Contents — September 3 2008

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Crybaby Russia

(2)  Another Kremlin Foe is Murdered

(3)  Arm in Arm, Georgians Stand up to Russians

(4)  Division in the Kremlin’s Ranks?

(5)  Barbaric Russia has no Place in Civilized Europe

(6)  The Mailbag: On “Genocide”

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EDITORIAL: Russia the Crybaby

EDITORIAL

Russia the Crybaby

It’s probably safe to say there are not too many people in the world who are more cynical about the intentions and capabilities of neo-Soviet Russia and its pathetic people than we are. But even by our standards, what has occurred over the past few weeks, in terms of childish and genuinely insane Soviet-style gibberish emanating from the mouths of Russia’s rulers, has been stunning.

On the one had you had Russia’s so-called “prime minister” Vladimir Putin, who in fact still rules the country just has he has done for the better part of a decade now, saying: “I believe that a country – Russia in this case – that can enable its citizens to maintain their honor and dignity, protect their lives and fulfill its international legal commitments … will not be isolated.”

What does that mean? Can you tell us? Does it mean Putin doesn’t understand that his actions in Georgia have been repudiated by every nation on the planet, from NATO the Shanghai group? Has he failed to notice that not one single country, anywhere, has backed Russia up in recognizing Georgia’s breakaway regions, while on the other hand Georgia itself has made Russia cease to exist by breaking diplomatic relations, a move supported by a host of powerful countries who have allied themselves with Georgia? Is it possible that the leader of the world’s largest territory can be that childishly detached from any semblance of reality, like the infamous Emperor and his “new clothes”?

And then there was Dmitry Rogozin.

Yet another Kremlin Foe is Murdered

We’ve previously documented the shockingly long list of political murders of Kremlin enemies which have occurred on Vladimir Putin’s watch, with not a single mastermind of any such killing ever being brought to justice.  Now, we can add yet another name to that horrible litany.  The Moscow Times reports:

The owner of the embattled opposition web site Ingushetiya.ru was killed Sunday after being detained by police, and his supporters promised massive protests that could lead to a sharp escalation in violence in the restive region.

Arm in Arm, Georgians Stand up to Russians

Reuters reports:

More than one million Georgians protested on Monday against Russian military action and the Kremlin’s backing for the country’s two separatist regions, officials in the ex-Soviet republic said. Many waving the red-and-white Georgian flag, protesters linked arms in the capital Tbilisi in a human chain that snaked through the city under cloudy skies. Flags flew from balconies and protesters chanted “Long Live Georgia!” and “Stop Russia!”

Countrywide, police said over 1 million people took part in what authorities said was a show of unity after Russia this month crushed a Georgian bid to retake breakaway South Ossetia from pro-Moscow separatists. The figure, which could not be independently confirmed, would account for more than a fifth of the Black Sea state’s 4.5 million population.

Division in the Kremlin’s Ranks?

Writing in the Moscow Times Andrei Piontkovsky, the always-brilliant independent political expert and researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences who has been targeted by the Kremlin for censure, says that the Georgia crisis may be splitting the Kremlin internally:

The Georgia crisis revealed a new strategic force in the Kremlin that opposes both Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. We still cannot name its players, but we are aware of its interests and impact on events in the same way that astronomers discern a new but invisible planet by recording its impact on known and visible objects in space.

One after another, loyal Kremlin pundits have appeared on television and radio to denounce “provokers,” whom they dare not name, for “planning the incursion of Russian troops all the way to Tbilisi and the establishment there of a pro-Russian government.”

Russia has no Place in Europe

Writing in the Moscow Times Gyorgy Schopflin, formerly Jean Monnet professor of politics at University College London and currently a member of the European Parliament for Hungary, says that Russia has “no place in Europe” because it is too uncivilized and barbaric.

The events of the last few weeks have made it clearer than ever that Russia has no place in Europe. The invasion of Georgia, the disproportionate use of force, the presence of irregular forces, the looting and deliberate destruction of infrastructure and then the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “independent” are all evidence of a Russia that is not European and does not want to be European.

Of course, what it means to be European has varied over time, but Russia has expressly flouted European values as they are understood by most Europeans. Russian spokesmen may insist that they are part of the common European home, but the way in which they want to furnish it is unacceptable to its other inhabitants.

The Mailbag: On “Genocide”

Letters, we get letters, we get lots of cards and letters ever day!

Dear La Russophobe,

One aspect of Russia’s current disinformation campaign a la KGB concerned it’s quick claim of genocide of having been commited by the Georgians on Ossetians.

As someone of Polish extraction my first thoughts were why is Russia using this term so casually and frequently when it does not even recognise the Katyn Massacre as genocide, or for that matter the Soviet deportation of Poles (1 million in 1940) to the Soviet interior and Gulag where half were dead within a year. Men, women, children & the elderly. The victims of casual murder, being worked to death, starved etc.  Under the legal definition of genocide both certainly qualify as genocide.