SIBERIA BRACES FOR SUMMER BLAZES
The combined effects of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic have experts bracing for a particularly severe upcoming season of Siberian wildfires. This year's warm and dry winter has thus far yielded a spring of temperatures 5.4 degrees higher than average - conditions favorable to the development of fires across Russia's vast swathes of forested territory. As compared to this time last year, recent fires in Western and Eastern Siberia have been anywhere from three to 10 times larger. Coronavirus self-isolation, meanwhile, has kept people home from work, but not from heading into the forests for cookouts over an open flame. Local governments, meanwhile, have been hobbled in their response; for instance, the Governor of the Transbaikal Territory in Eastern Siberia has warned that, due to the effects of falling oil prices and business closures, those who are uninsured will not be paid compensation by the government for any property losses resulting from fire. (Washington Post, May 16, 2020)
SINO-RUSSIAN TECH TIES POISED TO DEEPEN
Even before the outbreak of the coronavirus, high-tech cooperation between Russia and China was deepening, and experts expect that trend to strengthen as a result of the global spread of COVID19. Prior to the pandemic, Chinese tech giant Huawei - in part because of restrictions on its activities in the U.S. - had entered into multimillion-dollar agreements with Russian cellphone provider MTS and startup Vocord, which at the time was working on facial-recognition technology similar to the one now tracking infected citizens through the streets of Moscow. Additionally, the Chinese firm was also expanding its operations across Russia, opening centers in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, as well as more peripheral cities such as Novosibirsk and Nizhny Novgorod. The activity was facilitated by a $1 billion joint investment fund inaugurated last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The scope of this cooperation, however, is likely to be accelerated by the current global health crisis. "The pandemic doesn't create a new reality, but amplifies existing trends," notes Alexander Gabuev of the Moscow Carnegie Center. "Sanctions and suspicions of relying on Western tech were already driving Moscow and China closer, but COVID allows things to move forward at a faster pace." (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, May 18 2020)
THE LEGACY OF LANGUAGE IN CENTRAL ASIA
The Russian Foreign Ministry has voiced its opposition to a proposed law in Uzbekistan mandating that all civil servants in the Central Asian nation henceforth conduct their business in the state language of Uzbek. Under the new ordinance, Russian would still be preserved as an official language - albeit in a role of diminished importance. The reason appears to have everything to do with politics; although Russia isn't identified by name, the official justification for the move is said to be the unacceptable interference in the country's domestic affairs by "foreign officials." (Reuters, May 18, 2020)
[EDITORS' NOTE: The move also reflects an effort by the country to balance its geopolitical position. It notably comes on the heels of recent overtures toward Moscow by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, most directly his government's decision to become an observer member of the Moscow-dominated Eurasian Economic Union.]
DAGESTAN'S HEALTH CRISIS
The coronavirus situation in Russia's restive republic of Dagestan appears to be dire - and at odds with the messaging coming out of Moscow. Officially, only 29 people in the republic have succumbed to the virus, but Dagestan's Health Minister has said that over 650 people in the North Caucasus region have died of pneumonia. The situation is so bad that officials, including the region's top Muslim cleric, have appealed to President Putin for assistance. In Dagestan, like other remote Russian regions, there are virtually no tests for the coronavirus and little personal protective equipment, a state of affairs that has allowed cases of "pneumonia" to run rampant. Russian state authorities are defending the low numbers of recorded coronavirus deaths in the republic by saying that only 3% of families have allowed autopsies to be performed on their loved ones. Under current Russian governmental practice, only after an autopsy confirms a death was primarily caused by the virus is it recorded in official statistics. (The Moscow Times, May 19, 2020)
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