EDITORIAL: Obaby makes a Mess in Moscow

EDITORIAL

Obaby Makes a Mess in Moscow

No sooner had we come out in support of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Russia policy last week, based on his pronouncments setting the foundation for his first state visit to Russia, than he stabbed us in the back.  When we called upon him to carry his diplomacy into real policy initiatives, we never dreamed what we should have done is call upon him to carry his diplomatic rhetoric through to the end of his visit rather than suddenly reversing course and babbling like a goose.  A cowardly, benighted goose.

We hate when that happens.

Another Original LR Translation: Into the Russian Cesspit

A Note from the Translator:  Russia today is a country so preposterous that it does not deserve to be taken seriously, and Russia has been that way for long swathes of its history. The only time it showed some promise was the period between the 1905 revolution and the Bolshevik coup; it could have become a constitutional monarchy and was developing on lines more or less normal for the times. Lenin put a stop to that. I simply do not understand why any of our leaders in the West can allow themselves to be besmirched by contacts with this country other than the minimum necessary to control arms and purchase raw materials, Russia’s only exportable commodity. In fact, I don’t see why it would not be possible to review and re-plan our commodity needs in such as way as to stop purchasing oil-and-gas from Russia. See how the country manages then. In particular since Russia could not very well threaten to bomb us unless we continued buying – after being bombed, we’d certainly not need that much oil and gas! Here is yet another example of cesspit thinking and nastiness. And we should pretend they are part of the community of nations?!

Investigator Bastrykin’s Expensive Toys

Alexander Podrabinek,

Yezhedevny Zhurnal

 8 July 2009

Translated from the Russian by Dave Essel

It’s frequently said that the only difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys. Our country’s top investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, is a perfect example of this. At a recent press conference, he announced that the Criminal Investigation Department of the RF Prosecutor’s Office, of which he is head, has practically completed its preliminary investigation and has “proved the fact of genocide in relation to the inhabitants of South Ossetia during the events of August 2008”.

Medvedev’s “Ludicrous” Nuclear Deal with Obama

Alexander Golts, writing in the Moscow Times:

Wishing to indulge its tough negotiating partner, Washington picked a heavily militarized agenda for the Moscow summit — nuclear arms reduction, missile defense and control over nuclear materials. These are areas in which Russia believes it can negotiate with the United States on equal grounds — that is, as equal superpowers.

Obama’s Historical Ignorance Exposed

Our much-esteemed reader “Penny” directs your attention to the following critique of Obama’s sojourn in Moscow, from the pages of Forbes:

Watching President Obama hit the “reset” button in Moscow this week, I was reminded of one of my own New Age encounters in Russia, about 14 years ago. Then, working as bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal in Moscow, I was on the receiving end of a shipment of new computers for the office. After much wrangling, delay and expense, they finally arrived. But the first one we unpacked would not boot up. The Russian customs service, in its own version of “reset,” had stripped out the hard drive before turning over to us the hollow shell.

Russia has Already been Defeated by NATO

Ekaterina Kuznetsova, director of European programs at the Center for Post-Industrial Studies in Moscow, writing in the Moscow Times:

In June 2008 — less than a month after his inauguration — President Dmitry Medvedev unveiled  a proposal for creating a new Euro-Atlantic security architecture with the implied hope that it would someday replace NATO. After years of spewing belligerent anti-Western rhetoric, the Russian leadership had finally decided to put its own security proposal on the table. Medvedev had also hoped that the initiative would become the centerpiece of his foreign policy. But the project received a lukewarm welcome in European capitals.

July 11, 2009 — Contents

SUNDAY JULY 11 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  The Russian Economy continues its Freefall

(2)  Neo-Soviet Russia resembles North Korea

(3)  RIP Vassily Aksyonov

(4)  Annals of a Russian “Movie Star”

(5)  Postcards from Moscow

(6)  Biker Putin

NOTE:  In addition to two very serious items we offer a number of lighter features today as a weekend respite from an avalanche of hard news coverage, and in this spirit also bring it to your attention that the Kremlin has seen fit to censor an episode of South Park that contained a depiction of Vladimir Putin.  Russia: wimp nation.

