The Real Russia. Today. Gun laws, prison yoga, and the Kremlin scrambles a brain trust to fight pension reform backlash

Thursday, July 5, 2018

This day in history. On July 5, 1943, the German military launched “Operation Citadel,” which would become the Battle of Kursk, the final strategic offensive that the Germans were able to launch on the Eastern Front.

• Pension reforms fuel a 2.5-million-signature strong petition, as the Kremlin reportedly mobilizes a brain trust to “win back” the issue
• Putin reportedly awards the Hero of the Russian Federation to his own first deputy chief of staff
• Kalashnikov lobbies Russian lawmakers to ease gun restrictions
• Russian pharmaceutical companies ask the government to reject a call for cryptographic protections on medicines
• A court in Crimea adds more time to a Ukrainian political prisoner’s sentence
• Russian prison yoga is the most mind-bending yoga you’ve never seen
• Moscow is getting a second World Cup “fan zone”
• A Nigerian soccer tourist wants Russian political asylum
• Moscow decides not to reconsider the sentence handed down to a former deputy culture minister
• The Russian independent media’s boycott against the State Duma is falling apart

Pensive about pension reform

✍️ A few million malcontents

The “Just Russia” political party says it will submit a petition with 2.5 million signatures collected by the Russian Confederation of Labor in opposition to a proposal to raise the country’s retirement age. The party’s leader, Sergey Mironov, says he will introduce alternative legislation that would freeze any hikes to Russia’s retirement age before 2030.

According to a recent sociological study by the Levada Center, an overwhelming majority of Russians — 89 percent — disagree with the plan to raise the retirement age. Protesters demonstrated in dozens of cities across the country on July 1, and larger rallies are planned after the end of the World Cup.

On June 14, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced a proposal to bring massive changes to Russia’s pension system. According to the plan, the retirement age would start rising gradually next year, growing from 55 to 63 for women and from 60 to 65 for men.

🧠 Brain trust, assemble!

The Kremlin has reportedly mobilized an informal group of experts and spin doctors to manage the backlash against proposed pension reforms. According to the newspaper Vedomosti, which previously reported that Putin’s administration is closely monitoring the public’s reaction, the informal group is in contact with the Kremlin’s domestic policy team, which is led by Putin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergey Kiriyenko. “They’re planning to win back the issue in the very near future,” sources told Vedomosti.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has repeatedly told reporters that the president is not yet involved in the project to raise Russia’s retirement age, insisting that Dmitry Medvedev and his cabinet are responsible. Since the reforms were announced, Putin’s re-election rating fell to its lowest point since before the annexation of Crimea.

Speaking of Mr. Kiriyenko... 🎖️

Vladimir Putin has reportedly awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation to his own first deputy chief of staff, Sergey Kiriyenko, according to the newspaper Kommersant. Putin’s spokesman refused to comment on the matter, and the award still hasn’t been confirmed officially. The award is Russia’s highest honorary title, granted for service to the state and nation, usually connected with a heroic feat of valor.

Putin apparently handed out the same award to several staff at Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency, which Kiriyenko managed from 2005 until 2016, when he joined the presidential administration. Putin also reportedly bestowed the honor on Yuri Borisov, Russia’s new deputy prime minister in charge of the country’s military industrial sector.

Kiriyenko is widely credited with orchestrating Putin’s March 2018 re-election, where the president received 76.7 percent of the vote, winning a fourth term in office.

Legislation flirtations

🎯 From their cold, dead hands

The gun manufacturer Kalashnikov Group has reportedly drafted a legislative proposal to ease various restrictions, particularly for firearm owners who compete in shooting tournaments. According to the newspaper Kommersant, the company wants Russian lawmakers to increase the number of firearms an individual can own from five to ten. The legislation would also permit larger magazine capacities for target practice, and shorten the period during which an individual must own a smoothbore shotgun before being allowed to buy a hunting rifle.

💊 Better living through chemistry, not cryptosecurity  

Five of Russia’s biggest pharmaceutical associations have appealed to State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, asking the government to reject a call from the Federal Security Service for cryptographic protections on medicines to guard against “illegitimate goods.” According to the magazine RBC, the drug manufacturers worry that the new requirements would raise drug prices domestically and reduce Russian pharmaceutical exports.

Since February 2017, Russian drug companies have experimented with new two-dimensional datamatrix labels. This spring, the Russian government proposed adding cryptographic protections, where each label would feature a code generated not by the manufacturer but special software. The software would be provided by the Advanced Technologies Development Center, which is reportedly co-owned by the billionaire Alisher Usmanov, the state corporation Rostec, and the investor Alexander Galitsky. Initially, the new cryptographic protections were going to be free of charge, but it turns out that it will cost 50 kopecks (less than a cent) per label.

