LR founder and publisher Kim Zigfeld discovered a nastly little appeasement freak lurking in the ivy-covered halls of Harvard University. She outs her in a recent letter to the editor of the Harvard Crimson:
To the Editor:
In discussing NATO’s efforts to protect Georgia from further Russian aggression (“Exercising Power in Georgia,” Opinion, May 13), Ellen C. Bryson offers readers much information that is incomplete and misleading.
MONDAY MAY 18 CONTENTS
(1) EDITORIAL: Unhinged Medvedev on the Warpath
(3) If you were a Russian, You’d Hate Yourself too!
Posted in contents
EDITORIAL
Unhinged Medvedev on the Warpath
As neo-Soviet nuclear weapons and tanks prowled Red Square two weekends ago, Russian “president” Dima Medvedev boldly declared (clearly and repeatedly referencing Russia’s invasion of Georgia): “Russia’s defense is our holy duty. Any aggression against our citizens will be rightfully repelled.”
Anyone who still thinks this maniac might be a liberal clearly needs to have his head examined.
Paul Goble reports that the Putin regime is now attempting to turn the extremism law, supposedly aimed at terrorists, towards crushing Russia’s infant environmentalist movement:
RusHydro, which builds and operates hydroelectric stations for the Russian government, has accused a group opposing a dam it wants to build in Krasnoyarsk kray of extremism, a charge that prompted interior ministry officers there to call in representatives of the website of the opposition yesterday for “an explanation.” But the charge and the expansive definition of “extremism” interior ministry officials have accepted has prompted the Russian section of the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, and other environmental protection groups to denounce the company for engaging in such “black PR” against its opponents.
This battle goes back several years. If RusHydro goes ahead with its plans, some one million hectares of land will be flooded, destroying not only a unique natural habitat but also putting at risk the survival of a small ethnic community, the Evenks, who have lived there and depended on that environment from time immemorial.
Agniya Kuznetsova
The Atlantic reports (click the link to watch the trailer for the film discussed):
Vladimir Putin’s tenure as Russian president was defined, among other things, by the parade of “It Girls” catapulted to local—and in a few cases, like that of Ksenia Sobchak, global—fame under his watch: young women whose unofficial job was to broadcast the exuberance, the strut, the sexual prowess of a reviving superpower. A few of these starlets actually did something (for example, Dasha Zhukova opened an art gallery); almost all were beneficiaries of powerful fathers and/or significant others. Like Paris Hilton, they were famous for being famous.
Now the oil boom is over, and the economic kreezis has tossed oligarchs off Forbes’s annual list of billionaires, halted skyscrapers mid-storey, and sparked Communist demonstrations in Vladivostok and Moscow. A new inwardness, a discontent, is seeping across the country.
A true Russian patriot
The Voice of America reports:
Recently, Freedom House, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization, released its annual survey on freedom of the press. The current report points to “particularly worrisome trends in the former Soviet Union, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.”
The study reinforces the message of a new documentary about suppression of the Russian media and the slayings of hundreds of Russian journalists since the fall of the Soviet Union. The film, 211: Anna, focuses on Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in 2006. She had reported extensively on alleged Russian links to war crimes in Chechnya and was openly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When you combine the scabrous horror of Russian cuisine with the infamous hostility of Russians to anything remotely resembling customer service and Russia’s even more pernicious problems with corruption and pollution, you have a grim restaurant vortex from which nothing resembling light or hope can escape. Now one heroic blogger has taken it upon himself to record the carnage (if it’s like this in Moscow, Russia’s city of cities, do you dare to imagine what it’s like in the hinterlands?). The Moscow Times reports:
After yet another unfulfilling Moscow meal, one expat recently snapped and launched his own restaurant review web site. This is no Michelin list, as he refuses to rate any restaurant with one star, let alone five.
Unlike tourist guides, which tend to view the city from behind rose-colored glasses, this annoyed foreigner rants at Rus-res-rev.ru about a world in which the customer is always wrong and generally leaves with a bad taste in his mouth — and not just because of the mediocre, overpriced and undercooked food.
SUNDAY MAY 17 CONTENTS
(1) EDITORIAL: Waiting for Godobama
(2) EDITORIAL: The Real Russian Bear
(3) Medvedev, Pretending to Lead
Posted in contents
EDITORIAL
Waiting for Godobama
“Most Russians don’t care whether they are ruled by fascists or communists or even Martians as long as they can buy six kinds of sausage in the store and lots of cheap vodka.”
