The Real Russia. Today. The Nemtsov murder case, political mayhem in Kyrgyzstan, and a neo-isolationist recipe for Russia

Monday, November 2, 2020

• Joint investigation reveals unpursued leads in Nemtsov murder case
• Belarusian authorities open criminal case against more than 200 participants in memorial march
• New podcast episode: Keeping Up With Kyrgyzstan
• Opinion and analysis: Karaganov on reinvigorating Russia’s national spirit
• News briefs: Pamfilova’s stump, no more beds in Tomsk, oppressed fathers, and sneaky traffic cameras

Feature stories

🕵️‍♂️ Off the hook

Russian officials investigating the murder of former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov have identified but virtually ignored several important witnesses and possible accomplices to the crime, according to a new joint investigation by the news outlet Mediazona and the anti-corruption website The Scanner Project. According to investigative journalists, several of these individuals are linked to influential Chechen politicians, including senator Suleiman Geremeyev and State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov. 

👮 The beat goes on

The Belarusian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against 231 participants involved in a demonstration that took place in Minsk on Sunday, November 1. Estimates on the number of protesters involved in Sunday’s march vary. Law enforcement officers brutally dispersed demonstrators in the city center, using tear gas and stun grenades, and firing shots into the air. Demonstrations also took place in Mogilev, Pinsk and Grodno on November 1.

“The Naked Pravda”: Making sense of Kyrgyzstan 🎧

On October 5, thousands of opposition demonstrators took to the streets of Bishkek to protest the official results of Kyrgyzstan’s parliamentary elections. The protesters demanded a repeat vote and on October 6 elections officials relented and invalidated the results. Since then, Kyrgyzstan’s population has seen a lot more turmoil than the opposition protesters bargained for: parliament appointed a new prime minister, the president stepped down, and election officials scheduled a repeat parliamentary vote only to see it postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, lawmakers have been pushing through legislation on changing the constitution and the country is planning to hold presidential elections in January.

To learn more, Meduza news editor Eilish Hart spoke to Bektour Iskender (a journalist and co-founder of Kloop), Erica Marat (an associate professor at the National Defense University’s College of International Affairs), and Colleen Wood (a doctoral candidate in political science at Columbia University).

Opinion and analysis

🕊️ Russian neo-isolationism to liberate the world

In an October 28 appearance on the state-run network TV Center, political scientist Sergey Karaganov (the dean of the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs at the National Research University Higher School of Economics) argued that Russia should adopt “neo-isolationism” to reinvigorate its national spirit. When articulating his grand idea for a new, “assertive ideology,” he emphasized that Russians are a “liberating people” who freed the world from 500 years of Western tyranny and a “victorious people” who have defeated hegemons from Genghis Khan to Uncle Sam.

Karaganov warned that humanity faces a “deep moral and psychological crisis” embodied in various progressive movements like the “pseudo-ideologies of climateism [sic], democracy, feminism (not to be confused with women’s rights), BLM, and so on.” Grassroots initiatives are inherently “destructive,” he said, and it falls to the nation’s elites to build Russia’s next ideology, which ought to find its inspiration in conservative values like family and God. The alternative, naturally, is Western decadence and a hopelessly atomized society.

The global economic slowdown will only get worse, Karaganov told his television audience, predicting that many governments and even entire world systems will collapse under in the coming chaos. That’s why he advocates reducing Russia’s foreign entanglements, which he says are liabilities, not assets. Short of abandoning strategic allies (like Armenia), Moscow needs to recognize the flaws inherent in past Tsarist and Soviet imperial policies, which expanded Russian influence at the cost of enormous subsidies. Even China’s growing presence in places like Central Asia might benefit Russia, according to Karaganov, by reducing the number of incoming migrant workers. In Belarus, Karaganov says Alexander Lukashenko has overstayed his welcome as president, but Moscow doesn’t need to meddle in Minsk’s looming reforms to get a pro-Russian replacement because the Belarusian elite is largely pro-Russian.

Though he emphasized the benefits of “neo-isolationism,” Karaganov also encouraged the Kremlin to play “psychological offense” against the West, arguing that Europe and the U.S. will never forgive Moscow for challenging its dominance, making it pointless for Russia to be reticent about pursuing its national interests. The West ultimately hates Russians, he explained, because Russia is the only “viable part” of European civilization. For example, Karaganov said he wants Moscow to treat NATO as “an aggressive alliance” responsible for “gang raping” Yugoslavia, and he said Russia should be ready to confront Germany if it entertains “a tougher foreign policy.”

Other news in brief

• 🗳️ The end of stump politics. Over the weekend, Vologda was briefly home to an unusual piece of public art — a wrought-iron ballot box (complete with a slot for submitting votes) installed on top of an old tree stump, “honoring” Central Election Commissioner Ella Pamfilova.
• 🏥 Take a seat. Doctors at a hospital in Tomsk reportedly offered to admit a woman diagnosed with the coronavirus to “sitting hospitalization” due to a lack of available hospital beds.
• 👨‍👧‍👦 Don’t forget about dads. Opposition politician Vladimir Milov has filed a complaint with Russia’s Constitutional Court over discrimination against men in Russian administrative law, demanding the Administrative Code exclude “all parents of children [including men] under the age of 14” from administrative arrest.
• 👁️ The eye in the sky. Moscow has installed traffic cameras that are able to detect when drivers aren’t wearing their seatbelts or are using their phones while behind the wheel.

⚔️ This day in history: 106 years ago today, on November 2, 1914, the Russian Empire declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Russia’s WWI campaign didn’t end well, but it armies by and large performed best against the Turks.