March 16, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY MARCH 16 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Go, Hillary, Go

(2)  EDITORIAL:  See Boris Run

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Craven Europe, Condemned

(4) Russia, Trading in Stolan Organs

(5)  Russia’s Ticking Debt Bomb

EDITORIAL: Go, Hilllary, Go!

EDITORIAL

Go, Hilllary, Go!

We continue to be very pleasantly surprised by what we have seen so far from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton where Russia is concerned.

First, on Clinton’s first visit to Europe she made a very strong statement in support of Ukraine and Georgia against Russian aggression.  And now, she has followed that up with something even better.

EDITORIAL: See Boris Run

EDITORIAL

See Boris Run

Interesting news was reported last week, namely that opposition leader Boris Nemntsov would seek the mayorality of the keystone city of Sochi, scheduled to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.  The Moscow Times reported that “Nemtsov, a Sochi native who served as Nizhny Novgorod governor and then deputy prime minister in the 1990s, said he would not collect signatures but post a cash deposit instead with the city election commission to be registered as a candidate.  He said this would prevent officials from removing him from the race over allegations of fake signatures, a common ploy used to remove opposition candidates and parties from elections. ”

By making it impossible to disqualify him on the basis of signatures, Nemtsov is playing serious hardball with the Kremlin. 

EDITORIAL: Craven Europe, We condemn you!

EDITORIAL

Craven Europe, We condemn you!

 No sooner had we recovered from our revulsion at Europe’s cowardly decision to censor Georgia’s Eurovision song entry than we were overcome by an even more profound disgust over the Council of Europe’s  failure to take any action against Russia for refusing to ratify two crucial human rights protocols in the organization’s charter.  In fact, until Russia agrees to be bound by these basic constraints of civilized nations, it should be summarily booted out of the Council and condemned as the barbaric banana republic that it clearly is.

Russians bought organs of Slaughtered Kosovar Albanians

The New Kosova Report:

There are ample facts that during the years of 1998-99, when the war erupted in Kosovo, Serbia through the Macedonia and Bulgaria channels, has sold out human organs of Kosovar Albanians to Russian “medical businessmen.”

Russia’s Debt Bomb is Ticking

Russia has lost two-thirds of its billionaires and they have lost three-fourths of their capital.  Reuters reports that the worst may be yet to come as the oligarch’s “debt bomb” ticks down to zero:

Humbled by huge debts, Russia’s once mighty oligarchs are fighting for survival after the government warned there will be no more bailouts. Falling company revenues have forced some of the tycoons, who borrowed heavily to expand in the boom years under former President Vladimir Putin, to beg Western creditors to allow them to restructure loan payments.

Many Russian oligarchs built their fortunes from metal, steel or oil companies but the prices of all their products have fallen because of the global financial crisis. Now they are seeking salvation at the hands of the state. “Today the so-called natural resource oligarchs do not have the resources to cope with their debts so their fate depends on Vladimir Putin,” said Oleg Kiselyov of Russia’s Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, otherwise known as the oligarchs’ union.Russia’s private sector has about $500 billion in foreign debt outstanding with $130 billion due this year, according to central bank data.