Page 8 - RusRPTAug21

restrictions relatively loose. It seems most Russians are ignoring them anyway.
The most ominous affect of the looming elections is the way the Kremlin has taken off the gloves and is now simply crushing the opposition and the free press. Anti-corruption activist and opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s organisation has been outlawed and other opposition figures persecuted to the point where some of them have fled abroad.
And opposition press, and even simply liberal press that dare to be critical of the government, have been listed as “foreign agents” or just banned. Putin’s government has operated what bne IntelliNews columnist Mark Galeotti dubbed “repression-lite” for most of the last two decades, but now its has been scaled up to flat out repression.
Internationally things are going better. Following the summit between Putin and US president Joe Biden in Geneva on June 16 the first practical steps have been taken to build a new “stable” relation. US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry was in Moscow to meet Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in July to kick off climate cooperation and Putin has called for the issue to be “depoliticised.”
On the more difficult politicised issues like Ukraine and Nord Stream 2 less progress has been made, but its seems while the west is trying to thrash out a unified position, the negotiations are still hard as everyone’s agendas are different. Germany in particular has insisted on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline’s completion because it is a “commercial project”, despite Berlin’s active support of Ukraine, “political project.” It is this conflicted stance where political and commercial goals cause internal contradiction that stymie a unified stance on Russia. And this balance of politics and commerce is weighed different for each of the EU members.
The position of the US is clearer and as it has little direct trade or investment business with Russia it can be more aggressive and decisive. But Washington’s position is also complicated by its desire to repair the damage Trump did to transatlantic relations and so it must take the EU’s desires into account.
As Biden has clearly downgraded the importance of the “Russian problem,” as he has upgraded the “China problem,” this plays to the Kremlin’s advantage as it has made it easier to find compromises with the White House. For his part Putin also wants to downgrade the tensions (and stop new sanctions being imposed) as he also wants to focus more on dealing with his domestic problems.
8 RUSSIA Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com