investors have pulled out, and under President Vladimir Putin, the director and participants have been prosecuted, including former MP and entrepreneur Ilya Ponomarev, who was forced to flee Russia.
Liliya Shevtsova, economist, said on her Facebook page that there was an inherent contradiction in Putin’s claim that he wanted to be friends with the West again, and supposedly “harbored no ill-will,” because he strenuously maintains an anti-Western policy.
“Can you really be the West’s gas station when you bite its ankles?” she asked pointedly.
She said in fact it’s hard for Putin to dismantle anti-Westernism as it is a mobilizing mechanism and a legitimacy of his own regime.
Shevtsova pointed out that while Putin crowed about Western participation, the leaders who came to SPIEF were already viewed as pro-Russian and urged the end of sanctions against Russia. They included former French prime minister Nicholas Sarkozy, chairman of the Eurocommission Jean-Claude Juncker and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi.
Today the West can only look with suspicion on Putin, regardless of his overtures, because of his support of the extreme right and left forces in European countries and his undermining of the European Union, she said.
Even in Germany, only 14% of Germans think they can trust Russia and 58% say sanctions against Russia must be kept in place.
The EU’s Disinformation Digest covered the SPIEF in today’s issue (via email)
Russian media portrayed the forum as a successful opportunity for Russia to reach out to the world, without making any real concessions. However, in a time of crisis, the Kremlin’s messages inevitably also find themselves subject to critical debate. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s wish to selectively engage with Russia was covered. At the same time, his statements that the EU does not recognise the illegal annexation of Crimea and that the Minsk Accords need to be fully implemented if sanctions are to be lifted were carefully ignored by many Kremlin-loyal media.
The Disinformation Digest included in its report a copy of a poster advertising the SPIEF seemed to hark back to images of Soviet pioneers.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
So far, groups that have refused to register as foreign agents have faced only heavy fines, sometimes repeatedly, and some have been forced to close. But in Cherevatenko’s case, she may be prosecuted under Art. 330-1 of the Russian Federation criminal code (“persistent refusal to perform obligations defined by RF law for non-commercial organizations”), under which she could face up to two years of imprisonment.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Even so, there are a number of new requirements to already-pervasive government surveillance of citizens that have drawn criticism, Novaya Gazeta reports.
Telecommunications services and Internet service providers are required to store copies of communications for six months. Furthermore, they must retain information about subscribers’ contacts for a period of three years. Owners of messenger services and social media must store data for a year on users’ sending of information.
The law tackles “missionary” activity which is defined as propagating beliefs, holding services, distribution literature, and collecting donations for religions not legally registered with the government. Preaching in residential buildings is now outlawed and equated with “extremism”. Urging citizens to withdraw from the state education system or other civic duties is now also a crime. Foreign missionaries will be unable to obtain long-term visas as they had in the past, and may enter Russia only if they have an agreement with a recognized religious body.
Andrei Klishas, head of the Federation Council on Constitutional Law and State Construction, referenced terrorist attacks in Paris and the US for the need to “find a reasonable balance between rights and civil liberties of citizens and guarantees of their security on the other.” He noted that France rejected the idea of depriving citizens of citizenship over terrorism but at least discussed it as a justification for the consideration of such a measure in Russia.
Vladimir Pligin, chair of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Law and State Construction, said there was a practice forming around the world in a number of cases where deprivation of citizenship was justified, for example in cases where persons acquired it illegitimate reasons.
“Evidently, the amendments are related to suppressing the opposition, but everything is already so well suppressed that there was no sense in passing something else. Most likely the amendments are timed to the elections, before which, as a rule, various threatening anti-extremist alws are passed which citizens love. It is a great pre-election action, that’s why they hurried, to get it done before the end of the session.”
Leonid Volkov, opposition activist, pointed out that the requirement to turn over encryption keys could be a problem for banks and government service portals that use one-time disposable keys to secure customers’ information. He said the law would immediately be violated by those who could not technically preserve the keys.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
Translation: So, the latest statement has been writtn on me with a demand to prosecute me for extremism. For Twitter. Details will come tomorrow.
RBC reported, citing TASS that police at the Khamovniki precinct are investigating a post he made on Twitter regarding the release of Savchenko and her exchange for the Russian GRU officers Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev.
Feygin said:
“An investigator came to me and said that a certain Shchukin had written a statement against me, demanding that charges be brought against me. I do not know who he is, tomorrow I will go to the police and find out everything.”
Earlier in April, Feygin said that the Investigative Committee had began an investigation of him for “extremism.”
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
The ruble is at 65.34 to the dollar and 72.78 to the euro. Brent crude is at $48.82.
The following headlines were taken from 7:40 na Perrone, RBC, Rosbalt, Gazeta, Vedomosti, Fontanka
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— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick