Kavkazcenter.com

'Day of Wrath' in Russia

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:25:40 GMT

Thousands of people participated in anti-government rallies across Russia on Saturday, including nearly 3,000 residents of this Baltic exclave who defied police and staged a boisterous, rain-soaked protest calling on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to step down. The coordinated demonstrations, which opposition leaders dubbed a "Day of Wrath," occurred in dozens of cities and towns across 11 time zones, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. Though turnout appeared limited, the string of protests hinted at widespread frustration with Russia's most serious economic downturn in more than a decade. The unauthorized rally in Kaliningrad, a seaport located far from the rest of Russia between Poland and Lithuania, took place despite a concerted effort by the Kremlin and local authorities to prevent it -- and opposition leaders' decision to cancel for fear of police violence. In late January, as many as 15,000 people here participated in a protest against Kaliningrad's unelected governor and Putin's ruling party, United Russia. The size and stridency of the demonstration -- in a former German city that Moscow has long used to showcase its reach into Europe -- alarmed the Kremlin, which dispatched top officials to take control of the situation. City authorities refused to let protest organizers hold a follow-up rally in a vast lot near the city's center, saying an agricultural fair would be using the site, and offered to let them use a remote stadium instead. But the Kremlin appeared divided about how to handle the protest, which the opposition predicted would draw as many as 50,000 people. Konstantin Doroshok, one of the protest leaders, said he negotiated with a Moscow official who agreed to allow a peaceful demonstration as long as participants refrained from calling for Putin's resignation. But Doroshok said the official later flew to Kaliningrad to tell him the deal had been overruled by others in Moscow determined to provoke bloodshed and portray the protesters as radical separatists. Doroshok called off the rally in response to the warning. But his decision disappointed many of the protesters, some of whom began circulating a message online and in fliers: "Citizens are going to the fair because the protest is forbidden. What about you?" Among those who showed up at the fair Saturday was Gyorgy Yermolayev, 68, a pensioner who hoisted a Russian flag decorated with paper spiders representing corrupt officials. Police ordered him to put it away but were quickly surrounded by a crowd shouting, "Freedom! Freedom!" When the officers retreated, the protesters essentially occupied the fairgrounds, chanting slogans calling on Putin and the Moscow businessman he appointed as governor, Gyorgy Boos, to resign. Many held tangerines in the air to mock Boos's use of the fruit as his political emblem. "The assembly today showed that the people's mood of protest has not diminished," said Mikhail Chesalin, a union chief and opposition party leader. Nikolai Petrov, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said the situation in Kaliningrad illustrates how the Kremlin's efforts to keep opposition parties weak is beginning to backfire. "These protests are more spontaneous. They aren't organized by political parties, so they can't be stopped by political parties," he said. "If opposition parties are weak, the Kremlin isn't in a position to negotiate with anyone to contain the protests. And that means they can't be easily controlled." "It really surprised us," Polyakov, a regional Duma deputy from United Russia, said. "We didn't think so many people would turn out." "The leadership is scared," said Solomon Ginzburg, an independent deputy in the regional Duma. "I've been saying the Kaliningrad region is an indicator - in nine months, it will be all over Russia." Source: Agencies Kavkaz Center

Russians go to anti-KGB rallies. Senator McCain supports the 'Day of Wrath' in Russia

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 09:25:14 GMT

An All-Russian protest action The Day of Wrath is being held today in Russian cities, organized by the Solidarity Movement and the Federation of Car Owners. In several cities extra-parliamentary opposition will unite with the Communist Party, despite the fact that the party leadership opposed to an alliance with the Solidarity. "I calmly take the words of the Communist Party leadership that we are using their own protest actions - Denis Bilunov, the leader of Russia's Solidarity Organization, said to the Russian Kommersant paper. - Today, the protest activity should be carried out on a coalition basis. That makes it more efficient". It is to be mentioned that the Russian government is controlled by and composed of KGB agents, secret and open, so any anti-government rally is directed first of all against the KGB. In many cities, according to organizers, the authorities are trying to prevent holding rallies: in particular, problems have arisen in Moscow. Yesterday, the police department summoned the leader of the Left Front Sergei Udaltsov for intimidating talks. Later he told that no compromise had been reached, and the police threatened that if the action would be held in the very center of Moscow, on Pushkin Square, as scheduled, the participants would be detained. On Friday night, the police closed the website "March 20" which reported details of about the planned protests. The site was accused of "extremism". A mass protest rally, within the framework of the All-Russian action, has been already held on the central square of Vladivostok. The rally was supported by the Communist Party, Yabloko and Fair Russia opposition groups as well as by the political movement Freedom and Democracy Movement and public organizations like TIGR, Vladmama etc. About 1.5 thousand people attended the rally. People gathered under anti-government slogans ("Putin must resign") and called for the dismissal the regional leadership, a return to the system of electing governors and others. The protests in Russia are also of some interest in the West, especially in the US Senator John McCain addressed the Congress with a special message on the eve of Russian protests: "We should all say a silent prayer and a public word of support for Russia's courageous human rights activists, as they make their voices heard this Saturday. These brave men and women want the best for their country. They want a government that is not only strong but just, peaceful, inclusive, and democratic. I urge Russia's leaders to recognize that peaceful champions of universal values are not a threat to Russia, and that groups like this should not face the kinds of violence, repression, and intimidation that Russian authorities have used against similar demonstrators in the past. The eyes of the world will be watching. Russia is a great nation, and like all Americans of goodwill, I want Russia to be strong and successful. I want Russia's economy to be a vibrant source of wealth and opportunity for all Russians. I want Russia to play a proud and responsible role in world affairs. And I will continue to affirm, in public and in private, that the best way for Russians to secure the things they say they care about most - reduced corruption, a strengthened and equitable rule of law, economic modernization - is by nurturing a pluralistic and free civil society, by building independent and sustainable institutions of democracy, and by respecting the human rights of all", McCain said. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

RUSSIAN TERRORISM. A Muslim brutally beaten by armed racist cops is accused of 'terrorism' for defending himself and reading Quran

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:46:21 GMT

According to Russian mass media, a 27 years old Yakub Kartakayev who is charged with the elimination of a Russian terrorist, Klimovich, from Moscow's police, was arrested on March 18 by a Moscow court. A Dagestani, who is accused of extermination of the armed Russian bandit, a racist lieutenant Klimovich, and of an attempted elimination of his partner in crime, a terrorist sergeant Bykov, testified in the court that he was merely defending himself: "I bought a pistol to defend myself from bad guys,- said Yakub Kartakayev- the policemen who stopped me, called me names, insulted and beat me. They called me "churka" (non-White). I started to wrestle with them, and then shot. Once I've been already attacked by Russian nationalist skinheads and since then I decided to carry a gun with me. I was defending myself". Kartakayev also said that he had no previous convictions. He explained that he left the scene where the crime against him had been committed by the Russian Nazi cops, because he was wounded. "Now I'm not planning to run away anywhere and asking you not to arrest me - said the Muslim man in Russian court. "I came to Moscow to get a job; I have a technical education as a PC operator". A Russian judge asked the Muslim man how he is related to the extremist literature found in his apartment. "None" - replied Kartakayev - "I did not have such. I have only Quran". As a result, the Russian court sent the Muslim Yakub Kartakayev to jail until May 13, and they will extend the term later. We would like to mention that if the Muslim man did not kill the violent Russian racist and did not wound his accomplice, they would have killed him themselves. In the meantime, Russian terrorists are boosting a "wahhabi terrorist cell" case which was allegedly run by the unlucky Muslim. As members of the "cell" the Russians identified Margushev brothers because they purchased medicine to offer the required first medical aid to Kartakayev, and also their acquaintances Khartashev and Akavov because they have also offered medical aid to the Muslim who was brutally beaten by the armed Russian racist cops Klimovich and Bykov. "Thus, we may have an organized wahhabi cell here"- the Russian butchers concluded. Department of monitoring, Kavkaz Center

