EDITORIAL: Exposing Russian Hate

EDITORIAL

Exposing Russian Hate

We report today on the horrifying case of Tang Quoc Binh, just the latest in a long string of barbaric lynchings that are sweeping Vladimir Putin’s Russia.  We condemn not only the apelike clan of race murderers themselves but also those who fail to take any action to stop or even protest their crimes, and this includes the Russian government and the vast majority of Russia’s cowardly, craven, silent denizens.

An article last week in a West Virginia newspaper called The Journalrecounted how local resident Marina Yax was organizing a festival of Russian culture at the county library.  Russia food was prepared, lectures on Russian culture were given, Russian crafts were for sale and there were presentations by various residents of Russian extraction regarding their family members and their history.

One presenter stated: “I think there is a little bit of a misunderstanding about Russia. There are similarities between the cultures in Russia and the U.S., and we have more in common than we think.”

Unfortunately, as with most things involving Russia, this well-intentioned exercise was tragically and fatally flawed.  In fact, it should be counted as being among the best evidence there is of just how very different from Americans Russians really are.

EDITORIAL: Suicide is Painless

EDITORIAL

Suicide is Painless

Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see
That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please.

– “Suicide is Painless”
Music by Johnny Mandel, lyrics by Mike Altman
Theme from the feature film “M*A*S*H”

Since Russia is a nation with less than half the population of the United States (a gap that grows wider every single day), in order for Russia to have more deaths by suicide in a given year the rate of suicide among Russians would have to be more that twice as high as it is among Americans.

And that’s the case. 

Another Barbaric Race Murder in Putin’s Russia

Tang Quoc Binh, the latest victim of Russian barbarism

Voice of Vietnam reports:

Tang Quoc Binh, a 21-year-old Vietnamese student, was fatally stabbed by a group of strangers near a metro station in Moscow on January 9 when he was going home.  Binh was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but he died the next day due to serious wounds. The gangsters were said to have run away after stabbing Binh.  The Vietnamese Embassy is coordinating with the local administration and the Vietnamese community in Russia to take care of Binh’s funeral and trace the murderers. Born in the northern province of Hai Duong in 1988, the first-year student was studying at the State University of Management (GUU) in Moscow.

Russia Shows the World how . . . to Commit Serial Murder

RIA Novosti reports:

Serial killers have committed over 500 murders in Russia in the last three years, the head of Russia’s top investigative body said on Sunday.

“Russia registered over 500 serial murders in the past three years. Investigators solved 132 murders in 11 serial killer cases in 2007-2008,” Alexander Bastyrkin said in an interview published on the Prosecutor General’s Investigation Committee website.

He said these crimes posed a particularly serious threat to society because of their deliberate and inhumane nature.

In the most notorious recent case, Alexander Pichushkin, 33, nicknamed the ‘chessboard killer’ for his habit of marking off his victims on the squares of a chessboard, was convicted in 2007 of 48 murders.

Bastyrkin said that Investigation Committee was joining efforts with other federal law enforcement agencies to develop preventive measures to deal with serial killers in Russia.

Annals of Shamapova

Maria Sharapova explains herself

READ MORE COVERAGE OF MARIA’S SHOCKING EXPLOITS HERE.

The feeble Maria Sharapova, who is just about to drop from #9 to #10 in the world rankings (and who has protection from being booted out of the top 10 entirely only because #11 is her even more pathetic countrywoman Nadia Petrova) has announced she will not play the first grand slam tournament of the year, in Australia. She attempted to blame her withdrawal on a nagging shoulder injury, then admitted in fact it’s just plain cowardice:  “My shoulder is doing great, but I just started training a few weeks ago and I am just not near the level I need to be to compete at the highest levels.”  In other words:  “I might struggle so I’m going to hide instead.”

January 12, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY JANUARY 12 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Oh, Nobama!

(2)  EDITORIAL:  ZheZhe on the Brink?

(3)  Once again, the OSCE Disappoints on Russia

(4)  Happy New Year, Neo-Soviet Russia!

(5)  Georgia and the U.S. are Officially Partners

NOTE:  LR founder and publisher Kim Zigfeld has broken into yet another major web publication, adding to her portfolio at Pajamas Media (see our header) with a column at the American Thinker. Her opening installment deals with Russia’s catastrophic race violence question. Required reading as always.

EDITORIAL: Oh, Nobama!

EDITORIAL

Oh, Nobama!

Predictable things are starting to happen to the presidency of Barack Obama, which hasn’t even started yet but is already marked by a stunning series of serious setbacks. We hope these will not be an equally predictable distraction from Obama’s essential confrontation with neo-Soviet Russia.

