January 25, 2010 — Contents

MONDAY JANUARY 25 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Russia and its Children

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Russia and its “Religion”

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Russia and its Barbarism

(4)  Oleg Kozlovsky’s Passport Revoked!

(5)  Kremlin spends more on Propaganda than Unemployment

NOTE:  On February 2, 2010, the CATO Institute is hosting an amazing forum on “The Rule of Law in Russia.”  Speaking will be Karinna Moskalenko and Andrei Illarionov as well as Robert Amsterdam.  Be there or be square! The opportunity to hear these two scintillating Russian heroes on the same stage may well be once in a lifetime for Americans, not to be missed.

NOTE:  If any clever reader can Photoshop an image of Vladimir Putin and Shamil Basayev similar to the one that appears in #5 of the presidents of the USA and Iran, we’ll gladly publish it prominently here on this blog.  Please forward by e-mail to larussophobeATyahooDOTcom.

NOTE:  A new website aims to translate the English blogosphere’s content into Russian. A noble enterprise.

EDITORIAL: Russia and its Children

EDITORIAL

Russia and its Children

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a merciless abortion factory. For every child that is born, one is aborted.  That rate is four times higher than that of Italy and double that of Hungary.

In May of last year, a poll showed that only 5% of Russian women planned to have a baby in the next two years.  The Kremlin’s response has been a ridiculous attempt to bribe women into having babies and to consider imposing a massive new crackdown on the right to abortions.

We have two questions.

First, if things are going so swimmingly with Russia’s population growth, as Vladimir Putin recently bragged, then why is it necessary to undertake a new effort to slash abortions?

And second, if Vladimir Putin has brought so much hope and progress to Russians over the past decade of his rule, then why does Russia still lead the world in both abortions and suicides?

EDITORIAL: Russia and its “Religion”

EDITORIAL

Russia and its “Religon”

Last week, Patriarch Kirill, the Russian Pope, spoke about ” a country of poverty and crime, hunger, drug addiction, corruption, and a loss of moral values.” He opined that “many of these troubles are caused primarily not by failed social policy but by defects in the depths of the human spirit.”

Even though Russia is documented as being one of the most corrupt and immoral nations on the planet, with a raging drug and AIDS epidemic, horrendous crime and one of the highest murder rates on the planet, to say nothing of its vast ocean of poor folks (the average worker earns just $3 per hour, so imagine how the poor are doing) and its obscene disparity between rich and poor, Kirill was not speaking about Russia.  Instead, he was referring to Haiti, which he apparently believes got what it deserved when it was rocked by an earthquake that killed 150,000 of its men, women and children.

Kirill apparently feels that since a natural disaster hasn’t struck Russia recently, this proves Russia is a moral nation which enjoys God’s blessings and approval.  But what about the Beslan and Dubrovka terrorist attacks, and the conflagration of fires that kills thousands of Russians every year, more than in any other nation on Earth.  Aren’t they signs of divine condemnation of Russia, of Putin and indeed of Kirill himself? What of the fact that Russians don’t rank in the top 130 nations of the world for average adult lifespan?  Isn’t that, too, proof that God reviles Russia?

EDITORIAL: Russia and its Barbarism

EDITORIAL

Russia and its Barbarism

Two authoritative reports were released last Wednesday which cemented Russia’s status as “Zaire, with permafrost,” as the Atlantic magazine aptly termed it many years ago, as Vladimir Putin’s KGB was first taking control of the country.

Oleg Kozlovsky’s Passport Revoked!

Heroic opposition leader Oleg Kozlovsky (click his name in our sidebar “categories” section to read all about him) reports the the Kremlin is escalating his persecution to a shocking new neo-Soviet level:

When one speaks of advantages of the Putin’s regime over the Soviet system, there usually is one achievement that is never disputed. It is the freedom of travel abroad. In the USSR, very few people were able to visit the Soviet Bloc countries, and only a tiny minority could see the “capitalist world.” But after the USSR collapsed, Russia opened its borders, removed numerous obstacles for international travel, and millions of Russians could travel the world. After Putin came to power most of the freedoms we had enjoyed were reduced or eliminated, but this one was left almost untouched.

For me, this freedom seems to be over. Yesterday, I was informed that FSB is refusing to give their approval for re-issuing of my passport. The official reason is, they failed to receive information about whether I had access to any state secrets during my military service (which I, of course, hadn’t). Ironically, I was drafted into the army two years ago with direct involvement of FSB when they tried to isolate me during the presidential campaign. Now, they use it as an pretext for not letting me out the country.

Russia spends more on Propaganda than Unemployment

One of Russia Today's propaganda ads, this one comparing the president of Iran with the president of the USA. How would Russians react to a similar ad from Voice of America comparing Vladimir Putin and Shamil Basayev?

The Russians are coming! The always brilliant Luke Harding, reporting for the Guardian:

They are appearing in newspapers and on posters alongside major roads in Britain. There is Barack Obama’s head, on it superimposed the image of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s leader. The slogan reads: “Who poses the greatest nuclear threat?”

For many people the answer is clear – after all, Obama hasn’t so far called for Israel to “vanish from the page of time”. But for the Kremlin the Obama image is the latest step in an ambitious attempt to create a new post-Soviet global propaganda empire.