Russia

{{bronze}}[[File:Russian Federation (orthographic projection) - only Crimea disputed.svg|thumb|right|195px|'''''M a s s i v e'''''<ref group=note>Unfortunately, [[irredentism|still not enough]] for [[Vladimir Putin|some people]]</ref>]]
{{hatnote|If you are looking for the Russian language RationalWiki, see {{Lang|ru|[[:ru:РациоВики|РациоВики]].}}}}
{{countrybox|Russia
|flag = Flag_of_Russia.svg
|pop =145,478,097
|GDP =1,647,568
|GDPPC =11,273
|life =73.2
|dev =0.824
|dem =3.24
|cor =29
|edu =0.823
|rel =34
}}

{{cquote|I’d like to go to Russia very much – although [[Bolshevik|the bastards]] [[October Revolution|murdered half my family]].|||Prince Philip<ref>[http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-philip-quotes-relive-classic-5042787 Prince Philip quotes: Relive his classic gaffes on his 94th birthday] By Paul Cockerton (07:30, 10 Jun 2015
Updated 07:37, 10 Jun 2015) ''Daily Mirror''.</ref>}}

{{cquote|I think many Russians, but also a lot of Westerners, make a very serious mistake in trying to look for… a better person to become president. They are searching for such a person in [Alexei] Navalny, in myself, but that’s a mistake. Anyone who replaces Putin is going to take Russia along the same imperialist route. <br/> [...] It is a very large and very diverse country, and if you want to manage it from one central spot, you have to have a very strong bureaucratic apparatus. To have such a huge apparatus at the centre has to be explained by having to protect the country from an outside enemy – there is no other explanation that people will accept.|||[[wp:Mikhail Khodorkovsky|Mikhail Khodorkovsky]], exiled Russian businessman and opposition figure, May 2022.<ref>[https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/ukraine/2022/05/he-has-embarked-on-a-war-he-cant-stop-mikhail-khodorkovsky-on-putins-next-move “He has embarked on a war he can’t stop”: Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Putin’s next move], The New Statesman, 3 May 2022.</ref>}}

{{cquote|The Russian persecution complex is complemented by the idea that they, and only they, can save the world from itself. |||Sean Stewart, ''It’s Russia, My Son. A (partial) Roadmap of the Russian Soul'', page 235<ref>[https://books.google.com.ly/books?id=tk4oCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235&lpg=PA235&dq=%22The+Russian+persecution+complex+is+complemented+by+the+idea+that+they,+and+only+they,+can+save+the+world+from+itself.%22&source=bl&ots=emUwT4ErxT&sig=ACfU3U1lU0igf3Ehz0gknkQHZq-ASJwlPQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiU3sCku-n6AhWTQuUKHacYDqEQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Russian%20persecution%20complex%20is%20complemented%20by%20the%20idea%20that%20they%2C%20and%20only%20they%2C%20can%20save%20the%20world%20from%20itself.%22&f=false Sean Stewart, ''It’s Russia, My Son. A (partial) Roadmap of the Russian Soul'', page 235]</ref>}}

{{ctransquote|Do nasty things at night.|Russian|Делайте гадости ночью.|||The Russian equivalent of "Love thy neighbor."<ref>[https://lenta.ru/articles/2018/10/31/sosed/ «Делайте гадости ночью» Почему россияне ненавидят своих соседей и не стесняются об этом говорить] (00:03, October 31, 2018) ''Lenta.ru''.</ref><ref>[https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-has-finally-united-russians-around-the-worldagainst-him Putin Has Finally United Russians Around the World—Against Himself: For the first time, Russian exiles around the world are banding together into a powerful anti-Putin force that will have its initial meeting next month.] by Anna Nemtsova (Jan. 29, 2024) ''The Daily Beast''.</ref>}}

{{cquote|What I find remarkable is how quickly Russian genetic memory has come back, and how people who didn’t live in those times suddenly act as if they did. Suddenly they are squealing on others. It is a Soviet practice but it’s also something about the Russian genetic code, of fear, of trying to protect themselves at the expense of others.|||Nina Khrushcheva, a Russian-American professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York (who is also Nikita Khrushchev's granddaugher)<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ejk4p3jxjo Russia's targeting of 'enemies within' evokes ghosts of the Soviet past] by Steve Rosenberg (September 12, 2024) ''BBC''.</ref>}}

'''Russia''', officially the '''Russian Federation''' (Russian: Российская Федерация tr: ''Rossiyskaya federatsiya''), is where [[Napoleon Bonaparte|invasions]] [[Adolf Hitler|go to die]] (unless you're [https://youtu.be/PqcVro-3f4I the Mongols]). It's the largest country globally, situated between [[Europe]] and [[Asia]], or making up most of Europe, or taking up all of Northern Asia — or all of the above. Take your pick; Siberia makes this all way too complicated.