- – Alexander Lebed (General, Governor, Presidential Candidate)The Financial Times, September 6, 1994
It was announced last week that U.S. President Barack Obama will attend a summit with “president” Dima Medvedev in Moscow on July 6th. Hopefully Obama will be smart enough to stay away from the Moscow Metro, where his lynching would be almost assured, and will not be idiotic enough to think he’s talking to the actual ruler of Russia. Vladimir Ryzhkov, who knows the corridors of Kremlin power far better than Obama, says the American naif is dealing with a counterpart who is just “pretending to lead.”
But the more important question is whether Obama will finally have the courage and intelligence to speak up for American values, something so many heroic people in Russia desperately want him to do.
EDITORIAL
The Real Russian Bear
An extraordinary new survey of the Russian economic landscape by the respected McKinsey & Company (available both in English and in Russian) reveals the shocking extent of mismanagement and failure over which proud KGB spy Vladimir Putin presides.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, writing in the Moscow Times:
One year after President Dmitry Medvedev took office, it is clear that his “tandemocracy” with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin does not work. Furthermore, their modernization efforts have accomplished little if anything at all.
According to a Levada Center survey conducted in April, 76 percent of Russians approve of Putin’s work as prime minister, and 67 percent approve of Medvedev’s job performance. Putin also holds more than a 10 percent lead over his successor in ratings for overall trust and policies — 48 percent and 37 percent, respectively. In a hypothetical early election, Putin would earn 28 percent of the vote to Medvedev’s 19 percent. Only 2 percent of those questioned perceived the president’s actions as representing fundamentally new policies, and 11 percent think that he is gradually shifting his political course. But a full 80 percent of respondents are certain that Medvedev is essentially, or even completely, continuing Putin’s course.
The country’s tandem therefore continues as before, with one ruler reigning and the other one pretending to lead.
Russian expat Alexei Bayer, writing in the Moscow Times:
A year ago, at the height of the oil price bubble, I took a flight from London to Moscow. Once our final boarding call was announced, duty-free shops all over the terminal came alive with a flurry of activity. Moscow-bound passengers, already burdened with numerous shopping bags, grabbed last-minute electronics, perfume and jewelry and rushed to the checkout. Then, on the way to the gate, we were greeted by a man in a kind of butler’s uniform bearing a strong resemblance to the late British actor John Gielgud. His jaw set in a disdainful grimace, he kept repeating: “Thank you very much, my Russian friends. Much appreciate your spending your money here.”
I have no idea who paid him to stand there and whether his withering English sarcasm was part of his job description. It is true, however, that in recent years Russian visitors have developed a reputation for crass nouveau-riche consumerism. Although Russia no longer has world-renowned writers, artists or composers, wild Russian spending and partying have become legendary the world over.
Fred Hiatt, writing in the Washington Post, calls upon Barack Obama to speak up for human rights defenders in Russia:
Tanya Lokshina did not set out to put her life in danger as a human rights campaigner in Russia.
Asked whether his killing heightened her sense of danger, Lokshina demurs. Human Rights Watch has taken security precautions; she can travel abroad; people working for smaller, Russian organizations, without outside backing, are far more vulnerable. But, she acknowledges, “anyone who is working on human rights abuses in Russia . . . is part of a group at risk.”Asked whether his killing heightened her se
FRIDAY MAY 17 CONTENTS
(1) EDITORIAL: Russia Lost the “Great Patriotic War”
(2) EDITORIAL: Russia is Surrounded
(3) EDITORIAL: Our One-Millionth Visitor!
(4) Another Failing Mark for Putin’s Russia
(5) Paranoid Putin Persecutes NGOs
NOTE: If you are in the Washington DC area you have a chance to hear the brilliant Pavel Felgenhauer and Vladimir Socor speak on the Russian threat to Georgia and the West at a conference on that subject hosted by the Jamestown Foundation on Friday May 15th. Learn more here.