No mercy for another Ukrainian political prisoner ⏳

A Russian court in Crimea has added another 17 months to Vladimir Balukh’s time in prison, convicting him of attacking the head of his pretrial detention facility. Balukh, a Ukrainian Euromaidan activist, says he was the one who was attacked. Last August, a court sentenced him to three years and seven months in prison for illegally storing ammunition, after federal agents allegedly discovered bullets and dynamite hidden on the roof of his home.

After Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, Balukh hung a Ukrainian flag outside his home, along with a sign renaming his address “18 Heavenly Hundred Heroes,” written in Ukrainian (referring to the people killed during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests). Balukh has been on a hunger strike since March 2018, and his name appears on the list of Ukrainian political prisoners named by the jailed filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who is also on a hunger strike.

Prison yoga par excellence 🧘‍♂️

Officials from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service in the Sverdlovsk region are sick and tired of the bad rap Russian prisons get in popular culture, and they’re taking steps to correct the public’s vicious misconceptions. On Tuesday, the agency even supplied local reporters with photographs showing inmates in Nizhny Tagil in a yoga class.

If you think that’s impressive, feast your eyes on the immaculate floors and walls featured in the images. In one of the photos, you’d swear you were looking at something unreal, and that’s because you are: the picture was clearly modified (primitively) in a graphic editor (probably Microsoft Paint), according to the website TJournal.

Not especially careful to cover its tracks, the prison service also distributed a short video where the real-life stains, wear, and tear are visible on the yoga room’s walls and floors. According to the prison’s press release, an inmate with 15 years of yoga experience is responsible for teaching the classes, which are held twice a week. The lessons are conducted “with support from the facility’s education department.”

‘Sup, World Cup

📣 Moscow is getting another “fan zone”

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has finally responded to the overcrowding at the city’s only outdoor “fan zone” for watching the FIFA World Cup. On Thursday, Moscow City Hall announced that a second fan zone will open near Spartak stadium. By the time the new area is ready to receive fans, however, there will be only six games left to play in the tournament (out of a total of 64). During Team Russia’s games, the existing fan zone at Sparrow Hills has attracted such large crowds that many spectators have been turned away.

✈️ Don’t send me back

A 31-year-old Nigerian soccer tourist has appealed to law enforcement in Moscow, seeking political asylum. The man has reportedly been transferred to Russia’s Immigration Service, where officials will determine his status. The Russian state grants political asylum to people who face persecution for public political activities or beliefs that do not contradict democratic principles or the norms of international law.

See ya later, renovator ⚖️

The Moscow City Court’s Presidium has decided not to reconsider the penalty imposed on former Deputy Culture Minister Grigory Pirumov, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in the so-called “Renovators’ Case,” where eight people were convicted of embezzling public funds allocated to the restoration of several monasteries and theaters. After the verdict last October, Pirumov was released in light of time already served in pretrial detention. In December, his fine was raised from 300,000 rubles ($4,750) to 1 million rubles ($15,820).

In May 2018, police arrested Pirumov in a new criminal case, accusing him of embezzling 450 million rubles ($7.1 million) allocated to building a public library at the Hermitage. He is currently in jail until at least July 16.

The “Slutsky boycott” is crumbling 📰

The independent television network Dozhd has returned to Russia’s State Duma, roughly three months after withdrawing its parliamentary correspondents in protest against the Ethics Committee’s decision to take no action against deputy Leonid Slutsky, whom multiple journalists (including one Dozhd reporter) have accused of sexual harassment. Officials accredited Mikhail Rubin, Dozhd’s representative in the Kremlin press pool, to report from the State Duma, according to the newspaper Vedomosti.

Alexandra Perepelova, Dozhd’s chief editor, told the website TJournal that Rubin’s accreditation is necessary so the network can communicate with important information sources in the parliament. She insists, however, that Dozhd still has no plans “to cover the State Duma’s activities,” except when it comes to especially important events, which apparently included a visit by a delegation from the U.S. Congress on July 3, when Rubin and Dozhd deputy chief editor Maxim Glikin visited the State Duma building.

On July 3, the popular Telegram news channel Zlobnyi Diplomat (Nasty Diplomat) reported that Dozhd and two other independent media outlets, RTVI and Znak.com, would soon end their boycotts of the State Duma. Znak.com later explained to TJournal that its Duma correspondent, Ekaterina Vinokurova, restored her parliamentary accreditation on her own. Vinokurova says she’s only set foot in the State Duma building once since the start of the media boycott. RTVI says it is boycotting the State Duma “as an official newsmaker,” but the network has not forbidden correspondent Irina Nagornykh from meeting with State Duma deputies and sources at the parliament.