NEWS FROM RUSSIA: January 14, 2024

Edward's weekly Russia-related news roundup & open thread

Photo credit: No Context Russia

Welcome to Edward Slavsquat’s weekly Russian media news roundup and open thread-thing. Feel free to share your own URLs in the comments section.

This week your correspondent chatted with Alexander Sachon of the Wisdom Tradition podcast. We talked about Russia and raw milk. Watch/Listen!

The quote of the week:

The year 2023 ends. The results are very contradictory; the authorities are still sitting on two chairs and applying double standards. Patriotic calls are heard from the Kremlin, but at the same time pro-Western oligarchs like Friedman feel at home in Russia, while patriots like Strelkov are kept in pre-trial detention centers. […]

It is quite obvious that in Russia there are two states at the same time—an imaginary state in which representatives of the ruling class live, and a real state in which all other citizens live. It is obvious that with such a split we will sooner or later come to a tragic outcome.

— Sergei Udaltsov, Free Press. December 30, 2023. (Udaltsov, the head of Russia’s “Left Front” movement, was arrested earlier this week and charged with “justifying terrorism on the internet” for allegedly expressing support for a group of Marxists in Ufa accused of extremism. The government claims that the evidence against Udaltsov is a state secret. He faces 5-7 years in prison.)

Now for some news.

Economy

• The Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce intends to launch a system in February that will allow Russian companies to buy Italian goods permitted for import into Russia for rubles. [RIA Novosti]

• The Russian Poultry Union has warned that supplies from abroad are unlikely to reduce the price of eggs in grocery stores. [Parliamentary Newspaper]

• After a sharp rise in egg prices, media outlets are now reporting that chicken is no longer available in stores. Poultry has almost disappeared from the shelves of some stores in Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Samara and Ulyanovsk. Shortages have also been reported in Moscow. [Nakanune]

• Food inflation in the Russian Federation in 2023 amounted to 8.16%; during December, food prices rose by 1.49%, according to Rosstat data. [RIA Novosti]

• On January 12, the euro exchange rate on the Moscow Exchange fell below 97 rubles for the first time since December 13, 2023. The US dollar fell below 88 rubles for the first time since November 23. [News.ru]

• In 2023, more than a million new automobiles were sold in Russia. This is 69% more than the results of 2022, but at the same time noticeably lower (almost 63%) than the results of 2021, when 1.66 million cars were sold. Chinese automakers occupied 51% of the market in 2023—in 12 months they more than doubled their presence in Russia. [Izvestia]

• More than 70 Russian manufacturers will exhibit their goods at the first festival-fair “Made in Russia” in Liaoning Province, China, from January 27 to February 5. [RIA Novosti]

• The economic situation in Russia in 2024 will remain difficult, many experts interviewed by domestic media believe. [Free Press]

• What will 2024 be like in terms of economic risks for Russia? What changes can we expect in the ruble exchange rate, and what factors will influence this? [Tsargrad]

• Russia has overtaken Germany in purchasing power and has become the first economy in Europe and the fifth in the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with business leaders in Khabarovsk. [Kommersant]

• The Russian Ministry of Finance will sell foreign currency and gold worth 69.1 billion rubles starting on January 15, according to a message on the department’s website. [News.ru]

“Public Health”

• Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) has recommended that the heads of regional health authorities ensure that patients with suspected viral diseases, including Covid and influenza, are transported to the hospital wearing masks. [TASS]

• Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova claimed that Russia is the only country that tests every person seeking medical treatment for colds and Covid at the government’s expense. The policy has helped to reduce transmission and as a result, Covid cases are 7x lower in Russian than in many European countries, Popova said. [TASS]

• Discussions about “Disease X” at the upcoming World Economic Forum conference in Davos may have “economic rather than scientific motives”, Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement. The agency pointed out that there were already numerous international platforms for strengthening global pandemic preparedness—including the World Health Organization. The statement added that Russia was prepared for “Disease X” and other potential biological threats. [Interfax]

• Boris Naroditsky, a scientist who worked at the Gamaleya Center, has died at the age of 82. Naroditsky received an award from Russian President Vladimir Putin for developing the Sputnik V vaccine, along with other scientists who participated in the creation of Russia’s “flagship vaccine”. Unconfirmed reports claim the scientist succumbed to pneumonia. [Kp.ru]

• Medical clinics in Moscow will be required to make “anonymous” audio recordings of appointments, the capital’s health department announced. Authorities explained that the rule will help ensure that doctors are following communication guidelines with their patients. [RIA Novosti]

• Several doctors in Moscow have reported quit their jobs in protest, claiming that requiring them to record appointments is a violation of medical confidentiality. [Nakanune]

Ukraine

• American journalist Gonzalo Lira died in Ukrainian custody at the age of 55, after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Lira was arrested in the Kharkov region last year for “discrediting the country’s political and military leadership and supporting Russia’s Special Military Operation”—a criminal offense under current legislation. The American claimed he was tortured by Ukrainian security forces. Family members have accused the US embassy in Kiev and the Biden administration of ignoring their requests for help. [Vedomosti]

• Russians mobilized in 2022 are “professionals” and don’t need to be rotated, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said in an interview. He claimed that Russia’s enemies were trying to popularize the idea of sending mobilized reservists home. [Business Gazeta]

• Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed a bilateral security agreement. Sunak also announced a £2.5 billion military aid package for Kiev. [TASS]

• The volume of Russian gas being transited across Ukrainian remains stable, according to Gazprom. [Neftgaz.ru]

• The former mayor of Vladivostok, Oleg Gumenyuk, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribes totaling 38 million rubles, will be deployed to Ukraine after signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. [Nakanune]

• Recent strikes carried out by the Russian military have reported disrupted fuel supplies to Ukraine’s front line troops. [Military Review]

• Russia must be included in the peace process in Ukraine, Swiss Federal Councilor and senior diplomat Ignazio Cassis said at a press conference in Davos. Representatives of more than 80 nations are participating in a “peace formula” for Ukraine, but Moscow has been excluded from the discussions. [eadaily.com]

Society

• Yandex smart home devices are operating normally after a short-term outrage. On January 12, a number of Yandex smart home users encountered short-term difficulties with their devices, which failed to connect to the “Smart Home with Alice” application. The problem was reported in all regions of Russia. [RIA Novosti]

• At least 20 regions of Russia are experiencing a shortage of school teachers for a wide range of subjects, including mathematics, Russian language and literature, foreign languages, and physics. [Izvestia]

• Critical infrastructure dating back to the 1960s is struggling to cope with extreme winter weather in several Russian regions, resulting in thousands of people being left without heating. [Military Review]

• 1.261-1.263 million children were born in Russian in 2023, the country’s lowest number of births since the 90s, demographer Alexey Raksha calculated based on statistics from regional registry offices. [Nakanune]

• The head of Sberbank, Herman Gref, took first place in the ranking of the most prominent business people in Russian media in 2023, according to data from the reputation management and media monitoring system SCAN-Interfax. [Interfax]

Have a restful Sunday,

— Riley