May 24, 2000 — Contents

SUNDAY MAY 24 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Russia is an Oily, Disgusting Mess

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Good News for Russia?

(3)  Kasparov on the Sochi Charade

(4)  Medvedev vs. Common Sense

(5)  Medvedev vs. History

EDITORIAL: Russia is an Oily, Disgusting Mess

EDITORIAL

Russia is an Oily, Disgusting Mess

Nyet!

You can read all about one Russian man murdering his wife every 40 minutes, or about Russia not ranking in the top 150 nations of the world for lifespan, or about its stock market losing 80% of its value.  But sometimes information this lethal clouds the mind, and doesn’t allow one to appreciate the true horror of what is going on in Russia.

So let’s use a simpler example. Let’s talk ice cream.

A story last week in the Moscow Times revealed that Russian dairies are lobbying for new legislation that would make it illegal for a manufacturer to use the Russian word for ice cream (“morozhenye“) to refer to a product that contained more than 12% vegetable fat (i.e. trans fat, i.e. shortening, i.e. the stuff in the middle of an Oreo, but frozen) instead of milkfat.

Amazingly, if this measure passes, a whopping 70% — that’s right, seventy percent — of all frozen “treats” currently consumed in Russia will no longer qualify for the “ice cream” designation.  The reason for this is simple, of course:  The collapsing Putin economy means that (delicious) milkfat is far too expensive to be affordable to people who earn less than $3/hour on average, so only cheaper (and very disgusting) vegetable fats are being used to create an affordable substitute.

EDITORIAL: Good News for Russia?

EDITORIAL

Good News for Russia?

In the space of a few days recently, Russia had two bits of genuinely impressive good news on the athletic front.  On the other hand, it also learned that it is going extinct at breakneck speed.

Kasparov on the Sochi Charade

Garry Kasparov, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

It has become fashionable to speak of change and liberalization in Russia under President Dmitry Medvedev. May 7 marked his one-year anniversary in office. He has recently granted an interview with an opposition newspaper, allowed a few human-rights activists to criticize Russia’s regime, and even started a blog. There is also a new administration in Washington that wants a fresh start with foreign powers.

However, Mr. Medvedev’s gestures have not been matched by policy. It is more appropriate to think of Russia as living under Vladimir Putin’s ninth year in power. Mr. Putin is now prime minister but still in charge. His agenda of oppression and plunder is still the course in Russia. The Kremlin’s willingness to install its candidates in office and persecute its opponents remains undiminished.

Last month, the Putin government inserted itself into the mayoral election in Sochi, a resort town on the Black Sea that has been selected to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

{Click the link to read the rest of Kasparov’s condemnation of the IOC’s decision to vest Sochi with the games}

Medvedev vs. Common Sense

Alexander Golts, writing in the Moscow Times, discusses the latest “strategy” document created by Dima Medvedev. This is followed by a bit of analysis from the Russian press of the same item:

During the course of my career, I have read countless military doctrines, strategies and concepts of every conceivable type, yet the national security strategy to 2020 that President Dmitry Medvedev approved last week stands out for its sheer senselessness. It is impossible to find a single concrete measure in this document. Ninety percent of the “strategy” consists of vague definitions of every possible threat — starting with the imminent shortage of fresh water supplies and ending with an attack by a foreign country.

Medvedev vs. History

The Moscow Times reports that, since the Russian economy is doing so well, “president” Dima Medvedev has plenty of time on his hands to mess around with academic projects, like this one for instance (look for our editorial and Yulia Latynina’s op-ed on the same topic in Monday’s issue):

President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the creation of a new commission tasked with countering attempts to rewrite history to the detriment of Russia’s interests, the Kremlin said Tuesday. The presidential decree establishing the commission follows a May 8 video address posted on Medvedev’s web site in which the president complained that attempts to falsify history were becoming “increasingly harsh, depraved and aggressive.”

The initiative appears to be part of a Kremlin drive to defend its vision of the country’s 20th-century history.