The smartphone is the defining technology of the age

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21645131-smartphone-defining-technology-age-truly-personal-computer

Ukraine’s economy - The day of reckoning

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21645242-wests-inadequate-support-ukraine-being-brutally-exposed-day

Default would be embarrassing for the government, but things cannot get much worse for ordinary Ukrainians. By the end of the year they are likely to be a third poorer than when the Soviet Union collapsed. Inflation is 29% and will get much higher thanks to the hryvnia’s slump. To tame inflation and support the currency, interest rates, already 20%, will rise further. That will make it more difficult to repay loans. Added to all that is government austerity, on which the IMF is insisting. By 2017 domestic gas prices will have increased to five times the level of 2013. The government is freezing pensions. With such high inflation, that amounts to a substantial cut. Even if the war stopped tomorrow, there would be a lot more pain to come.

What I learned from watching a week of Russian TV

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/out-of-my-mouth-comes-unimpeachable-manly-truth.html?_r=1


With the exception of fishing, soccer and the Orthodox Church, few things are taken more seriously in Russia than Eurovision. Indeed, much of the sequined musical fare on Russian television looks like an endless Eurovision rehearsal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r2TilNclT8k

Russian cinema: Russia's Book of Job

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21643040-domestic-response-andrei-zvyagintsevs-award-winning-film-leviathan-says-lot


The domestic response to Andrei Zvyagintsev’s award-winning film, “Leviathan”, says a lot about today’s Russia, and especially about the church

Sanctions against Russia - The Economist

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21643122-how-businesses-linked-blacklisted-oligarchs-avoid-western-sanctions-fancy-footwork


But this approach increases uncertainty for Western companies that do business (or are considering transactions) with such firms. Faced with this, many have felt obliged to hire investigators like those who looked into Sogaz’s affairs. This is costly, and even seasoned sleuths are often unable to give firm assurances about ownership and control, given Russian business’s widespread use of offshore jurisdictions

Vladimir Putin and his tsar quality - FT

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/48b6a350-ad29-11e4-bfcf-00144feab7de.html

Peter Pomerantsev helps explain this phenomenon in Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, his mesmerising account of the nine years he spent in Russia as a television producer. During that time, Pomerantsev recorded some remarkable human stories about life in modern Russia as well as observing first-hand the brilliant but cynical way that state television cast its spells over the population. The goal, as he put it, was to “synthesise Soviet control with Western entertainment”, turning Russia into a country of canned laughter.

At the heart of this kaleidoscopic world stands Vladislav Surkov, the then Kremlin official hailed as one of the ideologues of “managed democracy”, who directs Russian society as if it were one giant reality show. The mercurial Surkov has helped create a “postmodern dictatorship that uses the language and institutions of democratic capitalism for authoritarian ends”.

The brilliance of this new system, Pomerantsev argues, is that it climbs inside all ideologies and movements and renders them absurd, making it impossible to know what to believe. “The Kremlin has finally mastered the art of fusing reality TV and authoritarianism to keep the great 140m-strong population entertained, distracted, constantly exposed to geopolitical nightmares that if repeated enough times can become infectious.

How Russian TV uses psychology over Ukraine

http://www.bbc.co.uk/monitoring/how-russian-tv-uses-psychology-over-ukraine


In a lecture last summer, Professor Valeriy Solovey of the Russian Foreign Ministry university MGIMO examined the techniques of media manipulation used by Russian state TV in its coverage of the tumultuous events that led to the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych last February.

He described how fast-moving images of fire, violence and frightened people shown over "alarming music" were used to create in viewers an extremely negative impression of what was taking place.

This is a classic example of neurolinguistic programming, said Solovey, and is designed to send people into a "trance-like state" where their critical faculties are depressed and the subconscious is open to suggestion.

Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev - FT

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0c524910-a242-11e4-bbb8-00144feab7de.html#axzz3PvJZIipH

In ‘Leviathan’, the controversial film-maker delivers a blistering critique of life under Putin

Oil price and Russian politics

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2015/01/oil-price-and-russian-politics

Lunch with the FT: Richard Plepler Of HBO

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5fc80e04-972f-11e4-845a-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl

The 56-year-old is chief executive of HBO, the premium cable network that has, over the past 15 years, been responsible for some of the most innovative, talked-about shows on television, from the New Jersey mobsters of The Sopranos to the brutal dissection of urban life in The Wire, from the swords and dragons of Game of Thrones to True Detective’s emotionally damaged cops. Its programmes have 15 nominations in Sunday’s Golden Globes in Beverly Hills — the 14th successive year that it has garnered more nominations than any other television network.

It is HBO’s programme roster that most people think of when they call to mind examples of today’s “golden age of television”. But, despite the awards and 130m subscribers round the world, Plepler faces plenty of challenges. In recent years, HBO’s rivals have upped their game: shows such as House of Cards, Mad Men and Breaking Bad would be a natural fit for the channel but are shown elsewhere, while digital giants Netflix and Amazon have joined HBO’s cable and satellite rivals, such as Showtime, Starz, FX and AMC, in bidding for the best scripts and shows.

Inside Putin’s Information War - Peter Pomerantsev

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/putin-russia-tv-113960_full.html#.VK6jsWK9KSN

Having seen how Russian TV works from the inside I wonder whether the West has the institutional or analytical tools necessary to deal with this new challenge. At a recent conference in Washington, U.S. officials told me they were surprised by how sophisticated Russian TV was. Up until this year they had been utterly unaware of the unique mix of authoritarianism, spin and entertainment the Kremlin has perfected.