LIVE UPDATES: Russia launched a missile from the Vostochny space center finally after several days of technical problems and the personal intervention of President Vladimir Putin who visited the site.
Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies.
The previous issue is here.
Recent Analysis and Translations:
– Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Has Invented A Version Of History To Meet His Needs
– Getting The News From Chechnya – The Crackdown On Free Press You May Have Missed
– Aurangzeb, Putin, Realism and a Lesson from History
– Why the World Should Care About the Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
UPDATES BELOW
The self-styled Russian National Liberation Movement (NOD) and Eurasian Youth Union (ESM) made a major physical attack on Memorial Society, the leading non-governmental organization devoted to researching the crimes of Stalin and their aftermath today, hitting renowned Russian writer Ludmila Ulitskaya and other prominent speakers as well as visiting provincial high-school students with eggs and zelyonka, an indelible green disinfectant. A reporter who asked why the activists were attacking students was punched, and ultimately police made one administrative arrest.
The attack, covered by the independent Riga-based news site Meduza, shows not only the increased activism of NOD, an extreme ultranationalist group headed by a United Russia party leader in the Duma, Yevgeny Fyodorov, who was also an avid supporter of Col. Igor Strelkov (Girkin) and the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic.” It also shows the involvement of ESM, an extremist movement associated with Aleksandr Dugin, who was fired from Moscow State University after a series of posts where he called for the killing of Ukrainians.
The incident indicates that activities related to criticism of the period of Russian history before 1988, which President Vladimir Putin appeared to acknowledge as an era when human rights violations were massive and could be criticized, are no longer safe. The official propagandistic glorification of World War II has now clashed with the reality of another strain of Russian history, the Stalin terror which in fact weakened Russia’s military and society before Hitler’s invasion.
The NOD and ESM activists appeared at noon in front of the Central House of Cinematographers, rented by Memorial Society for the event.
Почувствовать эпоху на себе: "Патриотические" активисты закидали яйцами детей, участвовавших в историческом конкурсе – Meduza
28 апреля в Москве активисты "Национально-освободительного движения" (НОД) и "Евразийского союза молодежи" напали на участников школьного исторического конкурса, который проводит правозащитное общество "Мемориал". Они облили зеленкой и закидали яйцами писательницу Людмилу Улицкую и детей, приехавших на награждение из российских регионов. Спецкор "Медузы" Даниил Туровский рассказывает о случившемся.
Frightened, the students ran into the building and the adults called the police. The activists then fled the scene.
“We are driving out demons from these Jewish children. These children have been brainwashed, they aren’t normal, and they need to be cured.”
“We are here because in all the works of the school-children, the accent is made not on the victory, but on the history of totalitarianism.”
Sokolov noted that the awards ceremony was taking place “in a difficult time of history” when the “mythologizing” about World War II was becoming a key theme for the authorities:
“That’s why it is very important to recall the private memory and history so as not to get carried away with adventures. Recollection is a therapeutic action.”
This is not our face, this is not our mug. It is a pimple that we will expunge sooner or later. And for you, it is baptism by fire. Truth makes us free, but lonely and puts us in the ranks of the minorities.”
“I feel pity and embarrassment, and awkwardness due to them. Thank God, they didn’t spray sulfuric acid.”
The man who had sprayed the zelyonka on Ulitskaya and several others were arrested this evening.
Translation: The man who sprayed zelyonka on Ulitskaya and other Memorial guests has been arrested in Moscow.
Police told Interfax that the assailant was charged with “petty hooliganism” under the administrative code.
Elena Zhemkova, executive director of Memorial Society, said about 25 attackers appeared with posters and shouted that the event participants were “fascists” and “traitors”. They sprayed the disinfectant and alcohol, and one Norwegian citizen present suffered an eye injury and ruined suit.
Anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny said on his blog site today that at the exact same time as the Memorial attack, unidentified persons caught him entering his office and sprayed some “blue chemical fluid” on him, and said “this was a coordinated action.”
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
The lower house of the French parliament, the National Assembly, has voted to drop sanctions against Russia.
Translation: Adoption of the resolution on the lifting of sanctions against Russia. Voted: 101. Majority: 50. Four: 55. Against: 44. 2 Abstentions.
Le Figaro reports that the victory for the instigators of the vote, led by the opposition Républicains, was aided by a poor showing from the governing Socialists, many of whose deputies were absent from the chamber.
Thierry Mariani, a deputy in Les Républicains, said that he believed that many Socialist deputies had “voted with their feet” by abstaining rather than voting against their party’s position.
Mariani angered both the French and Ukrainian governments in July last year when he led a delegation of politicians, most of them from his party, to Russian-occupied Crimea.
Also supporting today’s resolution were two Socialist deputies – Jean-Paul Dupré and Marie-Françoise Bechtel; François Asensi of le Front de Gauche; and the two Front National deputies – Marion Maréchal-Le Pen and Gilbert Collard.
Mariani told Le Figaro that the result was “totally un-hoped-for.”
Christian Jacob, the president of Les Républicains in the Assembly, said in a statement that the resolution provided an “opportunity for the government to reorient their policy regarding Russia.”
But Le Monde says that the result “will probably not change much but, symbolically, it is a great victory for the right.”
As the report explains, the resolution is non-binding and passed by only a small margin.
The French Foreign Ministry responded to the resolution promptly by restating the position of the French government with regards to sanctions – that they are linked to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements on the Ukraine conflict.
— Pierre Vaux
The ruble exchange rate to the dollar is 65.16, and to the euro 73.99. The price of Brent crude is at 46.97.
The following headlines were taken from 7:40 na Perrone, Slon, Interfax, Meduza, RosBalt, and Novaya Gazeta.
– First Rocket Launch From Vostochny After Several Delays; History of Problems at Vostochny
– Putin Calls First Launch of Soyuz-2.1a ‘Significant Step’ in Development of Space Program
– Sergei Ivanov Say Flight to Moon May Be Made From Vostochny
– Can Nord Stream 2 Be Stopped?