MAY 2005

23.05.2005
Against empire of hypocrisy

Some 1,500 protesters demanded greater press freedom and more access to state-dominated television networks at a Yabloko-organized rally Sunday near the Ostankino television tower.

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky told protesters wearing masks reading «Shut Off» and carrying signs reading «News Is Propaganda» and «Down With Censorship!» that Russia had no freedom of the press.

«The freedom of the press is not the freedom of propaganda or pornography. It is the freedom to discuss the hardest questions and to find answers," Yavlinsky said, making a rare public appearance since he and his liberal party failed to get elected to the State Duma in 2003.

Many of those at the protest, which included Communists and activists from the radical National Bolshevik Party, wore orange T-shirts in a nod to Ukraine’s pro-democracy Orange Revolution and held posters showing jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

«It is no coincidence that we are gathered here at Ostankino. ...
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is run from Denmark ...
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QUOTATIONS OF THE WEEK. "I think we are seeing with Mr. Putin the final gasp of the Soviet era. The Soviet system is dead and the Soviet Union has disintegrated, but the Soviet elite still dominates Moscow, politically, and through Moscow, it dominates Russia. But that elite is increasingly fading from the scene. It is also increasingly self-isolated.... I expect that over the next several years, we'll see far-reaching changes in Russia. Especially when the younger, more genuinely post-Soviet elite begins to push to the top." -- Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, in a 7 May telephone interview with RFE/RL's Romania-Moldova Service.

"Part of the dilemma that Russia faces is that its nostalgia for an imperial status creates sustained and extensive hostility with all of its neighbors. It is impossible to mention a single neighbor of Russia with whom Russia has genuinely good relations. It is ...
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Photo from www.waldspecht.de

Photo from www.waldspecht.de
MI5 Warns British Govt of Russian Attempts to Resume Cold War Spy Tactics

Created: 16.05.2005 14:59 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:59 MSK > document.write(get_ago(1116241181)); </SCRIPT>

MosNews

The British intelligence service, MI5, has warned its government that Russia has resumed Cold War spying tactics in Britain, The Daily Telegraph wrote Sunday.

The Security Service, which is responsible for counter-espionage within Britain, circulated the confidential document last month in response to an increase in the activities of Russian intelligence agents.

The document warns that Russian spies are traveling widely throughout Britain and pose a “substantial” espionage threat. The document also warns that any suspected spies should not be stopped, questioned or followed but that their activities should be reported to Special Branch officers and passed on to MI5.

The suspected spies — who include about 30 accredited Russian diplomats — are said to be attempting to obtain secret information about Britain’s military capabilities and ...
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Putin boosts EU ties but blasts Baltics
by
Wednesday 11 May 2005 6:06 AM GMT

Putin (L) held talks with EU leaders to improve cooperation

Russia's agreement with the European Union to strengthen ties has been tarnished by Russian President Vladimir Putin's tirade on his Baltic neighbours.

Putin angrily accused Baltic states on Tuesday of "political demagoguery" in churning up historic resentment towards <st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City>, souring a summit designed to cement relations between the EU and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p>

Putin was speaking minutes after <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region> signed the agreement with the EU to strengthen ties that have frayed since 2004 when ascension of new states - including three former Soviet Baltic republics - brought the bloc to Russian borders. <o:p></o:p>

"We are ready to sign an agreement on borders ... with <st1:country-region w:st="on">Estonia</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Latvia</st1:country-region></st1:place>. We hope they will not be accompanied by idiotic - in terms of their content - demands of ...
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