RUSSIA'S IDIOCY. Government extremism fighting agencies are searching for extremism in each other

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:43:53 GMT

The fight against dissent (extremism) in Russia is gaining a form of idiocy, typical for this country. According to Russian mass media, on March 16, 2010,a deputy prosecutor of Samara region Zatsepin appealed to Sergei Bystrevskiy, the acting local head in the Russian of Ministry Justice in Samara region, demanding to stop violating the extremism-fighting laws. During the monitoring conducted by the prosecutor's office of the region, it was established that the official website of the governance of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Samara region contains active internet links to web-sites which in their turn contain information materials recognized as extremist by court decisions. It violates articles 3, 4 of the Russian law entitled "Countermeasures to extremist activities". "Acquaintance with informational materials which are recognized as extremist may promote the propagation of extremist activities and stir extremist discord"- reports the Samara region prosecutor's office on its web-site. It should be mentioned you that Ministry of Justice regularly publishes and updates the Russian List of Prohibited Literature (Index Librorum Prohibitorum) which is contains books_ newspapers and magazines forbidden for reading by Russian citizens. The list includes now some 500 items (several American books are among them) and is regularly supplemented with about 20 items per month Department of monitoring, Kavkaz Center

RUSSIAN TERRORISM. Terrorist group of the FSB carried out raids on Muslims in St. Petersburg

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:38:15 GMT

On Friday, March 19th, Russian terrorists from the FSB gang in St. Petersburg accompanied by prosecutors' and criminal police bandits under the FSB command, made raids on mosques and Muslim houses which do not belong to the Russian State Agency of Spiritual Department for Muslims. Specially, every "unofficial" mosque has been searched. According to Russian state terrorists, the raids on Muslim houses and mosques were carried out because the Russians suspected that Muslims read some Islamic books there, which were not authorized by the Russian government. The exact cause of the raids is nevertheless unknown, because Russian state terrorists always lie. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

The Economist: Russian terrorist organizations of the FSB and criminal police increased brutality under Medvedev

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:06:28 GMT

They shoot, beat and torture civilians, confiscate businesses and take hostages. They are feared and distrusted by two-thirds of the country. But they are not official foreign occupiers, mercenaries or mafia; they are Russia's police officers from the FSB and the criminal police. Daily reports of police violence read like wartime bulletins. Recent cases include a random shooting by a police officer in a Moscow supermarket (seven wounded, two dead), the gruesome torture and killing of a journalist in Tomsk, and the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a young lawyer for an American investment fund. He was denied medical treatment and died in pre-trial detention in Moscow having accused several police officers of fraud. Police lawlessness has exhausted people's patience and that pent-up anger has finally burst into newspapers, websites and even state television. The internet makes it harder to hush things up. Earlier this month a Moscow motorist posted a video online reporting that he and several other drivers were used as human shields by traffic police trying to catch a man. The main function of terrorist punitive agencies in Russia is not to protect the public from crime and corruption, but to shield the bureaucracy, including themselves, from the public. To ensure loyalty the system allows the FSB and police to make money from their licence for murder. Police escorts can be officially purchased. Other commercial activities include charging for proper investigation, extortion, selling sensitive databases, tapping phones or raiding businesses for competitors. Many FSB officers and generals have their own private business on the side. Unsurprisingly, top jobs in the FSB and the criminal police are a valuable, and traded, commodity. Most new recruits sign up to make money, according to internal questionnaires. The police, prosecution and prison services are component parts of an industry whose business is legitimized violence and which uses people as raw material. Yet even as thousands of businessmen lose their livelihoods or serve time on bogus charges, bureaucrats guilty of real crimes are escaping lightly. In recent days a police officer who murdered an independent journalist in Ingushetia was put under house arrest after the court decided that his two-year penal-colony sentence was overly harsh. Seven time zones to the east, a customs official found guilty of trading in contraband was given a suspended three-year sentence. Ultimately, the police are instruments in the hands of a more powerful institution: the Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the KGB, which remains outside public control and above criticism. The Russian police service is not only headed by a former FSB operative but is packed with its people, says Vladimir Pastukhov of the Russian Institute of Law and Public Policy, a think-tank. The FSB can dabble in any business it likes, but relies on the police to do the footwork. Serious police reform is therefore impossible if the master terrorists are left alone. The Russian terrorist organization of the FSB, which poisoned a Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko with polonium 210 in London in 2006 under an order by Putin, a factional body with its own vested interests, has a near-monopoly on the repressive functions of the state. More worryingly, it relies on its traditional links to organized crime. Kanev, who has investigated some of the most high-profile kidnappings of wealthy businessmen and their relatives, says few of them could take place without the knowledge and even collusion of former and current members of the FSB. Commercial kidnappings-once the prerogative of Chechnya-are now big business in Moscow. Many cases, says Kanev, never get reported; instead, the victim quietly pays up. This is what people in the Russian-occupied territories of the Caucasus Emirate do. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

