publishedmedium:the moscow times

Russia Wants Bulgarians to Stop Painting Soviet Monuments To Look Like American Superheroes | Earthly Missio

►http://www.earthlymission.com/russia-wants-bulgarians-to-stop-painting-soviet-monuments-to-look-li

Ce n’est pas nouveau, mais ce genre de détournement « d’infrastructures publiques » mémorielle est intéressant à suivre, comprendre, analyser.

►http://www.earthlymission.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/soviet-monuments-vandalized-look-like-american-superheroes-fb.jpg

According to a report by the Moscow Times, pranksters in Bulgaria are repainting Soviet-era monuments so that Soviet military heroes look like American Superheroes. Needless to say, the Russians are not too happy about it:

Russia is demanding that Bulgaria try harder to prevent vandalism of Soviet monuments, after yet another monument to Soviet troops in Sofia was spray-painted, ITAR-Tass reported.

The Russian Embassy in Bulgaria has issued a note demanding that its former Soviet-era ally clean up the monument in Sofia’s Lozenets district, identify and punish those responsible, and take “exhaustive measures” to prevent similar attacks in the future, the news agency reported Monday.

#crime_de_lèse_majesté #soviétisme #mémoire #estonie #urss #ex-urss

Russia accuses Google Maps of ‘topographical cretinism’ - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/07/29/russia-accuses-google-maps-of-topographical-cretinism

https://images.washingtonpost.com/?url=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2016/07/crimea-e1469811516912.png&w=1484&op=resize&opt=1&filter=antialias

Despite the dispute with Russia over Crimea, Ukrainian officials had been clear that the street names on the peninsula should be changed too. The new names would reflect the names of Crimean Tatar origin, and Google changed dozens of place names For example, Krasnoperekopsk was renamed as “Yany Kapu" and Kirovskoe was called “Islyam-Terek.”

Many Russians were quick to notice the changes, however, with some considering the changes an affront to sovereignty.

“These people suffer from topographical cretinism," Dmitry Polonsky, deputy chairman of Russia’s Council of Crimean Ministers,told reporters, according to the Moscow Times.

Russia Restricts Use of Foreign Software in Battle for ‘Information Sovereignty’ | Business | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-restricts-use-of-foreign-software-in-battle-for-information-sovereignty/550106.html

Russian officials will be barred from using foreign software from next year if a Russian version exists. The move, which is aimed at boosting Russia’s national security and the country’s tech industry, could cost foreign firms hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues.

The rules apply to local and national government entities and come into force on Jan. 1, 2016, according to an order signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and published on the government’s website on Friday.

The order is part of a drive to wean Russia off imports in key areas of industry that was accelerated after Moscow’s falling out with the West over Ukraine last year.

It is also linked to fears of spying and sabotage by foreign intelligence services, who are feared to have access to software and equipment developed in their countries. This anxiety has led to calls to boycott iPhones, build a Russian operating system to rival Microsoft’s Windows, and tighten control of the Internet.

As Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov put it a year ago: “We stand for complete sovereignty of information.”

Under Friday’s order, authorities will draw up a register of Russian computer programs that will verify the Russianness of software and promote its use.

Foreign software giants such as SAP, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft recorded sales in Russia worth around $1.4 billion last year, accounting for some three-quarters of the market, according to news agency RBC. This included sales worth 20 billion rubles ($300 million) to government entities, the Kommersant newspaper reported.

West Has Lost the Right to Lecture Putin (Op-Ed) | Opinion | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/west-has-lost-the-right-to-lecture-putin-op-ed/540000.html

This is not simple “whataboutism,” that classic trick of deflecting criticism through raising the other side’s real or alleged flaws. Rather it is to note that Washington is currently seeking to #have_its_cake_and_eat_it. It can choose to base its foreign policy on strict moral principles or geopolitical pragmatism.

At present, it seems happy to act pragmatically but think morally. Thus it genuinely considers Putin not simply an antagonist, but an immoral one.

Je prends cet extrait à cause de l’expression, mais le reste est également intéressant. D’autant plus que le Moscow Times ne fait pas partie des thuriféraires de VVP.

Regional Elections Highlights: Ruling Elite Re-Elected, Opposition Trolled | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/regional-elections-highlights-ruling-elite-re-elected-opposition-trolled/530314.html

Nationwide elections that took place Sunday ended with few surprises, leaving most of the governors and lawmakers from the ruling United Russia party in their seats.

