The State of Affairs in Russia

[jimmy olsen]

My scepticism is jumping off the charts with this one.

http://www.janes.com/article/51452/russia-developing-shtorm-supercarrier

Russia's Krylovsky State Research Center (KRSC) has developed a new multipurpose heavy aircraft carrier design called Project 23000E or Shtorm (Storm).

A scale model of the ship is going to be demonstrated for the first time at the International Maritime Defence Show 2015 in St Petersburg from 1-5 July, Valery Polyakov, the deputy director of KSC, told IHS Jane's .

"The Project 23000E multipurpose aircraft carrier is designed to conduct operations in remote and oceanic areas, engage land-based and sea-borne enemy targets, ensure the operational stability of naval forces, protect landing troops, and provide the anti-aircraft defence," Polyakov said.

The design has a displacement of 90-100,000 tons, is 330 m in length, 40 m wide, and has a draft of 11 m. It has a top speed of 30 kt, cruising speed of 20 kt, a 120-day endurance, a crew of 4-5,000, and designed to withstand sea state 6-7. Currently it has been designed with a conventional power plant, although this could be replaced by a nuclear one, according to potential customers' requirements.

The ship carries a powerful air group of 80-90 deck-based aircraft for various combat missions. The model features a split air wing comprising navalised T-50 PAKFAs and MiG-29Ks, as well as jet-powered naval early warning aircraft, and Ka-27 naval helicopters.

The carrier's flight deck is of a dual design, features an angled flight deck, and four launching positions: two via ski-jump ramps and two via electromagnetic catapults. One set of arrestor gear is included in the design. The design also features two islands; a feature only previously seen on the latest UK design.

Protection against air threats will be provided by four anti-aircraft missile system combat modules. An anti-torpedo armament suite is available.

The electronic support complex includes integrated sensors, including a multifunction phased array radar, electronic warfare system, and communications suite.

Polyakov pointed out that these specifications are subject to change, correction, and modification during the ship's design and development at every stage of work, once potential customers come up with a demand to change the weapons package and equipment.

[Syt]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/chechen-police-chief-marries-teen-bride-amid-mounting-scandal/520932.html

Chechen Police Chief Marries Teen Bride Amid Mounting Scandal



A Chechen district police chief was married Saturday to a 17-year-old local girl, weeks after reports that she was being forced to wed the already-married official sparked an uproar in Russia's media sphere.

The bride, identified as 17-year-old Kheda (Luiza) Goylabiyeva in reports, looked pale in video footage filmed at Grozny's civil registry, where she married Nazhud Guchigov, who is reportedly somewhere in his late forties to mid-fifties. Russian media initially reported that Guchigov was 57, before later claiming he was in fact 46.

The marriage has caused a stir among Russian media outlets, which Kadyrov has accused of inaccurately depicting the situation and meddling in the couple's private lives.

The scandal emerged late last month after investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that Goylabiyeva was being forced to marry a local official three times her age. According to the report, Guchigov had launched an intimidation campaign against Goylabiyeva's parents, giving them an ultimatum to surrender their daughter.

Guchigov initially denied the claims made in the Novaya Gazeta report, insisting that he was not planning to take a second wife.

Kadyrov said earlier this month he was upset that the story had been picked up by national media outlets, dismissing the republic's media and information minister for mismanaging the scandal.

"I am sure those who unceremoniously interfered for a long time in the private lives of Nazhud and Luiza will answer [for their actions] in court," Kadyrov wrote on Instagram Friday. "The appropriate actions are already being prepared."

Kadyrov posted Saturday a video of himself dancing at the wedding. The Chechen leader wrote that he had seen the stamps placed in the newlyweds' passports, a formality for married Russian couples. Yet under Russian federal law, second marriages — which are permissible in traditional practice for Chechen men — cannot be registered as official partnerships.

A reporter from the Kommersant newspaper claimed that the woman who registered the wedding at a civil registry strongly resembled Chechen journalist Asya Belova. The head of Kadyrov's administration, former Chechen militant Magomed Daurov, was also present in the room where the registration was taking place.

Kadyrov, who had taken to Instagram to invite any of his one million followers on the popular photo-sharing site to attend the wedding, insisted that all legal norms, religious practices and local traditions had been respected.

