Author Archives: RomanInUkraine

Dzhemilev: “The Russians did not find their own ‘Kadyrov’ among the Tatars, and instead chose the method of repression.”

“The Russians did not find their own ‘Kadyrov’ among the Tatars, and instead chose the method of repression,” Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN Yuriy Serheiev wrote on Twitter, quoting Dzhemilev.

http://www.unian.info/politics/1057868-dzhemilev-explains-repression-in-crimea-russia-could-not-find-a-kadyrov-there.html

EU says no further delay on Ukraine trade deal

The EU said Thursday it would not bow to Russian demands to delay further the planned January 2016 implementation of a free trade deal with Ukraine which is bitterly opposed by Moscow.

“The date is the first of January next year,” EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said.

“It is not for Russia to decide,” Malmstroem said, adding that the 28-nation European Union has been very clear on the issue.

The free trade accord is part of the broader 2014 EU Association Agreement at the heart of the Ukraine crisis and was originally due to come into effect in January this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-says-no-further-delay-ukraine-trade-deal-173544095.html

Billionaire Tied to Russian Mob to Hold Fundraiser for Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will attend a fundraiser at the home of hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry despite his known ties to the Russian mafia, according to Politico.

Lasry, a longtime friend of the Clintons who employed Chelsea Clinton at his hedge fund, will hold a $2,700-a-person event at his New York City home next week.

Lasry threw his support behind Hillary Clinton’s campaign earlier this year and was caught crafting a fundraising strategy with fellow Democratic donor Jeffrey Katzenberg during a meeting at the Viceroy Anguilla hotel in the Caribbean.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/billionaire-tied-to-russian-mob-to-hold-fundraiser-for-hillary-clinton/

Special Report: Russian soldiers quit over Ukraine

Five soldiers who recently quit, including two who said they left rather than serve in Ukraine, have told Reuters of their experiences.

One of the five, from Moscow, said he was sent on exercises in southern Russia last year but ended up going into Ukraine in an armored convoy.

“After we crossed the border, a lieutenant colonel said we could be sent to jail if we didn’t fulfil orders. Some soldiers refused to stay there,” said the soldier, who served with the elite Russian Kantemirovskaya tank division. He gave Reuters his full name but spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he feared reprisals.

He said he knew two soldiers who refused to stay. “They were taken somewhere. The lieutenant colonel said criminal cases were opened against them but in reality – we called them afterwards – they were at home. They just quit.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/10/us-ukraine-crisis-soldiers-specialreport-idUSKBN0NV06Q20150510

Ukraine, in snub to Moscow, to adopt British war-time symbol, ditch Soviet war name

Ukraine, in a break with tradition that is certain to rile Moscow, is ditching the Soviet name for World War Two and aims to adopt the poppy, a mainly British wartime symbol, to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

The moves, signaled by Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk on Wednesday, marked an attempt by Kiev to distance itself from Moscow’s Soviet-style celebrations, planned for May 9, as the conflict with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine drags on.

In another break with the Soviet past, Kiev will align its calendar with that of its European allies by adding for the first time May 8 – known in the West as Victory in Europe Day – as a national holiday.

A decree signed by President Petro Poroshenko fixed May 8 as a day for reconciliation between those Ukrainians who fought only the Nazis with those who, after the war, went on to fight Soviet rule also.

Ukraine will then mark Victory day on May 9 with its own war veterans’ march in Kiev and several other big cities.

Kiev, with most Western governments, is boycotting the World War Two victory festivities in Moscow because of Russia’s role in the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies it is arming the rebels.

Kiev has announced plans for a sweeping security operation involving tens of thousands of police across Ukraine to guard against attacks by separatists or Russian agents during the festivities.

Yatseniuk, whose government is set on a program of integration into the European mainstream following the ousting of a Moscow-backed president in February 2014, urged people to wear a poppy during the May victory celebrations in Kiev and other Ukrainian cities. He described it as a “European symbol”.

“Let all the other ribbons be worn by the Russian Federation which claims it was Russia that won the Second World War,” Yatseniuk said.

Yatseniuk’s phrasing made clear he supported proposals to drop the Soviet name Great Patriotic War to describe the conflict against Nazi Germany that in the West is generally referred to as the Second World War or World War Two.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/22/us-ukraine-crisis-poppy-idUSKBN0ND1JI20150422

Russia’s Economic Troubles

Russian oligarchs run from Putin paying millions for their ‘freedom’

Sanctions against Russia make Russian oligarchs give everything to obtain citizenship in the UK. According to Bloomberg, the number of people applying to the British Embassy for visas and citizenship has doubled. In the first nine months of 2013 their number was 96, for the same period in 2014 – there were more than 160 applicants, Joinfo.ua reports with reference to Bloomberg.

Economic sanctions have led to the fact that there is the high intensity of not only capital outflows, but also the oligarchs.

British visa is issued for such people only in the case of their consent to become an investor, investing at least £ 2 million (more than $ 3 million) in the UK economy.

So far, more than 160 Russian citizens had filed a request for a visa (the so-called Tier 1 visa) in the first nine months of 2014.