A new Chernobyl expected by Russian experts in Siberia

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:47:27 GMT

According to Russian media outlets, experts of the Man Company (a company specializing in hydraulic engineering) presented an alarming data on the situation at the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric power plant. The bedrock bed of the Yenisei River behind the dam is washed out, and a large 378 by 205 meters crater has been formed. Its depth is more than 33 meters. A part of the rocky soil was washed out to a removal channel bed of the turbines, creating an island of rock fragments. The island makes three quarters of the river bed and is an obstacle for the flow. As a result of the hydrostatic head, the washout is spread in the direction of the floodgate of the dam. That would certainly lead to a destruction of the dam, Russians experts say. 30 kilometers below the dam there's the city of Krasnoyarsk with a population of one million. After it, 40 miles away, the secret nuclear industry town of Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk-26) is located. Its population makes one hundred thousand people. The secret town has not only a working nuclear reactor and radiochemical production, it contains hills and lakes of radioactive waste with the radioactivity of hundred millions curies. On disaster scale, it corresponds to several Chernobyls. After the dam breaks, all this high-radioactive wastes goes to Yenisei River, which would be the end of the Russian occupation of Siberia. The crater was formed as a result of idle discharges of flood waters. "I saw readings of a sonar at 41,2 meters, but it was difficult to record them - the director general of the Man Company, Alexander Minaylov, says. - And now, imagine that there is a 100-meter building (the maximum height of the dam is 128 meters) and a 40-meter pit next to it, and a tremendous force presses the house in the direction of the pit, the house would sooner or later fall into this pit" The Krasnoyarskaya plant is the second biggest hydroelectric plant in Russia. After the destruction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in a successful sabotage operation by the Caucasian Mujahideen is has became the first. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

RUSSIAN TERRORISM. Mass arrests of Muslims from peaceful Tablighi Jamaat in Siberia

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:28:07 GMT

Russian terrorists from the FSB, police and the prosecutors' in the Siberian town of Chita carried out mass arrests among members of the international Islamic organization Tablighi Jamaat, which is considered most peaceful among all existing sects, organizations and movement in Islam. The FSB agents reported that they had "uncovered a cell of an Islamic international extremist organization". It is to be mentioned that the Tablighi Jamaat is an organization of preachers, who essentially say the Sharia can be revived only through peaceful preaching, personal example and education. Based on their own perceptions, the members of this organization do not participate in Jihad and consider it inappropriate to conduct Daawa (call to Islam). The birthplace of the Tablighi movement is India of 1940's in a form of peaceful protests against the British colonialism. At that time, the headquarters of the organization was in Pakistan. In Russia, the Tablighi Jamaat was banned in 2009 because its activities were allegedly directed at a "violation of the Russian territorial integrity and a discrimination between the Russian citizens on religious grounds", as well for "supporting international terrorist organizations, including Al -Qaeda". Kavkaz Center

