KREMLIN WORRIES OVER DOMESTIC UNREST
Russia's highest court has classified 172 domestic organizations as terrorist entities, charging them with pushing for regional independence and backing Ukraine's military. Kremlin officials have claimed that these groups are linked to a Poland-based initiative known as the Free Nations of PostRussia Forum, which advocates for dissolving Russia into smaller sovereign states. The government says that that group, founded in 2022, is led by separatists abroad who aim to weaken Russia through foreign intervention. "The organization is led by self-proclaimed leaders of national-separatist movements who have fled abroad," the State Prosecutor’s Office said in an official statement, charging that their efforts are being supported by "unfriendly countries" seeking to destabilize the Russian Federation. (The Moscow Times, November 22, 2024)
STILL MORE FOREIGN FODDER FOR RUSSIA'S WAR
Earlier this Fall, North Korea became the latest foreign ally of the Kremlin to lend support to its war on Ukraine, providing thousands of fighters to bolster the ranks of the Russian military. Now, there is news that Moscow is getting reinforcements from another quarter as well: the Persian Gulf. Russia is allegedly enlisting the help of hundreds of Yemeni Houthi fighters to bolster its forces in Ukraine via a covert trafficking network.
The story, first broken by the Financial Times, involves a bait-and-switch of sorts. "Yemeni recruits who traveled to Russia told the Financial Times that they were promised high-paying jobs and even Russian citizenship," the RBC-UA news agency reports. "When they arrived in Russia, they were forcibly conscripted into the Russian army and sent to the front line in Ukraine." (RBC Ukraine, November 24, 2024)
A DELAYED ECONOMIC RECKONING...
When Russia launched its "special military operation" against Ukraine in February of 2022, it prompted a sweeping campaign of Western economic pressure designed to cripple the Russian war effort and curb Moscow's aggression. Over the past two-and-a-half years, however, the Russian economy has managed to survive, and even to grow modestly, despite U.S. and European sanctions. Belatedly, though, there are signs that Russia's economy is starting to feel serious strains as a result of the protracted conflict with Kyiv. As the Wall Street Journal notes, inflation is now soaring within the country, while the Russian ruble is rapidly losing value.
The worsening economic conditions have become significant enough that Russian President Vladimir Putin has attempted to calm growing domestic fears. In public remarks in late November, Putin insisted that "the situation is under control and there are certainly no grounds for panic." The economic downturn has reportedly been precipitated by the recent decision on the part of the Biden White House to levy sanctions on approximately fifty financial institutions that have cumulatively helped keep the Russian economy afloat. Their ranks include GAZPROMBANK, "the last major unsanctioned bank that Moscow uses to pay soldiers and process trade transactions," the Journal notes. (Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2024)
...AS PUTIN DOUBLES DOWN
Russia's mounting economic woes have not spurred a rethink in Moscow, however. Far from it, in fact. In early December, Putin approved a new national budget that dramatically expands the country's military spending. Russia’s new three-year spending plan, which was publicly released on December 1st, expands the country's defense budget by three trillion rubles ($28 billion) to 13.5 trillion rubles ($126 billion). That hike elevates expenditures on defense and military affairs to fully a third of Russian national spending. (CNN, December 2, 2024)