As the successor to the [[Soviet Union]], the Russian Federation includes 89 federal subjects (48 oblasts, 24 [[republic]]s, 9 krais, 4 autonomous okrugs, 3 federal cities, and 1 autonomous oblast), of which 6 are internationally recognized as part of [[Ukraine]]. This is even more complicated than it sounds. Imagine if the [[US]] had 89 [[state]]s that occasionally had shooting wars; 6 of those 89 were legally [[Mexican]] or [[Canadian]]; of those 6, 4 were active warzones whose ''de jure'' country still partly controlled them and was fighting to get them back; and said ''de jure'' country occasionally attacked {{wpl|Missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters|military installations|}} and {{wpl|2022 Crimean Bridge explosion|illegal infrastructure|}} in the other 2.

==Demographics==
The majority (72%) of Russia's population are ethnic [[Russians]]([[Slavic]]).<ref>https://jamestown.org/program/5-million-fewer-than-in-2010-ethnic-russians-make-up-only-72-percent-of-russias-population/#:~:text=According%20to%20Russian%20census%20figures%20released%20in,census%20to%2071.73%25%20in%20the%20current%20one.</ref> There are also ca. 190 smaller ethnic groups,<ref>https://study.com/academy/lesson/russian-ethnic-groups.html#:~:text=But%20who%20are%20the%20people,areas%20of%20the%20massive%20country.</ref> Of those, 22 ethnic groups have their own autonomous regions, where their [[native languages]] are co-official along with [[Russian language]]. Other ethnic groups do not have their own autonomous regions, however, in some cases school education in their native languages is available. 

41 of Russia's ca. 190 smaller ethnic groups are legally recognized as “Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East.” To receive legal protection, these people must number less than 50,000 people, maintain a traditional way of life, and inhabit separate territories. 24 larger ethnic groups were identified as national identities but did not qualify for such assistance. Unemployment in Indigenous populations is 1.5-2 times higher, and incomes are 2-3 times lower than other Russians. Another notable feature of Russian demographics is that the life expectancy for women over 10 years longer than for men.<ref> [https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/who-are-indigenous-peoples-russia "Who are the Indigenous People of Russia?"] ''Cultural Survival'', February 19, 2014 </ref>

Russian and Slavic identity is a core part of Russia's fabric. This consists of a shared love of borscht, pickles, black bread, vodka, cigarettes and Adidas tracksuits,<ref>Fedorova, Anastasiia, [https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/8676/adidas-brand-russia-rubchinskiy "Adidas: A Love Story"], Calvert Journal.</ref> and a shared sense of existential despair.

The Soviet Union was hit particularly hard by [[World War II]]. Something like 26 million people died between 1941-45. Russia and other countries of the former USSR still have an imbalance in gender as a result.<ref>Gao, George, [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/14/why-the-former-ussr-has-far-fewer-men-than-women/ "Why the former USSR has far fewer men than women"], Pew Research 14 August 2015.</ref>

== Flag == 
The Russian flag comprises three colors:

#White represents the nation's broad ethnic diversity, which runs the gamut from vanilla to ivory.
#Blue, for the color to which your sensitive areas turn during winter.
#Red, for the blood of the nation's ethical journalists and opposition politicians whose gruesome murders the Kremlin had nothing to do with. ;-)

But seriously: Red symbolises (Moscow) Russia, White symbolizes (Belarus) Russia, Blue symbolizes (Ukraine) Russia.  If you've ever heard the phrase "the tsar of all the Russias" (from Chekov, for instance), those are what it's referring to: Great Russia, White Russia (Belarus), and Little Russia (Ukraine).  We leave it to the reader to work out which of the three created those labels.

==The Eastern Front==
[[File:RIAN archive 44732 Soviet soldiers attack house.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Soviet soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad.]]
{{cquote|Anything up to five degrees below zero I don't even notice. Quite a number of young people of today already wear shorts all the year round; it is just a question of habit. In the future, I shall have an SS Highland Brigade in lederhosen.|||[[Adolf Hitler]], meteorologist}}

As the Mongols discovered, you have to raze Russia to the ground to get a surrender out of them. The Khans paid attention to their supply lines and exploited advantages in the weather (which turned the rivers into Mongol highways). They also got lucky that Russia was a disunited mess at that point; it didn't expand past the Urals until the 1400-1500s.

[[Napoleon]] found his grip on Europe weakening thanks to [[Spain]] and was in search of a significant symbolic victory over Russia. His first objective was to take Vilnius. When he took Vilnius without having fought the Russian army, he decided to move straight into Russian territory in Moscow's direction, hoping that this would cause Alexander to bend his knee. Napoleon's subordinates urged him to halt and dig in for the winter, but Napoleon saw this as admitting defeat, so he marched on. ("Avant deux mois, la Russie me demandera la paix.") The massive amount of terrain to conquer using trench warfare and the oncoming Rasputitsa made Napoleon's defeat almost inevitable, as the Russians only needed to stall. He lost most of his 600,000 men to the arduous pursuit, starvation, exhaustion, and garrison duty.{{efn|Men were also lost to ferocious attacks by Russian peasant bands. Historian Andrew Roberts writes that some of the peasants even paid regular soldiers to lay their hands off some Frenchmen so that the peasants could have "the honour of killing them". Sheesh.<ref>Robert, Andrew. ''Napoleon the Great'', p. 622</ref>}}

