The Real Russia. Today.
Vladimir Putin’s COP26 out
Friday, November 5, 2021
- Newly released from prison, Vladislav Mordasov wants to put his time ‘on the inside’ to use
- Moscow is now home to nine Michelin-star restaurants — but local foodies take the guide’s recommendations with a grain of salt
- Former news anchor and television announcer Igor Kirillov is dead. He was a media icon to Russians for decades.
- Opinion: Sergey Mikhailov on Putin’s G20/COP26 failure, Andrey Pertsev explains where the Kremlin went wrong with Valery Rashkin, and Vladimir Borsobin is sick of old prudes
- News brief: bad news for Yukos shareholders
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Feature stories
✊ ‘I wasn’t an activist before that day’ (8-min read)
Four years ago, Vladislav Mordasov picked the wrong day to go out and protest. Then 21-years-old, he and his friend — 18-year-old Yan Sidorov — took to the square outside of the regional government building in Rostov-on-Don, carrying posters demanding support for local residents who had lost their homes to a major fire. The activists were arrested and later accused of helping “Artpodgotovka,” a banned movement led by exiled nationalist politician Vyacheslav Maltsev, to orchestrate the so-called “November 5 Revolution.”
Both Mordasov and Sidorov initially pleaded guilty, but they later stated that they confessed under torture. The two were nevertheless convicted and sentenced to 6.5 years in maximum-security prison colonies. The Russian Supreme Court later reduced their sentences to three years. Both Mordasov and Sidorov were released on Wednesday, November 3. At Meduza’s request, journalist Gleb Golod, who covered the “Rostov Case,” spoke to Mordasov about his time in prison and plans for the future.
🧑🍳 A matter of taste (10-min read)
Russia’s gastronomic world was shaken in mid-October when the renowned Michelin Guide awarded Michelin stars to several Moscow restaurants for the first time ever. It was a long time coming for the country’s gourmands, who have hoped for the Michelin Guide’s recognition for more than two decades. Seven restaurants received one star while two others received two stars, but no establishment received the coveted three-star distinction. In total, 69 Moscow eateries received a mention in this year’s Michelin Guide. For Meduza, food reporter Anton Obrezchikov breaks down who received stars, how they earned them, and why some people are critical of the whole affair.
📺 The Soviet people’s shrink (5-min read)
Legendary Soviet news anchor Igor Kirillov died in Moscow on October 30. He was 89 years old. For more than two decades, Kirillov hosted Vremya — a nightly news program viewed religiously throughout the entire USSR — and in doing so became a Soviet institution. Like hundreds of millions of others, journalist Ekaterina Barabash experienced Kirillov live and on the air. At Meduza’s request, she reflects on the man and his broadcasts.
Opinion and analysis
🕊️ Putin’s failure as a world leader
In an article for Republic, columnist Sergey Mikhailov says Vladimir Putin’s (remotely delivered) speeches to the G20 Rome summit and the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow suggest that Russia’s president either doesn’t grasp today’s global agenda or deliberately ignores it for the sake of signaling strength at home. Putin’s remarks about the coronavirus pandemic and world economy comprised mainly complaints about rising inflation, budget deficits, and “political obstacles” to international licensing for Russia’s vaccines. Putin conspicuously didn’t say a word about the G20’s agreement to impose a minimum tax on global corporations of 15 percent, starting in 2023.
Mikhailov acknowledges the issue of inflation but says it’s the natural consequence of massive spending by many Western states to shore up the economy during the slowdown caused by the pandemic. “Russia famously demonstrated, let’s say, a certain stinginess towards its own citizens, preferring to accumulate foreign exchange reserves. It’s a bit strange to point to rising inflation and criticize those who made a fundamentally different choice […],” argues Mikhailov. “Putin basically presented a formal report to the world, indicating that everything’s good with Russia, though it could be even better, were it not for underhanded scheming by the country’s foes.” This unwillingness or inability to think bigger, says Mikhailov, is Putin’s failure as a world leader.
🦌 How the Kremlin outsmarted itself
In an article for Republic, journalist and political analyst Andrey Pertsev argues that the Kremlin’s apparent attempt to smear Communist Party State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin has backfired. Last week, Rashkin ran into trouble with the police after they pulled him over for drunk driving and found a large amount of elk meat in his car. He claims to have found the animal’s remains, but detectives are investigating him for illegal hunting — a felony offense. Television networks featured the story at the top of news broadcasts, but the public response was muted. Most people see the media campaign for what it is, says Pertsev: an effort to discredit the Communist Party’s most oppositionist voice and Gennady Zyuganov’s potential successor. Pertsev points out that Rashkin wasn’t always a politician know for challenging the establishment (though he notes that Rashkin still plays by the system’s most important rules, such as zero tolerance for Alexey Navalny). When Vladislav Surkov still curated domestic politics, Rashkin even acted on Kremlin orders and dislodged his predecessor, Vladimir Upas, who was beginning to flirt with the liberal opposition.
Pertsev says the authorities have exhausted the damage wrought by most corruption allegations (Russians understand that virtually anyone in power can be accused plausibly), which has necessitated the search for other sins that might derail rising political stars. Rashkin isn’t the first to be charged with harming animals: another KPRF member, Irkutsk Governor Sergey Levchenko, saw his reputation crash after the release of footage showing him killing a hibernating bear. Rashkin seems to be weathering his scandal much better, however. The authorities may have even outsmarted themselves, promoting the elk story about Rashkin and inadvertently boosting his popularity. Though he’s drunk in the video that aired on television, his modest living standards are evident from his Lada vehicle and ordinary clothes. According to Pertsev, many Russians seem to be thinking, “If all they could dig up on him was illegal hunting and supposedly drunk driving, he ought to be canonized on the spot.”
🍑 A nation of graying prudes
In an article for Komsomolskaya Pravda, columnist Vladimir Borsobin says the recent backlash to women exposing bits of themselves outside houses of worship and state buildings is an overreaction and evidence that Russian society and the Russian authorities have grown too old and crotchety. The former has transformed into “that old woman at the intersection who shouts gleefully, ‘prostitutes!’ ‘junkies!’ and ‘they should all be locked up!’” Russia’s state officials, meanwhile, have “lost any self-irony, sense of humor, and youthful interest in freedom and beauty.” Borsobin says only young “aesthetes” seem to be capable of laughing at the absurdity of the semi-nude photos and (most importantly for him, it seems) debating the “size and shape” of the body parts on display. Demographics doom the nation to more social conservativism, he says. Before long, Russia will return to the days of “we don’t have sex.”
The news in brief
- ⚖️ Dutch Supreme Court overturns $50-billion award to former Yukos shareholders, kicks case to lower court (the lower appellate court ignored Russia’s claim that Yukos shareholders committed fraud in the arbitration procedure)
Yours, Meduza