Moscow politician warns about Russian threat to Georgia and the Baltic

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:32:17 GMT

A well known Moscow politician, chairman of the Democratic Union, Valeria Novodvorskaya in the interview to Baltic informational agency spoke about Russian threat to Georgia and Baltic states. "They encroach on Georgia for real. And their plans are revanchist; they can't even keep quiet about it. The generals are straightforwardly making threats on air, during the meetings with students warlord-president Medvedev promises to court martial Saakashvili". Moscow politician deprecated Sarkozy's lenient plans towards Russian aggressors: "As I was informed by French liberals who met with the members of cabinet, Sarkozy's arguments are based on the principle to save jobs, and if France would not sell, then someone else would do it. What a remarkable reasoning. For the French plans to sell two helicopter carriers "Mistral" to Russia, France should be kicked out from NATO. And let them defend their own selves, with the help of their "Mistrals", and we would see what's gonna happen then. It is treason, to waken a third world war. Sarkozy will stay in history as a political adventurer. De Gaulle could refer to the fact that he saved France from insane students, and not less insane communists in 1968. He had something he could refer to. And his mistake of leaving the military organization NATO, taking into consideration that the US kept defending France, and his visit to Moscow, all of it will be forgiven for his other great deeds. Sarkozy does not have any great deeds. He will go for it to the Judgment Day. They don't absolutely need Paris in Russia. They don't need "Mistral" at all, but to create a military threat. I don't think that they will try to conquer Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. Because they are in NATO, and even Putin would not dare. Recently, "TV Center" channel showed an episode about Lithuania, where the state of things in country were described not in a very good light. This week, the same channel showed an episode where Lithuanian nationalists were active in the internet appealing to expulse Russians. More films and episodes about Baltic States showed on other Russian TV channels can be recalled. The appearing of such episodes tells us about the fact that "typical informational war" is being waged. The propaganda machine is being launched, which is oriented towards Russians in the first place, because Kremlin cannot fool the population of the Baltics. The Soviet propaganda was always acting like that: everyone in America is dying of hunger, the blacks are being discriminated against, the working class in capitalist countries is groaning. The methods have not changed absolutely, so is the consciousness. Recall the story with Estonia. They would stir up the hatred between Russians and Estonians, Russians and Letts. They would act on the principle of divide et imper�, counting that the pro-Russian parties will win the elections. They would count on that they will be able to break them away. There will be no thaw in relationship. Russia is being ruled by KGB junta. They are full-fledged imperialists, who hate everyone who broke away from them and did not die of hunger. So be ready for all that", warned Novodvorskaya. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

Putin's policeman killed in Moscow clash

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:12:20 GMT

Russian investigators say a policeman has been shot dead and his colleague wounded after they pulled over a car and one of the three men inside opened fire. A statement posted Saturday on the investigative committee's Web site describes the suspects as appearing to be from North Caucasus. The statement says the officers, members of a "rapid-reaction force" gang, stopped a black BMW that had no licence plate in western Moscow early Saturday. One of the three inside produced a gun, shooting one officer dead and critically injuring the other with shots to the head and stomach. Russian news agencies say the suspects remain at large. Such clashes are regular events in the North Caucasus regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, but relatively rare in Moscow. Source: Agencies Kavkaz Center

