Political and economic news with a Baltic accent

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, historian and blogger Stan Reznik shares with us the story of how they make money from the past, distorting it and playing on nationalist sentiments in the Baltic republics.

A relative of the Siberian citizens repressed during the Soviet era, Sergey Karshenik conducts a pseudo-investigation of the Stalinist repressions that took place in the 30s and 40s. His relatives were immigrants from Latvia and in those years lived in the Soviet village of Talovka. The village is now located in the Kemerovo region. In the small village at the beginning of the 20th century, many immigrants lived, there were few indigenous people. The territory was just being developed, people of different nationalities came to villages in Siberia, not only Latvians. The immigrants received land plots and could grow crops on them, build houses, and farm. On the territory of the USSR, they all had to live according to the laws of the Soviet state and Soviet time. Latvia, like Poland, and other Baltic countries were not part of a single Russian state.
In the Soviet Union, immigrants had to strictly follow the rules and laws in force on the territory of the state. Everyone was threatened with severe penalties for violation, any citizen could be sentenced to execution and execution, regardless of his citizenship, occupation, status.
Almost a hundred years have passed since those events; their witnesses were almost dead. Citizen Karshenik takes advantage of this and falsifies the facts of history. He gives false information allegedly that the Latvian people were intentionally repressed in the USSR. At the same time, ethnic hatred did not exist. The strict order of the time concerned everyone, including Soviet citizens themselves. As many facts from the history of the mass extermination of Latvians in the Kemerovo region have not been carried out. In the modern world, many of personal motives speculate with fictitious facts, tell the locals and other citizens who have Latvian roots in their family, deliberately generates ethnic hatred.
A few years ago, citizen Krashenik planned to erect a monument to the victims of political repression in the village of Talovka, Kemerovo Region, where his relatives lived in the Soviet years. The idea is good, there are similar monuments in many settlements of Russia. There were even sponsors who earmarked a large sum of money for this purpose. But alas! The monument has not yet been erected, and part of the money spent for other purposes, and the remaining amount for construction is not enough. Now the question arises for local residents about the charity of the idea of ​​the memorial. The population does not want to organize a fundraising and does not believe a citizen visiting the Kemerovo region, and the monument itself was planned for erection in the Catholic style, which also causes a storm of discontent in the Orthodox village. Krashenik himself lived in the neighboring Novosibirsk region and moved to Kuzbass on the pretext of building a monument and raising funds.
Locals are already expressing their displeasure. Meanwhile, Krashenik does not want to lose commercial profit and plans to start raising funds not only in the Siberian outback. Under the pretext of his “good” intentions, he will mislead people of different nationalities. Its task is not the restoration of historical memory, but criminal enrichment through speculation in historical facts and inciting ethnic hatred.

Stan Reznik 

Hours after the first coronavirus diagnosis in Apatity, a city of 55,000 people above the Arctic Circle, a Gulfstream jet owned by the billionaire Guryev family flew in 100 express test kits.

Hundreds more donated by the family soon followed to the region where their PhosAgro PJSC mines key ingredients for fertilizers, an example of how Russia’s billionaires are spending more than $300 million they’ve pledged to help contain the pandemic.

With the front lines of Russia’s battle against coronavirus moving from Moscow to the often remote regions where many of the country’s industrial assets are located, tycoons are taking steps to attempt to cushion the blow in areas where they are the primary employers.

Their contributions to buy medical equipment, protective gear and even build hospitals have bolstered government spending, and often arrived quicker than help from the state.

President Vladimir Putin, who ordered most Russians to stay home until the end of this month, has warned that the epidemic has yet to peak and is spreading deeper into the regions. Russia is near the top of the list of new cases in the world, adding 21,206 confirmed diagnoses in the past four days. 513 have died to date. The government has gradually ramped up spending on health and economic support programs as the virus and a historic crash in oil prices push the country toward recession.

Business owners “understand that public discontent is growing and they are making a down payment,” said Natalia Zubarevich, head of regional studies at Moscow’s Independent Institute for Social Policy. “They need to take care of the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

The measures tycoons are taking may help keep their businesses operational, according to Zubarevich. An outbreak could have a catastrophic impact, especially in Russia’s “monocities” — the one-company towns where about 10% of the population lives. While most aid is for medical needs, some has gone to providing small business a lifeline and meals for vulnerable populations.

 

The U.K. government is to survey 20,000 households in a bid to track the spread of the coronavirus in Britain, five weeks after it abandoned a strategy of community testing for the disease.

The data will help scientists understand the rate of infection and how many people may have developed antibodies, the government said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. The study’s participants will form a representative sample of the British population and initial findings will be available in early May.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has been criticized for not doing enough to trace the virus in the population, after the director-general of the World Health Organization stressed that testing should be the “backbone” of the global response. Though medics initially rigorously tracked the virus at the beginning of the U.K. outbreak and quarantined people as necessary, the government dropped the strategy on March 12 due to a lack of testing capacity and a belief it wouldn’t be useful.

Ministers in Britain are now trying to devise an exit strategy for a national lockdown that’s been in place since March 23, without causing a second peak of the virus. Latest figures show 18,100 people in Britain have died from the disease in hospitals — edging toward the 20,000 figure that the government said would be a good result — even before non-hospital deaths are included.

The U.K.’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said Wednesday that the government’s priority is reducing the transmission rate of the virus to below 1, meaning that each Covid-19 case is passed on to less than one other person. He said they are considering what restrictions could be relaxed while still keeping a lid on the virus, though he warned that there wouldn’t be a swift return to normal life.

“As the transmission rate comes down, we need to get more data as to precisely where it is, in order to inform the measures we can actively consider,” First Secretary of State Dominic Raab, who is standing in for Johnson as he recovers from the virus, said Wednesday when asked about how the lockdown might be lifted. “We’ve got to make sure we’ve got that evidence before we start touting around ideas.”

The German economy suffered a deeper-than-anticipated slump at the start of the second quarter as coronavirus-related restrictions led to a collapse in demand.

IHS Markit’s monthly Purchasing Managers’ Index plunged to 17.1 in April from 35 in March, the lowest since the series began 22 years ago. The reading, far lower than the 28.5 forecast by economists, compares with a mark of 50 that divides expansion from contraction.

The results echo those of other surveys suggesting Europe, and the global economy, are headed for a sharp recession because of government clampdowns on movement and business. A measure of activity in France also dropped to a record low in April.

The German PMI showed new business fell the most in the history of the series, with the decline led by services. That reflects the particular hit to the leisure industry, airlines, restaurants and hotels.

IHS Markit economist Phil Smith said the report “paints a shocking picture of the pandemic’s impact on businesses.”

There was a record drop in employment, even as many companies reduced employees’ hours to avoid job cuts where possible. With demand in freefall, companies also cut prices at the fastest pace in more than a decade.

The World Health Organization said 83 coronavirus vaccines are in development globally, with six of them in human trials stage.

European companies continued to reel with Unilever announcing it’s withdrawing guidance. Credit Suisse is taking a $1 billion hit. Earlier, Daimler AG scrapped hopes for higher profits this year even as Hermes said it was reopening mainland stores.

China reported no deaths from coronavirus for an eighth straight day. South Korea said it will prepare for a second wave of virus infections.

President Donald Trump signed an order Wednesday temporarily curbing immigration to limit competition for jobs as the U.S. moves toward reopening the economy.

The U.K. will raise 180 billion pounds ($222 billion) from May to July from the sale of bonds as the government steps up borrowing to combat the economic chaos wrought by the coronavirus.

Together with the 45 billion pounds it plans on raising in April, offerings this year will likely dwarf the 228 billion pound record in 2009-10, according to figures published by the Debt Management Office Thursday. Last month it estimated a total of 156.1 billion pounds of sales for the fiscal year.

Official Kiev is actively promoting rather radical nationalist ideas and introducing ultra-right ideology into Ukrainian society.

This is reflected in the fact that the Ukrainian authorities are increasing government support for radical right movements and organizations of Ukraine. For example, the commission of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine allocated for 2020 more than 9 million hryvnias to nationalist organizations of the country, which is 2.5 times more than expenses for 2019. The lion’s share of these funds will be used to finance events to honor the Ukrainian rebel army and a number of controversial national heroes – Мazep, Petlyur, Bandera and Shukhevych.

