EDITORIAL: Hillary Clinton, Wonder Woman?

EDITORIAL

Hillary Clinton, Wonder Woman?

It will be, to say the least, a very strange state of affairs indeed if America is saved from foreign policy disaster by the likes of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

Just as the thinking, moral people of the world stood slack-jawed reading the news about President Barack Obama’s shameful “secret letter” to Dima Medvedev, seeming to sell the Eastern European allies down the river, Hillary Clinton popped up in Brussels and declared:   “We should continue to open NATO’s door to European countries such as Georgia and Ukraine and help them meet NATO standards.”

In other words, her very first visit to Europe the new Secretary of State poked Medvedev right in the eye, using language very similar to that relied on by Biden in his first European sojourn as vice president af few weeks earlier.

Let’s be clear:  Compared to the notion of either Ukraine or Georgia, much less both of them, joining NATO, the notion of missile defense in Eastern Europe looks to Russia like a garden party.  There simply is no more provocative issue on which Russia can be confronted, and Clinton had no hesitation in pressing the hot button.

If she goes on like this, Clinton could go down in history as one of America’s greatest diplomats and possibly even the savior of modern Russia.

Go Hillary, go!

Putin’s Russia flouts International Law

Paul Goble reports:

Moscow could lose its membership in the Council of Europe if it continues over the next six months to ignore the decisions of the European Human Rights Court. While such an outcome is unlikely given politics involved, the threat itself highlights just how often Moscow is refusing to live up to its commitment to abide by the court’s decision.

March 6, 2009 — Contents

FRIDAY MARCH 6 2009 CONTENTS

(1)  Another Original LR Translation:  The Sochi Farce

(2)  EDITORIAL:   Whither Medvedev?

(3)  Part I: Putin’s Russia is Collapsing 

(4)  Part II:  Putin’s Russia is Collapsing 

(5)  Ryzhkov on Putin the Vampire

NOTE:  Kim Zigfeld has our take on Barack Obama’s “secret letter” to Dima Medevdev about missile defense over on Pajamas Media.  Spoiler alert:  We don’t care for it.

Another Original LR Translation: The Sochi Farce

Translator’s Note: On Wednesday LR carried a fairly negative report from Der Spiegel about the forthcoming Olympic fiasco. However, it was bouncy upbeat European in comparison to what I had just been reading in Novaya Gazeta. See below.

Oligarchs Aren’t “Go”

Yevgeni Titov

Novaya Gazeta

25 February 2009

Translated from the Russian by Dave Essel

Is the state going to have to rescue Potanin and Deripaska’s businesses in order for the Sochi Olympics to happen?

Construction costs for the Sochi sports venues have gone down by 15%, declared deputy-premier for the Olympics Dmitri Kozak at a meeting with prime minister Vladimir Putin. According to the deputy minister, an expert review of the project documentation was able to find ways to make the saving. However, given that food, transport, and utility prices are rising, making the Olympics cheaper seems a rather doubtful proposition. Especially if one takes into account that construction of the venues has not started and building workers are not getting paid. One gets the impression that Olympic optimism is directly but inversely proportional to the depth of the economic crisis. Especially at the venues that Russia’s former Forbes-list billionaires and business giants are responsible for. Novaya Gazeta’s correspondent visited Sochi to see for himself how preparations for the Olympics were going. No venues were to be seen and he was left only with questions.

EDITORIAL: Whither Medvedev?

EDITORIAL

Whither Medvedev?

Writing in the Moscow Times, Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Center states:

How can Putin hold onto his high ratings in the midst of a worsening economic crisis? It is possible that Medvedev’s frenetic schedule in recent weeks is one attempt at resolving that problem. Putin has to be somehow saved from the blow, pulled to the side so as to remove any hint of his being responsible for the negative consequences of the crisis. The only way to do that is to put someone else’s head on the chopping block. But now the country is faced with another problem: Who can rule the country besides Putin?

Of course, there is no guarantee that Medevedev is prepared to go “all the way” with this “chopping block” business, so Putin must hedge his bet. That is where Vladmir Frolov comes in.

Thus once again, writing in the Moscow Times, Putin shil Frolov has turned up the flame under the boiling pot of Russian failure that must be spilled on poor scapegoat, and sooner rather than later, sending a clear message to Medvedev that he must toe the line or be liquidated.

Part I: Putin’s Russia is Collapsing

Dmitri Oreshkin, independent political analyst, writing in the Moscow Times:

For most countries of the world, the global crisis is strictly economic. But Russia is experiencing two crises simultaneously — economic and political.

Part II: Putin’s Russia is Collapsing

Alexei Bayer, independent Russian economics analyst based in New York, writing in the Moscow Times:

In the mid-1960s, there were pundits on both sides of the Iron Curtain who predicted that the Soviet and U.S. systems would eventually become identical. The Soviet Union was then in a relatively liberal phase, whereas the United States, with President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program full speed ahead, seemed to be moving toward social democracy.