Imperial liberal democrats collect signatures for Putin's resignation

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:48:43 GMT

The imperial liberal democratic community of Russia began to collect signatures under an appeal to fellow citizens with a demand for the resignation of Putin. The appeal states: "Citizens of Russia! The recognition that the ruling elite has led our country into a historical dead end has prompted us to issue this statement. The transfer of virtually unlimited power by the [Yeltsin-era] Family, which was trying to guarantee its own security, to a man of dubious reputation who was distinguished neither by talent nor by the requisite life or professional experience has resulted predictably in the serious degradation of all institutions of state governance. Even a significant portion of the ruling "elite" feels that a change is necessary, as attested by the loud reaction to [President Dmitry Medvedev's] opus "Forward, Russia!" But Medvedev's modernization project bears a distinctly artificial character and is aimed at a single goal - to redo the decorations while maintaining the nature of an authoritarian-kleptocratic regime. We state that the sociopolitical construction that is killing Russia and has now bound the citizens of our country has one architect, one custodian, and one guardian. His name is Vladimir Putin. We declare that no essential reforms can be carried out in Russia today as long as Putin controls real power in the country. We declare that the dismantling of the Putin regime and the return of Russia to the path of democratic development can only begin when Putin has been deprived of all levers of managing the state and society. We declare that during the years of his rule, Putin has become the symbol of corrupt and unpredictable country that is pitiless in its treatment of its own citizenry. It is a country in which citizens have no rights and are for the most part in poverty. It is a country without ideals and without a future. If, as the Kremlin propagandists love to repeat, Russia was on its knees during the Yeltsin period, then Putin and his minions have pushed its face into the filth. In the filth of the authorities' contempt we find not only individual rights and freedoms, but human life itself as well. In the filth of a false and feeble imitation of political and social institutions - from the bureaucratic phantom of United Russia to the Nazi-like Putin Youth. In the filth of soul- and mind-warping televised obscurantism that is turning one of the most educated nations in the world into a soulless, amoral mob. In the filth of total thievery and corruption emanating from the very pinnacle of Russian power. If not for the years in which Putin roamed the galleries of the Kremlin, the billionaires of his inner circle -Abramovich, Timchenko, the Kovalchuks, Rotenberg - would not exist. Nor would the parasitical state corporations of his friends - these black holes of the Russian economy. Having begun his rise to power with the epical statement about "wiping them out in their outhouses," Putin over the course of nearly 11 years has used this universal "tool" of ruling the country, and it has proven particularly effective in regard to his political opponents and business competitors. Any political, social, or economic dissent is immediately suppressed: in the best cases, by administrative restrictions, but often by the bully clubs of the riot police, by criminal prosecution, by physical violence, and even by murder. Putin has proven that he is willing to destroy his personal opponents by any means available. During the time that Putin has been at the pinnacle of state power, everything that could be ruined has been ruined. Pension and administrative reforms have been undone. There has been no reform of the armed forces, the secret services, or the law enforcement and judicial systems. The health-care system remains in its previous, pathetic condition. The decline of education and science, which has been farmed out to the Ozero cooperative group, has reached the point where the "titans" of Russian scientific thought must be considered people like Petrik and Gryzlov. Ten whole years have been lost - years when a boom in hydrocarbon and metals prices could have been used to modernize the country and carry out a structural reorganization of the economy. That is why the blow of the global economic crisis hit Russia so mercilessly, and it is far from over for us. Having been named prime minister by Yeltsin, Putin not only was unable to correct the fatal mistakes made by his predecessors and put out the flames in the Caucasus, but his policies managed to raise that conflict to a new level that is capable of destroying the integrity of the country. The "Kursk," the Nord-Ost theater, Beslan, the tens of thousands who died in the internecine second Caucasus war, the thousands who have lost their lives in infrastructure disasters, who burned in homes for the elderly and the handicapped that were unfit for human habitation, the dozens of murdered journalists and human rights activists and political opponents of the regime, and the ordinary victims of sadistic police lawlessness - these are the gravestones of the years of Putin's rule. These are the unexposed secrets of the Putin regime: the [1999] entry of [Shamil] Basayev into Dagestan; the explosions of apartment buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk; the so-called training exercise in Ryazan. People have long since stopped being surprised by Putin's incapacity for strategic thinking. He is unable to see what the world will be like in 10-15 years and what place Russia can and must occupy in it. He is not capable of evaluating the real threats and risks facing the country, and that means he is in no position to correctly plan possible moves or identify potential allies and rivals. A clear illustration of these short-sighted polices are the recent surrender agreements with China, in which Putin lightly erased the Russian Far East and Siberia off the map. Further evidence of Putin's lack of understanding of the future is his maniacal passion to build gas and oil pipelines in all thinkable and unthinkable directions; his initiation of expensive, ambitious projects (like the Sochi Olympics and the bridge to Russian Island), which are absolutely wrong for a country in which a large portion of the population lives below the poverty line. Having temporarily moved form the presidential chair to the prime minister's offices and having left in the Kremlin an obedient placeholder who is "of the same blood" - a modern Simeon Bekbulatovich - Putin has created an openly unconstitutional construction for governing the country for life. It is obvious that Putin will never voluntarily relinquish power in Russia. His fierce intention to rule for life is no longer based on a thirst for power itself so much as on the fear of being held responsible for what he has done. For the Russian people, this is humiliating. But for the country it is fatally dangerous to have a ruler like Putin. This is a cross that Russia can bear no longer. As the Putin grouping feels it the ground falling from under its feet, it could at any moment move from targeted repression to mass repression. We are warning law enforcement and security agency officers not to stand against their nation, not to carry out criminal orders from corrupt officials when they send you out to kill us for Putin, Sechin, and Deripaska. Now the national demand at demonstrations from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad must be the call "Putin Must Go!" Ridding ourselves of Putinism is the first, obligatory step on the path to a new, free Russia". It is to be mentioned that Russia cannot be free by its very nature. Freedom can only be achieved by liberation of the peoples, on the territories with Russian and non-Russian languages, suffering under the Russian yoke when they gain independence. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

