Culture
Saturday 24 June 2017
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Vladimir Putin
Russian President
"We have hundreds of television companies and radio companies. The state doesn't control them at all, it is simply impossible."
Read more...While the state does not own all TV or engage in prior censorship, TV stations deemed too critical of the Kremlin have been forced off the air; large opposition protests are ignored, causing critics to turn to YouTube as an alternative. -
Veronika Skvortsova
Russian Health Minister
“2016 was a landmark for us in terms of HIV. Firstly, because in 2016 the growth rate of new cases decreased by half and mortality was, accordingly, reduced. Overall, we had 86.8 thousand new HIV infections, while a year ago, in 2015, there more than 100 thousand. That is a decrease of 15%."
Read more...The Russian Health Ministry claims that the number of new HIV infections in the country fell significantly in 2016, but this claim runs contrary to statistics and wider trends. -
Rospotrebnadzor
the Russian consumer protection watchdog
Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian consumer rights agency, says in its report for 2016 that the number of patients diagnosed with alcoholism for the first time has been reduced by 36% compared to last year, claiming its anti-alcohol campaigns are reducing consumption.
Read more...More likely there are fewer patients not because of less drinking but because treatment for alcohol abuse is now voluntary and people avoid clinics since they turn over lists of alcoholics to the police for removal of drivers’ licenses. -
Channel One; Channel Five; NTV
Russian TV channels
Major Russian state-own TV channels have repeatedly included as a guest on their flagship talk shows someone identified as Greg Vainer, a U.S. journalist and member of the Republican Party’s national committee who “represents the American point of view” on global issues. Vainer’s opponents invariably take apart his arguments, the result being that the pro-Russian side always prevails in the debate.
Read more...Greg Vainer’s real name is Gregory Vinnikov. He was born and raised in the Soviet Union, moved to the U.S. in 1980 and then moved back to Russia around 2009. In the U.S., he left no mark as a journalist but, after launching a travel agency in New York, was sued by creditors at least five times. In addition, former clients accuse him of stealing their money. He has never been a member of the Republican National Committee; in fact, it seems he has never even registered to vote in the United States. -
Patriarch Kirill
Head of the Russian Orthodox Church
“Our church is being oppressed, they are trying to deprive it of civil rights, trying to adopt laws that exclude the normal registration of the Orthodox parishes in Ukraine; the forced takeover of the churches is taking place.”
Read more...The head of Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, accused Ukraine of oppressing Russian Orthodox parishes and its adherents of civil rights. A fact-check reveals that Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine are breaking with the Moscow-led hierarchy in response to Kirill’s support of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. -
Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia
"At the moment, a number of tasks directed at the liberalization of penitentiary policy and the humanization of the implementation of punishment are resolved. In 2016, the lowest number of persons held in detention facilities in the contemporary history of the Russian Federation was reached."
Read more...Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service claimed that a number of steps were taken to make the penitentiary system more liberal and humane, including a reduction in prisoner numbers. However, even as the inmate population decreased to a record low, conditions in prisons remain among the poorest in Europe. -
Victor Sadovnichy
Rector of Moscow State University
“For the first time in the history of Russian universities - even Soviet ones - a world rating placed us in third place by the criteria of (education) quality. That has never happened before - third in the world…among thousands of world universities…Stanford and Oxford are ahead of us and we are in third place.”
Read more...The chief of Russia’s oldest university told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his school ranked third in the world in terms of education quality. However, the third-place ranking only pertains to a narrow metric of post-graduation alumni accomplishments. -
Yaroslav Kuzminov
Rector of Higher School of Economics
“Despite the fact that Coursera is an American company, they’ve persuaded the U.S. government to lift the prohibition for teaching in Crimea.”
Likely TrueU.S. provides for some exemptions for sanctions imposed on Russia after annexing Crimea.Read more...While U.S. Treasury Department officials declined comment, American virtual learning company Coursera confirmed it does have U.S. permission for online lessons on their platform to be accessible in Crimea. -
Stanislav Govorukhin
Russian lawmaker and film director
"[Russia has] the only constitution in the word stating that any kind of censorship is forbidden."
Read more...This is not even close to true, and Govorukhin need look no further than other nations of the former Soviet Union for constitutions expression banning censorship. The OSCE noted in 2010 that only Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia were the only former Soviet republics not to have censorship bans. -
Vladimir Putin
Russian President
"You’ve seen what’s happening: An immigrant raped a child in a certain European country. The court acquitted him based on two reasons: that he speaks the language of the receiving country poorly and did not understand that the boy -- and it was a boy -- did not consent."
Read more...But Putin's remarks to his council on interethnic relations contradict the facts of the actual case. The attacker’s conviction was only partially annulled, and he remains in custody pending a retrial in the case. Russian media reporting of the case as an acquittal, and Putin's reference to it, is an example of "pro-Kremlin disinformation," according to an EU task force. -
Sergei Lavrov
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs
“We have not seen a single fact, a single proof."
Read more...The Russian Foreign Minister says the U.S. has offered no proof that the Kremlin hacked into Democratic Party computers. The U.S. says it does have proof but have not made the details public.