Hitler had similar delusions, and on the anniversary of Napoleon's statement, he began the "European crusade against Bolshevism" (Ole Dolfy thought that all Slavs were inferior). Beyond Nazi {{wpl|Clean Wehrmacht|propaganda}}, the view of the Soviet army as a ramshackle mob wasn't helped by the first year of the German invasion when the Soviets had few officers because of Stalin's purges and their under-equipped rookies were swept aside. The Soviets lost about 8-10 million versus 5.5 million Germans, which led to the whole "USSR won through bodies" myth - similar to views of Robert E. Lee fighting the Union and Grant (Grant only won by "throwing bodies" at the rebels, while Lee was a tactical genius and a good man fighting for a bad cause, etc.). This, however, only accounts for about the first 1/3rd of the war. The Soviet army, for the ''other'' 2/3rds of the war, was a very different beast. All those elite Wehrmacht pilots and officers lay dead or dying, Zhukov was recalled from the Far East and brought his command staff with him, the Red Army was re-equipped with enormous quantities of modern armor and artillery, and the Red Guard were veterans all but in name. The Germans ran out of fuel (inevitably) halfway through<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVo5I0xNRhg</ref> and lost what was left of their motorized divisions. Russians were literally throwing live Nazis on the ground, {{wpl|Massacre of Feodosia|spraying water on them until they froze}}, and then driving over them like roads. Old joke: What's the only thing the Nazis ''didn't'' slap a swastika on? Answer: Moscow.<ref>Hoffman, William, [https://cbweaver.wikispaces.com/file/view/Stalingrad+Primary+Accounts.pdf "Diary of a German Solider"].</ref>

==Exporters of democracy==
{{cquote|The sucking-up to the master is completely genuine, but as we’re all liberated 21st-century people who enjoy Coen brothers films, we’ll do our sucking up with an ironic grin while acknowledging that if we were ever to cross you we would quite quickly be dead.|||Peter Pomerantsev<ref>Pomerantsev, Peter, [https://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n20/peter-pomerantsev/putins-rasputin "Putin's Rasputin"], ''London Review of Books'' Vol. 33 No. 20, 20 October 2011
pg. 3-6.</ref>}}
After experimenting with 
[[anarchy]]
 democracy in the 1990s under [[Boris Yeltsin|Yeltsin]], Russia is, thanks to [[Vladimir Putin]], an enlightened "[[Bullshit|sovereign democracy]]",<ref group=note>Similarly, the Russian economy has developed from Yeltsin's crony capitalism to a [[Oil|stable]] and [[Natural gas|diversified]] economy under Putin.</ref> which has cut assassinations of [[journalist]]s down to only two or three a year<ref>See [https://web.archive.org/web/20100619212612/http://cdi.org/program/document.cfm?documentid=3694&programID=29&from_page=../friendlyversion/printversion.cfm Russian Journalist Assassination Comes After U.S. Congressional Resolutions Urging Protection for Media] and {{wpl|List of journalists killed in Russia|Wikipedia's list of journalists killed in Russia}}</ref><ref group=note>Because that is how many it takes to intimidate the surviving journalists.</ref> and doesn't cut off the [[Natural gas|gas]] supply ''every'' time a foreign country criticizes it. Their "democracy" is now so thriving that the [[United Russia]] party scored 238 out of 450 Duma seats in the 2011 elections with only minimal widespread electoral fraud.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-06/russians-protest-against-election-fraud/3714310 Russians protest against election fraud], Australian Broadcasting Corporation</ref> 

One of their many favorite pastimes is insisting that [[NATO]] is out to get them.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4</ref> Every time the situation gets a bit dicey at home, the solution is easy. "[[Stab-in-the-back legend|Take back more of Russia!]]"  They have enough of Russia already. That whole area of Siberia?  Just develop the land slowly, and you could have a country that rivals [[China]] in resources. Seems like Russia is thinking, ''"Tired of being cold. Maybe take back warm land."''

===Irredentism===
{{main|Irredentism}}
Russia has seized land by force in several former [[Eastern Bloc]] countries that it considers unfriendly (mainly [[Ukraine]] and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]), often under the guise of protecting Russian speakers who did not ask to be protected, or intensified local conflicts in order to send in "peacekeepers". Russia has created internationally unrecognized puppet states out of most of these territories; the rest get the honor of being [[Military occupation|unconvincingly passed off as integral parts of the Russian Federation]] to the international community.
*[[Transnistria]] (1990) — a sliver of [[Moldova]] and [[Ukraine]]; not officially recognized by Russia, but the Russian military presence makes it clear that that's just an attempt at plausible deniability
*[[Abkhazia]] (1990) — part of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]; Russia officially treats it as a separate nation but decided to build a naval base in Ochamchire after Ukraine kept bombing their Sevastopol base
*[[South Ossetia]] (1991) — part of Georgia; Russia officially treats it as a separate nation, but the ''de facto'' government has repeatedly proposed being annexed into the Russian Federation
*Crimea (invaded in 1991; annexed in 2014) — part of Ukraine; annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea (as opposed to an ''Autonomous'' Republic, its title under Ukraine) and the separate federal city Sevastopol (as opposed to a city with special status, its status under Ukraine).
*{{wpl|Donbas}} (2014; annexed in 2022) — part of Ukraine; claimed as the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic," which are only recognized by the Russian, Syrian, and North Korean governments. Annexed into the Russian Federation in 2022 along with two other Ukrainian oblasts whose occupying governments weren't pretending to be breakaway states, following a rigged door-to-door referendum voters still stuck there were coerced into taking part in at gunpoint. Note that this happened around the time Russia announced a "partial" mobilization to replenish their decimated forces, and that deploying conscripts abroad is illegal under Russian law, meaning they likely did this so these areas wouldn't technically be abroad even if anyone who sees Ukraine as the actual country it is would say otherwise. Also note that the other two oblasts in which these referendums were held (Zaporizhzhia and Kherson) have populations that are less than 10% Russian, yet Russia expects the world to believe the vast majority of the population wanted to be annexed by Russia.

