March 13, 2009 — Contents

FRIDAY MARCH 13 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Dark Stormclouds over Putin’s Russia

(2)  EDITORIAL: Craven Europe, Appeasing Russia once Again

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Further Misadventures of Charles Ganske

(4)  Heroin Nation

(5)  Annals of Russian “Healthcare”

NOTE:  Regarding #2 above, you can sign a petition protesting the cowardly Eurovision decision to censor Georgia’s anti-Putin song entry by clicking here.

EDITORIAL: Stormclouds over the Moscow Kremlin

EDITORIAL

Stormclouds over the Moscow Kremlin

In a trio of posts over at The Power Vertical, Radio Free Europe’s Russia correspndent Brian Whitmore points out how very badly things are going just now for Russia’s closeted dictator Vladimir Putin.

First, Whitmore points to a recent poll from the Levada Center which startled the Kremlin by revealing that a whopping 60% of Russians polled expressed sympathy with the anti-government protests that have exploded in Russia’s Far East in recent months as the Kremlin’s economic policy has run aground.  Even more disturbing for the malignant little troll who prowls the Kremlin’s parapets, one quarter of respondents indicated a willingness to join the protests.  Revolutions are made from such quarters.  Whitmore says that the Solidarity opposition group is planning to attempt to cash in on this discontent by instigating a new wave of protest actions in the Far East next month.  As Whitmore points out, given this poll it will simply be impossible for the Kremlin to argue that the protesters are nothing but a band of freaks and outcasts it can properly ignore.

Then, Whitmore shows how the Kremlin’s economic failure is causing it problems much closer to home.  He notes that close Medvedev advisor Arkady Dvorkovich has gone public calling in effect for a Stalin-like purge of the Kremlin’s ranks.  He couches his rhetoric in terms of getting rid of “bureaucrats” and replacing them with more capable economic experts, but even a Russian child would understand this is nothing but code for loyalty.  Cracks, to be sure, are becoming ever more apparent in Putin’s foundations.  Whitmore notes that Igor Yurgens, director of the Institute of Contemporary Development and an advisor to Medvedev, has called publicly for an expansion of civil liberties as the Kremlin has broken its contract with the public which had called for less freedom in exchange for more economic stability.  Kremlin powerbroker and ideologist Vladislav Surkov immediately and harshly fired back at Yurgens.

And then things starting getting really dark in the skies above the Moscow Kremlin.

EDITORIAL: Craven Europe, Appeasing Russia

EDITORIAL

Craven Europe, Appeasing Russia

We condemn the craven act of the European scoundrels who administer the Eurovision song contest for blocking Georgia’s entry from being performed in the contest because it might offend Russia’s “prime minister” Vladimir Putin.  One must wonder whether Europe would have been as quick to censor a song that teased George Bush. You can sign a petition to protest this action here.

EDITORIAL: That Neo-Soviet Ape Charles Ganske, at it Again

EDITORIAL

That Neo-Soviet Ape Charles Ganske, at it Again

We don’t know of anyone in the Russia blogosphere who makes any claim of significance without having some form of deep and direct ties to Russia itself, either in terms of living in the country, mastering the language or both.  Nobody, that is, except that moronic pretender over at Kremlin shil Russia Blog named Charles Ganske, whom we have repeatedly exposed for gross incompetence here on this blog (plug his name into our search engine if you’d like to view the carnage).  Ganske’s only real connection to Russia is that he works for a Russian citizen educated by the Russian state who acts as a shameless Kremlin agent, working closely with the state-sponsored Russia Today propaganda network to undermine American national security by inducing us to drop our guard on neo-Soviet Russia.

And now, he’s at it again.

Heroin Nation

The BBC reports:

Russia says it has become the world’s biggest consumer of heroin.

The head of Russia’s anti-narcotics service, Victor Ivanov, said that seizures of Afghan heroin were up 70%. Speaking ahead of a meeting in Vienna of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, he called on the UN to do more to fight the problem. Mr Ivanov, a former KGB officer and senior Kremlin official, said the flood of the drug from Afghanistan posed a threat to Russia’s national security. He painted a grim picture, says the BBC’s James Rodgers in Moscow. He said the drug was partly to blame for rising crime and a fall in Russia’s population. Afghanistan is thought to be the source of 93% of the world’s heroin

Annals of Russian “Healthcare”

Global Voices translates a post, styled as an “unsent letter to the president” which recently caused a sensation in the Russian blogosphere:

There is a town called Yelets in Lipetsk region. And there is the City Hospital #1 in the town of Yelets. There is a department of hemodialysis and gravitational blood surgery in this hospital. The only one in the whole town, by the way. Up until recently the department had its own room for its patients and was open 24 hours a day. Because of this, doctors and nurses were paid some extra money, in addition to their primary salaries: for working night shifts, holidays and weekends. Imagine how much the total bill ended up being. Too much money, horrible. […]

And so in summer (before any official news of the crisis, by the way), Lipetsk Regional Health Care Department found a way to save the Motherland some money. First, they took away the hemodialysis department’s room, then canceled night shifts as well as Sunday and holiday shifts.

Of course, those irresponsible sick people started complaining right away. Like, they are having attacks of acute kidney failure not only on workdays from 8 AM to 5 PM, but at night, too, and even on holidays. And they started screaming that a person with kidney problems, who is having an attack on a Saturday evening, is unlikely to survive until Monday morning without hemodialysis. And they cited the recent death of a 20-year-old woman as an example. To make everyone feel sorry for them, of course…