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Alex Linder
February 24th, 2008, 10:31 AM
Neo-Nazis and Anti-Fascists Clash in Moscow
(February 22, 2008)
Three separate violent incidents took place in Moscow on Valentines Day between neo-Nazis and anti-fascists, according to a February 15, 2008 report by the news web site Gazeta.ru. Around 50 anti-fascists gathered to protect a "flash mob" demonstration by gay rights activists in the downtown area; a large group of neo-Nazis, who regularly assault both groups, gathered to disrupt the demonstration. The anti-fascists attacked two neo-Nazis, one of whom managed to escape before they beat him. That same day, neo-Nazis stabbed an anti-fascist, and in a third incident, a mass brawl involving 30-40 people on either side resulted in several anti-fascists being seriously injured.
http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/022208Russ3.shtml
Alex Linder
February 25th, 2008, 12:20 AM
Putin Beyond the Propaganda
Posted by Matthew Roberts on February 20, 2008
Even the editors of Time magazine can occasionally display some some wisdom, and to begin the new year, they got two things right: first, they canned Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer; second, they named President Vladimir Putin ”Person of the Year.” Putin may not be very well understood in the America, but he’s certainly deserving of the prize. The recent Russian parliamentary election delivered his United Russia Party 315 seats in a 450-seat parliament. And with Dmitry Medvedev anointed as Putin’s successor, it appears that Putin will continue to wield influence as Russia’s new prime minister. Although some analysts have cried foul play in these elections, tampering would seem superfluous: Putin is one of the most popular Russian leaders of the past 85 years. Given the chaos of the 1990s, Putin has restored a sense of order and pride to Russia, and the Russians have demonstrated their devotion in these recent elections.
This affection is not shared by the American media elite, especially those in the neoliberal and neoconservative crowds, who usually have had nothing but negative things to say about the Russian president. Vice President Dick Cheney has warned that “opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade”; Michael Ledeen hysterically predicted that Putin wants to “Finlandize Europe.”
Regarding Putin’s recent condemnation of Kosovo independence—as “illegal, ill-conceived and immoral"—critics again have gone on the offensive. Calling Kosovar independence “inevitable,” David Satter, author of the doomsday Darkness at Dawn: the Rise of the Russian Criminal State, writes in a National Review Online symposium, “Russia under Putin seeks to assert itself and, for that, it needs manageable conflicts with the West”; Tom Nichols criticizes Putin’s concerns as “pointless but hypocritical in the extreme”; James S. Robbins adds that Kosovar independence is a “very sensible redrawing of lines”; Ariel Cohen chimes in that Putin is “anxious to find points of confrontation with Europe and the U.S.”
The real hypocrisy in all this is that in backing Kosovar independence, these devotees of the war on terror (and quixotic cold warriors) are supporting the creation of an Islamicist state within Europe. Putin, by opposing this Trojan horse, proves himself to be the true patriot of the West.
But the hypocrisy does not end with Kosovo. Neocons are often willing to shelve the war on terror to help the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC), whose membership includes Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, Michael Ledeen, et al. As John Laughland writes in the Guardian:
“The ACPC heavily promotes the idea that the Chechen rebellion shows the undemocratic nature of Putin’s Russia, and cultivates the support for the Chechen cause by emphasizing the seriousness of human rights violations. ... It compares the Chechen crisis to those other fashionable ‘Muslim’ causes, Bosnia and Kosovo—implying that only international intervention in the Caucasas can stabilise the situation there.”
After the recent elections, this chorus of condemnation has intensified. Siding with potential Chechen terrorists against a man who has exposed numerous terrorist networks in Russia, critics have painted Putin as dangerous and autocratic. But the real question, which the media talking heads fail to ask, is: What crime has Putin committed? Do any of his practices even resemble the system of gulags, mass murder of millions, and nuclear bullying of the Stalinist era? Is he planning to occupy Western Europe or bomb the United States any time soon?
Of course not. Putin’s real crime is that he has refused to play by the rules of globalization. In fact, he has done something rather remarkable, indeed, unheard of these days in most Western countries—he has sought to pursue policies that truly are in Russia’s interest. Putin recently commented, “Russians will never allow for the development of the country along a destructive path, the way it happened in some countries in the post-Soviet space.” In other words, Putin is uninterested in Wilsonian crusades in the Middle East, undermining his own economy with suicidal free-trade pacts, driving down wages with Third World immigration, or turning over Russia’s beloved oil and gas assets to multinational corporations. Putin is doing what he was elected to do: protect Russia.
And in doing so, Putin has proven himself a true Russian patriot. Concerning immigration, Putin has instigated rules to make even Rep. Tom Tancredo appear coy. Recognizing that illegal immigrants are driving down wages in an already depressed economy as well as inciting anger among Russia’s native lower classes, Putin has steered towards a path of attrition. He has sought to reduce the presence of foreign workers at wholesale and retail markets, which had become magnets to illegal immigrants. He said that authorities should “protect the interests of Russian producers” and “the native population of Russia.” In other words, Russians first.
While American “conservatives” like John McCain warn of the “intolerance” of the religious Right, Putin has overseen a true revitalization of Orthodox Christianity in Russia. Having been closed for nearly 70 years, the Solovetsky Islands, one of the holiest sites in Russian Orthodox Christianity dating back to the 15th century, have been repopulated by monks. And most recently, Christian teaching has returned to Russian public schools. As Clifford J. Levy reports in the New York Times:
“Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union ... localities in Russia are increasingly decreeing that to receive a proper public school education, children should be steeped in the ways of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its traditions, liturgy and historic figures.”
While it is nearly criminal to mention “Christmas” in American public schools, Russian teachers are openly instructing their students in the basic tenants of Christian morality, and with Putin’s blessing, the Kremlin has hosted Russian Orthodox priests to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the restoration of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Putin has whole-heartedly pushed for the inclusion Christianity in public life. As David Nowak, of The MoscowTimes.com has observed:
“Not since Tsar Nicholas II has Russia had a leader so keen to embrace religion. Putin has made regular public appearances with Church representatives and has said the Church “plays a paramount role in preserving the moral pillars” of society.”
To all this Putin’s neocon and neoliberal critics will respond, “that’s great, but he has failed to liberalize Russia’s markets.” But why should he? To let Russian oligarchs auction off Russia’s natural resources to multinational corporations? The liberal-economic paradigm is alien to Russia’s traditions, and it would be un-Burkean to impose such a foreign order upon her. Russia has her own homegrown traditions and will chart her own course in the 21st Century.
Putin is no angel, but he is hardly the devil incarnate that many in the media make him out to be. Though he has continued some Soviet practices, Putin has mitigated them with Russian traditions and religion. He as also been prudent in recognizing that a complete break with the immediate past would be a disaster. He has sought to steer a course he feels reflects the long-term interests of the Russian people. In fact, he is pursuing a my-own-country-first policy that many Americans wish our own leaders would follow.
But inside the Beltway, the neocons at ACPC want to revive the spirit the Committee on the Present Danger and view Russia through the ideological glasses of the days of yore. Chicken hawks want an international conflict that is not in our interest against a country that is not a threat and to demonize a man who is in fact sensible and patriotic. Instead, we should extend the olive branch to Russia and recognize her as a nation of the greater West—a cultural, transnational body of which we are a part (or should hope to be.)
Matthew A. Roberts writes from Kansas City, Missouri.
http://www.takimag.com/site/article/putin_beyond_the_propoganda/
Follow the money, The animosity of the neocons towards Putin is rooted the ethnic solidarity that they have with the dual loyalty oligarchs most of whom carry Israeli passports in addition to Russian ones. Putin’s policy of recouping the huge financial losses that the former Soviet slaves suffered when Jeffrey Sachs advised the new noncommunist government on how to denationalize industries, which then ended up, by some strange miracle, in the hands of his co-religionists, is the real source of the neoconr loathing. The neocons have the exact same dual loyalty. Actually it is a loyalty to Israel and a feigned attachment to either Russia or America. Dual loyalty is impossible and the primary commitment is obvious in both cases. The entire camarilla is anti-American, anti-Russian and anti-Christian.
Posted by felipeb on Feb 20, 2008.
FINE ESSAY BY MATTHEW ROBERTS. HOWEVER, MR. ROBERTS IS REMISS NOT TO MENTION THAT THE NEOCONS HATE PUTIN BECAUSE HE IS A RUSSIAN NATIONALIST WHO HAD THE TEMERITY TO CHALLENGE THE PREDOMINATELY JEWISH OLIGARCHS WHO EXPLOITED BORIS YELSIN’S DEFICIENCIES AS A LEADER TO ROB THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE OF THEIR ABUNDANT NATURAL RESOURCES. THE NEOCONS VIEW PUTIN AS THE REBIRTH OF THE TSAR.
Posted by johnt on Feb 20, 2008.
Ed Keiser
February 25th, 2008, 01:33 AM
Imagine that, a Leader who actually has the best intrests of his country and his people in mind. This is in stark contrast to our leaders who routinely have everyone elses [or their own] best intrests in mind. The fact that he sees the influx of immigrants as a detriment and not as an asset is refreshing. He is not a proponent of globalization and want's to protect Russia's natural assets unlike the stooges in our government who continue to sell off and sell out America every chance they get. Putin is obviously a man of vision and it will be interesting to see how Russia progresses in the near future.
