May 27, 2011 — Contents

FRIDAY MAY 27 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Vampire Moscow

(2) EDITORIAL:  Red Russian Blood on the White Sochi Snows

(3)  Goodbye JV, Hello JV II!

(4)  Holy Putin, Batman!

(5)  INTERVIEW:  Anatoly Karlin 

NOTE:  Now, Putin is planting narcotics on the family members of opposition leaders in order to silence them. What will he think of next?

NOTE:  Now, Putin is teaching his Georgian allies to hit and run just like the thugs in his own employ.

EDITORIAL: Vampire Moscow

EDITORIAL

Vampire Moscow

Recently revealed facts about life in the city of Moscow are truly shocking.

A report by Cushman & Wakefield reveals that retail spending by residents of Moscow is more than twice as high as for the rest of the country and fifty percent higher than the national average for Germany or Great Britain.

The reason is simple:  Like a vampire, Moscow is slurping the nation’s blood at an alarming rate.  Moscow has a stunning concentration of billionaires who spend their wealth at an obscene rate because they know it can be taken away at a moment’s notice by the neo-Soviet regime.

EDITORIAL: Red Russian Blood on the White Sochi Snows

EDITORIAL

Red Russian Blood on the White Sochi Snows

If the Russian speed-skating team wins a medal at the Sochi Olympiad in 2014, Italy will bend its neck and be decorated, because the coach of the Russian team is Italian.  Russia’s curling medal, if any, will go the team’s Canadian coach, its short-track medal, should there be one, will go to the Korean coach, and any biathalon medal will go to a German.

So even before Russian athletes step into the cold in 2014, they’ll already have admitted they at they can’t win without massive foreign assistance.  But the chances that Russia will win in Sochi — or even make the top 10 — are remote indeed.

Not all Russian teams will be led by non-Russians.  For instance the men’s hockey team is not — and at the recent world championships that squad was denied any medal and was crushed in two games in the medal rounds by tiny countries whose resources are not remotely comparable to those of Russia.

So it’s clear why Russia has so many foreign coaches.

Goodbye Jackson-Vanik, Hello Jackson-Vanik II

Vladimir Ryzhkov, writing in the Moscow Times:

Relations between Cold War-era foes Moscow and Washington have long been distrustful, hypocritical, peppered with mutual insinuations and patched together with the most tenuous of threads. But now, on the eve of State Duma and presidential elections, an inevitable crisis in relations is nearing that threatens to tear them apart at the seams.

Last week, a group of 15 U.S. senators formally introduced a bill targeting Russians for human rights violations and corruption, including 60 officials connected to the jail death of Hermitage lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The bill would ban them from entering the United States and freeze any U.S.-based assets.

Holy Putin, Batman!

Reuters reports:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cultivates the image of a bare-chested macho man, but a nun-like sect in central Russia thinks actually he’s the reincarnation of St. Paul, the apostle.

Or, if not that, he may in a past life have been the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I say what the Lord has revealed to me,” the sect’s leader, former convict Svetlana Frolova, said.

Putin’s advisers disclaim any link with the sect led by the former railway manager, who was jailed for fraud in 1996.

“He (Putin) does not approve of that kind of admiration,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by telephone.

INTERVIEW: Anatoly Karlin

One of the ways you can tell that La Russophobe is the most significant Russia blog on this planet is the number of blogs LR has inspired.  Case in point:  Anatoly Karlin.  He’s one of several LR readers who were motivated to create a blog specifically to respond to the powerful arguments we offer here against the failed neo-Soviet regime of Vladimir Putin.  He only exists because of us.  No other Russia blog can say the same.  Certainly, he can’t.

Why did we interview him? We have to confess it was just because doing so would show Kevin Rothrock of “A Good Treaty” for a fool.  After our interview with him, Rothrock said nobody else would want to be interviewed by us.  Take this, Kevin!

