December 22, 2008 — Contents

MONDAY DECEMBER 22 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Why is Obama Silent on Racism in Russia?

(2)  EDITORIAL:  The Russophile Rats Protest too Much

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Once Again, the Worst of all Worlds for Russia

(4)  Latynina on Russia’s China Problem

NOTE:  LR Publisher Kim Zigfeld’s latest installment on the mighty Pajamas Media mother blog tells the story of Roman Dobrokhotov and his bold move to interrupt a fraudulent speech about the Russian Constitution by “President” Medvedev. It’s Kim’s 25th column on PJM, a milestone worth noting (the complete list appears in our header).  We follow up on Kim’s reporting with our own editorial (#2) urging those inside and outside Russia to take advantage of the Kremlin’s obvious weakness and stake out a claim for civil society.

EDITORIAL: Mr. Obama, How Dare you Stand Mute on Russian Racism?

EDITORIAL

Mr. Obama, How Dare you Stand Mute on Russian Racism?

If you were to simply peruse the news accounts of race violence in Russia during the last two weeks, they would read like pulp fiction — and the realization that they are nothing like fiction, but the cold, hard reality of daily life in the neo-Soviet dictatorship for hundreds of thousands of dark-skinned people, both visitors and residents, this realization would surely curdle your blood.

The silence of Barack Obama in the face of this outrage, just as certainly, would make your blood run cold.

EDITORIAL: The Russophile Rats Protest too Much

EDITORIAL

The Russophile Rats Protest too Much

The Defiant One: Roman Dobrokhotov

The hotter things get in Vladimir Putin’s economic kitchen, the skeevier and more loathsome will be the insects and rodents that are released upon the world attempting to distract its attention from all that failure, and the more desperate will be their tactics. On Wednesday we dealt with the crazed ravings of nationalist shill Anna Matveeva, on Friday we exposed an actual KGB mole infiltrating Western media, and today we can hardly say we are shocked to see one Vladimir Frolov, oft–exposed on this blog for the Russophile rat that he is, taking the lead role in this frenetic scurrying.

LR founder and publisher Kim Zigfeld’s latest installment on the mighty Pajamas Media mother blog tells the story of Roman Dobrokhotov, who heckled “president” Dmitri Medvedev’s crazy pontifications about the Russian Constitution. If you want to appreciate the significance of Dobrokhotov’s move, just listen to hardcore Kremlin apologist Frolov, who devoted his Moscow Times column to the issue.

EDITORIAL: Once Again, the Worst of All Possible Worlds for Russia

EDITORIAL

Once Again, the Worst of All Possible Worlds for Russia

As it routinely does, the Moscow Kremlin has given the people of Russia the worst of all possible worlds last week.

First, Russia alienated the West by threatening to join OPEC, showing that Russia cannot be trusted as “reliable partner” of the West.  Then, Russia stabbed OPEC in the back, refusing to go along with supply cuts and other membership constraints that would force Russia to act like a member of a team, placing the team’s interests above its own.  The result was that OPEC’s supply cut fell utterly flat and the price of oil continued to plummet.  Meanwhile, last Wednesday the value of the Russian ruble fell to an all-time low against the euro currency.

So now, once again, everyone hates Russia, which has betrayed itself as a paper tiger making vacuous threats that have no real significance.

As Yulia Latynina has pointed out in her Moscow Times column, which we republish below, the Kremlin can’t even identify its true rivals.  Obsessed with America, Russia fails to realize that the true threat to its territory comes from China — a point we have been making here on this blog for years now.

If the people of Russia do not wise up soon and realize that their very worst enemies are in the Kremlin, their nation will go the way of Tsarist Russia and the USSR, into the ashcan of history.

Latynina on Russia’s China Problem

Given that Russia expelled Solzhenitsyn and chucked Dostoevsky into a concentration camp, while lionizing mass murder Joseph Stalin and electing Vladimir Putin, a proud KGB spy, as its president, it’s pretty clear that the country has a good bit of difficulty telling friend from foe.  Writing in the Moscow Times hero journalist Yulia Latynina shows that the problem carries over into foreign policy as well.

President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed that Europe reform its system of collective security. The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe trashed the idea, voting 55-1 against it. Why? Because an odd suggestion was hidden behind the phrase “reform the system of collective security” — namely that NATO be prohibited from expanding its membership, European countries lose their right to deploy U.S. missiles on their territory, but Russia be allowed to do whatever it wants. After the Georgia war, the proposal sounded especially unconvincing.

Russia has two major problems: China and the Caucasus.