Reporters Without Borders: Internet censorship rampant in Russia

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:44:07 GMT

Russia was definitely included into a list of countries with Internet censorship. This is stated in a report by the international journalist organization, Reporters Without Borders, dated March 12, the World Day Against Cybercensorship. In Russia, as Reporters Without Borders note, aside from the control exerted by the Kremlin on most of its media outlets, the Internet became the most free space for sharing information. Yet its independence is being jeopardized by arrests and prosecutions of the bloggers, as well as by blockings of so-called "extremist" websites, including the Kavkaz-Center. The propaganda of the Russian regime is increasingly omnipresent in the Web, and the Runet is transforming into a tool for political control, the report says A Finam analyst, Delitsyn, specified that the attitude of the Russian state and partly of the society to the Internet is rather skeptical: the Internet is not recognized as absolutely good, the emphasis is largely placed on the risks that it carries with. The authors of the Report recall Putin's words, who in January 2010 in response to a proposal by the Yabloko's leader Mitrokhin to take into account evidence of falsified regional elections, published in the Internet, said: "In the Internet, 50 percent is porn. Why should we refer to the Internet?" The "Reporters" emphasized that since 2000 every Russian provider must install a SORM-2 system that makes it possible for the interior ministry and the FSB to have an access to the list of pages visited by the users and to the contents of their e-mails, and in 2007 a law has been passed allowing the FSB to intercept Internet data without court ruling. In addition, the organization notes that popular social nets - such as VKontakte and Livejournal - were purchased by "oligarchs closely linked to the KGB regime". As recognized by the director of the hosting company Masterhost, Ovchinnikov, sometimes a call from the authorities is enough to destroy the information on our site or to block the access to a site. Reporters Without Borders also drew attention to the nearest neighbor of Russia - Belarus, which incidentally also blocks the Kavkaz-Center. This country has long been named as "suspicious" in Internet suppression and could now become a full "Internet enemy" because this summer a decree comes into force about state regulation of the Net by the state.. Delitsyn explains the suppression by Russian authorities' of the truth in the Net by the fact that quite a lot of people (one third of adults) now use Internet in Russia, so it became an influential media platform. "There's a lot of Internet users in Russia now, and the Internet has become an influential media outlet, so the attitude towards it is the same as to the other media", the Finam's analyst says. "It would be naive to assume that this parallel media, which is being used by everybody, remains without attention by those institutions that control our media now", the expert concludes. Delitsyn recalled that in 1991, during a coup, the leaders of the Emergency Committee took control over traditional media, but they did not know about the existence of the Internet. Now the situation changed radically. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

