NEWS FROM RUSSIA: January 21, 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.

The quote of the week:

“It feels like digitalization is always good for the authorities, it needs to be applied everywhere, some kind of organizational structure can be created for it, and funding can be obtained for this matter … It seems to us that this is total control.”

— Andrei Konoval, leader of the Action trade union, in response to the decision of the Moscow Department of Health to require “anonymous” audio recordings of medical appointments to ensure “communication” guidelines are followed by doctors.

And now for some news.

Economy

• Herman Gref’s Sberbank reported a fivefold increase in net profit in 2023—a record 1.493 trillion rubles. [Kommersant]

• Russia's largest tomato paste factory is facing a shortage of seeds after a ban was placed on imported plant materials from the Netherlands. [RBC]

• Europe continues to buy “sanctioned” Russian oil at a record pace—with India acting as middleman. [k-politika.ru]

• The price of eggs in Russia is starting to stabilize. [Lenta.ru]

• Sber is in negotiations with AvtoVAZ to provide Russia’s largest automaker with AI and multimedia systems for a new Lada model. [ng.ru]

• Turkish banks have severed cooperation with almost all Russian credit institutions. Chinese banks are also showing growing reluctance to work with their Russian counterparts. [Kommersant]

• Russian external debt decreased by $57.1 billion (RUB 5.05 trillion) over the year, the press service of the Bank of Russia reported on January 19. [Red Spring]

• Russia is not yet able to independently cover the needs of the military industry for semiconductors, so it imports them through intermediaries, bypassing sanctions. Russia now imports only 9.1% less military components than before February 2022. The situation with dual-use goods is better: over two years, imports fell by 28.5%. [World & We]

• Russia’s National Welfare Fund, the country’s “rainy day fund”, no longer holds euros after the Ministry of Finance emptied the NWF’s euro account to help fill holes in the federal budget. [RIA Novosti]

• The Ministry of Digital Development will present the results of the national project “Digital Economy” on February 6 at the exhibition and forum “Russia”. This was announced during Digitalization Day by the head of the ministry, Maksut Shadayev. [TASS]

• Russia has launched an installment plan for purchasing fuel at gas stations. The promotion was launched jointly by Alfa Bank, the Podeli installment service, and Gazprom. “At the time of refueling, the client needs to pay only 25% of the cost, the rest—in three equal payments every two weeks,” the bank said in a statement. [Nakanune]

• The share of exports from the Russian Federation to designated “friendly states” in the second half of 2023 increased to more than 80% (from just over 50% in 2022), according to government figures. [Interfax]

“Public Health”

• The Ulyanovsk region received 42,280 doses of the updated Sputnik Light vaccine. The drug was purchased for 17.5 million rubles. Vaccines have been distributed to medical institutions. Residents over 60 years of age and those who suffer from chronic diseases are encouraged to get vaccinated, as the previous iteration of the drug has “completely stopped protecting” against Covid. [ulpressa.ru]

• The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Pentagon is working to create so-called “controlled epidemics” and called for an international investigation into the activities of American biological laboratories. [Interfax]

• There is currently no need for mass vaccination because Russia has “overcome the peak of the Covid wave”, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said in a recent interview. [TASS]

Ukraine

• St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov claimed in a Telegram message that Russian soldiers who purportedly encountered gender-neutral toilets in Ukraine-held Donbass understood what they were fighting for: “Those who, with a machine gun in their hands, went through the Ukrainianized version of Donbass understand well what we are fighting for. These guys, who saw toilets in schools where instead of two rooms—for girls and boys—there are three rooms—for girls, boys and gender-neutral ones—they don’t need to be told what values ​​we stand for,” Beglov wrote. [News.ru]

• State Duma will soon consider a bill that will allow the government to confiscate property, money, or other valuables from Russians accused of publishing fakes about the country’s military. [Izvestia]

• British mercenary Aiden Aslin has reportedly returned to combat in Ukraine after filming himself near Avdeevka. Aslin was sentenced to death by the DPR after being captured in Mariupol. He was freed as part of a prisoner exchange. Under the deal, Aslin was instructed to sit out the rest of the conflict in Turkey. [Third Rome]

• A DPR court sentenced Ukrainian Armed Forces combat medic Ivan Paskalov to 28 years in a maximum security colony for the murder of two civilians in Mariupol. [Regnum]

• Gazprom supplies gas to Europe in transit through Ukraine in the amount of 40.5 million cubic meters. m per day through the gas measuring station (GIS) Sudzha. [TASS]

• Modular reinforced concrete shelters to protect people during shelling have begun to be installed in Belgorod in places with the highest pedestrian traffic. Around 200 shelters will be installed across the city. [Interfax]

• There are currently no prospects for the resumption of the “grain deal”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. [Interfax]

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington of allowing Kiev to “torture Americans to death in prison”, in an apparent reference to American journalist Gonzalo Lira, who died in Ukrainian custody earlier this month. [Military Review]

• The Leningrad region reported its first-ever Ukrainian drone attack. [Lenta.ru]

• Prosecutors have requested five years in prison for Igor Strelkov, followed by a three-year social media ban. [Military Review]

Society

• In a recent speech, State Duma deputy Mikhail Delyagin (Just Russia for Truth) criticized the country’s migration policy: “Don’t we see a change in the ethnic balance in Moscow? Voters say: state policy aims to replace us with migrants. They ask me: who are the masters of Russia? According to the Constitution, the multinational people of Russia. But we see that the masters of Russia are the diasporas!” [Kapital Rus]

• “Why Russians are dying out: a historical outline of the demographic situation” [Military Review]

• Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Pyotr Tolstoy (United Russia) called “national diasporas” in Russia nothing more than “legalized mafia structures.” [Nakanune]

• The head of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, called on the government to immediately address “the lack of proper support for large families and the extinction of the population.” Zyuganov wrote on his Telegram channel: “You can say anything, hide behind any indicators, but the facts speak for themselves. So, if a young family has a second child, then it becomes poor, and if there is a third child, it becomes poor. At the same time, the country continues to lose about 500 thousand of its compatriots every year. In such a situation, it is impossible to get out of the demographic catastrophe. The authorities will have to take measures … I hope that our bills on supporting large families, caring for children and older people will be considered first in the State Duma.” [Kapital Rus]

Have a restful Sunday,

— Riley

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