People all over Russia voted Sunday for the governors of 21 Russian regions and more than 1,300 heads of small city administrations, together with deputies for 11 regional parliaments and 25 city legislatures.

The only intrigue remains in the Irkutsk region, where acting governor Sergei Yeroshchenko, put forward as a candidate by the United Russia party, was forced into a second round of voting on Sept. 27 by his Communist opponent Sergei Levchenko.
[…]
In some regions, sitting governors were re-elected with phenomenally high results. In the Kemerovo region Aman Tuleyev, who has been governor for almost 20 years now, won 96.7 percent of the votes. His longtime counterpart in Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, also won more than 95 percent of the votes.

In the Penza, Krasnodar, Bryansk and Leningrad regions the winners — also current acting governors — all got about 80 percent of the vote.

Russian opposition firebrand Alexei Navalny’s Democratic Coalition, which had put forward candidates for the Kostroma regional parliament on the Parnas party ticket, failed to surpass the 5 percent barrier required for representation.

Despite numerous cases of fraud reported by the coalition’s observers on Sunday, Kostroma’s number-one candidate — longtime ally of slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Ilya Yashin — admitted defeat.

“We lost. Parnas’ actual result, not counting the rigging and all the fraudulent ballots, is not much higher than the official one. We didn’t make it past the 5 percent barrier,” he wrote on his Facebook page Monday.

Russian Monuments to Stalin Highlight Controversy Over His Legacy | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-monuments-to-stalin-highlight-controversy-over-his-legacy/529855.html

Two monuments to Josef Stalin were unveiled in separate Russian regions in one day this week in a face-off that marks a deepening rift within the nation about the Soviet dictator’s legacy.

The Communist Party branch in #Penza — the capital of the eponymous central Russian region — on Wednesday moved a bust of Stalin from its headquarters to the city’s center, despite protests from hundreds of residents, Russian media reports said.
[…]
The Communist Party in the republic of #Marii-El in an online statement also announced the unveiling on Wednesday of a statue to Stalin in the village of Shelanger at the entrance to a meat factory — in what some Russians who describe Stalin as a butcher could consider a symbolic location.

At 2.7 meters high, it could be the first monument to Stalin of such scale to appear in post-Soviet Russia, the party said in its statement, calling the monument a “tribute to a great man” whose “name has been unjustly forgotten for 60 years.”

Penza, photo de l’inauguration de la statue, le 15/07/11

http://penzanews.ru/en//images/stories/society/2011/15072011/005.jpg

République des Maris, 9/09/15

http://charter97.org/photos/galleries/2015/gi-14821-71318-big.jpg

Publisher of Russian Forbes and OK! to Exit Russia | Business | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/publisher-of-russian-forbes-and-ok-to-exit-russia/529546.html

German publisher Axel Springer is withdrawing from its Russian business, Russian news agency RBC reported at the weekend, citing two media sources and a government source.

A deal to sell an 80 percent stake to Russian publisher Alexander Fedotov, owner of Artcom Media, is in its final stages, with the unit’s CEO Regina von Flemming taking the remaining 20 percent, RBC said.

An Axel Springer spokeswoman declined to comment and an Artcom Media representative was not available for immediate comment on Sunday.

The Springer subsidiary publishes the Russian editions of Forbes and OK! magazines, among others.

Springer’s chief executive Mathias Doepfner said in November that the Russian unit was not significant and the company was reviewing its strategy in view of new media laws in the country.

Russian Health Officials Comment on Proposed Condom Ban | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-health-officials-comment-on-proposed-condom-ban/527010.html

Russia’s proposed restrictions on condom imports would make citizens more “disciplined,” and may also help raise the birth rate, a Cabinet adviser and former public health chief was quoted by Russian media as saying.

Gennady Onishchenko, a former chief sanitary doctor known for his creative approach to medical advice, said Tuesday that “rubber technical goods [condoms] have nothing to do with health,” state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Onishchenko was commenting on import restrictions proposed by the Industry and Trade Ministry earlier in the day, which also called for a ban on X-ray and ultrasound machines, defibrillators, incubators and other medical equipment.

Banning condom imports “will simply make one more disciplined, more strict and discriminating in choosing partners, and maybe will do a favor to our society in respect to solving demographic problems,” Onishchenko was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

His comments come at a time when sexually transmitted diseases are widespread in Russia and HIV infection rates are on the rise, even as most European countries have succeeded in bringing them down.