EDITORIAL: The Russian Economy continues its Freefall

EDITORIAL

The Russian Economy Continues its Freefall

Last week the price of crude oil went on a bender, shedding 15% of its value before recovering slightly late in the week. Unsurprisngly, by last Wednesday, the day after Barack Obama left Russia, the RTS dollar-denominated stock index (see chart, left) lost nearly 4% of its value and plunged below the important 900 point psychological barrier, closing at 889.  The MICEX ruble-denominated index was doing the same.  The RTS has now lost 300 points or one-quarter of its mid-June value, itself a gigantic dropoff of two-thirds from its high a year and a half ago.   It confirmed once again that the Russian economy is helplessly enslaved by a crude oil price set by foreigners with no regard for Russian interests.  The ruble’s value fell in lock step right along with the price of oil, almost as if it had no value indendent of crude (which is in fact the case).

The repercussions in the wider economy were predictable and plain to see.

Neo-Soviet Russia is just like North Korea

Paul Goble, blogging at the Moscow Times:

A group of legal activists is working in the Russian capital to help people moving there comply with the law and work with a government registration system unlike any in the world — except for the one maintained by the regime in North Korea, claims one of the leaders of the “Illegals of Moscow” movement. In an interview posted on the Chaskor.ru portal this week, that individual, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the risk of reprisal from officials, said that Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s claim that such registration systems exist “in all the major capitals of the world” is simply “a lie.”

“There is nothing like [Moscow’s system] anywhere in the world,” the Illegals of Moscow leader said. Members of the organization “have specially studied this question, and the last country with such a registration [“propiska”] regime is the Korean People’s Democratic Republic” under Kim Jong-Il.

Vassily Aksyonov, RIP

The Washington Post reports:

Vassily Aksyonov, one of many former Soviet citizens to take up residence in the Washington area since the 1970s, lived among us for 24 years. He held a distinguished professorship at George Mason University; he became an avid Bullets fan; he fell in love with this country, which made him a citizen. You’ve probably never heard of him.

Yet his death Monday in Moscow at 76 will set off days of mourning in Russia, where our former neighbor was a superstar. Literarily, he played the role of a Russian Kurt Vonnegut, but Vonnegut would have envied Aksyonov’s stature in his homeland — closer to Tiger Woods’s or even Michael Jackson’s. Aksyonov realized during his American years that no writer here could ever enjoy such acclaim. Russians love their writers with a fervor unknown in this country.

The Adventures of a Russian “Movie Star”

The New York Post rep0rts:

A former Goldman Sachs computer programmer charged by the feds with looting the investment bank of valuable trading-software code might have had a brighter future as a film star.

A 10-minute YouTube video featuring the romantic escapades of the programmer, Sergey Aleynikov and his wife, Elina, is showing a vastly different side of a man that prosecutors claim stole computer code that authorities say runs the risk of sapping millions from Goldman as well as manipulating the broader stock market. The video, which was first posted in November 2007 and appears to connected to the couple’s wedding, features Aleynikov as a lonely workaholic in search of his bride. After finding no success with an over-the-top matchmaker, Aleynikov stumbles upon a magic lamp containing a genie who grants him his one wish of the perfect bride.

In the final scene, Aleynikov and his wife dance a tango and appear on their way to a life of happily ever after. Alas, it’s just a fantasy.

Postcards from Moscow

Putin seems to have been a little slow turning the head to the right on this one. Based on that facial expression, Does Putvedev think he/it has a live one?

Biker Putin (Sometimes, you Just Gotta Crack a Skull)

Vladimir Putin spends a few carefree hours with his leathery pals before they depart for a major nationwide conference in Sevastopol in early June

The Wolves welcome One of the Their Own.

July 9, 2009 — Contents

FRIDAY JULY 9 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  The World Hates Vladimir Putin

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia Today, Seething with Anti-Americanism

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Economics for Russians

(4)  Nemtsov in the Wall Street Journal!

(5)  Russia Teems with Anti-Americanism

(6)  The Seeds of Revolution still Live in Russia

NOTE:  Kim Zigfeld’s latest installment of her Russia column on the American Thinker blog reviews the neo-Soviet crackdown on the media and the assertive thrilling attack on the Kremlin recently launched by Novaya Gazeta.    Kim also has a column running on Pajamas Media (designated lead story, congrats KZ!) which has her take on Obama’s visit to Moscow, namely that it was a total mess that disappointed in a major way. We couldn’t agree more; we got our “hopes” up and O dashed them big time.  It was better than Bush, but that’s not saying much at all.  As always, required reading. We’ll have our own take on the proceedings in a Monday editorial.