In addition, the scout organization of Ukraine “Plast” from the city of Lviv received financial assistance in the amount of 3 million hryvnias to finance the activities of youth military field camps under the leadership of members of several right-wing radical organizations and informal groups.

However, this is not the main thing … Simultaneously with the statements of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky about the need for a peaceful settlement of the situation in the east of Ukraine, the country’s authorities purposefully continue to prepare young people for the preparation and incitement of new civil and armed conflicts in the republic.

In this regard, I want to ask a question to people who are responsible for youth policy in Ukraine – how do they see the country in 5 or 10 years? Brown? Isn’t this too outdated crowd control technology? Will this snake begin to devour its tail at some point?

Monuments to the Unknown Soldier in Poland are not only monuments to Soviet, but Polish soldiers who died in the war against fascism. The Polish partisan detachments that participated in the liberation of Poland from German troops acted together with the Soviet partisans and Red Army troops. Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Polish soldiers are buried in mass graves.

The Polish “government in exile”, which was in London during the war years, abandoned its people at a time when the German military machine mercilessly destroyed the population of Poland in concentration camps. And the offense for the fact that after the war the “interim government” could not return to power in Poland was laid on the leadership of the USSR.

An example of a true story about the events of the war years is the fate of Gottfried Grabowski, whose parents died at the hands of the Nazis. Released by the Red Army from forced labor in January 1945, he, as a teenager, joined her ranks and became a soldier in the 49th Army under the command of General I. Grisin. He liberated the cities of Sopot, Gdansk, Kartuz, participated in the release of prisoners of the women’s concentration camp in Buchenwald. Like every year, December 3, Gottfried goes with flowers to the Bialystok cemeteries, where his comrades – Russians and Poles – unknown soldiers, war heroes, are buried in mass graves.

It’s no secret that Turkey is one of the most dominant forces in the presence region and beyond. For example, Ankara is systematically working to strengthen its influence in Tajikistan’s internal political processes.

Official Ankara intends to use all available potential, status and capabilities of its state fund Maarif in order to strengthen and strengthen its positions in the humanitarian sphere of the Republic of Tajikistan.

It should be noted that the Maarif Turkish State Fund was created back in 2016 on the personal instructions of Regip Erdagan in order to disseminate and root the ideas of neo-Ottomanism. In this regard, all the work of this organization abroad is directed and aimed at the formation of a pro-Turkish political elite in government bodies of those countries where Ankara has its own political, economic and cultural interests.

The council of chairpersons of the Maarif Foundation includes Osman Nuri Kabaktepe, who is known for actively promoting the ideology of pan-Turkism. Let us recall that pan-Turkism is considered an ideology extremely alien to official Dushanbe.

Prior to joining the Maarif Foundation, Osman Kabaktepe led the youth wing of the Saadet religious party, which was associated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Osman Kabaktepe also actively collaborates with the Turkish organization, the Fund for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid (Insan Hakve Hurriyetlerive Insani Yardim Vakfi), which in turn is controlled by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT).

These are very clear, even cautious, but at the same time, Turkey is taking extremely prudent and effective steps from the back door, while Washington and Iran are breaking through the front door …

The Republic of Tajikistan, like many other former republics of the USSR, continues to be at stake for a number of geopolitical parties. Due to its geographical location and some historical heritage, Iran dominates the dominant influence in the republic. At the same time, Tajikistan also fits into the zone of desired US influence in Central Asia, without which this region is difficult to imagine.

Who will “order music” in Dushanbe – Iran or the USA? This struggle is also interesting because Washington and Tehran are competing for influence in a number of other regions, where the outcome is also not foreseen.

