April 2:
Pro-Russian Ukrainians, who fled the conflict in Ukraine over the past two years in favor of residency in Russia, are getting a chilly reception in their new home. According to NPR, those transplants - a group that is estimated by Russia's Federal Migration Service to number over a million people - are facing increasingly inhospitable conditions as Russian "enthusiasm" for the new residents has faded. As a result, many Ukrainian newcomers continue to languish in camps that were initially set up by the Russian state to accommodate the refugees, rather than being fully integrated into Russian society. Moreover, as Russia's economic fortunes continue to worsen, even these meager conditions are under threat, because "Russian authorities are now moving aggressively to close refugee centers and concentrate the remaining refugees in a few places."
Nevertheless, the absorption and integration of these refugees remains an official priority, and for good reason. "It's clear that we need to compensate for population loss with migration," according to Svetlana Gannushkina of the Civic Assistance Committee, "and it's in Russia's interest to take in people with a closely related culture."
April 3:
While Vladimir Putin is not personally named in the massive leak of financial documents colloquially known as the "Panama Papers," the Russian president nonetheless figures prominently in them. London's Guardiannewspaper reports that the leak of files from prominent offshore firm Mossack Fonseca "shows how this money has made members of Putin's close circle fabulously wealthy" through the use of offshore tax regimes and intermediaries (such as the Russian Commercial Bank of Cyprus). Prominent among the beneficiaries is Sergei Roldugin, Putin's best friend, and other individuals and entities close to the Russian president and his circle of power. While "there is nothing inherently illegal in using offshore companies," the Guardian notes, the revelations nonetheless represent an inconvenience for Putin, insofar as they contrast "with the president's call for 'deoffshoreisation,' urging Russians to bring cash hidden abroad home" as a means of strengthening the national economy in the face of fiscal hardship.
April 4:
The Kremlin is moving to exercise greater control over the country's archives, reversing a gradual liberalization begun in the late 1990s. According to Interfax, Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to take ROSARCHIV, the Russian federal archival agency, under his personal oversight. The move, the Kremlin has explained, was taken on the grounds that the materials possess "special value," and are the "historical legacy of the Russian empire and thereafter the Soviet Union."
April 5:
Vladimir Putin's decision to take direct control of Russia's federal archival agency represents an "unforced error" that raises some serious questions about the political state of play in Moscow, according to Russia expert Paul Goble. "On the one hand and most immediately, are there things in the archives that are so threatening to him and his regime that he cannot risk having anyone else be in charge?" Goble outlines in hisWindow on Eurasia blog. "And on the other and more ominously, is the circle of people on whom he can totally rely now narrowing to the point that he has no choice but to assume personal control?" These questions, according to Goble, will now reverberate in Russian politics, and are sure to "haunt" Putin in the future.
The Moscow Times reports that police in Moscow and St. Petersburg have raided apartments belonging to individuals believed to belong to the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo. The doomsday cult, which gained notoriety in 1995 when it carried out an attack on the Tokyo subway using the nerve agent Sarin, has largely faded from view in recent years. However, it continues to operate, and has established at least a minimal presence in Russia; according to authorities, the police raids now underway will include as many as twenty apartments belonging to people who are believed to be adherents to the group.
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