But the head of a federal center for combating AIDS, Vadim Pokrovsky, argued that there is “no direct link” between HIV infection rates and the availability of imported condoms, because they are too pricey for many students and other low-income Russians, Interfax news agency reported.

“If a [trade school] student has to choose whether to buy a beer or a condom, he will probably buy a beer, because it’s cheaper,” Pokrovsky was quoted as saying.

The real issue is the shortage of cheap condoms in the country, he said, conceding, however, that the quality of the cheaper varieties that are available might not make them particularly popular.

“Of course, there is a question of quality, and in this regard a problem certainly exists,” Pokrovsky was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Ukraine Wants ’Just 1,240’ U.S. Javelin Missiles to Fight Rebels | Business | The Moscow Times

▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/ukraine-wants-just-1240-us-javelin-missiles-to-fight-rebels/526465.html

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wants more than 1,000 U.S.-made anti-tank missiles to repulse possible attacks from Russia-backed rebels, a move that would overturn Washington’s policy not to send lethal weapons into the war zone in eastern Ukraine.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Poroshenko said Ukraine’s armed forces were seeking “just 1,240 Javelin missiles” to fend off separatist armor.

“This is absolutely fair,” Poroshenko said in the interview, which was published Tuesday, explaining that 1,240 is the same number of nuclear warheads that Ukraine voluntarily surrendered to foreign powers under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in exchange for guarantees of territorial sovereignty — guarantees that were violated by Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year and alleged meddling in eastern Ukraine.

#ukraine

Moscow Airport Losing Its ’Shot Glass’ | News | The Moscow Times

▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/moscow-airport-losing-its-shot-glass/526434.html

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/upload/iblock/dfe/ryumka.jpg

Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport is dismantling its famed modernist lounge — a 1964 building popularly dubbed the “shot glass,” or “ryumka,” for its apparent resemblance to that item. Fans of the building say it symbolized the “thaw” under Nikita Khrushchev — a brief period of liberalization during the Soviet era.

The dismantling of the building is part of the plan to renovate Sheremetyevo ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Moscow’s Moskva 24 news portal reported Tuesday.

The demolition is going ahead despite attempts by the regional Culture Ministry and local activists to stop it.

#russie #moscou #soviétisme #architecture #aéroport #dfs #sheremetievo

Putin Orders Cuts to Interior Ministry Payroll | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/putin-orders-cuts-to-interior-ministry-payroll/525533.html

President Vladimir Putin has signed an order reducing the maximum number of staff on the Interior Ministry payroll by 110,000, or about 10 percent, according to a document posted on a government website on Monday.

The measure is the latest example of belt-tightening by Russia, where the economy is sliding towards recession, hurt by weak oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

The document states that the maximum number of Interior Ministry employees paid from the federal budget should be set at just over 1 million people, excluding security staff and people taking care of ministry buildings.

It amends a previous order that was signed by Putin in May 2014 that had set the number at just over 1.11 million.

Europe Seeks to Counter Kremlin Success Pushing World View | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/europe-seeks-to-counter-kremlin-success-pushing-world-view/524532.html

Larry King’s back on the air, beaming his high-octane brand of talk to households around the world. Where can you catch him? Kremlin-backed television.

Moscow wants you to pay better attention to what it’s saying, and to better reach your eyes and ears it’s spending around a half-billion dollars a year and carrying top-name talent like King and former governor and professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura.

Worried that the Russian message is getting through, Western countries are pushing back, including with a proposed “action plan” being discussed by European Union leaders.
[…]
For Lieutenant Colonel Simon West, a British Army specialist on strategic communications, RT’s programming lineup is a canny move designed to achieve both audience share and trust.

“Larry King, well, you and I know him. He’s a chap of great broadcasting credibility,” said West, consultant at a Riga, Latvia-based facility opened by NATO member states last year in large part to address the information challenge from Moscow.
[…]
RT’s oft-repeated slogan is “question more.” In the final analysis, Britain’s ambassador to NATO told AP, Russian media may not be trying to persuade foreign publics, but to confuse them.

“They aren’t concerned to prove they are right, but to muddy the information space so much that it’s hard to get the truth through,” Sir Adam Thomson said.
[…]
In the U.S., Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, in March testimony to a House committee, requested more than $20 million in new funding for State Department programs “to counter Russian propaganda.” Already in fiscal 2013, budgets for the government-financed Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty operations totaled $288.5 million.