EDITORIAL: ZheZhe on the Brink?

EDITORIAL

ZheZhe on the Brink?

Our charming hosts here at WordPress appear to have scented blood in the virtual waters.  On January 8th they published a post implying that the LiveJournal blog (known as “ZheZhe” in Russia, where it is the leading host of blogs in the country — the New York Times operates a ZheZhe blog onto which it translates some of its stories) is on its last legs, and invited ZheZhe bloggers to transfer their content to WordPress.  Two days earlier it had been reported that ZheZhe was laying off at least a fifth of its staff because of incipient financial woes. It is closing down its entire operation and moving its headquarters to Russia, apparently its last bastion of strength.

Let’s be clear:  Any manpower or technical resources belonging to ZheZhe that are located in Russia are at risk of being liquidated by the Kremlin at any time.  Despite what some say about the vitality of the Russian blogosphere, in fact only about 20% of Russians have Internet access and e-commerce is woefully underdeveloped in the country since credit cards are rare and banks are corrupt and unreliable.  Given those facts, its hardly suprising if ZheZhe finds it difficult to sustain itself.

If the Russian blogosphere is serious about speaking truth to power and defending its status as the last vestige of free media in Russia, then it must take immediate action.  It must develop ways to raise funds so that it can operate indefinitely, and it must find ways to house server data far outside the reach of the Kremlin’s clan of KGB spies. If this isn’t done, and done quickly, we will wake up one morning and read that the Kremlin has simply pulled the plug on the Russian blogosphere.

We’ll read about it, but the people of Russia won’t, because state-controlled, neo-Soviet Kremlin TV won’t report it.

Once Again, the OSCE Disappoints on Russia

The brilliant Vladimir Socor, writing in the Jamestown Monitor’s Eurasia Daily Monitor:

With a sleight of its hand, Russia has run the OSCE out of South Ossetia. The mandate of the OSCE Mission in Georgia expired on January 1, because Russia blocked the routine annual extension of that mandate by the organization. This is only the latest OSCE presence that Russia has terminated with impunity. Previously, it had forced the closure of the OSCE Border Monitoring Operation in Georgia in 2005 and then kicked the OSCE’s election-monitoring arm, ODIHR, out of Russia, ahead of the December 2007 parliamentary elections and the April 2008 presidential elections.

This OSCE Mission’s termination could, however, be a blessing in disguise, if the European Union rises to the occasion and extends its own Monitoring Mission (EUMM) from Georgia’s interior into South Ossetia, filling the vacuum in the OSCE’s wake.

Happy New Year, Neo-Soviet Russia!

Yuri Zarakhovich, writing in the Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor:

“A Happy New 1937 [the peak of Stalin's Great Terror] to you,” Moscow wits quipped on January 1, 2009, while the Putin regime, frightened and incompetent in the face of a mounting systemic crisis, prepared to lock up protesters and squash mass protests with crude force.

Over the last decade, the Russians swapped whatever flimsy freedoms they had for the illusion of stability and prosperity offered by the Putin regime and sustained by high hydrocarbon prices. Now that the prices have dropped and the regime is failing to provide either, the people are beginning to grumble. According to a poll taken from December 12 to 15 by the authoritative Levada Center, 23 percent of the respondents saw protest actions as “quite possible” and 20 percent were ready to join them. Meanwhile, the Social Sentiment Index (SSI, a synthesized index of trends in mass sentiment, which reflects the impact of mass consciousness on the country’s development) dropped by 21 percent from March to December 2008. The Levada Center analysts believe that the rate of this fall is comparable to the worst SSI decline in September 1998, one month after Russia’s financial meltdown (www.levada.ru/indexisn.html).

U.S. and Georgia are Officially Partners

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R) and Georgian FM Grigol Vashadze shake hands after signing a bilateral cooperation agreement at the State Department, 9 Jan. 2009

The Voice of America reports that the U.S. is spitting in Vladimir Putin’s eye.  Putin sends creaking battle cruisers to Cuba, and Washington sends Condi Rice to ink a pact with Georgia:

The United States and Georgia Friday signed a bilateral charter on strategic partnership aimed at increasing cooperation in defense, trade, energy and other areas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the deal should advance Georgia’s bid for membership in NATO and other western structures.

State Department officials stress that the charter is a not a mutual defense treaty, but they say it is a highly-visible sign of American support for the Caucuses state in the aftermath of its conflict with Russia last August.

