The Real Russia. Today. Putin’s big interview, Vekselberg’s frozen billion, and Sobyanin’s high turnout aspirations

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

• Putin talks Internet trolls, MH17, North Korea, Syria, Trump, and more
• Vekselberg reportedly loses another billion dollars to nervous banks
• Russia’s jailed Ukrainian “spy journalist” was supposedly looking for intelligence about another separatist attack on Mariupol
• Moscow’s mayoral race will be modeled on Putin’s re-election
• Putin signs legislation abolishing absentee ballots in parliamentary elections
• Russian video-blogger says his recent “attack” was just a social experiment
• A Russian Senate commission says the country needs a new crackdown on Western political meddling
• Lawmakers approve fines for circumventing Russian Internet censorship

Putin’s big interview 🎙

Ahead of his first foreign visit since his re-election in March, Vladimir Putin gave a long interview to Austrian journalist Armin Wolf, who didn’t spare the long-time Russian leader many challenging, tough questions. At times, Putin responded irritably, accusing the reporter of trying to interrupt him. Read the Kremlin’s official English translation of the interview here.

• Too busy to read the whole transcript? We summarized it for you, so you don’t have to: ‘If you don’t like my answers, then don’t ask the questions’: Here’s what Vladimir Putin told the Austrian media in his latest big ole interview

U.S. sanctions strike Vekselberg again 💸🇨🇭

Fearing U.S. sanctions, several Swiss banks have reportedly frozen roughly 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.01 billion) of the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg’s personal savings, a source in the Renova Group told Forbes Russia. Last week, the Swiss newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende reported that Swiss banks had frozen twice as much of Vekselberg’s money.

According to Forbes, UBS, Credit Suisse, and Julius Baer have taken action against Vekselberg. Even the Bank of Cyprus, 9.27 percent of which Vekselberg owns, might freeze his accounts, though Forbes was unable to verify this information.

According to Schweiz am Wochenende, Vekselberg is preparing to sue the Swiss banks and their staff for freezing his accounts, arguing that he opened them legally in Switzerland. The accounts are reportedly denominated in francs, not dollars.

According to Reuters, the U.S. government has frozen between $1.5 and $2 billion in assets owned by Vekselberg’s “Renova Group” conglomerate. Renova is reportedly seeking a government bailout in Russia, including the refinancing in state-owned banks (secured on Renova’s 26.5-percent stake in Rusal) of 820 million euros ($982 million) in loans from Western companies, preferential treatment with state contracts, and major tax breaks. The Kremlin has vowed to provide assistance to the companies hurt by Washington’s “oligarch” sanctions.

Rumors leak about the case against Ukraine’s “journalist spy” 🕵️‍♂️

Sources told the newspaper Kommersant that the Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko was convicted of espionage for trying to collect intelligence about a possible attack on Mariupol being planned by pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, as well as information about Russia’s National Guard. On June 4, in a closed hearing, a Russian court sentenced Sushchenko to 12 years in prison. Sushchenko’s acquaintances reportedly believe that Russian intelligence agents learned about his military training and colonel rank in the Ukrainian military and therefore placed him under surveillance.

The journalist’s attorney, Mark Feygin, vowed to appeal the ruling, also telling reporters that his client could be swapped for RIA Novosti Ukraine chief editor Kirill Vyshinsky, who was arrested last month in Kiev on treason charges.

Russian federal agents arrested Roman Sushchenko in Moscow in the fall of 2016. According to the FSB, Sushchenko was working for Ukrainian military intelligence, collecting classified information about Russia’s military and National Guard. Both Sushchenko and Kiev deny the allegations.

In recent years, Russian officials have opened multiple cases against individuals allegedly spying for the Ukrainian government. For example, in October 2015, a Russian court sentenced Yuriy Soloshenko, the former director of a Ukrainian defense factory, to six years in prison for espionage. In June 2016, Soloshenko was pardoned with another imprisoned Ukrainian man, Hennadiy Afanasyev, and exchanged for suspects accused of fomenting separatism in the Odessa region.

