October 26, 2009 — Contents

MONDAY OCTOBER 26 CONTENTS

(1)   EDITORIAL:  Neo-Soviet Russia, Gagged Again

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia vs. America, the Smackdown

(3)  Barbaric Election Fraud in Moscow

(4)  Putin’s Croatia Gambit

(5)  Kubok Kremlya Koshmar Kakoi-to!

(6)  Cartoon:  Mother Russia wants YOU! (to commit election fraud)

NOTE:  A new website called BoycottSochi.eu has been created to coordinate efforts to protest the Neo-Sovietization of Russia by refusing to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympiad currently scheduled to be held in Russia.  A link to the site now appears in our permanent sidebar.

EDITORIAL: Neo-Soviet Russia, once again Gagged

EDITORIAL

Neo-Soviet Russia, once again Gagged

Russia ranked #141 on the Reporters without Borders international press freedom survey in 2008, out of 173 nations surveyed — the bottom fifth of all countries in the world.  But if you thought Russia had noplace to go but up from there, you were very much mistaken.

EDITORIAL: Russia vs. America, The Smackdown

EDITORIAL

Russia vs. America, The Smackdown

84% of Americans are happy.  Russians? Just 2%.  Maybe that’s why Russia is a world leader in abortions and suicides.  Russia’s mortality rate is double that of the United States, and so is its AIDS infection rate.  Russia’s murder rate is five times higher. 

The number of Russian broadband users and Nobel prize winners and church-goers are in almost exactly the same proportion to their American counterparts.  Roughly twenty to one in each case. Russians have a lot to be unhappy about, it seems.

You can go on like this, on and endlessly on. Is it really a good idea for Russia to be provoking a new cold war with the United States?  A rational country would be seeking to curry favor, as we see it.

Barbaric election fraud in Moscow

Sergei Mitrokhin, chairman of the Yabloko party who served as a State Duma deputy from 1994 to 2003 and a Moscow City Duma deputy from 2005 to 2009, his pen dripping with acid, writing in the Moscow Times:

The level of falsifications in the Oct. 11 Moscow City Duma elections was unprecedented in modern Russian history. Officials did everything in their power to prevent opposition candidates from registering, and Yabloko was obstructed by local authorities and siloviki structures as early on as the signature collection stage.

Putin’s Croatia Gambit

The always indispensable Vladimir Socor reports, writing on the Jamestown Foundations’ Eurasia Daily Monitor:

With Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s direct backing, Gazprom and other Russian energy companies have embarked upon an effort to co-opt Croatia into their projects, including a fanciful South Stream gas transport project. Putin has personally offered a package of energy projects to Croatia’s Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and President Stipe Mesic during informal meetings abroad on September 1 and September 25, respectively. Russian officials have followed up intensively at many levels since then (Vjesnik [Zagreb], September 19, 21). Moscow’s goal is to outflank Central Europe through Croatia, so as to block access routes for non-Russian energy supplies from Croatia’s Adriatic coast into Central Europe.

Kubok Kremlya Koshmar Kakoi-to!

Last week the WTA contested its final women’s tennis tour event, the “Kremlin Cup” (“Kubok Kremlya”) in Moscow. It was more truly spectacular humilation for Russia.

Mother Russia wants YOU!

The sign reads: "Everybody turn out on October 12th for the Falsification of Elections!" (Source: Ellustrator)