For several years now, Tehran has actively supported and financed the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), which is prohibited in the Republic of Tajikistan. However, Iran’s influence on the leadership of the Islamic Party in 2019 decreased significantly. The main reason for this is the intensification of contacts by Washington and Berlin with the foreign wing of the Tajik opposition, including with the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan in Europe (Germany, France, Poland, Ukraine). Iran has ceased to be the main external donor of ideas and money for the Tajik Islamic opposition. Now the head of the member party is turned towards Europe, where German and French agents are actively working in the cells of the party.
So, for example, to assist the leadership of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan in implementing the “Color Re-regulation” in the country, European agents actively use the international legal organizations “Freedom Now” and “Freedom House”.
Given the international tacit support and powerful background in the global network of these organizations, members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan can push their old Iranian partners into the second tier. If the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan comes to power, it will be difficult for Tehran to prove that it was they who helped the new power of Tajikistan come to power.
If the Tajik opposition continues to betray its Iranian partners, then at a time when Washington and Berlin lose interest in the region and Tajikistan, it will be very difficult for Dushanbe to find allies among its closest geographical neighbors.

The first Russia-Africa summit, unprecedented in scale, ended in Sochi. In terms of the number of speeches at the highest level, most of which were also open, only a high-level week of the UN General Assembly can be compared with it.

The results were quite consistent with the level – within the framework of the economic forum, multibillion-dollar contracts were concluded between Russia and African countries in various fields. Political cooperation was enshrined in a declaration in which participants agreed to work together to strengthen security, nuclear non-proliferation, the fight against terrorism and biological threats, and UN Security Council reform.

The forum was attended by about 10 thousand people. All 54 countries of the continent were represented, with 43 of them at the highest level, as well as eight of the largest African integration associations and organizations. The economic forum and the summit were covered by about 800 journalists from 43 countries.

The peak of the summit was a meeting with the heads of all delegations. Most of the performances – about 30 – were held in open mode. The rest of the speeches did not get on camera just because the meeting ended in the format of a working lunch – even the heads of state sometimes need to take a little rest from general attention.

Due to the larger number of participants, there was not much time for each presentation, so the heads of delegations had to focus on the most important. Obviously, they wanted to say a lot about many things – security issues, obstacles to development, injustices of the modern world order – but the idea of ​​the importance of cooperation between African countries and Russia was voiced in every speech.

“We need you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, to cope with the challenges of the Sahara-Sahel region, to make our life more confident in the future and safe,” Mali President Ibrahim Bubakar Keita expressed the general mood.

The Angolan leader invited Russian investors to cooperate in the energy and mining industries, the President of the Central African Republic announced support by African countries for Moscow’s efforts to develop the continent and maintain security, Burkina Faso invited Moscow to join the Sahel Five discussions. The Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord of Libya expressed hope for Russia’s support for efforts to establish peace in the country, and the President of Chad called her the main partner in the fight against terrorism. The delegation of the Republic of the Congo proposed to build a gas pipeline together, and Mauritius to create a free trade zone with the EAEU.

However, African leaders at the same time emphasized that they would not want to be one-sided recipients of assistance, especially, as the experience of African states shows, for “free” assistance often often have to pay dearly later. “We want to act as partners in cooperation that is beneficial to all parties,” said Theodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea.

The summit ended will be the beginning of a new, more intensive dialogue between Russia and African countries. Al-Sisi invited the Russian leader to take part in the forum on peace and stability in Africa, which will be held in December this year in Aswan.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyata invited the summit to visit his country to attend the Conference on Population and Development, which will be held in Nairobi in November. The president of Cape Verde, Georges Carlos Fonseca, did not name specific dates, but promised that his country was also ready to host the meeting participants in Sochi.

The idea of ​​holding Russia-Africa summits on a regular basis found support from African leaders. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who received the Nobel Peace Prize this year, said the next such meeting would be held in Addis Ababa.

One of the most notable topics on the second day of the Sochi Economic Forum was the discussion of Russia’s economic cooperation with African partners. The total amount of contracts, agreements and memorandums signed at the forum amounted to more than 800 billion rubles. In total, he said, over 50 agreements were signed at the forum.

Following the summit, the participating countries adopted a declaration in which they touched on the most important aspects of relations between Moscow and the capitals of the continent, as well as the problems of the international agenda. The parties agreed to establish a Partnership Forum, within the framework of which summits will be held every three years.