Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Release of Nemtsov Report Due May 28

Many are wondering which ideology Russia is following: ethnic Nationalism or an Eurasian cult of personality? It doesn't really matter. This much is sure: it will be pre-modern in mentality, collectivist in nature and the people will be subordinated to the state. Some think that's hot!



Feb. 28, 2015 Weather camera of Russian TV station TVC showing the shooter of Boris Nemtsov before and after the killing. The moment itself is interrupted by a snow clearing vehicle.

UPDATE: On Thursday, May 28, 2015 the Atlantic Council is presenting the English translation of the Nemtsov report. The Atlantic Council report, Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine, provides irrefutable evidence exposing the breadth and depth of Russian military involvement in Ukraine’s east. Drawing upon publicly available information, the report documents the movement of Russian troops from training camps into Ukraine. It also demonstrates that many artillery strikes on Ukraine originate in Russia and examines the wide array of Russian military equipment in the hands of so-called separatist forces. Boris Nemtsov, the Russian opposition leader murdered in view of the Kremlin in Moscow on February 27, 2015, reached the same conclusion: Putin’s war is being fought in Ukraine at the cost of Russian lives. Published posthumously in Russian, Nemtsov’s report, Putin. War., will be released for the first time in English by the Free Russia Foundation. (Source)




March 2, 2015

Kremlin Cams Off During Boris Nemtsov Murder




March 1, 2015

Boris Nemtsov Murderer Caught On Weather Cam

Who done it? The CIA, NATO, the Mossad, the Islamis, the opposition, the 5th column, the mob?

Jan. 28, 2015

Russia Ends Nuclear Security Treaty With US



Russia's nuclear sites.

(...) In the previously undisclosed discussions, the Russians informed the Americans that they were refusing any more US help protecting their largest stockpiles of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium from being stolen or sold on the black market. The declaration effectively ended one of the most successful areas of cooperation between the former Cold War adversaries. “I think it greatly increases the risk of catastrophic terrorism,” said Sam Nunn, the former Democratic senator from Georgia and an architect of the “cooperative threat reduction” programs of the 1990s. Official word came in a terse, three-page agreement signed on Dec. 16. A copy was obtained by the Globe, and a description of the Moscow meeting was provided by three people who attended the session or were briefed on it. They declined to be identified for security reasons.  Russia’s change of heart was not unexpected. The Globe reported in August that US officials were concerned about the future of the programs, because of increased diplomatic hostilities between the United States and Russia. The New York Times reported in November that it appeared likely many of the programs would end. (Source)




Jan. 19, 2015

Russia Condemns Charlie Hebdo Cartoons

Charlie Hebdo cartoon. 

UPDATE: Russia's media watchdog on Jan. 16 warned publications that printing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad was against the country's law and ethical norms following the Charlie Hebdo attack in France. "The publication in Russian media of such caricatures go against ethical and moral norms worked out over centuries," said the media and communications watchdog Roskomnadzor. (...) Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on Friday sentenced Mark Galperin, an opposition activist who held up a "Je Suis Charlie" poster near the Kremlin last Saturday, to eight days of arrest. Another picketer, 75-year-old Vladimir Ionov, was fined. Both were found guilty of staging an unsanctioned public event. (Source) H/t @TimEngelbart @HVV_com


Jan. 5, 2015

Navalny Cuts Monitoring Tag, Refuses House Arrest



Dec. 30, 2014


Russian Opposition Demo After Sentence Navalny



UPDATE: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (Wiki) has been arrested at a protest in Moscow, hours after being given a suspended sentence for fraud. His brother Oleg had been given a three-and-a-half-year prison term for the same offence. Navalny had tweeted a picture of himself (above) on the way to the Manezh Square rally and was later pictured there. He says the charges were politically motivated and linked to his opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny had called on his supporters to "take to the streets" after the sentencing. He then tweeted a selfie on a metro carriage, with the caption: "House arrest- yes. But today I really want to be with you. That's why I'm going too #Manezhka". Upon arriving at the rally, police detained the opposition leader and put him into a police van. After his arrest, he sent a tweet saying that he "had not got as far as the square". "I call on everyone not to leave until they are forced to," he said. "They cannot arrest everyone". Navalny twitter "I'm going too," said Navalny on Twitter Just before his arrest, he told reporters that his motivation was "not my brother, my family, myself or some specific people" but "this disgusting outrage that has been going for many years". Television pictures from Manezh Square showed hundreds of people gathered in temperatures below -10C. (Source)




Russia in Crisis: Putin Dug Himself a Hole


Vladimir Putin has successfully suppressed dissent, squeezed out opposition and clamped down on the media, but he has not been able to control global financial markets. In recent days the rouble has collapsed; it has lost almost 40% of its value over three weeks. This is the biggest crisis of Mr Putin’s reign—and it is entirely his fault. Mr Putin will no doubt blame all the usual suspects—Western speculators who bet against his currency, Western imperialists who imposed sanctions on his economy, Western economists who failed to forecast that the oil price (down by half over six months) would fall as far as it has and, of course, Western newspapers that told him that his policies would lead to disaster. But the crisis is the inevitable consequence of Putinism—of aggression abroad and a corrupt-and-control economy at home. (Source)




Dec. 28, 2014

Russia Revises Military Doctrine

President Vladimir Putin of Russia has signed a revised version of the country's military doctrine, which identifies major threats to security. The new document promotes the use of Russia's conventional, non-nuclear forces as a deterrent. Chief among new threats identified by planners are the armed conflict in neighbouring Ukraine as well as events in the Middle East and Afghanistan.  (...) Russia's air force has also stepped up patrolling in international airspace close to Nato states while the Russian navy has raised its international profile to a lesser extent. Nato expansion into eastern Europe remains the main military threat identified in the new planning document, published (in Russian) on the Kremlin website, which replaces the 2010 doctrine. (...) the Russian Security Council announced in a statement (in Russian) that the new doctrine would take account of "the emergence of new threats for Russia, which became evident in the situation in Ukraine and around it and the events in Northern Africa, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan". (...) unnamed "leading states" were taking "indirect action" to advance their interests. They were, it said, using "the population's potential for protest, radical and extremist organisations, and private military companies". (...) The doctrine remains defensive in nature, the Russian Security Council stressed, and regards use of military force only as a last resort. As well as possessing a nuclear arsenal to rival that of the US, Russia maintains one of the largest conventional armies in the world, numbering just over 766,000 active officers and soldiers as of last year, compared to America's 1,370,000. (Source)




Background

The Putin System (2009)

CBC's "The Passionate Eye" presents The Putin System - a documentary that presents an ominous view of what Putin is willing to do to ensure Russia regains its position on the world stage



The Putin System is directed by Jean-Michel Carré in association with Jill Emery for the French production company Les Films Grain De Sable.

The Putin System (2009) chronicles the remarkable life of Putin, a tough, young leader who is not afraid to make harsh decisions and holds a secret purpose-to restore the old Russia of his dreams. If he must create a fascist system in which the government controls the economy, as well as every other aspect of life, then so be it. The docu brings us back to the days of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and how the elections were stolen. A wrong only righted earlier this year, but at a cost. The Crimea peninsula is almost certainly lost, while eastern Ukraine is on the brink of civil war. If Vladimir Putin looks like a real strongman compared to Western hapless leaders, this does not make Putin a better man, just a more dangerous one.

Russia archive >>>


Related


Posted by at