==Religion==
[[File:Cross_of_the_Russian_Orthodox_Church_01.svg|right|180px|thumb|The three-barred Cross of the Russian Orthodox Church. The bottom represents the footrest of Christ, while the top represents the ''titulus'' mockingly announcing Christ as the "King of the Jews" that the Romans affixed to the Cross during Christ's crucifixion.]]
Russia's most prominent religion is [[Orthodox Christianity|Russian Orthodox]], a branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which 41% of people observe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the observance of Orthodox Christianity has risen, but not church attendance, and the number of people who do not identify with any religion has dropped, according to the Pew Research Center analysis in 2008.<ref>(February 10, 2014) [http://www.pewforum.org/2014/02/10/russians-return-to-religion-but-not-to-church/ Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church.] ''Pew Research Center''. Retrieved March 23, 2018.</ref> More women are shown to be religious than men, and age positively correlates with the percentage of people who observe it. In 2008, education level did not correlate with the amount of religious identification among Russians.

Apparently, the country is also adding the spectator sport of public [[creationist]] silliness, as demonstrated by a protest by Russian Orthodox [[young Earth creationism|Young Earth creationist]]s, specifically Bozhya Volya (Божья воля), or "God's Will", an activist group outside of Moscow's [[Charles Darwin]] museum.<ref>Bartholomew, Richard (March 23, 2013) [http://barthsnotes.com/2013/03/23/russian-creationists-protest-at-charles-darwin-museum/ Russian Creationists Protest at Charles Darwin Museum]. ''Bartholomew's Notes''. Retrieved March 23, 2018.</ref> They unfurled a banner that read "God created the world" on the building. The stunt there is tied to Dmitriy Enteo, also known as the perpetrator against the [[Vladimir_Putin#Pussy_Riot|Pussy Riot facade]]. In addition, the newer competitive events of [[homophobia|passing laws against free speech to combat teh evul gay]] and 
beating up
 detaining [[human rights]] activists<ref>[http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/01/russia-investigate-violent-raid-rights-group Russia: Investigate Violent Raid on Rights Group], Human Rights Watch</ref> and [[Flying spaghetti monster|Pastafarians]]<ref>[http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/humor-failure-russia-crackdown-pastafarians-shows-kremlin-church-ties-f8C10995408 Humor failure in Russia: Crackdown on 'Pastafarians' shows Kremlin-church ties], NBC</ref> seem to be crowd favorites.

==European or Asian? 
Maybe even Eurasian
==
{{cquote|Russia is not between Europe and Asia. Europe and Asia are to the left and right of Russia. We are not a bridge between them but a separate civilizational space, where Russia unites the civilizational communities of East and West.|||Vladimir Yakunin, Russian [[oligarch]]<br/>''who apparently thinks he can have it both ways''<ref>[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26769481 Vladimir Putin: The rebuilding of ‘Soviet’ Russia], BBC</ref>}}
{{cquote|Russia's only real geostrategic option - the option that would give Russia a realistic international role and also maximize the opportunity of transforming and socially modernizing itself - is Europe.|||{{wpl|Zbigniew Brzezinski}}}}
Given Russia's territorial belongings and peculiar history (starting off as an Eastern European country and spending about 200 years under the Tatar yoke), there's a lot of debate about whether it belongs to Europe or Asia. Nowadays, most evidence, including genetics, points to the former: haplogroups in the Russian genetic pool form a cluster with Northern and Eastern Europeans, especially [[Ukrainian]]s and Poles.<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10069400 Mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in Russians]</ref><ref>[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929707000250 Two Sources of the Russian Patrilineal Heritage in Their Eurasian Context]</ref> They are also very far from Turkish and Mongol groups.<ref group=note>Neatly explained by the fact that Mongols rarely had direct contact with Russians.</ref> This is also evident in the country's traditions and customs, originating from Slavic paganism, Eastern Byzantine Orthodoxy, and Western European culture.

