EDITORIAL: Four Signs of the Neo-Soviet Apocalypse

This is how Russian president Vladimir Putin helps you answer the question as to
whether it is wrong to think of his country as “a little bit savage” or as having
“just climbed down from the trees.” Persuasive fellow, isn’t he?

EDITORIAL

Four Signs of the Neo-Soviet Apocalypse

If there was anyone left who still had any doubts about whether Russia had fully transformed itself into the neo-Soviet state, surely they were laid to rest by a Moscow Times report last week that the Bank of New York had exposed an attempt by the Russian government to manufacture counterfeit documents in order to press its case against BoNY for $22.5 million in penalties for alleged money laundering. The MT reported:

Ivan Marisin, a lawyer for the bank, said a document that gave a U.S. lawyer the power of attorney to sign the lawsuit on behalf of the Federal Customs Service was counterfeit. The customs service lawyers provided the court with the document — issued to Steven Marks at Miami-based law firm Podhurst Orseck — at a court session last month, after Marisin argued that without it the case should be scrapped. But Marisin said Wednesday that the document, dated April 27, 2007, was fake because it featured a letterhead that the Federal Customs Service introduced several months later, in October. Marisin’s comments appeared to wipe an ironic expression off of the face of Yekaterina Dukhina, a customs service lawyer who had struggled to keep from chuckling at Marisin’s earlier comments on a separate issue. “I am simply shocked! We received the certificate from the Federal Customs Service and we have no doubts about its authenticity,” Dukhina said emotionally, prompting the presiding judge, Lyudmila Pulova, to ask if she was all right.

The judge needn’t have asked that question because nobody — nobody — is “all right” in neo-Soviet Russia.

Simply to manufacture false documents, in such a ridiculously ham-handed fashion, is exactly what we would have expected from the USSR. Indeed, we saw such behavior on a routine basis. Movies were made about it. But one would have hoped that, seeing the USSR collapse into a pile of rubble, the people of Russia would have realized that perhaps, just perhaps, such a course of action isn’t good for the country.

It’s a clear sign of the neo-Soviet apocalypse that Russians have brought upon themselves, and we report others below. A major Moscow Xanadu burns to the ground, shrouded in controversy and appalling excess. A major new book announces the new Cold War, and calls for action. A major newspaper jumps on the Russophobe bandwagon. Russia is caught red-handed in a naked act of aggression, alienating yet another powerful nation.

But all that is only the first course, though, in the disaster that is Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For the main dish, as we reported last week on Publius Pundit:

Sir David King, who as the [British] Government’s Chief Scientist played a key role in the investigation into Litvinenko’s murder, has accused the Russian president of masterminding the murder of nearly 300 of his own people in the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999, which Putin blamed on Chechen terrorists. “I can tell you that Putin was responsible for the bombings,” Sir David claimed to Mandrake at the Morgan Stanley Great Britons Awards. “I’ve seen the evidence. There is no way that Putin would have won the election if it wasn’t for the bombings. Before them he was getting 10 per cent approval ratings. After, they shot up to 80 per cent.”

The mere fact that Russia could have a government, at one and the same time, both so venal and so incompetent that a leading British official would make such a statement, believing it would have credibility and that no serious consequences could flow from it, speaks volumes about the extent of the failure of the Putin regime. But, in fact, the evidence has long been clear that the Moscow bombings were ordered by the Kremlin. Why else would it raze the scenes so quickly? How else to explain the intimidation, jailing and murder of those who attempted to investigate? And above all, what about the KGB spies caught red-handed in Ryazan planting yet another bomb?

It’s worth pointing out that Russia can, at times, actually be more evil than it even intends, bringing not only long-term disaster but short term horror as well. So, for example, the Moscow Times gave us dessert in a story last week:

Russia said Wednesday that Iran’s test launch of a rocket raised suspicions about the real nature of the country’s atomic program, in what could signal a hardening of its stance toward Tehran. Iran launched a rocket Monday designed to carry its first locally made research satellite next year, showing the country’s advances in ballistics at a time when Western powers are already wary that it may be developing a nuclear weapon. “Any movement in terms of creating such a potential weapon naturally worries us and others,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyuko told journalists, Interfax reported. “All the more so since it creates suspicion toward Iran about its possible desire to create a nuclear weapon. Rockets of such range are one of the components of such a weapons system. Of course this raises concern,” he added Russia has previously said there is no evidence that Tehran is trying to make nuclear weapons.

Suddenly, even Russia itself has realized it may have gone too far in supplying nuclear technology to Iran, creating a Frankenstein creature far beyond Russia’s control and with the power to strike Moscow at will whenever Russia might offend Islam. Oops.

To put it mildly, Russia can survive this type of barbaric behavior by its malignant overlords, fully authorized by a callow and cowardly population, no more than could the USSR. We can only thank our lucky stars that John McCain has come along at such a propitious moment, to lead us in a new confrontation with a new Evil Empire. His dominant performance in last week’s “Super Tuesday” election contest was most heartening, as is the heroic work of journalists like the brilliant Edward Lucas of the Economist, who has been pulling a yeoman’s share of the load in alerting the world to the dangers it now faces behind the new Iron Curtain.

PS: In case you were wondering, the fourth one is the picture. Let’s call that the cheese course, shall we?

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Another Original LR Translation: Annals of Sinelnikov (by our Original Translator)

An Open Letter to FSB Chief Patrushev

Regarding the Case of Sinelnikov vs. Subbotkin

The Editors of the Website “For Human Rights”

[TN: Following is a lightly-edited translation of a commentary by the editors of the “For Human Rights”(FHR) website on an exchange of letters between Vladimir Sinelnikov and the head of the Personal Security Division of the Russian FSB, regarding misrepresentations and other misconduct by FSB officer Subbotkin and two of his colleagues following a traffic accident between Subbotkin and Sinelnikov two years ago. The letters themselves - which were also were publicized on the FHR website - were well summarized by Sinelnikov in his Open Letter to President Putin, and therefore will not be translated here. However, the FHR editors make some additional points regarding Subbotkin’s misconduct, the response of the FSB leadership, and the malfeasances of the Russian court adjudicating the case, which definitely merit translation for a wider readership. As noted in the final paragraph of their commentary, the FHR editors consider this an open letter to FSB Chief Patrushev.]

