Stalinputin Terrorizes and Destroys

Moneycontrol.com reports:

Russian businessmen at the World Economic Forum in Davos struck a gloomy note this week, with many uncertain about the country’s direction and others warning a climate of corporate fear could hamper growth.  The wealthy businessmen who ran Russia 10 years ago under President Boris Yeltsin lost their political influence during Vladimir Putin’s presidency in 2000-08.

During the global economic crisis, many have gorged on state bailouts.  The state now controls about 60 percent of the economy and President Dmitry Medvedev’s call for modernisation to lessen the dependency on oil is falling on deaf ears as entrepreneurs are too scared to show initiative after years of what they see as state bullying. German Gref, CEO of Russia’s largest lender Sberbank, was the only Russian in Davos who spoke openly about the mood of fear gripping the private sector since the state takeover of oil major YUKOS several years ago.

Vladimir Putin, the Man and his Lies

Irina Yasina of the Institute for Transitional Economy, writing in the Moscow Times:

Has Russia’s economic crisis ended? That depends on whom you ask. Ask Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, or any official of his United Russia party, and you will be told, “Of course it is over.” They will even produce proof in the form of an unemployment rate that does not rise, unprecedented increases in pensions and strong growth in construction and metalworking.

Of course, all these comparisons are made with how things stood last month rather than with the country’s precrisis economic performance. Then there is another “miracle” that the government is starting to trumpet, one discovered in August 2009: an increase in Russia’s population. Unfortunately, in no month before or since have births outpaced deaths.

Ask a member of the opposition whether the crisis has ended, and you will be told that it is only just beginning. Gazprom’s production is falling at a dizzying pace, and the country’s single-industry “mono-towns” are dying.

February 3, 2010 — Contents

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Russia, Enslaved

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia’s Thugboat Diplomacy

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Russia, Land of Barbarians

(4)  Virulent Russian Racism on the Rampage

(5)  Henin the Russian Killer

NOTE:  That cowardly bastard Vladimir Putin has arrested both Boris Nemtsov and Oleg Orlov for peaceful demonstrations in downtown Moscow.  What are you afraid will happen if you let these two Russian patriots speak, Mr. Putin? That your entire government will crumble to ruin? Are you admitting that’s possible, you pathetic little rat? More than 150 others were jailed along with them.  The Moscow turnout was exceptionally large, and in Kaliningrad a stunning crowd of 12,000 gathered to demand Putin’s resignation.  Panicking, the Kremlin has launched a massive attack on the Novaya Gazeta website, shutting it down for days.