Putin says all Russians need is patriotism

Meanwhile in Russia, on Wednesday, February 3, 2016

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• Today, on Wednesday, February 3, we got yet another episode in the ongoing saga of Ramzan Kadyrov’s crusade to conquer headlines. (His formal tenure as Chechnya’s head of state ends in about two months, incidentally.)
• Everyone’s favorite riding-hailing app, Uber (unless you’re French taxi unions, or the 1,000 drivers planning to shut down the highway in San Francisco during the Super Bowl, or lots of other people), is trying to avoid getting kicked out of Moscow.
• Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin clarified to a bunch of businessmen that “patriotism” is all Russians need to understand as a nation, in order to hold onto comfortable lives and a unified country.
• Varvara Karaulova, the Moscow teenager who ran away from home and tried to reach ISIL, is off to meet with head shrinkers, who will determine how accountable she can be held for her attempt to join the terrorists.

Ramzan wants an explanation, dammit

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s press secretary, Alvi Karimov, is demanding an explanation from Vygaudas Ušackas, the EU’s ambassador to Russia, who told reporters on February 2 that he was appalled by Kadyrov’s “disgusting” murder threats directed at Russian opposition figures Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. In a letter addressed to Ušackas, Karimov said the government in Grozny is “surprised” by the ambassador's disgust, and demands to know what “linguistic expertise” he used to conclude that Kadyrov ever threatened the lives of Kasyanov and Kara-Murza.

On February 2, Kadyrov posted to his Instagram account a video of the two oppositionists in the crosshairs of what seemed to be a sniper rifle. A Chechen state official later claimed that the public misunderstood Kadyrov’s “joke,” which he says showed Kasyanov and Kara-Murza in the sight of a periscope, not a gun. The video quickly disappeared from Kadyrov’s social media account. Instagram reportedly deleted the clip itself, saying it violated the company’s terms of service.

Mikhail Kasyanov has formally appealed to Russia's Federal Security Service, asking police to launch criminal charges against Kadyrov for threatening to kill him.

Uber to Moscow: please love us

This week, Moscow officials have threatened to crack down on the ride hailing service Uber, which has tried to downplay the possibility that it could be banned in Russia’s capital. Today, February 3, Uber says it plans to sign an agreement with the city’s officials, according to the company’s spokesperson in Russia, Evgeniya Shipova, who said negotiations with the city have been slowed because of “administrative delays,” not Uber’s reluctance to sign the documents.

Yesterday, on February 2, Moscow’s deputy mayor threatened to shut down Uber, if it refused to accept legal restrictions requiring Uber to work only with registered taxi drivers, and to share with city officials data about the movements of Uber cars.

Putin says all Russians need is patriotism

Vladimir Putin announced today that Russia’s “national idea” is patriotism. “We have no other, nor could we have any other, unifying idea than patriotism,” the president told a gathering of entrepreneurs. Putin stressed that patriotism is all Russians need for a richer, more comfortable life.

In recent years, patriotism has been one of the cornerstones of the Kremlin’s political rhetoric. In January 2016, the government allocated 1.7 billion rubles ($21.7 million) to “patriotic education” between 2016 and 2020.

In 2004, Putin said Russia’s national idea should be the competitiveness of the country and its people.

She tried to join ISIL but all she got was this lousy padded cell

Varvara Karaulova, the Moscow university student who was apprehended in Turkey in an attempt to join the terrorist group ISIL, has been sent for a psychiatric evaluation at a Moscow clinic, according to her lawyer. She was ordered to see a psychoanalyst last December, but so were a lot of other people, and the clinic is only now ready to evaluate her.

Karaulova was captured in June 2015 at the Syrian-Turkish border, after running away from home in Moscow.