June 17, 2009 — Contents

WEDNESDAY JUNE 17 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Gontmakher Strikes Back!

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Neo-Soviet Apes, Scratching Themselves

(3)  Novaya Gazeta Under Siege

(4)  Ponomarev on the Neo-Soviet Gulag

(5)  The Strange Case of Artyom Loskutov

EDITORIAL: Gontmakher Strikes Back

EDITORIAL

Gontmakher Strikes Back

In November of last year, Russian economist Yevgeny Gontmakher published an op-ed item in the Russian newspaper Vedemosti in which he warned of, as the Carnegie Center’s Nikolai Petrov wrote recently in the Moscow Times ”unrest if factories in one-industry towns shut down as a result of the crisis.”  Petrov remembers:  “At the time, the government accused both Gontmakher and Vedomosti of inciting social unrest. But government leaders did nothing to prevent such a scenario from playing out or to at least develop an effective contingency plan in case it did.”

In fact, the Putin regime did more than just “accuse” Gontmakher, it tried to silence him, threatening the paper with closure and Gontmakher with prosecution. 

Now, Gontmakher has been utterly vindicated.  The recent protest action in the town of Pikalyovo proves that was exactly right while the Kremlin was absolutely wrong. But don’t hold your breath waiting for the Kremlin to apologize and make amends.

EDITORIAL: Russian Apes, Scratching Themselves for our Bemusement

EDITORIAL

Russian Apes, Scratching Themselves for our Bemusement

Once again, just when you think Russia has found a the bottom, it sink so low that its previous position looks like a mountaintop.

Last week the world was appalled by the issuance of a formal report from the United Russia political party, Russia’s party of power, the party of Putin and of Medvedev, condemning the very institution of democracy itself, supposedly a political party’s sole reason for existence.

Get this:  When Russia is rich, it has plenty of time to become democratic so it doesn’t need to rush things. And when Russia is poor, it has no time to waste on “luxuries” like freedom, because it must bear down on the economy.  In other words, Russia has no need for democracy of any kind at any time at all.

Novaya Gazeta under Siege

Der Spiegel reports, in an impressively massive effort which includes an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, on the horrific persecution being visited upon Russia’s most patriotic newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, by the KGB monsters who prowl the Kremlin.  The report aptly explains why we are so proud when the lunatic Russophile nationalists of the blogosphere refer to us, as they see it derogatively, as an English version of the mighty little paper.

Olga seemed simultaneously awestruck and wary as she ran her fingers across the envelope. The sender seemed to be important: the “Presidential Administration.” Was it mail from the Kremlin? “But the envelope felt strange,” says Olga, who is secretary to the editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. When she finally opened the envelope, she felt something cold and leathery inside: the severed ears of a donkey. “One needs strong nerves here,” she says. Four of the newspaper’s journalists have already been murdered, and one of its attorneys was shot dead in broad daylight. The donkey ears were followed a few days later by a bloody piece of meat. This time there was no return address on the envelope. And then a peculiar man offered the editor-in-chief a bribe.  

Ponomarev on the Neo-Soviet Gulag

Paul Goble reports:

Forty of Russia’s 700 penal institutions have features which resemble those of Soviet-era concentration camps, according to a leading Moscow human rights activist, who warns that “as long as concentration camps and torture exist, the spectre of totalitarianism will continue to hang of the country.”
In an article in Yezhednevny Zhurnal, Lev Ponomaryev argues that Russian “society must finally understand that no democratic transformations are possible until a radical reform of the penitentiary system and of the law enforcement one as well takes place” and eliminates such institutions.

The Strange Case of Artyom Loskutov

Last week we reported on the horrifying neo-Soviet crackdown being imposed on artists in Putin’s KGB Russia. That was only one of many examples, of course, as the Russia blog of the Foreign Policy Association reports:

Who is Artyom Loskutov, and why should we kiss his babushka?