May 27, 2011 — Contents

FRIDAY MAY 27 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Pig Russia, Wallowing in the Mire

(2)  EDITORIAL:  1,000 Days to Apocalypse in Russia

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Saved from the Russian Meat Grinder

(5)  EDITORIAL:  Russia Hates World, Feeling Mutual

(6)  How Obama Made Neo-Soviet Russia Possible

(7)  Photo Essay:  Ah, Russia!

NOTE:  LR publisher and founder Kim Zigfeld’s latest installment on the powerful and influential American Thinker blog details the terrifying moves by the Russian Kremlin to corner the gold market and destabilize the Middle East, while Barack Obama lies asleep at his post. Yikes. 

EDITORIAL: Pig Russia, Wallowing in Mire

EDITORIAL

Pig Russia, Wallowing in Mire

The diary of Russian foreign policy events over the past few weeks has been truly horrifying, even by the loathsome standards of Vladimir Putin’s KGB state.

Russia defended Iran. Then it protected Libya. Finally, it stood steadfast in the defense of Syria. And for the cherry on this fetid cake, it invited Pakistan to pay the first official state visit on Moscow in three decades just after learning it had been harboring America’s public enemy #1, Bin Laden, right outside its capital.

Civilized people can only ask themselves:  Doesn’t Russia have any shame, or even common sense?

EDITORIAL: A Thousand days to Apocalypse in Russia

EDITORIAL

A Thousand days to Apocalypse in Russia

On May 14, 2011, Russia switched on a countdown timer in the city of Sochi to tick off the days remaining until the 2014 Winter Olympiad unfolds there.  The clock should have been in the shape of a ticking time bomb, in order to do justice to horror of anticipating what may be the bloodiest sports contest in modern memory.

Just the day before, Russia had gone down to utterly humiliating defeat to tiny Finland, getting blanked 0-3, at the semi-finals of the world ice hockey championships in Slovakia (Russia then promptly surrendered seven goals to Czech Republic and lost the bronze medal as well) .  The world was reminded that Russia is inviting it to gape upon the spectacle of Russian failure in 2014; if Russians are unable to meet the high expectations for gold medals the whole country will be forced to bow its head in shame.

But even if Russians manage to reap a fistful of gold in Sochi, they still must face the horrifying specter of terrorism.

EDITORIAL: Saved from the Russian Meat Grinder

EDITORIAL

Saved from the Russian Meat Grinder

If you stare hard at the twin girls pictured above on the left, you’re immediately struck by now much they resemble their mother and father, at right.  But when you look at the background of the photo and learn more about them, you’re even more struck by the fact that these girls are Russian, their parents are American, and they were adopted at the age of two from one of Russia’s infamous hell-hole orphanages.

A quarter million children live in such awful places in Russia, and over three-quarters of them end up convicts, drug addicts or prostitutes.

EDITORIAL: Russia hates the World, Feeling very much Mutual

EDITORIAL

Russia hates the World, Feeling very much Mutual

The latest figures on international travel and tourism are in from the World Economic Forum, and they are truly devastating for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.  The words of Laura, a student from France, tell the tale:

I decided to come to Russia because I love the culture, the history, and I was curious to meet Russians. I wanted to form my own ideas about the country, different from the western view.  It was surprising to see that Russians don’t speak English and in Moscow, I think they are sick of tourists and just don’t make any effort. So to find your way, to eat in a restaurant, was quite a challenge. I was really surprised to see that Moscow is even more expensive than Paris.

Ouch.

Russia ranks a stunning #59 out of 139 nations surveyed for travel competitiveness, and that’s hardly surprising when you learn it ranks #91 for spending on tourism, laying out less than one-tenth of the world average per tourist on welcome measures.

Look at the facts, and you clearly understand Russia’s stark, unwelcoming hatred for foreigners:

The Obama’s Cowardice has Made Neo-Soviet Russia Possible

lan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, writing in the Moscow Times:

What’s next for the U.S.-Russian reset? Having already succeeded in ramming the ambitious New START arms control treaty through a reluctant Senate late last year, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama is now eyeing the next step in its reboot of relations with Moscow: integrating Russia into the world economy.