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NOTE: We’re ashamed to admit that this is the first we’ve heard of the “Great Russian Water Circus” (and we’re rather bemused that it’s water rather than vodka) but we’re not the least bit surprised that the the only place that would host it is godforsaken Staten Island. Anybody seen this thing? We’re ever so curious. Is there also a “Minor Russian Water Circus”? Think we’ll pass on this (we have visions of tremendously fat Russians cavorting on stage in a kiddie pool while being pelted with water ballons by audience members) but when they roll out the Ginormous Russian Vodka Circus, we’ll be on the first ferry!
Posted in contents
EDITORIAL
Russia Lost the Great Patriotic War
Who won the battle of Ryazan in Russia during World War II, which Russians crazily refer to as “The Great Patriotic War”? Was it the Germans, who lost 500,000 soldiers, or was it the Russians, who lost a million?
Who won the battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd)? Did Russians “win” that battle the same way they “won” the battle of Moscow against Napoleon, by cleverly razing the city to the ground and wiping out its population so the invaders couldn’t make use of them? If so, then “win” a few more battles like that and you don’t really have much country left to defend, do you?
If you, like any normal person who can count, say it was Russia which lost these battles and which, indeed, lost the “GPW” in its entirety, then you’d better be careful where you say it. Utter those words in Russia and you may be heading for prison if Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu has his way. So-called “liberal president” Dima Medvedev is fully supportive of the effort. In other words Russia won because if you say it lost Russia will erase you. That’s the same technique the wacko Nikita Khruschev used to “bury” the USA!
We’ve addressed this issue before, when Shoigu first made his maniacal statement, but now that Russians are parading nuclear weapons through Red Square to “celebrate” their “victory” in the “GPW,” it’s appropriate to revisit the issue.
EDITORIAL
Russia, Surrounded
It’s a real indication of just how wretched a failure the Putin regime is that even the softest left-wing appeasers aren’t fooled the KGB clan any longer. Earlier in the week we showed that John Kerry is taking the lead in standing up to Russia in Georgia, and viewing two European policy initiatives towards Russia last week, all we can do is stand up, cheer and shout “BRAVO!”
EDITORIAL
Our One Millionth Visitor
We are pleased to announce that since being founded a little over three years ago by a single determined writer named Kim Zigfeld, this blog has now — as of 3 pm EST Monday, May 11th — been visited over one million times. We warmly thank all the readers who have supported us and the contributors who bring you our content. This achievement, of course, belongs as much to them as it does to us.
Web pages we have created have now been opened nearly two million times (each visitor usually opens at least two pages per visit). Our work has been cited by a wide variety of much larger publications, from the snooty New York Review of Books to the pugnacious Little Green Footballs and everyone in between, from the Associated Press to the Moscow Times. Kim has gone on to write inspiring regular Russia columns for two gigantic mainstream Internet publications, Pajamas Media and the American Thinker.
And that, if we may say so, is only the beginning of a long, impressive list of our achievements to date. Even more to the point,though: You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!
Vladislav Inozemtsev, the director of the Research Center for Postindustrial Society and the publisher and editor-in-chief of Svobodnaya Mysl magazine, writing in Vedomosti and translated the Moscow Times:
Thursday marked the one-year anniversary since President Dmitry Medvedev took the oath of office. He came to power promoting the doctrine of “Four I’s” — that is, to develop the country’s institutions, infrastructure, innovation and investment. But Medvedev was hostage to a system that had been created over the preceding eight years by his mentor, former President Vladimir Putin. What has come of Medvedev’s Four I’s after a year in office?
Posted in economics, neo-soviet failure, rating russia, russia
Tagged izozemtsev, russia
Paul Goble, blogging for the Moscow Times:
President Dmitry Medvedev’s May 2008 decision to transfer responsibility for the registration of non-governmental organizations from the Federal Registration Service (FRS) to the Ministry of Justice has not led to the kind of progress toward a law-based state for which many activists had hoped.
According to a new analysis of the legal situation in which Russian NGOs find themselves by Olga Gnezdilova, the legal affairs advisor to the Voronezh Inter-Regional Legal Defense Group, in many regions exactly the same officials are overseeing the registration process as were before this change was made, and the justice ministry has set quotas for the number of NGOs to be shut down each year.
WEDNESDAY MAY 13 CONTENTS
(1) EDITORIAL: Putin’s Sochi Lies Risk Lives
(2) EDITORIAL: Putin’s Abkhazia Quagmire
(3) Felgenhauer on the Coming war in Georgia
(4) A Free Trade Agreement for Georgia!
