Posted by Sean on June 12, 2007
Vladimir Putin threw a curve ball into the “who will be the next Russian President” guessing game. Kommersant reports that he told reports at the G8 Summit that his successor should be “a decent and honest person with a high level of professional qualities and work experience who has proven himself well and positively either in a region or at the federal level,” adding that that person might be “some governor.” Putin’s comments prompted the business daily to run an article titled “75 Successors to Many.”
I love how any illusion that the Russian Presidential election will be democratic is completely thrown out the window. Yes the election will resemble democracy in the sense that people will vote and that the majority of people might honestly vote for who Putin picks. Putin has the credibility and any formally named successor will immediately be the front runner. ..read more
Posted by Sean on June 12, 2007
The consecration of two memorials, one in the US the other in Russia, caught my attention as I was perusing the Russian news. The first is the so-called Victims of Communism Memorial which was dedicated in Washington DC today. The Memorial is the work of the Victim’s of Communism Memorial Foundation which seeks “to commemorate the more than 100 million victims of communism; to honor those who successfully resisted communist tyranny; to educate current and future generations about communism’s crimes against humanity; and to pay tribute to those who helped win the Cold War.” As a whole the Foundation seeks to make combat the “moral blind spot” and “moral failure” of “free societies” to not equate Communism with Nazism.
The Foundation’s origins date to HR 3000 which was sponsored by US Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Senator Claiborne Pell, and Senator Jesse Helms and passed unanimously 17 December 1993 and then ..read more
Posted by Sean on June 12, 2007
A few people have pointed to Boris Berezovsky fielding questions from viewers the BBC’s Question Time. According to SRB commenter John, you can watch the program in question until next week.
But it appears that Berezovsky’s TV appearance is not the end of his nattering nabobtivity. The Question Time site also states that he will continue to answer questions via email submission. So for all those interested in asking him tips on ripping off nations, swindling colleagues, organizing contact killings, and setting up paper companies now have their chance.
Sounds like good fun.
Special tanks to John for bringing Question Time to my attention.
Tags: Russia|Boris Berezovsky|Russian oligarchs|Question Time
