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Hindustan Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
In Putin's Moscow, a summer of death and distraction
WATCH RUSSIAN television or listen to Vladimir Putin's chilling speeches, and Russia is a besieged fortress, struggling to preserve humanity against the decadent West, defending the traditional values of family life, and defying death by its readiness to sacrifice life. Walk on Moscow streets, however, and it looks nothing like a city in the grip of a death cult. But neither did Berlin in the early 1940s, with its entertainments, consumption and comforts. PREMIUM Russia's President Vladimir Putin.(Reuters) The Russian capital is enjoying a three-month festival called 'Summer in Moscow'. It has been masterminded by Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor, and implemented by a team of young designers. Most of it is free. Pink, white and blue petunias in pots, amphitheatres of wildflower boxes and exotic plants fill every space. 'The city looks like one giant flower bed,' says Tatyana Malkina, a journalist. The centre is a display of paradisical life, with gardens, verandas, open-air classes in cooking and painting, artisanal ice-cream stations and pétanque and tennis. The festival is the culmination of years of renovation and infrastructure improvements. Around the Kremlin a horse-shoe ring of boulevards has become a chain of open-air stages: operetta on Tverskoy, art shows on Strastnoy, circus on Tsvetnoy. All this co-exists alongside an intensifying ideological campaign. On June 12th, Russia Day, Mr Putin surveyed military men and women in the Kremlin's columned Hall of the Order of St Catherine. 'The meaning of today', he told them, 'lies in the immortality of the Russian people, our state, our motherland, Russia. And the road to this immortality lies through the victories you and your comrades-in-arms are blazing.' A female officer replied by extolling 'the moral purity of the army and…of the life of our people in the country'. Repression is tightening, too. On June 29th the Kremlin published a new order which classifies any preparations for the mobilisation of society or institutions as a state secret. It also prohibits sharing data from vast areas of civilian-state interaction, from trade to science. Contact with the West is perilous. Prison sentences of up to eight years chill debate. The prominence of ideology in Russia has increased in proportion to the number of Russian casualties from the war in Ukraine. But unlike communism or fascism, the besetting ideologies of the 20th century, Mr Putin's surrogate offers no vision of the future. It consists of ultra-conservative, anti-Western, militaristic and millenarian tenets. The function of this ideology is to legitimise the war and the growing size of Russia's cemeteries. Mr Putin argues there is a civilisational struggle against the depraved West. The futile deaths are heroic feats. 'Allegiance to ideology is a marker of loyalty to the regime, not a matter of conviction,' one Moscow entrepreneur explains. The paradox is that while the war requires ideology it also depends on distraction. Russia's vast contract army has allowed it to avoid wide-scale compulsory mobilisation so far. For many the war is fought 'somewhere over there' by people who freely signed contracts and have been paid to die, says Alexei Venediktov, the editor of the now-banned Ekho Moskvy radio station. Massive payouts to soldiers and their families drive consumption. With limited options to spend abroad, Moscow is a mecca for internal tourism. 'Inside the Boulevard Ring, you must not remember there is a war going on and you must see that paradise on earth has already arrived,' a 37-year-old Muscovite says. She tells a new joke: 'Please God, I don't ask for much—just to be a contractor for Summer in Moscow.' With the outsourcing of the fighting to a contract army manned by recruits from the poorer provinces, Mr Putin is able to keep his capital free of signs of war. This allows him to accommodate the bureaucratic elite, which is overwhelmingly concentrated in the city and has no taste for traditionalism or the cult of death. Isolated again as it was during the cold war, and with the economy teetering on the brink of recession, the city demonstrates Russia's resilience and its superiority over Europe's capitals, with their dirty streets and crumbling infrastructure. Mr Putin remembers that the elites abandoned the Soviet regime when it failed to provide the lifestyle and goods available in the West. More than ever consumption, repression and war are simultaneous. Memories of past conflicts have been redacted. Bolotnaya Square, the site of anti-Putin rallies in 2011-12, hosts free creative and sporting events for the young. A statue of Pushkin, a focal point for protests since Soviet times, is fenced off by newly planted cypresses. The shrine to Boris Nemtsov, a liberal politician who was killed in 2015 by the Kremlin, is overwhelmed by a flower arrangement. Muscovites are well aware of the schizophrenia. Alexandra Astakhova, a photographer, says the experience is psychedelic. 'You can walk along beautifully decorated streets, then turn the corner and see a line of people outside a prison queuing up to hand parcels to those who have been jailed for protesting against the war.' While some 300,000 have fled the city, most have stayed. Their voices are rarely heard. Dmitry Muratov, a 2021 Nobel peace prize laureate, says, 'People with whom I live and work in Moscow are stripped of their right to protest, other than their last word in court before they are sentenced. They have no possibility to express their repulsion at the bloodshed.' One journalist says that neither she nor her friends participate in the masquerade. But they take some comfort from the fact that the city is full of flowers and verandas rather than the swastika-like 'Z' symbol of the war and checkpoints. 'The mayor could be running around the city with an assault rifle hunting draft-dodgers. He isn't. He emphatically chooses life over death—as he understands it, which is pitifully narrow.' Summers in Russia are short. Come autumn, the stages will be dismantled and the flowers removed. No one knows what next year's performance will look like. For now, people are living the only life they have and doing their best to ignore Mr Putin's obsessions.
