Blogging the democratic revolution
Last week, we informed readers about aggressive efforts by and on behalf of Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin to punish Internet scribes who dare to criticize the Moscow regime with brutal personal attacks. In other words, demand-side pressure on Kremlin critics. The ultimate expression of this strategy was the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, though for sheer malignant, bloodthirsty sadism nothing can match the killing of strident Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London — a killing which MSNBC reported last week has been confirmed by British authorities to have been a state-sponsored Kremlin whack job (as the Conjecturer blog reminded us recently, there…
In September of last year, a the Russian human rights organization “Gulag” published a lengthy treatise on efforts of Vladmir Putin’s secret police to seize control of the Internet by using a cadre of “brigadniki” thugs to harrass anyone who dared to express opinions critical of the Kremlin. The lead of the piece, Anna Polyanskaya, was formerly on the staff of Russian Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova, who was murdered in November 1998 for speaking out against the rise of dictatorship in Russia. She belongs in the line of heroic Russian women that includes Anna Politkovskaya and has been previously described…
If there’s one thing we seasoned Russia-watchers who have spent considerable time “in country” really really cannot stand (no matter whether we be Russophobe or Russophile, we can always reach perfect agreement on this), it’s when someone who hasn’t spent real time at ground zero starts pontificating his “insights” about the place, especially about what the people who live there think and feel and why they act the way they do. For instance, the author of the blog Scraps of Moscow recently wrote the following about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s first column based on a recent trip to…
Speaking before an annual conference on international security in Munich recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin said this of the concept of “unilateralism” in an attempt to complain about the allegedly hegemonic position of the U.S. in the world today: It is world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within. He was talking without listening to himself, the signal hallmark of the old Soviet state that soon collapsed and disappeared.…
Do you recognize the gentleman in the foreground? Unless you are an avid follower of Russian politics, you may not. He’s Sergei Mironov, a high-ranking figure in the Kremlin’s power structure. He’s the leader of the “Russia of Justice” political party (a sham entity subservient to the Kremlin) and the Chairman of the Federation Council, equivalent to being the majority leader of the U.S. Senate. If, that is, George Bush personally selected all the members. Even if you are not an aficionado of Russian politics, you likely do recognize the gentleman in the background, with the red square around his…
Breaking news – Russia’s elite spetznaz goons uses poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko’s photo at the center of their targets during shooting practice. The Times of London has the story here. But they’re still denying that they had anything to do with killing Litvinenko. My my, how hollow their elaborate protestations of noninvolvement in Litvinenko’s poisoning death ring today! These Putinites lie like thugs.
On October 13, 2006, Human Rights Watch reported on a Russian trial court’s ordering the closure of an organization based in the Russian city of Nizhny Novogorod and known as the “Russian-Chechen Friendship Association.” The RCFA is a nongovernmental organization established by Russians to inform the public about the dire plight of Chechnya and Russian human rights abuses there. The decision came just after the group announced its intention to conduct its own formal investigation into Russian war crimes in Chechnya. Time magazine reported that Amnesty International had characterized the Kremlin’s action as one that “appears to be the latest…
You know the story so far: Russia suddenly drops an oil price bomb on impoverished Belarus, dramatically increasing the price Belarussians are charged because the country was insufficiently slavish in its obedience of the Kremlin, and Belarus responds with a massive tax on Russia’s Belarus oil pipeline transits to Europe, whereupon Russia threatens to cut off all oil shipments to Belarus, and Belarus then bitterly backs down from its tax. Where do we go from here? What does it all mean? Lionel Beehner, a staff member at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an article on the New Republic website…
The Russian media has challenged the Putin regime’s peculiarly atavistic style of governance – its standing practice of rule through murder. Kim Zigfeld at La Russophobe has professionally translated a long and insightful piece from Novaya Gazeta called ‘Spare Organs’ on the Kremlin’s ruling killers. If you follow Russia affairs, it well worth a look here. Komersant has another backgrounder to the current scenario, readable in English, in this post here.
On Sunday December 3rd, the British newspaper The Observer published three stories about Alexander Litvinenko (pictured above right with slain hero reporter Anna Politkovskaya and Chechen rebel leader in exile Akhmed Zakayev in London a few weeks before Politkovskaya’s murder — eerily, the Chechen is the only one still alive). All three stories were based on the same single source, a Russian woman named Julia Svetlichnaja. First there was a story headlined: “I can blackmail them, we can make money” and then parallel story headlined “Revealed: Litvinenko’s Russian blackmail plot.” A third item, a first person account by the source…
ON DANIEL TREISMAN AND HIS “NORMAL COUNTRY” . . . AND WHETHER PIGS HAVE WINGS The Walrus and the Carpenter walked on a mile or so, And then they rested on a rock, conveniently low: And all the little Oysters stood and waited in a row. “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–of cabbages–and kings– And why the sea is boiling hot — and whether pigs have wings.” – Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass, 1872 If you are a fan of Lewis Carroll, then you know what happened to…
Just over a year ago, Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine due to a standoff over whether the country would pay full “market price” over the subsidies that it had been receiving. Consequently, given that a large amount of Western Europe’s gas flows through Ukraine’s pipelines, there were a lot of German and French folk freezing their butts off last year until the flow was restored. The news made international headlines immediately, most likely due to who it affected rather than the simple action itself. But regardless, it was the first sign of a Russia ready to bully…
In a December 6th installment of his column ???????Subjective Evaluation??????? for National Interest, Russia scholar Dmitri Simes of the Nixon Center purports to critique ???????highly simplistic and sometimes even misleading coverage??????? of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Simes argues that although Litvinenko was an employee of the FSB (successor to the KGB) is not appropriate to call him a ???????spy??????? since he never served in a ???????foreign intelligence??????? position but rather was assigned to handle organized crime issues and in that capacity made contact with exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. He also argues that it is not appropriate to refer to…
