May 10, 2010 — Contents

MONDAY MAY 10 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Russia, Loathed and Reviled

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Happy Mother’s Day?

(3)  Vera Trifonova, RIP

(4)  Russia and her “Heroes”

(5)  Russia and World War II

NOTE:  Blogger Julia Ioffe posts some remarkable photographs of Russian “president” Dima Medvedev in his pre-presidential days. Note in particular his son’s taste in t-shirts.

EDITORIAL: Russia, Loathed and Reviled

EDITORIAL

Russia, Loathed and Reviled

Russia, out of touch

“Views on Russia’s influence are still predominantly negative worldwide.”

That was the conclusion of the latest BBC poll on the attitudes of countries around the world towards Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The segment of China’s population having a positive view of Russia plummeted shockingly this year compared to last, falling a whopping 19 points from 74% to 55%.

As shown in the chart at left, China was one of only two countries in the entire survey that had a majority-positive attitude towards Russia (the other was lowly Azarbaijan).  Less than a quarter of the U.S. population viewed Russia positively, and less than a third of the population of the major nations of Western Europe did so.

Yet, a whopping three quarters of idiotic, isolated, ignorant Russians themselves believed their nation had a mainly positive role in the world, while a totally ridiculous 4% of Russians were willing to acknowledge that their country might be mainly negative .  By contrast, no such blind, crazed nationalism affected the way Americans viewed their own role in the world. Numerous other countries had a more positive view of America’s role than did Americans themselves.

EDITORIAL: Happy Mother’s Day in Russia . . . NOT!

EDITORIAL

Happy Mother’s Day in Russia . . . NOT!

Last week a commenter pointed to a recent survey by Save the Children which ranked the 43 “more developed” nations of the world in terms of their suitability for motherhood.

Only five of them were found less suitable than Russia. That’s right, Vladimir Putin’s Russia was more hostile than 37 of the 43 “more developed” nations of the world.

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day in the USA. Russians, for their part, don’t even have have a holiday devoted to mothering.  And one can readily see why.  Happy Mother’s Day, Russians!

Vera Trifonova, RIP

Vera Trifonova, RIP. Before, and after, Vladimir Putin went to work on her.

Other Russia reports:

Nearly half a year has passed since Sergei Magnitsky’s scandalous death in a Moscow detention center sparked international outrage at Russia’s penitentiary system. Now, in a case that bears an unsettling resemblance to Magnitsky’s, a Russian businesswoman awaiting trial on charges of fraud has died in the same detention center. And like Magnitsky, her lawyer alleges that the woman died as a result of being denied necessary medical care.

According to Russian Federal Penitentiary Service representative Sergei Tsygankov, the 53-year-old Vera Trifonova died at 12:35 pm on April 30, 2010, in the intensive care unit of the hospital at the Matrosskaya Tishina criminal investigation detention facility (SIZO) in Moscow. Local police were called to the scene, established that there were no signs that the death has been violent, and have launched an investigation.

PHOTO: Russia and her “Heroes”

A bus that began operating in Russia this month to celebrate the wonderful Russian hero known as Stalin, greatest mass killer of Russians in world history. A quote from Stalin below his image reads: "“I would like to drink a toast to the health of the whole Soviet people, and, first and foremost, the Russian people!" Presumably, his goblet would be filled with their blood.

We can only ask ourselves: What kind of barbarous, self-loathing nation is this, anyway? This man was the greatest mass-murderer of Russians in world history! How dare they?! It’s like Israel putting Hitler on a bus!

Check out that reverse view image of Stalin in the window in the background. Yikes! What a country!

VE: Think you did it by yourselves, Russians? You’d best think again.

Canadian military history professor Alexander Hill, writing in the Moscow Times:

Many Russians are understandably proud of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War — the Soviet term for their war against Nazi Germany fr om June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. Few historians in the East or West would disagree that the bulk of the German army was destroyed on the Eastern Front during World War II. The eastward advance of the German army and its allies was halted initially at Moscow in December 1941, then again at Stalingrad in November 1942, almost two years before the Americans had committed significant ground forces against Germany.

The surrender of German and Romanian forces at Stalingrad in February 1943 marked the destruction of a force of more than 250,000 men, of whom more than 91,000 surrendered to the Red Army. By the time of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, the Red Army was advancing rapidly westward through Ukraine and Belarus, recapturing Minsk in July 1944 and reaching the gates of Warsaw by August. Berlin finally fell to the Red Army on May 2, 1945, with German capitulation following shortly afterward — technically on May 8 according to the Western Allies, or May 9 for the Soviets, although sporadic fighting continued for a day or two afterward.

These victories were achieved at horrendous cost — more than 8.5 million Soviet soldiers were either killed, died later of wounds or did not return from German captivity. Up to 27 million Soviet citizens died as a result of the war.

World War II was not, however, just a war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and the victory in May 1945 was not just a Soviet victory but a victory for the Allied alliance as well. From June 1940 to June 1941, Britain and the Commonwealth fought alone against Nazi Germany, even while material assistance increased from the United States as 1941 progressed.