The cynicism of the reply by FSB authorities to Sinelnikov’s letter is sadly typical of the Russian government’s traditions, and subsequent events give rise to fears about the rules by which employees of the Lubyanka are now permitting themselves to live.

We have a few more questions.

First, how could a videotape from a special surveillance camera, aimed at an intersection in front of the Lubyanka, wind up at the police unit investigating the events in question, without any request from the police themselves? Secondly, what sort of documentary permission did Subbotkin have in his possession that allowed him to take this videotape from his place of work and use it for his personal defense? (Although, in an ironic turn of events, independent experts later determined that the videotape only added to the evidence of Subbotkin’s culpability.)

Another question: In his attestations and in the accident report, Subbotkin gave in his own handwriting his home address. And he responded when a telegram arrived at this address requesting he come to an inspection of the vehicle he destroyed. But at the bureau of addresses it turned out he was not registered as living at this address. He had a different residential address: Bolshaya Lubyanka 1/3 (?! – editors). This sadly famous building is the place where Subbotkin works, along with FSB Chief Patrushev, and many of their other colleagues, but in order for this to be his registered address, the place of his propusk (according to the old system), it means that Mr. Subbotkin lived in…

Now, it is well-known that at this address one can find the in-house prison of the FSB. But it would be news to learn that there are also residences here. Apparently, Subbotkin violated some sort of government secret by identifying in the accident report his true place of residence. In Sinelnikov’s letter to the FSB Personal Security Division (USB) he asked one very simple question: “Please confirm the work address of Mr. Subbotkin (at the FSB, in the Presidential Administration), as well as the work addresses of two ‘bystanders’ who ‘happened’ to have witnessed the accident.”

The height of bureaucratic artistry and cynicism displayed in the FSB’s reply should cause, we suppose, some doubts about their honesty, but not about the affiliation of their colleagues: no names given; no comment on the allegation that the officers bore false witness; no “tracks left behind”; the possibility left open to deny everything they did; and, most importantly, no reproach of the officer who practically broadcast his affiliation with the organization, as well as that of two co-workers from a neighboring office who came running across the square to bear false witness on his behalf.

One would imagine that if Subbotkin had known who it was he ran into – that he had “happened into” an academic affiliated with three academies, the author of films about Chernobyl for which he was entered into the Guiness Book of World Records and awarded the Order of Valor, the author of films about Sakharov, human rights workers, and international terrorism – perhaps Subbotkin would have thought twice about trying to intimidate this man with his FSB credentials. And in that case maybe the FSB USB would have thought twice before it put together its sleazy reply, denying some “threat factor” – about which Sinelnikov had said not a single word in his letter – and regretfully noting the lack of any capability in the FSB Ninth Directorate to consider “procedural norms”. We would like to know what they had in mind by this.

In a personal meeting with Sinelnikov, a representative of the Butyrskiy Regional Court in Moscow assured him that his case would be heard in the Butyrskiy court – according to the location where Subbotkin lived (as required by law). But the judge of this court, Naumova, came to a different interpretation: she decided to return the case, unexamined, because contrary to what was said by the court’s representative, she believed that it did not matter where Subbotkin actually lived, but only where he was registered as living. And that being the case, Bolshaya Lubyanka 1/3 was not one of “her” addresses. If Sinelnikov wanted to pursue the matter further, he would have to go to another court, one which had the Lubyanka within its jurisdiction. And he would have to locate the residence manager among the chekisti. The Moscow appeals court overturned Naumova’s decision and sent the case back to her. During this time, over the course of two years, the court “misplaced” the case file twice. What next?

There has been no official word regarding why the previous head of the FSB USB was replaced, but it is now known that Lieutenant General Kupryashkin will begin this phase of his career with this affair as his responsibility.

Along with an answer to Mr. Sinelnikov’s question about whether the chekist Subbotkin works in the Presidential Administration, we the editors would also like to know whether the Administration was advised of the above-described incident in the course of which Mr. Subbotkin identified himself as belonging to the Presidential Administration.

Not long ago, the President of Russia, on a visit to the Lubyanka (where Subbotkin is registered as living), gave high marks to the activities of the FSB. We can only hope that he was not talking about the activities described in this publication.

We consider this text to be an official open letter to the Chief of the FSB, Mr. Patrushev.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

MSM Finally Waking up to the Horror of Putin’s Russia

Another mainstream media voice has been raised against Russia, this time Trudy Rubin, a high-ranking figure on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the leading newspaper in one of America’s largest cities (encouragingly, the article is taken here from a reprint in the Salt Lake Tribune; even more encouragingly, she quotes Robert Amsterdam):

Another presidential campaign is under way this week – this one in Russia. On March 2, Russians will vote in a pro-forma election for a successor to KGB man Vladimir V. Putin. The Kremlin has handpicked a former law professor, Dmitry Medvedev, though Putin may try to remain the power behind the scenes. Medvedev, however, is trying to present a softer face than his mentor; he pledged in his first campaign speech last week to make everyone accountable before the law. Putin, by contrast, has used the law as a club to bludgeon opponents. If Medvedev means what he says, he ought to condemn a travesty of justice going on now in Moscow that makes Russia look as if it has reverted to the Stalin era.

Moscow courts are refusing medical treatment to a former Russian oil executive, Vasily Aleksanian, who is on trial for money laundering, and has late-stage AIDS. The aim is to force him to testify against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Without the treatment, Aleksanian will die. It is almost impossible to believe this case is going on in the 21st century, in a country whose president hobnobs with European leaders and President Bush. Khodorkovsky – once one of Russia’s richest men – had been chief executive of Russia’s largest oil producer, Yukos. He was sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison colony, supposedly for tax evasion and fraud.

