Daily Times: Russia For Tough Action Against ‘Caucasus Bandits’
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posted by eagle on September, 2010 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Russia for tough action against ‘Caucasus bandits’
* Russian president rebuffs criticism of democracy
* Says political reform must be gradual
* Militant leader calls for more attacks outside Caucasus
YAROSLAVL: President Dmitry Medvedev demanded tough action against militants on Friday after a suicide bombing killed at least 18 people, and an insurgent leader called for more attacks outside Russia’s Muslim regions.
The remarks from Medvedev and Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov, who spoke in a web-posted video, underscored the confrontation between the Kremlin and Islamist insurgents who say they are determined to bring Russia down.
"There should be no ceremony with the bandits: they should be destroyed,” Medvedev told Russian and foreign political analysts at a forum in the city of Yaroslavl.
He also said that Russia’s democratic institutions were not perfect but political reform must be gradual to preserve stability.
"We have a very young democracy, an imperfect democracy — we speak openly about this,” Medvedev said. "As to our current political model, changes can only be cautious, step by step, ... >> full
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Global Voices Online: Russia: Bloggers Discuss The Market Bombing In North Ossetia
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Russia: Bloggers Discuss the Market Bombing in North OssetiaBy Veronica Khokhlova A suicide car bombing outside a market in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, killed at least 18 people and wounded over 100 on Sept. 9. The attack is not the first one to occur at this location (62 people were killed there in 1999, 12 in 2008); it also came just days after the sixth anniversary of the 2004 school siege tragedy in Beslan, a town 15 km north of Vladikavkaz. North Ossetian bloggers’ initial reactions to Thursday’s market blast reflected their exasperation with the ongoing violence in the region. LJ user liza-valieva, a Vladikavkaz-based journalist, wrote (RUS): An explosion at the central market, again. Half an hour ago. Could be heard even here. There are the dead and the wounded. Will it ever end?
Below is one exchange from the comments section: maxialla: I’ve never been a supporter of this point of view – "[the best way out is to move elsewhere]” – but right now it [appears rational]  […] liza_valieva: It is always possible to move, ...
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Window On Eurasia: Russia’s Doctor Shortage Forces Rural Hospitals To Close, Pushing Up Death Rates
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 6 – Increases in mortality this summer in the Russian Federation were not only the result of forest fires and pollution from them but also the closure of dozens of rural hospitals, a step that has deprived "hundreds of thousands” of Russians of "the chance to obtain contemporary and qualified medical assistance.”
In many cases, Albert Khasimov of "Novaya versiya” reports, these institutions have been closed because there are no longer any doctors or other medical specialists to operate them, a reflection of a severe shortage of such doctors and the unwillingness of the remaining ones to work outside major cities (versia.ru/articles/2010/sep/06/defitsit_vrachey_v_rossii).
According to the health ministry, Russia has a doctor shortage of some 230,000, but that number, as Khasimov observers is "like an average temperature in a hospital.” In cities and especially major ones, the shortage is much smaller than in rural areas, something that is ...
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Window On Eurasia: ‘Ethnic Journalism’ Must Compensate For Decline In Shared Experiences Among Nationalities In Post-Soviet Russia, Specialist Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Staunton, September 4 – Journalists specializing on ethnic issues must compensate for declines since 1991 in the number and quality of interactions among people of different nationalities in post-Soviet Russia, and because there are few such journalists in Moscow, that places an enormous responsibility on journalists in the non-Russian republics.
That is the message Margarita Lyange, the head of the Russian Federation’s Guild of Inter-Ethnic Journalism and advisor to the editor of Radio Russia, delivered in the course of an extensive interview published in the new issue of "Finnougria,” a magazine directed at the Finno-Ugric nations in Russia (www.finnougoria.ru/periodika/20810/).
And this is the task that such journalists, the vast majority of whom are women because of the lower pay and lower status of such positions now, must undertake in order to promote sympathy and empathy among these groups rather than contribute to a further decline ...
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Window On Eurasia: Public Support For Moscow’s Policies On Abkhazia, South Ossetia Declining And Softening, VTsIOM Polls Show
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, September 2 – Two years after Moscow recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a step the Russian people overwhelmingly backed as a signal that their country could stand up to Georgia and the West, the failure of many other countries to recognize these republics and the high cost of supporting the two new states have combined to reduce public backing for them.
In an article posted online yesterday, Mikhail Smilyan says that polls show "ever fewer [Russians] remain support recognition of South Ossetia” and that they are less prepared to continue to provide assistance to that republic (www.gzt.ru/topnews/society/-rossiyane-zasomnevalisj-v-praviljnosti-priznaniya-/322668.html?from=1columndownfromindex).
Drawing on poll results collected by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) available at wciom.ru/index.php?id=196&uid=13778, Smilyan notes that fewer Russians are paying attention to the political aspects of Moscow’s decision and more to the actual costs of supporting these republics.
As a result of that ...
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