May 14, 2010 — Contents

FRIDAY MAY 14 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:   A Tale of a Russia Bull

(2)  EDITORIAL:  An Abomination in Russia

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Summertime in Putin’s Russia

(4)  Russia’s Collapsing Roads

(5)  More Shocking Tennis Failure by Russia

NOTE:  LR publisher and founder Kim Zigfeld’s latest installment of her Russia column on the Pajamas Media blog recounts the latest horrifying incident of neo-Soviet appeasement from cowardly U.S. President Barack Obama, this century’s Neville Chamberlain.

EDITORIAL: A tale of a Russian Bull

EDITORIAL

A tale of a Russian Bull

Between February and April of this year, as shown in the chart at left, the Russian stock market (here represented by the RTS dollar-denominated index) staged an impressive rally, gaining 20%.

But in the last few weeks, the market has given up every single dollar of that gain, free-falling over 15% in another breathtaking debacle, the kind for which the Russian market has become hilariously infamous. Hilarious, that is, unless you are in that market yourself.  Then your emotions are rather different.

A serious crisis in Greece spread to Europe as a bailout was requested, and as traders saw the Western economies losing ground they realized that Western demand for Russian oil cold falter.  Since the only real value contained in the Russian stock market is in the form of oil stocks, the bottom dropped out of that market.

EDITORIAL: An Abomination in Russia

EDITORIAL

An Abomination in Russia

Nearly one half of all Georigan soldiers who fought to defend Russia from the Nazi hoards in World War II were killed.  700,000 valiant heroes from the tiny country answered the call to arms, and 300,000 of them perished.

But that was not good enough for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.  The vile, nasty, childish, cowardly, repugnant little “man” refused to allow Georgian soldiers to march through Red Square in celebration of the 65th anniversary of their victory in that great war.

EDITORIAL: Summer time, but the Livin’ Ain’t Easy in Russia

EDITORIAL

Summer time, but the Livin’ Ain’t Easy in Russia

It’s summer time in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and that means just one thing:  No hot water.

Nearly half of all Russians in the city of Moscow will be forced to heat water on their stove tops if they want to take a hot bath, carrying pot after pot to the tub.

But the Muscovites are Russia’s rich, and lucky. Each of them will likely go without hot water for only a few weeks.   Travel farther away from the capital, and you’ll find many cities that will go without hot water all summer long.

Russia’s Collapsing Roads, Putin’s Betrayal of the Nation

Can you imagine dear reader, do you dare, what a road is like that does not meet Russian standards? Paul Goble reports on the catastrophic failure of the Putin regime to maintain Russia’s crumbling road network:

Even as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin again promises to complete a trans-Russia highway and as Moscow media report progress on several high-profile road projects near the capital, including paid highways, the country’s road system in many parts of the country is near the point of collapse, officials say.

They point to two reasons for that conclusion. On the one hand, according to a report in Irkutsk’s Argumenty I Fakty, the number of cars and trucks using the roads is growing rapidly, putting pressure on highways that were not designed to carry either the number or weight of vehicles now passing over them every day.

And on the other, officials responsible for roads say, the amount of money available for keeping the roads in good repair has been declining each year, a trend that in domino fashion means that Russia will eventually have to spend even more to bring the highway system back even to the level it was at a decade or more ago.

Fast and Furious Humiliation for Russia

Dinara Safina

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Elena Dementieva

Maria Sharapova

Vera Zvonareva

What do they have in common?  Within days of its beginning, all five had been ousted from the WTA Tour event in Madrid, Spain.  They were among them four of Russia’s five seeds in the tournament, including its top three and its most famous player by far, blown away like lint. Not one got close to reaching even the quarter-finals of the tournament.  Only Zvonareva and Dementieva managed to win as much as single match, not one got close to winning a second.