Vladimir Putin quickly mutates into homo sovieticus

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:08:13 GMT

A specialist in Russian philology from the University of Leipzig, Eberhard Fleischman, published a book "The Phenomenon of Putin: linguistic background", representing a research of evolution of Vladimir Putin as a speaker. Analyzing the style of Putin's public statements on various aspects of domestic and foreign policy of Russia during the 8 years of his presidency, Fleishman detected a tendency for a gradual sovietization of his language: the more Putin remains a "president" or a "prime minister", the less he criticizes the Soviet system and his rhetorics become more and more Soviet in style and contents. In particular, as Fleishman notes, Putin praised more and more often the bloody beasty Soviet soldiers who committed innumerable crimes during the WWII and a so-called heroism of the Soviet people. Vladimir often quotes primitive Soviet propaganda films now. Another general tendency in the development of Putin's language is an increase of bizarre political ideas (for example, he often speaks about our foreign compatriots). Fleishman compares the Putin's newspeak with that of an ideal Soviet man, homo sovieticus, and a Communist Party leader. His newspeak become more and more infested with slang expressions of specialists in different branches of industry (e.g., he now says "cubes" instead of "cubic metres"), Putin wants to produce an impression that he is a specialist in every science, as Stalin did in propaganda purposes. The main feature of Putin's newspeak Fleishman calls inconsistency, which is a sign of some mental disorder for psychiatrists. On one hand, Putin's speak makes him a reserved and seemingly clever politician, engaged in some secret intrigues. On the other, the speech reveals him as an ill-tempered, insensible, scandalous and hysterical patient in a mental hospital. Department of Monitoring, Kavkaz Center

CRISIS. 'GAZPROM' will face serious problems

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:05:48 GMT

The cold winter forced "Gazprom" to empty its underground gas storages (UGS). Since the beginning of the heating season, the company extracted 45 billion cubic meters of gas from its UGSs. Less than 20 billion cubic meters of gas remains now from 64 billion cubic meters of Gazprom reserves in mid-October . Last year, at the end of the heating season the gas monopolist used only 17 billion cubic meters from its UGS. There were two unfavorable factors which came together - a drop in demand due to the crisis and the Russian-Ukrainian gas war, and a warm winter. Nevertheless the current gas production is very high, although the crisis in the industrial sector is not yet over. In order to beat the season's production record of 50 billion cubic meters of gas in winter of 2007-2008, Gazprom" needs to extract only 5-6 billion cubic meters of more gas in 45 days from its UGS. The consumption of natural gas in January across Russia rose by 15 percent as compared to similar period last year. Gazprom even had to impose consumption limits on major industrial users in the Krasnodar region for a couple of days. Monitoring department, Kavkaz Center

SCANDAL. Accused of mass stealings, Putin wrote an incomprehensible explanation

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:03:41 GMT

Yuriy Boldyrev, a former head of the Control Department in the administration of the Russian president told how the Saliye's Report" was handled in 1992. The Report accused Putin of corruption and theft of property when Putin held the position of a first deputy to the Saint Petersburg's mayor Anatoly Sobchak. Putin and Sobchak wrote an uncomprehensibale letter to answer the accusations. After the investigation, which was repeatedly postponed due to the department being overloaded with work, facts which needed further explanation were discovered and the mayor Anatoly Sobchak was called to Moscow. The administration of Petersburg refused to clarify the facts on the spot. As a result, Sobchak came Moscow but not alone, he was accompanied by all his deputies. Putin was among them. In few hours they wrote an explanation for some facts in the Saliye's Report in a written form, which was later presented to Yeltsin by himself. In order to steal money together with Putin, Sobchak, Putin's boss at that time, created a city's committee for external affairs with special rights to export raw materials in exchange for foodstuffs, which were never delivered. Monitoring department, Kavkaz Center