(EDM) Unlike the year before, Russia entered 2019 with low expectations and deepening disappointment in its own faltering revival. In contrast, the World Cup provided a focus for anticipation in 2018, and the presidential elections, pre-determined as the outcome was, raised hopes for increases of pensions and social benefits. Those hopes turned into frustration with the upping of the retirement age by five years. The dull outlook for this coming year was aggravated by the bad omen of a natural gas explosion in Magnitogorsk on New Year’s Eve, which claimed 39 lives (Znak.com, January 11, 2019). Meanwhile, the smoldering conflict with Ukraine no longer generates any “patriotic” mobilization, and the finalization of autocephaly (self-governance) for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the tomos signed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Orthodox Christmas Eve was sad news for many Russians (New Times, January 10, 2019). […]
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