The Other Russia: Russia Reviving Stalin, Downplaying Past -Scholar
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posted by eagle on March, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
March 5th, 2009
A renowned Russia scholar who chronicled life under Stalin will not have the chance to share his work with the Russian public. Orlando Figes, who wrote a notable book on daily life under Stalin titled The Whisperers, believes his Russian publisher bowed out of printing the book due to political pressure. Figes asserts that the Kremlin is pushing to control history and rehabilitate Stalin’s image. The historian describes his experience, and tactics used against the Memorial human rights group in the British Guardian newspaper:
On 4 December a group of masked men from the investigative committee of the Russian general prosecutor’s office forced ... >> full
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Al Jazeera: The Life And Trials Of Khodorkovsky
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
THURSDAY, MARCH 05, 2009
14:29 MECCA TIME, 11:29 GMT
| The life and trials of Khodorkovsky | |
By Neave Barker in Moscow
 | | Ifconvicted,Khodorkovskycouldface more than22 yearsin jail on top of his current term [AFP] |
The life and times of Mikhail Khodorkovsky have grabbed the world's attention once again, as Russia's former richest man faces new charges that could see him behind bars into old age. Khodorkovsky was born in 1963 and grew up in a normal Soviet family, the son of chemical engineers. At university he was deputy head of the Communist Youth League. The contacts he made there brought him into the ranks of the Soviet apparatchiks and later modern-Russia's political elite. During Gorbachov's policy of glasnost [openness] and perestroika [restructuring] Khodorkovsky used his contacts to gain a footing in the developing free market. He set up a computer and software business with fellow students and even a cafe, but it was the foundation of the bank Menatep in 1987 that allowed him and his associates to generate enough money to buy up fertiliser company Apatit and then in 1995 the oil company ... |
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RFE/RL: In Russia, History Makes Strange Bedfellows
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
In Russia, History Makes Strange Bedfellows
The proposed measure is meant to help "overcome Bolshevism and Stalinism in the public mind."
March 03, 2009 By Aleksandr Podrabinek It seemed like a joke at first. Russia's chief firefighter, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, declared that it should be a crime to deny the role played by the Soviet Union in securing victory in World War II. Surely he didn't mean to be taken seriously.
But the next day when Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika endorsed Shoigu's suggestion, it no longer seemed funny. Apparently the complete pointlessness -- from the legal point of view -- of such a moronic suggestion wasn't enough to dissuade our legally competent prosecutor-general. The proposal must seem serious enough to him.
I imagine that these high-ranking officials are scared to death by the rumors that a wholesale purge of the upper ranks is looming, and so they are doing everything possible to hang on to their posts. And what can ministers do to have the bosses notice them, value their zeal, ...>> full
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Window On Eurasia: Radical Russian Nationalism Becoming Ever More Dangerous, SOVA Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, March 3 – Radical Russian nationalism is becoming ever more dangerous not only because it is increasingly violent but also because it is gaining broader support from the population, mainstream politicians and the government, according to a new study prepared by leading Moscow human rights activists.
But the authors of the report say that so far at least radical Russian nationalist groups have not found a way to exploit the current economic crisis in the dramatic ways that many might expect but that some of them are increasing their influence both by assuming important positions in mainstream parties and covering themselves as broader social movements.
Yesterday, the SOVA Center released “Radical Russian Nationalism: Structures, Ideas and People” which describes large groups like as Great Russia and the Movement against Illegal Immigration, smaller ones like the Northern Brotherhood and their ideological “neighbors” like the National Bolshevik Party (xeno.sova-center.ru/45A2A1E/C93763D).
At ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Russian Intellectuals Call For End Of Misuse Of Anti-Extremism Law
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, March 3 – A group of 25 leading Russian writers, lawyers, and human rights activists have appealed to the country’s top prosecutor to stop using the country’s anti-extremism laws to persecute those who express “perfectly legal” criticism of the government and to issue explicit instructions on that score to his subordinates.
In an open letter posted on the Grani.ru site today, the 25, who include among others, the writer Boris Strugatsky, rights activist Lev Ponomaryev, and journalist Boris Vishnevsky, say it now appears that Yury Chaika’s subordinates equate President Medvedev’s call for a struggle against extremism as a directive to carry out a struggle against those who think differently.
Many of them, the signatories say, view the kind of criticism that in a democratic society would be viewed as entirely legal and normal as incitement of inter-ethnic hatred and thus deserving of punishment under Paragraph 282 ... >> full
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