EDITORIAL: Putin’s Internet Crackdown in Russia

EDITORIAL

Putin’s Internet Crackdown in Russia

Rustem Adagamov says:  “The Internet is the last free territory [in Russia] — but it won’t stay that way for long.”

He’d know.  He’s the most widely-read blogger in Russia, holding forth as “Drugoi” (“The Other”) on Live Journal.

You don’t have to look hard to find examples that prove he’s right.

Russia and its Outrageous Assault on Journalism

Reuters reports:

Armed and masked police raided the opposition New Times magazine on Thursday, pressing journalists to hand over interview recordings used in reports on alleged abuse of authority by the OMON riot police.

A handful of police entered the magazine’s Moscow office seeking recordings of interviews and other material used in a February report that cited police sources as saying OMON officers are permitted to commit abuses when breaking up protests.

“We suggest you voluntarily — voluntarily — give us the recordings of the interview with the current and former OMON staff,” the officer in charge of the raid told New Times editor Yevgenia Albats in the presence of a Reuters reporter.

Putin the Dictator, Failing at Every Turn

Hero journalist Yevgenia Albats, writing in the Moscow Times:

For over a month, Moscow has been boiling in heat that has approached and sometimes surpassed 40 degrees Celsius, along with heavy, sticky, eye-burning smog. Carbon monoxide levels have reached crisis levels, at six times the maximum acceptable concentration. Other toxic substances in Moscow’s air are at nine times the normal level.

In early August, a journalist called the office of Mayor Yury Luzhkov, seeking comments on the situation. “The office is closed,” a woman at the press office answered, adding that smog had gotten inside the mayoral building, which is located several hundred meters from the Kremlin, so everyone was ordered to go home. This was a weekday, shortly after lunch. “Is it at all possible to get a comment from Mayor Luzhkov?” the reporter asked. “He is not in Moscow,” the woman replied.

Indeed, there are reports that the mayor’s spokesman had been telling journalists that there is no reason for the mayor to return to Moscow. “Why should he?” said the spokesman. “Is there a crisis in Moscow? No, there is no crisis.”

EDITORIAL: Putin Throttles another Newspaper

EDITORIAL

Putin Throttles another Newspaper

Other Russia points to a chart, displayed after the jump (click it to see it full size), which was prepared by the Russian newspaper New Times and shows the shameless cronyism being practiced by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in regard to the Gazprom energy monopoly.  Putin has filled the company’s management strata with his political and personal cohorts, and possibilities for corruption, exploitation and mismanagement are obvious.

Just days ago, Other Russia reported how Putin’s gestapo had raided the offices of New Times seeking to intimidate and silence the mighty little paper run by firebrand hero journalist Yevgenia Albats, and this story gives a clear indication of just what the Kremlin is afraid of.

Vladimir Putin is systematically taking personal control of every aspect of Russian society, and just as systematically eradicating every media outlet that might report on or criticize his doing so.  The people of Russia are turning a blind eye to his misdeeds, which include mounting a new cold war confrontation with the West while ignoring every social problem faced by Russian society, such as for instance the chronic issue of orphan children on which we report in today’s issue.  And to make matters even worse, the so-called “leader” of the United States, Barack Obama, stands mute and watches it all unfold, ignoring the threat to American security and values presented by neo-Soviet Russia.

We are appalled by the craven cowardice of the Russian people and the American president.  The systems being imposed by Putin upon Russia must bring the nation to ruin, just as they did the USSR, but before that happens, and afterwards, there will be untold suffering and danger to both the people of Russia and the world. Though Putin is the perpetrator, blaming him would be like blaming the fox if it eats chickens after the farmer places it in the hen house.  The real atrocity is being committed by the people of Russia and the benighted “leadership” of the United States.