RIA Novosti recently reported that from January through September of this year Russia received about $17.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and slightly more, about $17.9 billion, in the form of international financial organizations’ loans and trade credits. At about $2 billion per month, we can project that Russia will have no more than $24 billion in FDI by year????????s end. Russia is a nation of about 140 million people. That means that Russia has an annual per capita FDI of roughly $170 per person. Virtually all of this investment is attributable to investment in Russia????????s energy sector, specifically…
When KGB spy Yuri Andropov (pictured above) expired as leader of the USSR after only sixteen months in office, the West breathed a sigh of relief. Power passed from the first KGB spy to rule Russia into the hands of Mikhail Gorbachev, who seemed far less threatening (even though he was a close associate of Andropov’s). When the USSR itself then collapsed without a shot being fired, many breathed a deep sigh of relief at the West????????s good fortune. Little did they think that the Andropov????????s KGB might return to power in Russia in exactly the same manner. Analyst Pavel…
Venezuela and Russia show remarkable similarities in their social, political and economic systems and levels of attainment, so it is perhaps not surprising to see their two tinpot leaders, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez, seeking ever closer relations. An even more disturbing parallel, though, is that in both countries men who are essentially dictators have won ratification of their power through elections that, while fundamentally corrupt, are still a basic expression of popular support despite the vast majority of the population languishing in poverty while the regimes hoard oil revenue windfalls and obliterate individual liberty. UN data, as outlined below,…
Just as we saw after the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, a determined attempt to deflect blame from the Kremlin has issued from the Russophile cabal following the killing of Alexander Litvinenko. It????????s necessary to debunk their ???????arguments,??????? which might mislead the unwary. As a preface, let????????s ask the Russophiles a question: OK, so you don????????t believe the Kremlin had anything to do with the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, or Alexander Litvinenko (or either of the other two murdered members of the Kovalev Committee investigating the role of the Kremlin in the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings). In that case, please answer…
On September 8, 1999, several hundred pounds of explosive detonated on the ground floor of a nine-story apartment building in the southwestern Moscow neighborhood of Pechatniki. 94 people were killed and 150 wounded. Five days later, a second building was leveled, this time on Kashirskoye Highway, again in the southern region of the city. In the collapse of the eight-story structure, 118 people were killed and 200 wounded. Almost immediately, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia would undertake a second massive military assault on the breakaway province of Chechnya, even though the Chechen rebels did not take responsibility for…
In his memoirs, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” The Russian variant would be just a bit different: ???????If you are lucky enough to have survived living in Moscow as a young woman, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Moscow is a moveable famine.??????? In Russia, at least two dozen women are murdered by their husbands every single day. Women…
Poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko on his deathbead Source: Kim Zigfeld, at La Russophobe In his defiant last statement, poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko said, “The bastards got me. But they won’t get everybody.” Incredibly brave words for a man going down in lingering pain from a now-unknown poison. Less than a week ago, Alexander Litvinenko was in perfect health, doggedly trying to find out the truth behind the murder of another Russian journalist in London. In a scene reminiscent of Daniel Pearl’s kidnap, he apparently got too close to people too dirty, and then hit on some nerve too…
On Sunday, the British press exploded with reports about the poisoning in London of KGB defector Colonel Alexander Litvinenko (pictured above, circa 2002), who had been in the process of investigating the murder of Anna Politkovskaya to see whether the KGB (now called the FSB) was involved. The Associated Press reported that ???????Toxicologist Dr. John Henry, who has been treating Litvinenko, told the BBC that the former agent had been poisoned by thallium — a toxic metal commonly found in rat poison. ???????It points to that in his blood stream,???????? he said.??????? The Times of London reported that the symptoms…
Just over one month ago, at 5:10 pm Moscow Time on Saturday October 7, 2006, the heroic and valiant Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead at her home. As Publius Pundit reported soon afterwards, Politkovskaya was far and away Russia????????s most internationally recognized and lauded journalist, and a harsh critic of the Kremlin????????s brutal policies in Chechnya, which have been roundly condemned by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. Universally, analysts have seen Kremlin complicity in the killing. As if to confirm it, commenting on the killing days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin called her an enemy…
A much talked about concept (and concern) over the summer and autumn in EU foreign policy circles has been the birth of what is being called the “Kosovo double-standard,” by which the EU and United States support Kosovo’s independence from Serbia while declining to recognize the supposed self-determination of Georgian breakaway provinces Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The idea came about this year as talks began in February over Kosovo’s status, as well a vote this summer which allowed Montenegro to declare independence from Serbia. If last year was the year of democratic revolutions, then this is certainly the one of…
It seems that the results of the 2006 congressional elections in the U.S. bode well for America????????s ability to influence Russia????????s political direction toward democracy, though they may come to late to be of much real utility. Not that the newly empowered Democrats will necessarily be vigorous in that regard (although they may prove to be) but because the election will free those Republicans who are inclined to do so, such as senators John McCain and Charles Grassley, to be much more active in opposing the Bush administration????????s policy of accommodation towards the regime of Vladimir Putin. President Bush, either…
Doctor Zin at Regime Change Iran has found a megatrend piece that’s so arresting it can’t help but make you stop and think. World oil prices right now are dropping like a stone. If they go below $50 a barrel and stay there, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin are in for hard times. They won’t be able to maintain their political popularity because in all case, that popularity is derived from pork-barrel spending and government handouts. If they lose popularity, will that make them more, or less, aggressive against their own internal opposition and the…