DECEMBER 2007

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/10/2007 5:03 AM

Monday, December 10, 2007

Putin's Pretend Democracy

By Mark H. Teeter

Now that the pretend results from the pretend elections to the nation's pretend parliament have been certified, the next order of political business will be the pretend presidential election in March. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer Muscovites pretend to believe in the democratic process. Go figure.

The country's current campaign zeitgeist is seriously deflating traditional romantic perceptions of Russia's inscrutability (riddle! mystery! enigma!). In today's campaigning, we see "sovereign inscrutability" (repetition! intimidation! crooks!). After the reigning party's leader indicates who the winner will be, a nice, competitive presidential campaign can begin. And once it does, we're off to the pretend races again, with intensive pretend politicking flooding Russian airwaves, mailboxes and brainpans. You get pretend goose bumps just thinking about it.

The make-believe here has been all-pervasive. Perhaps the only authentic political noise allowed in the media just before and after the State Duma elections was the official Russian criticism of official ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/10/2007 9:37 AM
From The Times
December 3, 2007
Vladimir Putin storms to victory amid loud claims of foul play and vote-rigging
Russian President Vladimir Putin casts his ballot
Image :1 of 2
Tony Halpin in Moscow

President Putin secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections last night, amid opposition complaints of extensive vote-rigging. The result could pave the way for him to retain power in Russia.

Mr Putin’s United Russia party won 63.2 per cent, with half of votes counted, while its nearest rival, the Communist Party, secured only 11.5 per cent.

Two pro-Kremlin parties – the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and Fair Russia – were the only others expected to win seats in a Duma that will lack a liberal, pro-Western voice for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Projections on Russian television showed that United Russia and its allies will control almost 90 per cent of the chamber’s 450 seats. The LDPR’s likely 10 per cent share means ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/13/2007 3:10 PM
Yahoo! News
 
Kasparov won't run for Russia president

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press WriterThu Dec 13, 2:18 PM ET

The Kremlin appears to have checkmated chess genius Garry Kasparov, eliminating the internationally known figure from the presidential race.

Kasparov said Thursday his bid collapsed because supporters were blocked from renting a meeting hall to nominate him — part of President Vladimir Putin's campaign, he said, to snuff out any viable opposition and turn Russia's March 2 ballot into a virtual one-man contest.

The move makes it impossible for Kasparov to challenge Putin's chosen successor as a candidate. But even if his supporters had nominated him, Kasparov would have faced formidable barriers, such as a Putin-era law forcing independent candidates to gather 2 million signatures — nearly one out of 50 Russian voters — for a spot on the ballot.

Kasparov has said that requirement would be impossible to fulfill.

"We all knew I wasn't running ... because we don't have an election," Kasparov told ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/14/2007 2:36 AM
Monday, December 10, 2007
Window on Eurasia: Rogozin's "Moscow as Kosovo" Comment Outrages Russia's Muslims

Paul Goble

Vienna, December 10 -- Reacting to the opening of the first Muslim hospital in Moscow, Dmitriy Rogozin, a nationalist politician Vladimir Putin has named as Russia's permanent representative to NATO, said that such an institution could transform the Russian capital into "a little Kosovo" and even threaten "the disintegration of the country."
Rogozin's remarks, which first appeared in Komsomol'skaya Pravda on Thursday and which he then amplified in comments to the Orthodox Russkaya liniya Internet portal are consistent with his past views on Muslims in Russia, but because of his nomination, Russia's Muslims have responded angrily, questioning whether someone with his views should represent their country."
But perhaps more significant, Rogozin's criticism of an institution Muslims have long sought has prompted one leader of their community to argue that such comments must serve to "mobilize Muslims" and to transform the Islamic community of the Russian ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/14/2007 2:43 AM
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Window on Eurasia: Regional Web Sites Assume Ever Greater Role for Siberian Elites

Paul Goble

Vienna, December 11 – As rising costs drive the regional print media out of business, Moscow companies take over regional radio and television outlets, and the Kremlin moves to control the national media space, regionally-based websites are playing an ever greater role in the lives of Siberian elites.
That is the conclusion Dmitriy Tayevskiy, an analyst at one of the largest of these sites (Babr.ru), drew during a presentation yesterday at a conference at Irkutsk State University on “Mass Communications in the Era of Globalization: The Mass Media, Advertising and Links to Society (http://babr.ru/?pt=news&event=v1&IDE=41698).
The Internet in Irkutsk, Tayevskiy said, attracts as many as 120,000 people over the course of a month and perhaps 30 to 50,000 who turn to it on a daily basis, large numbers and ones that are increasing 80 to 100 percent annually but still only about 15 percent ...
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