Bill
February 25th, 2008, 01:39 AM
But the hypocrisy does not end with Kosovo. Neocons are often willing to shelve the war on terror to help the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC), whose membership includes Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, Michael Ledeen, et al. As John Laughland writes in the Guardian:
“The ACPC heavily promotes the idea that the Chechen rebellion shows the undemocratic nature of Putin’s Russia, and cultivates the support for the Chechen cause by emphasizing the seriousness of human rights violations. ... It compares the Chechen crisis to those other fashionable ‘Muslim’ causes, Bosnia and Kosovo—implying that only international intervention in the Caucasas can stabilise the situation there.”
I realize that these ACPC people could care less about the people in the Caucasas, and are just using this as something to undermine Putin.
None the less, the Russians have been brutal to the Muslims in that region. I wish a settlement of some sort could be reached with independance for Chechyna.
http://www.alkavkaz.com/haber/
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/
Jamaat "Shariat": Wilayah of Dagestan; The Kadar Siege 28/08/1999
(Dagestan is nearby Chechnya)
YouTube - Jamaat "Shariat" : The Kadar Siege
Alex Linder
March 3rd, 2008, 05:50 PM
[Extremely long piece on Edward Limonov, head of National Bolsheviks - the only real opposition to Putin's party, claims NYT Magazine]
Putin’s Pariah
By ANDREW MEIER
March 2, 2008
It began inauspiciously. On a frozen afternoon in late November, as Moscow was draped with blocklong plastic billboards, banners and flags, each proclaiming a variation on a single theme — “POBEDA PUTINA — POBEDA ROSSII!” (“A Victory for Putin Is a Victory for Russia”) — a few thousand Russians converged on the city center for a rare act of political theater. It seemed, at first, like a tableau from the last days of the U.S.S.R., those heady months when glasnost swelled the streets with protesters. A handful of dissidents stood on a flatbed truck; a jumble of loudspeakers were stacked below; the crew of foreign reporters vastly outnumbered the local press; and across the way, the secret policemen with their unseen amplifiers were drowning the protest in canned laughter and Soviet waltzes.
That afternoon all eyes and lenses were fixed on Garry Kasparov, the valiant chess master trying in retirement to end the reign of Vladimir Putin. After Kasparov clapped his hands and shouted “Davai!” — “Let’s go!” — he started toward the Central Election Commission, where he planned to deliver a list of complaints. As he marched, however, it was clear that he was not alone at the head of the demonstration. He had locked arms with his unlikely comrade in one of modern Russia’s most quixotic quests — Edward Limonov, the 65-year-old poet-turned-populist who heads the National Bolshevik Party, or NBP.
After the presidential election in Russia, taking place today, not much is likely to change. Putin’s anointed successor, the young lawyer Dmitri Medvedev, is little more than a proxy. But there remains one genuine opposition force, the Other Russia, a threadbare alliance comprising the remnants of the Westernizing camp led by [jew] Kasparov and the banned National Bolsheviks, the Nat-Bols, as Limonov’s young followers call themselves. In the face of Kremlin control of the airwaves and the small army of police deployed to muzzle their protests, the alliance has proved more adept at internecine warfare than at grass-roots politicking.
Limonov, however, has not given up. With his bizarre, often half-baked yet latently sinister populism, he remains hellbent on ruining the Kremlin’s party. And despite his strident nationalism and affinity for rogue youth, he works in close partnership with the liberal-minded Kasparov. “Russia is rich in generals without armies,” Kasparov told me last fall. “But Limonov has foot soldiers. He commands street power.”
The crowd at the rally was not large; in fact it was depressingly small to anyone who remembered the last days of the U.S.S.R. Yet at the fore stood a disciplined corps of 200 or 300 Nat-Bols — young men and women dressed in black whose faces beamed with unexpected joy. The march ended, as expected, nearly as soon as it began. The riot police formed walls on either end of the procession and closed the vise. When they roughed up Kasparov and threw him in a paddy wagon, the foreign press surrounded it. When they sent him to jail for five days, European leaders and even George W. Bush’s spokesman issued peals of condemnation.
Limonov, however, also vanished. A babushka in the street swore he’d been hauled off, bag over his head. Ekho Moskvy, the liberal Moscow radio station and a last preserve of independent media in Russia, reported he had been arrested. No one, however, could find Limonov in the jails. Only days later, the truth emerged. “It was my boys,” Limonov told me. The Nat-Bols had forsworn their party flags — notoriously similar in color and design to the Nazis’, only with a black hammer and sickle replacing the swastika — and executed their game plan. Before the police could reach Limonov, his supporters carted him off. “My boys saved me,” he said. “Just like they can save the country.”
“Russia is back,” they like to say in Moscow these days. What a difference a sea of oil and gas can make. Bentleys, Maseratis and Maybach 62s — those Bavarian chariots that set you back upward of $400,000 — rule the prospekty. At the Ritz-Carlton, a new marble palace erected on the remains of the old Intourist Hotel across from Red Square, the smallest singles run $1,200 a night.
Still, in Moscow, and out across the hinterland, there is something else — a new generation untouched by high-speed globalization and mired in uncertainty. Russia’s youth ranges widely in its political sympathies — from the neo-Nazi thugs who posted the beheading of a dark-skinned man on the Internet to the neo-Soviet youth groups spawned by the Kremlin. But Limonov’s National-Bolsheviks came first and now stand somewhere in the middle of Russia’s odd political spectrum, part Merry Pranksters, part revolutionary vanguard. The party does not tally its membership, “for security reasons,” Limonov says, but claims to have 1,000 to 1,500 hardcore activists and some 56,000 loyalists. Unmoored by economic upheaval and unmoved by Putin’s restoration project, they have found in the NBP a satisfyingly fierce ideology, often mediated by black humor, that can be refashioned, as Limonov readily admits, “to fit anyone and anything.”
Limonov founded the NBP in 1993 after returning to Russia from years abroad. Since then, his message has changed — from anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism to anti-Putinism and anti-fascism — though rabid nationalism has dominated. He has sought the mantle of everyone from Mikhail Bakunin, the 19th-century anarchist, to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French ultranationalist. He has shifted course so often that by now only the goal — revolution — and the means — young people — remain constants. “In the bureaucratic KGB-cop state, youth are expendable,” he has written. He maintains that young Russians, “physically the most powerful group in society,” are regarded by authorities as “the internal enemy,” just as the Chechens are seen as the external one. Disaffected youth are Russia’s “most exploited class” in Limonov’s view and, as he readily admits, his core supporters. There are young men with shaved heads in the party, though these days they are more likely to be left-wing punks than right-wing skinheads.
[much, much more through link]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/magazine/02limonov-t.html?ref=magazine
Alex Linder
March 3rd, 2008, 06:11 PM
The Kremlin has not only proved incapable of ignoring Limonov; it has also adopted his tactics. Putin’s ideologues, led by his deputy chief of staff, Vladislav Surkov, have created a raft of “youth groups” like Nashi (“Our Own”) and Molodaya Gvardiya (“the Young Guard”). As well financed, unyielding and patriotic as their patrons, they have earned the collective nickname “Putin Jugend.” While some discount their reach, and Nashi may soon lose its state financing, the British ambassador, Anthony Brenton, learned their power firsthand. Two years ago Nashi activists — Nashisty, as the Nat-Bols call them, with a deliberate ring of fashisty, fascists — began shadowing the diplomat in Moscow. For months, they leafleted his car, picketed his residence and heckled him in public, before the Russian foreign minister stepped in. Brenton’s offense? He had attended an opposition conference, sitting in the company of Limonov.
[...]
The two and a half years Limonov spent behind bars earlier in the decade proved a boon to his writing; it was his most prolific time since his days in New York welfare hotels. In prison, he finished eight books — “nearly 2,000 pages,” he said, measuring his output like a Soviet shock worker. The guards left him alone to write. He only had “to push a button and ask to go to work,” he said. Limonov emerged from jail, in the Russian tradition, with a manifesto, “a series of lectures for NBP members”: “Drugaya Rossiya” (“the Other Russia”). Kasparov liked the title; it became the name of their coalition. An inchoate wide-ranging treatise, the book calls for a “new civilization,” a collection of “armed communes” to replace the evils of urban Russia and restore the insulted and injured to their rural roots. To reverse Russia’s dismal birth rate, polygamy will be permitted, free love encouraged and childbirth required, “like military service for men.” Abortion will be outlawed, and all women, before they reach 35, must have “no fewer than four children for the motherland.” Limonov, however, wants to have it all. “One should not view the new civilization as a leap backward,” he wrote. “The newly civilized shall not wage war against science, against the useful and intelligent achievements of technological progress. Not at all. We will develop the Internet and genetics and HDTV. TV and the Internet will unite the armed communes as one in the unified civilization of free citizens.” The takeover of power, Limonov promised, will not come from an external force, as it did in Afghanistan when the Taliban swept in from refugee camps in Pakistan. “It will come from within.”
Alex Linder
March 3rd, 2008, 07:26 PM
Mar 3, 2008
Congratulations, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev
By NICKOLAI BUTKEVICH
A month away from becoming leader of the world's largest country, Russia's president-in-waiting Dmitry Medvedev has a lot on his plate. Eight years after President Vladimir Putin assumed office, Russia has gone from a humiliated economic basket case to an assertive player on the world stage. Behind the boom, however, is an ugly flip side - a record number of hate crimes set nearly every year of Vladimir Putin's presidency.
Attacks on non-Russians now occur on a daily basis, with four murders in Moscow just last week. According to Russian law enforcement figures, the number of crimes committed by extremist groups tripled from 2004-2007. The Sova Center, a Russian NGO, announced that 17 people were killed and more than 50 injured as of February 15, a pace that, if maintained, would result in a doubling of the 2007 numbers.
