Sunday, May 12, 2013

Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia’s FBI-like Investigative Committee, here criticizes Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov for a talk Surkov gave at the London School of Economics


“Looking from London, Don’t Blame the Mirror”
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Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia’s FBI-like Investigative Committee, here criticizes Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov for a talk Surkov gave at the London School of Economics last week in which he criticizes the Committee’s heavy-handedness in investigating allegations of corruption in the Skolkovo project, designed to create a tech sector capital outside of Moscow. Following Markin’s piece in Izvestia, Surkov tendered his resignation as deputy prime minister. [Note: the title of this piece is reference to Gogol’s Inspector General: “Don’t blame the mirror if you have a crooked face.”]
What was the story that some leaders of big projects used to tell? They would say that their job was to ensure a large-scale result, and if in some places they sometimes nagged us in banal ways and stole — that was not our problem, it was only the negligence of the auditors, the investigation or other law-enforcers.
The times are changing, however, and with them the excuses and mantras of effective managers. Now it’s just the opposite in our country; when there is a lack of results from large-scale projects, the Investigative Committee will always be to blame. They come to search creative guys at 8:00 a.m. strictly according to the Code of Criminal Procedures, or they frighten off a foreign guest in the corridors of Skolkovo with procedural actions. How can you advance innovation and attract investment under such conditions?
It must be noted that nowadays, “effective managers” have a new fashion.  As soon as there is a search at the multi-story mansions of a vice governor of a poor region, immediately his colleagues scream about a political directive, satraps from the Investigative Committee and the Accounts Chamber. It is fashionable now to be strictly a political prisoner; you can immediately count on the attention of the BBC and even on the support of Amnesty International. Perhaps that is exactly why the handlers of such particularly effective managers prefer right off to perform an aria as a Moscow guest in London to a targeted audience. They call this groan a song.  But the song is so pathetic, right in the walls of the London School of Economics: “The Investigative Committee is too hasty, loudly proclaiming abuses in Skolkovo. The energy with which the Investigative Committee is making its thinking public makes ordinary people feel that there’s been a crime. Let them prove that these people are guilty of a crime” [reference to Surkov’s LSE speech --ed].
In that connection, the citizens of Russia, including those who work at the Investigative Committee, have a rhetorical question: how long would a cabinet member of Her Majesty’s Government last in his seat if while on a private visit to Moscow he publicly condemned Scotland Yard for performing its direct duties? Apparently we have too liberal a regimen here in Moscow by comparison.
Now it may be that even a brief stay at the Skolkovo Zone has an overpowering influence on the innovative “pathfinders,” forcing them to go contrary to the conventions acceptable in decent society.  Let us say, they assigned a citizen from the Forbes list as someone who is not needy, to preserve the honor of Skolkovo anew [a reference to Viktor Vekselberg, about whom Surkov said in his LSE speech that he was so rich he would be motivated to implicate himself for the sake of money --ed]. So he up and gives himself a compensation of 2 million under the influence of the Zone. And only after an inspection from the Accounts Chamber reduces it to a sum that is more appropriate for a start-up. Again, the mysterious story of the lectures of Deputy Igor Ponomarev is easily explained by the “Skolkovo anomaly.” Well, what were these top managers smoking when they signed such a contract?
Although there is a quite rational explanation for the Skolkovo and other “anomalies.” The Investigative Committee, according to its status defined by the Code of Criminal Procedures, investigates high-impact cases regarding so-called special subjects, including deputies, governors, officials, lawyers and often experienced top managers in companies. These are all seasoned and experienced people. They long ago grasped that in our time, the status of an inveterate opponent of the government is even very profitable. When it comes down to it, you can pass off a mundane criminal prosecution for embezzlement as political persecution. You can get a lot of attention on social media and even the right to asylum in London. Certain virtuosos of political PR even cleverly manage to make such pirouettes while in the leadership of the government they are protesting against.
However, PR is PR, and business is business. No one has abolished the Code of Criminal Procedures, and investigators are obliged to ask questions if there are facts and concrete suspicions. No moans about political motives can help here. Only one thing will help: if you want large-scale projects, innovation and investments to be implemented, then just don’t create conditions for embezzlement and control your managers. Then everything will work out for you.
The author is the director of the department for liaison with mass media of the Russian Federation Investigative Committee.

