Window On Eurasia: ‘Extremist Literature’ Poses Difficult Challenges For Russian Librarians
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posted by eagle on March, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, March 17 – In handling published works Russian courts have declared extremist, Russia’s libraries find themselves caught in an increasingly difficult position, one that reflects the contradictory requirements of various Russian laws, on the one hand, and the absence of legal and other infrastructure, on the other.
And the problems Russia’s libraries are experiencing in dealing with such materials highlight both Moscow’s inconsistent approach to what the powers that be there call “extremist literature” and broader problems with the development and application of Russian laws and government decisions.
At the end of last month, a group of Russian libraries, government officials and rights activists met in Moscow to discuss these issues. Part of the stenographic record of that meeting has now been posted on the SOVA Center portal, and it provides some fascinating details on the struggles of all involved (xeno.sova-center.ru/29481C8/CA4B75F).
Mikhail Afanasyev, the director of the State Public Historical Library of Russia, ...
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Prague Watchdog: A Man In The Right Place (Weekly Review)
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
A man in the right place (weekly review) |
By Dzhambulat Are 
GROZNY, Chechnya – Meet Abu Sugaipov, Chechnya’s Minister for Housing and Communal Services. It has always been believed that a man who devoted his life to this field of activity condemned himself for years on end to the unenviable role of “whipping boy”. From such officials only one thing is wanted – a readiness to hear without grumbling an endless stream of reproaches from the people and their leaders. Abu Sugaipov found himself in the government of the “reborn” Chechen Republic right from the very first day. When he assumed the stewardship of its public utilities, people called him a “kamikaze”. It must be admitted that even under the earlier regime Grozny was not renowned for the satisfactory state of its public services. Because of the perennial problems with sanitation, local jokers called the city “Gryazny” (dirty). A distinctive feature of the Chechen capital was the perpetually dug-up sewage pipes ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Russia Lacks ‘Critical Mass’ Of Free Intellectuals Needed For A Civil Society, Pavlova Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, March 17 – In 1851, Aleksander Herzen wrote that if Russia experienced “another century of despotism,” there was a very real chance that “all the good qualities of the Russian people would disappear and” that the people would be unable to maintain “their nationality and the educated classes “their enlightenment.”
That prediction, Moscow commentator Irina Pavlova says, spring to her mind when she observes the way in which Russia’s intellectual community has deteriorated thanks to the despotism of the Soviet past and the willingness of most of its members to serve those in power rather than their principles (grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.148683.html).
When members of the Academy of Sciences defer to Kremlin advisor Vladislav Surkov as “Russia’s smartest man” and when “talking heads” like Sergey Markov and Maksim Shevchenko, neither of whom ever conducted historical research, instruct historians on “how to study the famine of the early 1930s,” she ...
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The Other Russia: Russia May Close Domestic Market To Imports
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
March 17th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under In an apparent swing toward economic protectionism, the Russian government is considering a proposal to restrict the import of a wide range of goods, the Novy Region news agency reports. Nikolai Vinnichenko, the Presidential Envoy to the Urals Federal District, said in a video-conference that the move was necessary “so that competitor countries, where the situation is more complicated, don’t practice dumping and don’t beat our producers.”
As one way of stimulating the domestic market, Vinnichenko said authorities were looking into raising import tariffs. The raised duties would serve as a barrier against goods produced abroad. The Envoy added that the move would only apply to industries in the Russian economy that are competitive and can produce enough for the domestic market. “If we we didn’t know how to make machinery with digital programmable controls, we still don’t, and we probably won’t in the near future, then there is no point is closing that market,” Vinnichenko said. ...
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Window On Eurasia: Russia Likely To Disintegrate As Result Of Demographic Decline, Moscow Scholar Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, March 17 – The Russian Federation is likely to break apart into as many as 30 pieces by the middle of this century as that country’s accelerating demographic decline leads some of its smaller nationalities to take steps to try to ensure their own survival, according to a leading Moscow scholar.
In an interview posted online today, Anatoly Antonov, a professor of sociology, the family and demography at Moscow State University, says that widely believed assertions by government officials that Russia has been able to increase the birthrate “do not correspond to reality” (www.utro.ru/articles/2009/03/17/803591.shtml).
On the one hand, he continues, these assertions reflect the fundamental ignorance of many in government and out of the nature of demographic trends in Russia. And on the other, they serve as a self-serving justification for not doing what the country must do if it is to avoid disaster in the relatively near ...
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