January 11, 2009 — Contents

SUNDAY JANUARY 11 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  We’re Lovin’ It

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Another Swing & Miss for Putin

(3)  Putin’s Deguello

(4)  Another Blunder from Vladimir Putin

(5)  The Crackdown on Radio Free Europe

(6)  Annals of the Neo-Soviet Police State

NOTE:  It’s wall-to-wall failure from Vladimir Putin these days, and posts 1-4 lay out the horror in minute detail.  No matter where you turn, you see the polices of Putin leading his nation to rack and ruin.  Will the benighted citizens of Putin Nation ever wake up and smell the fake vodka?

EDITORIAL: We’re Lovin’ It

EDITORIAL

We’re Lovin’ It

Given the rabid anti-American rhetoric that seems to issue from every corner of Vladimir Putin’s KGB-dominated Russia, starting with the “prime minister’s” own lips, it must come as a surprise to many in Russia to learn that McDonald’s restaurants opened twice as many new eateries in Russia in 2008 as they did in 2007,  and now have 233 locations throughout the country.  The chain is doing so well that it plans to spend a whopping half million dollars on refurbishing each of the existing locations as it ratchets up expansion further, despite the economic crisis that has brought the rest of the country to its knees.

Apparently, though strapped for cash Russians have no intention of giving up their Big Macskis, and will trim their budgets in other areas so they can satisfy their Big Mack Attackskis whenever they may strike.  On another front, Russians have risen up to aggressively protest the Putin regime’s efforts to restrict the import of foreign-made automobiles in order to protect Russia’s inferior quality domestic brands.  So much for the Russians’ hatred of America, their love of all things Russian!

EDITORIAL: Once Again, a Swing and a Miss for Vladimir Putin

EDITORIAL

Once Again, a Swing and a Miss for Vladimir Putin

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men gang aft agley.”

– Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, on Turning her up in her Nest with the Plough,” 1785

Last Wednesday, crude oil prices experienced their largest one-day drop in more than seven years, plunging a breathtaking 12% as new data revealed that U.S. facilities were developing massive stockpiles of “black gold” that nobody was interested in buying. Reuters reported:   “Crude oil stocks in the world’s largest consumer nation swelled by 6.7 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, more than seven times the 900,000-barrel increase analysts had expected.”  Streetwise Professor has more on the price collapse.  That was Putin’s third strike.

As we reported on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin was simultaneously and feverishly engaged in an outrageous effort to panic world gas markets and drive up the price of natural gas so as to squeeze out a bit of revenue before gas prices drop just as precipitously as oil prices, which they always do following a pattern of a six-month lag.  Putin’s scheme was to switch off the taps to Ukraine, causing European supplies to dry up and provoking panicked buying.  Already, he has been forced to back down from his barbaric behavior (strike one), which totally failed to produce the desired result and drove Europe into the waiting arms of the United States (strike two) and further blackened Russia’s already ruined international reputation. 

Three strikes and you’re out, Mr. Putin.

Putin’s Deguello

Streetwise Professor reports on Vladimir Putin’s “deguello*”:

The island of stability theme is now longer operative.  According to Interfax,

Russia more vulnerable to world crisis because of integration – Putin

MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) – The global financial crisis’ effect on the Russian economy is rather substantial because Russia has become an integral part of the world economy, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at the Monday meeting of the federal government.

“Since the late 1990s we had been seeking integration with the world economy. Our integration wish came true. As people say, we slit our own throat,” he said.

Is this a self-reproach?  Hard to tell.  But since (a) Putin has been in charge of the integration policy since its initiation in the late-1990s, and (b) he blames integration for his country’s current difficulties, that seems a reasonable conclusion.

I must say, however, that his diagnosis is largely misguided.  Even in the days of its alleged autarky, the USSR was integrated with the world economy–through the commodity markets, most notably the oil market (as a seller) and the grain market (as a buyer).  In its later days, the USSR also borrowed extensively on the international credit markets.  Indeed, the collapse of the USSR was hastened–and arguably caused–by a collapse in the price of oil that deprived it of the export revenues necessary service its debts and to buy grain to feed the populace.

Another Blunder from Vladimir Putin

An editorial in the Globe & Mail:

Neither party is innocent in the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine that is currently gripping Europe, but the former deserves most of the blame for a debacle that may leave millions without heat during a brutal cold snap.

Yesterday, utilities in half a dozen European countries reported complete halts to deliveries of Russian gas due to Moscow’s week-old cut-off of supplies to Ukraine over a pricing disagreement. Almost all of the gas imported from Russia by members of the European Union travels through Ukraine, which buys a portion of the flow.