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  • Russia and The West Deputy Prime Minister – Chief of the Government Staff Vladislav Surkov’s answers to audience questions at the London School of Economics and Political Science

В беседе с журналистами «Русского пионера» Сурков поведал, что намерен писать политическую комедию на основе реальных событий


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Putin's Corruption Trap - 16 April 2013 - Institute of Modern Russia


Putin's Corruption Trap
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16 April 2013
The fight against corruption is a perpetual topic in Russia: it has been discussed for centuries, but almost no one believes that the situation can ever be improved. For the last five years, however, the Russian government seems to have become more involved in the problem. Since last fall, a number of big corruption scandals have broken. Political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya considers whether the fight against corruption is the government's real objective or just another instrument to solve the Kremlin's political problems.


The numbers that experts use to describe the extent of corruption in Russia are definitely not for the faint-hearted. National Anti-Corruption Committee Chairman Kirill Kabanov has recently estimated the corruption market in Russia at around $300 billion a year, which is considerably more than the $300 to 500 million that the illicit drug market launders annually. According to Kabanov, "typical bribes—that is, low-level corruption—that we hear about in criminal cases and which amount to 80 percent, I think, in our country, do not form this market." He further explains, "First of all, this market is formed due to the distribution of the budget in terms of corruption, state property, and natural resources management. These are the main sectors of the corruption market." Alexander Savenkov, deputy chairman of the Federation Council's committee on constitutional legislation, said that, according to Interior Ministry statistics, the average level of a bribe in Russia in 2011–2012 amounted to 300,000 rubles ($10,000). The Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights estimates that corruption consumes as much as 50 percent of Russia’s GDP. Top areas for corruption are law-enforcement agencies and the judicial system. These data were included in a 2010 report prepared by Clean Hands, a Russian anticorruption center. Transparency International has ranked Russia 133rd (out of 174 countries) in its 2012 Corruption Perception Index. According to the 2011 "Bribers" Index by Transparency International, out of 28 countries included in the study, Russia had the most corrupt companies when dealing with foreign operations.
Corruption is without doubt the most topical question in Russia, which is destructive for state efficiency, the government's reputation, budget stability, rates of economic growth, competition, and so on. A rapid growth in corruption was noted in 2000, when Vladimir Putin became president. Yet he wants to be seen as the main fighter against corruption. What is really going on?
Having become president, Putin got caught in his own political trap. During his first term (until 2004), he meticulously built the "vertical of power" by replacing Yeltsin's people with his own supporters from St. Petersburg, squeezing out oligarchs, and taking control of state decision-making mechanisms. Personal loyalty played a key role in personnel appointments, with corruption considered an insignificant side effect. Putin's logic was simple: he aimed to gain the maximum control possible over the government in order to make a "breakthrough." He thought that mobilization based on corporatism was needed to "raise the country from its knees."
A rapid growth in corruption was noted in 2000, when Vladimir Putin became president.

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News Review: 5.7-12.13


Medvedev Says Russian Rearmament On Level With WWII
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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says the current level of rearmament of Russia’s military is similar to the Soviet Union's rearmament toward the end of World War II.

Russian opposition marks violent protest
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Demonstrators met in Moscow to mark the day a year ago that ended in clashes with the police and broke the back of the anti-Putin movement
Thousands march against 'thief' Vladimir Putin in central Moscow
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A year on from Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin, thousands of Muscovites rallied in a central Moscow square to protest against his rule. “Putin is a thief!” was a popular chant at the rally. “We are fighting for Russia, for our country, our future,” said Gennady Gudkov a former MP who has been stripped of his mandate since joining the opposition movement.
Russians Protest Prosecutions of Opposition Leaders
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The demonstration occurred on the anniversary of an event that turned violent and precipitated a crackdown by President Vladimir V. Putin. 