Nevertheless, it was a common propaganda tactic in the 19th century to portray Russians as "Asiatic" (which, due to the epoch's [[Racialism|racialist]] trends, was just a euphemism for "barbaric"/"inferior"). This view was promoted by France after the 1812 defeat (most notably by Henri Martin), by Poland after the suppression of the November Uprising, and by Britain during the {{wpl|Great Game}}; about a century later, it was also exploited by Nazis during WW2 to justify the Russians' "racial inferiority" and the conquest of USSR. After 1945, when racialism quickly declined in popularity, the association between Russia and Mongols/nomads also went out of fashion since it lost its propaganda value; nowadays, it remains popular only among hardcore Ukrainian nationalists who seek to establish ''their'' country as the true heir to Kievan Rus. Some Russians argue that the country has a unique "Eurasian" path between East and West; history disagrees, however: Russia's closest cultural ties have always been with the West, and the relations with Asian countries were of the same type that Britain had with India: either conquest or trade.

Russian-American writer Nabokov provides an interesting take on this question in his novel "{{wpl|Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle}}". It takes place in an alternate reality called Antiterra (Demonia). Russia and the US are combined into one country called Estotia. The Russo-Anglo-American Atlantic world is fighting the Golden Horde in this world's analog of the [[Cold War]].<ref>[http://www.dezimmer.net/ReAda/AntiterraGeography.htm The geography of Antiterra]</ref>

==LGBT rights==
[[File:Protesta por la homofobia institucional de Rusia-3.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Activists in Madrid protest against Russia's abuses against its LGBT community.]]
{{cquote|We live in a modern European country, yet we have a law that divides people up into types and categories and says that the basis of the declaration on human rights is a crime.|||Anton Krasovsky on gay rights, who was fired from the government-run KontrTV for publicly coming out gay.<ref>Krasovsky, Anton (May 14, 2013) [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/14/being-gay-russia-likened-to-terrorism I came out because gay people in Russia are suffering – it's time for courage] ''The Guardian''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref>}}
Russia has a very proud record of ignoring and violating [[LGBT rights]]. While same-sex activity has been considered decriminalized since 1993,<ref>[http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad788c.html Russia: Update to RUS13194 of 16 February 1993 on the treatment of homosexuals.] (February 29, 2000). ''Refworld''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> there are no anti-discrimination laws that protect gay people from having [[homophobia|hate crimes committed against them]] in any services, nor is [[same-sex marriage]] formally recognized. Additionally, while gay people are legally allowed to openly serve in the military, there is an unofficial "[[don't ask, don't tell]]" policy.<ref>Tolkueva, Irina (December 1, 2003) [http://www.pravdareport.com/business/finance/01-12-2003/4207-gayarmy-0/ Gays are not Willingly Accepted in the Russian Army] ''PravadaReport''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> In fact, at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, athletes were told that it's okay to be gay [[Think of the children|as long as they don't say it in front of the children's faces]].<ref>Brydum, Sunnivie (August 12, 2013) [https://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/08/12/russia-proposes-dont-ask-dont-tell-olympics Russia Proposes 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Olympics.] ''Advocate''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> Russia has a federal law against the "promotion of propaganda for non-traditional sexual relationships" (advocacy for LGBT rights), which uses this exact rationale, with a bit of offending religious fee-fees mixed in.<ref>Elder, Miriam (June 11, 2013) [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/russia-law-banning-gay-propaganda Russia passes law banning gay 'propaganda'] ''The Guardian''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref><ref>Gevisser, Mark (December 27, 2013) [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/opinion/life-under-russias-gay-propaganda-ban.html Life Under Russia’s ‘Gay Propaganda’ Ban.] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> Due to the overly draconian and the nakedly discriminatory nature of these laws, {{wpl|LGBT rights protests surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics|protests surrounding the 2014 Sochi Olympics were widespread}}, including asking the International Olympic Committee to move the games to another country and encouraging athletes to boycott the event and Russian products, most notably Russian vodka. Since 2013, Vladimir Putin has signed a law forbidding gay couples from countries that recognize same-sex marriage to adopt Russian children, claiming to "protect" them from "[[bullshit|complexes, emotional suffering, and stress.]]"<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/03/russia-putin-gay-adoption/2486913/ Russia's Putin signs law limiting adoption by gays.] (July 3, 2013). ''USA Today''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> Gay pride parades were never officially granted and were usually met with vast amounts of homophobia;<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6310883.stm Moscow bans 'satanic' gay parade.] (January 29, 2007). ''BBC News''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> most notably, the biggest of the gay pride parades in Russia, the annual {{wpl|Moscow Pride}} parade, was described as "satanic" by former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who believes that a ban on gay pride parades [[bullshit|would reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS]]. Since then, gay parades have been banned in Moscow for 100 years.<ref>[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19293465 Gay parades banned in Moscow for 100 years.] (August 12, 2012). ''BBC News''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref><ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/not-the-onion-moscow-bans-gay-pride-for-next-100-years/258296/ "Not The Onion", indeed.]</ref> Due to this tomfoolery, the European Court of Human Rights has fined Russia for the gay parade ban.<ref>[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11598590 European court fines Russia for banning gay parades.] (March 6,2012) . ''BBC News''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref>

Public opinion doesn't fare better than official policy. 85% of polled Russians by the All-Russian Public Opinion Center strongly oppose same-sex marriage, and 88% support the gay propaganda ban.<ref name="Gay Public Opinion">Herszenhorhn, David M. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/world/europe/gays-in-russia-find-no-haven-despite-support-from-the-west.html?pagewanted=all Gays in Russia Find No Haven, Despite Support From the West] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> Additionally, a poll conducted by the Levada Center has 35% of Russians thinking that homosexuality is a disease and 43% believe it to be a bad habit.<ref name="Gay Public Opinion"/>

The [[#Чечня́|Chechen Republic]] has its own story entirely to tell how it feels about gay rights.

