February 25, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY FEBRUARY 23 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  No Justice for Politkovskaya? No peace for Russia!

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia, scorched by Global Warming, Ravaged by AIDS

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Neo-Communist Russia

(4)  EDITORIAL:  Russian Space Terrorism

(5)  Readalong with Russophile Scumbag Anton Fedyashin

NOTE:  Oleg Kolzovsky posts YouTube video of Vaclav Havel condemning neo-Soviet Russia and praising the new “Solidarity” opposition organization.

NOTE: It’s all La Russophobe all the time today, with four — count them, four — editorials and a readalong with the Russophile maniac du jour. If anyone out there is in a position to have a word with the bigshots at American University about this nasty little rodent, we sure would appreciate it. 

EDITORIAL: No Justice for Politkovskaya, No Peace for Russia

No justice? No peace!

EDITORIAL

No Justice for Politkovskaya, No Peace for Russia

“There were two verdicts delivered today.  One, de jure, was the acquittal of the defendants. But a guilty verdict was leveled against the corrupt system that exists here. Nothing works, not one governmental institution works.”

— Sergei M. Sokolov, deputy editor of the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, reacting to the acquittal of all accused in the murder of the paper’s most famous reporter, Anna Politkovskaya

No justice? No peace!

For months now, a ridiculous show trial has been underway to supposedly prosecute the killers of hero journlist Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in the lobby of her apartment building in Moscow in October 2006.  In fact, neither the person who ordered the killing nor the one who pulled the trigger stood before the court, but rather only a trio of lackeys allegedly having tangiential connection to the ghastly crime.

No justice? No peace!

And last Thursday, a jury acquitted all three of them on all charges, putting the final nail into this obscene mockery of justice. Along the way, so-called “president” Vladmir Putin said Politkovskaya’s killing was “more damaging” to Russia than her writings (imagine John Kennedy saying that about Martin Luther King!) and the trial judge attempted to preclude anyone from watching the outrageously crude proceedings, which echoed some third-world banana republic.

No justice? No peace!

We would condemn this travesty, but there are no words strong enough to do so.  From Galina Starovoitova to Stanislav Markelov, these murders have been the most salient feature of the Putin years, and not one of them has ever been solved.  That’s not difficult to understand, not if you believe Putin himself ordered the killings — and not once has Putin made an unequivocal statement condemning them.  In fact, he only spoke out about Politkovskaya because he was ambushed by a pack of foreign journalists while traveling abroad.

No justice? No peace!

The people of Russia, who have chosen Putin as their ruler, are responsible for his actions. The misery and woe descending upon them now are of their own making, and not until they realize that will they have any hope of a future.

No justice? No peace!

EDITORIAL: Russia, Scorched by Global Warming, Ravaged by AIDS

EDITORIAL

Russia, Scorched by Global Warming, Ravaged by AIDS

Some Russophiles might be inclined to imagine that the phenomenon of “global warming” might be good for frigid, frozen Russia because it might thaw out vast swaths of unproductive territory and make them more fertile and habitable.

One problem with such a theory, of course, is that Russia’s population is dwindling by the day, expected to fall by one-third in the next half-century or so.  Which means that Russia can hardly manage to populate the territory it has now, much less new territory uncovered by global warming.

And now, scholar Paul Goble is reporting that in fact the whole notion is bogus.  He states:   “the Russian Federation will be more profoundly and negatively affected by global warming over the next 40 years than will any other country, a projection that Russian experts and officials say make it critical that Moscow take the lead both domestically and internationally to combat this trend.”

EDITORIAL: Neo-Communist Russia

EDITORIAL

Neo-Communist Russia

The Moscow Times reported last week that salaries in Russia’s  far-Eastern Primorye region are currently averaging 9,700 rubles ($270) per month.  For a forty-hour work week, that means an hourly wage of $1.70.

The MT also reports that a round-trip plane ticket from Vladivostok in Primorye to Moscow currently costs $1,120.  That is four months wages.

The Kremlin is responding to this problem with a well-known Russian “solution” — communism. 

EDITORIAL: Russia’s Space Terrorism

EDITORIAL

Russia’s Space Terrorism

Two weeks ago, an orbiting Russian government Cosmos 2251 satellite crashed into an American private satellite owned by the Iridium corporation, obliterating both and scattering at least 2,000 pieces of dangerous debris that will pollute the Earth’s orbit for decades. It is already threatening the next mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

It did not have to happen.  The Russian government could have “de-orbited” the Cosmos 2251, which had ceased to function usefully years before, and avoided the collision, which was certain to occur otherwise. The Russian government chose not to do so.

That’s terrorism.  Now, not only will Russia’s own satellites have to avoid this detritus field, but Russia has even further blackened its own reptuation and standing in the world community, right on the heels of its outrageous barbarism in Georgia and its egregious imperlialism in Ukraine.

What did Russia get in return?  Are Russians proud of their ability to act like the Chechens of space?  Will they proudly wear the world’s designation “bandit nation” just as the Chechen terrorists do?

Do Russians really think they will do better with the cold war the second time around, this time as a pale shadow of a much more powerful state that the West has already destroyed utterly?

Readalong with Professor Anton Fedyashin, Russophile liar

Writing on the Post Global blog operated by the Washington Post Anton Fedyashin, an Assistant Professor of Russian History at American University, speaks of a “new Russian opportunity.”  We wrote to Professor Fedyashin to ask him to substantiate with source material his claim that Georgian President Saakashvili’s “luck ran out when he recklessly attacked a breakaway region with internationally-approved Russian peacekeepers in it” and to tell us about his citizenship status.  He ignored our request.  We consider his statement outrageously irresponsible in the absence of any attempt to cite source material, and we feel American University should be embarrassed by this shoddy pseudo scholarship.  If any of our readers have any connections with AU, we’d appreciate it if they’d write Cornelius Kerwin, the school’s president, a letter of protest. Here’s his address: president@american.edu.

Now, let’s review the entire tract and see if there are any more flies in this nasty Russophile ointment (his text in ordinary print, our comments in boldface):

True to his word, President Obama has launched a new era in American foreign policy. Signals from the U.S. have been positive and encouraging. Henry Kissinger quietly visited Moscow in December. Vice President Joseph Biden spoke optimistically about cooperating with Russia at the international security conference in Munich. In his first press conference, the President mentioned non-proliferation negotiations and Russia’s role in preventing other regimes in acquiring nuclear capability. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to visit Moscow in March to lay the groundwork for reestablishing the U.S.-Russia partnership. And finally, President Obama and President Medvedev will meet at the G-20 summit in April. There is a veritable thaw in the air and spring looks promising.

These are all U.S. moves, which could only look “promising” to Russians as signs of weakness that can be exploited. He does not mention a single act by Russians to give an advantage to the U.S.  We must ask:   Whose side is this guy on, anyway? We’d like to know what country he’s a citizen of, but he won’t tell us and his resume seems to be some kind of secret. If anyone can tell us more, please do.