“Our trade and investment relationship is nowhere near where it could or should be,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden wrote recently in the International Herald Tribune. “Russia was America’s 37th largest export market in 2010, and the value of goods that cross our borders with Canada and Mexico every few days exceeds the annual value of our trade with Russia.”

Further improvements to U.S.-Russian ties, Biden believes, require the United States to support Russia’s ongoing efforts to join the World Trade Organization.

Ah, Russia! A Photo Essay

A photo essay, courtesy of LR reader MCUSA:

You think horse should be used here, stupid foreigner? Ha! Russian laugh at you!

May 20, 2011 — Contents

FRIDAY MAY 20 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Russia, behind the Curtain

(2)  EDITORIAL:  $175,000

(3)  EDITORIAL:  Get it Straight, Russia Lost World War II

(4)  Russia Keeps on Losing

(5)  Pamfilova Speaks

(6)  Putin and the Rise of the Neo-Soviet State 

NOTE:  LR publisher and founder Kim Zigfeld’s latest piece on the mighty Pajamas Media megablog details the horrific crackdown by the Kremlin on opposition attorney Alexei Navalny, including DDOS on his website, outing of his donors by the FSB to Nashi and now a criminal indictment. Is he the next Khodorkovsky? We think so.

NOTE:  Scientists have now proven that the Neanderthals lasted in Russia far longer than in any other place.  It took them so long because they kept looking under the earth when they should have been looking in the Kremlin.

NOTE: When Vladimir Putin tried to test drive a brand new Lada, he couldn’t start it or open the trunk.  Welcome to the real Russia, Grandpa Volodya! 

NOTE: A major tennis tournament was held in Madrid, Spain the first week in May, with $4.5 million in prize money at stake. Shockingly, the 16 seeds included only two Russians, but they were two of the country’s top three in the world:  #9 Sharapova and #14 Kuznetsova.  Neither even reached the quarter finals. Both were blown off the court by lowly world #28 Domenika Cibulkova in easy straight sets.  Cibulkova, hardly in dominant form, then lost her next match, against the very lowest seed in the tournament.  Ouch.

EDITORIAL: Russia, Behind the Curtain

EDITORIAL

Russia, Behind the Curtain

Over the past year, the confidence of the Russian people in their government has plummeted. From a high of 56% in May 2010, the approval rate has fallen steadily until last month it dropped, stunningly, below a majority to 48%.

In July 2010, only 29% of Russians thought their government was moving in the “wrong direction.”  As of last month, that figure stands at 40% — a whopping increase of one-third in less than a year.  Back in July a majority of Russians thought the country was moving in the right direction; now, just 43% think so. Only 27% of Russians firmly believe the government will be able to change things for the better, while 37% are sure there is no chance that will happen.

Meanwhile, another poll revealed that 40% of Russians favor the installation of a constitutional monarch.

These are devastatingly bad poll results in a country where the state controls all major media outlets and public criticism of the regime is almost wholly absent. If the public had better information, the regime would no doubt be in single-digit approval.

In shockingly bizarre fashion, however, Russian approval of the country’s two leaders, Medvedev and Putin, is still stratospherically high.  Medvedev has 68% approval and Putin, who is in charge of the government, is even higher at 71%.  There is only one word for such results, and that word is:  irrational.  Or perhaps a better word would be:  psychotic.

EDITORIAL: $175,000

EDITORIAL

$175,000

As of the last tax year, that was the sum in Russian “president” Dima Medvedev’s bank account.  It had doubled compared to the year just before he became “president” of the country, although his salary in the intervening three years remained constant and was far lower than he received as the top executive at Gazprom, Russia’s largest business entity.  Medvedev’s income remained, laughably, far less than that of Russia’s “prime minister” Vladimir Putin.  Two years ago Medvedev’s wife had 50% more than that in her own bank account.  Now, she has nothing. When asked what happened to the money by a Russian financial newspaper, the Kremlin refused to say.  In a recent survey, over 75% of Russian respondents said that Medvedev, like all Russian officials, was lying when he reported his income last year.