While the industrial victory in Pikalevo (however Phyrric it may yet prove) hogs the headlines, the fate of this 22 year old performance artist from Novosibirsk has shown the stark limits to people-power in today’s Russia. Largely ignored in the mainstream media, Loskutov’s summary arrest nearly a month ago and continued detention have electrified the Russian internet, overwhelming the social networking site Livejournal and setting off a hunger strike.

June 15, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY JUNE 15 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Putin Tosses Medvedev Under the Bus

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia on the Warpath

(3)  EDITORIAL:  The New Adventures of Bradski Pitski

(4)  A Question for Vladimir Putin

(5)  Exposing the Farce called Putinomics

(6)  Putingate

NOTE:  Kim Zigfeld’s latest installment over at Pajamas Media exposes the horrifying crackdown of late by Vladimir Putin on the art community in Russia, which Putin seems to fear just as much as Stalin did. Welcome back to the USSR, Russia!  Combined with #6 above, regarding Putin’s electronic surveillance measures and our editorials about Putin’s military spending (#2) and attacks on the presidency (#1), it paints a truly terrifying picture.

EDITORIAL: Putin, Sticking it to Medvedev

EDITORIAL

Putin, Sticking it to Medvedev

Vladimir Putin’s English-language mouthpiece and bagman (and namesake) Vladimir Frolov has launched yet another of his vicious submarine attacks on “president” Dima Medvedev.

Putin has many reasons to root for the economy to fail.  It weakens his oligarch rivals, it devastates the population and makes it even more craven and vulnerable, it justifies ever more draconian levels of state control and, most importantly, it allows him to scapegoat Medvedev, justifying his return to the formal corridors of power as “president” for life.

EDITORIAL: Russia on the Warpath

EDITORIAL

Russia on the Warpath

The Stockholm Peace Institute reported last week that while U.S. military expenditures have increased 67% over the past decade, Russian expenditures have increased at a far greater rate, a shocking 300% and more than four times the American rate.

Two important factors make this comparison even more stark than it superficially appears.

EDITORIAL: The New Adventures of Bradski Pitski

EDITORIAL

The New Adventures of Bradski Pitski

It seems that Russia has a speeding problem in Siberia.  Entertainment Weekly asks the appropriate question: “What are they in such a rush for — you know, besides leaving?”

And it seems the only way Russians can think of to deal with the problem is to put up cardboard cutouts along the roadways of a famous actor dressed like a cop, telling folks to slow down.

It’s all quite insane, of course, but at least they’d surely choose a Russian actor, right? 

Nope, Brad Pitt.  Think they got copyright authorization?  Think again.

A Question for Vladimir Putin

We’d like to ask Vladimir Putin:  If you can’t protect supreme court  judges and cabinet ministers in the Caucasus from lethal acts of terrorism, how in the world do you imagine you’ll be able to protect Olympic athletes in Sochi?

Exposing the Farce called Putinomics

Aleh Tsyvinski, a professor of economics at Yale University and the New Economic School, mocking and deriding the farce known as Putinomics in the pages of the Moscow Times:

While spending three days at the 13th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, I was constantly thinking to myself, “What is the main message of the forum and what can I take away from it?” The topics of the sessions were vague, and they duplicated what almost every other large global conference discusses: the crisis, globalization and a new financial architecture.

But after the forum was completed, I realized that the main point of the conference boiled down to one session only — the one titled “What is the Price of Oil?” During this session, participants were asked to answer the question using individual electronic controls. The answer that most people chose was a range of $70 to $80 per barrel. When people ask me what I learned the most from the forum, I have my own one-liner: “70 to 80.”

Putingate

Remember how good old “Tricky Dick” Nixon got in trouble for spying on the Democrats?  He was a small timer, compared to the neo-Soviet exploits of proud KGB spy Vladimir Putin. Paul Goble reports:

A system of video monitoring Vladimir Putin introduced in 2005 ostensibly to fight street crime has since been extended to 53 of Russia’s federal districts and is now being used as part of a countrywide electronic network to “control the population,” according to a leading Moscow specialist on the security services.