Nuland said Moscow’s wide-ranging effort to sway Western leaders and publics includes funding political campaigns and “false NGOs” that defend Russian interests. Russia has also organized “troll farms” of pro-Kremlin bloggers and social media posters to disseminate its official view and attack those who disagree.

Donc, donc, donc, RFE/RL n’avait que 300 M$ pour le budget du 1/10/2012 au 30/09/2013… Mais ça, ce n’est pas de la #propagande

Par ailleurs, Voice of America a un budget de 720 M$ pour l’année fiscale 2015…

Russia Starts Building Warship Similar to France’s Mistral as Paris Stalls Delivery | Business | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-starts-building-warship-similar-to-france-s-mistral-as-paris-stalls-delivery-/523485.html

Russia has begun work on a helicopter carrier similar to a previously ordered, French-built warship whose delivery has been stalled due to Paris’s concerns over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis, news agency TASS reported, citing a senior navy official.

The assault vessel is being built in St. Petersburg’s Yantar shipyards and will “join the navy in 2018 after the completion of construction and all phases of testing,” the head of the navy’s shipbuilding department, Vladimir Tryapichnikov, said late last week.

The ship, the second of Russia’s new Ivan Gren-class (Project 11711) landing vessels, was ordered a month after Paris froze a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) deal for two Mistral-class assault ships in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine.

РЕКЛАМА
In an apparent reference to the stalled Mistral deal, the ship will be named the Pyotr Morgunov — the name of a Red Army commander who played a decisive role in the 1942 defense of the Crimean city of Sevastopol from Nazi forces in World War II.

The Morgunov and its sister ship, the nearly completed Ivan Gren, are not direct replacements for the French Mistral helicopter carriers, but will still allow the Russian navy to land ground forces onto enemy beaches up to 4,000 kilometers from their home ports.

But even in this capacity, they are considerably smaller than the Mistrals. The Morgunov, for example, has space for 300 marines supported by one helicopter and either 40 armored personnel carriers or 13 tanks.

One Mistral ship, for comparison, can deploy up to 900 troops supported by at least 16 helicopters and up to 60 armored vehicles.

Il est similaire, mais 3 fois plus petit…
Ivan Gren, 120 m de long, 6000 t à pleine charge
Mistral, 199 m de long, 21300 t à pleine charge

Cerise sur le gâteau, l’illustration et sa légende

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/upload/iblock/e9f/BDK-ship.jpg

Il s’agit d’un bâtiment de débarquement de la classe Ropucha, 112,5 m de long, 4080 t à pleine charge
celui-ci (BDK90 comme l’indique le nom de la photo, numéro de coque 058) a été désarmé le 5/07/1994

Russia’s Bombers Over Europe are Scary, But Not in the Way You Think | Arts and Ideas | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/news/article/siberian-oil-workers-ready-to-learn-mandarin-for-pivot-to-asia/business/article/russias-bombers-over-europe-are-scary-but-not-in-the-way-you-think/518600.html

Flights around the British Isles and along the United States coast appear to have followed Soviet-era nuclear bomb delivery routes.

But the planes aren’t primarily hunting for targets. They are flying in small formations, sometimes without fighter escorts. No serious attack with bombers would take place in such small numbers.

Instead, the aim is to provoke intercepts from NATO forces around the alliance’s periphery, said Tom Withington, an independent air warfare theorist and military analyst whose work appears in defense journal the Asia Military Review.

“What Russia currently does with NATO is effectively to test reaction time of air defense. You fly a Tu-160 across the Bay of Biscay and you wait to see at what moment the [British] Royal Air Force and the French air force react,” Withington said.

“You sit and wait, you fly along and check your route, and you measure the response times of those air forces. Also, you try to get an idea of what electronic defenses are arrayed against you in that area by listening and recording details on when you get painted or illuminated by radar,” he added.
(…)
But Kozyulin [a military analyst at the Moscow-based PIR Center think tank] stressed that neither side really thinks it will fight the other.

“Russia has no chances to win,” he said.

“The flights and other maneuvers are just demonstrations that we are not weak.”

Russian Schoolchildren Invited to Spend Holidays in North Korean Camps | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-schoolchildren-invited-to-spend-holidays-in-north-korean-camps/518343.html

A high-ranking North Korean diplomat in far eastern Russia has proposed that local schoolchildren spend their holidays in North Korean youth camps in a bid to further strengthen relations between the countries, according to a statement released Tuesday.