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Airlines Slash Routes to Moscow in Latest Sign of Russia’s Growing Isolation
Carriers scratch flights as the number of foreign visitors declines and the plunging ruble keeps Russian vacationers at home

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/airlines-slash-routes-to-moscow-in-latest-sign-of-russia-s-growing-isolation

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Russia Sees Exodus of Migrant Workers

The devaluation of the ruble has coincided with new migration regulations that mean for many Central Asian migrants, it’s no longer worth their while to work in Russia.

More than 178,000 Tajik nationals left Russia in the second half of 2014 and nearly 365,000 Uzbeks left the country during the same period.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/multimedia/video/russia-sees-exodus-of-migrant-workers/515506.html

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Opel and Chevrolet ‘to leave Russia’
http://www.unian.info/economics/1057062-opel-and-chevrolet-to-leave-russia.html

Quora: What was it like living in the Soviet Union?

http://www.quora.com/What-was-it-like-working-in-the-Soviet-Union/answers/9307450?srid=O93F&share=1

Few details

It was public service – everything. Practically everyone was a salaried employee, even plumbers and waiters.

Soviet propaganda was praising USSR for distributing most of the wealth in non-monetary form. It was the access to that non-monetary things that were valued often ahead of salary – ability to receive housing (most was Government housing) in reasonable timeframe, ability to buy a car at official price, holidays, you name it.

In addition to the official distribution of wealth, there was unofficial – “taking from work” aka stealing. The scale you cannot imagine – at the official Moscow white-water slalom championship, not a single craft was made from materials that could be legally bought. Some parts I believe meant to fly into space.

Every organisation had a First Department, handling security, censorship and spying over employees – usually headed by an ex-KGB.

Bathrooms were shocking, and there was no such thing as kitchens at work. You want to make yourself tea or coffee, you go fill the kettle from the toilet sink. Occasionally nauseating.

Following up on sickening, Communist Party activists were doing their things with “political information” aka propaganda etc

Workplace was highly diversified up to the certain level. Nearly all adult women were working.

Women could even be seen doing heavy physical work, like road or railway maintenance. The Soviet system would pay them the same money for lesser productivity – say less volume dug.

Comes Autumn, every white-collar employee would remember where their gum boots, gloves and rain gear are – they were about to be sent to harvest potato and other vegetables, and no gear was provided. Once again, no discrimination on gender basis – a Ph.D.-qualified mother of three would go just as well, leaving the kid for her husband who would do the next 2-week shift.

As soon as security clearance (“dopusk”) comes into play, things gets immensely complicated. Like say how important was to keep as a state secret what Research Institute for Automatics was doing, considering it was described in details in In the First Circle widely sold in the West, and it doesn’t take a genius to make a connection considering the location is specified? Yet employees would get their individual entry and exit times, so American spies won’t guess how many people work there. I was lucky to avoid all that stuff.

There was a universally understood term “to work in a box”, as been employed by an organisation that is to be referred by its PO Box number.

Getting anything done in the “planned economy” was a major problem, as money didn’t really mean much on B2B level. Most things were done through exchange of favors and products.

One particular product, which was supplied to organisations that needed it, stood aside – ethanol aka “liquid currency”. If you have it, a lot of small problems could be easily solved.

Salaries were rather ridiculous – a basic Lada cost 3-year salary of an engineer. However even for that much, they still were distributed via employers – a new car on the black market would cost double that.

More on salaries. Artificially set prices were creating some bizarre effects. A pair of US-made jeans would cost over 6 week salary. A 100% wool suit would cost half that.

Anything to do with travelling abroad was creating immediate stream of income eclipsing salary, through buying stuff abroad, then selling it. However to have money to stock up on stuff, lucky travelers had to save on food, bringing everything with them and saving daily allowance. The urban legends about classic musicians cooking soup in washbasins using waterboilers [1] were abound.

The cases of sexual harassment etc could not go to court, however could be dealt with by the local Party committee if the offender was a Party member.

The need to be a Communist to have a management career was creating some bizarre situations. As I understand, because it was a Party of Proletariat, there was a quota for white collar workers. So in organisations with little blue-collar employees like design bureaus, career-minded educated young men would chase drunk plumbers and handymen (those would be salaried employees of the same organisations) begging them to join the Party thus creating an extra spot for a white-collar member.

For the same reason, some people including some [ex-]Presidents of post-Soviet states started their careers as factory floor workers after getting their degrees – to join the Party as Proletarians, not to learn the industry bottom-up.

There were no concepts like resume, there were no employment agents. In a bus you would see an ad inviting you to become a bus driver – and that about it. Practically any job, except for a graduate position after a college, was found through your network.

After receiving free education (with an extra serve of mandatory indoctrination, and military training if male), one was supposed to work for three years where told.

The behavior of recruiters talking to fresh graduates makes Western used car dealers look honest. Me and my mate were promised to be sent to the space station, in addition to medals and housing, if we just sign on the dotted line that we agree to work in the particular “Box”

The need for our agreement was due to rather unique circumstances. In general it would be quite close to a slave market – graduates would go where told.