August 5, 2009 — Contents

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  The Slobbering Russian Beast Eyes Georgia

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia in the Crosshairs of Europe

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Putin Sticks it to Medvedev (Again)

(4)  EDITORIAL:  Bruce Chapman, Talking to Himself

(5)  In Putin’s Russia, Wanton Savagery

NOTE:  For those who’ve always wondered what it felt like to be a spermatozoa of the Great Khan himself:  “Visitors can even take an elevator and emerge from between his legs to gaze at the lush Mongolian steppe from a deck atop his steed’s head.”

EDITORIAL: The Slobbering Russian Beast Eyes Georgia

EDITORIAL

The Slobbering Russian Beast Eyes Georgia

With no disrespect intended, we think the “analysis” of our blogging colleagues over at Robert Amsterdam and The Power Vertical, seeming to engage in some weird form of numerology regarding the signficance of the month of August in Russian history, is rather bizarre.  We see no reason for rational western commentators to dabble in the same sort of silly and barbaric astrological gibberish as do the Russian people themselves.

But just as even paranoids have enemies, that doesn’t mean Russia won’t invade Georgia this month, again.

EDITORIAL: Russia in the Crosshairs of Europe

EDITORIAL

Russia in the Crosshairs

Back in January of 2008, LR founder Kim Zigfeld wrote on Pajamas Media about Russia’s increasing exposure to outright condemnation in the courts of Europe.  Two more recent developments show Russia sliding fast down a perilously slippery slope that leads to being cast out of Europe and classified by the world as a barbarous, third-world failed state.

EDITORIAL: Once again, Putin sticks the knife into Medvedev and Twists

EDITORIAL

Once again, Putin sticks the knife into Medvedev and Twists

We’ve previously documented the ongoing efforts of Vladimir Putin’s henchman (and namesake) Vladmir Frolov to undermine the authority of Dima Medvedev at every opportunity with vicious attacks on his comptetence.  And now he’s done it yet again, reaching for a new low in poisonous treachery.  Mr. Medvedev should be afraid. Very afraid.  His days are numbered.

EDITORIAL: Crazy Bruce Chapman, Talking to Himself

EDITORIAL

Crazy Bruce Chapman, Talking to Himself

Bruce Chapman, Talking to Himself

It has been more than three weeks now since anyone has published a comment on the Discovery Institute’s “Russia Blog” (for those unfamilar, a pro-Kremlin propaganda exercise run by a Russian citizen in close cooperation with Russia Today, the Kremlin’s TV station).

That’s right:  Three weeks.

During those three weeks, Russia Blog has published eight posts, and half of them have been written by the head honcho of the Discovery Institute himself, Bruce Chapman. Not a single one of his posts have received a single comment.  Ouch.  That’s a tough one to swallow, even by the cruel standards of the blogosphere.  It seems that justice has finally prevailed and Russia Blog is going the way of dodo.

As an epitaph, Let’s take a look at the insane gibberish he’s been babbling, shall we? Not for nothing has it been totally ignored by the entire universe.

In Putin’s Russia, Wanton Savagery

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Valery Kazakov was almost to the prosecutor’s office when the killers caught him. He was shot as he cut through an alleyway, and when he stumbled bleeding into the street, a man bent down to stab the final breaths out of him.

It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon, in the heart of the sleepy town of Pushkino. As far as the townspeople were concerned, it was a public execution. Kazakov, a former police officer, was believed to have been on his way to testify in the corruption case against the former mayor.

It has been a year now, and Kazakov’s widow holds out little hope of justice, shrugging off the idea with weary skepticism. Police recently arrested the alleged killer, but that’s just a “technical detail,” Maria Kazakova says. She wants to know who put the hit on her husband, who ordered and paid for it.