Neo-Nazi gangs, who even the government admits have at least 20,000 members (other estimates are higher), are thought to be responsible for most of the violence. Unfortunately, the ideology of the far-Right has moved from the fringe to a level of respectability that would have been unthinkable in the 1990s.
Increasingly, ordinary young men with no ties to hate groups take part in the attacks. Defying the stereotype of uneducated, futureless youths from the poor suburbs surrounding Moscow and St. Petersburg, many of these perpetrators are university students with decent job prospects.
Polls show that over half the country now supports the neo-Nazi slogan "Russia for the ethnic Russians" and politicians preaching hatred against non-Russian migrants, Jews, and other minority groups routinely win office in national and local parliaments.
THERE ARE three main reasons why racist violence has become so common.
The humiliation and fear that the chaos of the 1990s inflicted on the Russian populace cannot be over-estimated. The middle class was devastated by ill-conceived economic reforms, worsening a demographic catastrophe. At the same time, millions of migrants from the southern former Soviet republics came to Russia seeking employment. Predominantly dark-skinned and Islamic, migrants strike fear in the hearts of many Russians, especially when they build mosques in communities far from traditionally Muslim areas.
Secondly, the executive branch makes the situation worse by pandering to the extremists and their increasingly popular ideas. President Putin's use of racist rhetoric in the wake of the 2006 Kondopoga riots, which targeted migrants from the Caucasus, is the most prominent example of this disturbing new trend. The president used the publicity surrounding the riot to successfully push for a law that bans foreign market traders. During his speech, Putin employed the far-Right's phrase "the native peoples of Russia," a sharp departure from past speeches, which tended to emphasize inter-ethnic tolerance.
Shortly afterwards, the Russian government engaged in a witch hunt against ethnic Georgians during which thousands were detained and an unknown number deported, including many who were present in the country legally. Government-controlled media incites fear and hatred against the US, Europe, and whichever former Soviet state (Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia) happens to be the Kremlin's enemy of the month. The paranoid ethic of the KGB suffuses the ruling elite to such an extent that even Medvedev, who has no known secret police past, recently accused foreign NGOs of espionage, and last Friday Moscow's new ambassador to NATO threatened the West with "brute military force" over the Kosovo issue.
FINALLY, the perpetrators of hate crimes enjoy a high degree of impunity. In a blatant attempt to "cook the books" and thereby avoid embarrassing their bosses, Russian prosecutors routinely charge neo-Nazis and other extremists with "hooliganism" - a vague, catch-all charge that carries only minor penalties - instead of hate crimes. Last week, a coalition of migrant organizations in Moscow threatened retaliatory violence if the government doesn't crack down on extremist groups, a sign that some victimized groups may soon take the law into their own hands.
Mr. Medvedev ought to signal a sharp break with these failed policies by firing law enforcement officials who refuse to take hate groups seriously. Replacing Moscow's chief of police, who earlier this month denied that organized skinhead groups exist in the city, would be a good place to start. Increased cooperation with the NGO community, which recently united in a 30-member "Coalition Against Hate" to combat racism in the former Soviet Union, would be a key step. One thing is clear - allowing Russia to descend into all out ethnic conflict would be a catastrophe for its people, and the world.
The writer is Research and Advocacy Director at the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. www.ucsj.org
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546389680&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Robert Bandanza
March 8th, 2008, 07:50 PM
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4348/satellitedy4.jpg
A new international group of Russian-speaking Jewish parliamentarians is a sign of the growing organization and self-awareness of Russian Jewry worldwide, according to Zeev Elkin, a Kadima MK who participated in the founding meeting of the "club" late last week in Kiev.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432514&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
psychologicalshock
March 8th, 2008, 08:00 PM
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4348/satellitedy4.jpg
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432514&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The moment it gets any better in a country they invade! (As in as soon as a country returns to first world status)
I am so fucking tired of these DEPLORABLE PARASITES!!!!!!!!! :mad:
Robert Bandanza
March 8th, 2008, 08:28 PM
The moment it gets any better in a country they invade! (As in as soon as a country returns to first world status)
I am so fucking tired of these DEPLORABLE PARASITES!!!!!!!!! :mad:
Darn it, I cannot give you reputation points.
Robert Bandanza
March 9th, 2008, 02:53 PM
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/4348/satellitedy4.jpg
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546432514&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107419.html
Alex Linder
March 10th, 2008, 04:01 AM
Police Say Petersburg Neo-Nazis Were Planning Terrorist Act
(March 3, 2008)
Police in St. Petersburg, Russia arrested a group of neo-Nazis whom they accuse of plotting a terrorist act timed to coincide with Sunday's presidential election, according to a March 1, 2008 report by the news web site Newsru.com. Police detained five men in their twenties at an Internet cafe owned by the leader of their neo-Nazi group. Police allegedly found explosives and weapons in a cache nearby, along with narcotics, instructions on building explosives, and video recordings of the annual neo-fascist processions called "The Russian March." The suspects face only narcotic and weapons possession charges; there was no information in the report about terrorism or extremism charges, at least not yet.
Alex Linder
March 12th, 2008, 04:41 PM
Minority Community Leaders Express Despair, Anger as Racist Murders Rise
(March 12, 2008)
A meeting in Moscow at the end of last month between local police officials and minority community leaders broke down in acrimony, with several community leaders criticizing government policies towards extremist groups, according to a March 3, 2008 article in the independent national daily "Novaya Gazeta." There have already been 27 murders motivated by ethnic hatred in Russia since the beginning of the year, a pace that, if maintained, would result in a doubling of the 2007 numbers. As Moscow's police chief, who recently stated that there are no organized neo-Nazi groups in his city, gave what the newspaper described as a standard speech promising action, he was interrupted by an Azeri diaspora leader who shouted, "Last year we sent 50 coffins back to the our motherland! How many more can we expect this year?!"
Evgeny Kryshtalev, a member of the Union of All-Russia Azerbaijani Congress, was quoted in the article saying that: "Ever day in Moscow there is another attack. Every month, more and more deaths... We cannot remain silent about this any more." He complained that Moscow police were refusing to investigate an attack that neo-Nazis from the Moscow region committed within city limits, claiming that it is up to the Moscow region's police to do that. "What, do they live in another country?!" he asked. He added that Moscow's police chief stated that every year migrants commit 14,000 crimes in Moscow, but what the officer didn't say is that the vast majority of these crimes are non-violent immigration offenses, hardly comparable to the wave of violent crimes that migrants face.
Gegam Khalatyan, an Armenian diaspora leader, added that the number of attacks on Armenians, whose homeland is a reliable ally of Russia, could drive Armenia into the arms of NATO. "A day doesn't go by in Moscow without an attack on an Armenian," he said. "Armenians and Russians have always been friends, but nowadays it is a kind of one-sided friendship. Why do we need to put up with this, how much longer can we tolerate the inaction of the authorities?... Russia does not value its friends."
Abdulla Dovlatov, head of the Tajik diaspora, told a story that had nothing to do with neo-Nazis in order to demonstrate the extent to which xenophobia has penetrated Russian society. A week before, police in Tver allegedly beat up two Tajik construction workers. They stabbed them and then threw them out into the snow. The men hid in the forest and somehow found their way to Moscow, where a doctor allegedly refused medical treatment, saying: "We are sick of you and you dare to want a medical report in order to bring charges against our people?"
"The police refuse to record hate crimes against foreigners... So officially, nobody is being harmed and there is no xenophobia in Russia," he added.
Alidzhan Khaydarov, president of Uzbek diaspora in St. Petersburg, offered a dissenting view, claiming that nobody from his community complains of racist attacks, despite reports of anti-Uzbek violence to the contrary.
Alex Linder
March 12th, 2008, 08:36 PM
Russia slams US 'double standards'
13 Mar 2008
Russia dismisses the US annual report on human rights, calling it another proof of Washington's 'mentoring tone and double standards'.
The report, issued by the US Department of State on Tuesday, accused Russia of media harassment, reported killings and torture by the security forces, power centralization in its executive branch and restrictions on opposition parties during elections.
"The report became yet another proof of 'double standards' in US policy on human rights," Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday in a statement.
"It is obvious the human rights issue is being distributed for external and internal consumption," it said.
"How else can one explain the fact that the United States, having de facto legalized torture and handing capital punishment to minors, denying responsibility for war crimes and massive human rights abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan ... gives a distorted interpretation of the situation in other countries?"
The statement went on to say Russia had never expected the US report of human rights to be unbiased.
The report has also criticized Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Sudan, Nepal, Syria and Zimbabwe.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=47204§ionid=351020602
Robert Bandanza
March 21st, 2008, 09:26 AM
http://aycu32.webshots.com/image/49071/2005732032032295039_rs.jpg
MOSCOW (EJP)---The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) has announced the freezing of any contact with the Council of Muftis of Russia following anti-Semitic statements made by one of its leaders, the Russian Interfax news agency reported.
"Zionism is like cancer, because Zionism is fascism,” the Council’s co-chairman, Nafigullah Ashirov, was quoted as saying.
"Until the Council of Muftis decides on its attitude toward Ashirov's activities as provocative and undermining neighborly relations between the Muslim and Jewish communities in Russia, we will not maintain any contacts with the Council of Muftis," Boruh Gorin, the FJCR’s spokesman, said.
"We are categorically against describing the Jewish people's desire to return to Zion as a cancer - this insults all of the Jewish people. We are not inclined toward looking for a compromise in this situation," he said.
The Jewish community "cannot pretend that nothing has happened in relations between our organizations," he added.
Israeli Ambassador to Russia Anna Azari said Ashirov’s comments “hopefully do not convey the attitudes of the entire Muslim community in Russia.”
"We think religious leaders must advocate love and peace. Ashirov is sowing the seeds of hatred and engages in provocations. We do not think Ashirov expresses the opinion of the entire Muslim public with which we are linked with traditional interaction and cooperation," the Israeli diplomat said.
In a separate incident, authorities in Novosibirsk have yet to determine who was behind the anti-Semitic posters put up on the doors of residential buildings in this Siberian city earlier this week.
Rabbi Zalman Zaklos, who heads the local Jewish community in Russia’s third largest city after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, is working with the police and city officials to identify the source of the posters that revive the blood libel, calling on residents to protect their children from Jews who “kidnap small children" and use their blood to prepare matza", the unleavened bread traditionally served during Jewish Passover festival.
"Anti-Semitism is not new in this area, but the graphic posters reflect an extreme aggression that is disturbing," Rabbi Zaklos said.
Around 20,000 Jews live in Novosibirsk.
http://www.ejpress.org/article/25521
Robert Bandanza
March 24th, 2008, 02:28 PM
Moscow branch of the Anti-Defamation League accuses Mufti Ashirov of outdated anti-Semitism
Moscow, March 24, Interfax - Co-chairman of the Russian Muftis Council Nafigullah Ashirov’s statement where he compared “Zionism to fascism” is anti-Semitic, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League’s Moscow branch Alexander Axelrod believes.
“I wonder that such high-ranking staff members of the Russian Council of Muftis as Nafigullah Ashirov voice so outdated anti-Semitic ideas,” Axelrod told Interfax-Religion on Monday.
He is perplexed that “there are intolerant people among religious leaders.”
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) has recently announced it would suspend relations with the Russian Council of Muftis as it did not react to the Ashirov’s statement. The Council of Muftis replied with a statement saying it didn’t receive any official documents from the FJCR on the matter.
Besides, the statement cited Ashirov’s comment: “If FJCR, which positions itself as a Russian organization, sees itself as part of Zionism, then certainly the announcement by this organization about suspension of relations with the Council of Muftis is quite understandable."
“And why the FJCR should support Wahhabism? The FJCR supports Russia’s multireligious basis, principle of tolerance and mutual respect between religions. While the Council of Muftis acts in such multicultural a country and opposes itself to the official state course aimed at preserving international and interreligious peace,” Axelrod said.
He noted that “the world’s extreme radicals” shared this position and also compared Zionism to fascism. The interviewee of the agency appealed to mathematics and urged to “chip off all extreme values and take into account the rest.”
“Life is almost similar to maths,” the Anti-Defamation League representative said.
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=4442
Robert Bandanza
September 23rd, 2008, 08:54 PM
(JTA) n Russia’s chief rabbi traveled to Perm to lead the funerals of 11 Jews who died in a plane crash.
A passenger jet crashed early Sunday morning during its descent into central Russia, killing all 88 passengers, including at least 11 members of the local Jewish community.
The flight, operated by a subsidiary of Aeroflot, was en route from Moscow to Perm, a city in the Ural Mountains in central Russia when it crashed at 3:10 a.m. Four Jewish families with three children were among those killed in the crash.
http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2008/09/23/news/world/russian0919.txt
Robert Bandanza
October 1st, 2008, 10:28 PM
One of the Russian Jewish community's most prominent supporters of President Vladimir Putin is set to be appointed head of the country's Keren Hayesod, also known as the United Israel Appeal.
Boris Spiegel, a deputy and committee chairman in the Russian parliament, already serves as president of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, an organization that works with the Kremlin as a bridge with the millions of Jews who emigrated from the country.
Keren Hayesod is the central fundraising body for Israel around the world, with the exception of the United States. It raises tens of millions of dollars annually for efforts such as absorbing immigrants into Israel, developing communities in the periphery and Jewish education in the Diaspora.
Spiegel's selection surprised many observers in Russia, as he is widely viewed as following the Kremlin's official line regarding Russian-speaking Jews.
Israeli officials believe the Putin government seeks to deepen the links between the millions of Russian citizens who have emigrated in recent years, particularly the roughly 2 million of Jewish descent now living in Israel, North America and Germany.
Six weeks ago, during Russia's conflict with Georgia, Spiegel condemned Georgia's leaders in the name of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, claiming they should be tried for war crimes and genocide against the residents of South Ossetia.
"We, as a people who suffered genocide, cannot stand idly by," he said.
A former Zionist activist from Russia now living in Israel said he doubts whether Spiegel's interests line up with those of Keren Hayesod.
"There is a definite contradiction between the goals of the [Jewish] Congress with Spiegel at its head, and the Keren Hayesod. Keren Hayesod is meant to strengthen the ties of Jews to Israel, and Spiegel's Congress does just the opposite," the former activist said, requesting anonymity.
Avi Pazner, world chairman of Keren Hayesod, told Haaretz: "I don't want to see him faulted for being an associate of Putin. He is a Russian Jew and he is a senator from Putin's party, and it's totally legitimate that he adheres to our positions."
Pazner emphasized, however, that his organization is non-political, and devotes its resources to Jewish, Zionist and humanitarian activity.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1025592.html
Robert Bandanza
October 15th, 2008, 08:50 PM
Billionaire Jewish philanthropist Roman Abramovich stepped down from politics in July, but his respite has been short-lived.
Abramovich was elected to head the regional legislature in the remote Siberian region of Chukotka with 97 percent of the vote this week, while two of his former deputies also gained seats in the 12-member legislature.
Abramovich resigned as governor of the region, which sits across the Bering Strait from Alaska. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accepted his resignation in July after his predecessor, now-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, refused to do so at the beginning of 2008.
Abramovich is closely allied with the Kremlin and has thrown his largesse behind several projects for the Chabad-run Federation of Jewish Communities.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/110776.html
Chad Wentworth
December 15th, 2008, 10:34 AM
A group of racist skinheads who carried out 20 brutal murders in Russia's capital Moscow have been sentenced to jail terms of between six and 20 years.
The gang of seven targeted non-Slavic migrants in the city between August 2006 and October 2007.
Many of the attackers were minors at the time. Besides killing 20 people, they also tried to murder another 12, the court heard.
The group posted video of some of their crimes on the internet.
The heaviest jail term was handed to Roman Kuzin, who received 20 years in jail.
The two alleged ringleaders of the group, Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, were given 10-year sentences in a penal colony.
Their sentences were the longest they could have received, as they were minors at the time.
Four other members of the group received jail sentences of between six and 12 years.
Plagued by attacks
The prosecution argued that the defendants had formed an organised group with the aim of murdering migrants from Asian and Caucasian regions of the former Soviet Union.
In other words, they targeted people who did not look white, or Slavic, the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow said.
Even in a city frequently the scene of racist violence, this gang's crimes stood out, our correspondent said.
Russia has been plagued by a series of racially motivated attacks, some of them fatal, in recent years.
Between January and October this year 113 people were killed in racist attacks in Russia and 340 were wounded, according to the Moscow Human Rights Bureau.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7783673.stm
Robert Bandanza
March 16th, 2009, 08:56 PM
MOSCOW (JTA) -- Russia's Jewish billionaires lost more than two-thirds of their wealth in 2008, according to figures released by Forbes magazine.
At the same time, wealthy Jewish philanthropists with ties to the former Soviet Union also saw their fortunes drastically reduced in the latest sign that it will be difficult for the Russian-speaking Jewish community to depend on the largesse of local donors.
How the losses will curtail the billionaires' philanthropy cannot be predicted but funding, especially in Jewish education, already has seen significant cuts.
In Russia alone, Jewish billionaires collectively saw the value of their assets and holdings drop from $99.4 to $32.1 billion. A JTA analysis of the Forbes list released last week includes only those Jewish billionaires who have given to Jewish philanthropies or openly identify themselves as Jewish.
In all, 55 Russians dropped off the magazine's annual list of billionaires this year, and the 32 that remain all lost significant chunks of wealth.
Most notably, Roman Abramovich and Mikhail Fridman, who have lent significant financial support to philanthropic efforts in recent years, saw their fortunes plummet in 2008. Forbes said Fridman, No. 20 on the list, lost $14.5 billion, but the prominent Russian business daily Vedomosti said the magazine overstated his losses along with his colleagues at the Alfa Group. The group includes several other Jewish philanthropists who started a fund last year to develop Jewish identity in the region.
Abramovich, who now manages his wealth from Britain, in recent years has regularly funded the construction of synagogues and other Jewish buildings across the former Soviet Union for the Chabad-run Federation of Jewish Communities. While new construction projects are off the table for now, the projects that were in place before the economic crisis hit will be completed, said Baruch Gorin, a spokesman for the federation.
Four Russian Jews fell off the billionaires' list completely, including Moshe Kantor, the former head of the Russian Jewish Congress, who lost $1.9 billion. The list concurred with previous reports that Lev Leviev, for years the largest donor to education programs in the former Soviet Union, had lost more than two-thirds of his $4.5 billion fortune. The Or Avner school network, which he founded and continues to fund, had its budget cut by one-third.
Aside from Russia, big-name Jewish donors from Ukraine lost nearly two-thirds of their wealth as well in a country where the financial system is teetering on the edge of collapse.
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/03/16/1003759/financial-crisis-hits-russias-billionaires-hard
Robert Bandanza
April 1st, 2009, 11:35 AM
Today, 12:45 PM
http://www.mosnews.com/photos/64/664_400x300.jpg
A Lenin monument has been attacked in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. The offenders made an 80 by 100 cm hole in the monument to the famous communist leader, allegedly using a grenade launcher or a bomb.
Around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a small bomb went off on Finlandsky Station square in the city center. The explosion was aimed at the monument to the Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, Russian news agencies reported. The monument is one of the thousands of memorials to the Soviet icon that remain all over the former USSR territory after the breakdown of the empire.
Lenin’s figure was “damaged from behind by an explosion”, the police said. Street lamps surrounding the monument were broken. No injuries were reported.
According to the reports, the hole that the explosion left in the hollow metal monument is around one meter in diameter.
Explosives experts are working at the site of the incident, trying to establish the exact type of the explosive, reportedly either a bomb or a grenade shot from a grenade-launcher.
In late February, a monument to Lenin was attacked in the Orel Region, south of Moscow. Someone fired a hunting gun several times into the figure’s head.
http://www.mosnews.com/weird/2009/04/01/lenin/
S.P.
April 24th, 2009, 03:01 AM
Russia's Medvedev says US missile shield plans complicate arms balance
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that U.S. plans for a missile shield in Europe threaten to disrupt the weapons balance between the two countries.
read full story... (http://www.topix.com/world/russia/2009/04/russias-medvedev-says-us-missile-shield-plans-complicate-arms-balance)
Devere
July 12th, 2010, 10:17 AM
Putin’s real crime is that he has refused to play by the rules of globalization. In fact, he has done something rather remarkable, indeed, unheard of these days in most Western countries—he has sought to pursue policies that truly are in Russia’s interest. Putin recently commented, “Russians will never allow for the development of the country along a destructive path, the way it happened in some countries in the post-Soviet space.” In other words, Putin is uninterested in Wilsonian crusades in the Middle East, undermining his own economy with suicidal free-trade pacts, driving down wages with Third World immigration, or turning over Russia’s beloved oil and gas assets to multinational corporations. Putin is doing what he was elected to do: protect Russia.
And in doing so, Putin has proven himself a true Russian patriot. Concerning immigration, Putin has instigated rules to make even Rep. Tom Tancredo appear coy. Recognizing that illegal immigrants are driving down wages in an already depressed economy as well as inciting anger among Russia’s native lower classes, Putin has steered towards a path of attrition. He has sought to reduce the presence of foreign workers at wholesale and retail markets, which had become magnets to illegal immigrants. He said that authorities should “protect the interests of Russian producers” and “the native population of Russia.” In other words, Russians first.
Encouraging.
There is genetic-saving wisdom in a strategic retreat for the White race from all over the world into Russia. Good for Russia. Good for the White race. (Too bad the dominant language in Russia is Russian -- not an easy language to learn -- even a different alphabet.) I think Russia would welcome, for instance, White South Africans. Unfortunately, an ever increasing number of White SA's can no longer AFFORD to emigrate to Russia -- as the anti-white discriminatory business governmental policies force more and more Whites into poverty. Nevertheless, many White SA's could be saved. It would be wonderful for Putin to openly encourage such a migration to one of the historical White motherlands of our people -- and to back this up by paying the emigration costs.
Devere
July 12th, 2010, 10:31 AM
Russia's Jewish billionaires lost more than two-thirds of their wealth in 2008, according to figures released by Forbes magazine.
What is a "Russian" jewish billionaire?
An inordinantly successful jew parasite TICK bloated with unearned wealth sucked from the life-blood of White Russians and White Russia.
THERE SHOULD BE NO "RUSSIAN" JEWISH BILLIONAIRES.
(Probably, Putin agrees with this sentiment, this concept.)
Serbian
November 24th, 2010, 10:13 PM
China,Russia quit dollar
St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economie More..s.
"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.
Liveleak.com - China, Russia quit dollar
Serbian
April 21st, 2011, 08:49 PM
West “trying to strangle” Belarus
Source: Ria novosti
MINSK -- Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday Western countries were preparing direct interference in his country's affairs.
He also added that the West was trying "to strangle the country with a slipknot."
"First there were political threats, disavowal of [presidential] elections, [European] entry bans and economic sanctions. Then there was an instigation of turmoil on our foreign currency market and dances on the bones after the blast at the Oktyabrskaya metro station," Lukashenko said addressing the parliament and his people.
Earlier in the week, the Belarusian president hit out at Western powers for "not sending condolences" to the people of Belarus following the April 11 terrorist attack at the Oktyabrskaya subway station in Minsk that killed 13 and wounded over 150 people.
"These are all links of one chain aimed to plant mistrust for the authorities and to strangle the country with a slipknot. They want to force us to be just like everybody else, like they are eventually. We are like a bone in their throat," he said.
"If they try to bend us, to bring us down to our knees, we will at least resist. We will fight for our plot of land," the president added.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994, was reelected in disputed polls in December. Dozens of opposition figures, including political rivals, were arrested after violent protests in Minsk following the announcement of the presidential result.
Serbian
April 29th, 2011, 11:33 PM
| Friday 29.04.2011 | 16:08
Russian government troops kill ten militants
Source: Deutsche Welle
MOSCOW -- Russian soldiers have killed at least 10 suspected militants in the turbulent north Caucasus region during a two-day anti-terrorism operation, officials say.
Eight men and two women were shot dead by special forces troops on Thursday along the border of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and the southern Stavropol province, according to an Interfax news agency.
A further six Islamic militants were killed during a security sweep by Russian troops in the neighboring Republic of Dagestan.
The attacks are part of an intensified campaign by the Kremlin to eliminate anti-government rebels in the North Caucasus region, which has long been called upon to become an independent emirate by Islamic extremists.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced in 2002 that attacks against mostly ethnic Chechen fighters were "over," but anti-government troops have continued to wage a low-intensity guerrilla war against the Russian military.
Tensions in the conflict escalated in January after 36 people were killed in a terror bombing of Moscow's Domodedovo airport. A militant Islamic suicide bomber was accused of the attack.
No Russian casualties were reported in the two-day raids.
Serbian
May 4th, 2011, 01:37 AM
Few pics from the protest in front of Serbian embassy in Moscow calling for the release of Serb nationalists who languish in Serb prisons.
http://pravliga.com/images/phocagallery/admin_photo/30_04_2011/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_y_fd110945.jpg
http://www.ns-forum.com/image/614dbfec60cf89e.jpg
http://www.ns-forum.com/image/614dbfece7bc061.jpg
http://www.ns-forum.com/image/614dbfecb2b5e45.jpg
http://www.ns-forum.com/image/614dbfecd9b7a89.jpg
http://pravliga.com/images/phocagallery/admin_photo/30_04_2011/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_y_807a1052.jpg
http://pravliga.com/images/phocagallery/admin_photo/30_04_2011/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_y_99d6590c.jpg
Alex Linder
May 6th, 2011, 03:35 PM
Russian nationalists join forces to form new organization
May 5th, 2011
Leaders of several nationalist groups have created united organization called “the Russians,” the former head of the banned Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) has said.
According to Dmitry Demushkin, earlier this week the political council of the new organization elected the leadership and decided issues of the management. The new union’s immediate goal is to facilitate “ethnic and political solidarity of Slavic Russians,” while its future task is “establishing the national government and declaration of the Russian national state,” he told Interfax.
The new movement has a rather complex structure and will be headed in rotation by Demushkin, Aleksandr Turik and Stanislav Vorobyev. Demushkin, in his words, will also head “the supreme national council” responsible for strategic and current activities. Aleksandr Belov will head the supervisory board, while Vladimir Basmanov was appointed the coordinator of the national political council.
In April, the Moscow City Court banned the DPNI, whose leaders were accused by prosecutors of participating in events “aimed at igniting interethnic hatred.” Belov, the founder of the movement had warned that the DPNI could be replaced by “another interesting project” to unite different nationalist groups.
He also said the new organization may be involved not only in issues of illegal immigration, but also “political and social demands.” The DPNI was created in 2002 as a reaction to illegal immigration and cases of interethnic clashes between Slavic Russians and foreigners.
Human rights activists are alarmed by the emergence of the new nationalists’ movement. Svetlana Gannushkina, head of NGO Citizens’ Assistance, believes the nationalist ideas attract part of the Russian society who are not satisfied with their living conditions. For many, such ideas are a “means to channel their aggression,” she told Interfax.
Gannushkina, who assists refugees, also believes that to speak about the national state means “to cut much of what we call Russia.”
The new movement has yet to be registered by the authorities to start its activities.
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/05/russian-nationalists-join-forces-to-form-new-organization/
Alex Linder
May 6th, 2011, 03:35 PM
Russian nationalists join forces to form new organization
May 5th, 2011
Leaders of several nationalist groups have created united organization called “the Russians,” the former head of the banned Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) has said.
According to Dmitry Demushkin, earlier this week the political council of the new organization elected the leadership and decided issues of the management. The new union’s immediate goal is to facilitate “ethnic and political solidarity of Slavic Russians,” while its future task is “establishing the national government and declaration of the Russian national state,” he told Interfax.
The new movement has a rather complex structure and will be headed in rotation by Demushkin, Aleksandr Turik and Stanislav Vorobyev. Demushkin, in his words, will also head “the supreme national council” responsible for strategic and current activities. Aleksandr Belov will head the supervisory board, while Vladimir Basmanov was appointed the coordinator of the national political council.
In April, the Moscow City Court banned the DPNI, whose leaders were accused by prosecutors of participating in events “aimed at igniting interethnic hatred.” Belov, the founder of the movement had warned that the DPNI could be replaced by “another interesting project” to unite different nationalist groups.
He also said the new organization may be involved not only in issues of illegal immigration, but also “political and social demands.” The DPNI was created in 2002 as a reaction to illegal immigration and cases of interethnic clashes between Slavic Russians and foreigners.
Human rights activists are alarmed by the emergence of the new nationalists’ movement. Svetlana Gannushkina, head of NGO Citizens’ Assistance, believes the nationalist ideas attract part of the Russian society who are not satisfied with their living conditions. For many, such ideas are a “means to channel their aggression,” she told Interfax.
Gannushkina, who assists refugees, also believes that to speak about the national state means “to cut much of what we call Russia.”
The new movement has yet to be registered by the authorities to start its activities.
http://www.eutimes.net/2011/05/russian-nationalists-join-forces-to-form-new-organization/
Serbian
May 7th, 2011, 02:47 AM
Two Russian Nationalists Jailed Over Moscow Murders
5/6/2011 6:24 AM ET
(RTTNews) - A court in Russia has sentenced two Russian nationalists to lengthy prison terms over the deaths of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009, reports said on Friday.
Nikita Tikhonov, who was found guilty of shooting Markelov and Baburova in central Moscow in January 2009, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Tikhonov's companion Yevgenia Khasis was jailed for 18 years for assisting him in the murders.
Markelov and Baburova were both employees of the Opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper which specializes in human rights cases. A leading lawyer Markelov had incensed nationalists by defending Chechens who were victims of alleged human rights violations by Russian forces.
Last week the trial court pronounced the duo guilty after a Moscow jury had established their involvement in the shocking incident that made headlines.
During the trial, Prosecutors had said Tikhonov was the one who fired at the victims while Khasis tailed them as they proceeded to a Moscow metro station after attending a news conference
Following the arrest of Tikhonov and Khasis in November 2009, authorities had accused them of being members of Russian National Unity (RNU), proscribed by Moscow. However, this elicited a firm rebuttal of charges from RNU which said the duo had never been associated with it.
Tikhonov and Khasis have denied the charges and defense lawyers said they will approach the European Court of Human Rights.
The shocking murders committed in broad daylight had led to accusations from the international community that Kremlin was not doing enough to rein in criminal elements
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1617034&SM=1
Serbian
May 7th, 2011, 02:56 AM
Russian skinheads jailed for race attacks
07:00 AEST Fri May 6 2011
A Russian court has jailed 19 skinheads for up to nine years for carrying out a series of brutal race attacks, including two murders, and then posting films of the assaults on the internet.
The group's leader, Andrei Linok, 20, who goes by the alias Lincoln-88, received the highest sentence of nine years at the hearing in Saint Petersburg, while the other gang members, aged 17 to 23, received lesser terms of up to seven years, a court spokesman told AFP on Thursday.
The group were convicted of 12 hate crimes in 2007 against non-Slavic looking people, including the murders of an Armenian and an Uzbek.
Their trial had heard how the gang filmed many of the attacks and uploaded them onto the internet, prosecutors said.
At the time of the attacks, Linok was in his final year of school in the town of Zelenogorsk. Most of the other members were minors.
Photographs posted on a neo-Nazi website show Linok, a slight figure with cropped brown hair, throwing Hitler salutes and posing with the flag of the banned nationalist group, the Movement against Illegal Immigration (DPNI).
The DPNI was banned as extremist by a Moscow court last month.
It earlier announced plans to join forces with an already banned group, the Slavic Union, to create a unified national movement called Russkiye, or Russians.
Attacks against foreigners of non-European appearance occur regularly in Russia, although the authorities say numbers have been dropping amid a crackdown on extremist organisations.
An NGO that monitors hate crimes, Sova, said in a report released in March that there were 37 hate killings in 2010, while 382 people were injured in attacks with racist or neo-Nazi motives
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8245536
Serbian
May 15th, 2011, 10:57 PM
Intl. condemnation after Belarus jails opposition leader
Source: Deutsche Welle
MINSK -- Leading Belarusian opposition figure Andrei Sannikov was sentenced to five years in prison on Saturday.
The charges held against him are the organization of mass disturbances in the aftermath of the country's last presidential election.
"Sannikov is guilty of organizing mass disturbances, accompanied by violence," judge Natalya Chetvertakova said.
"Look after my loved ones!" Sannikov shouted from the courtroom cage after the verdict was read out. He has denied all the charges against him.
The 57-year-old is one of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko's main political opponents and was one of the leaders of public protests against Lukashenko's disputed election victory in the 2010 vote.
He was one of seven candidates running against the controversial leader.
Four other defendants where handed sentences of up to three and a half years. A number of other opposition activists are still awaiting trial in connection with last year's unrest.
The verdict immediately drew widespread international condemnation with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle saying that "the verdict is not based on the rule of law but an expression of the political will of President Lukashenko."
Britain slammed the sentence as "a new low for the rule of law in Belarus."
The U.S. State Department said in a statement that Washington considered those sentenced "to be political prisoners," and called for their immediate release and an end to human rights violations in the country often described as Europe's last dictatorship. T.J.B.
Since the regime's crackdown on the opposition after the 2010 election, the EU and the U.S. have imposed sanctions on Belarus and imposed a travel ban on Lukashenko and 150 other members of the country's political elite.
Luskashenko has been in power in Belarus for almost 17 years.
Serbian
July 24th, 2011, 08:59 PM
Sunday 24.07.2011 | 15:26
Police kill three militants in Russia's Dagestan
Source: Ria novosti
MAKHACHKALA -- Police have killed three suspected militants, including a woman, in a security sweep in the Republic of Dagestan, RIA Novosti reported.
The operation took place in the Republic of Dagestan in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, a police source said on Sunday.
Police launched a special operation early on Sunday after blocking a group of militants in a house in the town of Dagestaniskiye Ogni, some 120 km (75 miles) south of the capital Makhachkala. A counter-terrorist regime was imposed to battle the gunmen.
"According to preliminary information, police killed two militants and a woman, the common-law wife of one of those killed. Another woman was detained," the police source said.
More that a decade after the end of a federal war against separatists in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Russian security forces continue to fight militants in other regions in the area, who stage frequent attacks on security forces, police and civilians.
Serbian
November 1st, 2011, 09:34 PM
NATO warned by Moscow over shield
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
BELGRADE - Agence France-Presse
Russia could take steps of “a technically military nature” if its objections to NATO’s planned missile defense system are not heeded, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a Serbian daily yesterday.
“If our partners in the future continue to ignore out position we should protect our interests by other means... Concrete measures might be needed... a response of a technically military nature,” Lavrov told Belgrade’s Vecernje Novosti in an interview published yesterday. “We would not wish such a development,” he added. Lavrov made his comments in light of the deal signed mid-September between Washington and Serbia’s neighbor Romania to host U.S. missile interceptors.
His comments come on the same day as a visit by Romanian President Traian Basescu to Belgrade. “I am forced to conclude that the signing of the deal (between Bucharest and Washington) is an additional link in a chain of events that shows that the U.S. has stepping up their plans to construct their missile shield without taking into account Russia’s concerns,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov said Oct. 31 in Moscow that Russia wants to break the deadlock over the missile shield in Europe by talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama. According to NATO and Washington, the planned Europe-wide ballistic missile shield is aimed at thwarting missile threats from Iran.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=nato-warned-by-moscow--over-shield-2011-11-01
Serbian
January 9th, 2012, 09:46 PM
Monday 9.01.2012 | 17:29
Chechnya: 8 dead as security forces clash with terrorists
Source: Tanjug
MOSCOW -- Three Russian policemen and a member of the interior army were killed, while 12 were injured in Chechnya as they clashed with a group of local terrorists.
The Itar-Tass news agency reported that the incident occurred in the Vedensky region, near the town of Tazen Kala, where security forces came across a well-entrenched terrorist base.
According to Russian officials, terrorists resisted arrest. RIA Novosti reported that four Islamic insurgents were also killed, and that 16 Russian servicemen were wounded.
"The bandits also suffered losses. At least three were killed," a Russian security forces official said, and added that the operation to destroy the base would continue with daylight on Monday.
The security officials also stated that the operation was rendered complicated by the fact the location was a mountainous region.
Loyalist
February 19th, 2012, 12:40 AM
At least 24 killed in Russian Caucasus fighting
MOSCOW, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Seventeen police and at least seven insurgents were killed in four days of fighting on the border between the Chechnya and Dagestan provinces in Russia's North Caucasus, police said on Saturday.
The toll among government forces was the biggest in months in the region along Russia's southern border, where it faces an Islamist insurgency more than a decade after driving separatists from power in a war in Chechnya.
Another 24 police and security troops were wounded in the fighting, state-run news agency RIA cited Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev as telling President Dmitry Medvedev.
He said the government forces had been ambushed, but it was unclear when that happened. Other reports suggested the police were killed at various times during the fighting.
Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Friday seven members of an armed group had been killed, including its leader.
Russian forces fought two wars against Chechen rebels, first in 1994-1996 and again beginning in 1999.
Chechnya has been rebuilt but fighting persists there and insurgents carry out nearly daily attacks in neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia. Rights groups say heavy-handed police tactics fuel the rebellion.
The insurgents based in the mostly Muslim North Caucasus have also struck with suicide bombings in Moscow, including a blast that killed 37 people at Russia's busiest airport in January 2011.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-russia-chechnyal5e8di0do-20120218,0,1100318.story
Serbian
February 20th, 2012, 08:41 PM
Monday 20.02.2012 | 12:21
Vladimir Putin announces "stronger Russian army"
Source: Tanjug
MOSCOW -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid out his vision of Russia's military modernization in an article published in the pro-government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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Putin is running to reclaim presidency in the March 4 election.
In his article, Putin noted that the development potential of the military infrastructure of the former USSR has been exhausted, and that further investment and reliance on that infrastructure would be meaningless.
The prime minister presented his plans to create a new, professional and highly trained army, and analyzed international relations, stressing that his country would under no circumstances give up on its potential for strategic deterrence - and that it would strengthen it further.
According to Putin, EUR 575bn will be invested in order to modernize the armed forces and defense industry during this decade.
"This is does not represent a militarization of the Russian budges," wrote Putin. "In fact, the money that we will set aside will pay the bill for the years when the army and the navy were chronically underfunded, while other countries increased their military strength."
While he believes that the likelihood of a global war between nuclear powers was low, Putin noted new local and regional wars, and attempts to transfer them to Russia's borders. The principles of international law have been devalued and destroyed, wrote the Russian premier.
"Under these circumstances, Russia cannot rely solely on diplomatic and economic methods in order to solve conflicts," he said.
Putin is also in favor of rebuilding the Russian navy "in the full sense of the word", and "especially in the north and the Far East". Big powers have already started their activities related to the area of the Arctic, and that represents a challenge to Russia's interests in the region, according to him.
Putin announced that the army should have "at least 70 percent new armaments by 2020", and added that it will have at its disposal "400 new inter-continental ballistic missiles, 20 submarines, 50 ships, 100 satellites, 600 jets, including 5th generation aircraft, 28 regiments with S-400 missile systems, 2,300 tanks and 17,000 modern vehicles".
While the military should be professionalized, "men should be ready to defend the country", Putin warned.
The prime minister, who is favorite to win next month's presidential elections, has chosen not to take part in public debates with other candidates. However, for six weeks now, he has been publishing articles each Monday detailing his stances on various subjects.
Serbian
May 4th, 2012, 11:40 PM
May 4, 2012 | 13:04
13 killed in twin blasts in Russia’s Dagestan
Source: VOA
MOSCOW -- Russian officials are blaming suicide bombers for twin attacks in the Republic of Dagestan, in the North Caucasus region.
The blasts killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 100 others.
Authorities said the first blast involved a car, which exploded as police approached it at a check point in Makhachkala, Dagestan's capital. The second explosion occurred as emergency responders arrived on the scene of the initial blast. The explosions ignited fires, which damaged several other vehicles.
Police have been targets of similar attacks in Dagestan by Islamist insurgents.
Last March, a double suicide bombing killed at least 40 people in Moscow. The two women responsible for the subway attacks were from Dagestan.
Russia has battled Islamist insurgency attacks on police and government officials in the North Caucasus region where there are nearly daily attacks on government officials.
Serbian
August 20th, 2012, 12:42 AM
Bomber kills 7 Russian policemen at funeral
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Associated Press/Mikhail Metzel - Thousand of Russian Muslims perform Eid al-Fitr prayers that mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan outside the main Mosque in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up as policemen in southern Russia gathered Sunday for the funeral of a slain colleague, killing at least seven of the policemen and badly wounding 12 other people, investigators said.
The funeral was held at the home of an officer who had been shot dead the night before by militants in Ingushetia, one of the predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's restive North Caucasus region.
In the nearby republic of Dagestan, two masked gunmen burst into a Shiite mosque during Saturday evening prayers and opened fire, wounding eight people, police said.
Shiites are a minority in Dagestan and throughout the North Caucasus, where an Islamic insurgency has raged for years.
The latest attacks took place as Muslims in Russia and around the world prepared for the feast that celebrates the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Police investigating the shooting at the mosque in the city of Khasavyurt found a large homemade bomb and were able to defuse it Sunday morning, Dagestan police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said. Militants have often rigged explosives to go off as police respond to a shooting or other attack.
In Ingushetia, Gov. Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said the militants had killed the police officer in the town of Malgobek to set up the suicide attack at the funeral the next day.
In Chechnya, where the Islamic insurgency began during separatist wars in the 1990s, four policemen were killed late Friday when their vehicle was attacked by gunmen firing Kalashnikov automatic weapons.
The insurgency in Chechnya has been largely suppressed by a Kremlin-backed local strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, although attacks on law enforcement officers still occur periodically.
In Moscow, an estimated 170,000 to 190,000 Muslims gathered to celebrate Eid al-Adha, known in Russia as Kurban-Bairam. This included 90,000 who knelt shoulder to shoulder outside the city's main mosque near the Olympic stadium. At least 2 million Muslims, most of them labor migrants from the North Caucasus and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, live in the Russian capital, which has a population of 11.5 million.
http://news.yahoo.com/bomber-kills-7-russian-policemen-funeral-101802675.html
Serbian
August 20th, 2012, 01:35 AM
Eid al-Fitr holiday in Moscow 2012
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http://ridus-news.livejournal.com/649510.html
Serbian
September 12th, 2012, 01:51 AM
Putin says Romney comment justifies Russia’s opposition to US missile defense plans
By Associated Press, Wednesday, September 12, 4:57 AMAP
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a comment made by U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney has made Russia feel justified in opposing America’s missile defense plans in Europe.
The Republican challenger to President Barack Obama has branded Russia the “No. 1 geopolitical foe” of the United States.
Putin said that statement shows Russia is right to criticize the U.S.-led NATO plan to place land- and sea-based radars and interceptors in several European locations. Washington says the shield is intended against a possible missile attack from Iran, but Moscow sees it as a threat to its security, saying it may eventually grow powerful enough to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
Putin said in remarks carried by Russian news wires that Romney’s statement has “strengthened Russia’s positions in talks on this important and sensitive subject,” but added that he would work with Romney if he’s elected.
“I’m grateful to him for formulating his stance so clearly, because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems,” Putin said of Romney. “The most important thing for us is that even if he doesn’t win now, he or a person with similar views may come to power in four years. We must take that into consideration while dealing with security
issues for a long perspective.”
NATO has offered to cooperate with Russia on the missile shield, but the alliance has rejected Russia’s proposal to run the shield jointly.
Without a NATO-Russia cooperation deal, the Kremlin has sought guarantees from the U.S. that any future shield is not aimed at Russia and threatened to aim missiles at the U.S. shield if no agreement is reached.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/putin-says-romney-comment-justifies-russias-opposition-to-us-missile-defense-plans/2012/09/11/8db26f56-fc42-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html
Serbian
October 7th, 2012, 12:14 AM
European Council accumulates complaints
Oct 6, 2012 16:30 Moscow Time
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Russia became the main topic at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
European MPs criticized the political situation in Russia. Even though the final resolution does not contain all criticisms, the Russian delegation still considers the document unacceptable. Fortunately, Moscow and Strasbourg have managed to avoid the worsening of relations.
The current PACE session discussed a roundup report on the situation in Russia for the first time in the last seven years. Strasbourg had a lot of complaints about Russia’s meeting its obligations to the Council of Europe. European MPs wrote them down in the final resolution and Moscow considered the document unfair. Still, deputy head of the Russian delegation Leonid Slutsky called the adopted resolution the best since Russia’s accession to the Council of Europe.
“Compared with the resolution adopted seven years ago, the new one is much more progressive. Of course, there are some negative features, like the Magnitsky case, Pussy Riot, Gudkov and criticism of the Russian law. Still, the most unacceptable parts of the resolution for us were crossed out with our participation before the session began. But even in the current condition the resolution does not suit us. There is a paragraph that we should renounce the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”
The PACE mentioned positive changes in Russia’s social and political life over the last seven years, such as easier registration of political parties, the reestablishment of direct elections of governors, the separation of the Investigative Committee from the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Still, complaints outnumbered the achievements. The MPs are concerned about the laws on criminal prosecution for slander, the black list of forbidden Internet websites and the introduction of the status of ‘foreign agents’ for non-commercial organisations. The resolution also reads that Russia has not met the PACE resolution on the 2008 conflict in the Caucasus and has not withdrawn its troops from Moldova.
Moscow is not going to sulk about the PACE recommendations. On the other hand, it is not going to follow them either, the Russian President’s press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said. The PACE does not separate Russia’s commitments and Europe’s claims to it, Russian MP Dmitry Vyatkin believes.
“What is written in the resolution has nothing in common with the commitments that Russia adopted acceding to the Council of Europe. This resolution is an attempt at political pressure.”
The Russian delegation pointed out that they were prepared for a tough discussion but not a conflict with the PACE. Moscow has listened to different opinions and come to the conclusion that European MPs have not given up the practice of imposing their opinions on Russia, Vice Speaker of the State Duma Sergey Zhelezniak has told The Voice of Russia.
“The resolution has shown obvious double standards. Limitations, bans and legal norms that exist in Europe have no right to exist in Russia, according to the PACE. For some reason, in Russia there should be no punishment for hooliganism, no ban of combining parliamentary functions and business, which takes place in all European countries and all civilized counties in the world.”
The resolution was adopted by the majority of votes. The Russian delegation did not support the resolution but the main Moscow’s complaint was about another PACE initiative to step up control over Russia’s meeting its obligations to the Council of Europe. A special committee of the Parliamentary Assembly monitors all 47 member-states of the Council. The session discussed versions of tougher control over Russia by the leadership of the Council of Europe, the Committee of Ministers. The Russian delegation saw this as interference in the country’s internal affairs and an attempt to turn the Committee of Ministers into an instrument of political pressure. In the future, such a decision could touch upon other member-states of the Council of Europe. The Russian MPs’ arguments were taken into consideration and the initiative was declined.
Speaking on the results of the Strasbourg discussions, the members of the Russian delegation point out that both sides strove for cooperation. Now Moscow and Strasbourg are facing the development of cooperation programmes for the next two years.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_06/European-Council-accumulates-complaints/
Serbian
October 10th, 2012, 11:50 PM
Russia no longer wants U.S. aid on nuclear arms security
By Will Englund, Updated: Thursday, October 11, 9:03 AM
MOSCOW — Russia has told the United States that it will not extend the Nunn-Lugar weapons reduction and security agreement after it expires at the end of May, saying it no longer needs to receive foreign aid and is concerned about leaks of nuclear security information.
The 21-year-old cooperative program was designed to help secure the nuclear and chemical weapons arsenal of the Soviet Union after the bloc’s collapse. At a cost of about $500 million a year, it has ensured the shipment of nuclear weapons out of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, deactivated more than 7,600 nuclear warheads, destroyed 902 intercontinental ballistic missiles and 33 submarines and secured 24 nuclear weapons storage sites.
Russia has become increasingly uncomfortable in the role of a nation that receives outside assistance, and conservatives in the United States have pointed out that the program frees up Russian money that can be spent on new armaments.
The Foreign Ministry indicated that Russia is not abandoning efforts to secure weapons of mass destruction, saying in a statement issued Wednesday evening that the country wants to create a new framework for nuclear security.
“We have received an offer from the American side for the next renewal of the 1992 agreement,” the statement said. “Our American partners know that their proposal is not consistent with our ideas about what forms and on what basis further cooperation should be built. To this end, in particular, we need another, more modern legal framework.”
The move comes just a few weeks after Russia announced it was expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development, the American foreign-aid program. Earlier this week, UNICEF also announced that it will wind up its operations in Russia by the end of the year. On Wednesday evening, Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying there was no connection between the shutdown of the aid programs and the end of the weapons agreement.
But the Kremlin has been hewing to a distinctly anti-American tone as it attempts to portray its domestic opponents as agents of the United States. which they mostly are At the same time, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has called Russia America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe.”
Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), one of two sponsors of the 1991 bill that created what is formally called the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, was defeated by a conservative Republican in this year’s Indiana Senate primary, thus removing its principal advocate from office.
His co-sponsor, former senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), issued a statement Wednesday noting how much had been accomplished under the pact and adding: “I hope and expect that the U.S.-Russian partnership will be strengthened by any changes to the program.”
The Nunn-Lugar program also targets chemical weapons and has established monitoring facilities for the detection of biological weapons. Russia says it has no biological arms.
In the past decade, the program was expanded beyond the former Soviet Union and was put to use in aiding Albania to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-no-longer-wants-us-aid-on-nuclear-arms-security-wont-extend-nunn-lugar-pact/2012/10/10/6cde030c-130e-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html
Serbian
December 7th, 2012, 06:49 PM
December 7, 2012 | 13:57
Russia to retaliate against U.S. over visa, banking bans
Source: Beta
MOSCOW -- Russia will ban Americans who violated human rights from entering Russia, as a response to the U.S. Senate’s decision to approve the "Magnitsky Act”.
The U.S. Senate decided to impose visa and banking bans on Russian officials suspected of involvement in human rights violations.
“After (last night’s) meeting with (U.S. Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton in Dublin, I confirmed that we will also close entry to Americans who are guilty of human rights violations," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed the Magnitsky Act that envisages visa and banking bans on Russian officials suspected of involvement in the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009. The adoption of the bill enraged Moscow that promised it would respond adequately.
A Russian parliament official has stated that sanctions could be imposed on U.S. officials suspected of violating human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places around the world.
37-year-old Magnitsky died in prison on November 16, 2009. According to official medical reports, the cause of death was heart failure.
The Human Rights Council has however released that the lawyer was beaten to death.
Magnitsky was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of tax evasion and fraud worth USD 230mn. Certain Russian NGOs say that Magnitsky agreed to reveal the whole network of corrupt bankers, tax administration employees and state officials to investigators.
According to the Magnitsky Act, which is yet to be approved by U.S. President Barack Obama, individuals involved in the lawyer’s death and those responsible for violation of human rights in Russia will not be able to get U.S. visas and their assets can be frozen.
Clinton warned in Dublin on Thursday of new attempts of repressive governments to “re-Sovietize" much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia taking particular aim at Russia for its crackdown on democracy and human rights groups just hours ahead of critical talks with Lavrov.
Speaking to a group of lawyers and civil society advocates on the sidelines of an international human rights conference, Clinton took aim at what she described as a “new wave of repressive tactics and laws aimed at criminalizing U.S. outreach efforts in the field of human rights”.
“The trends are indicative of a larger reversal of freedoms for citizens of Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan and other countries that emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union two decades ago,” she said.
"We know what the goal is and we are trying to figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it," Clinton added.
In her speech at the OSCE ministerial conference, Clinton expressed concern over a new Russian bill requesting foreign-funded organizations and journalists to be registered as “foreign agents”.
The U.S. believes that the law is aimed at preventing criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Alex Linder
December 15th, 2012, 05:21 PM
Putin calls for three children
http://vnnforum.com/showthread.php?p=1476005#post1476005
Serbian
January 18th, 2013, 10:02 PM
January 18, 2013 | 18:33
Ex-Ukraine PM Tymoshenko could be looking at life in prison
Source: Tanjug
KIEV -- Ukraine's state prosecution has accused Yulia Tymoshenko of organizing the murder of a deputy in the national assembly in 1996.
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If found guilty, the former prime minister could be sentenced to life in prison.
The prosecution informed her that it she is now formally a suspect in the case concerning the murder of Yevhen Scherban.
The AFP news agency is reporting that this was announced on Friday in Kiev at a briefing for reporters organized by State Prosecutor Viktor Pshonka.
Tymoshenko is currently serving a seven-year sentence for after being found guilty of crimes related to abuse of office.
Yann Rotke
January 21st, 2013, 11:34 AM
Большинство людей мало волнуют заявленные проблемы как вообще, так и в язычестве: слишком небольшой процент человечества имеет такое не стандартное сексуальное поведение. Мало ли чудаков на свете. Я считаю, что интерес к этой проблеме раздувается СМИ искусственно, уводя от решения более важных проблем.
Но меня спросили, и я отвечаю.
В древних волшебных (мифических) сказках (отличай от быличек!), мы не встречаем положительной оценки такого сексуального поведения. Например, существует устойчивый блок, вставляемый в различные сказки, о девице, которая, находясь в «лесном большом доме» под опекой ватаги молодцов (по Проппу опека эта явно сексуальна), в их отсутствие подвергается лесбийскому нападению ведьмы: Только братья ушли, притащилась ведьма старая, страшная и стала сосать у Марьюшки груди белые. От этого девица чахнет. И так продолжается довольно долго. Почему- то девица каждый раз впускает злодейку, и не жалуется братьям, наоборот, она скрывает сей факт. Но всё открывается, и ведьму убивают.
Ясно, что старушка зачастила не молочком подкрепиться (у не рожавших девиц нет ещё молока в груди). Она явно подпитывалась юной жизненной силой, видимо предварительно, внушением обезволив несчастную.
В сказке осуждается и наказывается магический сексуальный акт, совершенный насильно. С другой стороны, мы видим, что такие акты, инициируемые магически подкованными дамами, имели место в сказочной действительности, которая в некоторой степени отражала реальность.
Совершив экскурс в античность, мы обнаружим, что однополые сексуальные акты практиковались не только жрицами. Достоверно известно - в римской армии юниоры «набирались силы» у старших товарищей именно таким способом.
Но следует помнить, о том, что в прошлом можно найти ЛЮБЫЕ примеры, потому что ничто человеческое древним было не чуждо. Я предлагаю в этом вопросе ограничиться кругом славянской традиции. И очень показательно, то, что в славянском фольклоре эта тема не муссируется.
Однако из письменных источников мы знаем, что у некоторых русских князей были любимчики с говорящим названием «хоти», А в войсках случался «блуд с младыми юношами» (Послание к царскому войску в Свияжск Митрополита Макария 1522 г.). Только вот были ли эти деяния ритуальными? Вряд ли. Иначе бы они оставили следы в фольклоре, а их нет. (Справедливости ради замечу, что в славянском фольклоре имеются многочисленные следы другого нестандартного, с современной точки зрения, сексуального ритуального поведения, но оно не входит в рамки рассматриваемой здесь темы).
СИЛУ можно черпать и отдавать в любом акте взаимодействия (в том числе и сексуально- однополом) с Богами, природой, духами, людьми. Лично я считаю, что однополый секс лежит скорее в сфере психологии и физиологии, а не магии. Это вопрос личной склонности, иметь которую могут люди с самым разным мировоззрением, в том числе и языческим. Главное, что бы эту «склонность» нам не навязывали, подводя под её основание исторический, магический и другие базисы.
лето 2006. Волхва Пятница.
Serbian
April 27th, 2013, 09:22 PM
Russia Mulls Foreign Same-Sex Couple Adoption Ban
04/27/13 10:27 AM ET EDT
MOSCOW — The head of a Russian parliamentary committee says the legislature is ready to prevent adoptions by foreign same-sex couples.
In the wake of France's legalization of same-sex marriage this week, President Vladimir Putin said he supported moves to block such couples from adopting Russian children.
Elena Mizulina, the family committee chairwoman in the lower house of parliament, was quoted as saying Saturday by the Interfax news agency that "we support the president on this matter and are ready to carry out the relevant changes in the law."
Russia last year banned adoptions by Americans, a retaliatory move for a U.S. law imposing sanctions on Russians deemed human-rights violators. The measure sailed through parliament with only a handful of dissenting votes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/27/russia-foreign-same-sex-couple-adoption-ban_n_3169782.html?utm_hp_ref=world
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