EDITORIAL: Get it Straight, Russia Lost World War II

Advertisement for a World War II party in Moscow. The message reads: Thank you Granddad for the victory we had!

EDITORIAL

Get it Straight, Russia Lost World War II

Three were killed.  No, four.  Wait a minute, it was seven.  No, no . . .  eight!!

You could be forgiven if you were somewhat perplexed reading the news out of the Caucasus on May 8th. Each different media outlet you turned to seemed to have a different figure for the number of “militants” and “rebels” Russia had killed in its latest confrontation, though in each case they insisted only one member of the Russian armed forces had perished in the exchange.

As you can well imagine, if you could’n’t even get the number of militants, it was pretty darned impossible to find out anything about who they were or why they had been killed.  Russians lack real information about such events, just as they lack real information about World War II, a conflict they lost but foolishly believe they won. 

In honor of “Victory” Day, Russia Keeps on Losing

Alexander Golts, writing in the Moscow Times:

Russians know that Victory Day is approaching not only because commemorative St. George ribbons are being handed out on sidewalks or because of the abundance of patriotic programs on television about legendary Soviet spy Max Otto von Stirlitz. Muscovites, in particular, know the holiday is coming since they endure horrendous traffic jams — worse than usual — during the rehearsals of the military parade that will be the top public event on May 9.

But few Russians will take pride in viewing the military weapons that will be paraded across Red Square. These systems were developed 20 years ago, and they are produced in miniscule quantities today.

Pamfilova Speaks

Radio Free Europe has interviewed Ella Pamfilova, who spoke candidly about the shame presidency of Dima Medvedev:

Ella Pamfilova is one of Russia’s most distinguished liberal figures. She is the head of two NGOs — Civil Society For Russia’s Children and Civic Dignity. She is a former Duma deputy and a former social affairs minister. In 2000, she became the first woman to run for the office of president of Russia.

In 2002, then-President Vladimir Putin named her to head the Presidential Commission on Human Rights, which was later transformed into the Presidential Council on Human Rights. In July 2010, she resigned from that post after coming under strong pressure from the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group. Since then, she has generally shunned the limelight.

RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Maria Morozova caught up with in Moscow and asked her about her tenure on the human rights council and her views on the political environment in Russia now.

RFE/RL: What were your thoughts when in 2002, being a critic of the authorities, you agreed to head the Presidential Council on Human Rights, which under you later grew into the Council on Cooperation With Institutions of Civil Society and Human Rights?

Ella Pamfilova: In 1999, when Vladimir Putin was confirmed as prime minister, I was one of the few Duma deputies who spoke against him and voted no. This annoyed a lot of liberals who back then were already working hard to elevate him to the presidency.

But in 2001, I and a group of rights activists and regional nongovernmental organizations — with the clear support of the presidential administration — organized the first Civic Forum with the participation of Putin. This provoked a certain enthusiasm. It seemed to us that it might be possible to pull the country out of chaos. And I believed that finally a dialogue between the state and civic organizations was being established.

So when I was asked to head the semi-dormant Presidential Council on Human Rights, I already understood exactly what I wanted. As a politician, I believed that in order to turn the heavy Russian political machine in the direction of democracy, it was very important to create a permanent, functioning forum in which the liberal, rights-oriented minority — de facto in opposition to the government — had the opportunity to bring directly to the authorities their views, arguments, information, and proposals.

At that time, I had complete freedom of action, so I invited into the council independent experts and human rights advocates who were not afraid to harshly criticize the government and defend their positions. To a considerable extent, I considered myself an intermediary between rights activists and the Kremlin.

Putin and the Rise of the Neo-Soviet State

Victor Davidoff, writing in the Moscow Times:

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s May 6 speech in Volgograd finally put an end to the questions that have been asked for the last three years: Who is ruling Russia, and who will rule Russia after 2012?

