Culture
Tuesday 20 August 2019
-
![Sergey Lavrov]()
Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
“In the field of sports, there are power battles which are mainly aimed at ensuring that an Anglo-Saxon group of states determines the rules, including with regards to the use of doping.”
Read more...Russia’s foreign minister has claimed an “Anglo-Saxon” group of states is dictating anti-doping policies to the world. Current anti-doping rules follow the World Anti-Doping Code first introduced in 1999 in Switzerland, to which 660 sports organizations, including Russia’s, are signatories. -
![Times of India]()
Times of India
Indian news outlet
“Russia has endorsed India's move of abrogating Article 370 and bifurcating the state of Jammu & Kashmir, saying the exercise was ‘carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India.’”
Read more...No reference to this subject is found in the Russian Foreign Ministry’s briefing of August 9, the date cited in the article. No such quote can be found on the foreign ministry’s website, and ministry has not responded to a question on the quote. -
![Dmitry Smirnov]()
Dmitry Smirnov
Head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s patriarchal commission for family, motherhood and childhood protection
“Women are weaker intellectually [than men]. Of course, there are some Marie Curies, though that is rare.”
Read more...Biopsychosocial studies show significant differences between the sexes. How these differences affect general intelligence remains a subject of academic discussion. Smirnov’s comment made headlines throughout Russia and sparked a public discussion. -
![Twitter Account of Russian Embassy in U.K.]()
Twitter Account of Russian Embassy in U.K.
Official Russian Foreign Ministry social media account
"#Ukraine’s language law comes into force, prohibiting Russian from being spoken by doctors and teachers. Clear violation of human rights and #MinskAgreements."
Read more...Ukraine’s new language law does not prohibit doctors from using Russian or any other language with a patient. Doctors can be penalized only if they refuse to speak Ukrainian. -
![Vladimir Putin]()
Vladimir Putin
Russian President
"We really have a very smooth relationship with members of the LGBT community – really calm, perfectly unbiased.”
Read more...After Elton John criticized him for his attitude towards LGBT people, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Russia has a “neutral” attitude toward sexual minorities. However, from courts to rights groups, systemic discrimination against the LGBT community has been documented in Russia. -
![Andrei Kartapolov]()
Andrei Kartapolov
Russian Deputy Defense Minister
"On the Internet, projects of the American special services, such as … Metal Gear and RuNet Echo, are being implemented, aimed at direct manipulation of public consciousness and especially young people.”
Read more...The Metal Gear series was created by video game designer Hideo Kojima in Japan in 1987. It is published by the Japanese company Konami. The games’ themes are often critical of various governments, including that of the U.S. -
![Dmitry Yevseyev]()
Dmitry Yevseyev
leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation branch in the city of Cheboksary
“The Chernobyl series … is packed with petty anti-Soviet filth, which poisons viewers’ brains, thus becoming a deliberate, well-thought-out distortion of Soviet reality.”
Read more...The Chernobyl miniseries has been widely praised for accuracy and realism, including by people involved in the actual nuclear catastrophe. HBO is a private company not subject to government editorial control, and any claim its producers have been engaged in a “Western propaganda” campaign are false -
![Mikhail Khodorkovsky]()
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Russian opposition figure
“Worse of all, the idea of organizing racial rallies to cause the U.S.A. to collapse is not an isolated case of an acute psychotic break-down of some mentally ill staffer. In the same letter, Prigozhin’s staffers are bragging about their participation in the wars in eastern Ukraine, in Syria. They are also building plans to ‘assist in training national security forces’ in such countries as Qatar, Sudan, CAR, Chad, Madagascar, as well as ‘implementation of joint projects with Congo, South Sudan, Ethiopia.’ And that, as we know, are not just plans but reality.”
Read more...The U.S. Justice Department indictment and the data on Russian advertisements on Facebook released to the U.S. Congress allege that Yevgeny Prigozhin and companies controlled by him have been conspiring to defraud the U.S., including by aggravating social divisions. -
![Russian UK Embassy Twitter Account]()
Russian UK Embassy Twitter Account
Official Russian Foreign Ministry social media account
“Communist past revived in Russian schools”? Another #fake from @thetimes. Law prohibits political activity in Russian public schools. The photo was made at event held by the opposition Communist party.”
Read more...While schools worldwide often promote patriotism, there are reports of Russia's "Young Army" promoting the president, of history altered in textbooks to support state policy, students forced to participate in pro-Putin rallies and disciplined for repeating opposition messages. -
![Vladimir Kolokoltsev]()
Vladimir Kolokoltsev
Russian Minister of Internal Affairs
“In recent years, mortality [in road accidents] has decreased in this country. From 19 people per 100,000 population, it has already fallen to 13 people, but... the final goals we set are even more stringent: to 4 people per 100,000 population.”
Read more...Traffic fatality rates in Russia are falling and hover around the number cited by the minister of internal affairs. The goal to reduce the rate to about that of Germany in five years is ambitious. It took Germany nearly a quarter of a century to achieve a similar reduction. -
![Sergei Lavrov]()
Sergei Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister
"I understand that some countries would like to forget as soon as possible about the role that they played in the years of prior to World War II. However, I deem those attempts to accuse us of militarizing public opinion as offensive."
Read more...Many countries distort or omit inconvenient facts from their pre-World War II history, but Russia has all but eliminated the most difficult discussions from its state education system. One man was even fined for posting factual information. -
![Tamara Pletneva]()
Tamara Pletneva
Chairperson of the State Duma’s committee on family, women and children
"Why do they [women] get less [than men] for the same work?”
Read more...Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets says the salary of women in Russia is 70% that of men. If so, the "wage gap" in the country has grown larger recently.