In the latest of her series of articles on the modernization of Russia’s security services, Agentura.ru editor Irina Borogan describes the ways in which these agencies are combining video monitoring with other local and federal data bases to increase the ability of the authorities to monitor any and all opposition activity. Russian officials have acknowledged that their goal is to ensure “public order” by bringing together all the sources of information they have about groups like football fanatics, extremist youth groups, and others in order that through the use of biometric data they can identify and detain particular individuals.

June 14, 2009 — Contents

SUNDAY JUNE 14 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Putin’s Legion of Liars

(2)  EDITORIAL:   The Soviet Legacy of Lies 

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Russia’s Main Olympic Sport is Long-Distance Lying

(4)  On Russian “realism” just say NObama

(5)  Ryzhkov on Russian History Fascism, Part II

NOTE:  A special issue today, devoted to exposing the rancid lies of the neo-Soviet regime past, present and future.

NOTE:  Care to watch the Aral Sea disappear before your very eyes after being wiped out by Russian mismanagement?

EDITORIAL: Putin’s Legion of Liars

EDITORIAL

Putin’s Legion of Liars

The most damning argument against the rule of Vladimir Putin is the pathetic character of those who seek to defend him.

EDITORIAL: The Soviet Legacy of Lies

EDITORIAL

The Soviet Legacy of Lies

To round out our trilogy today on lies and the lying Russian liars who tell them, which began by exposing the lies told by Putin’s sycophants and will conclude by documenting the lies he himself spews out on a daily basis, it’s fitting to turn to the topic of history.  Putin himself is firmly anchored, of course, in Russia’s Soviet past. He’s a proud KGB spy who spent most of his life working to advance the goals of the USSR.

Which included, of course, relentlessly lying about anything and everything, all the time.  Take for instance the USSR’s recently exposed jaw-dropping duplicity on the subject of commercial whaling.

EDITORIAL: Stormclouds over Sochi

EDITORIAL

Stormclouds over Sochi

A few weeks ago, we reported that the Olympic organizing committee was shocked at a recent inspection of Sochi to see how little progress the Putin regime had made in constructing the basic facilities that will be necessay to host the 2014 Olympics there.  As always, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin gave assurances that everything was fine.

As always, Putin was lying.

On Russia “realism,” Just say NObama

Lev Gudkov, director of Levada Center, Igor Klyamkin, vice president of the Liberal Mission Foundation, Georgy Satarov, president of the Russian nongovernmental organization Indem Foundation and Lilia Shevtsova, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center, writing in the Washington Post:

As intellectuals and liberal Russians, we have read with great interest many recommendations American experts have compiled for President Obama regarding the U.S.-Russian relationship. While there are several constructive ideas, many of these reports reflect a serious misunderstanding of the situation in Russia and the course it is following.

Ryzhkov on Russian History Fascism, Part II

Last week we carried Vladimir Ryzkhov’s essay in the Moscow Times condeming the Kremlin’s efforts to rewrite Russian history.  His next column continued the drumbeat of warning:

The only way to fight a real battle against the falsification of history — something that President Dmitry Medvedev has made a priority after creating a special commission to handle this issue — is to keep government archives as open as possible for historians. Unfortunately, the government is doing the exact opposite, depriving historians access to the most sensitive and important historical documents. Among other things, this is a violation of the Constitution.

June 12, 2009 — Contents

FRIDAY JUNE 12 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Russia is Exporting Dictatorship

(2)  EDITORIAL:  More on Russia’s Repugnant Rest Rooms

(3)  OP-ED:  Russian Nuclear Arms Hypocrisy

(4)  Putin’s Poison Pill

(5)  A Hero Risks his Life for Russia

NOTE:  A reader suggests for comic relief a YouTube of a Russian airplane trying to take off in Australia.

