Image is of President Vladimir Putin, with his cook Prigozhin, though he is more famous for other things.
I'm assuming we all know what a "Russia" and a "Putin" is, so I'm skipping the background section.
On March 15th, Putin handily won the presidential election. This is perhaps one of the least surprising things to happen in the last couple years, and all claims and debates about electoral corruption are missing the point (in this particular election at least). The reason why Putin won is not fascist brainwashing or Putin having a high Persuasion/Intimidation DC, and it's not even really about the laws that make opposing the Ukraine War illegal. Wages are up significantly, unemployment is at record lows (for the post-USSR period, of course), as is poverty, and the ruble is about as stable as it could be given what the West has tried to do to it. The government has been forced to massively intervene in the economy to keep things afloat, buying up properties that have been ditched by foreign and domestic billionaires, though obviously Russia's wealthy are still plenty powerful. Inflation is up, but wages are comfortably outpacing it. And the Communist Party remains a relic of a bygone era, disconnected from the young people who might hypothetically propel a revolution.
Russia is still in the transition from switching to a Western-oriented export economy to an Eastern-oriented one. Nonetheless, Russia is now China's single largest oil supplier (unseating Saudi Arabia), delivering half of all their oil to China, and trade between the two countries has massively increased. Where Western brands have retreated from Russia (and not many actually have), more Russia-friendly corporations, and Russian businesses themselves, have filled the gaps.
By going through the news, I've seen a lot of economies that are not doing well at all. Most countries seem to be in that category. Either they have general growth but a deeply struggling populace, or the government is trying to keep the population afloat but running up huge debts in the process, or the government is failing on both counts. Russia is one of the few countries on the planet that I can confidently state is actually doing quite well objectively, which means it's doing extremely well relatively. Considering the Western economists regularly delivering portents of doom in early 2022, and salivating over how they were going to divide the country following the inevitable economic collapse, this is a hilarious state of affairs.
In the long term, their predictions may come true. It is entirely possible that a post-war Russia will slump, returning to neoliberal policies and continuing their nonsensical allergy to budget deficits. Russia might not be a mere gas station, but a substantial amount of the economy is made up of fossil fuel exports, which might be troublesome in a greener future, especially as China, their main oil market, is one of the few countries on the planet that seems serious about renewable/nuclear energy. And the limited labour force means that long-term growth is inherently limited without some creative measures, even with the potential influx of whatever remains of the population and territory that Russia seizes in Ukraine. Perhaps it is in this crucible of disillusionment and hardship, after seeing that good things are indeed possible if the government wishes them to be so, that a socialist Russia could rise again. But we aren't there yet, and the growth continues for now.
Apologies for the lack of updates (again!), I've been going through book titles again for the reading list (I've probably got a thousand or more to get through) and also trying to touch grass more. I'm not very good at balancing things out, I tend to do the hyperfocus-on-one-thing-until-it's-done approach.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Russia! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Danish Leader Accuses People Of Laziness, Blames Their "Mentality" For European Munitions Fiasco
Russians are working around the clock making weapons while the lazy Danes would rather work less. So claims Denmark's supreme leader Mette Frederiksen.
During a conference in Copenhagen last Tuesday Mette Frederiksen, the undisputed leader of Denmark's social democratic-led right-wing regime made remarks criticising the work ethics of ordinary Danes and called for a "change of mentality".
"The assembly lines are running 24/7 in Russia and the discussion I'm hearing the most about in Europe is that we want to work less." Frederiksen said and continued "There is something in our mentality we needs to change. The Russians don't go home, they go on."
The remarks fell at a debate about the Ukrainian regime's ammunition shortage and the failure of the American-led block to produce enough to keep their Kiev proxies supplied.
Not the first time Leader Accuses People Of Slacking Off
This isn't the first instance of the Danish leader accusing her subjects being too lazy and expressing a desire to force them to work harder. In 2021, echoing a fundamentalist Protestant work ethic, she remarked that "work shouldn't necessarily be pleasant".
In spring 2023, she chastised those desiring less work and more freedom, boldly declaring, "Forget it, friends!" She claimed that the crisis warranted an aggressive military buildup funded by more work, not less. Later that year, the regime abolished a public holiday in a universally unpopular move aimed at boosting productivity for the benefit of the regime's grandiose rearmament plans. 2023 also saw a social democratic government minister make vitriolic public attacks against a minor blogger and influencer who had written a book about making do with less work and less material goods and prioritizing time with family, accusing her of freeloading and undermining the welfare state.
Despite the regime's accusations of laziness, Danish workers boast the fifth-highest productivity globally according to the ILO, with a labor force participation rate surpassing the OECD average. Moreover, Denmark's retirement age of 67-74 is among the highest globally.
Is our economic system the problem? No! It is these sinful gadabouts with their bad work ethics!
Does Denmark have an arms sector? I can't remember which nordics produce which weapon systems.
Sweden is by far the biggest merchant of death in the Nordics with companies such as Bofors and Saab. Having large deposits of iron ore enables you to have heavy industry like that. Denmark has an arms sector although it doesn't make up a significant part of the economy. The businesses are subcontractors to larger arms manufacturers with the most prominent being Terma who produces components for the arms industry.
Perhaps she should set a good example by getting a real job
"Trade unionist" is a generous term for what she did during that time. She wasn't exactly organising strikes. She was a "youth consultant" for the confederation of trade unions, a sinecure given to her by the social democratic political machine so she wouldn't have to get a real job that would divert her attention away from becoming a career politician.
Figured it was something like that. Not really something you do for a single year with no prior experience unless it's bullshit.
She went the way that they all go these days and spent her teenage and university years rising to the top of the succdem youth organisation by being the best at backstabbing and scheming against all the other lanyard nerds, then directly into career politics.
Once in a while she likes to make Instagram posts of herself polishing windows or eating canned mackerel in order to gain some prole cred but she has never experienced what it is like to be a normal person who has to get by as an adult without training wheels.
Yup I definitely saw this coming. It’s a sentiment that’s only going to grow in the west.
What I don't get is how this can have any appeal to ordinary working class people. It seems very much like a spoilt bourgeois brat opinion.
It does, but think about how bad of a shape Europe is right now. Guaranteed jobs in the defense sector will probably sound good to a lot of people unfortunately. Also you’re going to see a lot of Europeans say “you’re not even working hard, look at how hard the average American works compared to you!” And that’s how Europe loses its comfortable lifestyle.