Novaya Gazeta Europe
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Novaya Gazeta Europe
St. Petersburg child agency requires foster parents to prove they haven't ‘changed their sex' — Novaya Gazeta Europe
Children of the Russian Youth Army salute the Eternal Flame monument during Russia Day celebrations in Moscow, Russia, 12 June 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEY ILNITSKY Child protection services in St. Petersburg now require individuals seeking to adopt or arrange custody over children to certify that they have not ever 'changed their sex', investigative media outlet IStories reported on Friday, citing prospective foster parents and employees from the organisation. According to IStories, St. Petersburg guardianship offices began to require such certification in 2024, despite national legislation not listing it as an official requirement for adoption. In July 2023, the Russian State Duma passed a widely criticised 'sex change' law, which bans gender-affirming surgery, forbids transgender people from changing their gender in official documents and prevents them from adopting children. One woman who applied for guardianship of a child in summer 2024 told IStories that she was asked by the agency to obtain a birth certificate from the civil registry office to 'prove' her sex and gender. 'The guardianship officer told me, 'We're embarrassed ourselves to ask for a certificate that you haven't changed gender. We even ask elderly people who are applying for guardianship over incapacitated children'', she said. 'Their explanation was that they'd get in trouble if they accepted the documents without this certificate. I found it ridiculous … I have given birth to five children. What doubts could there possibly be in my case?' she added. Lawyers interviewed by IStories say that child protection services cannot legitimately require potential foster parents to provide such information, as it is not an official requirement for Russian citizens residing in the country, according to federal law. Though the 2023 anti-trans law does prohibit transgender people from adopting children, only foreign, stateless, or Russian individuals that permanently live abroad are legally obligated to sign a document testifying that they have never undergone a 'sex change' when seeking to become foster parents, the lawyers told IStories.
New Indian Express
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
In scenic Russia, teenage student trio from Thiruvananthapuram broaden their horizons
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Imagine having a large circle of friends from different parts of the world — buddies who respect you and your culture! How about developing such bonds while being trained in your areas of interest? That is exactly what Aaaqil, Vishal, and Vaiga, three teenagers from Thiruvananthapuram, are experiencing, as they represent India at Artek — a globally renowned children's centre — on Russia's Black Sea coast. Artek conducts annual camps for students from around the world. Children are trained in various domains according to their age and areas of interest on a campus spreads over 252 hectares. Speaking to TNIE by phone, Aaaqil M Aju, the author of a collection of horror short stories, termed his experience in the Crimean peninsula as refreshing. 'I was surprised to see people turn more considerate and friendlier on coming to know that we are from India,' exclaimed the Class 12 student of St Thomas Residential School, Mukkolakkal. Aaaqil penned a song about his experience at Artek, which was put to music and played at the camp's farewell. Having participated in media workshops, the 16-year-old hopes that interactions at the camp will help shape him in his quest to become a filmmaker. Vishal S Nair, 16, was deeply moved by the scenic beauty of the location. 'We are surrounded by mountains on three sides, and by the sea on the fourth.' An avid sports and arts enthusiast, the 11th grader of Sai Krishna Public School, Chenkal believes that this is the best time to be at Artek, as participants got to celebrate Russia Day and Russian Children's Day.
The Star
18-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Putin says he is ready to talk with Germany's Merz
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during a ceremony to present the Hero of Labour medals and highest state awards on Russia Day at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 12, 2025. Sputnik/Alexander Scherbak/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
India Today
16-06-2025
- Politics
- India Today
North Korean troops suffer over 6,000 casualties in Ukraine War: UK intelligence
North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine have suffered more than 6,000 casualties, according to British Defence intelligence. This number represents more than half of the over 11,000 North Korean troops deployed to the Kursk region in UK Ministry of Defence shared on its official X account on Sunday: "Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) forces have highly likely sustained more than 6,000 casualties in offensive combat operations against Ukrainian forces in twhe Russian oblast of Kursk. The total casualties amount to more than half of the approximately 11,000 DPRK troops initially deployed to the Kursk region. Open-source reports suggest DPRK has subsequently deployed limited numbers of additional troops to Kursk. Significant DPRK casualty rates have almost certainly been sustained primarily through large, highly attritional dismounted assaults." advertisement"On 04 June 2025, Russian Security Council Secretary and ex-Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly visited DPRK for a meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, his second in less than three months. Shoigu has highly likely been a key interlocutor with DPRK regarding DPRK's support to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine," it added. "DPRK operations have thus far been confined to the Kursk region. Any decision to deploy into internationally recognised, sovereign Ukrainian territory in support of Russian forces would almost certainly require sign-off from both Russia's President Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. The total casualties represent over 50% of the North Korean troops originally deployed. Open sources suggest that North Korea has sent a small number of extra soldiers to support their forces in the region," the statement KOREA WILL ALWAYS STAND WITH RUSSIA, KIM TELLS PUTINadvertisementEarlier this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will always stand with Moscow, state media a message for Russia Day, a patriotic holiday celebrating Russia's independence, Kim called Putin his "dearest comrade" and praised their bilateral relations as a "genuine relationship between comrades-in-arms," KCNA reported."It is an unshakable will of the government of the DPRK and of my own steadfastly to carry on the DPRK-Russia relations," Kim was quoted as inputs from ReutersTrending Reel