EDITORIAL: The World Hates Vladimir Putin

EDITORIAL

The World Hates Vladimir Putin

Sometimes one picture truly is worth a thousand words. Or in Vladimir Putin’s case, a thousand screams.

The chart at left shows the results of a June poll of 20 nations by World Public Opinion ranking the confidence they have in various world leaders.  It shows that other countries have nearly twice as much confidence in American president Barack Obama compared to Russian “prime minister” Vladimir Putin, whose negative rating for lack of confience is even higher than that of Iranian lunatic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Russians, of course, are totally unware of this fact, out of touch with the world, and for that reason hold antipathy for Obama while the rest of the planet adores him.

EDITORIAL: Russia Today’s Gerald Celente, seething with Anti-Americanism

EDITORIAL

Russia Today, seething with Anti-Americanism

 

Dave Essel reports:  I don’t know what drove me to visit Russia Today’s website but I was struck by the level of transparency that must be the rule on the site, which runs under the banner shown above. I thought LR existed to find and expose Russian lies, hypocrisy, and mental and moral confusion but here is their main propaganda site openly confessing to these traits! We’d better start looking for another job…. [BTW, the site looked so stupid and boring that I could not bear to go any further and simply contented myself with taking the screenshot above]

Remember that wacky Russian “professor” Igor Panarin, who claimed that the United States would implode and break apart just like the USSR, within the next year or so? 

To us he may seem wacky (or less diplomatically, insane), but in Russia, he represents mainstream “thought.” In fact, he is a representatative of the Russian state itself.  And Russia Today, the Kremlin’s state-sponsored propaganda network, is actively propounding this view by any means possible, including repeatedly publishing the crazed rantings of one Gerald Celente, who it refers to as an “American economist.” 

EDITORIAL: Economics for Russians

EDITORIAL

Economics for Russians

Based on the total incompetence in the field of economics that we see routinely displayed by Russians, we often think that perhaps they should develop a whole new genre of how-to books with titles that cater to Russians who are not yet sophisticated enough to be able to access a publication like  “Stock Market for Dummies.”   There could be ”Inflation for Russians” and “Unemployment for Russians.”  Lots of pictures and such, no big words.

As a way of perhaps jump-starting this process, we offer our little primer on the latter two subjects.

Nemtsov in the Wall Street Journal!

Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s apologists in the West like to suggest that, for all the shortcomings of his authoritarian regime, there is no viable alternative. Such a position is false and dangerous.

Those who accept the concentration of power and corruption under Mr. Putin are condemning Russia to backwardness, lawlessness, social and economic instability and, potentially, territorial disintegration. They are also condemning the world to continued unpredictable actions by the Kremlin’s unaccountable leaders.

This is not an outcome President Barack Obama or his advisers, who are in Moscow this week to “reset” relations between the U.S. and Russia, should want.

Russia teems with Anti-American Venom

Megan Stack, writing in the Los Angeles Times and reporting from Moscow, documents Russia’s frenzied, pathological hatred of America and its values just in time for Barack Obama’s meeting with Putin, a timely reminder for the new president of the nature of the evil he faces:

When President Obama visits the Kremlin, he will face the task of trying to reset relations with a government that has built its power base and defined itself by its anti-American, neo-Cold War stance.

It’s an opportune moment for the United States to warm up a frosty relationship. Moscow could help on some of Washington’s most intransigent foreign policy troubles, including Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea. But in Russia, there is scant evidence of a desire for a fresh start.

The Seeds of Revolution are Still Alive in Russia’s Black Earth

The New York Times reports:

A year after Dmitri A. Medvedev succeeded Vladimir V. Putin as president, most liberal Russians have cast aside hopes of a real political thaw from above.

But as activists recall the watershed political event of 20 years ago — the remarkable gathering of the Congress of People’s Deputies, the first democratically elected body in the Soviet Union — there are signs of a growing demand for civic discourse. Meanwhile cultural life, so often a bellwether in Russia, carries faint but unmistakable echoes of the opening under perestroika, the restructuring of Soviet society that Mikhail S. Gorbachev introduced in the 80s.

July 7, 2009 — Contents

WEDNESDAY JULY 9 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Reading Vladimir Putin’s Mind

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia Through the Looking Glass

(3)  Another Original LR Translation:  Lonely Russia

(4)  Aron on the Putin Implosion

(5)  Russia is being Rejected Across Post-Soviet Space

(6)  Wimbledon Wrapup: More Russian Humiliation

NOTE:  In a thrilling development we’ve already reported, Barack Obama launched an indirect attack on Putin’s authority by giving an interview to firebrand opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta which was published on the first day of his talks with the Kremlin this week, and announcing he will meet with Boris Nemtsov and Garry Kasparov. At the same time, he’s launched a direct assault on Putin’s authority, publicly saying he’s obsolete and an anachronism and indicating he will circumvent Putin with appeals to Medvedev and the people of Russia.  Bravo, Mr. President. Now we want to see you carry this diplomacy through into actual policy.

NOTE:  Today we offer the work of two careful Russia scholars, Aron and Shevtsova, the latter translated by Dave Essel from the Russian press, exposing the failure of Putin’s domestic and foreign policy.  These come as a perfect bulwark for the barrage of editorials we launched at Putin in our last issue.

EDITORIAL: Reading Vladimir Putin’s “Mind”

EDITORIAL

Reading Vladimir Putin’s “Mind”

It’s quite beautiful, really, if you think about it.

There’s this guy, this American, Pavel Klebnikov. He’s writing all these nasty stories about corruption in my Kremlin, and so forth.  You tell them to stop, but they won’t listen of course, these Americans. They think they’re invulnerable.

So, of course, I have to kill him, and I do.  And you might think that would be risky for me, but surprisingly it’s just the opposite.  Because here’s what I do.

EDITORIAL: Russia, Through the Looking Glass

EDITORIAL

Russia, Through the Looking Glass

Something very strange, something that ought to make the Kremlin’s blood run cold (well, colder) has been happening recently in Russia. The price of oil has been rising, but the stock market has been falling. That’s not supposed to happen.

Another Original LR Translation: Lonely Russia

Not Impressed by Power: How Russia Was Humiliated

Lilia Shevtsova, Senior Associate, Carnegie Moscow Center

Novaya Gazeta

Translated from the Russian by Dave Essel

Lilia Shevtsova

The following is an extract, published in Novaya Gazeta, from Shevtsova’s new book – “Lonely Power: Why Russia Didn’t Become the West and Why She Has Difficulties With It”  – about the the whys and wherefores of Russia’s foreign policies today.

Russia’s élite has managed to do the impossible – it has actually turned the chip on its collective shoulder into a survival plan and convinced society at large that its fears are their fears, giving birth to a new anti-Western consensus that supports the monopoly of power. Instead of national unity in the name of development, we have substituted status quo maintenance by toeing to the line “Who Are We Friends Against?” Strangely, a number of clever and, at first sight, liberally inclined people have come over to this cause and become defenders of the system.

What is the West guilty of in relation to Russia? That it, assert these defenders, humiliated Russia in the 1990s, forcing the country to make unilateral concessions and now a) does not want to accept it as “power centre” and b) wants to re-write the rules of the game that came into force after the collapse of the USSR. And that is why, they say, relations have taken a sudden turn for the worse.

Aron on the Putin Implosion

AEI scholar Leon Aron, writing on Foreign Policy‘s website (and citing the Nemtsov White Paper which this blog translated into English):

Leon Aron

Early last year, Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov published a report titled “Putin. Itogi,” or “Putin. The Results.” It was a well-documented, comprehensive, and absolutely damning critique of the corruption, authoritarianism, and general dysfunction of what they called rezhim Putina, or “Putin’s regime.” Most revealing was their economic argument: After eight years of Vladimir Putin’s centralizing of the government and the economy, as well as the bureaucratic incompetence and cronyism his policies fostered, Russia had squandered the unique chance at modernization offered by the flush years of the early 2000s. Their conclusion: “The situation could be changed. But the current Russian authorities are neither responsible nor professional nor honest and, as such, cannot initiate change. The situation in Russia will change only when the Russians take the fate of their country in their own hands.”

Russia is being Rejected across Post-soviet Space

The  New York Times documents the relentless foreign policy failure of the Putin regime:

This was supposed to be Russia’s round in the battle over its backyard. All year, despite its own economic spasms, Moscow has earmarked great chunks of cash for its impoverished post-Soviet neighbors, seeking to lock in their loyalty over the long term and curtail Western influence in the region.

But the neighbors seem to have other ideas. Belarus — which was promised $2 billion in Russian aid — is in open rebellion against the Kremlin, flaunting its preference for Europe while also collecting money from the International Monetary Fund. Uzbekistan joined Belarus in refusing to sign an agreement on the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces, an idea Moscow sees as an eventual counterweight to NATO.