Russia’s natural resources on the cheap during the turbulent post-communist years – have not been bothered, as long as they offered Putin no challenge. Meantime, the Kremlin has broken up Yukos; most of its assets were purchased at fire-sale prices by state-owned corporations. This blatant manipulation of courts and laws seems to have been insufficient for Kremlin bosses. Now they are willing to tolerate the effective murder of Aleksanian because he won’t give a false confession. A Moscow court says he can’t be moved to an AIDS clinic because the defense didn’t prove he was suffering from a lethal disease, but the court refused to admit his test results as evidence. The European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are supposed to be binding on Russia, has ruled three times that Aleksanian should be moved to a civilian medical facility. Russia’s Supreme Court rejected the rulings. Khodorkovsky has launched a prison hunger strike to protest the refusal to give Aleksanian medical treatment. The ex-tycoon says he has been given an ”impossible moral choice”: to confess to crimes he didn’t commit and implicate others or to ”become the cause of possible death” of Aleksanian.

Robert Amsterdam, one of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, got it just right when he said in a statement that use of the legal system in such a way evokes ”a different chapter of Russian history.” If Aleksanian dies, this will be only the latest in a string of political murders that many believe were engineered by the Kremlin or Russia’s intelligence services. The most internationally explosive was the murder of former Russian spy turned British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, who was an irritant to the Kremlin. He was killed by a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210, that was put in his tea. The British believe it was administered by former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. Such an act, and access to polonium-210, would require authorization at highest Russian levels. Russian officialdom not only refuses to extradite Lugovoi, but has elevated him to membership in parliament. This case has also poisoned British-Russian relations. And then there is the unsolved attempted murder of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He won Philadelphia’s prestigious Liberty Medal in 2005, and was the hero of the Orange Revolution, when crowds came to the streets to protest the rigging of the 2004 election in Ukraine. Putin openly supported his opponent.

In 2004, a poison attempt on Yushchenko’s life nearly killed him and left his face scarred. Last month, at the Davos World Economic Forum, Yushchenko told me the trail led to Moscow, where three waiters who he believes served him the poison have fled for refuge. He will ask Putin to extradite the three – all Ukrainian citizens – at a meeting on Tuesday. I asked whether his case resembled that of Litvinenko and Lugovoi. His answer: ”Yes, like Lugovoi.” Though the trail in both cases leads to Moscow, they will probably never be solved. But the trial of Aleksanian is going on in public. If he dies, responsibility will rest squarely with official Russia. President-to-be Medvedev says he wants everyone held accountable to the law. If he means it, he will have to change Kremlin behavior that uses laws as a club to bludgeon opponents.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

MSM Finally Waking up to the Horror of Putin’s Russia

Another mainstream media voice has been raised against Russia, this time Trudy Rubin, a high-ranking figure on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the leading newspaper in one of America’s largest cities (encouragingly, the article is taken here from a reprint in the Salt Lake Tribune; even more encouragingly, she quotes Robert Amsterdam):

Another presidential campaign is under way this week – this one in Russia. On March 2, Russians will vote in a pro-forma election for a successor to KGB man Vladimir V. Putin. The Kremlin has handpicked a former law professor, Dmitry Medvedev, though Putin may try to remain the power behind the scenes. Medvedev, however, is trying to present a softer face than his mentor; he pledged in his first campaign speech last week to make everyone accountable before the law. Putin, by contrast, has used the law as a club to bludgeon opponents. If Medvedev means what he says, he ought to condemn a travesty of justice going on now in Moscow that makes Russia look as if it has reverted to the Stalin era.

Moscow courts are refusing medical treatment to a former Russian oil executive, Vasily Aleksanian, who is on trial for money laundering, and has late-stage AIDS. The aim is to force him to testify against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Without the treatment, Aleksanian will die. It is almost impossible to believe this case is going on in the 21st century, in a country whose president hobnobs with European leaders and President Bush. Khodorkovsky – once one of Russia’s richest men – had been chief executive of Russia’s largest oil producer, Yukos. He was sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison colony, supposedly for tax evasion and fraud.

Russia’s natural resources on the cheap during the turbulent post-communist years – have not been bothered, as long as they offered Putin no challenge. Meantime, the Kremlin has broken up Yukos; most of its assets were purchased at fire-sale prices by state-owned corporations. This blatant manipulation of courts and laws seems to have been insufficient for Kremlin bosses. Now they are willing to tolerate the effective murder of Aleksanian because he won’t give a false confession. A Moscow court says he can’t be moved to an AIDS clinic because the defense didn’t prove he was suffering from a lethal disease, but the court refused to admit his test results as evidence. The European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are supposed to be binding on Russia, has ruled three times that Aleksanian should be moved to a civilian medical facility. Russia’s Supreme Court rejected the rulings. Khodorkovsky has launched a prison hunger strike to protest the refusal to give Aleksanian medical treatment. The ex-tycoon says he has been given an ”impossible moral choice”: to confess to crimes he didn’t commit and implicate others or to ”become the cause of possible death” of Aleksanian.

Robert Amsterdam, one of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, got it just right when he said in a statement that use of the legal system in such a way evokes ”a different chapter of Russian history.” If Aleksanian dies, this will be only the latest in a string of political murders that many believe were engineered by the Kremlin or Russia’s intelligence services. The most internationally explosive was the murder of former Russian spy turned British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, who was an irritant to the Kremlin. He was killed by a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210, that was put in his tea. The British believe it was administered by former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. Such an act, and access to polonium-210, would require authorization at highest Russian levels. Russian officialdom not only refuses to extradite Lugovoi, but has elevated him to membership in parliament. This case has also poisoned British-Russian relations. And then there is the unsolved attempted murder of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He won Philadelphia’s prestigious Liberty Medal in 2005, and was the hero of the Orange Revolution, when crowds came to the streets to protest the rigging of the 2004 election in Ukraine. Putin openly supported his opponent.

