Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1789

July 3:

Ruslan Pukhov, the head of a Russian defense think tank, has warned that Russia may sell S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Iran if the Syrian regime falls. Although then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree in 2010 banning the sale of Russian weapons to Tehran, Pukhov noted that “The S-300 ban was a political decision and these systems are not actually subject to sanctions.” “If the Syrian regime is changed by force or if Russia doesn’t like the outcome” of a peaceful transition to a new government, “It most likely will respond by selling S-300s to Iran.” He additionally told Bloomberg Businessweek that the sales could serve as retaliation against the U.S. for selling weapons to Georgia, and to promote Russia as an arms exporter.

July 4:

According to the BBC, almost three million entrepreneurs have been imprisoned in Russia over the last decade, many unjustly. Corruption in the police is widely recognized, but the article reveals that the courts are even more so, used by businessmen to frame their competitors, and the state security services to silence protestors. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that less than one percent of all criminal cases that make it to court result in a "not guilty" verdict or acquittal. One judge admitted after resigning from the Volgograd regional criminal board that in the thousands of cases he heard in his fifteen years on the bench, “he only ever issued seven not guilty verdicts – and five of them were later overturned.” There has been talk of first offenders of “economic crimes” being granted amnesty – a policy that would affect over 100,000 businessmen. However, amnesty would have no effect on Russia’s most infamous economic offenders, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former partner Platon Lebedev, who have both been convicted more than once.

July 6:

The Russian parliament has approved a law placing tight restrictions on NGOs receiving foreign funding. According to the Wall Street Journal, the new law would require all NGOs receiving support from abroad to register as a “foreign agent” (synonymous with “spy” for Soviet-era Russians), and identify itself as such in all public statements and materials. Kremlin critics are outraged by what former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin call a threat “to subordinate civil society to the state.” Other activists argued that the bill, like many others, is vaguely worded, and could extend even to charities that fund treatment programs for sick children. Supporters of the law insisted that its provisions will “help protect Russian sovereignty against efforts by the U.S. and others to install a compliant regime in the Kremlin.”

July 9:

In his annual address to Russian ambassadors, President Vladimir Putin asserted that the West’s influence is fading among its continuing economic struggles. He added that Russia’s envoys should “try to influence events where Russian interests were at stake.” Reuters reports that the speech was couched in the same anti-Western rhetoric that has most experts predicting a cooling of relations between the Kremlin and the West. “We are seeing attempts by individual players in the international community to keep the influence they are used to by which our partners often use unilateral actions that contradict international law,” he added, in a likely reference to his accusations that the West was responsible for the Arab Spring revolutions. “This can be seen from the so-called humanitarian operations... and intervention in internal conflicts.” He concluded that “The search for compromises in a peaceful way should become an imperative.”

July 10:

Russia’s Wikipedia branch has staged a blackout in protest of controversial legislation regarding Internet censorship. The bill, according to RIA-Novosti, aims to provide “better protection of children from potentially harmful information on the internet, including web pages advocating substance abuse, suicide and excessively risky behavior, as well as child pornography,” through the creation of a non-governmental Internet watchdog with the power to put objectionable sites on a “blacklist.” The Russian Wikipedia community, along with other critics of the bill, insists that the wording of the legislation is vague enough to allow widespread internet censorship. The blackout protest included a banner announcing the bill on the website’s front page, as well as a block on all but 838,000 articles, all of which were related to censorship and the boycott.

July 11:

Kremlin officials have announced that Russia intends to fulfill its existing contracts with Syria, despite international pressure, the Agence France Presse reports. The contracts in question date back to 2008, and include repaired attack helicopters as well as air defense systems. Vhacheslav Dzirkaln, the deputy chief of the Russian Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, insisted that the contracts “are being fulfilled and they will be fulfilled,” stressing that the outstanding contracts primarily provide air defense systems intended to protect Syria’s border “in accordance with international rules.” Dzirkaln added that while Russia does not currently plan to sign further contracts with Syria, “One cannot possibly speak of us imposing an arms or military technology embargo on Syria.”