Russia: Two Video Scandals

Global Voices Online
Saturday, March 27, 2010

In Russia this week it has been hard to miss the two scandals that, at first, appear to have only one thing in common: both are centered around amateur videos published online. What they also share is, perhaps, the feeling of incredulity and disgust that the viewers are left with upon watching the videos, and, in many cases, the outrage.

One scandal involves opposition activist Ilya Yashin (LJ user yashin), political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin, and the Russian Newsweek's editor-in-chief Mikhail Fishman (LJ user mfishman): footage made with a hidden camera shows them allegedly attempting to bribe Moscow traffic police officers, and there is also a video of naked Fishman sitting next to a woman and sniffing white powder off a table. (For a succinct yet comprehensive English-language account of this video scandal, please see the March 23 text by author Michael Idov, published at The Daily Beast: Russia's Amazing Drugs and Hookers Scandal.)

The other scandal takes place in Irkutsk region, where high school students in the town of Shelekhov repeatedly beat up their 73-year-old female PE teacher and then posted the videos of these sparring matches on the web; the teacher reportedly had no memory of the beatings. (A short English-language Sky News item on this, with a video sampling, is here.)

Heated discussions that these two scandals have generated in the blogosphere and in other online venues are taking place on quite different orbits - which nevertheless do have one or two overlap points.

Below are some of the reactions (RUS) to a news item about the PE teacher incident, posted by users of Zavuch.info, a Russian teachers' portal and social network:

Persikotik:

[...] I think the school's administration had to take some urgent steps to avoid a situation like this at the school - instead of being embarrassed to "wash dirty laundry in public." And it is scary that such a video spent a few months on the web, as a tutorial for morons.

***

ann_dro_id:

If we don't stand up for one another, if we don't hold protest rallies, if we don't stand up for our right to defend our honor and dignity, they'll keep on pushing us around! Even drivers don't let themselves be mistreated [e.g., Vladivostok drivers' protest in Dec. 2008]. These are the times when a being a teacher is turning into one of the most dangerous professions. [...]

***

Gritsun Dmitry:

[...] where is it all going if a school employs a teacher who keeps being beaten but doesn't remember anything about it. I'm not saying that the age of 73 is a diagnosis, but memory loss does seem like a pathology. I'm not going to justify the students. Horrible!!!!

Nemiro Lyudmila:

[...] and what if there is no other PE teacher at the school? What then? Who is going to work on this job for such [a miserly pay]? Your suggestions???? Our school hasn't had new teachers right out of college in a million years. Not a single one. They work for a year and [then leave]. And we are SOCHI, no less!!! [Sochi is a Russian city on the Black Sea coast, which, among other things, is preparing to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.]

***

Viking

[...] We should keep up with the progress! Nothing scary is taking place. The young followers of the [Nashi and Walking Together pro-regime youth movements] are practicing techniques of fighting against pensioners' rallies in the future, following instructions from the [ruling United Russia party]. [In Oct. 2009, Russian riot police used - during a drill - “water cannons, shock grenades, and tear gas” to disperse “a group of senior citizens that protested social injustice and blocked a federal highway.”]

***

Biokhimik:

[...] We should keep this situation under CONTROL. Where are the trade unions, where are the human rights activists? (I haven't just cursed, have I?) [...]

And here is a selection of posts on the Yashin/Oreshkin/Fishman affair.

Opposition activist Marina Litvinovich - LJ user abstract2001:

The day before yesterday, a user with an eloquent nickname kanal911 registered an account on YouTube - in order to post this video:



In this video, Oreshkin, Yashin and Fishman are trying to bribe [traffic police officers].

In my opinion, the footage is real, was done by [traffic police officers] themselves. The only question is - are they videotaping everyone like this or just some, those who have been "pointed out" to them? [...]

It is clear that due to the public movement against the police and [traffic police] these service have now gone on the offensive. And it's clear that the easiest way to fight the "oppositionists" is to catch them giving bribes themselves.

This, my friends, is exactly why whenever I write about the lawlessness of the cops and [traffic cops], I do this with clear conscience. And I've emphasized this multiple times - I do not just criticize those who give bribes, I call on you not to give bribes and I myself do not give bribes. I'll be honest - I stopped bribing [traffic police officers] after my trip to Beslan [a town in North Ossetia where the 2004 school hostage crisis took place], when I learned that the terrorists paid a bribe to pass one of the [traffic police] checkpoints. [...]

