AUGUST 2007

International Herald Tribune, by Iva Savic
August 10, 2007


"The source of Russia's well-being and prosperity is the people of this country. It is the state's duty to ensure that this principle is reflected in deed and not just in word. I believe that this is one of the priority tasks we face today and that we cannot resolve this task unless we ensure the rights and liberties of our citizens, organize the state itself effectively and develop democracy and civil society."

- President Vladimir Putin in his 2006 State of the Nation Address

Seven years ago, Yusup Musayev witnessed the killing of seven relatives during a Russian military mop-up operation in Novye Aldy, Chechnya. It was just one of the many tragedies that took place on Feb. 5, 2000, when more than 50 civilians lost their lives. Since then, the Russian judiciary has shown little interest in identifying the culprits, despite an abundance of evidence.

Last month, the European Court of Human Rights brought some closure for the Chechen ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 8/12/2007 3:36 PM
Revealed: why those Russian submarine heroics might have looked a little familiar

· Underwater footage was borrowed from Titanic
· 13-year-old boy spotted scenes shot with models
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Saturday August 11, 2007

Guardian
Unearthly blue lights played across the ocean floor two and a half miles below the north pole as the heroic Russian explorers descended in mini submarines to plant a metre-high flag.

At least that's what the Russian state television company Rossiya wanted us to believe. The truth was rather different.

In an apparent attempt to "sex up" a news programme, the TV station has been caught passing off footage from the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster Titanic as a real life report on the Kremlin's recent attempt to stake its claim to the riches of the Arctic Ocean.

Rossiya's images were distributed all over the world, appearing on television news broadcasts and websites in Britain and as "screen grabs" in newspapers.

It took an alert teenager in Finland with a Titanic DVD to ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 8/21/2007 4:24 PM
lunedì 13 agosto 2007
ANNA POLITKOVSKAJA MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN

It will be one year on the 7th of October from the day Anna Politovskaja was killed on the doorstep of her home in Moscow.
Whoever it was who shot his gun at her four times was not disguised, and yet is still unpunished, and the same can be said of all those who ordered that the bravest journalist Russia could remember should be killed.
Nobody knew Anna her own country, just as president Putin stated, with a delicate sense of opportunity, only a few hours after her execution. Small wonder: Anna’s books on Chechnya and on the democratic involution of Russia have never been published over there. Freedom of the press is under threat in Russia, ever since the ruler at the Cremlin is an ex Kgb officer.
Yet, notwithstanding threats and deaths by poison, Anna had decided not to leave her own country, Russia.
Her courageous reportages on human rights violations ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 8/21/2007 6:01 PM
Wake-up call

Tuesday, Aug. 21 2007

After nearly six years of hearing the Bush administration make assertions
about the war on terrorism that turn out to be — to put it kindly — overblown,
Congress and the public it represents should be wary about surrendering
personal liberties for dubious claims of greater security.

Recent days have brought two reminders that America still has a tough time
being hard on terrorism without being soft on liberty. The first was Congress'
abdication of its responsibilities in approving changes in the 1978 Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act. The second was the conviction last week of Jose
Padilla, the one-time alleged "dirty bomber," on charges unrelated to those
that got his constitutional rights suspended.

The House and Senate, in a hurry to begin their August recess, approved the
FISA changes Aug. 4; instead of reining in the administration's abuses of the
FISA law — including warrantless eavesdropping on electronic communications —
Congress actually may have made the problem worse.

Under the new language, the government need not get ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 8/21/2007 9:07 PM
Caspian pipeline war
Publication time: 18 August 2007, 20:35
Fifteen years after the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, a covert Cold War has sprung up over the issue of developing the energy assets of the Caspian, with Russia and the United States once again at odds.

Both sides have had successes and failures, and the shadow conflict is not destined to end anytime soon. The case of Azerbaijan epitomizes both the promise and peril of developing Caspian energy.

At issue is the exploitation of a vast reserve of oil and natural gas. In May 2007 the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that by 2015 Caspian basin energy production could reach 4.3 million barrels per day, concluding that in addition to the region's proven reserves of 17 billion to 49 billion barrels, comparable to Qatar at the lower estimate and Libya on the high end. The region could contain an additional reservoir of hydrocarbons up to 235 billion barrels of ...
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