Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1858

November 8:

Lyudmila Romodina and Oleg Klyuenkov, two of Russia’s leading LGBT activists, are in the U.S. this week to discourage calls for a boycott of this year’s Winter Olympic in Sochi, even as they seek a repeal of the controversial law which has provoked those calls. Although many have called for the boycott to increase international pressure on the Kremlin, CNN reports that activists hope the games will help to shine a light on the discrimination created by the law, which outlaws the dissemination of “homosexual propaganda” to young people. Both activists have denied claims that they seek to stir further tension between the United States and Russia over the law. “We come from the position that the worse relations are between the U.S. and Russia the worse the situation for LGBT and human rights groups as a whole in Russia,” said another activist. “We want people to discuss this, in their kitchens, at the markets. This can be a positive thing.”

November 11:

A regional court in Moscow this week sentenced three men to life in prison for their alleged role in the 2011 suicide bombing at Domodedovo airport in Moscow. Thirty-seven people were killed in the attack, The New York Times reports, and nearly two hundred others were injured. The two men, Bashir Khamkhoyev and brothers Islam and Ilez Yandiyev, were convicted of providing explosives to the bomber, Magomed Yevloyev. Doku Umarov, the leader of an Islamist terrorist cell based in the North Caucasus, eventually claimed responsibility for the attack.

November 12:

Russian officials were outraged after a group of masked youths and right-wing radicals at Poland’s Independence Day celebrations attacked the Russian embassy. The rioters hurled bottles, trash, and even torches at the embassy building, The L.A. Times reports, and Polish riot police had to be called in to use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Several Russian authorities were quick to claim that the attack is a sign that nationalism is a bigger problem in the West than in Russia, where the trend gets a lot of international press coverage. “The events in Warsaw show: Nationalism is immeasurably stronger in several EU countries than it is in Russia,” insisted one Russian lawmaker. “The EU should not lecture us but deal with its own members.”

November 13:

As the White House worked to stop lawmakers on Capitol Hill from passing new sanctions on Iran, Russian and Iranian leaders made plans for a jointly-constructed nuclear power plant. The project will be Russian-led, according to Free Beacon, and while authorities insist the plant will be used only as a power generator, experts note that it will also give the regime access to the plutonium necessary to create a nuclear weapon. The announcement has left several U.S. congressmen more than a little frustrated. “We must make it crystal clear to Iran that even tougher sanctions are coming down the pike,” said Rep. Elliott Engel, arguing for a new round of sanctions, while another added that “sanctions are the tool that initially forced Iran to negotiate” on its nuclear weapons program.

November 14:

In his latest post to his Window on Eurasia blog, Paul Goble considers the danger underlying the recent calls for the introduction of legal sanctions against groups calling for separatism in the Russian Federation. Those calling for the new laws believe that the best way to prevent the disintegration of the Russian Federation is to dissolve the existing republics and declare further separatism illegal. Citing a recent article in the independent paper Zvezda Povolzhya, Goble argues that such a move will instead spark separatist groups to more dire action. “Separatism is the product of an objective passionate impulse,” Goble notes, quoting the Povolzhya article. “This is a form of energy which must be used for good,” adding that “if it weren’t for separatism, then there would not exist on the map of the world an entire range of states,” including the United States. “To declare,” as some Russians are “that it is much better for the family to live in a communal apartment than in its own home is absurd.” Whatever the Kremlin says, he concludes, “separatists and those struggling for the freedom of peoples in the world are equivalent, and one must not adopt an ostrich-like position. Instead, one needs an objective approach and not hysterical fear.

”Twenty-six days after losing contact, jailed Pussy Riot band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova surfaced in a prison hospital in western Siberia. Authorities say Tolokonnikova was moved to undergo testing for “various conditions” at the hospital, BBC reports. Tolokonnikova’s husband, who earlier this week called for protests outside police buildings until her whereabouts were revealed, told reporters that he’d finally spoken with his wife, adding that she’d told him conditions at the hospital were “much better” than at the penal colony in Mordovia, where she’d previously been held.