Mikhail Fishman, editor-in-chief of the Russian Newsweek - LJ user mfishman:

[...] A special operation has been carried out against me. It has been thoroughly planned. It was based on provocations, deceit, editing and long-term shadowing, and law enforcement officials participated in it. Who exactly and on what grounds is a separate question. It was carried out a long time ago, and now it has turned into a campaign.

Those who organized this campaign have succeeded in some things. Namely, they've poured a dirty puddle around me - and around themselves: they've dragged many decent people into a mean and petty discussion of someone else's private life. In the language of political technologies this is called the lowering of the discussion level.

This is a result, but not the one that they were counting on. The point of it was different: to force me to alter the editorial direction of the magazine that I'm in charge of. [...] This is a signal to all journalists: sit quietly.

I'm responding on behalf of our team: no, we will continue working the way we did before. Topics, stories, the principles and standards of our work will remain unchanged. [...]

Olga Allenova, special correspondent for the Kommersant daily - LJ user allenova:

[...] And the most disgusting thing is that Fishman has nothing to respond to this with? File a lawsuit? Against whom? A statement has to be submitted to the prosecutor's office, of course. [...] No one has canceled the right to private life in this country yet. [...] And THIS can happen to any human rights activist, journalist, politician, even regardless of whether it's him or not featured in this footage. This can be done to anyone who, for some reason, displeases [a top aide to the Russian president and PM Vladislav Yuriyevich Surkov], for example. You are responsible for this, Vladislav Yuriyevich, aren't you? Or, to be more precise, your Young Guardists [members of the Young Guard of United Russia, the youth wing of the ruling United Russia party]? [...] Who is the next one on your list? And aren't you afraid that eventually you'll find yourself on it, too?

Political activist Aleksey Navalny - LJ user navalny:

[...] Seriously though, I think that Yashin, Fishman [...] should not leave it as it is. Instead, they should start a decisive campaign against those who ordered this crap. Because it's a total mess. Next thing you know, they'll install hidden cameras inside apartments.

I think a campaign for the European and U.S. entry visa ban for Surkov [and his associates] looks rather realistic. [...]

[Sochi. Sukhumi. Skolkovo.] There many good places for recreation outside the EU.

It may work out, if we approach it seriously and don't drop it halfway, as is usually done by our human rights activists and liberal politicians.

The Young Guard has denied its involvement in the scandal, however:

[...] Finally, once more, for the idiots, in big and fat letters: "THE YOUNG GUARD DID NOT ORDER OR AUTHOR THE VIDEO ABOUT FISHMAN. WE DECISIVELY CONDEMN SUCH METHODS OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE. [...]

Maxim Kononenko - LJ user mrparker:

[...] I'd also like to support Fishman. A [KGB] provocation against Yashin and Oreshkin - that's normal. Yashin is a politician. Oreshkin is a grant-eater and traitor. These people are screwing my state, and the state is screwing them in return. That's a genuine and mutual hatred.

But Misha Fishman is the creator of meanings. A very good one. And to fight such opponents is possible only using the same methods that these opponents are using - i.e., with meanings. A meaning vs a meaning. A text vs a text.

But definitely not whores with cocaine vs a text and a meaning. A meaning isn't equal to cocaine, and a text isn't equal to a whore.

But an image isn't equal to a meaning and a text, either. This is why I suggest that everyone who supports Fishman (and I hope that this would be every normal journalist, author or media professional) records [his/her] own video with white powder and post it on YouTube.

[...]

LJ user ma79 is one of the Russian bloggers who has responded to LJ user mrparker's call and posted a video of himself and "white powder":

[...]

I wanted to wash my hair before shooting this video, but then decided it wouldn't be authentic that way.

