More problems in Nigeria, Russia producing less oil, the weak dollar and China's demand shot up 8% from March 2007. In other words, same old, same old. And the dollar has hit an all time record low, trading at $1.60 to the Euro. Absolutely shameful.
Just a simple coincidence, no doubt. After all, Bush did look into his heart and I think we all know Bush's judgment is infallible.
Moskovsky Korrespondent, the newspaper that first reported rumours of a marriage between Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, a 24-year-old gymnast, has closed, shortly after the President told journalists it was unacceptable to pry into his private life with "snotty noses and erotic fantasies".
A friend of mine asked me to give a shout-out to this issue, and I am, because Russia is in its own way just as scary as China (they have more nukes, for one thing).
Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky is the former leader of Yukos Oil, a privately-owned Russian energy company, and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. He was thrown in jail shortly after he funded political opposition parties in Russia. Within a year the Russian government seized Yukos' assets and gave them to the state-owned oil company called Rossneft. Additional charges of tax evasion suddenly appeared shortly before Khodorkovksy was scheduled for parole. Everyone from Colin Powell to the late Tom Lantos has called for their release. You can find more information at: www.letthemgonow.org
A couple of months ago, a Russian Human Rights Lawyer named Lev Ponomorev came to the US to try to drum up media attention in the US about the topic. Last week, BBC reported his offices in Russia were raided and occupied by unidentified people. The story is here.
A rather odd editorial in today's Washington Post criticizing Russian President Putin. Yes, Putin has been rather belligerent of late, but the Post editorial reads like it was penned by an adolescent who was just told he had to be home by midnight. The editorial - clearly written by Post neo-con Fred Hiatt - isn't a criticism of Russia's lurch back towards dictatorship, rather, it's a criticism of Russia saying mean things about democracy. And democracy, fair lady that she is, apparently can't hold up to criticism.
Per the Post:
IN THE PAST few days, the anti-Western rhetoric of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which had been rising in pitch for several months, has reached Soviet levels of shrillness. He accused the United States of "imperialism" and "diktat" and threatened to target Europe with new Russian weapons. In an interview with foreign journalists, he cynically mocked Western democracy, saying that U.S. "torture, homelessness, [and] Guantanamo" and Europe's "harsh treatment of demonstrators" have left him as the only "absolute and pure democrat" in the world.
Talk about shrill.
Yeah, okay, the threat against Europe was a bit over the top, but it's not as if we haven't issued our own military challenge to Russia in their own backyard (Eastern European missile shield, anyone?). As for the rest of the what Putin said, save his comment about being a "democrat" (meaning, pro-democracy), what exactly did Putin get wrong? That our foreign policy under Bush and the Republicans isn't a tad imperialistic? That we don't expect the world to shut up and do what we say? (Hell, that's the way Bush and the GOP treat domestic dissent as well.) That torture, homelessness and the ongoing abuse that is Gitmo isn't a mockery of our very democracy? Sure is, and it doesn't take a former communist spy leader to see it.
Yes, what bothers Fred Hiatt about Putin's comments aren't the actual substance of the comments, it's the very fact that Putin would dare to say anything at all critical of the good 'ole U S of A. Putin dared to "mock Western democracy," you see. And everyone knows that the first rule of a democracy is "please don't speak your mind," and its corollary, don't ever ever ever criticize the government.
So it's no longer okay in civilized, democratic societies to mock our own government, our politicians, even our system of governance? Then what exactly are our soldiers dying for in Iraq anyway, Mr. Hiatt, if not the very freedoms that you and the Bush administration seem to have such increasing contempt for? (Let alone the irony of a newspaperman criticizing someone's opinion not on the basis of that opinion, but on the very fact that they had the audacity to issue an opinion at all.)
Democracy is more than a bumper sticker, Mr. Hiatt. At some point, you and the other neo-cons running the Republican party need to come to terms with your obvious dissatisfaction at being forced to live in in a country whose founding principles so offend you.
This is what Russia is becoming again - or still is - as George Bush and Condi Rice sit idly by. Eastern Europe, from Moscow to Warsaw, is still struggling to understand freedom and democracy, and not doing so well it would seem, as we ignore them. Rather than rely on the reports of gay advocates present at the event, let's read what the independent mainstream media had to say - it's hideous.
Police detained Russian gay community leader Nikolai Alexeyev and several European lawmakers in central Moscow at the start of the demonstration by dozens of homosexual rights activists campaigning for an end to sexual discrimination.
Dozens of Russian right-wing extremists converged on the group, shouting insults like "fags," "perverts" and "death to homosexuals," throwing eggs and punching and kicking gay demonstrators in front of riot police who intervened much later.
The police also systematically arrested both the attackers and the assaulted. The gay rights activists were also assaulted by ultra-nationalists and Orthodox Church hardliners....
Also detained were Volker Beck, a member of Germany's parliament; Marco Cappato, an Italian member of the European Parliament, and veteran British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. The politicians have since been released.
Yes, the police sat by while European members of parliament were violently attacked. The police then proceeded to arrest the members of parliament and others who were victims of the violence.
Marco Cappato, a European Parliament deputy from Italy, was kicked by one opponent as he spoke to journalists. Cappato began shouting "Where are the police? Why don't you protect us?" and officers hauled him away as he struggled....
Thirty-one people were detained and most were later released, Moscow police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev said. He said two Italians were detained for jaywalking and a German was taken away by police to prevent him from being beaten....
No gay rights opponents were seen taken away by police, though Gildeyev said a man was detained after attacking a Briton, presumably referring to Tatchell.
Richard Fairbrass, a gay singer with the pop group Right Said Fred, was punched in the face and kicked by anti-gay activists while speaking to Reuters in an interview.
"We understand this is a gay event and so we came down here today," Fairbrass said before being hit. Blood dripped from his face after the attack. Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell was knocked to the ground and kicked twice. When he got up he was punched in the face again and taken away by two riot policemen....
Volker Beck, a German Green Party politician, was hit in the face with eggs before being detained by riot police. "We didn't do anything," he told Reuters as he was led away.
Alekeyev and two other organizers of the march - dubbed the “Moscow Gay Pride Three” were detained overnight Sunday awaiting a court hearing and sources close to them told UK Gay News that they feared he may be sent to prison: "We really fear that Nikolai Alekseev will be sent to prison for 15 days as the 'figurehead' of the Gay Pride organising team...Unofficially, we received confirmation that this is what the General Prosecutor already asked. We are not very optimistic about the result of the court hearing. We can say that all three have been provided with legal assistance."
The sources allege: "[It is] becoming very clear that orders are being given to court and militia directly from [the] Kremlin."
Sadly, these are countries that want to be treated as equals. They want to become a member of the civilized, developed world (the EU, NATO), yet in many ways, they are not yet civilized, they are not yet developed. They're slipping back into the sort of violent totalitarianism that made them our mortal enemy for 70 years.