By the 1970s, such talk ceased when the Kremlin tightened the ideological reins. But economic similarities did emerge in one aspect: The formidable U.S. economy, stifled by government intervention and overly bureaucratic corporations, began to stagnate almost as badly as its Soviet counterpart. The 1980s then became a period of renewal for both countries, even though the responses — and results — were very different, underscoring the contrast between the two political systems.

Ryzhkov on Putin the Vampire

Opposition leader Vladmir Ryzhkov, writing in the Moscow Times:

Russians are struggling to keep their heads above the water as the crisis deepens, but bureaucrats are continuing to live as if there were no crisis at all.

March 4, 2009 — Contents

WEDNESDAY MARCH 4 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  More Electoral Fraud in Putin’s Russia

(2)  Putin shoves Russia off the Cliff

(3)  Annals of the Holy Russian Empire

(4)  The Chechnya Disaster, Part II

(5)  Russia’s Olympian Fiasco

(6)  CSM Warns Obama on Putin

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EDITORIAL: More Electoral Fraud in Putin’s Russia

EDITORIAL

More Electoral Fraud in Putin’s Russia

When a country is as riddled by incidents of spectacular fraud as Russia, something truly special has to happen before any given incident will be noticed.    Something just that horrifying happened earlier this week as the results of nine local legislative elections became known.

America is one of the world’s wealthiest, most successful nations.  Yet, the country’s recent economic downturn resulted in wholesale slaughter of the ruling Republican Party at the polls last November, handing power to their rivals the Democrats. Russia, by contrast, has never experienced a civilized transition of that kind in its entire history.

Russia’s economic performance has been far more dismal than America’s, and Russia started out from a position of excrutiating poverty in the first place.  Russia stock market, currency and reserves have been all but obliterated under the incompetent guidance of Russia’s current crop of rulers.  And yet, in every single one of the nine legislative races Russia’s ruling party prevailaed by landslide margins.  In the Tatarstan region,  where it had its strongest showing, United Russia “won” over 80% of the ballots.

There is only one word for this behavior on the part of the Russian voters, and that word is barbarism.  Just imagine how the world would have reacted in November 2008 if Barack Obama’s party had been defeated by George Bush’s party by a margin of 80%!

Is Putin Pushing Russia off a Financial Cliff?

The smart money says yes.  Reader “Oleg” directs our attention to the following item from Eurasia.net:

Russia in recent weeks has used its apparent financial clout both to knock an American back out of Kyrgyzstan and to solidify its relationship with Kazakhstan. But recent economic data suggests that when it comes to assistance to Central Asian states, the Kremlin may be running a geopolitical Ponzi scheme — guaranteeing returns that it will not be able to produce.

So far in 2009, Moscow has gone about lavishing money on its international friends as if the heady days of high energy prices still existed, and the global financial crunch had never hit. Even the Kremlin’s old friend Cuba has been the beneficiary of largesse, receiving $354 million in credits recently.

Annals of the Holy Russian Empire

David Satter, writing on Forbes.com:

The Orthodox patriarchate is a bulwark of autocracy.

The installation of Kirill I as the new patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church last month will not end the subordination of the church to the Putin regime. On the contrary, the church is likely to emerge as an even stronger supporter of dictatorship and anti-Western ideology.

Kirill, who was the Metropolitan of Smolensk, succeeds Alexei II who died in December after 18 years as head of the Russian Church. According to material from the Soviet archives, Kirill was a KGB agent (as was Alexei). This means he was more than just an informer, of whom there were millions in the Soviet Union. He was an active officer of the organization. Neither Kirill nor Alexei ever acknowledged or apologized for their ties with the security agencies.

The Chechnya Disaster, Part II

A letter to the editor of the Guardian newspaper:

Today is World Chechnya Day. On this day in 1944 Stalin deported the entire Chechen population of 500,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where almost half of them perished in 13 years of exile.

Sixty-five years on, the Chechen people are still suffering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Chechnya existed as an independent state in all but name before Russian troops invaded in 1994. Following a bloody war, a peace accord was signed and democratic elections were held in Chechnya in 1997, only for Vladimir Putin to order its invasion in 1999, resulting in the displacement of several hundred thousand refugees and the death of another 100,000 civilians.

The Kremlin now claims that the war is over and that there is peace and stability in the region. The reality is that the intensive bombings have been replaced with a regime of fear and oppression which has eroded civil society in Chechnya and suppressed any open and democratic voice. Visits are carefully choreographed for western journalists and dignitaries. They do not see the daily realities of Moscow-imposed Ramzan Kadyrov’s rule.

The facade of stability is dangerous. The only way to establish lasting peace in Chechnya is through free and fair elections, which last took place over 10 years ago. On this World Chechnya Day, we urge President Medvedev to find a genuine political settlement that will finally put an end to an entire people’s suffering.