Ukraine: Citizen Media and Political Forecasting

Global Voices Online
Thursday, January 22, 2010

Some of the online conversations about this year's Ukrainian presidential candidates appear to be somewhat lacking in substance. This, in part, can be explained by the fact that the most popular of these politicians have been around for quite a while and there isn't much left to discuss about them. There's also certain voter fatigue, as well as the fact that some voters seem to be guided by their ideas of physical attractiveness rather than more practical considerations when choosing the head of their state. As one blogger - LJ user grebeniuk - noted in an earlier GV translation,

[...] Political advisers, marketing and advertising specialists don't even have to bother! Comb your candidate, do the makeup, and go ahead! It's funny and sad :) [...]

Over-simplification isn't always a bad thing, though. Moscow-based LJ user limikon, for example, has managed to gain some curious insight by focusing on something that the top 5 presidential candidates (as well as the candidate who came in seventh) shared on the CVs: their past ties to ex-president Leonid Kuchma. He stripped the candidates of their names, which must have seemed redundant in this context, and shared his insight (RUS):

It's quite amusing to read the results of the Ukrainian election

#1 - Kuchma's premier;
#2 - Kuchma's vice-premier;
#3 - Kuchma's vice-premier, head of the [National Bank of Ukraine];
#4 - Kuchma's acting head of the [National Bank];
#5 - Kuchma's premier;
#7 - head of Kuchma's [Presidential Administration]

The mighty old man has laid eggs into Ukrainian politics that will last for the next 20 years. [...]

Despite such familiarity and other discouraging factors, there was no lack of interest in the outcome of the election, and, as a result, the blogosphere was overflowing with political forecasting attempts on the eve of the Jan. 17 vote.

Below are some of the actual results of the first round of the election (more about the vote, its winners and runners-up is here):

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 35.32% (8,686,751 votes)
#2 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 25.05% (6,159,829 votes)
#3 - Serhiy Tihipko - 13.06% (3,211,257 votes)
#4 - Arseniy Yatsenyuk - 6.96% (1,711,749 votes)
#5 - Victor Yushchenko - 5.41% (1,341,539 votes)

And here are a few summaries of the polls and forecasts that appeared on Ukrainian and Russian blogs.

LJ user vaxo (Ukrainian journalist Vakhtang Kipiani) surveyed 301 bloggers (UKR), 22 of whom (7.89%) did not plan to vote in this election at all. The poll's results are below:

#1 - Victor Yushchenko - 35.48% (99 votes)
#2 - Serhiy Tihipko - 14.7% (41 votes)
#3 - Oleh Tyahnybok - 9.68% (27 votes)
#4 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 5.73% (16 votes)
#5 - Victor Yanukovych - 2.51% (7 votes)

LJ user kermanich (Ukrainian journalist Andrey Manchuk) was not pleased with the results of this poll and wrote this (RUS) about the Ukrainian blogosphere and the society in general:

[...] Reading the results of such an impromptu voting on [Kipiani's blog], it seems as if Ukrainian bloggers live not just in some other country, but altogether on a different planet.

[...]

Such an indecent gap between the opinion of the people and the opinion of the "patriotic blogosphere," represented by a thin social stratum of office intelligentsia, shows how hopelessly removed these folks are from the people. [...]

At least two more polls conducted by Ukrainian bloggers had Victor Yushchenko as their winner.

At chomusyk LJ community ("Ask Me: All that you wanted to ask about"), 495 people responded (UKR), 57 (11.5%) of them did not support any of the candidates and 83 (16.8%) did not plan to go to the polling station at all. Here's the rest the vote breakdown (UKR):

#1 - Victor Yushchenko - 27.5% (136 votes)
#2 - Anatoliy Hrytsenko - 15.4% (76 votes)
#3 - Serhiy Tihipko - 9.9% (49 votes)
#4 - Oleh Tyahnybok - 6.9% (34 votes)
#5 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 6.3% (31 votes)
#6 - Arseniy Yatsenyuk - 1.8% (9 votes)
#7 - Victor Yanukovych - 1.2% (6 votes)

At LJ user ledilid's blog, 188 people turned up for a vote (UKR):

#1 - Victor Yushchenko - 43.1% (81 votes)
#2 - Oleh Tyahnybok - 20.2% (38 votes)
#3 - Anatoliy Hrytsenko - 10.6% (20 votes)
#4 - Serhiy Tihipko - 7.4% (14 votes)
#5 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 5.9% (11 votes)
#6 - Arseniy Yatsenyuk - 5.3% (10 votes)
#7 - Victor Yanukovych - 1.1% (2 votes)