Transgender people fare slightly better in Russia, though much work remains. They are legally allowed to change their gender, but it requires sterilization.<ref>(May 21, 2013) [https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/map-shows-how-europe-forces-trans-people-be-sterilized210513/#gs.M_o2S=U Map shows how Europe forces trans people to be sterilized] ''Gay Star News.'' Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> Though recently, to reduce driving-related fatalities, a ridiculous Russian amendment has classified transgenderism and other sexual preferences as a [[transphobia|"mental disease"]]. Thus, it impairs a person's ability to drive a vehicle properly.<ref>Walker, Shaun [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/09/transgender-people-russia-banned-driving-legal-amendment-dmitry-medvedev Transgender people in Russia banned from driving, says legal amendment.] ''The Guardian''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> There's not even a convenient [[correlation does not imply causation]] fallacy to back up that ridiculous reasoning since Russia has one of the worst road accident fatality rates in the world, much worse than countries that are more accepting of transgender (and the other classified "mentally ill" sexual preferences) drivers such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, etc.<ref>[http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2015/GSRRS2015_data/en/ WHO Road Safety charts from 2015.] Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> The only reason traffic fatalities will go down after introducing the bill is generally fewer drivers on the road to begin with, assuming that there will be any impact on Russia's driver base at all since it targets only a tiny minority of people. Enforcing this amendment to root out the crazy trans drivers is another story.

==Siberia==
[[Image:Siberia-FederalSubjects.png|thumb|
<span style="margin:0; padding-bottom:1px; font-size:90%; display:block;"><span style="border:#c00; background:#c00; color:#c00;">&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</span>&#160;Siberian Federal District</span>
<span style="margin:0; padding-bottom:1px; font-size:90%; display:block;"><span style="border:#c00; background:#c00; color:#c00;">&#160;&#160;&#160;</span><span style="border:#ff4000; background:#ff4000; color:#ff4000;">&#160;&#160;&#160;</span>&#160;Geographic Russian Siberia</span>
<span style="margin:0; padding-bottom:1px; font-size:90%; display:block;"><span style="border:#c00; background:#c00; color:#c00;">&#160;&#160;</span><span style="border:#ff4000; background:#ff4000; color:#ff4000;">&#160;&#160;</span><span style="border:#f93; background:#f93; color:#f93;">&#160;&#160;</span>&#160;Historical Siberia (and present Siberia in some usages)</span>]]

'''Siberia''' is the Asian portion of Russia (a "portion" comprising two-thirds of the country's landmass, though home to only one-quarter of the population). It became notorious as the destination of [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]] exiled during the times of the [[Tsar|Russian Empire]] and of the [[Soviet Union]]. So notorious is the association of the words ''Siberia'' and ''prison'' that the place is routinely described as the destination of all Russian prisoners, even when they are sent to {{wpl | Mordovia}}, as far west of Siberia itself as [[London]] is from [[Poland|Warsaw]].<ref>[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/pussy-riot-members-sent-russian-381507 "Mordovia, while [[Pussy Riot | Maria Alyokhina]] was shipped to a similar institution in Perm. The two cities, located in the freezing central region of Siberia..."] So the Republic of Mordovia is a city now? And Perm, although a city, lies on the other side of the Urals from Siberia...</ref> Apart from its penological functions, Siberia is a primary source of [[oil]] and gas. Siberia has almost every known natural resource, from timber to [[diamond]]s to abandoned barrels of [[nuke|nuclear waste]].

In the later Soviet period, the government encouraged population growth in Siberia by paying larger salaries to those willing to live and work there, earning it the nickname "the land of the long ruble".

Today, Siberia is a mostly-settled region with several large cities connected by a network of highways and railroads; indeed, Novosibirsk, the unofficial capital of Siberia, is the third-largest city in Russia, with a population of 1.47 million people. Settlements far away from established urban centers can still be impractical due to the harsh climate and long travel distances.<ref>[https://archive.today/SQRVq Yakutsk, the saddest city in the world.]</ref> At least the era of the phrase "[[Gulag|send them to Siberia]]" in the sense of imprisonment or exile is almost over. However, the imprisonment of {{wpl | Mikhail Khodorkovsky}} in a Siberian penal colony<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/25/russia.tomparfitt Welcome to penal colony YaG 14/10. Now the home of one of Russia's richest men], ''The Guardian'' (He's since been freed and [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/business/international/yukos-shareholders-awarded-about-50-billion-in-court-ruling.html giving Rosneft a run for its money.])
</ref>
shows that this assumption is a bit premature.