Russian protesters call for release of political prisoners
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Up to 20,000 people rally in Moscow a year after violent clashes over Vladimir Putin's third presidential inauguration
Up to 20,000 Russian opposition supporters have protested against the Kremlin, demanding the release of political prisoners. Protests exactly a year ago in the same square the day before Vladimir Putin's third presidential inauguration ended in violent clashes between demonstrators and police.

Participants in Monday's rally, which passed off peacefully amid heavy police cordons, called for the release of more than two dozen people facing criminal charges from last year's protest.
Since Putin returned to office, the authorities have taken legal action against opposition activists, and the Kremlin-controlled parliament has quickly approved a series of repressive bills that sharply increased fines for participation in unauthorised rallies and imposed new restrictions on civil society activists.
Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader facing trial on embezzlement charges he said were fabricated on Putin's orders, urged protesters to "throw [Putin] out of the Kremlin". His chant of "Russia will be free!" was repeated by the crowd.
A scuffle erupted when a small group of pro-Putin activists shouted provocative slogans. Police escorted them away.
A few hours before the rally, a man helping build the stage was killed when sound equipment collapsed on him. Officials are investigating the incident.

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John Kerry in Moscow to push for Syria solutions after Israel airstrikes
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John Kerry is to use a trip to Moscow to convince Russia it must act to break the international deadlock over Syria after President Vladimir Putin intervened directly to demand an explanation for Israeli airstrikes against targets in Syria last weekend.




Saturday, May 11, 2013

U.S.: Russia Withheld Intel on Boston Suspect - WSJ


U.S.: Russia Withheld Intel on Boston Suspect

U.S. officials say Russia failed to share crucial text messages between the mother of alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a relative.

В Волгограде "охотники за геями" изнасиловали и до смерти замучили гомосексуалиста www.unovosti.tv


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10 Мая 2013 23:55
 В ВОЛГОГРАДЕ "ОХОТНИКИ ЗА ГЕЯМИ" ИЗНАСИЛОВАЛИ И ДО СМЕРТИ ЗАМУЧИЛИ ГОМОСЕКСУАЛИСТАИзуродованное тело 23-летнего молодого человека было обнаружено сегодня утром после бурного празднования Дня Победы в одном из дворов Красноармейского района Волгограда недалеко от остановки "Юбилейный". Личность погибшего установили с трудом, поскольку после смерти несчастному разможжили голову. Кроме того мучители унизили свою жертву, искромсав его половые органы и изнасиловав. В частности еще до мучительной смерти погибшего ему извращенным способом трижды ввели пустые бутылки из-под пива.  По горячим следам были задержаны трое  местных жителей. Один из них дал признательные показания и рассказал, что поводом для глумления над погибшим, а потом и зверской расправой послужила его гомосексуальная ориентация и вызывающее поведение, которое задело патриотические чувства группы отморозков, отмечавших праздник 9-е мая. Выяснилось, что до этого банда молодых людей, а убивали погибшего двое, один проходит как свидетель, уже нападали на лиц нетрадиционной ориентации. Следователи СУ СК региона продолжают расследование уголовного дела, возбужденного по статье убийство.









































Новые подробности расследования читайте здесь: http://www.unovosti.tv/newssmiview/2063

Monday, April 29, 2013

The Courage Required to Come Out in Putin's Russia - By Piotr Smolar


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The Courage Required to Come Out in Putin's Russia

