Russia’s deteriorating economic situation is exacerbating the various social problems in the country, and the authorities are apparently finding no other way to deal with such issues but to shut down all outlets for public debate. Last week (May 28), President Vladimir Putin expanded the definition of information constituting state secrets to include data on casualties sustained by the Armed Forces in the course of “special operations” in peacetime (Kommersant, May 29). The immediate reason appears to be the need to silence the voices that raise the sensitive issue of soldiers killed in the “hybrid war” battles in eastern Ukraine …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation