"Freedom of speech in Russia is reserved for government" by Kathy Lally, Washington Post / December 12, 2010
MOSCOW — Here’s what the world looks like in a country where the government controls the media: One evening, the main television channel uses prime time to broadcast a concert across vast Russia, paying tribute to the much-feared tax collectors. Another day, media overseers charge a respected newspaper with extremism — for straightforward reporting on neo-Nazi groups.
The late-November concert in honor of the 20th anniversary of the tax inspectorate is a merry affair. Famous entertainers joke and sing.
A chorus of tax collectors joins in, glowing in stage lights, gold braid suspended from the shoulders of their military-style uniforms, a song of money on their lips — hardly the intimidating agents capable of bringing down a suddenly inconvenient billionaire or ruining a small-business owner without the right friends.
The state does not offer such admiration for crusading journalists....
Here in AmeriKa they just ignore bloggers.
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Honestly, readers, I'm tired of the AmeriKan media kettle hollering pot!
"Moscow crowds protest government" by Associated Press / December 13, 2010
MOSCOW — The rallies followed violent clashes Saturday just outside the Kremlin walls between riot police and about 5,000 football fans and nationalists, who shouted “Russia for Russians.’’
The police crackdown further angered Slavic Russians who resent the growing presence of dark-complexioned people from Russia’s predominantly Muslim republics in the Caucasus.
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"Clashes befuddle Russian leaders; Uncertain how to crack down on nationalist groups" by Will Englund, Washington Post / December 14, 2010
MOSCOW — Street melees here the past few days, sparked by the killing of a soccer fan and fueled by nationalists’ hatred of immigrants from the Caucasus, have caught the police and other authorities unprepared for an upwelling of rage that appears to reflect a larger sense of anger in Russian society.
The riots by right-wing nationalists and extremists have put political leaders on the spot: How should they go about cracking down on a movement that up until now has typically been a useful right flank for those in power?
There goes the pot AmeriKan media whistling kettle again.
The Kremlin has spent the past decade nurturing nationalist sentiment in Russia, especially among the young.
America got a 9/11 instead.
Now, hundreds and sometimes thousands of furious young men have been gathering at varying places around Moscow and other cities, shouting nationalist slogans, making fascist salutes, and beating up darker-skinned people who appear to be from the Caucasus or Central Asia.
About 5,000 people, mainly boys and young men, rallied for hours at Manezh Square, just outside the Kremlin, Saturday. Eighty were briefly detained, but riot police chased most of the crowd into the subway, where they rampaged through the cars threatening non-Russians. Three natives of the Caucasus were stabbed and hospitalized, police said.
Sunday, crowds appeared at Pushkin Square and at Sokolniki Park, northeast of the center. Websites promised more to come. Sunday night or yesterday morning, a man from Central Asia was stabbed to death in the southern part of Moscow by a group of about 15 young people, police reported.
President Dmitry Medvedev warned yesterday that Russia itself could be torn apart if seething ethnic tensions spin out of control, and he said the hooligans and racists who rampaged over the weekend will be tracked down and punished....
Rashid Nurgaliyev, Russia’s interior minister, sought Sunday to blame the riots on left-wing radicals, but the chants and slogans point to the right....
But Medvedev’s government seems to be walking a fine line. On Saturday, his deputy chief of staff told a meeting of Kremlin-sponsored youth groups, “Prepare yourselves for the polls, and train your brains and your muscles. You can always count on our support.’’
Vladislav Surkov was meeting with leaders from the groups Nashi (Ours), Molodaya Gvardiya (the Young Guards), and other youth groups
While not as radical or as openly racist as the groups that were at Manezh, these organizations have been active in harassing embassies and diplomats. Molodaya Gvardiya listed on its website a group of journalists who will be punished, shortly before a Kommersant reporter who was on the list, Oleg Kashin, was severely beaten on the street near his home.