By Piotr Smolar
This article originally appeared in Le Monde.
Journalist Anton Krasovsky has committed a significant act in the small world of Moscow's elite - he revealed he was gay.
It was January 25, on Kontr TV - a Kremlin-backed Internet and cable television network he helped to launch. The debate focused on the latest initiative of the Kremlin: the adoption by Parliament of a law prohibiting "propaganda" of homosexuality among minors, punishable by fines of up to 12,000 euros. Such measures already exist in rural cities. But ever since its decriminalization in 1993, the Russian government hadn't organized such an attack on homosexuality - considered by many Russians as a deviancy. A sad legacy of Soviet times.
Aged 37, Krasovsky has frequented the corridors of power for long enough to be immune to sentimentality. That evening, during a show, he dropped a bombshell. He announced that not only was he gay, he was also as human as President Putin, Prime Minister Medvedev and the members of Parliament. He was fired on the spot. Videos of him were deleted from the Kontr TV website and YouTube.
"Russia is a philosophical black hole, nothing is important - and neither is my action," he says. But then why come out so publicly? Because, he says, of the worrying turn the country is taking since the return of Putin to the Kremlin in May 2012.
The multiplication of repressive laws and the development of a populist state, based on the promotion of patriotism, the Orthodox Church and anti-Americanism ended up dissolving the layer of cynicism that was protecting the journalist. This has a name: it is conscience.
"Everything is leading us to a pit where I do not want to fall," says Krasovsky. "Maybe I'll end up there like the rest of the country. But I do not want my name associated with the process. I fight for human rights, not for gays. The time has come to take risks for our rights without waiting for someone to serve them on a fucking platter. Martin Luther King, he was killed!"
Krasovsky was the editor of a popular show for the NTV channel, the Kremlin's favorite weapon to discredit the opposition. In autumn 2011, the man who swears like a sailor when his thoughts are racing, became the pilot of a funny project: the entry into politics, at the request of the Kremlin, of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. "An excellent manager for peacetime, but not a new Yeltsin emerging from all this mud," says Krasovsky.
Today, Krasovsky believes that his career prospects are shot in Russia. He is planning to go abroad for a few months, "in Italy or the United States," to write a book. "It will be about life in the 1990s, the fears, a hero who lies to himself, gays, business and politics."
Oddly enough, Krasovsky is a mix of courage and denial. He believes that "there is no real homophobia in Russia" and that for a gay Russian to be in the closet has deep-rooted "psychological reasons."
"Homosexuals should be liquidated"
In reality, the situation is much starker. Being gay in Moscow and St. Petersburg often forces concealment strategies. No physical contact whatsoever in public. Meeting places are discreet. In October, 20 masked gunmen stormed into a club in Moscow, the 7FreeDays. Several people were injured, including three seriously. No politician, or famous singer or actor has ever come out as a homosexual.

According to a survey published in March, Russian pollster Levada, 50% of Russians said they felt "irritated and disgusted" by gays and lesbians and 18% said they felt "a sense of alertness." For more than one out of three Russians, 34%, homosexuality is "an illness that should be treated," 23% believe it is "the result of a bad education," while 5% say homosexuals should be "liquidated."
In rural regions, the situation is much worse, and homophobia is rampant. According to Igor Kotchetkov, president of the Vykhod (Coming Out) organization in St. Petersburg, the law against homosexual propaganda, passed in January, is part of a broader framework, a repressive road that the Kremlin has embarked on for a year now. "The government panders to its less-educated, most conservative constituents, those who grew up during the Soviet era, lost a lot after the Perestroika and is looking for someone to blame - immigrants or gays."
According to Kotchetkov, it is unimaginable in rural Russia for homosexuals to live together as a couple. You have to register at your parents address. "If you're gay, it is impossible to get a job in education or public services." In addition, there is violence. "Each year we do an Internet survey. Up to 3000 people participate, of which 30% say they have been the victims of a physical assault."
One of the veterans of the gay cause is at an unknown address - for security reasons - in an apartment north of Moscow. These are the offices of Kvir, Russia's first magazine for the gay community, founded in 2003. Vladimir Voloshin, 46, is the editor in chief and only full-time employee.
Kvir recently decided to stop its printed version to focus on the Internet. In Kazan, the newsstands selling the magazine were told they would be being burnt down. In St. Petersburg, the distribution agreement was broken. Fortunately, Internet browsing happens in the privacy of one's home, so the readership is much higher than with the printed version. "Many people were afraid to buy the magazine at their newsstand, admits Voloshin. "Homophobia - that existed in everyday life - is now state-sponsored. The new laws are immoral and discriminating," he adds.
Voloshin's parents still live in Uzbekistan, where he was born. He never told them where he worked. "Most gays refuse to come out, because it's dangerous. We risk losing those close to us," he says.
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Reprinted with permission from Worldcrunch.
Page Printed from: http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2013/04/24/the_courage_required_to_come_out_in_putins_russia_105099-full.html at April 29, 2013 - 04:23:36 AM CDT