A poll (RUS) at LJ user sunlike77's blog, which surveyed 479 bloggers, produced comparatively realistic results:

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 34.7% (166 votes)
#2 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 30.7% (147 votes)

And the forecasts by 126 bloggers who took part in LJ user kotyhoroshko's The People's Prognosis project (UKR), produced a pretty good reflection of the actual results as well:

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 29.27%
#2 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 21.56%
#3 - Serhiy Tihipko - 9.48%

A Twitter poll (RUS) set up by Odesa-based Twitter user #netocrat drew 335 votes and had the following vote breakdown:

#1 - Serhiy Tihipko - 34% (114 votes)
#2 - Victor Yushchenko - 19% (65 votes)
#3 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 14% (47 votes)
#4 - Anatoliy Hrytsenko - 10% (33 votes)
#5 - Arseniy Yatsenyuk - 7% (24 votes)
#6 - Oleh Tyahnybok - 6% (21 votes)
#7 - Victor Yanukovych - 6% (19 votes)

One of Russia's most popular bloggers, LJ user drugoi, introduced his Ukrainian election survey (RUS) with a photo of three activists of the Ukrainian women's group FEMEN, who were urging voters at a Kyiv polling station not to sell their votes (their slogan (RUS): "Don't be a whore! Don't sell your vote!"). As of now, 3,931 bloggers have cast their votes (RUS) - and the voting seems to keep going:

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 17% (670 votes)
#2 - Serhiy Tihipko - 16.8% (662 votes)
#3 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 13.8% (541 votes)

Another popular Russian blogger, LJ user tema, had 13,842 bloggers respond to his election-related survey (RUS), which seemed like the least serious in tone and presentation, but which nevertheless managed to place the first three contenders in the right order:

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 19.9% (2,758 votes)
#2 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 15.7% (2,175 votes)
#3 - Serhiy Tihipko - 12.2% (1,685 votes)

LJ user yashin (Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin, whose blog carries the following tagline: "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido"/"The people united will never be defeated" - one of the slogans of the 2004 post-election protests in Ukraine) hosted a political prognosis contest (RUS), and below is the average outcome of the bets submitted by 168 bloggers:

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 31.4%
#2 - Yulia Tymoshenko – 24.7%
#3 - Serhiy Tihipko - 9.48%

U.S.-based LJ user kireev (Aleksandr Kireev, founder of the bilingual Electoral Geography website), conducted a political forecasting competition (RUS) as well, in which 99 bloggers took part - and he even issued two awards: one for the best forecast and one for the worst.

The best forecast award went to LJ user tulskiy (Russian political analyst Mikhail Tulskiy), whose guess was very close to the actual results:

#1 - Victor Yanukovych - 34.5%
#2 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 23%
#3 - Serhiy Tihipko - 15.5%

The worst forecast award - an optimist's pink glasses - went to LJ user tanya_ogf, who made the following projections:

#1 - Yulia Tymoshenko - 23.4%
#2 - Victor Yushchenko - 20.7%
#3 - Victor Yanukovych - 19.4%

Russia: Victory Day

Global Voices Online
Sunday, May 11, 2008

Victory Day was as much of an event in the Russian blogosphere as it was in the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities on May 9.

LJ user kkk147 went for a morning bike ride and happened upon the departure of missiles, tanks and other heavy weaponry for the military parade on Red Square. He wrote (RUS):

Lots of fun to watch the parade when there are few people around and the vehicles are moving [so close you can touch them if you stretch out your hand] :)

More photos and video from kkk147 are here.

Aleksandr Plushev, Radio Echo of Moscow journalist, had a chance to see the same military vehicles on their way to the parade from his office on Novy Arbat. He posted photos and video on his blog, and wrote (RUS):

Finally, we've got something more interesting than the presidential motorcade driving by [below].

More parade photos from Plushev are on his Flickr page.

LJ user riverpilgrim (Mikhail Arkhipov) posted an impressive photo report from the parade's air show segment.