In 2004, a poison attempt on Yushchenko’s life nearly killed him and left his face scarred. Last month, at the Davos World Economic Forum, Yushchenko told me the trail led to Moscow, where three waiters who he believes served him the poison have fled for refuge. He will ask Putin to extradite the three – all Ukrainian citizens – at a meeting on Tuesday. I asked whether his case resembled that of Litvinenko and Lugovoi. His answer: ”Yes, like Lugovoi.” Though the trail in both cases leads to Moscow, they will probably never be solved. But the trial of Aleksanian is going on in public. If he dies, responsibility will rest squarely with official Russia. President-to-be Medvedev says he wants everyone held accountable to the law. If he means it, he will have to change Kremlin behavior that uses laws as a club to bludgeon opponents.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

MSM Finally Waking up to the Horror of Putin’s Russia

Another mainstream media voice has been raised against Russia, this time Trudy Rubin, a high-ranking figure on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the leading newspaper in one of America’s largest cities (encouragingly, the article is taken here from a reprint in the Salt Lake Tribune; even more encouragingly, she quotes Robert Amsterdam):

Another presidential campaign is under way this week – this one in Russia. On March 2, Russians will vote in a pro-forma election for a successor to KGB man Vladimir V. Putin. The Kremlin has handpicked a former law professor, Dmitry Medvedev, though Putin may try to remain the power behind the scenes. Medvedev, however, is trying to present a softer face than his mentor; he pledged in his first campaign speech last week to make everyone accountable before the law. Putin, by contrast, has used the law as a club to bludgeon opponents. If Medvedev means what he says, he ought to condemn a travesty of justice going on now in Moscow that makes Russia look as if it has reverted to the Stalin era.

Moscow courts are refusing medical treatment to a former Russian oil executive, Vasily Aleksanian, who is on trial for money laundering, and has late-stage AIDS. The aim is to force him to testify against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Without the treatment, Aleksanian will die. It is almost impossible to believe this case is going on in the 21st century, in a country whose president hobnobs with European leaders and President Bush. Khodorkovsky – once one of Russia’s richest men – had been chief executive of Russia’s largest oil producer, Yukos. He was sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison colony, supposedly for tax evasion and fraud.

Russia’s natural resources on the cheap during the turbulent post-communist years – have not been bothered, as long as they offered Putin no challenge. Meantime, the Kremlin has broken up Yukos; most of its assets were purchased at fire-sale prices by state-owned corporations. This blatant manipulation of courts and laws seems to have been insufficient for Kremlin bosses. Now they are willing to tolerate the effective murder of Aleksanian because he won’t give a false confession. A Moscow court says he can’t be moved to an AIDS clinic because the defense didn’t prove he was suffering from a lethal disease, but the court refused to admit his test results as evidence. The European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are supposed to be binding on Russia, has ruled three times that Aleksanian should be moved to a civilian medical facility. Russia’s Supreme Court rejected the rulings. Khodorkovsky has launched a prison hunger strike to protest the refusal to give Aleksanian medical treatment. The ex-tycoon says he has been given an ”impossible moral choice”: to confess to crimes he didn’t commit and implicate others or to ”become the cause of possible death” of Aleksanian.

Robert Amsterdam, one of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, got it just right when he said in a statement that use of the legal system in such a way evokes ”a different chapter of Russian history.” If Aleksanian dies, this will be only the latest in a string of political murders that many believe were engineered by the Kremlin or Russia’s intelligence services. The most internationally explosive was the murder of former Russian spy turned British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, who was an irritant to the Kremlin. He was killed by a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210, that was put in his tea. The British believe it was administered by former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. Such an act, and access to polonium-210, would require authorization at highest Russian levels. Russian officialdom not only refuses to extradite Lugovoi, but has elevated him to membership in parliament. This case has also poisoned British-Russian relations. And then there is the unsolved attempted murder of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He won Philadelphia’s prestigious Liberty Medal in 2005, and was the hero of the Orange Revolution, when crowds came to the streets to protest the rigging of the 2004 election in Ukraine. Putin openly supported his opponent.

In 2004, a poison attempt on Yushchenko’s life nearly killed him and left his face scarred. Last month, at the Davos World Economic Forum, Yushchenko told me the trail led to Moscow, where three waiters who he believes served him the poison have fled for refuge. He will ask Putin to extradite the three – all Ukrainian citizens – at a meeting on Tuesday. I asked whether his case resembled that of Litvinenko and Lugovoi. His answer: ”Yes, like Lugovoi.” Though the trail in both cases leads to Moscow, they will probably never be solved. But the trial of Aleksanian is going on in public. If he dies, responsibility will rest squarely with official Russia. President-to-be Medvedev says he wants everyone held accountable to the law. If he means it, he will have to change Kremlin behavior that uses laws as a club to bludgeon opponents.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

MSM Finally Waking up to the Horror of Putin’s Russia

Another mainstream media voice has been raised against Russia, this time Trudy Rubin, a high-ranking figure on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the leading newspaper in one of America’s largest cities (encouragingly, the article is taken here from a reprint in the Salt Lake Tribune; even more encouragingly, she quotes Robert Amsterdam):

Another presidential campaign is under way this week – this one in Russia. On March 2, Russians will vote in a pro-forma election for a successor to KGB man Vladimir V. Putin. The Kremlin has handpicked a former law professor, Dmitry Medvedev, though Putin may try to remain the power behind the scenes. Medvedev, however, is trying to present a softer face than his mentor; he pledged in his first campaign speech last week to make everyone accountable before the law. Putin, by contrast, has used the law as a club to bludgeon opponents. If Medvedev means what he says, he ought to condemn a travesty of justice going on now in Moscow that makes Russia look as if it has reverted to the Stalin era.

Moscow courts are refusing medical treatment to a former Russian oil executive, Vasily Aleksanian, who is on trial for money laundering, and has late-stage AIDS. The aim is to force him to testify against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Without the treatment, Aleksanian will die. It is almost impossible to believe this case is going on in the 21st century, in a country whose president hobnobs with European leaders and President Bush. Khodorkovsky – once one of Russia’s richest men – had been chief executive of Russia’s largest oil producer, Yukos. He was sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison colony, supposedly for tax evasion and fraud.

Russia’s natural resources on the cheap during the turbulent post-communist years – have not been bothered, as long as they offered Putin no challenge. Meantime, the Kremlin has broken up Yukos; most of its assets were purchased at fire-sale prices by state-owned corporations. This blatant manipulation of courts and laws seems to have been insufficient for Kremlin bosses. Now they are willing to tolerate the effective murder of Aleksanian because he won’t give a false confession. A Moscow court says he can’t be moved to an AIDS clinic because the defense didn’t prove he was suffering from a lethal disease, but the court refused to admit his test results as evidence. The European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are supposed to be binding on Russia, has ruled three times that Aleksanian should be moved to a civilian medical facility. Russia’s Supreme Court rejected the rulings. Khodorkovsky has launched a prison hunger strike to protest the refusal to give Aleksanian medical treatment. The ex-tycoon says he has been given an ”impossible moral choice”: to confess to crimes he didn’t commit and implicate others or to ”become the cause of possible death” of Aleksanian.