Im Cheon Il, North Korea’s general consul in the Russian city of Nakhodka, made the proposal at a meeting with the Russian republic of Yakutia’s head of foreign affairs, Vladimir Vasilyev, the republic’s government said on its website.

The officials also discussed promoting tourism in general and trade, particularly in agriculture, the statement said.

Kremlin Nukes Every Spark of Revolution | Opinion | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/nuclear-medicine-against-color-revolutions/518251.html

Last week, the Russian Security Council published its analysis of the 35-page National Security Strategy that the U.S. published in early February, thereby giving an indication of just how thoroughly Russian officials study U.S. doctrinal papers.

On average, the Kremlin devoted one full day of study for each half-page of text, and yet, amazingly, it managed to completely overlook a number of factors that Washington considers essential to U.S. national security. These include improving domestic prosperity, the ongoing fight against global poverty and the struggle against deadly infections and international terrorism.

As expected, the Security Council chose to focus on the fact that the document is openly “anti-Russian.” And in one sense, they are right.

Indeed, Moscow no longer has grounds for complaining that it receives too little attention from Washington, as it did with the previous National Security Strategy doctrine released five years ago. Russia is mentioned constantly in this document — right alongside the Islamic State, Ebola and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The U.S. sets out to prove that it is leading the world in combating these threats. The doctrine states, “We mobilized and are leading global efforts to impose costs to counter Russian aggression, to degrade and ultimately defeat the Islamic State, to squelch the Ebola virus at its source, to stop the spread of nuclear weapons materials, and to turn the corner on global carbon emissions.”

Par moments, ça a l’air tellement naïf que ça frôle le second degré…

Significantly, Security Council experts contend that the threat to Russia stems from U.S. military superiority and Washington’s intention to use some sort of “advanced techniques for color revolutions” against it.

And while the U.S. doctrine does openly state a desire for military superiority, it makes no mention of any desire to topple the Moscow regime. Apparently, that is how Security Council experts interpreted Washington’s intention to support people’s struggle for their rights and for the rule of law.

Russian Airlines Axing Over 70 International Routes | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-airlines-axing-over-70-international-routes/517991.html

Russian airlines are axing more than 70 international routes as the country struggles with a severe economic downturn, the RBC news agency reported Tuesday.

Transaero and UTair are getting rid of the most routes — 19 each — the report said, citing an official at Russia’s air transportation watchdog Rosaviatsia.
(…)
While a few flights out of Moscow and St. Petersburg are among the proposed cancellations, Russia’s provincial capitals will be hit the hardest, with several including Yekaterinburg and Samara set to lose routes to popular tourist hot spots such as Barcelona and Dubai.

Ex-Finance Minister Kudrin Steps Into Spotlight as Russia’s Crisis Grows | Business | The Moscow Times

▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/ex-finance-minister-kudrin-steps-into-spotlight-as-russia-s-crisis-grows/515947.html

Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin took part in an anti-crisis meeting chaired by President Vladimir Putin on Friday in the latest sign that the Kremlin insider turned government critic is playing a more prominent role in economic decision making.

The gathering at Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow also included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Central Bank head Elvira Nabiullina.

Kudrin was the only one of the nine people present not working for the state or a state-owned company, apart from former Central Banker Sergei Ignatiev.

While Kudrin resigned from the government after a public spat with then-President Dmitry Medvedev in 2011, he is understood to enjoy access to Putin and is admired among the business community for his policies as finance minister and trenchant criticisms of the authorities since leaving office.

#russie #poutine

Russian Space Expert Fired After Criticizing #Roscosmos Reforms | Business | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-space-expert-fired-from-state-research-center-after-criticizing-roscosmos-reforms/515187.html

A prominent Russian space expert has been dismissed from his position with a state-run research center in a move that he says is politically motivated, after criticizing a massive space industry reform project in an interview with the BBC.

Vadim Lukashevich worked at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a high-tech business park outside Moscow intended as Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley that has partnerships with Western research universities such as MIT.

“As I understand it, they [fired me] for a series of interviews in which I criticize the recent decision to liquidate the Federal Space Agency and create a new state corporation called Roscosmos,” Lukashevich told The Moscow Times on Friday.

