The Real Russia. Today.
Russia plans major merger of rainy-day funds; Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo have a decision to make; and Moscow says it knows what to do with Central Asian migrants
Finance and economics
A major merger of Russian state funds. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced on Friday that Moscow plans to merge the National Welfare Fund and the Reserve Fund, though the timetable for this change remains unclear. Siluanov first announced the Finance Ministry’s proposal to the government on June 19. Story in English
Context: The National Welfare Fund and the Reserve Fund were created in 2008 using oil and gas revenue. The Russian government annually replenishes the Reserve Fund with a specified amount of money and transfers the remaining oil and gas revenues (if there are any) to the National Welfare Fund.
Sistema reportedly in talks to sell power grid asset. Russia’s power grid monopoly Federal Grid Company says it’s negotiating to buy Bashkortostan Power Grid Company, recently frozen in a oligarch battle that is casting a shadow over Russia’s equity market. On Monday, a court froze Sistema‘s 90.47 percent stake in the power grid firm as part of a lawsuit filed against it by Rosneft, the world’s largest publicly listed oil producer, alleging it stripped assets during its ownership of oil company Bashneft. Story by Financial Times
Russia and the world
Your direct flights to Moscow are in peril. Heightened security measures by the United States will affect two Moscow airports that currently offer direct flights between Russia and the U.S.: Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo. According to the news agency TASS, American officials have informed the two airports that they have three weeks to conform to the new U.S. regulations, or they could lose access to direct flights to American cities. The United States is asking 280 airports in 105 countries around the world to improve passenger screening and implement new inspection procedures regarding personal electronic devices. Story in English
“I thought nothing in Russia could shock me. Then I went to a television broadcast.” “Back in Moscow we were invited by Anatoly Kuzichev, the host of a political talk show, to sit in the studio during a live broadcast on state television’s Channel One. Nominally the topic under discussion was the anniversary of Hitler’s invasion of the USSR on 22 June 1941 — but this was just a pretext for a hate session against Ukraine, Poland, and anyone who dared to criticize Russia,” writes Angus Roxburgh in a new op-ed for The Guardian. Read it here
Global “NotPeta” computer worm really a smokescreen to sneak malware into Ukraine? The primary target of a crippling computer virus that spread from Ukraine across the world this week is highly likely to have been that country's computer infrastructure, a top Ukrainian police official told Reuters on Thursday. Story in English
Moscow wants to resettle its Central Asian immigrants in the east. Russia’s Interior Ministry has prepared a new three-year plan on immigration policy that includes measures to encourage the resettlement of immigrants in the Far East and Baikal regions. The project, initiated by a presidential order, cites the regions’ labor shortages and demographic decline as reasons for redirecting more people eastward. The Interior Ministry also wants to invest new resources in Russia’s infrastructure for integrating immigrants into Russian society, including the creation of a special television network designed to educate new arrivals. Story in English
Also in the news
- Russian atheists, watch your backs. Television host Vladimir Pozner announced on Friday that he still hasn’t received an answer from Russian officials about whether atheism is considered a crime. In May, appearing on national TV, he posed the question directly to President Putin, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, and Constitutional Court Chairman Valery Zorkin. Story in English
- Context: Pozner asked about prosecuting atheists after a court in Yekaterinburg gave blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky a 3.5-year suspended sentence for offending religious sentiments, inciting hatred, and trading in illegal spy equipment (owning a recorder pen). Sokolovsky got into trouble after filming himself playing Pokemon Go inside a cathedral.
- Problems for Yekaterinburg’s maverick mayor. Russian Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova says she has “many questions” about political party Yabloko’s nomination of Yekaterinburg Mayor Evgeny Roizman for the governor’s race in Sverdlovsk. Pamfilova has reportedly appealed to Yabloko’s leaders, asking them to correct several procedural violations and formally re-nominate Roizman before it’s too late. Story in English
- Context: Officials in Sverdlovsk have reportedly complained that Yabloko violated election statutes by nominating Roizman at the party’s federal level, though regulations require this decision to be made by a party’s regional body. Yabloko ran into trouble at this level, when the party’s Sverdlovsk branch chairman, Yuri Pereverzev, resigned his post and left the party in protest against Roizman’s nomination.
Yours, Meduza