In its dealings with the Ukrainian government since the 2005 Orange Revolution, Russia’s state-owned natural-gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, has consistently behaved in bad faith and richly earned its reputation as a blunt tool of Kremlin foreign policy. The current situation is no different.

The Crackdown on Radio Free Europe

Aleksandr Kolesnichenko, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novye Izvestiya, writing on Transitions Online:

Last year, investigators in the Siberian city of Tomsk accused Viktor Zima of having made “large-scale” profits through illegal business activity and regulatory violations. The charge carried up to five years in prison.

His offense? Investigators said TV-1, a broadcaster of which Zima is director general, had received 6 million rubles ($205,000) for transmitting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty programming from 2004 to 2007. TV-1’s license allegedly did not authorize the company to transmit the U.S.-funded RFE/RL. The broadcaster was stripped of its frequency in May.

Zima said he would not try to get it back and would instead quit the broadcasting business. “I’m not interested in broadcasting popular songs, but they won’t let me do serious things,” he said.

Annals of the Neo-Soviet Police State

Radio Free Europe reports:

Aleksandr Podrabinek knows a creeping police state when he sees one.

As a Soviet-era dissident he was a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group human rights organization, editor of the samizdat journal “The Chronicle of Current Events,” and the author of a 1977 book, “Punitive Medicine,” that chronicled the abuses of the psychiatric profession against political prisoners. He was exiled to Siberia for criticizing the Soviet authorities in the 1970s and sent to a labor camp in the 1980s for distributing forbidden literature.

In a recent two-part series of articles published in the online magazine “Yezhednevnyi zhurnal,” Podrabinek connects the dots and argues that the soft-authoritarian regime established by Vladimir Putin over the past decade is about to be transformed into something much harsher.

January 9, 2009 – Contents

FRIDAY JANUARY 9 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Gas War in Ukraine

(2)  EDITORIAL:  The Perils of Plastinina

(3)  Dear La Russophobe

(4)  Lipman on Russia’s Dark Horizon

(5)  A Word of Warning to Barack Obama

(6)  Putin’s Candle is Flickering

NOTE: Our mailbag post today (#3) emaphasizes the critical role being played by our publisher in the fight for democracy in Vladimir Putin’s Russia in the blogosphere. All three letters respond directly to Kim Zigfeld. One responds to a post she wrote back in the formative days of this blog when she was going it largely alone; a second responds to a comment of hers on Robert Coalson’s blog, and the third responds to her letter to the editor of the Washington Post. You go KZ!

EDITORIAL: Gas War in Ukraine

EDITORIAL

Gas War in Ukraine

Late last week two disturbingly related stories moved on the worldwide news wires.

On Thursday, the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine when it demanded a price rise to $250/1,000 cubic meters and Ukraine offered only $200.  Gazprom also wants to collect half a billion dollars in fines for late payment.

On Friday, crude oil prices jumped nearly 4% to just over $46/barrel.  Traders worried that decreases in gas flow to Ukraine could undermine the flow of gas to Europe, creating scarcities.

Why, it was almost as if Russia wanted to disturb the gas market and drive up prices artificially due to a panic.  Why would it want to do an outrageous thing like that, bordering on terrorism?  For one thing, as it is now the Kremlin has frittered away half its cash reserves defending the ruble and the stock market from plummting world oil prices.  As the Wall Street Journal has reported:  “Natural gas prices tend to follow oil prices with a six- to nine-month lag: With crude down more than $100 since reaching a record high of $147 a barrel in July, gas prices are expected to fall steeply next year.” So another big shock is in Russia’s future, and it needs to scrape together all the cash it can in hopes of avoiding bankruptcy.

And if a few million people in Urkaine have to freeze, so be it.  Careful though, Russia. One day soon you may yourself be standing in Ukraine’s felt boots and asking the West for help.  When that day comes, we will remember your behavior towards Ukraine.

EDITORIAL: The Perils of Plastinina

EDITORIAL

The Perils of Plastinina

On New Year’s Eve, teenage Russian fashion designer Kira Plastinina headed to bankruptcy court in New York City and closed four of her six fashion boutiques in Southern California.  Her website began offering 75% off super sales.  Her fifteen minutes of fame were up, and her comically trashy “designs” were about to become dishrags.

One day you're bff with Paris, the next day not so much

Her millionaire father Sergei (amusingly* also referred to as “Plastinina” on Kira’s Wikipedia page, like calling Guy Richie “Mr. Madonna”), CEO of the giant and bizarrely named Wimm Bill Dann dairy concern, who bankrolled her Potemkin fashion empire,  is of no use to her now. There’s nothing for it but to call in the lawyers.