It was a canonical speech by a national leader who is both trying to help the party he heads, United Russia, in December’s State Duma elections and who is priming himself for the presidential race in 2012. The speech painted a rosy picture of Russia today and an even brighter picture of the future if, of course, the country maintains “stability,” which when translated from post-Soviet newspeak means “the status quo of United Russia and the siloviki in power for many years.”

May 13, 2011 — Contents

FRIDAY MAY 13 CONTENTS

(1)  EDITORIAL:  Corruption in Putin’s Russia

(2)  EDITORIAL: Russians Love them Some Graft

(3)  EDITORIAL: Russia to HSBC — Drop Dead!

(4)  Russia, Virtually Toxic

(5)  Livin’ La Rooskie Vida Loca

(6)  Corruption is Killing Russia, Literally

(7)  In Russia, they Can’t Even Pick a Mascot Honestly

(8)  In Russia, Even History is Corrupt

(9)  Corruption:  Why Russians have Nothing to Smile About 

(10) Sergei Stepashin, on the Take 

NOTE:  A special issue this week, entirely devoted to documenting the tsunami of evidence showing that Russia is the most corrupt major civilization on this planet under the leadership of proud KGB spy Vladimir Putin.

NOTE:  Julia Ioffe is back as a blogger, now with the Forbes network.  Welcome back Julia! Check out her post on personal corruption by Russia’s rulers, which is a perfect accompaniment to today’s special issue. She writes: “Medvedev’s salary has barely fluctuated in three years but his savings have nearly doubled, from 2.8 to 5 million rubles. His property holdings, have grown, too. This is interesting, since he quit business — he was once the chairman of Gazprom — quite a while ago. Either his savings accounts have really wonderful interest rates, or there’s something missing.” Something’s missing, alright.

EDITORIAL: Corruption in Putin’s Russia

EDITORIAL

Corruption in Putin’s Russia

Political competition is a necessary element for properly structuring any economy. We would like to see more ideas and more political competition in the development of these ideas.

— Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, April 21, 2011

They say that a fish rots from the head. Nowhere is that more true than in Russia.  The country ranks a genuinely shocking #154 out of 178 world nations when surveyed for corruption, meaning that Russia is the 24th most corrupt country on this planet.  Three people can count on their fingers the number of nations more corrupt than Russia, with more than a whole hand going spare.

It did not get that way by accident. As we document in today’s special issue, Russian corruption is so shockingly extensive and deep-rooted because Russia’s very highest leaders are themselves on the take, and the nation is just following their example.

EDITORIAL: Russians Love them some Graft

EDITORIAL

Russians Love them some Graft

One of the most obvious reasons why corruption rampages like a wildfire in Vladimir Putin’s Russia is that the people of the country would prefer to lap up its “benefits” than to live another way.

For instance, Russians pay far less for gasoline than they otherwise would because of political corruption. Just like in the USSR, the Russian Kremlin controls gas prices to make the privations of the failed neo-Soviet economy more palatable to clueless Russian citizens.  Other prices are controlled too, like transportation and basic foodstuffs, regardless of the fact that it’s not legal.

The result of such a practice is predictable:  Shortages.  The USSR was infamous for them.  Now, the same is happening in Russia.

EDITORIAL: Russia to HSBC — Drop Dead!

EDITORIAL

Russia to HSBC — Drop Dead!

The poster child we choose for our special issue on corruption this week is the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, better known to the world as HSBC — it bills itself as “the world’s local bank.”

But as of this month, it isn’t Russia’s bank any more.

Russia, Virtually Toxic

The Moscow Times reports:

A computer virus controlled by as few as three people in Russia is accused of taking control of more than 2 million computers around the world and perhaps stealing more than $100 million.

The cyber crime ring, which operated for a decade, was shut down this week after U.S. officials got a court go-ahead to seize hard drives used to run the malicious software, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The computer virus, dubbed Coreflood, infected more than 2 million PCs, enslaving them into a “botnet” that grabbed banking credentials and other sensitive data that its masters used to steal funds via fraudulent banking and wire transactions, the Justice Department said Wednesday.