NOTE:  On Monday June 15th and again on Wednesday June 17th, Masha Novikova’s film “In the Holy Fire of Revolution,” documenting the Kremlin’s oppression of Garry Kasparov’s “Other Russia” reform movement, will have its US premier at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York City.  Kasparov himself will be present at the opening night screening. Be there or be part of the problem. 

EDITORIAL: Russia is Exporting Dictatorship

EDITORIAL

Russia is Exporting Dictatorship

The democracy defenders at Freedom House have released a devastating new report on Russia, entitled Undermining Democracy and lumping it together with rogue nations like Iran and Venezuela, its allies, as states which are aggressively, ideologically, seeking to destroy the institution of democracy both at home and abroad.  FH had already released a report detailing how the Putin regime has continued to wipe out democracy within Russia’s borders, and now it shows, beginning with the example of Russian aggression in Georgia, that the KGB Kremlin is not satisfied with exterminating freedom within Russia’s own borders.

Brutally subtitled “Selective Capitalism and Kleptocracy,” the FH report lays bare the barabaric conduct of the Putin regime in seeking to replicate itself like a virus thoughout post-Soviet space.

EDITORIAL: Bound for Russia? Practice Crossing your Legs!

EDITORIAL

Bound for Russia? Practice Crossing your Legs!

Once you know that one-third of Russian homes lack indoor toilets and rely on outhouses, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that while Singapore has 30,000 public toilets and New York City is an international scandal because it has “only” 1,200 the city of Moscow has . . . wait for it . . . fewer than 600, less than half New York’s meager total.  Facilities for the disabled? You can forget about it.  Even Russian space travelers are victimized by this crude, uncivilized backwardness where the bathroom is concerned. And as we’ve previously reported, the conditions inside those few public toilets that do exist are barbaric, to say the least, even according to the Russian nationalists.

But even knowing all that, dear reader, wouldn’t it still suprise you to see, should you manage to find one of Moscow’s precious (albeit repugnant) facilities, to be confronted with a sign telling you that you’re not allowed to flush the toilet paper? 

OP-ED: Russian Nuclear Arms Hypocrisy

Exposing Russia’s Nuclear-Arms Hypocrisy

by “Dominic X”

Original to La Russophobe

Although the Russian media put out anti-western propaganda and disinformation on a regular basis, I thought that a particular article from RIA Novosti deserved some special analysis. The article  is dated 6th of May and is still to my knowledge a leading article and unfortunately has been linked to by USA Today and others. Wikipedia describes RIA Novosti as “one of the most authoritative and professional sources of information in Russia”, which does not say much for the rest of them.

The article is by one Yevgeny Kozhokhin, who turns out to be director of Moscow’s “Strategic Studies Institute.”  Perhaps I am cynical, but I think it is a safe bet that that institute is an arm of government, unlike its western counterparts. Incidentally, when I googled him I found the quote “in the modern world Russia’s objective of ensuring a conflict-free environment can often only be achieved by offensive means” – obviously trying to out-do the American neocons.

The article follows in ordinary print,with my comments in boldface.

Putin’s Poison Pill

Yet another crazed, self-destructive economic “idea” from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, from the Moscow Times:

When Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s helicopter touched down in Pikalyovo last week, it was clear that a remedy for the city’s pain was at hand.

It is uncertain how long the cure might last, but observers are sure that it might turn out to be poison for the government. Putin, they said, made a risky gamble by setting the precedent of doling out more than 40 million rubles ($1.3 million) to force Pikalyovo’s plants to pay their 4,000 unemployed workers.

A Russian Hero, risking his Life for his Country

The New York Times reports:

After the most recent attack on Sergei Kanev — attempted strangulation with a wire, in his apartment’s stairwell here — his editor visited him and delicately suggested that he take a six-month sabbatical from crime reporting, in America.