At least we have each other
Edward's weekly news roundup & open thread (August 20, 2023)
A very merry Sunday to you, internet friend. Welcome once again to Edward’s weekly Open Thread.
You know the drill. Copy-paste those sweet, delicious URLs in the comments section. Or just say ahoj. That is also completely acceptable.
News from Russian media
The Russian government will spend an additional 3.5 billion rubles to facilitate the transition to 5G networks. Over the past three years, almost 12 billion rubles have been allocated for these purposes. [Kommersant]
TASS promises that insect-eating will never become popular in Russia. I certainly hope so. [TASS]
Russia & ID2020 [Anna Rudneva]
Luna-25 collided with the Moon. [Roscosmos]
In July 2023, a record number of Russians said they had positive views about Stalin. 63% of those polled declared respect, admiration or sympathy for the Soviet leader, 8% had a negative opinion. [Telegram]
Food prices in Russia will rise by 10-20% in the near future, according to the head of the economics committee of the Moscow branch of the Union of Entrepreneurs. [URA]
Rospotrebnadzor has canceled the requirement to fill out a questionnaire about coronavirus at checkpoints across the Russian border. However, regional departments of the federal agency have been instructed to conduct selective testing of Russians and foreigners if they arrive from countries where “the epidemic situation has worsened.” [TASS]
On the territory of Russia, several cases of “Eris” have been registered. Infections were reported in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Moscow and Irkutsk regions, Krasnodar Territory, and the republics of Buryatia and Khakassia. [RBC]
About 612,000 applications were submitted to participate in the September elections through the federal system of remote electronic voting. [RIA Novosti]
The volume of reserves in the European underground gas storage facilities (UGS) of the European Union (EU) has exceeded the target level of 90% of their total capacity. The EU planned to reach it by November 1, but met this goal more than two months earlier than planned. [Vedomosti]
Russia is at risk of being “driven into the barbaric and dead-end Western ‘brave new world’ of a digital concentration camp, purposefully formed to accelerate the depopulation of the Earth’s population.” [Military Review]
What the Bank of Russia is preparing for us [Katyusha.org]
Kiev will not negotiate with Moscow on the extension of the contract for gas transit to Europe, which expires at the end of the year. “We will definitely not be a party to negotiations with the Russians ... I think that the next year will be indicative in terms of Europe’s ability to function without Russian gas at all,” Minister of Energy of Ukraine Herman Galushchenko said. [Free Press]
Two drones fell on the territory of a military unit in Kamensk in the Rostov region, another drone fell near Novoshakhtinsk. The UAVs were neutralized by electronic warfare (EW) systems. There were no casualties or damage, according to Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev. [Kommersant]
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has proposed new investigative powers that would give the department access to all data transmitted via the internet by a suspect. [Nakanune]
Links from around the interwebs
Kiev Will Not Face Any Consequences For Breaking the Blockade [Rolo]
Manufacturing People and Large Language Models for Biology: Mommy, No! [Tessa Lena]
Who are ISIS? [Off-Guardian]
The arrests of Strelkov and Kagarlitsky are slightly worrying. [Cecílie Jílková]
Edward’s dispatches in foreign languages
Rusia participa del Gran Reinicio [Freelander]
Sorry for the blog-drought this past week. Blog adventures are coming soon, though.
Have a glorious Sunday.
— Riley
Thank you for your readership and generous ruble-support
"Food prices in Russia will rise by 10-20% in the near future, according to the head of the economics committee of the Moscow branch of the Union of Entrepreneurs."
It's interesting, that the Kremlin adopted the term "entrepreneurs" a code word for US monopolistic crooks.
That being said, even it Russian food prices rise by 10-20% it'll still be a helluva lot cheaper than the cost of food in the US, especially if you're "not" interested in eating junk but desire food with some nutrition.
Here's a Kafkaesque possibility, if food prices continue to uncontrollably rise pest extermination companies will metamorphosize into food harvesting operations.🤮
Reading today's list of articles/topics I have to wonder how different Russia is from the US and the West with its pushing technocratic control of the public and all information and corporatist medical tyranny that we have particularly in the US. Is there any difference in the direction of these allegedly opposing States?