The State of Affairs in Russia

[Martinus]

What are they talking about?  Every single news organization in the entire world agrees on everything?  What the Russians say is just so wacky I have a hard time understanding it.

[Syt]

Russia feigns ignorance over CNN pulling the plug in Russia.

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/759077

Russian laws not hamper CNN broadcasting — telecom ministry

The Telecommunications Ministry has set up a working group which "provides comfortable conditions for work and development of business of such enterprises within actual reforms of Russian legislation"

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Effective Russian legislation does not hamper US TV news channel CNN broadcasting in Russian cable TV and satellite networks, the press service of Russian Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Media said on Tuesday.

"The legislation permits foreign TV news channels to broadcast in Russia, legal forms and ways are provided for this. Representatives of the TV news broadcaster can apply in the Ministry of Telecommunications and Mass Media for consultations to receive required licences. The ministry calls for an opportunity of access to Russian citizens to different sources of information, including foreign ones," the ministry said.

The Telecommunications Ministry has set up a working group which "provides comfortable conditions for work and development of business of such enterprises within actual reforms of Russian legislation."

Spokesperson of Turner International, which owns CNN, in London Claudia Coles told TASS on November 10 that US TV news channel CNN stopped its broadcasting in Russian cable TV networks starting from December 31, 2014 over recent amendments in Russian media legislation. The company will keep only a CNN office in Moscow.

[Syt]

In other news, Russian parties are not allowed to accept money from foreigners, or NGOs registered as foreign agents.

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/759080

Russia introduces ban on financial support to political parties

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Russia's State Duma (lower house) on Tuesday approved an amendment to the president's draft law on responsibility for illegal financial support to political parties.

The amendment bans accepting contributions for political parties from NGOs registered as foreign agents.

The parties are banned from concluding deals with foreign citizens, international organizations and public movements, and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) registered as foreign agents. Penalties of up to $22,000 will be set up for violations in financial support to parties during elections.

[Syt]

Though to be fair, Germany also doesn't allow donations to German parties by foreigners.

[Martinus]

Though to be fair, Germany also doesn't allow donations to German parties by foreigners.

Yes, but probably has parties financed from the budget - which I assume Russia does not have. The thing with authoritarian, pseudo-democratic regimes like Russia and, now, Hungary is that when taken in isolation, their policies do not seem that problematic - it's just after you consider the full picture you see how they distort the socio-political landscape.

Say, France bans driving on the left side of the road, and the UK bans driving on the right side of the road - in Russia, if people were banned from driving on both right and left side of the road, you wouldn't necessarily say "oh everything is fine, they just adopted French and British policy at the same time".

[Tamas]

Though to be fair, Germany also doesn't allow donations to German parties by foreigners.

Yes, but probably has parties financed from the budget - which I assume Russia does not have. The thing with authoritarian, pseudo-democratic regimes like Russia and, now, Hungary is that when taken in isolation, their policies do not seem that problematic - it's just after you consider the full picture you see how they distort the socio-political landscape.

Say, France bans driving on the left side of the road, and the UK bans driving on the right side of the road - in Russia, if people were banned from driving on both right and left side of the road, you wouldn't necessarily say "oh everything is fine, they just adopted French and British policy at the same time".

Yes, one of the biggest "advances" Putin and Orban provided to politics is the discovery that the era where you had to actually physically oppress people to have an autocratic grip on society is long gone. You just need a solid mass of supporters held together via a constant state of war (against an internal or outside enemy), and then you can make laws that do not ban your opponents, "just" makes it impossible for them to maintain their operation/themselves.

[Solmyr]

Ouch.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/10/putin_hits_on_china__first_lady_apec_censors_go_wild

Putin Hits on China's First Lady, Censors Go Wild
Russia's Don Juan-in-chief  just got a little too friendly with Xi Jinping's wife.

BY BETHANY ALLEN-EBRAHIMIAN NOVEMBER 10, 2014
   
The first unspoken rule of diplomacy might be "Don't hit on the president's wife," but Russia's newly single president Vladimir Putin seems to have missed the memo.
Leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific nations including Russia have converged upon Beijing for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, slated to run through Nov. 11. At an APEC event held on the evening of Nov. 10 at the Water Cube, the resplendent aquatic stadium constructed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Putin was seated next to Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan, who in turn sat next to her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
That's a seating arrangement Xi may now regret.
While Xi was distracted talking to U.S. President Barack Obama, who was sitting on his right, Russia's tiger-shooting, horseback-riding president made his move. After a brief exchange -- you can almost imagine Peng making appropriately cliché small talk like "my, isn't it chilly in here" -- Putin abruptly stood up, grasped a tan coat in both hands, and wrapped it chivalrously around the first lady's shoulders. She smiled gracefully, thanked him, and sat down -- only to surreptitiously slip the coat from her shoulders moments later into the waiting arms of an attendant.

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) caught the whole encounter on video. Peng and Putin cut small figures from the camera's distant perch across the vast Water Cube, but the CCTV commentator had no trouble making out their identities. She remarked upon Putin's chivalrous gesture just moments later, saying, "Putin has just placed his coat around Peng Liyuan's body." Major Chinese news outlets including web giant Sina and Phoenix Media quickly posted the video, which also began circulating on Chinese social media. The encounter even spawned a short-lived hashtag, "Putin Gives Peng Liyuan His Coat," on Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging site.
But that was when the censors kicked in. Within hours of posting the video, Chinese news sites had already pulled it off their sites, and censors scrubbed it from social media sites.
China hopes to project a squeaky-clean image while international attention centers on APEC's host. But that's not the only reason why the Putin-Peng Coatgate has China's censors on high alert. China's tightly controlled state media carefully protects the reputation of its top government leaders, and the names of China's top leaders are frequently some of the most heavily censored terms on Chinese social media. In addition, the sweeping anti-corruption campaign Xi himself directs specifically targets infidelity as both a sign and a symptom of graft. And given China's growing economic and military ties with Russia, even the hint of less than squeaky-clean behavior involving Russia's president and China's First Lady is certainly strictly verboten.