The Russian Civil Code states that 18 is the minimum age for marriage but contains clauses that allow for marriage at 16 in certain cases.

Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov sparked a scandal last week by coming out in favor of the right of older men to marry teen brides.

"Emancipation and sexual maturity come earlier in the Caucasus, let's not be hypocritical. There are places where women are already shriveled by the age of 27, and look about 50 to us," Astakhov told Russian News Service radio on Thursday.

He later apologized in an Instagram post, saying that women of any age were "wonderful and delightful."

Earlier this month, he said that he could not confirm that the 17-year-old bride's rights had been violated by virtue of the marriage, which at that point had not yet happened, according to Russian media reports. He then lauded Kadyrov for his role in reducing the number of early marriages in Chechnya.

[Valmy]

Putin continuing his superman shtick.  Scores 8 goals in a hockey game that included former NHL players.   http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2466982-vladimir-putin-scores-8-goals-during-hockey-game-with-former-nhl-players

Of course all those former NHL players were all over 90. The 1947 Toronto Maple Leafs were humiliated.

He later apologized in an Instagram post, saying that women of any age were "wonderful and delightful."

Yeah that makes it better.

[Syt]

The Russian media campaign seems to be working?

[Admiral Yi]

I doubt it.

[Syt]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/news/article/putin-calls-for-purer-russian-language-free-of-foreign-derived-words/521770.html

Putin Calls for Purer Russian Language, Free of Foreign-Derived Words

President Vladimir Putin advocated the preservation of the Russian language on Tuesday, criticizing the use of foreign-based words online and on television.

Speaking at a joint meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations and the Council for Russian Language, Putin said that there are evident problems in the overall state of the Russian language.

He urged the imperative of striking a "balance between preserving traditional values and identity on the one hand and avoiding isolation from the global cultural processes on the other."

The overall language environment "is now formed primarily by the media, the Internet and television, where language norms and elementary grammar rules are being ignored ever more frequently and linguistic borrowings from other languages are used excessively, often without any obvious need," Putin told several dozen government officials, writers and education managers, who participated in the meeting.

In order to improve the situation, the government has launched a number of initiatives, including by declaring this year Russia's Year of Literature.

In an obvious referral to Ukraine and the Baltic states, Putin said that "other countries ... ignore or limit the right of significantly large ethnic groups to use their native language, [in order] to conduct a tough, aggressive policy of linguistic and cultural assimilation."

"We see what this may lead to: the division of society into 'full-fledged' citizens and 'inferior' ones, into 'citizens' and 'non-citizens' and even to outright tragic internal conflicts," Putin warned.

According to Putin, Russia is home to 193 ethnic groups and nationalities that speak almost 300 languages and dialects. Despite the country's linguistic diversity, more than 96 percent of people in Russia speak Russian, he said.

Many Russian regions have several state languages. Putin specifically mentioned the republic of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last year and since then has had three official state languages — Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar.

Russia will spend 20.5 million rubles to educate 1,500 Russian language teachers in Crimea, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

I wonder if that means eliminating a whole metric ton of German loan words (mostly in engineering) that Russia adopted in the past few centuries.

Also: Russian leadership flummoxed that language is not static and evolves in daily life. Film at 11.

[Solmyr]

How about a fuckton of French words that've been there since the 18th century?

[garbon]

How about a fuckton of French words that've been there since the 18th century?

Well this is a rather French-like move.

[Duque de Bragança]

How about a fuckton of French words that've been there since the 18th century?

War and Peace has not been read in the original Russian by a lot of people in this forum.

[Syt]

Getting a German translation of War and Peace that leaves the French parts intact is difficult, and AFAIK only the translation by Werner Bergengrün left them in.



Meanwhile:

http://rt.com/politics/260301-ruma-foreign-undesirable-organizations/

Duma passes bill allowing expulsion of undesirable foreign organizations

Russia's lower house has given final approval to a bill that, once signed into law, will prohibit the activities of foreign groups if prosecutors recognize them as threatening to Russia's security or defense potential.

The bill was drafted jointly by two opposition MPs – Aleksandr Tarnavsky of the Fair Russia party and Anton Ishchenko of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. Formally it is a set of amendments to the 2012 Federal law 'On measures of influence on persons involved in violation of basic rights and freedoms of Russian citizens'.