Robert Amsterdam, one of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, got it just right when he said in a statement that use of the legal system in such a way evokes ”a different chapter of Russian history.” If Aleksanian dies, this will be only the latest in a string of political murders that many believe were engineered by the Kremlin or Russia’s intelligence services. The most internationally explosive was the murder of former Russian spy turned British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, who was an irritant to the Kremlin. He was killed by a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210, that was put in his tea. The British believe it was administered by former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. Such an act, and access to polonium-210, would require authorization at highest Russian levels. Russian officialdom not only refuses to extradite Lugovoi, but has elevated him to membership in parliament. This case has also poisoned British-Russian relations. And then there is the unsolved attempted murder of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He won Philadelphia’s prestigious Liberty Medal in 2005, and was the hero of the Orange Revolution, when crowds came to the streets to protest the rigging of the 2004 election in Ukraine. Putin openly supported his opponent.

In 2004, a poison attempt on Yushchenko’s life nearly killed him and left his face scarred. Last month, at the Davos World Economic Forum, Yushchenko told me the trail led to Moscow, where three waiters who he believes served him the poison have fled for refuge. He will ask Putin to extradite the three – all Ukrainian citizens – at a meeting on Tuesday. I asked whether his case resembled that of Litvinenko and Lugovoi. His answer: ”Yes, like Lugovoi.” Though the trail in both cases leads to Moscow, they will probably never be solved. But the trial of Aleksanian is going on in public. If he dies, responsibility will rest squarely with official Russia. President-to-be Medvedev says he wants everyone held accountable to the law. If he means it, he will have to change Kremlin behavior that uses laws as a club to bludgeon opponents.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

MSM Finally Waking up to the Horror of Putin’s Russia

Another mainstream media voice has been raised against Russia, this time Trudy Rubin, a high-ranking figure on the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the leading newspaper in one of America’s largest cities (encouragingly, the article is taken here from a reprint in the Salt Lake Tribune; even more encouragingly, she quotes Robert Amsterdam):

Another presidential campaign is under way this week – this one in Russia. On March 2, Russians will vote in a pro-forma election for a successor to KGB man Vladimir V. Putin. The Kremlin has handpicked a former law professor, Dmitry Medvedev, though Putin may try to remain the power behind the scenes. Medvedev, however, is trying to present a softer face than his mentor; he pledged in his first campaign speech last week to make everyone accountable before the law. Putin, by contrast, has used the law as a club to bludgeon opponents. If Medvedev means what he says, he ought to condemn a travesty of justice going on now in Moscow that makes Russia look as if it has reverted to the Stalin era.

Moscow courts are refusing medical treatment to a former Russian oil executive, Vasily Aleksanian, who is on trial for money laundering, and has late-stage AIDS. The aim is to force him to testify against imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Without the treatment, Aleksanian will die. It is almost impossible to believe this case is going on in the 21st century, in a country whose president hobnobs with European leaders and President Bush. Khodorkovsky – once one of Russia’s richest men – had been chief executive of Russia’s largest oil producer, Yukos. He was sentenced to eight years in a Siberian prison colony, supposedly for tax evasion and fraud.

Russia’s natural resources on the cheap during the turbulent post-communist years – have not been bothered, as long as they offered Putin no challenge. Meantime, the Kremlin has broken up Yukos; most of its assets were purchased at fire-sale prices by state-owned corporations. This blatant manipulation of courts and laws seems to have been insufficient for Kremlin bosses. Now they are willing to tolerate the effective murder of Aleksanian because he won’t give a false confession. A Moscow court says he can’t be moved to an AIDS clinic because the defense didn’t prove he was suffering from a lethal disease, but the court refused to admit his test results as evidence. The European Court of Human Rights, whose decisions are supposed to be binding on Russia, has ruled three times that Aleksanian should be moved to a civilian medical facility. Russia’s Supreme Court rejected the rulings. Khodorkovsky has launched a prison hunger strike to protest the refusal to give Aleksanian medical treatment. The ex-tycoon says he has been given an ”impossible moral choice”: to confess to crimes he didn’t commit and implicate others or to ”become the cause of possible death” of Aleksanian.

Robert Amsterdam, one of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers, got it just right when he said in a statement that use of the legal system in such a way evokes ”a different chapter of Russian history.” If Aleksanian dies, this will be only the latest in a string of political murders that many believe were engineered by the Kremlin or Russia’s intelligence services. The most internationally explosive was the murder of former Russian spy turned British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, who was an irritant to the Kremlin. He was killed by a rare radioactive isotope, polonium-210, that was put in his tea. The British believe it was administered by former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi. Such an act, and access to polonium-210, would require authorization at highest Russian levels. Russian officialdom not only refuses to extradite Lugovoi, but has elevated him to membership in parliament. This case has also poisoned British-Russian relations. And then there is the unsolved attempted murder of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. He won Philadelphia’s prestigious Liberty Medal in 2005, and was the hero of the Orange Revolution, when crowds came to the streets to protest the rigging of the 2004 election in Ukraine. Putin openly supported his opponent.