LJ user warsh (journalist Sergei Varshavchik) posted a photo tribute to surviving war veterans. In response to a reaader's comment, he wrote (RUS):

My grandfathers and grandmother are no longer alive, too. That's why I attend these veterans' reunions.

LJ user yashin (Ilya Yashin, leader of the youth wing of Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko Party) also posted veteran photos on his blog, taken by LJ user marie_automne. The first photo is of an elderly man holding a handmade poster that says that he returned from the front in 1944, disabled for life, and that his disability pension equals zero rubles, and that on May 9, 2007, there were 18,000 people like him - but only 6,000 remain this year. The last photo is of an SUV with the words "ON TO BERLIN!!!" scrawled on its back window. Yashin wrote (RUS):

On May 9, there were hundreds of veterans in the center of Moscow. They were being congratulated, children were giving them flowers, some were crying, others dancing.

And some remembered that in a few days people would take off their [St. George Ribbons] and forget about Victory Day till next year's May 9. [...]

LJ user drugoi, a top-ranking Russian blogger, posted parade and veterans photos, as well as a photo report from the Communists' May 9 rally. Below are a few comments (RUS) to the latter series:

4lynch:

Ha-ha... This [KPRF] is the only party opposed to the Kremlin in the [State Duma]. Only what's the difference between them? They've got so much in common. [...]

***

leo_nardo:

Amusing. A legalized alternative.

***

mcvanich:

Would be more use of them if they were cleaning streets and backyards.

***

shapelez:

Russia is an amazing country. Here, natural selection doesn't affect idiots - they continue to exist.

Stalin... I think these people hardly imagine what life was like in those conditions. [...]

LJ user net_livejournal posted more photos from the Communists march.

LJ user photolga was dismayed with the way some people in St. Petersburg were wearing their St. George Ribbons - "one of the most recognised and respected symbols of military valour in modern Russia," according to Wikipedia. She ended her photo report (RUS) on a reconciliatory note, however:

[...] Perhaps, it's not worth it to condemn anyone - these people have not seen the war, they don't know what this Ribbon really stands for. [...]

LJ user onepamop posted two photos from a May 9 trip to [Novgorod] region, during which unburied bodies of 150 WWII soldiers were found, along with 36 medals. He wrote (RUS):

[...] This is a lot, [discoveries like this are made] very rarely, if at all.

If you manage - drink to these guys, too. It's needed today.

[...]

[...] These people (of all kinds of different ethnic backgrounds) died at the very start of the war, spent 60 years lying unidentified in a swamp and were buried today by those who found them, in a way that befits the ones who die in a battle for their Motherland. [...]

Russia: 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi

Global Voices Online
Thursday, July 12, 2007

It would be, of course, an exaggeration to say that every single Russian blogger has commented on Russia's victorious bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi last week - but it wouldn't be that huge of an exaggeration. The response to the news has been enormous, and the blogosphere seems to be divided into two camps now: those who think that holding the Olympics in this mountainous Black Sea resort town is a great idea - and those who think it's a disaster in the making.

Thousands of people danced in the streets of Sochi the night the victory was announced, but the amount of work and the potential problems that lie ahead are overwhelming.

Vladimir Putin has pledged $12 billion to prepare Sochi for the Games more or less from scratch - and at the same time, he had to order the creation of a new governmental department "to prevent embezzlement of government resources."

Ecology concerns run high, too: environmentalists fear that large-scale construction would damage "the unique nature landscapes of the West Caucasus, including the territories inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List."

And, last but not least, there's politics: while many credit Putin with securing Russia's victory, there are also those who believe that the International Olympic Committee's decision is likely to strengthen the oft-criticized regime.

Below are the responses of several bloggers involved in the Russian opposition politics in one way or another - as well as some comments from their readers - all translated from Russian.

Ilya Yashin, leader of the youth wing of Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko Party - July 5, 2007, 3:26 AM:

I believed in it!

SOCHI!
Happiness!

***

loyalnaya:

[...]

I've been to [Krasnodar] recently, deliberately asked the locals what they thought about it, and I have to note that ordinary people are simply horrified by the prospects of having the Olympics there. Real estate prices have really jumped since the beginning of the campaign, and now they'll fly all the way to heaven. [According to the Moscow Times, "real estate prices in Sochi jumped by from 30 to 40 percent virtually overnight after the city last week won the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, Swiss Realty Group said in a report released Monday."] And you've already mentioned budget spendings and the elimination of the park.

