Eastern Radar #8
Bankruptcy of a Belarusian oligarch, protests through the eyes of Russia’s TV channels, secret police in Soviet industries and more
Beeps
Good day everyone! All eyes on Russia and Navalny this week, though the two podcasts I want to recommend in this issue aren’t about that at all: Pushkin’s house Ada Wordsworth talks to two young Russians in the LGBT+ community about coming out in Russia, and historian Steven Seegel interviews Kathryn Ciancia about her latest book, “On Civilization's Edge: A Polish Borderland in the Interwar World” and the Polish nation-building effort in what is now Western Ukraine.
And here are a few news reports you (probably) missed:
🪓 North Korea is preparing to send around 10,000 loggers to Russia next month, anonymous sources told South Korea-based media “Daily NK.”
✈️ Ukraine is still servicing 53 An-26 planes, some of which are almost 50 years old.
🦢 The 185 cranes that suddenly died earlier this year in Ukraine’s Askania-Nova were most likely poisoned, according to the head of the State service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
🏭 A businessman in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region was sentenced to a 25,000 rubles ($300) fine for air pollution, reportedly the first such sentence in the region.
Under the Radar
Gelendzhik without aqua disco: near “Putin’s Palace,” the town with almost no running water [RU]
Anya Begiashvili | TJournal | January 22
Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation released on January 19 an investigation about a palace allegedly built for Vladimir Putin at a 100 billion rubles price tag. The residence is located in the Krasnodar region, near Gelendzhik, a resort town where, for years, people have dealt with water shortages. In the last few years, population growth and the creation of new districts led to a 60% rise in the demand of water though, according to locals, water supply issues have plagued the town since Soviet times.
Nikolay Vitovt | Zautra | January 21
On January 21, court proceedings kicked off to declare the bankruptcy of “Triple,” one of the most famous Belarusian private holdings of the past 30 years. With dozens of companies and nearly 10,000 employees at its peak, Triple remained one of the most powerful financial and industrial groups in Belarus, an empire with oligarch and once-friend of Lukashenko Yuri Chizh at its helm. “Your Country’s Tomorrow” looks at the fate of 12 of Triple’s most well-known companies.
What Saint Petersburg and federal TV channels said about the protests [RU]
Venera Galeeva | Fontanka | January 24
A Navalny opponent beat by protesters, National Guard troops with tea and cookies, and schoolgirl Kristina from Krasnoyarsk: Fontanka takes a look at the protests through the eyes of colleagues from the federal and Saint Petersburg TV channels.
The state TV channel “Rossiya 24” has an exclusive: one of the slogans targeted at the police was “you live thanks to our taxes.” A journalist then comes up to one of the protesters in the crowd and asks “where do you work?” “I’m unemployed,” the man answers, “and I’m speaking for everyone here.” Meanwhile, on the Saint Petersburg TV channel “78 Kanal” and in contrast with what happens on federal channels, the news bulletin opens with reports that “the city center was crowded.” The fable goes a little something like this: police promptly detained provocateurs, a few metro stations changed their schedule, and law enforcement arrested an alleged protester who was illegally wearing a uniform of the National Guard.
Research, Culture & General Nerdistry
‘Vigilante Shows’ and Law Enforcement in Russia 🔒
Gilles Favarel-Garrigues | Europe-Asia Studies | January 2021
Moral entrepreneurs who volunteer to enforce rules by themselves have spread in 2010s Russia. As ‘rule enforcers’ they patrol the streets to catch offenders. Some of these enforcers have conflictual relations with the police, while others operate in cooperation with it. This essay describes the development of vigilante justice in contemporary Russia. Two particularities of the Russian case are striking. First, the activities of several citizen policing initiatives are in fact recorded and posted on YouTube and VKontakte, where they reach a large audience, generating support for their activities and, in particular, for the leaders of such groups. Second, the development of these groups is not the simple outcome of a powerless state failing to maintain order or to fight crime. The essay will reveal how these new forms of policing contribute, paradoxically, to the strengthening of state authority.
Sophie Pinkham | New Left Review | September 2020
How should the DAU project be assessed? There is nothing novel in Khrzhanovsky’s turn to the Soviet past: this is one of the most popular subjects for Russian filmmakers and has been since perestroika. The international appeal of DAU lies rather in its grandiose scale and mysterious, scandalous nature. It sets out to capitalize on the enduring, sordid mystique of the worst aspects of the Soviet Union, enhanced by (supposedly) meticulous replication, which is in turn legitimated by the notion of Romantic genius and the transvaluation of values that permits.
Evgenia Lezina | Securitas Imperii | Winter 2020
Soviet state security agencies issued career-affecting security clearances for people allowed to access secret works and documents. The secret police had a double presence in Soviet industrial enterprises and institutions. On the one hand, it was active and ever-present through operational agent activity or – as it was officially termed – counterintelligence servicing or protection of an object. Simultaneously, it served as a principal organizer and guardian of the secrecy regime, which included issuing security clearances.
This paper will address the two interlocking roles of the secret police and their development for a period of about thirty years, from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. After outlining the major contours of the secrecy regime and its origins, I will explore how the union-level regulations were implemented by the KGB’s territorial bodies. Finally, this study’s emphasis will be on the personnel security screening procedure and its costs, meanings, and outcome. The concluding part will address the regime of secrecy’s social effects and the burdens it placed on the Soviet system