(5) Russia Must be Stopped in Georgia
(6) No Justice, no Peace in Chechnya
NOTE: Today we offer a special issue devoted to Russia’s Caucasus regions. We show how the Kremlin is losing control of security in Sochi and covering it up, being rejected by the very people in Abkhazia it purportedly “saved,” denying justice and any possiblity of real peace in Chechnya and menacing Georgia with a renewed threat of barbaric military aggression. Hearteningly, we carry two items from mainstream leaders who seem to fully appreciate the threat Russia is presenting and who are calling for direct and specific action to meet it. It’s also encouraging to see Andrei Babitsky back in print on the topic of Chechnya. No matter where you turn in the region, in short, you find horrifying bad news for Vladimir Putin and his KGB cronies.
Posted in russia
EDITORIAL
The Kremlin’s Sochi Lies Risk Lives
Here’s what Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of security for the Sochi Olympics in 2014, told Reuters last week: “Sochi is the summer residence of our president and prime minister, that says everything. This is one of the safest and most secure places in Russia and it’s the state with the highest security level.”
It was one of the most sensational and outrageous lies yet told by the malignant regime of Vladimir Putin, placing the lives of tens of thousands of people around the world in jeopardy and showing the absolute contempt with which Putin views basic values of honesty and integrity.
EDITORIAL
Putin’s Abkhazia Quagmire
A recent report in the New York Times interviewed the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey about whether they’d like to return home now that they are no longer part of Georgia, at least as far as Russia is concerned. You might think many would have expressed worry about being attacked or abused by Georgia, but none did. Instead, here’s what the Times found: “The most common question was whether Abkhazia was having too much contact with Russia.”
That’s right, Russia. The Abkhazians are worried about Russia, their new so-called “benefactor.” And well they should be.
The brilliant and courageous Pavel Felgenhauer sounds another warning on Georgia, in the pages of the Eurasia Daily Monitor:
The situation in Georgia appears to be deteriorating rapidly. Last month the Georgian opposition parties began street protests in an effort to force President Mikhail Saakashvili to resign. Since April 9 massive rallies by opposition supporters failed to compel Saakashvili to yield, and the number of demonstrators steadily decreased. Western diplomats repeatedly urged the Georgian opposition to begin a political dialogue with the authorities, but without any results, as the radical opposition continued to demand Saakashvili’s unconditional resignation (www.civil.ge, April 28).
Wonder of wonders! John Kerry (writing with Republican congressman David Dreier) has something sensible to say, in the Washington Post. If even Kerry gets it, Russia is in big, big trouble. Hopefully, President Obama is reading:
As the Obama administration seeks a fresh start in our strained relationship with Russia, the case for cooperation with Moscow on everything from nuclear terrorism to global finance is clear and compelling. So, too, is the case for protecting the freedom and sovereignty of the fledgling democracies on Russia’s borders. We must do both. Part of the way we can continue to support allies such as Georgia even as we do more to pursue vital national interests alongside Russia is by focusing on areas that can deliver real benefits to one side without hurting ties to the other. That’s why we believe we should sign a free-trade agreement with Georgia and why we plan to introduce a resolution to this end today.
While some mistakenly view constructive relations with these two countries as mutually exclusive, we see no inherent contradiction in offering Russia a fresh start while maintaining our commitment to ensuring that its neighbors have the right to choose their own destinies. Yes, sometimes Russia and its neighbors see the world in zero-sum terms — and sometimes their interests collide violently, as when Russian tanks rolled into Georgia last August. But we need not define our relationships with these countries the same way.
Writing in the New York Times Denis Corboy, director of the Caucasus Policy Institute at Kings College London and former European Commission ambassador to Georgia, William Courtney, former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan and Georgia and Kenneth Yalowitz, director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College and a former U.S. ambassador to Belarus and Georgia, call upon the West to finally stand up to Russian aggression in Georgia, before it is too late.
Reports of military mutinies and Russian plots in Georgia, while still unclear, have heightened tensions which were already building this spring. The U.S. should lead preventive diplomacy now, underscoring to Russia the high costs of intervention in Georgia while seeking to engage Moscow in a broad security dialogue.
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