In 2004, a poison attempt on Yushchenko’s life nearly killed him and left his face scarred. Last month, at the Davos World Economic Forum, Yushchenko told me the trail led to Moscow, where three waiters who he believes served him the poison have fled for refuge. He will ask Putin to extradite the three – all Ukrainian citizens – at a meeting on Tuesday. I asked whether his case resembled that of Litvinenko and Lugovoi. His answer: ”Yes, like Lugovoi.” Though the trail in both cases leads to Moscow, they will probably never be solved. But the trial of Aleksanian is going on in public. If he dies, responsibility will rest squarely with official Russia. President-to-be Medvedev says he wants everyone held accountable to the law. If he means it, he will have to change Kremlin behavior that uses laws as a club to bludgeon opponents.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Russia Violates Japanese Airspace

The BBC reports that Putin’s Kremlin is pressing ahead with its plan to alienate and provoke every single country on the planet, leaving Russia utterly alone in the world:

Japan accuses Russia of incursion

Japan has accused Russia of violating its airspace over the Pacific Izu islands and demanded an explanation. A Russian Tupolev 95 bomber flew for about three minutes over the isle of Sofugan, 650km (400 miles) south of Tokyo, Japanese officials said. Japan responded by scrambling 22 jets and lodging an official protest with the Russian embassy. But a spokesman for the Russian air force denied any incursion into Japanese airspace had occurred. Alexander Drobyshevsky told Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency that strategic bomber flights had been “carried out in strict accordance with international rules on flying over neutral waters, without violating the border between the two countries”.

Rally

Russia last violated Japan’s airspace in January 2006 near Rebun Island near the northern island of Hokkaido, Japanese officials said. On Thursday, Japan held an annual rally to demand the return of four disputed islands – known as the Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan – which Russia seized in the closing days of World War II. The dispute has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty to formally end the war. It was not clear whether Saturday’s flyby was related to the rally. Despite their territorial disputes, Japan and Russia have recently indicated their desire to improve relations, the BBC’s Chris Hogg reports from Tokyo. Russia wants Japanese financial support for development of its far eastern regions while Japan wants greater access to Russia’s oil reserves. Whether the alleged incident was a mistake or something more sinister, such as an attempt to test Japan’s defensive tactics, it has rattled the Japanese government, our correspondent says. Tokyo has demanded a full explanation from Moscow.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Diaghilev, Burning: A Sign of Things to Come?

The Observer reports:

It was Moscow’s most shamelessly elite nightclub, a place where you had to be beautiful, über-rich or well connected to get in – a symbol of the Russia of the oligarchs.

Since it opened in spring 2006, the Diaghilev Project had become the favourite party venue for Russia’s fun-loving billionaire elite. Its denizens included playboy oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, worth $15bn; Russian tennis star Marat Safin; and Roman Abramovich’s ex-wife Irina, who let her hair down here after her divorce from the Chelsea FC owner. Liz Hurley and Naomi Campbell have also popped in.

But Diaghilev’s notorious club nights have now come to an abrupt halt, after a mysterious fire last week gutted the historic building in the city centre. The blaze started on Thursday morning. It spread rapidly, engulfing the baroque loggias and VIP chill zone, where celebrities and millionaire businessmen relaxed in the company of willowy teenage models. It burned the rococo furnishings. Even the lavatory downstairs – surprisingly of the squat variety – was not spared.

Three people suffered minor injuries. The handful of employees on duty managed to escape. But the redbrick four-storey building, in Moscow’s Hermitage Gardens, was gutted.

Yesterday all that remained was a tangle of metal piping. The club’s catwalk – used for fashion shows and pyrotechnic displays – had disappeared. (There was also no sign of the hairless male model who performs an erotic dance with a swan.) Also gone was the stage where guest DJs once played Diaghilev’s house anthem: ‘I can’t wait…for the music to begin.’ ‘There was a fire,’ a security guard said laconically. ‘The club is finished for now.’

Russia’s internet was awash yesterday with rumours that the blaze was started deliberately. Bloggers and the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper joked that the club had burnt down because the firefighters who had been called to the scene had failed to pass Diaghilev’s notorious and draconian face-control policy. All Moscow clubs operate a policy of face control; employing fayce-kontrol-sheeks. But Diaghilev was known for having the most uncompromising door staff in Russia.

The club’s bouncer, Pavel Pichugin, was a minor Moscow celebrity, known as Pasha Face-Control. His cruelty was the stuff of legend. Girls without model looks, milky-white skin and perfect teeth stood no chance of admission and were turned away; for men, the main criterion was wealth. ‘The policy is to have really rich people and beautiful girls,’ one clubber, Stefan, said last September. ‘That’s it. Entry to Diaghilev is free – but it’s very hard to get in.’

Mere mortals could also buy a table – $3,000 for a modest spot on the balcony, going up to $15,000 for the ‘imperial’ box, decorated with faux-Renaissance portraits. For this, you got your own ‘elitny’ lavatory, seating space for 15-20 friends and a scowling, black-suited bouncer to keep away hoi polloi. Journalists invited to watch the celebrities, meanwhile, had to wear orange labels to make clear they had not passed the face-control test.

LR: This in a country not in the world’s top 50 for per capita purchasing power GDP or its top 100 for male adult lifespan. Remind of of Russia just before the Bolshevik revolution? It should.

Diaghilev is owned by three Russian businessmen, one of whom is Andrey Goroby, the club’s shaven-headed founder, who often appeared at party nights dressed in a red, Butlin-style frockcoat. Yesterday one source at the club suggested that Diaghilev would re-emerge soon, possibly somewhere else. ‘Andrey is a very clever guy. I’m sure he will come up with a new idea in three months’ time. He has just opened a club in Prague. He is a very, very successful entrepreneur,’ the source said.

Officially the fire started because of an electrical fault. ‘There has been no proper forensic examination. We don’t know what happened,’ Diaghilev’s spokeswoman, Maria Katko, said.

But Moscow’s beau monde, who spent their weekends partying at Diaghilev, believe the fire was no accident. One theory suggests the club’s owners may have been involved in a business dispute with their landlord. Another says that a rival club burnt down Diaghilev in an attempt to steal its super-rich clients. And according to yet another theory, Diaghilev’s owners were planning to close the club in April, because of diminishing popularity and falling profits.

Whatever the truth, Diaghilev’s demise marks the end of an era for Russia’s cosmopolitan elite, for whom the Putin years have been a belle époque. On 2 March Russia holds a presidential election, with Vladimir Putin stepping down as President in May. Putin is expected to carry on as Russia’s de facto leader once his anointed successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is installed in the Kremlin. But there are compelling signs that the extraordinary economic boom in Russia resulting from rising oil and gas prices could be coming to an end.

