News from Putin’s Russia at the end of this week — the Pechenegs and Polovtsians, we are told, have been successfully defeated, but the situation with the Saudis and the coronavirus is not very good. Regarding the former, the refusal to deal with OPEC and the resulting price war was due to the Kremlin’s refusal to cut production by even 0.3 million barrels. As a result, the deal was restored on the condition that Russia cut its production by 2.5 million barrels per day. In other words, Russia’s oil production has returned to the level of 2003 — almost back to the 1990s that Kremlin propagandists keep scaring Russians about. Meanwhile, the Americans, who graciously agreed to save the Kremlin’s gas station from total bankruptcy, did not take on any obligations in the deal.
There were 1,785 new cases of coronavirus in Russia last day, including 1,124 in Moscow. Eighteen people have died, twelve of them in Moscow. Does this statistic mean that the number of infections outside Moscow is negligible? Obviously, no — the number of cases detected outside Moscow is negligible. There are many reports of people with pneumonia who cannot be tested for coronavirus or are not informed of their results for days, much longer than the 72 hours required by protocol.
But what are the Russian authorities doing about it? Improve the economic or medical system? We don’t know. However, news has surfaced of a new initiative — to further improve measures against… extremism. This is the kind of presidential decree project developed by the Russian Ministry of Interior that has not gone unnoticed by the Russian public.
The authors of the initiative decided to improve both the theoretical and practical aspects of the fight against extremism. In particular, they proposed to add the following phrases to the existing legislation (with comments)
- «Ideology of violence» — a system of social theories, views and ideas that justify violence, including the use of extremist (terrorist) methods and means to achieve political, religious, ideological and other goals — is this about the Kremlin’s domestic and foreign policy?
- «Radicalism» — an extreme, uncompromising, violent ideology aimed at decisive, fundamental changes in the foundations of the constitutional order — who has essentially destroyed the constitutional order over the past 20 years, leaving only the appearance of it, and who intends to finish it off without a referendum?
- «Extremist ideology» — a system of views and ideas that presents violent and other illegal actions as the main means of resolving social, racial, national, religious, and political conflicts — could this be a description of the ideology of the «Russian world» and its policies in Ukraine, Syria, etc.?
The authors of the Decree Project state that «there is currently a tendency towards further radicalization of certain population groups and an escalation of external and internal extremist threats. It’s interesting, why is this happening, what are the reasons for such «radicalization of certain population groups» and who is responsible for it? Could it be the Russian Orthodox Church, movements such as the «Two-Headed Eagle» led by the sponsor of the «Russian Spring» in Ukraine, Konstantin Malofeev, and others such as the Russian Imperial Movement, recently listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department?
Interestingly, the Interior Ministry wants to include «the formation of closed ethnic and religious enclaves» in the list of extremist threats. What does that mean? For example, if a group of co-religionists or compatriots want to build a cottage settlement together or occupy a multi-story building, is this considered the formation of a closed ethnic and religious enclave or not?
But of course, like-minded people can’t just live together, they can’t even do sports together. In the decree project it is said: «The spread of radicalism in the sports environment, including in sports schools and clubs, and the infiltration of extremist ideology into the coaching staff pose a serious danger».
In this regard, it should be noted that pro-Kremlin propagandists have also been poisoning the sports community associated with Khabib Nurmagomedov, portraying it as a hotbed of radicalism. Coincidence?
And of course, the peoples and confessions of Russia are not allowed to raise their own issues in politics, only the Russian Orthodox Church can do that through the state. As for the national movements of other peoples of Russia, the project proposes the following: «Implementation of legal and informational measures to prevent the use of the ethnic and religious factor in the electoral process and party programs.»
It is clear that Russia does not want to emulate the developed democratic countries of the West, but China and the tyrannical regimes of Central Asia. This is formulated as follows: «To organize the interaction of competent authorities within the framework of the implementation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Convention on Combating Extremism of June 9, 2017, to promote it on international platforms with the aim of joining other states to this international treaty, taking into account its open nature.»
However, as has recently become clear, for the Russian authorities China is only an example of how to fight dissidents, not how to develop its economy or fight a pandemic.
By the way, citizens and residents of Russia registered on government service portals can follow the link below and evaluate this project of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: [link provided].