==Russian language==
Russian language belongs to [[East Slavic]] subgroup of [[Slavic]] group of [[Indoeuropean family]]. It is a high [[inflective language]], with a complex system of [[declension]] (6 [[cases]]) for [[nouns]] and for [[adjectives]], and a fully-developed [[conjugation]] system for verbs.   Such complex inflective grammar allows Russian language to have an extremely diverse [[syntactic relationships]], i.e. almost free [[world order]] within a [[sentence]] [[clause]].

The written Russian language uses Cyrillic characters, traditionally invented by St. Cyril and St. Methodius (missionaries from the Byzantine Empire) to spread Christianity. Contemporary Russian uses 33 characters, with two silent characters, one indicating palatalization (Ь) and a hard character (Ъ) that is rarely used (other languages that use Cyrillic include Ukrainian, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Mongol, and Macedonian). While Cyrillic appears significantly different from Latin, it uses quite a few characters that look and sound like their Latin counterparts, for example, А, К, М, О, and Т. However, other characters can look like their Latin counterparts but represent drastically different sounds, such as В sounding like v as in "van" and Р sounding like r as in "rat". The Cyrillic-Latin alphabet similarities are actually partly-superficial since the Cyrillic alphabet was derived from the Greek alphabet.

Due to the prestige and widespread influence of the English language, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the term "{{wpl|Runglish||"}} is used to describe the adaptation of English words and phrases into a Russian sound alike, such as calling "ice cream" by its English name with Russian inflections rather than "мороженое" (''morozhenoye'').<ref>Feur, Alan (June 14, 2005) [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E3DD133EF937A25755C0A9639C8B63 For the Thirsty Runglish Speaker: Try an Ized Cyawfeh.] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> The term "Runglish", first coined by Sergei Krikalyov, was initially used to describe the hybrid language used by Americans and Russians in the International Space Station since crew members must learn to use both languages to fully operate as cosmonauts/astronauts.<ref>Hamer, Ashley. (March 24, 2017) [https://curiosity.com/topics/iss-astronauts-speak-in-a-space-creole-called-runglish-curiosity/ ISS Astronauts Speak In A "Space Creole" Called Runglish.] ''Curiosity''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> Russian [[nationalist]]s are not a huge fan of Runglish, to say the least, moaning that Westerners are subverting the "purity" of their language.<ref name="Runglish">Blomfield, Adrian. (September 12, 2003) [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562947/English-invades-Russian-language.html English invades Russian language.] ''The Telegraph''. Retrieved January 9, 2018.</ref> Because of this, the Russian government dubbed 2007 the "Year of the Russian Language" to preserve it.<ref name="Runglish"/>

[[Twitter]], much to the major annoyance of Russians and virtually any group who uses the Cyrillic alphabet, especially Bulgarians, has banned people who frequently tweet or have a name with Cyrillic characters.<ref> Savov, Vlad. (May 22, 2018).[https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/22/17380630/twitter-moderation-cyrillic-russian-bots Twitter is treating Bulgarians tweeting in Cyrillic like Russian bots.] ''The Verge''. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
</ref> Twitter imposed these measures to tackle Russian trolls and bots, taking advantage of the service to spread discord and misinformation. Unsurprisingly, this measure has shown little result in curbing activity outside of profiling large groups of people who are unrelated to the incidents.

Cyrillic spelling is frequently abused by English writers that try to make a product seem "cooler" by being foreign or 
Яцssiди
 
Yatsssidi
 "Russian". While the fake Cyrillic imitates English at a glance, they'd translate to complete gibberish if read correctly. Common letters being abused include Д (D) being "A", Ф (F) being "O", Я (Ya) being "R", Г (G) being "r", Ц (ts) being "U", И (ee) being "N".<ref group="note">[https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxcyrillic/ There is a Reddit documenting bad Cyrillic.]</ref>

==Vodka==
Vodka is, not surprisingly, the national beverage. According to the OECD, thirty percent of all deaths in 2012 were attributable to [[alcohol]].<ref>[http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/russian-official-urges-action-on-workplace-alcohol-abuse-354118.html Russian official urges action on workplace alcohol abuse] (Wednesday, September 16, 2015) ''Irish Examiner''.</ref> Researchers found that Russian men who drink large amounts of vodka have a 35% risk of dying before age 55.<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/31/russian-men-losing-years-to-vodka  Russian men losing years to vodka: Spirit linked to 35% of cases where a man dies before age 55, with study citing national sport of spectacular drunkenness] (Friday 31 January 2014 11.55 EST) ''The Guardian''.</ref>

==Chechnya==
[[File:Flag_of_the_Chechen_Republic.svg|right|180px|thumb|Flag of the Chechen Republic.]]
The '''Chechen Republic''' (more commonly known as '''Chechnya''') is a constituent republic known for separatism, terrorism, and being an enormous pain for Moscow. There have been no fewer than 2 civil wars between the Chechen separatists and the Federal Russian Government following the USSR's dissolution. The score stands as 1 win for the separatists and a more recent win for the Russian Federal Government.

