Guardian: Olympic Challenge For Sochi Games
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posted by eagle on December, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Olympic challenge for Sochi gamesOfficially the Winter Olympics are non-politicised – but the reality is that wherever Russia goes, politics will follow
- Frederick Bernas
- guardian.co.uk, Saturday 5 December 2009 17.00 GMT
- Article history
Russia will be holding a national referendum to select its mascot for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Contenders include a dolphin on skis, a potential revival of the 1980 games' popular beaming bear, and a giant-eared children's character known as Cheburashka. With a cast like that, cynics might be reminded of the recent parliamentary elections. No irony is lost in this faux-democratic gesture from Russia's PR-obsessed political regime. State-controlled TV and close monitoring of the press give the government an effective monopoly on public opinion. The Sochi Games, a pet project of the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, will become an increasingly prominent weapon in the country's constant image battle with the west. But the 2014 grand plan is not only fighting a war of words and perceptions. Sochi is located on the scenic Black Sea coast, just 12 miles from ...
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Prague Watchdog: For whom the bell tolls
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
By German Sadulayev, special to Prague Watchdog St.Petersburg, Russia On the night of November 27 and during the next day the phones of people who live in St. Petersburg and Moscow rang frantically. The friends and relatives of passengers who had been on the high speed Nevsky Express were trying to find out if their loved ones were still alive. When the official website published the train’s passenger list, the sheer volume of logins caused it to go down. The TV stations broadcast hourly bulletins. A friend who works as a sound technician for one of the St Petersburg channel lamented the fact that he would not be able to go home until the morning. It would have been worth it if they had reported any real news on the derailment, but instead there were just the same old pictures and the official version of events repeated over and over again. When asked what had really happened, a reporter who ... >> full
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People's Daily Online: Over 230 Rebels Killed By Russian Troops This Year,Official Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Over 230 rebels killed by Russian troops this year,official says
Russian troops had killed more than 230 rebels during operations since the beginning of this year, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
"Over 230 rebels were killed and 120 arms caches were destroyed during combat missions that involved the Interior Ministry troops," force commander Nikolai Rogozhkin told reporters.
The servicemen confiscated 105 guns, 67 pieces of cold weapons and 116 kg of drugs, and defused 41 explosive devices, Rogozhkin said.
The Interior Ministry troops are used to support and reinforce the police in dealing with internal armed conflicts and large-scale riots.
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said the troops, along with other law enforcement agencies, managed to carry out anti-terrorism operations and other operations for maintaining order in the republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.
The crime rate in 23 cities out of the 49 cities where special motorized units of the troops are deployed, decreased this year, he said.
Russia's North Caucasus region has remained mired in violence stemming from wars between Chechen ... >> full
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SP: Russia: Casting Out The Past
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Casting Out The Past
December 3, 2009: Particularly in media centers, like Moscow, politics is a contact sport, with a high body count. Businessmen or politicians who have angered government officials, major gangsters, or each other, still get shot dead in public. A popular priest, who preached against Islamic radicalism, was shot dead in his church, raising the popular anger level still more. Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, radical political groups (both right and left wing) have become popular, especially among young men (who like to brawl in public over their differences.) Over the last five years, the government has regained control of mass media (as was the case in the Soviet period), but the Internet is largely beyond their control, and that's what these young radicals use to recruit and organize.After seven months of negotiations, Russia and the United States diplomats believe they have come up with something to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires at the end of the ... >> full
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Individual.com: TV holds debate on Russia's future, relations with the West
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posted by circassiankama on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
TV holds debate on Russia's future, relations with the West NTV Mir, BBC Monitoring, November 16, 2009 As
the West celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
- often described as the symbol of the Cold War - a talk show on
Russian TV deliberated how the event had changed the world and Russia's
relations with the West, and what Russia should do next. Opening
the "Honest Monday" programme on Gazprom-owned NTV, presenter Sergey
Minayev said: "Since the fall of the Berlin Wall the world has changed
but not the way ordinary Germans and Russians would have wanted."
He defined the topic of the programme in the following way: "Has the
West become our friend or has it taken advantage of our difficult
situation to expand its own influence?" Taking part in the debate
were Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, a deputy speaker of the State Duma and the
leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia; Mark Urnov, head of
the Department of Applied Political ... >> full
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