Russia – SACRATOMATOVILLE POST

russia WINNING

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” (DT: 7/26/16) If Russia’s mission was to disrupt the United States and Europe they have succeeded. In response to a Washington Post report that the CIA had concluded […]

Russia Destroys More Than 700 Tons of Food in Less Than 2 Months

Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance in Belgorod region / Reuters A total of 738 tons of illegally imported food has been destroyed since the introduction of a decree in August ordering the disposal of banned Western imports, Russia’s agricultural watchdog said Monday. In an online statement, Rosselkhoznadzor said 676 tons of contraband agricultural produce had been confiscated and destroyed. Another 318 tons of products of animal […]

Russia Plans $3.6 Billion Food Stamp Program as Poverty Rises

State statistics agency Rosstat said in July that 22.9 million people — about 16 percent of the population — were below the poverty line at the end of March. Moscow Times The Russian government may spend 240 billion rubles ($3.6 billion) on a national food stamp program to support an estimated 15-16 million Russian citizens whose poverty has deepened […]

The Very Idea!

О́чень: very, really, incredibly Очень (very) is one of those handy little words you learn in Russian 101 and then use every day. Add it to any verb to jack up the intensity and emotion. For example: Я тебя люблю (I love you) is a summer fling; я тебя очень люблю (I love you very much) is maybe we should think about a mortgage. Say […]

Russia: Jewish School Probed for Extremism While Jehovah’s Witnesses Win Rare Russian Victory

This is not the first time the Ohr Avner school has ended up in hot water with the Russian authorities. It has been a week of ups and downs for religious freedom in Russia, with a Jewish school having become the target of an extremism investigation, and the beleaguered Jehovah’s Witnesses having gained an improbable boost at the Justice Ministry’s hand. Prosecutors in the city of Yekaterinburg have […]

Twerking Scandal in Russia

By:Peter Spinella/Moscow Times In the second twerking scandal to rock Russia in recent weeks, several women who were filmed dancing in front of a World War II monument in southern Russia have been put in jail for up to 15 days, local authorities said Saturday. A video of the performance posted on YouTube shows six women shaking their butts near the city of Novorossiisk’s Minor Land monument, dedicated to a […]

The Kremlin Keeps Banning Culture: an Opera, a Movie … Twerking

The Putin administration is trying to make culture in Russia conform to its idea of “moral awareness.” But the result could be the death of art. By:Anna Nemtsova/The Daily Beast Do you twerk in patriotic colors? Do you like movies telling of dark corners in your country’s history? Well, you’re in trouble in Russia as […]

Norwegian Putin satire goes viral in Russia

The clip shows alternative scenarios to explain Putin’s absence. Screengrab: NRK Humor/YouTube The Local/Norway A Norwegian animated satire on this month’s 11-day disappearance of Russian President Vladimir Putin has hit a nerve in Russia, winning almost 900,000 views on YouTube, almost all of which came from the former Soviet Union “Where did Putin go?”, a […]

Raising the Right Professionals: An Uphill Battle for Russia

‘Educators must better adapt programs to the demands of the work force By Alexey Eremenko/Moscow Times For a split second in December, it looked like 77 percent of Russians would be forced out of their current jobs. This is the estimated percentage of people working in a field outside of the scope of their university studies — a practice the government wanted to broadly prohibit beginning in 2020. Officials […]