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"1,000 are detained in Moscow to prevent ethnic violence; Action follows weekend rioting outside Kremlin" by David Nowak, Associated Press / December 16, 2010
MOSCOW — Fearing more clashes between racist hooligans and ethnic minorities, Russian police detained 1,000 people in a standoff near a Moscow train station yesterday, taking a strong stance against far-right extremists after weekend rioting left dozens injured.
Hundreds of riot police outside the Kievsky station hauled mostly young men and teenagers shouting racist slogans into police vans. Some in the group were lined up against buses and searched by police.
Officers confiscated an arsenal of weapons, including knives and metal bars, police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said.
Resentment has been rising among Slavic Russians over the growing presence in Moscow and elsewhere of people from the southern Caucasus region, the home of numerous ethnic groups, most of them Muslim.
People from other parts of the former Soviet Union, including Central Asia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, also face ethnic discrimination and are frequently victims of hate crimes.
The train station is popular with street merchants from the Caucasus. The majority of those detained were Slavic Russians shouting racist slogans and calling for violence, although some ethnic minorities from the Caucasus were also taken into custody....
Authorities sought to prevent the kind of rioting that occurred outside the Kremlin Saturday, when mainly soccer fans chanted “Russia for Russians!’’ during clashes that left dozens injured. Some soccer fans are linked with neo-Nazis and other radical racist groups that mushroomed in Russia after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
So did the rise of Jewish organized crime in the former Soviet Republics.
The violence over the weekend had raised new doubts about the government’s ability to control the rising tide of xenophobia, which poses a serious threat to Russia’s existence as a multiethnic state.
It also embarrassed the Kremlin just days after FIFA awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia and raised questions about Russia’s ability to safely hold international sporting events, including the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
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"Moscow police chief says liberties, keeping order may conflict; Kremlin fanning strife for political gain, critics say" by David Nowak, Associated Press / December 23, 2010
MOSCOW — Moscow’s police chief questioned yesterday whether civil liberties are practical when authorities need to keep law and order, the latest sign that ethnic tensions in Russia could lead to more restrictions on democracy....
Kremlin critics say ethnic tensions are being deliberately fanned as a pretext to introduce repressive legislation ahead of Russia’s 2012 presidential election. They say the measures floated by authorities could cripple attempts to hold peaceful antigovernment demonstrations....
A protest outside the Kremlin saw thousands of Slavic hooligans chanting racist slogans, raising their hands in a Nazi salute, and beating nonwhites.
Wait a minute. Russian nationalists doing the Hitler salute?
What is wrong with that picture, huh?
Why am I now getting the feeling outside forces are again using agent provocateurs to destabilize Russia?
While ethnic Russians make up four-fifths of Russia’s population of 142 million, the country is also home to some 180 ethnic groups.
The Caucasus region, with its mountainous terrain and isolated valleys, is home to at least 100 ethnicities, including Chechens, who have waged two separatist wars against Moscow since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
And who were assisted by "Al-CIA-Duh."
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"Russian leaders differ on Soviet model" by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press / December 28, 2010
MOSCOW — A rising tide of xenophobia, which threatens the country’s existence.
Putin suggested yesterday that the authorities might restore harsh Soviet era-restrictions on movement into big cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg. Such a move would target dark-complexioned people from the Caucasus, who flee their impoverished regions for big cities.
“We went for liberal rules of registration too early,’’ Putin said.
Medvedev, however, warned against trying to isolate ethnic groups. “We can’t block people from moving around the country, although we need to control that,’’ he said. “We are a single country, and we must learn to live together.’’
Medvedev warned that ethnic tensions could break Russia up if the government fails to stem violent nationalism and act more harshly to disperse riots.
Somehow that seems acceptable in USrael's case.
“Interethnic conflicts are deadly dangerous for Russia,’’ Medvedev said.
“We went for liberal rules of registration too early,’’ Putin said.
Medvedev, however, warned against trying to isolate ethnic groups. “We can’t block people from moving around the country, although we need to control that,’’ he said. “We are a single country, and we must learn to live together.’’