The fresh draft charges the Prosecutor General's Office with the task of creating an official list of "undesirable foreign organizations" and outlaw their activities in the country. For this, prosecutors must consult with the Foreign Ministry and the complete list must be made public by the Justice Ministry. The main criterion for putting a foreign or international NGO on the list is "the threat to the Constitutional order and the defense capability or security of the Russian State."

Once the group is recognized as undesirable all its assets in Russia must be frozen, offices closed and distribution of any of its information materials must be banned.

If the group chooses to continue its activities in Russia despite the bans the law orders to impose administrative fines on those who continue to work with it. Private persons can be fined between 5,000 and 15,000 rubles ($1000-$3000), officials will pay between 20,000 and 50,000 rubles and companies will face fines between 50,000 and 100,000 rubles.

Heads of such defiant NGOs will face criminal prosecution and fines of between 300,000 and 500,000 rubles or up to six years behind bars. Ordinary staff members who continue to work for an undesirable group despite being brought to administrative responsibility twice within 12 months with face similar criminal responsibility.

The bill has already raised a wave of criticism among foreign NGOs and Russian rights community. Mass media reported that when interpreted broadly the new rules could oust all major rights organizations from Russia – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others. HRW already called the bill "strangling" and "a draconic advance on civil society" in an official release.

The chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov described the new bill as "exotic" and said that many foreign groups were "shocked" by it.

The sponsors of the bill, however, have repeatedly denied that it was prepared against some particular groups and described it as more of preventive measure .

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the new bill on Tuesday evening, adding that Vladimir Putin would consider the document when it is officially submitted to him for signing.

"We never present any preliminary position," Peskov told reporters.

The new bill can be seen in line with the 'Foreign Agents Law' introduced in Russia in late 2012. According to that act, all NGOs who receive funding from abroad, and that are even partially engaged in political activities, must register as foreign agents or risk substantial fines.

In November, last year the Foreign Agents Law was expanded with a bill that makes it illegal for Russian political parties to receive sponsorship, or enter any business deals with NGOs with 'foreign agent' status.

[Valmy]

And Russia continues its efforts to reject the model of both the liberal west and the Chinese and adopt the North Korean model.

[Valmy]

How about a fuckton of French words that've been there since the 18th century?

Well this is a rather French-like move.

I was about to say

[Duque de Bragança]

Getting a German translation of War and Peace that leaves the French parts intact is difficult, and AFAIK only the translation by Werner Bergengrün left them in.

Wow. If, true never expected German literary translation to be as bad as (German) dubbing.
Kudos for Werner though.

PS: German wikipedia page for War and Peace says otherwise.

[Syt]

Take the opening:

Еh bien, mon prince. Genes et Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des поместья, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous previens, que si vous ne me dites pas, que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocites de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j'y crois) -- je ne vous connais plus, vous n'etes plus mon ami, vous n'etes plus мой верный раб, comme vous dites.

Most German translations I've seen leave "Eh bien, mon prince" and then translate the rest into German. I do stand corrected, though, that Bergengrün's translation was the only one to do it right, but it was the one most easily available (though I could only get a hardcover version through Abebooks).

[Syt]

Well, Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov has the solution to the polygamy scandal in his province, following a call from the Russian Human Rights Council to investigate the situation of forced/multiple marriages in Chechnya:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/news/article/amid-heightened-scrutiny-kadyrov-urges-chechen-men-to-lock-up-their-wives/521903.html

Following the wedding, Kadyrov — who himself attended the controversial reception — lashed out over the jokes and gossip that had apparently become pervasive on popular instant messaging application WhatsApp since the wedding.

During a television address, Kadyrov urged men to stop the cycle of banter by keeping their women under lock and key.

"Lock them in, do not let them go out, then they will not post anything," Kadyrov — speaking in Chechen — instructed the men among his viewers, according to the BBC. "Behave like Chechens. The family honor is the most important thing," he implored them.

In case merely locking the women up fails to do the trick, Kadyrov took it up a notch by then instructing the men to "take your women out of WhatsApp," according to the BBC.