Russia Reform Monitor: No, 1861

December 3:

Russia is toughening its stance on North Korea, China’s Xinhua news agency reports. The Kremlin has reportedly imposed sanctions on the DPRK in line with UN Security Council resolution 2094. That order, issued in March of this year, authorized member states to apply additional financial restrictions aimed at hampering Pyongyang’s “illicit nuclear and ballistic missile programs” in the wake of the DPRK’s most recent nuclear test this spring. Along these lines, the new Russian decree “bans Russian citizens, organizations and businesses from trading commodities with the DPRK or providing financial transactions related to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile program.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin is lashing out at protesters in Ukraine. According to the Financial Times (FT), Russia’s head of state has equated the recent protests taking place throughout Ukraine to “pogroms,” the violent persecution of Jews that took place in Russia during Czarist times. Other Kremlin officials have similarly downplayed the popular outrage over the Ukrainian government’s decision to table closer ties with the European Union in favor of a pro-Moscow trajectory, called the uprisings “irrelevant” even as they have gathered in strength. Underneath the dismissive rhetoric, however, policymakers in Moscow appear genuinely concerned. “What last week looked like a diplomatic victory for the Kremlin threatens to turn into a nightmare” as the pro-Moscow government in Kyiv “wobbles under the pressure of nationwide protests,” the FT notes.

Putin, meanwhile, is working to strengthen cooperation with another ally, Armenia. On a recent visit to the former Soviet republic, the Russian president announced that his government would eliminate tariffs on crude oil and gas products for Armenia, currently totaling some 35%and reduce the overall cost of Russian gas to just $189 per 1,000 cubic meters. The reason for the generosity, the Financial Times reports, is two-fold. First, Russia is seeking to reward Armenia’s government, which earlier this Fall similarly tabled plans to tighten trade ties with the EU in favor of participation in Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union. Second, Moscow is seeking to shore up Armenia’s rickety economy, which Putin believes now needs a “safety cushion.”

Public approval for Putin is at its lowest point in 13 years, a new poll has found. Reuters reports that in a recent survey of voters by Moscow’s Levada Center, 61 percent of respondents looked favorably upon the president’s performance. That figure represents a drop of three percent from just a month earlier, and the lowest ebb to date for the Russian president, who consistently enjoyed approval ratings of 70 percent or above during his first two terms in office (2000-2008). The reasons for the decline, observers say, are mostly economic. "Against a backdrop of constantly rising prices, many people see little prospect for positive change in the situation," the Levada Center’s deputy director, Alexei Grazhdankin, explains.

[Editor’s Note: Given the effect of Russia’s increasingly authoritarian political climate on pollsters and respondents alike, the results of public opinion surveys in Russia should be viewed with some caution.]

December 4:

Russia continues to rank among the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the findings of Transparency International. In the watchdog group’s just-released 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, Russia came in 127th (out of 175 countries polled). The score, unchanged from last year, puts Russia on a par with Pakistan and Mali in terms of the level of perceived corruption in its public sector.

Russia’s Constitutional Court has upheld the country’s controversial “gay propaganda” law. According to the Russia & India Report, Russia’s highest court struck down a constitutional challenge to the March 2012 law, under which fines ranging from $150 for individuals to $15,000 for institution would be levied against those deemed to be promoting homosexuality. The Kremlin has defended the law as being aimed at protecting children from sexual predation, but activists charge that the law effectively defines homosexuality as a “perversion.” The Constitutional Court, however, found that it falls within Constitutional requirements “to protect motherhood, childhood and family.”