Dec. 2 A Vote on Putin's Future
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posted by zaina19 on November, 2007 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Prev Discussion Next Discussion Send Replies to My Inbox Reply Recommend Message 1 of 1 in Discussion From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/30/2007 4:25 AM http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/30/001.html Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Dec. 2 A Vote on Putin's Future By Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer Two middle-aged United Russia activists knocked on apartment doors in a southern Moscow neighborhood Saturday, a full week before parliamentary campaigning officially kicks off. Asked by a reporter why they were out early, one snapped, "What have you got against Putin?" Indeed, the State Duma elections on Dec. 2 are not about political parties, with United Russia set to win a resounding victory. Rather, the elections will be a referendum on President Vladimir Putin's future, United Russia and its opponents said. "Dec. 2, in essence, will be a referendum in support of what Vladimir Putin has done, does and will do," Vyacheslav Volodin, a senior United Russia official, said in a statement late last week. Putin, analysts said, will use the elections to get out of ... >> full
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Dreaming of New Conflicts
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/30/2007 4:29 AM http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/30/003.html Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Putin's Plan Is Hot (Just Don't Ask What It Is) By Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer Putin's Plan is the talk of the country. Just don't ask what it means. Since last summer, Moscow streets have been plastered with billboards declaring "Putin's Plan Is Russia's Triumph!" State television anchors mention the plan frequently in their news bulletins. United Russia adopted the plan as its campaign platform earlier this month. And the plan has even won praise in a rock song and ridicule in Internet jokes. But ask anyone -- including United Russia -- to spell out the details of the plan, and the reaction is likely to be bewildered silence. There actually are at least three separate documents titled "Putin's Plan." The thickest is a book that includes Putin's seven annual state-of-the-nation addresses and three other speeches, including the sharply anti-U.S. presentation delivered at a Munich security conference in February. The second is a United Russia booklet that contains ... >> full
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Dreaming of New Conflicts
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/30/005.html Tuesday, October 30, 2007 Dreaming of New Conflicts By Alexander Golts Disquiet the Ranks Russia's approach to foreign policy is going back in time. During his speech at a February security conference in Munich, President Vladimir Putin told his listeners that the relationship between Moscow and Washington was most stable during the 1980s. In recent days, Putin has swung the clock all the way back to the early 1960s. While speaking at a news conference following the EU-Russia summit last week, Putin declared that "from the technical point of view," the United States' plan to deploy elements of its missile defense system close to Russia's borders was comparable to the Soviet Union's decision to deploy its rockets in Cuba -- a move that precipitated the Cuban missile crisis and placed mankind on the brink of nuclear war. Putin has been interpreting historical events rather loosely. Even if one disagrees with Washington's current political course, it would be difficult to defend Putin's rather audacious comparison of the United States' ... >> full
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A Democratic Personality Cult
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/30/2007 4:41 AM http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/30/006.html Tuesday, October 30, 2007 A Democratic Personality Cult By Alexei Pankin Alexei Pankin We are seeing a definite "Brezhnevization" of politics. This became obvious after United Russia's recent congress and President Vladimir Putin's elaborate 55th birthday celebration. This phenomenon continues to excite the media and the public. Radio stations Ekho Moskvy and Radio Svoboda have repeatedly commented upon state television's sycophantic coverage of Putin. They continue to receive calls from listeners disturbed by the praises on television that have clearly gone beyond all reasonable boundaries. The scandal began when Izvestia recently refused to publish a television review by its regular media columnist, Irina Petrovskaya. She had the gall to criticize a program on Rossia state television in which noted filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov flooded Putin with excessive, overly sentimental words of praise. A storm of protest over the newspaper's censorship broke out on the Internet. In the end, Izvestia did run Petrovskaya's piece a few days later, but only ... >> full
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Ceremony at Butovo a First for Putin
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/31/2007 7:09 AM Wednesday, October 31, 2007. Ceremony at Butovo a First for Putin By Anna Smolchenko Staff Writer Mikhail Metzel / AP Putin hugging Alexy II while visiting the site at Butovo where tens of thousands of people were shot in the 1930s. President Vladimir Putin paid a rare tribute to victims of Soviet-era repression Tuesday, using the opportunity to call for political pluralism and say that differing opinions should be able to coexist peacefully. Putin's visit to a firing range in Butovo, in the south of Moscow, where more than 20,000 people were killed during the peak years of Stalin's terror in 1937 and 1938, was the first time he has attended ceremonies on the official day of remembrance for the victims of political repression. It was also a rare attempt by the Kremlin to address Stalin-era crimes. "Political disputes, battles and a struggle between opinions are necessary, but this process should be creative rather than destructive," Putin said, adding that such conflicts ... >> full
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