Russia Reform Monitor: No. 1860

[Editor’s Note: Beginning with this issue, AFPC Vice President Ilan Berman returns as editor of the Russia Reform Monitor. Many thanks go outgoing editor Amanda Pitrof for her hard work and stewardship of the Monitor over the past year-and-a-half.]

November 28:

Contrary to public posturing by president Vladimir Putin, Russia’s most dangerous adversary isn’t external, writes scholar Ben Judah in the Financial Times. Rather, Russia faces an “enemy within:” widespread corruption, “gigantic” drug flows, and the rampant spread of the HIV virus. Cumulatively, these forces threaten the stability of the Russian state, Judah warns, yet Putin and his followers are consumed with fighting “imaginary” enemies abroad – to the detriment of real, meaningful reform at home. “Russia needs a leader strong enough to break the cycle of corruption, heroin and HIV,” Judah concludes; one “strong enough to break the criminalisation of the very agencies supposed to enforce the law – no matter the risks that they may pose to his power.”

November 29:

Russia’s treatment of Ukraine is drawing the ire of the European Union, the Irish Times reports. Following a two-day summit in Vilnius, the EU warned Moscow that its recent pressure on Kyiv “could be in breach of the Helsinki principles of the OSCE which commit to respect each other’s right to freely define and conduct as it wishes its relations with other states in accordance with international law.” Russia’s strong-arm tactics, in the form of trade pressure and political intimidation, compelled the government of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich to suspend work on an association agreement with the EU originally slated to be signed in November. In its stead, Yanukovich has suggested a tripartite agreement that would include Russia – an idea that European leaders have rejected outright.

November 30:

Russia’s military is again looking eastward. RIA Novosti reports that, after holding this year’s biggest drill, dubbed “West 2013,” in Kaliningrad and Belarus, Russian military planners are preparing to hold the country’s largest force maneuvers next year in the country’s east. First Deputy Defense Minister Arkady Bakhin has announced that the exercises—to be called “East 2014”—have yet to be scheduled, but will involve several army branches. The news comes on the heels of Moscow’s announcement of plans to hold joint drills with both China and Mongolia in the coming year.

The Russian government is planning to shutter some 142 single industry towns in an effort consolidate struggling economic sectors in the country’s far-flung regions. As part of this effort, the Kremlin has offered up as much as $25,000 to those willing to leave “monotowns” which have fallen upon hard economic times. But NBC News reports that the initiative is generating widespread discontent in the region colloquially known as Russia’s “rust belt,” many of whose residents are reluctant to leave their familial homes despite declining financial fortunes. Part of the problem, observers say, stems from unequal purchasing power – residents in places like Baikalsk, a paper producing town in the Irkutsk oblast, will receive far less for their houses and apartments than they will need to spend for comparable lodging in a Russian city.

December 2:

In the coming year, Russia’s navy will make the Arctic a “priority,” the country’s Northern Fleet has announced. Xinhua reports the Fleet’s spokesman, Vadim Serga, as saying that the Russian military is planning to step up combat training and exploration in 2014, and will create a new line of ships to help patrol the region. As part of its growing claims over the Artic, Moscow has already begun deploying air-defense units there, and has commenced construction on an early warning radar system in the Polar city of Varkuta.

The Kremlin is strengthening its grip on the country’s space sector. A new order just issued by President Putin mandates the creation of a state corporation to centralize the development and manufacturing of spacecraft. According to RIA Novosti, the new government entity, to be called the “United Rocket and Space Corporation,” will replace Russia’s Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS), which has waned in prestige in recent years as a result of a string of technical failures.