The Real Russia. Today. Thursday, April 24, 2024

The war in Ukraine

• 🚨 Murderous mayhem in occupied Kherson: The Russian authorities in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region have arrested two Russian soldiers reportedly suspected of murdering between four and seven people, including at least three local civilians, two fellow servicemen, and two Russian security officials. Among the civilian victims is reportedly the Moscow-appointed mayor of Abrykosivka. The two suspects in custody, Alexander Osipov and Alexander Kaygorodtsev, have reportedly confessed to the killings. Kaygorodtsev is a previously convicted murderer. The two soldiers also reportedly set fire to several homes in an attempt to destroy the evidence of their crimes.
• 🪖 Not so fast, Mr. Kholin: An official in the Samara governor’s office is being called back to the front in Ukraine after he resigned from the military in February 2024 to serve as one of the region’s lieutenant governors. Dmitry Kholin, who was drafted in October 2022 and led a combat training department 2nd Guards Combined Arms Army, has 48 hours to report for resumed duty after Defense Ministry officials determined that his resignation from the Armed Services was illegal.
• ⚖️ Another anti-war teenager sent to prison: A Russian military court has sentenced a 17-year-old high school student to 3.5 years in prison for supposedly inciting “terrorist and extremist activity.” Two other defendants in the same case, men ages 19 and 23, were sentenced to six years in prison and 18 months of penal labor, respectively. Lyubov Lizunova and Alexander Snezhkov were arrested in October 2022 for graffitiing the phrase “Death to the regime!” on a garage in Chita. They also allegedly administered two Telegram channels about anti-war protests, one of which supposedly published content endorsing arson attacks on military recruitment offices.

🧮 Russian soldiers have reportedly killed more than 100 people since returning from the war in Ukraine (2-min read)

Since the start of the full-scale war, Russian soldiers returning from Ukraine have killed at least 107 people and seriously injured at least 100 others, according to a new report from the independent news outlet Verstka. Using media reports and court records, journalists calculated that Russian soldiers committed 84 violent offenses. Fifty-five of these crimes (resulting in a total of 76 deaths) were prosecuted as murder, while 18 of them (for a total of 18 deaths) were prosecuted as acts causing grievous bodily harm. Soldiers’ traffic violations led to another 11 deaths, and soldiers inducing minors to consume drugs caused two children’s deaths.

🧠 Russian think tankers Nikolay Silaev and Fyodor Lukyanov discuss peace-talk challenges and the supposed diplomatic problem of Ukrainian agency

In an interview for Rossiya 24 earlier this week, MGIMO University researcher Nikolay Silaev and Russia in Global Affairs editor-in-chief Fyodor Lukyanov discussed possible diplomatic solutions in Ukraine. Lukyanov repeatedly cited a recent essay in Foreign Affairs by Samuel Charap and Sergey Radchenko about how negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv early in the war came closer than many believe to reaching a ceasefire. 

In the conversation, Lukyanov appeared to be more receptive to the idea that not all diplomatic “mechanisms” have been exhausted, repeating arguments from Charap and Radchenko that talks in 2022 were too focused on “global security” issues rather than the concrete, granular steps needed to cease the war. Silaev countered that the Minsk Accords that previously halted large-scale fighting in the Donbas were too granular and neglected the larger, overarching security issues (namely, European alignments, relations with NATO, and so on). Lukyanov and Silaev agreed that one challenge in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine has been that the negotiators themselves don’t always represent the actual decision-makers. Lukayanov argued that Ukraine’s Western allies are the ones really in control, while Moscow was, in fact, steering the policies of the so-called DNR and LNR. 

Silaev disputed the idea that Ukraine has no agency in peace talks, saying that the problem is instead that both sides wield influence and can “endlessly point fingers at each other,” complicating negotiations. However, Silaev’s acknowledgment of Ukrainian geopolitical agency is hardly flattering: in his view, the Ukrainian authorities’ will to act is based on an all-consuming pursuit of legitimacy in a national identity distinct from Russia. Echoing Vladimir Putin’s total rejection of Ukrainian nationhood, Silaev claims that Kyiv has embraced “Hitlerite collaborators” because it is supposedly the “only chapter” of Ukrainian history that is unrelated to Russia. Silaev says the Ukrainian authorities have resorted to “insane steps” to try to erase the country’s “polynuclearity,” particularly when it comes to Russian Orthodox Christians.

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Russian state policy

• 🛒 Enforcing local jurisdiction on Russia’s supermarket chains: A Moscow arbitration court has granted a request from the Industry and Trade Ministry to suspend the Dutch X5 Retail Group’s corporate rights to its Russian subsidiary, which owns and operates the popular supermarket chains “Pyaterochka,” “Perekrestok,” and “Chizhik.” In a press release on Thursday, X5 said the company’s stake in its Russian subsidiary will be transferred to the subsidiary itself, while shareholders will be offered proportionate stakes in the subsidiary (though only foreign holders and beneficiaries can accept or reject this). In March, the Russian government included X5 Retail Group on a list of “economically significant organizations” eligible for the suspension of foreigners’ corporate rights, in accordance with a law adopted in August 2023 to impose Russian jurisdiction on the country’s biggest businesses. With X5’s corporate rights suspended, its Russian companies can resume dividend payments to domestic shareholders (which stopped in 2022, due to Western sanctions). 
• 🛂 Moscow says it won’t follow Minsk and Kyiv in a consular shutdown: Russia’s Foreign Ministry denies a report by Novaya Gazeta that claims Moscow is discussing a temporary ban on consular and notary services abroad in a supposed effort to force expat Russians with expiring documents back home. Hundreds of thousands of Russians are believed to have fled the country since February 2022 without obtaining foreign residency documents and still rely on their Russian papers as their sole identification. Last year, Belarus suspended most consular services abroad, and Ukraine recently imposed similar restrictions on mobilization-eligible men. Agentstvo and Mediazona later reported that they’d received what appears to be the same “Foreign Ministry” document on which Novaya Gazeta based its report, but the two outlets declined to run with the story after determining that the document is likely a prank.
• 💰 Putin lists his terms for the nationalizations ahead: Vladimir Putin spoke at a forum on Thursday where he reiterated to the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs that he does not wish to relitigate the privatizations of the 1990s. Putin said security interests are what drive the nationalization of businesses today and warned that the “inaction” of some major enterprise owners threatens Russia. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the state has filed at least 55 lawsuits seeking the return of assets privatized decades ago. Recent rulings invalidating the 1990s-era privatizations of methanol producer Metafrax and the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant have reportedly worried business owners and created hope that Putin will endorse a new 10-year "statute of limitations" for privatizations.
• ☢️ The shifty diplomacy of no nukes in space: Russia vetoes U.N. resolution calling for no nuclear weapons in space

🎩 Russia revamps prison uniforms with fresh colors and more ‘practical’ options. See the new looks. (2-min read)

Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) has designed new outfits for inmates in the country’s prisons. In addition to modernizing the color schemes, the FSIN will now allow female prisoners to wear pajamas instead of nightgowns and give them real hats instead of headscarves. The Justice Ministry unveiled the new looks at a meeting attended by prison representatives and human rights activists.

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