The Americans just aren’t buying it any more.

Kira only entered the American market six months ago, arrogantly proclaiming her intention to soon be operating 250 retail outlets across the country, and now she’s already looking to skip out on her massive debts and flee the country.   She only managed to actually open a dozen shops before her spectacular flameout.

So the bloom has come off yet another Russian rose. Her consolation, according to the Los Angeles Times, is that at least “she still has a sizable fan base in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, where she has dozens of stores.”  Being on the fashion market in those countries is roughly like being in the ballet business in Boise.  Maybe best not to brag about it too loudly.

After all, Vladimir Putin still has a considerable  base in those countries, doesn’t he?  For how long, though, is anybody’s guess, and it’s not too likely he’d be embraced by LA voters.

Dear La Russophobe (Letters to the Editor)

Letters, we get letters, we get lots of cards and letters ever day!

Dear La Russophobe,

I noticed Kim Zigfeld’s comment on an RFE/RL article on Robert Coalson’s new blog concerning the illusion of Putin’s popularity. It kind of reminds me of an incident in which I found myself in Scotland back in ’03. I was managing a performing arts venue (where I hosted a Belarusian theatre company performing proudly in their own language!!!), and it was my job to close up the place for the night. Just as I was at the last stage, locking the gate, I saw an abusive man shoving his clearly beleaguered girlfriend into a wrought-iron fence surrounding our venue.

Lipman on Russia’s Dark Horizon

Masha Lipman of the Carnegie Center, writing in the Washington Post:

Uncertainty is creeping up on Russia. For the first time since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, Moscow confronts the prospect of real political instability. One of Russia’s savviest politicians, Anatoly Chubais, said last month that the likelihood of serious turmoil — economic, social and even political — is 50 percent.

The current crisis is global, and there is no sure way to forecast its length or depth. Such uncertainty would be disturbing in any country but is especially alarming here. For years, Putin steadily eliminated all political threats to his power, and by the end of his second term as president he enjoyed absolute authority. Now that authority is being challenged by forces beyond his control.

A Word of Warning to Barack Obama

The always-brilliant Leon Aron of the American Enterprise Institute, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has some words of warning about Russia for the President Elect:

Russia faces a particularly nasty version of the global recession (at a minimum), and perhaps an economic “perfect storm.” Regardless of how bad its economy gets, two broad political trends, each carrying profound implications for Russia’s foreign policy and U.S.-Russian relations, are bound to emerge.

The first will be a growing dissatisfaction with the government, which may lead to a political crisis. The second will be a reactionary retrenchment: increased internal repression and more of its already troubling foreign policy. Managing the relationship with Moscow in the face of these trends is something President-elect Barack Obama and his administration should start thinking about now.

Putin’s Candle is Flickering

“The Federation building complex is a new symbol — a symbol of Putin’s Russia. And halting its construction is no less significant a symbol. It’s a symbol of the fact that Putin’s Russia has reached its end.”

– Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Moscow-based Institute for Globalization Studies.

Radio Free Europe reports on the Russian year in review:

2008 was a very good…half-year for Russia.

From its historic victory against Canada in the world ice hockey championships to skyrocketing oil revenues and growing international muscle, Russia spent at least the first half of the year the way it likes — a winner on all fronts. The signs were auspicious as early as January 2, 2008, when world oil prices passed the $100-a-barrel mark for the first time.

In energy-rich Russia, where the economy depends almost exclusively on resources, a single $1 rise in oil prices can translate into $1 billion in extra revenues a day. So by July, when prices hit their peak at $147 a barrel, Moscow appeared unstoppable. It continued its revenue-fueled advance through Europe and Asia, buying up billions in energy holdings. The EU’s failure to progress with its plans for the Nabucco pipeline allowed Russia to inch closer to a monopoly on natural-gas shipments to Europe via its proposed South Stream and Nord Stream pipelines.

Moscow also remained the foreign-policy bully, delighting in the failure of Georgia and Ukraine to advance further in their NATO membership bids, and maintaining a fighting stance over Washington’s Central European missile-defense plans. The Kremlin even pulled off a potentially tricky political transition that moved Vladimir Putin from the presidency to the premiership with no apparent loss of power or public affection. His presidential replacement, Dmitry Medvedev, proved a competent but unremarkable successor who appeared content to stay in Putin’s shadow.

Paul Quinn-Judge, a Russia expert with the International Crisis Group, describes the first seven months of the year as a heady combination of “hubris and oil.”