NEWS FROM RUSSIA: March 16, 2024

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

photo credit: Edward Slavsquat

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.

Edward’s internet appearances

I spoke with Jesse Zurawell and Rurik Skywalker about the SMO and other Russia-related things.

The Methods Section | Episode 5 || Rurik Skywalker and Edward Slavsquat

Economy

• In the coming week, the US dollar will remain within the range of 90-93.30 rubles, the euro at 99.1-101.8 rubles, and the yuan in the range of 12.5-12.9 rubles, according to an analyst interviewed by TASS. [tass.ru]

• Annual inflation in Russia rose to 7.69% in February; at the end of January this figure was 7.44%. At the same time, price growth slowed to 0.68% month on month. [vedomosti.ru]

• Starting March 20, Microsoft will close access to management and design programs for Russian companies, including cloud services. [tass.ru]

• A policy designed to boost import-substitution in agriculture has led to a shortage of seeds and the possibility of higher food prices in Russia, representatives of the Russian Grain Union wrote in a letter to Putin. [newizv.ru]

• A group of Russian lawmakers submitted to the State Duma a bill to extend anti-money laundering legislation to include transactions made with the digital ruble. [interfax.ru]

• China’s need for Russian raw materials will help grow Russia’s economy, Ivan Grachev, chief researcher at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a recent interview. [business-gazeta.ru]

• The Ministry of Economic Development will encourage companies operating in the gray tourism sector to switch to working according to general rules, and will also regulate the work of travel aggregators, deputy head of the department Dmitry Vakhrukov said at the VI Congress of Travel Agencies. [interfax.ru]

• The head of the poultry farmers’ union of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamid Reza Kashani, said that the republic intends to send its first batch of chicken eggs to Russia in the next 20 days. [svpressa.ru]

Society

• Although Orthodox Christianity continues to be the most widespread religion in Russia, the number of its adherents has decreased by 9% since 2017 to 66%, according to a new survey conducted by the state-operated All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM). Of those who consider themselves Orthodox, more than half (56%) do not fast. 4% of Orthodox Christians strictly observe all fasts. [nakanune.ru]

• Almost 3 million people went to the polling stations in Moscow on the first day of voting in the Russian presidential elections, Olga Kirillova, Chairman of the Moscow City Election Commission, told reporters on March 15. [regnum.ru]

• The authorities of the Moscow region will require companies creating new warehouse complexes and distribution centers in the region to provide dormitories for migrant workers working for them. The order of the Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov, “On the organization of housing arrangements for certain categories of persons, including those who are foreign citizens or stateless persons”, was published by his administration last week. Under the order, the regional government will require companies that hire migrant workers to provide them with housing—in some cases, in specially built hostels, hotels and dormitories. [kommersant.ru]

• “We will no longer tolerate criticism of our democracy and allegations that it is not what it should be. Our democracy is the best, and we will continue to develop it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week. [ria.ru]

• Vladimir Putin voted in the Russian presidential elections online. The Kremlin published footage of Putin casting his ballot on his computer. [regnum.ru]

• Vladimir Putin announced the start of a project to build a high-speed railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow. The railway will reduce travel time between Moscow and St. Petersburg to 2 hours and 15 minutes. [ria.ru]

• Yandex is developing its own analogue of Tinder. The online dating application, tentatively called Yandex Match, will match the user with a partner based on matching interests. The service will incorporate information from all Yandex products used by the client. [nakanune.ru]

• The most popular filling for blini (pancakes) in Russia is sour cream, according to a survey conducted by Russian bank Rosselkhozbank. [ria.ru]

• Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia Ella Pamfilova said at a briefing on the afternoon of March 16 that at 29 polling stations there were attempts to damage boxes with ballots. According to her, there were 8 attempts at arson, and 214 ballots were irretrievably damaged. [kommersant.ru]

• Voter turnout for the presidential election exceeded 40% on Saturday morning, according to data published by Russia’s Central Election Commission. [vedomosti.ru]

• The trial of a group of Marxists arrested in 2022 for creating a “terrorist community” in Ufa has begun in Yekaterinburg. The prosecution presented the court with a video showing the defendants reading passages by Soviet writer Anton Makarenko, and singing songs about the Civil War. [nakanune.ru]

• Dmitry Medvedev expressed displeasure after being told that there are still schools (“extremely few”) in Russia that have outhouses. “I hope that there are few of them, because as a large team we tried to eliminate this legacy that was inherited from the past,” Medvedev commented. [rbc.ru]

• The Ministry of Digital Development reported on Saturday that voter turnout for the presidential election had exceeded 80% among those registered to vote online. [vedomosti.ru]

Ukraine

• Gazprom continues to supply gas to Europe via Ukraine in the amount of 42.4 million cubic meters per day, a Gazprom representative disclosed on March 16. [tass.ru]

• Ukrainian drones attacked oil refineries in Syzran and Novokuibyshevsk, both located in the Samara region, resulting in a fire breaking out at one of the enterprises. [regnum.ru]

• Four people were injured during shelling of Belgorod by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the governor of the Belgorod region said on March 15. [regnum.ru]

• Two people were killed in Belgorod during shelling by the UAF, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on March 16. [telegram]

• Up to 30 UAF soldiers were killed during a failed cross-border raid on a village in Belgorod, Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed on March 16. [gazeta.ru]

• Putin on March 15 made a statement about recent attacks targeting Donbass and Belgorod. “In order to disrupt the voting process and intimidate people, at least in the regions bordering Ukraine, the Kiev neo-Nazi regime has conceived and is trying to carry out a number of criminal demonstrative armed actions,” Putin said. [ura.news]

• 106 apartments in 22 apartment buildings in Belgorod were damaged during UAF shelling on March 16. [kommersant.ru]

• A series of UAF drone attacks on Russian oil refineries has raised questions about how to defend the country’s energy infrastructure. Previously, the Russian government recommended that companies purchase their own air defense systems, since the Ministry of Defense funds were “focused on covering important government and military facilities.” [nakanune.ru]

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said that the countries had agreed to “purchase even more weapons” for Kiev “on the entire world market.” Proceeds from frozen Russian assets will be used to purchase weapons for Ukraine, Scholz said. [rbc.ru]

Public Health

• The Russian government has increased special payments for doctors in small settlements, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced at a Cabinet meeting on March 15. [regnum.ru]

• Russia's Health Ministry said on March 14 that the healthcare system continues to be supplied with nirmatrelvir and other drugs used to treat coronavirus. (Nirmatrelvir was developed by Pfizer and is marketed in the West as Paxlovid. In Russia it’s sold under the brand Skyvira.) [tass.ru]

• The Gamaleya Center is moving forward with testing an updated version of Sputnik V on children. Katyusha.org comments: “we, like many other reasonable people, have big questions about how this ‘miracle vaccine’ protected people in 2020-2022. And the Ministry of Health itself made it clear that it does not intend to answer these questions: the data from clinical trials of the main Sputnik in 2022 were declared classified for 6 years—this is the official response of medical officials to the parliamentary request. And if there is no evidence of the effectiveness and safety of this gene substance, how can one move on to the most vulnerable categories of the population and conduct experiments on them that are prohibited by the Constitution of the Russian Federation?” [katyusha.org]

• The number of new cases of HIV infection in Russia has decreased by almost a third over five years, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko. [interfax.ru]

Have a relaxing Saturday. We will return to our normal news roundup schedule (every Sunday) next week. There are also some very exciting and preposterously fun Village Updates coming in the nearest future.

— Riley