October 21:
Academia in Russia is in an uproar following reports that scientific research papers will heretofore be vetted by the FSB. News of the new regulation, reported by the journal Nature (and covered in the last issue of theRussia Reform Monitor) appears to signal more invasive government oversight of academia - not only at Moscow State University, the subject of the Nature report, but across the board. It is a development that has negative echoes of Soviet-style government control for many scholars. "Our generation remembers it too well from Soviet times, when everything went through the KGB," one Moscow State University professor has commented to The Moscow Times.
October 22:
In a move sure to increase tensions with Japan, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has announced plans to build a new military base on the contested Kuril Islands. According to the Voice of America, Shoigu told Russian news sources that the facility - together with four other installations currently under construction in the Arctic - will be completed in 2018, further solidifying Russia's claim to the islands, which have been contested between Moscow and Tokyo since World War II.
Amid worsening economic conditions and growing international isolation, Russia's unemployment rate is soaring. The Moscow Times reports that the country's unemployment rate has jumped fifteen percent since the start of the year, with the number of unemployed Russians hitting 935,000 in September. Still, Kremlin officials are quick to highlight the silver lining; as Maxim Parshin, deputy head of the Federal Labor and Employment Service, points out, that figure is still only half of the one registered in Russia during the country's 2008-2009 economic crisis.
October 23:
Russian lawmakers are pushing for harsher penalties for citizens with alternative lifestyles, RFE/RL's "Current Time" television program reports. If adopted, a new draft bill prepared by a pair of deputies from the country's Communist Party (KPRF) would make "coming out" by homosexuals an offense punishable by a fine of 4 or 5 million rubles ($61,000 to $76,000) or incarceration for fifteen days.
October 24:
Is Russia exploring its options in Syria? According to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Russia's government - a stalwart supporter of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus - appears to be considering a variety of political outcomes for the war-torn country, including those that don't involve Assad. The paper reports that, during recent meetings in Vienna, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed a nine-point plan that involves "forming a transitional government in Syria and freezing fighting between government forces and Western-backed rebel factions." The arrangement also includes a pledge from Moscow that "Assad will not participate in the elections," but the Kremlin is expected to press for immunity and political protection for the Syrian dictator.
October 25:
Russia is expanding its strategic footprint in Latin America, a group of regional experts have warned Congress.The Tico Times reports that, at a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, lawmakers heard that Russia is becoming more and more engaged in the Western Hemisphere, where it is "profiting from weapons sales and challenging and provoking the USA." The Kremlin has been greatly aided in these efforts by sympathetic regional regimes, according to Constantino Urcuyo, the academic director of Costa Rican think tank Political Administrative Research and Training (CIAPA). "Russia's regional old friends and new allies provide a haven for extra-hemispheric powers that seek to counterbalance the power of the USA, by strengthening anti-imperialist nationalism against Washington."
"The Putin government is providing ALBA nations with weapons, police and military training and equipment, intelligence technology and training, nuclear technology, oil exploration equipment, financial assistance, and an influential friend on the United Nations Security Council and other international forums," concurred Douglas Farah of IBI Consultants, another of the hearing's witnesses. "With Russia's help and advice, the once-shared hemispheric values of a functioning democratic system are being replaced by a toxic mix of anti-democratic values, massive corruption, and a doctrine that draws on totalitarian models."
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