Window On Eurasia: Russia Isn’t A Democracy And Needn’t Become One, Some United Russia Advisors Say
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posted by eagle on June, 2009 as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 10 – Russia should not be considered a democracy nor does it need to pursue democratization in the immediate future, according to a report prepared by a Moscow group which enjoys close links to and thus may well reflect the thinking of Vladimir Putin and his United Russia Party.
The Institute of Social Forecasting, “Vedomosti” reports today, reaches those conclusions in a new report based on discussions with more than 100 officials, politicians and academics that is slated to be delivered to the November 4th Liberal-Conservative Club of the United Russia Party (www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml?2009/06/10/199781).
The Moscow newspaper obtained an advance copy of the report and quotes liberally from it. According to the Institute study, “it is difficult to recognize the political system of Russia as a liberal democracy.” Governors are appointed in ...
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Window On Eurasia: Could A Social Chamber Club Become Russia’s Nationalities Chamber?
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 10 – Some in a new club consisting of the non-Russian members of the Social Chamber are thinking about transforming it into a Nationalities Chamber, a step that would certainly attract more attention to ethnic issues in that country but one that the Russian government might use to reduce still further the representation of nationalities in other bodies.
Yesterday, the press service of the Russian Social Chamber announced the first meeting of that body’s Club of Nationalities, a group Nikolai Svanidze, chairman of the chamber’s commission on inter-ethnic relations, said will allow its members to attract greater attention to their ideas (www.oprf.ru/newsblock/news/2494/chamber_news?returnto=0&n=1).
Svanidze stressed that the club “is an absolutely independent discussion space for current problems of nationality policy,” a description that is likely to lead many to conclude that it is just another talk ... >> full
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Window On Eurasia: Crimean Tatars Threaten To ‘Block Ukraine’s Path To Europe’
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 10 – Declaring that Kyiv’s neglect of their rights leaves them no choice, a group of Crimean Tatar activists said this week that they will “block Ukraine’s path to the European Union” by providing information to “every Council of Europe mission” about “the genocide [against the Crimean Tatars] that is taking place in our days.”
Yesterday, Rinat Shaymardanov of the Avdet Social Organization, which has organized a Crimean Tatar hunger strike in front of the Ukrainian council of ministers building, handed out a declaration saying that if Kyiv continues to treat them as an “unimportant” issue, the Crimean Tatars will act to ensure that their situation becomes “the main problem” of Ukraine.
In its effort to join the European Union, he said, “Ukraine presents itself as a legal democratic state.” But the experience of the ...
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Window On Eurasia: Moscow Dramatically Expanding Electronic Monitoring Of The Population
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 9 – A system of video monitoring Vladimir Putin introduced in 2005 ostensibly to fight street crime has since been extended to 53 of Russia’s federal districts and is now being used as part of a countrywide electronic network to “control the population,” according to a leading Moscow specialist on the security services.
In the latest of her series of articles on the modernization of Russia’s security services, Agentura.ru editor Irina Borogan describes the ways in which these agencies are combining video monitoring with other local and federal data bases to increase the ability of the authorities to monitor any and all opposition activity (www.ej.ru/?a=note&id=9157).
Russian officials have acknowledged that their goal is to ensure “public order” by bringing together all the sources of information they have about groups like football fanatics, extremist youth groups, and ...
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Window On Eurasia: Russia Now More Centralized than In Soviet Times, Bashkir President Says
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posted by eagle on as Imperialism
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 5 – Russia today is “a one-party system” with a level of centralization “worse than in Soviet times,” according to Murtaza Rakhimov, the longtime and often outspoken president of Bashkortostan who, many Moscow observers say, may soon be sent into retirement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
But his indictment of the current system merits attention regardless of whether they are the swansong of someone who knows he is a lame duck, as his “Moskovsky komsomolets” interviewer implied (www.mk.ru/politics/293874.html), or a reflection of what many regional leaders think, as a Kasparov.ru observer said (www.sobkorr.ru/news/4A28D3C6715D8.html).
Rakhimov, who rose to his current position at the end of Soviet times, has been re-elected several times, and dominates the political and economic scene in Ufa, denied that he was playing “the nationalist card” to save his job. Indeed, ...
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