February 2, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Mr. Osyak goes to Moscow

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Sgt. Glukhov goes to Georgia

(3)  EDITORIAL:  The Further Misadventures of Anna Matveeva

(4)  Tech War with Russia

(5)  Vladivostok is Burning

(6)  Annals of Russian “Tennis”

EDITORIAL: Mr. Osyak Goes to Moscow

EDITORIAL

Mr. Osyak Goes to Moscow

Russia is such an amazingly messed up place that sometimes even we, who are prepared to believe just about any extreme nonsense where this nightmare of a country is concerned, see something in print, even in the quality press, that we find difficult to swallow.

Such was the case when we opened our virtual copy of the Chicago Tribune last Wednesday and learned about the amazing Mr. Ivan Osyak. 

EDITORIAL: Sgt. Glukhov goes to Georgia

EDITORIAL

Sgt. Glukhov goes to Georgia

Last week we reported on the defection of Russian conscript Sergeant Alexander Glukhov from Russia’s imperial forces of occupation in Ossetia over to the Georgian side.  Russia claims Glukhov had no reason to be unhappy in Ossetia, and therefore concludes he must have been “kidnapped” by evil Georgians looking to make Russia look bad.

There is only one word for this contention, and that word is:  Nonsense.

EDITORIAL: The Further Misadventures of Anna Matveeva

EDITORIAL

The Further Misdventures of Anna Matveeva  

On December 14th of last year, we posted about a woman named Anna Matveeva, whom we called a “Russophile idiot” because she was writing shamelessly dishonest and moronic lies about the Putin regime on the Guardian’s “Comment is Free” blog.

Two weeks after we did so, the Kremlin’s propaganda network Russia Today hired her as one of its own bloggers (she’s “employee 66”), and she posted about the economic crisis.  Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Tech War with Putin’s Russia

 Writing on Dark Reading Rob Enderle, president and founder of Enderle Group, warns of a coming “tech war” with Putin’s Russia:

I was reading the withering comments Vladimir Putin made to Michael Dell in response to Dell’s offer to help Russia. Though Putin is Russia’s prime minister, he clearly is also the guy who is running the country. Reading between the lines, I think it is likely he is driving a technology war with the U.S. — and that has some rather scary implications.

Vladivostok is Burning

The sign reads: "We can't live like this! We need laws that make the government accountable to the people!"

The BBC reports:

Several thousand people have held a rally in Russia’s Far East, demanding the government resign over the country’s growing economic problems. The protesters in Vladivostok blamed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s cabinet for mismanaging the economy and suppressing political dissent. The rally – which passed off peacefully – was the first in a series of protests expected in Russia on Saturday.

Other recent protests across Russia have been broken up by the authorities. Such protests were unthinkable just a few months ago as the economy boomed with record high oil prices and as the Kremlin tightened its grip over almost all aspects of society, the BBC’s Richard Galpin in Moscow says. But now with the economy in deep trouble, there is real fear amongst ordinary people about what the future will hold, he says. He adds that unemployment is rising rapidly, as are the prices of basic food and utilities.

‘Crisis’

The anti-government demonstration in Vladivostok was called by the Communist Party.  “The crisis is in the heads of the authorities, not in the economy!” chanted protesters. The protest was joined by a local group angered by higher tariffs imposed on cars imported to the city. The region has thrived on the car import business and the government’s decision has led to job losses, correspondents say.

Several anti-government demonstrators were also held in the capital Moscow and cities. In Moscow, police detained a number of people taking part in an unauthorised protest by the radical National Bolshevik Party. In a separate demonstration in Vladivostock, thousands of supporters of the ruling United Russia held a rally in support of the government.

Annals of Russian “Tennis”: You Can’t call Russian guys “Girly Men”

Annals of Russian “Tennis”

Last week in Melbourne the first grand slam tennis tournament of the year, the Australian Open, concluded. Only three of the 32 male seeds in the tournament were Russian, and not a single one of them made it out of the third round. By contrast, three out of the four spots in the semi-finals on the women’s side of the tournament were filled by Russians, who held fully one fourth of the 32 available seeds and half of the top ten seeds..

You sure wouldn’t dare refer to Russia’s male tennis players as girly men. They wish! What’s wrong with these “men”?

Then again, to say that Russia’s male players are not as good as its women is to damn with darn faint praise indeed, since the performance of the women down under was also an abject disaster.