Medvedev warned that ethnic tensions could break Russia up if the government fails to stem violent nationalism and act more harshly to disperse riots.
Somehow that seems acceptable in USrael's case.
“Interethnic conflicts are deadly dangerous for Russia,’’ Medvedev said.
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"Jailed oil tycoon convicted again in Moscow; Backers say he’s punished for opposing Putin" by Lynn Berry, Associated Press / December 28, 2010
MOSCOW — To Russian prosecutors, imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is guilty of stealing nearly $30 billion in oil from his own company and laundering the proceeds. To others, he is a dissident who stood up to Vladimir Putin.
Thus he is a hero to the AmeriKan media.
Whatever he is, the verdict also showed that Putin, now the prime minister, still holds great power.
Hundreds of Khodorkovsky supporters rallied outside the courthouse, holding up signs saying “Freedom’’ and “Russia without Putin.’’ Police roughly detained some of them.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton led a chorus of political figures in the United States and Europe in condemning the verdict.
It “raises serious questions about selective prosecution and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations,’’ she said....
She was drunk, wasn't she?
See: Western double standards: the cases of Khodorkovsky and Guantanamo
Yeah, it's okay if you have "terror" show trials for pathetic patsies framed by the FBI.
Once one of the reviled oligarchs who controlled much of Russia’s economy and dictated their terms to the Kremlin, Khodorkovsky has become a modern-day political dissident and intellectual, a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Putin’s Russia.
The new Sakharov.
Like millions of political prisoners under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, he spent time in a Siberian prison camp, where he was assigned to a workshop sewing gloves. For much of the past two years, he has been shuttling back and forth in handcuffs from a Moscow jail to the courtroom he sat in yesterday....
Like an innocent Muslim in U.S. custody.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton led a chorus of political figures in the United States and Europe in condemning the verdict.
It “raises serious questions about selective prosecution and about the rule of law being overshadowed by political considerations,’’ she said....
She was drunk, wasn't she?
See: Western double standards: the cases of Khodorkovsky and Guantanamo
Yeah, it's okay if you have "terror" show trials for pathetic patsies framed by the FBI.
Once one of the reviled oligarchs who controlled much of Russia’s economy and dictated their terms to the Kremlin, Khodorkovsky has become a modern-day political dissident and intellectual, a symbol of the struggle for democracy in Putin’s Russia.
The new Sakharov.
Like millions of political prisoners under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, he spent time in a Siberian prison camp, where he was assigned to a workshop sewing gloves. For much of the past two years, he has been shuttling back and forth in handcuffs from a Moscow jail to the courtroom he sat in yesterday....
Like an innocent Muslim in U.S. custody.
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Related: Russia rejects criticism of trial
Time for me to fly, readers.
"2 killed, 83 hurt in emergency landing
MOSCOW — Two engines failed on a Russian passenger jet shortly after takeoff yesterday, and the plane made an emergency landing as its third engine cut out. The plane skidded off the snowy runway and broke apart, officials said. Two people were killed and 83 injured. The Tupolev Tu-154, belonging to Dagestan Airlines, was carrying at least 155 people when it landed at Domodedovo Airport. The cause of the engine failure was unclear.
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Related: Sleet shuts down Moscow airport, knocks out power for 300,000
Also see: Stalin behind Katyn massacre, Russians say
And we know who was behind him.
Russia to miss deadline on chemical arms
So did the U.S.
And what about THOSE WHO USE THEM, huh?
Russian Parliament gives tentative approval to arms pact
Expelled spy lands at Russian energy firm
Update:
"3 killed, 121 escape as jet catches fire
MOSCOW -- A passenger jet carrying 124 people caught fire as it taxied down a snowy runway in Siberia and exploded yesterday, killing three and injuring 43. Most on board were evacuated before the explosion (AP)."
Nothing unusual about snow in Siberia I suppose; however, if I see global warming in my paper again it will get hot around here -- from the steam off the top off my head.
