Monthly Archives: July 2017

George Orwell’s “Hate Week” on Russian TV

Angus Roxburgh is a British distinguished foreign correspondent. He knows Russia well: in the 1980s, he was the Sunday Times Moscow correspondent until he was expelled from the Soviet Union accused of espionage; in the 1990s, he was back to Moscow as the BBC’s Moscow correspondent. Later he worked as an advisor and speechwriter for Putin’s communications team. His knowledge… Read More »

Academy of Science Independence Imperiled

On June 9, 2017, a group of academicians and correspondent members published an open letter appealing to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chairwoman of the Federal Council (upper chamber of the Russian Parliament) Valentina Matvienko, and Speaker of the Duma (lower chamber of the Parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin. In the letter, scientists described problems with the draft of… Read More »

Power of the Siloviks Widens

On July 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that expands the Federal Security Service (FSO) powers. The draft of the law was introduced in February of 2017 to the State Duma by Putin himself. Now the FSO is able to classify information about the property of the highest state officials. The text of the law is… Read More »

Russian Poverty Statistics

On June 29, 2017, the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) presented data of a poll on Russian consumers’ opportunities. VTsIOM is the state-owned and government-run institution that reports to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The poll was made on May 25-29, 2017 in 130 towns, cities and settlements of 52 Russian regions and included 1,600… Read More »