For modern-day Russia, the Chechen wars drastically reshaped both countries, their leaders, and their peoples for decades to come. President [[Boris Yeltsin]], planning a blitzkrieg against the separatists, quickly collapsed under his own weight. The war descended into a quagmire, humiliating the Kremlin and forcing them to essentially sue for peace. In comes Prime Minister [[Putin]], who orchestrated a far more organized and brutal campaign against the separatists, beating them down and flattening the country before installing the Kadyrov clan into power. The Chechen wars helped destroy Yeltsin's approval ratings while turning Putin into an eternally popular strongman, whose tough talk, uncompromising rhetoric, and insistence that "There is no border with Chechnya" won over many disaffected Russians who resented the separatists' insurgent tactics.<ref>http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/chechnya-russia-20-years-conflict-2014121161310580523.html</ref><ref>http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/chechnya-russia%E2%80%99s-forgotten-war</ref>

The President of the Chechen Republic is [[Ramzan Kadyrov]], a barely 40-year-old man who passes the time by joking about killing opposition members.<ref>http://www.newsweek.com/chechen-head-kadyrov-puts-russian-opposition-leader-sniper-scope-421579</ref><ref>http://mashable.com/2016/02/01/chechen-leader-puts-putin-critics-in-crosshairs/#HcMDwP5aRPqk</ref> He acts like a warlord, crushing any and all opposition,<ref>http://www.waynakh.com/eng/2011/08/sex-slavery-and-death-await-women-seized-by-kadyrovs-bandits/</ref> presiding over abuses of human rights by his unaffiliated supporter militias,<ref>http://pantheon.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/eca/chechnya1106/3.htm</ref><ref>https://www.rferl.org/a/1071107.html</ref> and, more recently, {{wpl|Gay concentration camps in Chechnya|putting gay men in concentration camps}} while insisting there are no gay men in his country; he went on record to brag about how he wants to eliminate the gay population before the end of 2017.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/world/europe/chechnya-russia-attacks-gays.html</ref><ref>http://attitude.co.uk/chechnyas-president-vows-to-eliminate-gay-population-by-the-end-of-may/</ref> Putin has agreed with the Chechen leader that these camps do not exist and that gay people aren't being systematically persecuted for being gay 
since gays don't actually exist
.<ref>Dearden, Lizzie (April 20, 2017) [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-chechnya-gay-men-killing-torture-vladimir-putin-dmitry-peskov-chechen-leader-ramzan-kadyrov-a7693291.html Russia backs Chechnya government's denials over killing and torture of gay men.] ''The Independent''. Retrieved January 10, 2018.</ref> The Kremlin has fed a dragon that's gotten too big for even them to control.<ref>http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/08/putins-dragon</ref><ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/putins-closest-ally-and-his-biggest-liability</ref> Putin has little choice but to back Kadyrov and not truly investigate the allegations,<ref>https://m.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/gay-men-rounded-held-secret-prisons-reports-sugges/3170885/</ref> lest he risk pissing off the real-life Ramsay Bolton.<ref>http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_why_putin_wont_get_tough_on_kadyrov_7278</ref><ref>http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/05/19/putins-monster-ramzan-kadyrov/</ref>

Chechens have been fighting on both sides of the Ukrainian conflict.<ref name="tiktokwarriors">{{cite web|url=https://www.euronews.com/2023/01/20/mad-dogs-what-are-chechen-fighters-doing-in-ukraine|title='TikTok warriors': What are Chechen fighters doing in Ukraine?|last=Askew|first=Joshua|date=January 20, 2023|publisher=''Euronews''}}</ref> This has included Islamist militias fighting (at least nominally) on the side of Ukraine,<ref name="tiktokwarriors"/> while the Russian military has been outsourcing a lot of its dirtier jobs{{efn|Including executing dissenting soldiers and intimidating civilians.}} to Chechen fighters.<ref name="tiktokwarriors"/>

==See also==
*[[Joseph Stalin]]
*[[Pussy Riot]]
*[[Tunguska event]]
*[[RT]]
*[[Trump-Russia connection]]
*[[Ukrainian#Euromaidan.2C_Crimean_crisis_and_further_dickery|2014 Ukrainian crisis]]
*[[Fun:Vatnik argument bingo: Ukraine edition]]
*[[:rurw:Заглавная страница|И теперь на русском языке]]!

==External links==
*[http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/sep/02/dying-russians/ The Dying Russians], ''The New York Review of Books''
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhDHtKpfP0o Louis Potgieter would be proud.]
*[https://www.youtube.com/user/CarCrashCompilation/video Dash cam videos are Russia's largest export,] after vodka, oil, weapons, and suicidal novelists

==Notes==
{{notelist|2|80%}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}
{{nationbox}}

[[Category:Russia| ]]
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[[Category:War crimes]]

Categories: Russia, Communism, Antisemitism, War, Imperialism, Homophobia, Genocide denial , Pseudohistory promoters, European countries, Asian countries, Anti-Western, Authoritarian regimes, Fascism, Totalitarianism, Transphobia, Genocide, History of communism, Racism, Empires, Vatniks, War crimes