President Vladimir Putin last month green-lighted the creation of the Roscosmos corporation, which aims to revitalize Russia’s space sector by welding the space agency to United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC), a colossal industry-spanning conglomerate created by government decree last year.

URSC was tasked with reforming the space industry to meet the needs of the Federal Space Agency. Now it will absorb the agency’s responsibilities and rule over every aspect of Russia’s space activities.

Lukashevich, a prominent voice in the Russian space scene, told the BBC the reform would remove any industry accountability and would foster corruption — all while failing to provide Russia with a long-term direction in space.

Russia’s New Turkish Stream Gas Strategy More Bark Than Bite | Business | The Moscow Times

▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-s-new-turkish-stream-gas-strategy-more-bark-than-bite/514731.html

Although officials in Moscow have trumpeted the cancellation of the South Stream natural gas pipeline as a major blow to Europe, energy analysts say that Russia’s alternatives are tenuous at best.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/upload/iblock/db1/5533-10-Turkish-Stream.jpg

After years of work on a gas pipeline meant to cross southeastern Europe and bring fuel to the heart of the EU, sidestepping troubled Ukraine, Gazprom last week confirmed a change in strategy was under way.

#russie #turquie #gaz #guerre_du_gaz #europ #nabucco

How Poland Kept Putin Away From the Auschwitz Memorial | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/how-poland-kept-putin-away-from-the-auschwitz-memorial/514791.html

Poland has displayed a knack for canny diplomatic dealings, at once ensuring that Putin was officially welcome at the event, while also creating an atmosphere he would be tempted to avoid.

In the aftermath of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine’s restive east in July, the Polish government decided against issuing formal invitations, as an official invitation to Putin would have proven unpopular among voters, Reuters reported. The fallout from such a move could have proven particularly painful at the moment, with Poland slated to hold presidential and parliamentary elections later this year.
(…)
Last year, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum — which is co-organizing the 70th anniversary event with the International Auschwitz Council — announced that the upcoming anniversary would be devoid of politics, concentrating instead on the memories of survivors.

Rather than sending out formal invitations, the organizers asked the embassies of European Union countries and countries that donate funds to the site who they planned to send to the event. The notice specifically mentioned that the relevant states could be represented by anyone the given country deemed appropriate.
(…)
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov acknowledged during his annual news conference Wednesday that the anniversary event’s organizers had, in fact, sent a notification to the Russian Embassy in Warsaw.

“The letter said: ’You can come if you want. If you do want to, tell us who is going to show up.’ You don’t even have to respond to this type of invitation,” Lavrov said with apparent disregard.

Hundreds of Thousands Rally Against ’Immoral’ Charlie Hebdo in Chechnya | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/tens-of-thousands-rally-against-immoral-charlie-hebdo-in-chechnya/514544.html

Hundreds of thousands of people protested in Russia’s Chechnya region on Monday against what its Kremlin-backed leader called the “vulgar and immoral” cartoons of the prophet Muhammed published by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Mixing pro-Islamic chants and anti-Western rhetoric, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov criticized Europe to chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) as the protesters stood along the main thoroughfare of Chechnya’s capital, Grozny.

Some carried signs declaring “I love my prophet Muhammed” in English and others waved flags, as security service helicopters flew overhead and police stood by.

In a sign that it had President Vladimir Putin’s backing, the rally was shown live on state television. The Kremlin may see the protest as a way to vent pressure from Russia’s Muslims after a similar rally was banned in Moscow.

“If needed, we are ready to die to stop anyone who thinks that you can irresponsibly defile the name of the prophet,” Kadyrov said, wiping away tears on stage.

“You and I see how European journalists and politicians under false slogans about free speech and democracy proclaim the freedom to be vulgar, rude and insult the religious feelings of hundreds of millions of believers,” he said.

“Authorities and intelligence agencies of Western countries may have been behind the [Paris] incident to provoke a new wave of recruiting for the Islamic State,” Kadyrov said, Russian media reported. He did not elaborate on his theory.
(…)
Russia’s Interior Ministry said 800,000 people had attended the rally — about 60 percent of Chechnya’s population. Reuters witnesses put the number at several hundred thousand.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/upload/005/5531-01-Russia-Charl.jpg

Increasingly, Russians See No Alternative to Putin | News | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/increasingly-russians-see-no-alternative-to-putin/514428.html

Though it will be another three years before Russian voters cast their ballots for the next round of presidential hopefuls, most people already know whom they plan to vote for.