Last week, Russia’s banks called for an urgent meeting with government officials, citing the threat of an imminent liquidity crisis. At the same time, Putin’s administration seems powerless to deal with inflation – running at more than 2 per cent a month. The deteriorating economic situation affects Russia’s poor more than its rich, especially the country’s 30 million pensioners. But even among the country’s millionaires there is a sense of growing nervousness about what the Medvedev era might bring and a feeling the party is coming to an end.

It is not clear, meanwhile, what will happen to Diaghilev’s pre-Soviet listed building. It was originally constructed as a rival to the Bolshoi – although the plan was abandoned in the early 20th century.

A government-linked construction firm has been pushing to redevelop the building, which occupies valuable land. Over the past five years 5,000 historic buildings in the Russian capital have burnt down, many as the result of arson. ‘Nobody knows whether this place will be rebuilt,’ one security guard said yesterday.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Lucas was Right: Reviewing The New Cold War

The Telegraph reviews Edward Lucas’s brilliant new book The New Cold War (to buy the book, click on the image):

First impressions still count for something. Whenever President Vladimir Putin fires a new rhetorical broadside or sneers at the West or is pictured naked from the waist up kitted out with the sort of phallic fashion accessory Russian men drool over, whether fishing rod or automatic rifle, I think back to his debut as a public politician. On that August day in 1999, what did the new president-to-be, Boris Yeltsin’s anointed successor, think of his new role? This was, all of us in Moscow knew, an unexpected change of fortune for an obscure former career spy turned bureaucrat. ‘A decision has been taken,’ he told his interviewer with all the enthusiasm for the job and charisma of an undertaker. ‘We will carry it out.’

This wasn’t a start that promised much. But, as the first but not necessarily last phase of Putin’s presidency draws to a close, his record so far and the windfall from record energy prices speak for themselves. ‘Never in Russian history have so many Russians lived so well and so freely,’ Edward Lucas concedes in this account of the Putin regime (not that freedom or plenty ever figured large in Russia’s past). But never in recent times, he argues with gusto throughout this chillingly persuasive book, has Russia posed such a threat to the West.

Lucas didn’t like the look of Putin at the beginning of this decade, a lonelier position than it is today. That was an era when Tony Blair and other Western leaders fell over each other to make nicey nicey with the Kremlin’s new boss. President Bush met the man for the first time and liked what he saw as well, gazing into his eyes and immediately gaining a ‘sense of his soul’. But what has happened since has proved Lucas right and the groupies and the fence-sitters who preferred to wait and see, such as myself, wrong.

This is not a book about Putin the man. Nor is it a potboiling catalogue of the many sinister signs that Russia is reverting to authoritarian type. It is, instead, the best portrait to date of the mentality of Putin’s ruling class, much of it a product of the KGB, the corrupted crony capitalism it has spawned and the uses, many of them hostile to the West, to which it is putting its fabulous war chest of oil and gas money.

Some might find fault with its central metaphor, that we are engaged in a conflict with Moscow best described as a ‘new Cold War’. Many may not want to believe that matters have deteriorated quite so far. But then, apart from the Kremlin itself, Lucas’s other main targets in the book are wishful or woolly thinking – and worse – in the West itself. In his analysis, this is a war we are already losing, not least because of the delusion about Russia many of us labour under, that its rulers want it to be a ‘normal’ country just like ours, and plain human greed.

At his provocative best he denounces the bankers and politicians in Germany – but not only there – ‘who betray their countries (to Russia) for 30 silver roubles’ by cosying up to the big Russian energy giants. Indeed, the most arresting passages in the book are his pleas for moral renewal not in Russia, dismissed as a lost cause for the foreseeable future, but in the West. ‘If you believe that capitalism is a system in which money matters more than freedom, you are doomed when people who don’t believe in freedom attack using money,’ he tells the gnomes of Zurich, Frankfurt and the City of London. Such calls for a moral rebuff to the new enemy are not the only echoes here of the Cold War that was, that Manichean struggle between our Good and Soviet Evil. But in his determination to deal in absolutes, can Lucas always do justice to the ambiguities of our relationship with this new Russia?

Where, I asked myself more than once as I read the book, does Roman Abramovich fit into the author’s scheme of things? If we are now to treat every Russian investment abroad as a ‘politically loaded expression of foreign policy’, as Lucas demands, where does that leave Chelsea FC? Are we and Russia’s billions so intertwined that this new Great Game is up already? Russia’s next president, Dmitry Medvedev, the man who will inherit the Putin system, not least the privilege of being elected without any real competition, makes only a passing appearance in this book. Perhaps he is a mere cipher for his current boss. My first impression of him, the only time we met, was that he had many of the same qualities as Putin – but a personality and leadership skills were not among them. No doubt he too will surprise us.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

LR Index: The Top 10 Russia Blogs in the English Language

We’ve conducted another of our occasional reviews of Russia blog performance data. There are two main sources of data about such performance; Technorati provides data about links between blogs and “favorites” by readers, whilst Alexa provides data about visitation.

To compile our review we collect four types of data:

• linking blogs (a measure of blogosphere interest)
• links from blogs (a measure of blogosphere loyalty)
• traffic (a measure of interest level among readers)
• favorites (a measure of loyalty among readers)

Then we rank the top ten blogs according to each criteria, awarding 10 points to the top blog in each category, 9 points for second place, and so on. Finally we tabulate scores for each blog and rank them by score in what we call the LR Index, published below (followed by the base data in each category).

We are delighted to announce something that will get under the skin of the Russia apologist filth even more than our own influence, namely that Robert Amsterdam, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s lawyer, is now the undisputed king of Russia blogs according to the latest LR Index (LRI). His blog was also a finalist in last year’s Weblog awards, the sole Russia blog to be considered for such an honor, clearly cementing its place as the top dog, to say nothing of blogger Robert Amsterdam’s regular appearances on television and in the news media. Given that ideologically Amsterdam’s blog is the spitting image of this one, we couldn’t be more delighted at the ability of this powerful lawyer to inject his blog into the international discussion on Russia. Producing original video content and a wealth of translation materials, carrying the fight to the Kremlin as no other, Amsterdam is clearly the cream of the Russia blog crop. It’s always been our dream that our agenda would be driven onto the front pages of the world’s newspapers by mainstream figures, and now it is happening! Hooray!

