APRIL 2005

    
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/13/2005 6:40 AM
13.04.2005
They liked it

Putin’s thoughts about “the third presidential term” which is “not forbidden by the Russian Constitution” shocked a little a part of the political beau monde not quite satisfied with “reforms” carried out by the KGB lieutenant colonel due to its “independence from the state.” This distinctive feature of Russian politics has been known for long time: any opposition figures begins “ardently supporting” all “brilliant” initiatives of the Kremlin as soon as the president’s team puts him down for state allowances. It can be applied not only to politicians (democrats, communists, “liberals” of Zhirinovsky), but also journalists and human rights campaigners.

We shall also note – as a rule, the Kremlin makes offers which “are impossible to reject.” There is no need to give concrete names – they are widely known. Frankly speaking, there are mad people, ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/18/2005 4:01 AM

Monday, April 18, 2005.
    

Sidelining the Opposition
By Nikolai Petrov
In the world of Russian soccer, coaches and the president of the national governing body have been fired in the quest for success; you can't get rid of the opponents, after all. In Russian politics, on the other hand, the rules are changed so that the president and lower-tier officials can sideline their opponents and hold onto their jobs.

A slate of amendments to election laws submitted to the State Duma by President Vladimir Putin, along with the bill on Duma elections passed in a second reading last week, is the latest step in a sweeping transformation of the entire electoral system. This is Putin's second crack at election reform, and it may prove more radical than the first, especially when you figure in the recently implemented system of appointing governors and the shift away from direct mayoral elections that is part of the ongoing reform of municipal government.

At ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/19/2005 12:50 PM
19.04.2005
Rice’s “Russia gambit”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting Russia for the first time as America’s top diplomat, is expected to promote an agenda of closer security and defense cooperation, as well as to reiterate Western concerns related to Vladimir Putin’s commitment to democracy. Balancing both policy agenda, Rice is expected to press head with the former and approach latter indirectly.

Slated to visit Moscow for two days starting Tuesday, Rice has made it clear U.S. policy toward Russia is one of engagement, but with concerns about what her predecessor Colin Powell called «Russia’s democratic backsliding." As Rice departed for Moscow, she echoed some of the same sentiment, stating: «Our relationship with Russia holds enormous potential, and we can do even more together as Russia moves along a democratic path."

Is Rice’s approach toward Russia the same as Powell’s? One could ask and even question whether Rice is of the same mind when it comes to U.S. policy toward Russia ...
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18.04.2005
After Maskhadov

The liquidation of Aslan Maskhadov — a new stage of the coup d’йtat in Russia?

Maskhadov is dead. But the war continues, because the death of the president of unrecognised Ichkeria has not so far solved any of the essential problems. Yet could it?

However, in order to answer the question «What will happen in Chechnya now?» we must at least know what the disposition of forces was at the moment of Aslan Maskhadov’s murder, and what was the resistance’s real potential. And this is a tricky problem that contains many unknowns.

If it is really true that Maskhadov held in his hands all the controlling threads of military operations, their planning and coordination — then yes, the blow was a powerful one, and the movement was decapitated, if only for the simple reason that there was among the separatists no other figure of equivalent stature, either from the point of view of purely human authority or of military talent. While Shamil Basayev, now de facto becoming ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/19/2005 1:27 PM
April, 19, 2005

"Pragmatic Slaves"

Once again the favorite policy carried out by Russia in the Chechen Republic pushes itself to a precipice once again. Knowing neither Chechens, nor their historical roots, with silly conceit continuing to revel in its nonexistent "greatness", Russia has turned into a blind machine, destroying everything in its way. And only having collided with the movement of the Chechen Resistance, this machine stops, - however, not really realizing with what it has actually collided.

At all times the victories of Russia were reached by that they used the superiority in strength, prevalence of manpower resources. The matter is not that Russian soldiers are at war worse or better than soldiers of other armies; the matter is that always the tyrannical Russian state preferred to cover its ideological inconsistency, its antinational essence (tyrannical state regimes can never be "national") with use of the gun meat thrown for indemnification of failures in external or internal policy. Having ...
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