Monthly Archives: June 2009

увеличить фото …

On June 22 residents of Voronezh found their local billboards featuring an ominous, but familiar face: Comrade Stalin  “Victory will be ours!” reads a slogan in large white letters below a large picture of the vozhd.  The question, curious residents asked, was why Comrade Stalin’s visage was once again taking such a prominent public space, and more importantly, who put it there? 

According to Kommersant, the Stalin billboards are part of a campaign by the Communist Party to commemorate the 130th birthday of the generalissimo.  Sergei Rudakov, a KPRF regional deputy, told the daily that his party wanted “to remind every resident about the great person and his achievements.  The billboards, which were designed by three advertising companies, cost 8,000 rubles apiece. 

Not everyone was happy to see Stalin dotting the skyline.  Most of all, Voronezh’s city administration, which ordered that the billboards be taken down because, according ..read more

It’s back to court for Pavel Ryaguzov, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov.  Today, the Russian Supreme Court overturned their acquittal in the Anna Politkovskaya murder case.  Reports the NY Times:

The court said the four men, who were accused of assisting the killer of Ms. Politkovskaya, should be tried on the same charges in the same military court in Moscow. In ordering the retrial, the court sided with the prosecution, which argued that there had been procedural violations by the judges and the defense during the original trial, a court spokesman, Pavel Odintsov, said. Other critics, however, including President Dmitri A. Medvedev, cited the prosecution’s errors and unfamiliarity with the jury system, which is relatively new in Russia, in the acquittal.

A statement issued by the Politkovskaya family on Novaya gazeta‘s website said the following the about the Court’s ruling:

We recognize that the trial of every one of the ..read more

There is nothing more hilarious when people give wondrous powers to the United States.  It’s no surprise that Russia Today would feast on a the idea that the “Green Revolution” is a US orchestrated plot.  Russia already convinced itself that every colored revolution was cooked up in Langley.

And this makes Craig Roberts a perfect guest (I know nothing about Wayne Madsen, but his wiki entry suggests that he’s a crank).  He argued that the Iranian protests are  “classic CIA destabilization” in an article on Counterpunch.  What a sad convergence of opinion between  some in the American Left, Russia’s conservatives, and the theocrats in Iran.

The idea among some Leftists that every uprising they don’t like is the work of the CIA (or Mossad) always strikes me as orientalist.

Mikhail Gorbachev has had many roles in his seventy-eight years.  He’s been a Party aktiv, a First Party Kraikom Secretary, Politburo member, General Secretary of the Communist Party, Louis Vuitton model, and global philanthropist.  Gorbachev, of course, is best known for concocting perestroika and glasnost, two reforms which aided the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now Gorby can add another role to his long CV: recording artist.

Yes, Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev has recorded an album (with Russian rock star Andrei Makarevich) of romantic songs titled Songs to Raisa in dedication to his wife.  The album, of which only one copy exists, has already sold out.  An unknown British philanthropist bought it for a whopping $169,940 at an auction to raise money for the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation.  Reports Sean Michaels in the Guardian:

An “anonymous British philanthropist” bought what we suppose is Mikhail Gorbachev’s “debut album”, Songs for Raisa, in London this week, ..read more

Robert Fisk, who has been reporting daily from the Tehran, provides Ahmadinejad’s contribution to the theory of colored revolution:

In the aftermath of the Ahmadinejad “success” at the polls, his supporters were handing out leaflets condemning the secular revolutions of Eastern Europe, and their content says much about the anxieties of Iran’s clerical leadership. One of them was entitled: “The system of trying to topple an Islamic Republic in a ‘velvet revolution’.” It then described how it believes Poland, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and other nations won their freedom.

“‘Velvet’ or ‘colourful’ revolutions… are methods of exchanging power for social unrest. Colourful and ‘velvet’ revolutions occurred in post-communist societies of central and Eastern Europe and central Asia. Colourful revolutions have always been initiated during an election and its methods are as follows:

“1. Complete despair in the attitude of people when they are certain to lose an election…

“2. Choosing one particular colour which is selected ..read more

As hundreds of thousands protesters fill the streets of Tehran and other provincial centers,  one can’t help think that we’ve seen this all before.  So much about the Iranian protests look like the “colored revolutions” in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, (the failed attempts in) Moldova and Belarus. In fact, “colored revolution” has become a preeminent phenomena in our young 21st century. It’s scripted like a bad TV drama with recycled plot lines, characters, and props.  Colored revolutions unfold like ready-made, recyclable skits.   Their ingredients include a “managed democracy,” a contestable election where the opposition claims “foul,” mass protests, a prominent place for “social networking” technologies (SMS, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, and the like), and the adoption of a color to symbolize all political demands.  The dramatic conflict plays out between the “state” and “the opposition” (whether the latter is actually outside the former matters little) over the legitimacy of the election.  ..read more