[Viking]

In other news, Russian parties are not allowed to accept money from foreigners, or NGOs registered as foreign agents.

http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/759080

Russia introduces ban on financial support to political parties

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Russia's State Duma (lower house) on Tuesday approved an amendment to the president's draft law on responsibility for illegal financial support to political parties.

The amendment bans accepting contributions for political parties from NGOs registered as foreign agents.

The parties are banned from concluding deals with foreign citizens, international organizations and public movements, and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) registered as foreign agents. Penalties of up to $22,000 will be set up for violations in financial support to parties during elections.

Expect any NGO funding Putin's enemies to be registered as as a foreign agent.

While the principle of limiting the political process those eligible to vote is fine, but we know the Russian government has behaved towards civic society NGOs; going as far as to label anybody they don't like foreign agents. 

[CountDeMoney]

Though to be fair, Germany also doesn't allow donations to German parties by foreigners.

What an incredibly novel concept.

[Tonitrus]

Water Cube?  Is that like the Time Cube?

[Syt]

They're giving Western media too much credit in terms of coordination.

http://rt.com/politics/204827-ukraine-west-information-warfare/

'Ukraine, West wage information war against us' – Russians

The overwhelming majority of Russians think that Ukraine and Western nations are conducting a coordinated and hostile propaganda campaign against their country, a recent poll shows.

In the research conducted by pollsters the Levada Center in late October, 83 percent of respondents agreed that Ukraine was conducting an information war against Russia. Fifty-five percent said they were absolutely sure that this was true, and 29 percent said that this was the most likely explanation for the current situation. Only 8 percent of Russians disagreed with another 9 percent not offering an opinion.

A question concerning an anti-Russian information campaign by Western nations yielded approximately the same results – 54 percent of those interviewed were absolutely sure that it is taking place, and 29 percent said they were somewhat sure. Four percent answered that they could not see any anti-Russian campaign on the part of the West and 9 percent remained undecided.

At the same time, about a quarter of respondents think that Russia is also waging an information war against Ukraine and the West . Thirteen percent thought that this was the right thing to do, given the current situation, meanwhile 11 percent disapproved.

Fifty-nine percent of those polled think that the coverage of the conflict by Russian media was fully balanced and objective. 

In a different poll conducted by the VTSIOM agency in early October 32 percent of respondents said they considered Ukraine to be Russia's "enemy number one." The United States topped this anti-rating with 73 percent of Russians seeing it as the primary foe.

[KRonn]

Silly Russkies. The ones doing the propaganda and deception campaigns reside in their own government and it's controlled newspaper. How easily they've forgotten what it was like about twenty-five years ago. So I guess they can enjoy their new Overlords, and become assimilated into the hive... 

[Tamas]

Silly Russkies. The ones doing the propaganda and deception campaigns reside in their own government and it's controlled newspaper. How easily they've forgotten what it was like about twenty-five years ago. So I guess they can enjoy their new Overlords, and become assimilated into the hive... 

That's once again something I have been able to observe closely thanks to Orban's party: if they are accused of something nasty, or just doing something nasty, they go full throttle in attacking their enemy with the accusation of the enemy doing what they in fact are doing. Seems to be working great if you have a thick enough skin.

[Syt]

http://rt.com/news/204991-russia-aviation-gulf-mexico/

Russia to expand aviation patrol mission to Gulf of Mexico – defense minister

Russia plans to expand its air patrol missions of long-range aircrafts to cover the Gulf of Mexico, the country's defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, says. He added that military training will include flights along the Russian border and the Arctic Ocean.

READ MORE: Russian army beefs up Artic presence over Western threat

"In the current situation we have to maintain military presence in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, as well as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico," Shoigu said on Wednesday.

As part of the military training, long-range aircrafts will also fly along the Russian border and over the Arctic Ocean, the defense minister said.

This kind of expansion relies on the serviceability of aircrafts, Shoigu noted. "I approved a plan to improve the state of long-range aircrafts, including repair and serviceability."

The news follows an announcement at the end of October that Russia will be completing a network of radar stations in the Arctic by next year.

"The plan involves the building of 13 airfields, one land test range for the Air Forces, 10 radar sites and direction centers," said Lt. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center.

Shoigu added during the announcement that Russia will continue upgrading its foreign military bases as well.

Russia's plans come as NATO has stepped up its activities near the Russian border, including in the Black Sea and Baltic waters.

NATO has conducted five military exercises near the Russian border over the past six months, according to the head of the ministry's Department of International Cooperation, Sergey Koshelev.

READ MORE: NATO's Estonia drills are anti-Russian, don't make Europe more secure – Moscow

The latest example is NATO's so-called Trident Juncture exercise in Estonia, which started on November 9 and will run until November 17.

On top of the increased military activity, NATO asked the Pentagon a week ago to send more troops to Eastern Europe to counter the perceived Russian threat.

There are currently 750 US soldiers in Poland and the Baltic states, which the organization believes is not enough.

[Jacob]

Water Cube?  Is that like the Time Cube?

Isn't Water Cube some sort of rapper?