Ivar Amundsen Director, Chechnya Peace Forum,
Malcolm Rifkind MP, Andrew Motion, Ken Loach, Prof AC Grayling, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, Andre Glucksmann, Aki Kaurismäki, Prof Brendan Simms, Jonathan Heawood, Glen Howard, Danny Alexander MP, Raymond Jolliffe, Nicolas Rea, Peter Tatchell

Russia’s Olympian Fiasco

“The most helpful thing would be a new, long war with Georgia. That sounds bad, but it’s still better than Olympic Games in Sochi.”

– Svetlana Berestyeneva, Sochi resident, to Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel reports:

At 10 a.m. in the Caucasus Mountains, backhoes dig their way through the snow and trucks dump loads of sand. The sun is a yellowy white and it’s -4 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit). Russian men with cigarettes dangling from the corners of their mouths reach for their helmets, shovels and wheelbarrows, then they begin to hammer, weld and saw.

There are 500 people working here at an elevation of 563 meters (1,847 feet) at the foot of the Aibga mountain range. Two helicopters, a white Ka-27 and a red Mi-8, rise into the air overhead. One flying hour per helicopter costs €3,800 ($4,830), and each can carry four tons of cargo. Right now they’re flying cement bags and steel pylons up to the north slope of Black Pyramid mountain, where all alpine ski events will be held during the Olympic Games in February, 2014.

CSM warns Obama on Putin

An editorial in the Christian Science Monitor:

Trust, but verify, was Ronald Reagan’s approach to the Soviets as they worked on arms control during the cold war. The phrase showed his hopes for the relationship, but also acknowledged the limitations. Four presidents later, his mantra still applies – even as Washington seeks a fresh start with Moscow this week.

When Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva on Friday, they will begin talks while at the lowest point in US-Russian relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. No question, it’s time to “press the reset button,” as Vice President Biden said at a security conference in Munich last month.

March 2, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY MARCH 9 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Take us Away, Officersky

(2)  State Department Condemns Putin’s Russia

(3)  In Russia, Government more Dangerous than Criminals

(4)  Exposing Russian Hatred of America

(5)  Annals of Putin’s Internet Crackd0wn

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EDITORIAL: Take us Away, Officersky

EDITORIAL

Take us Away, Officersky

Well, it seems that now in the eyes of the Kremlin we’re criminals. No big surprise, right?  We eagerly await the announcement of our trial date.

U.S. State Department Condemns Russia on Human Rights

The U.S. State Department has issued its latest country reports on human rights, and the Russia Report scathingly condemns Russia’s “increasingly centralized political system” and “numerous reports of government and societal human rights problems and abuses” during 2008. It concludes that the Putin regime is on a “continued negative trajectory” where human rights values are concerned. It accuses Russia of using “disproportionate force across Georgia’s internationally recognized borders” and of the ”use of indiscriminate force and resulted in civilian casualties, including of a number of journalists.” It condemns Russia for the fact that “prison conditions were harsh and frequently life threatening, law enforcement was often corrupt, and the executive branch allegedly exerted influence over judicial decisions in some high-profile cases. Security services and local authorities conducted searches without court warrants, particularly under the extremism law.”

In Putin’s Russia, Government is More Dangerous than Criminals

Paul Goble reports:

Small and mid-sized Russian businesses are now twice as likely to suffer from illegal actions by government officials — including those responsible for enforcing the law — than they are from the activities of ordinary criminals, according to a new survey of Russian entrepreneurs. Fifteen percent – or nearly one in six – of Russian businessmen in this category told OPOR pollsters that they had been subject to illegal actions by law enforcement agencies especially as a result of raids on their businesses, while only seven percent said they had felt similar “pressure” from ordinary criminals.

Exposing Russians’ Hatred of Americans

Susan Richards, writing on Open Democracy’s Polit.ru website shows that unlike Americans, Russians are not hostile to the “American government” but to the very notion of America itself, the same way Iran is hostile to Israel:

Russian attitudes to the West are known to have soured in recent years. But it may surprise Western readers that the majority of Russians now express a positive dislike of the West in general, and particularly of America. Nor do most of them regard liberal democracy as a model towards which Russia should aspire any more, either.

These are the findings of an ambitious new socio-economic study entitled ‘Are Russians Moving Backwards?’ by Sergei Guriev of the prestigious New Economic School in Moscow, Aleh Tsyvinski of Yale University, and Maxim Trudolubov of the business newspaper Vedomosti. The research is based on the findings of regular opinion polls and on a mass of data on values, attitudes and perceptions between 2003-2008 which have not been drawn into the policy debate before. [1]

Annals of Putin’s Internet Crackdown

Rebecca MacKinnon and Evgeny Morozov, fellows at the Open Society Institute, writing in the Moscow Times:

Even the most cold-hearted realists would agree that the failure of communist censorship played a role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain: Voice of America, the fax machine, rock ‘n’ roll and the lure of Western capitalism helped to win over the people of the Soviet bloc.

Today, similar hopes are often vested in the Internet, with high expectations that the wealth of online information might trigger the same kind of censorship failure that we saw in Eastern Europe in contemporary authoritarian states — and with the same results.