Takogo kak Putin 🗳

Sources close to Moscow City Hall say the city’s mayoral election on September 9 will be modeled on Russia’s March presidential election, meaning that officials will aim for turnout around 60 percent — almost double the percentage of voters who turned out in 2013, when incumbent Sergey Sobyanin narrowly defeated Alexey Navalny and several other candidates. Moscow plans to set up extra polling stations outside the city, so summer vacationers can cast ballots more easily, and voting booths will be open an extra two hours, until 10 p.m. The city is also planning a major public information campaign to promote the election, and Internet users have already noticed the spread of pro-Sobyanin hashtags on social media.

Moscow election officials are also expected to choose several “rivals” for Sobyanin. According to the newspaper Vedomosti, the city is considering the businessman Mikhail Balakin to mobilize entrepreneurial-minded voters, and it’s planning to allow an “opposition representative,” as well — possibly Anton Krasovsky.

To run in Moscow’s mayoral race, candidates must overcome the so-called “municipal filter,” which requires them to win endorsements from at least one municipal deputy in 110 different districts. Given the current balance of power in Moscow, it’s impossible for anyone to become a mayoral candidate without assistance from United Russia.

Moscow’s self-described democratic opposition has struggled to nominate a single politician to seek mayoral candidacy. Krasnoselsky Municipal District deputy Ilya Yashin and former State Duma Deputy Dmitry Gudkov both say they want the job.

Ditching absentees in parliamentary races 🗑

On Monday, Vladimir Putin signed legislation abolishing absentee ballots in Russia’s parliamentary elections, instituting the same “Mobile Voter” system that was implemented in the March presidential election, whereby Russians can choose their own polling stations, regardless of where they are registered to live. Voters will only be able to change polling stations to vote according to party lists, however. This option will not be available in single-mandate district races. More than 5.5 million people reportedly used the “Mobile Voter” system in the March 2018 presidential election.

A social experiment 🤥

The video-blogger Nikolai Sobolev has confessed to lying about being attacked, calling the hoax “a social experiment.” On June 3, Sobolev told his 516,000 Vkontakte subscribers that he’d been jumped and suffered a concussion. A day later, he apologized and revealed that he’d staged the attack “to show how easy it is today to plant a fake story.” Sobolev says he even filmed 15 different versions of a phony video supposedly showing the incident.

Russia’s legislature

🛑 Fighting Western meddling

Last week, the Russian Federation Council’s Commission on Protecting State Sovereignty and Preventing Foreign Interference published its final report. The document contains legislative proposals that were mentioned in an earlier report released in March that senators decided to postpone until after Russia’s presidential election. Armed with an underwhelming collection of evidence, the commission says “a group of pro-Western countries led by the U.S.” is constantly trying to undermine Russia and destabilize the state by various clever means and the use of NGOs and subservient media outlets (Meduza is mentioned as one of these nasty publications). At the end of the document, the authors propose a whole series of new prohibitions. Here they are.

• “A Russian Senate commission has recommended a whole series of government responses to ‘Western meddling’”

👾 Instituting penalties for circumventing Internet censorship

Lawmakers in the State Duma have adopted a final draft of legislation that imposes administrative fines on violations of Russia’s ban on Internet anonymizers that grant access to online content blocked by the federal censor. According to the bill, individuals who break the law will face fines as high as 5,000 rubles ($80), officials will face fines as high as 50,000 rubles ($800), and legal entities could be fined as much as 700,000 rubles ($11,230). Internet search engines will also be required to connect to the Federal State Information System, which will list the websites banned in Russia. Failure to connect to this system can result in fines as high as 300,000 rubles ($4,800).

Russia’s law on VPN services and Internet anonymizers entered force on November 1, 2017. The Federal Security Agency and other law enforcement agencies are authorized to designate websites and online services that violate Russia’s Internet censorship. In February 2018, Roskomnadzor stated that the FSB has yet to make any designations in this capacity.