This week, Yury Barmin writes for Carnegie Moscow Center that the Egypt plane crash has put the Kremlin in an awkward position, leaving it unsure how to act. Also, Anna Borshchevskaya in Forbes examines the narcotic effect of Russian propaganda, and posits that a new fix may be needed once the effect of the Syria war wears off.
Russia's Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov at the site of the crash of Metrojet Airbus A321 (Sinai Peninsula, Egypt). Photo: Maxim Grigoryev / TASS.
The Kremlin and the Crash: Putin’s Dilemma
Yury Barmin, Carnegie Moscow Center
The mysterious circumstances surrounding the crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt put the Kremlin in an awkward position. Terrorism now appears to be the likely cause, but Putin still seems unsure how to act. Could Putin use the incident to rally support for a more robust military campaign in Syria?
Russians Dodge a Bullet: How Young Russian Men Avoid the Draft
Elisabeth Braw, Foreign Affairs
Many young Russian men seek to avoid the draft, including by entering university or graduate school. The result is more highly educated Russian men, but fewer professional soldiers, forcing the armed forces to seek better ways of attracting servicemen. Braw provides insight into the scale of draft-dodging and the motives behind pursuing doctoral studies to avoid entering the military.
Doping Shows Russia Is Rotten, but Not Hopeless
Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View
The findings of the World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into Russia’s state-sponsored doping program support the idea that authoritarian regimes still crave sports victories to validate their legitimacy, says Bershidsky. But the report also gives hope that whistleblowers can effectively counter corruption.
Russia's Syria Propaganda
Anna Borshchevskaya, Forbes
Borshchevskaya compares Russia’s Ukraine propaganda with its more recent Syria propaganda, and argues that the Kremlin wants Russians to see a “painless, distant campaign” in the Middle East. The coverage of both conflicts has had a drug-like effect on the Russian public, bringing about either euphoria or a stupor. When the high of the Syria war wears off, will Putin have to find another fix for the masses?
The Dark Past of Putin's Media Chief
Andrei Soldatov & Irina Borogan, The Daily Beast
In a meeting between Putin and Internet entrepreneurs in 1999, the late Mikhail Lesin proposed a plan to effectively hand over ownership of the Russian Internet to the state. Though the idea was shot down at the time, the roots of the Kremlin’s current effort to control the World Wide Web can be traced back to that meeting, say Soldatov and Borogan.
