August 16, 2010 — Contents

MONDAY AUGUST 16 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Like Putin, like Party

(2)  EDITORIAL:  Once again, Russia rapes Poland

(3)  OP-ED:  Does Russia Today have a Tomorrow?

(4)  Russia Burns and Boils

(5)  Putin, Man on Fire

NOTE:  Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechnya has decided to change his job title. Soon, he will be “imam.”

NOTE:  La Russophobe is quoted in the popular German publication Zeit Online.

NOTE:  Time magazine road-trips through Russia, and you can go along for the virtual ride.

EDITORIAL: Putin’s Party, a Clan of Liars

EDITORIAL

Putin’s Party, a Clan of Liars

Until recently there were quite a few Russophile maggots who were attempting to claim that global warming would be good for frozen Russia, unlocking untold riches from the permafrost.  Then — whoops! — the nation was ravaged by wildfires, and suddenly Russians high and low were decrying the horror of climate change and its untold new setbacks in store for Russia.  It was quite a sight for Russophobic eyes to behold.

With harsh, cold reality slapping the Kremlin right in the face, its leaders panicked and once again went into Soviet mode.  Lie, deny, cheat, steal.  You know the drill.

Eager to show how active he was in fighting the wildfires, Putin actually jumped into an aircraft and pushed a button dropping water on the fire.  Naturally, photos of he-man Putin were circulated far and wide on state-owned TV.

His political party, United Russia, didn’t bother with such trappings.  It simply invented facts wholesale.

EDITORIAL: Once again, Russia rapes Poland

EDITORIAL

Once again, Russia rapes Poland

Any poor souls benighted enough to believe the gibberish published a few weeks ago that Russian relations with Poland were actually improving despite the recent plane crash on Russian soil that killed a large number of high-ranking Polish government officials received a splash of cold water right in the face last week.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk moaned that with the investigation entering its final phase, cooperation with Russia is worse now than it was at the start.  The Kremlin is frustrating Poland’s effort to get to the bottom of the crash at every turn.

OP-ED: Some thoughts on Russia Today’s Tomorrow

Some thoughts on Russia Today‘s Tomorrow

by Ethan S. Burger

Exclusive to La Russophobe

Ethan Burger

The Russian people have not experienced any significant benefit from the symbolic pressing of the “reset” button in U.S.-Russian relations. Just ask any Russian citizen what they think about the necessity of urging the work force to stay home or establishing 120 “anti-smog centers” in Moscow as a result of the fires near the capital. This situation in Moscow is being well reported by the foreign press and Russia Today, can the same be said of the state-owned media?

I have often wondered what the Russian leadership thinks it gains from placing special supplements of Russia Today in major newspapers like The Washington Post and the New York Times.   Most U.S. newspapers are struggling, as Hendrik Hertzberg wrote in The New Yorker, this did not prevent The Washington Post from undertaking a comprehensive investigation analysis of the wasteful homeland security complex (both governmental and private-sector, largely government-funded) that has emerged post 9/11. It is doubtful that any Russian media outlet that reaches a large segment of the population would ever have the courage to undertake a comparable effort about the fires currently spreading through the country.

Russia Burns, and Boils

Simon Shuster, writing for Time magazine:

Russians are known to be a long-suffering people, especially when it comes to putting up with leaders who are senile, negligent or much, much worse. But the government’s reaction to the ongoing heat wave may be hard to pass off with the usual shrug. Across much of central and western Russia, more than 500 wildfires continue to burn out of control. The capital is shrouded in a cloud of poisonous smoke, and the morgues are overflowing as the nationwide death rate jumps 50%. President Dmitri Medvedev, meanwhile, has spent much of this month talking about police reforms, and many local officials have simply gone on vacation. Now, as they return, the leaders of Russia — both big and small — are likely to have a political firestorm to deal with.

Putin, Man on Fire

Author Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post:

Red-headed spy Anna Chapman is no longer the hottest thing in Russia. Now it’s the 500 out-of-control wildfires devouring thousands of square miles of the countryside.

This conflagration makes California’s annual blazes look like Boy Scout campfires. The fires have consumed entire villages and ravaged the critical wheat harvest; now they threaten a key nuclear-weapons-research facility. A huge naval logistics base burned — along with 200 helicopters and planes.
But the reputation of Russia’s new czar, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, may have been scorched worst of all.