Honorable mention should go to three other blogs:

• La Russophobe now divides its content between three different blogs (this one, Publius Pundit and Pajamas Media), the only blog in the top ten to do so. If the traffic and Technorati data for all three blogs were combined (as well as the traffic done by our backup blog, which is quite significant), we would dominate all blogs.

• Both Edward Lucas and Mark MacKinnon recently published books about Russia; none of the other bloggers on the list, not even Amsterdam, can brag about such an accomplishment. Lucas also regularly publishes commentary and reporting on Russia in major British newspapers, to an even greater extent than Amsterdam. Kim Zigfeld will soon be publishing a review of both books on Pajamas Media.

Also noteworthy is that the venal “Copydude” blog is a now a dead link, yet another Russophile institution we’ve seen into its grave (remember “Russian Blog”?). Still more encouraging is that the even more loathsome Russia Blog is mightily in decline, having dropped out of the top three and hopefully bound for the ash heap of history. Good riddance! It’s a pretty conclusive statement about the level of fraud that reprehensible institution in engaging in that though Technorati data shows it is clearly in decline it still leads all blogs in traffic as recorded by Alexa, indicating that quite simply they are manufacturing their traffic artificially (the pathetic number of comments they receive is further conclusive proof of this fact) — and the same goes for Russian Spy, hardly a significant factor in the Russia conversation. Russia Blog is just as dishonest in its actual content; there’s simply no market for a ridiculous pile of neo-Soviet lies, and the blogosphere is properly euthanizing this malignant effort, the only one of its its type in the top 10. People don’t want to be lied to, especially not in such an embarrassingly lame manner. One can also point to the humiliating failure of Russophile wacko Petter LaVelle’s blog at Russia Today, which has only been linked to on Technorati a pathetic two times and was canceled by RT for a time. His own blog was an equally ridiculous disaster, and he operates a “discussion group” on Google that he doesn’t even have the guts to publicly display. These are the depths to which apology for dictatorship has sunk where Russia is concerned these days. With “friends” like LaVelle, Russia needs no enemies (and yes, we’re spelling his filth-laden name wrong on purpose).

Note too that Vilhelm Konnander and Sean’s Russia blog have no registration at all for traffic on Alexa, meaning that their level of visitation is too insignificant for Alexa to measure. By contrast, Lex Libertas and Copydude (even though it doesn’t exist any longer) have traffic that registers on Alexa, but their Technorati data is too minor to make the top ten. Thus, we’ve designated Konnander and Sean’s with an * in the Technorati sections to note that they have no place in the top 10 for traffic, and we’ve included Technorti data for Copydude and Lex Libertas even though their stats preclude them from top-10 consideration on the LRI. In other words, there really aren’t ten “top” Russia blogs in the English-speaking world, but only eight, an indication of the fact that most of the world simply couldn’t care less about Russia. (It should also be noted that Sean’s Russia blog has changed its address, which tends to dilute its Technorati data to some extent.)

LR Index: Top 10 Russia Blogs in the English Blogosphere

(ties broken based on linking blogs)

#1 Robert Amsterdam LRI 36 (10 + 10 + 9 + 7)

#2 La Russophobe LRI 34 (9 + 9 + 10 + 6)

#3 Siberian Light LRI 30 (7 + 8 + 7 + 8)

#4 Russia Blog LRI 28 (8 + 7 + 3 + 10)

#5 Edward Lucas LRI 20 (6 + 5 + 6 + 3)

#6 *Vilhelm Konnander LRI 16 (5 + 3 + 8 + 0)

#7 Russian Spy LRI 13 (2 + 1 + 1 + 9)

#7 *Sean’s Russia Blog LRI 13 (1 + 6 + 6 + 0)

#9 Mark MacKinnon LRI 12 (4 + 4 + 2 + 2)

#9 White Sun of the Desert LRI 12 (3 + 2 + 2 + 5)

Links (Blogosphere Interest)

Robert Amsterdam 250

La Russophobe 167

Russia Blog 157

Siberian Light 123

Edward Lucas 59

Vilhelm Konnander 51*

Mark MacKinnon 43

White Sun of the Desert 36

Russian Spy 33

Sean’s Russia Blog 25*

*(Lex Libertas) 6

*(Copydude)(dead link) 11

Links from Blogs (Blogger Loyalty)

Robert Amsterdam 1,330

La Russophobe 1,008

Siberian Light 966

Russia Blog 765

Sean’s Russia Blog 582*

Edward Lucas 495

Mark MacKinnon 302

Vilhelm Konnander 241*

White Sun of the Desert 223

Russian Spy 198

*(Copydude)(dead link) 174

*(Lex Libertas) 124

Favorites (Reader Loyalty)
(ties are broken based on traffic data but same points are given to each)

La Russophobe 18

Robert Amsterdam 15

Vilhelm Konnander 10

Siberian Light 9

Edward Lucas 7

Sean’s Russia Blog 7

Russia Blog 6

*(Copydude)(dead link) 4

White Sun of the Desert 3

Mark MacKinnon 3

Russian Spy 2

*(Lex Libertas) 1

Traffic (Reader Interest)

Russia Blog 244,001

Russian Spy 306,641

Siberian Light 311,125

Robert Amsterdam 414,808

La Russophobe 793,269

White Sun of the Desert 1,366,751

Lex Libertas 1,687,226

Edward Lucas 2,291,820

Mark MacKinnon 3,032,150

*Copydude(dead link) 7,859,020

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

February 10, 2008 — Contents

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 10 CONTENTS

(1) The Sunday Photos

(2) The Sunday Atrocity

(3) Trepashkin Speaks!

(4) The Sunday Dissident

(5) The Sunday Secret Police

(6) The Sunday Cinema

(7) The Sunday Funnies

NOTE: Lex Libertas is doing a wonderful job of editorializing in favor of John McCain for president. Check it out! Go, McCain, go!

NOTE: Here’s something odd. If you tried to access the Moscow Times website on Saturday you got a page showing their domain had lapsed (click to see full size):

What’s going on? Anybody know? Computer glitch? Incompetence? Cyber attack?

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !