LR Proved Right . . . Again

Faithful readers of La Russophobe will remember when she asked whether Russian writer Gary Shteyngart’s telling it like it is meant that he was a Russophobe.

Here is what reader REITH said about that then: “You surely cannot be so simple-minded as to not understand the basic fundamentals of fiction. A character is not necessarily the same thing as the author. That is, after all, the point of fiction. So, is Shteyngart a Russophobe? There is no evidence to support this from the extracts included in the NYT piece.”

But now, of course, La Russophobe has been proved quite correct, and REITH predictably wrong. The crazed Russophile crowd has got wind of Shteyngart (albeit quite late, as is usual for them), and crazed Russophiles Kirill and Konstantin have denounced him as a russophobe.

Here’s the exceedingly apt comment of a Konstantin reader responding to the gibberish put forth by these two slobbering Neo-Soviet simeons:

1. Cry me a fucking river, why downtcha?!
2. I’m a Russian, and I’ve lived here for 17 years. And yet, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Hate Russians? Most Americans have either never met any Russians, or if they have, then only briefly and in passing.
3. Hating Russians is not racism (clearly). So what is it that you’re protesting? Generalizations? Really? Let’s be honest, majority of the Russians (more so, waY, WAY, more so than Americans) are racists. They hate pretty much anyone (which is pretty self-evident in their policies, and daily life).
4. And lastly, what exactly do you disagree with about “Russians chicks” or “Russian rudeness”? As generalizations go, these are among the more correct ones.

The next commenter attempts to rebut this by quoting the analysis of . . . wait for it . . . Anna Kournikova.

The plain and simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of Russians live in isolation from the truth because they cannot handle the truth, and when someone like Mr. Shteyngart comes along to tell them, their first impulse is murder. This has been true from the dawn of Russian time, and writers from Pushkin to Dosteovesky to Solzhenitsin to Shteyngart have been targets of blind, crude Russian attacks, even while their predictions regularly prove true and even while the country sinks into oblivion. Russians choose to simply ignore the unmitigated hatred with which they view they outside world and anyone inside Russia unlike themselves, as if that was justified, while at the same time reacting with paranoid frenzy to any questioning of Russia by anyone outside it, as if they only explanation for hostility to Russia is anti-Slavic racism (and hence, as if “Russian” and “Slavic” were the same).

And so it goes in Russia.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Russia’s Roads Still Horrifically Lethal

The Moscow Times reports: “Some 35,000 people were killed in accidents on the country’s roads last year — a rate of deaths per vehicle 10 times higher than in Britain or Germany. Traffic accidents are officially estimated to cost about 2.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.” The MT forelornly asks: “Imagine the public reaction if a terrorist attack killed 100 people and injured another 800. Then imagine a similar mayhem happening every day.”

La Russophobe doesn’t want to imagine that, it’s too horrible, far more horrible than the traffic fatalities, which are perfectly ghastly. Because if terrorists killed 100 people every day and the government told the people that it wasn’t going to do a thing about it because those people deserved to be killed, then the Russian people would sit idly by doing nothing to protect future victims, and virtually nobody would stand to point a finger at them and tell them the were wrong. And that would be the greatest tragedy of all.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Once Again, Foreigners Say "No Thanks" to Russia

In another sign of the apocalypse for Russia, it will receive less than 5% of the normal contingent of extremist anti-globalization protesters when it hosts the G-8 forum. Half of them are afraid to set foot in Russia and the other half realize nobody could care less what goes on there. In other words, so much for Russia’s “resurgence” and “democracy.” Once again, Russia has alienated the world.

The Moscow Times reports:

Due to the high cost of travel and jitters about security, only 1,500 anti-globalization protesters are expected to turn up for the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg next month. They will, however, try to make their presence known, holding an alternative summit, staging a flash mob, going on a tram excursion and camping on Krestovsky Island. Tens of thousands of activists usually participate in sometimes-violent protests during G8 summits, but organizers of the Second Russian Social Forum said not many foreigners seemed eager to travel to Russia for the July 15-17 event. “For most potential participants, getting here is too expensive, takes too long and is too complicated. On top of that, Russia is not considered secure,” co-organizer Vladimir Soloveichik said. He said he expected a turnout of 700 people from St. Petersburg, 300 from other Russian cities, 200 from former Soviet republics and 300 to 400 from Europe. The protesters will set up a camp near the Kirov Stadium on Krestovsky Island and discuss the same issues as the G8 summit: energy, security, health care, human rights and the fight against poverty.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Russian Education System Going Belly Up

Like President, like people.

RIA Novosti reports that Russian diplomas from the best universities are for sale, cheap. After all, President Putin bought his, why shouldn’t everybody? Education, shmeducaiton. Fraud is so much more fun. And so much less work!


Notice how Mr. Lavrov doesn’t say a word about President Putin going back to school, now does he?

MOSCOW, June 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s black market in fake diplomas has reached epidemic proportions and poses a danger to the country’s economy, an Interior Ministry official said Wednesday. “The absence of a centralized data base for identification and personification of issued diplomas has made the market of fake documents on education practically uncontrollable,” said Sergei Lavrov, the head of the Interior Ministry’s economic security department. Lavrov said that advertisements on foreign web sites offering help in getting Russian degrees meant that the problem taken on an international scale, and that the price for some diplomas was above $20,000. He added that the number of people with fake degrees occupying senior posts, including in law-enforcement bodies, also presented a threat.Lavrov said the Interior Ministry had proposed forming a special group with the Ministry of Education and Science that would draft proposals to increase the effectiveness of the fight against legal violations in the education sector.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Russia Going Extinct

ITAR-TASS reports that Russia lost a quarter of a million people from its population in the first third of this year, putting it on pace to lose 750,000 by the end of the year:

MOSCOW, June 22 (Itar-Tass) – Russia’s population reduced by 247,700 to 142.5 million in January-April 2006, the Federal State Statistics Service said in its report on Thursday. Over this period, there were 466,100 births and 758,700 deaths, which is by 11,400 and 38,200 less respectively year-on-year. Natural depopulation, computed as the difference between deaths and births, made up 292,600 people as against 319,400 in 2005, Prime-Tass said. The number of marriages grew by 13,300 to 274,800, and of divorces – by 4,700 to 198,700.

One of the most overlooked facts by Russia watches is that all such statistics from the Kremlin are suspect. Far too little work is done by Western observers to analyze and verify Kremlin statistics, which are put forth by a clan of KGB spies who spent their whole lives learning how to lie and deceive. If Russia actually lost 1 million or more, would it be at all suprising to see the Kremlin massage the numbers downward? Hardly. But even at the rate of 750,000 per year, Russia will be an empty desert in less than two centuries or two very long human lifetimes.

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !

Anybody got a giant ROLAIDS? Russia faces massive gas attack!

Russia is now facing a two-front gas attack. On the West, as Moscow News reports:

Yulia Tymoshenko, who is set to return as Ukraine’s Prime Minister, called on Thursday, June 22, for a radical review of Kiev’s current gas deal with Russia. She said that the Russian gas supplies are far too expensive and that the contract infringes on Ukraine’s national interests. “I think all issues on gas supplies to Ukraine now require further deep revision and review,” she told reporters minutes after three liberal parties overcame differences and agreed to form a coalition government. As MosNews has reported, Ukraine imports most of its gas from Russia and clashes frequently with its vast neighbor on prices. In January 2006 the two engaged in a price row which culminated in a brief cut-off of gas supplies to Europe, before Kiev accepted a nearly twofold increase in prices. Russia, which delivers up to 80 percent of its gas to Europe via pipelines across Ukraine, has suffered a blow to its reputation as a reliable supplier as a result of this argument. “Certainly, all new relations with Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan should be built on a friendly basis,” Tymoshenko said, quoted by the Reuters. But her stance on gas looks set to further strain ties with Moscow, as Russia has said it wants to increase the gas prices. Ukraine pays now $95 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas compared with $50 previously. Tymoshenko has repeatedly said the prices should be lower. But Russia’s gas giant Gazprom has said it wants to raise prices again later this year and plans another round of talks for July. Gazprom finds itself between the devil and the deep blue sea. On the one hand, Ukraine refuses to pay a higher price for the gas it receives and has shown that it won’t bulge at taking the Russian gas going to Europe if Russia turns off its supplies. On the other hand, Turkmenistan, which delivers the vast majority of gas that goes to Ukraine, has said this week that it wants to almost double the price of the gas it sells to Gazprom. Turkmen Foreign Ministry has already released a statement saying that if Gazprom does not agree to raising the price from $65 to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, the Central Asian state will simply turn off the supply altogether. If Gazprom agrees to Turkmenistan’s conditions, it will have to raise prices for Ukraine, because otherwise it will be working at a loss. The situation is made more difficult because for now Gazprom has no alternative export routes to Europe. The Russian gas monopoly began construction of the North European Gas Pipeline which is set to bypass all transit countries, but it won’t be completed for another few years. For now Russia and Gazprom has to come to amends with Ukraine or risk disruptions to their European-bound deliveries. Europe gets around a quarter of its gas from Russia.

On the East, as People’s Daily Online reports:

Turkmenistan raised the stakes in its gas pricing dispute with Russia yesterday by threatening to cut supplies altogether if Gazprom did not raise the purchase price by more than a half.
The price Turkmenistan charges Gazprom is of vital importance to Ukraine, which buys most of its supplies in Central Asia from the Russian state monopoly. The Turkmen foreign ministry said in a statement that it now wanted Gazprom whose CEO Alexei Miller was in Ashgabat earlier this week to pay US$100 per 1,000 cubic metres of natural gas instead of the current US$65. “If such a contract is not signed with Gazprom over the next month and a half … then Turkmenistan would stop gas supplies,” the statement said. Gazprom was not available for comment. A source close to Miller’s negotiations with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov said Miller had asked for a break in talks for consultations with top Russian officials. It was unclear when talks with Niyazov were to resume. Turkmenistan’s threats echoed a move by Gazprom at the beginning of the year when the world’s No 1 gas company briefly cut gas exports to Ukraine the main transit route for Russian supplies to Europe due to a row between the two. Under Turkmenistan’s current agreement with Russia, Central Asia’s top natural gas producer was due to export 30 billion cubic metres of gas at a price of US$65 per 1,000 cubic metres in the first half of 2006. “The Turkmen side asked to set the price of US$100 per 1,000 cubic metres from the second half of the 2006, which is a normal price. But the Russian side asked for US$65,” the foreign ministry said. “Turkmenistan categorically rejected this request. That is why the contract (for the second half) was not signed.” Turkmenistan currently produces about 60 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year and exports two-thirds of that, mainly to Gazprom. A small part of its exports goes to neighbouring Iran. Turkmenistan and Gazprom have discussed raising annual shipments to 50 billion cubic metres over the next three years, and Gazprom seeks to eventually raise Turkmen purchases to 80 billion cubic metres.

On the latter story, Kommersant crowed that Russia was getting its just desserts: “Turkmenistan has apparently adopted the ultimatum methods of Gazprom to hike gas prices.”

Thanks for reading La Russophobe !