More than half of Russians would prefer to keep President Vladimir Putin at the country’s helm after the 2018 elections and believe there is no other politician capable of replacing him, according to a poll released Thursday by the independent Levada Center.

The poll, conducted between Dec. 19 and 22 among 1,600 people, revealed a major increase in the number of those hoping Putin will remain in power, even in light of the recent economic downturn. Fifty-five percent of respondents said they want him to remain in the post of president after 2018, compared with 32 percent last March.

#Sondage qui vient contredire les fantasmes de déstabilisation interne de Poutine provoquée par les difficultés économiques, fantasmes que l’on voit circuler dans les médias occidentaux.

What You Need to Know About Joining the Russian Army | Business | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/what-you-need-to-know-about-joining-the-russian-army/514256.html

Tried to join the French Foreign Legion and didn’t make the cut? Don’t fret — the Russian military has created its own force of foreign citizens to fight Moscow’s wars.

The Russian Defense Ministry last month announced that foreigners could enlist in the Russian military, a move ostensibly aimed at legalizing the status of citizens of former Soviet republics already serving, but its ranks are open to all foreigners — provided they speak good Russian and have clean criminal records.

President Vladimir Putin signed the new policy into force on Jan. 2, five years after the proposal had originally been made.

Now “foreign servicemen can participate in operations during martial law, as well as in armed conflicts, in accordance with [the] generally accepted principles of international law, international agreements and Russian legislation,” said the order, published on the Kremlin website.

Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based defense think tank, explained to The Moscow Times that the change was finally implemented to provide legal status to locals already serving on Russian bases in Armenia and Tajikistan.
(…)
By allowing foreign citizens to join its ranks, the Russian military has moved beyond most other modern militaries. Typically, foreigners are allowed to join another nation’s military only after establishing residency, or by special agreements between their governments.

In the U.S., for example, foreigners can only join the military if they are permanent residents with a green card. While service in the U.S. military does not in itself entitle a foreigner to U.S. citizenship, foreign contractors will be eligible for Russian citizenship after their five-year contract is concluded.

In this way, the Russian military is taking a page from the French Foreign Legion, which since the 1800s has existed as a largely foreign-staffed military force. Legionnaires, who historically have served on the front lines of France’s wars, can apply for citizenship after three years of service with the French Foreign Legion, or immediately if wounded in action.

#Légion_Étrangère

Instructions pour les candidats (en russe uniquement, mais sa connaissance est une des conditions)
Информация для кандидата
▻http://contract.mil.ru/enlistment_contract/info.htm

2nd Russian Hacker Group Accused of Targeting NATO | Business | The Moscow Times
▻http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/second-russian-hacker-group-accused-of-targeting-nato-/510190.html

A U.S. security firm has claimed that a sophisticated, Russia-based hacker group is spying on NATO and former Soviet member states, most likely on the orders of the Russian government.

In a report issued Tuesday, security firm FireEye said the group, which the firm dubbed APT28, has since 2007 conducted “long-standing, focused operations that indicate a government sponsor — specifically, a government based in Moscow.”

“APT28 targets insider information related to governments, militaries and security organizations that would likely benefit the Russian government,” the report says. These targets include the Georgian Defense and Interior ministries, post-Soviet governments in Eastern Europe that are now members of NATO, and the NATO alliance itself.

Russian cyber espionage efforts have long been considered unrivaled in skill and scope, but the difficulty of identifying attacks and tracing them to an identifiable source has prevented cyber security investigators from pinning any activity directly on a single Russian entity.

But evidence of a wide-ranging cyber espionage campaign is mounting. Earlier in October, another U.S. cyber security firm said that a group of Russian hackers with suspected government backing had used a previously unknown backdoor in Microsoft Windows operating systems to spy on NATO and several Western governments.

APT28 does not appear to be stealing intellectual property or directly profiting from stolen financial information, as is characteristic of China-based actors tracked by FireEye, the report said. Instead, the hackers focus on defense and geopolitical intelligence-gathering.

The sophistication of APT28’s malware indicates that the group is state-sponsored, the report said. Samples of the group’s coding show that work on the group’s cyber weapons corresponds to a normal working week in the St. Petersburg and Moscow time zone almost 90 percent of the time.

FireEye’s report also mentions that the language settings on the coding are Russian, rather than English or language-neutral settings.