Theoretically, it is nice, of course, that we are the hosts - maybe we'll have a hockey victory at last, and there won't be as much harassment by the judges as there was in Salt Lake City, but in practice... well. And, of course, Putin is now a here for ever and ever, and I think that this would get him to win without the election in 2012, in order to have good publicity in 2014.

***

jalal_kirmizi:

Aha. Russia is a rich country and can afford it. Average pension in the regions is 2,000-3,000 rubles [$80-$120 a month]. Children's cancer treatment funds are empty and begging money from the public. And I don't even want to talk about the happiness that will now fall over Sochi residents - [South Butovo] would seem like a trifle compared to what's going to start happening there now.

You know very well, Yashin, who's going to profit from this Olympics. Just another event in the parallel world...

July 5, 2007, 1:11 PM:

SOCHI!

I was in a wonderful mood last night.

I was nervously staring at my computer screen until 3:30 AM, waiting for the results of the vote in Guatemala. And after they announced the results, I started to happily sing songs about [Misha the Bear, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics], send ICQ messages and call friends. I even woke the neighbor up and started pounding on the wall for me to shut up.

But I was happy. [...]

This joy is normal. Or, at least, this is how it appears to me.

And now I'm reading [negative] comments to my yesterday's inspired post, which I wrote right after the Sochi victory had been announced...

Listen, it's as if you and I live in different Russias.

I also hate Putin's regime and despise [the Kremlin folks], but what does the Olympics have to do with it?

It's a holiday for the whole country, isn't it, the world's best athletes will come here, and for a month, the remote Sochi will basically turn into the world's sports capital. What's bad about it?

Of course, money is going to be stolen. But they are stealing everywhere here - because both you and I haven't yet learned to fight corruption. Should we stop building anything now, stop allotting money for health care, etc.? Nonsense? Nonsense.

By 2014, Sochi will be a modern sports resort area with developed infrastructure. This, without doubt, is a benefit.

It's true that the trees will probably be destroyed. But this is where the civil society has to act - go ahead, dear ecologists, make sure that the damage done to Sochi's nature is minimal.

[...]

***

gope_om_yma:

Who's gonna go to Sochi when you have the Alps? And the prices would be more or less the same.

***

rayniac:

[...] The Russian TV "expressed concern" over that fact that "Pyeongchang is located just a few hundred kilometers from the border with North Korea." Meanwhile, Sochi is located right next to the border with Georgia's breakaway [Abkhazia] and really close to the glorious places like Chechnya - and only God knows what it's going to be like in Abkhazia and Chechnya in 2014.

Besides, I heard opinions of people close to the construction works in Sochi, who were concerned about these problems:

- Energy: Sochi doesn't have enough electricity even now. What's going to happen when electricity use grows, during the construction and even more during the Games?

- The city lacks free space for creating the construction infrastructure - that is, there's no place to unload construction materials, no place to set up equipment. Most of the land is private, and the city itself stretches along the sea coast in a narrow line, 4 km wide and 100 km long, and behind it are the steep mountains.

[...]

***

wolfenste1n:

I'll draw a parallel with my native [Yakutsk]. It may seem strange, the scale is too different, but still, it's the same country...

Since 2000, every four years, they hold an international sporting event here called "Asia's Children." It's sort of like our own Yakutsk Olympics. The money alloted for this from the republic's budget is enormous (yes, by our standards). They steal relentlessly. On the one hand, if this event didn't exist, there'd probably be no modern stadiums, ice skating palaces, sports complexes, swimming pools, dormitories and other goods that civilization has to offer. But on the other hand, half the city literally drowns in crap, and people spend years waiting for normal apartments. So that the foreign guests do not see how things really are, they even had to paint the facades of half-demolished huts along Lermontov St. in bright colors. They didn't have enough money to paint the backyard side as well, but that doesn't really matter, sort of: no one sees that from the street anyway.

IMHO, until all these Potemkin Villages exist, Russia will not turn into a normal country. Some Russian officials were saying with obvious pride that the budget of the Olympic Salzburg is tiny compared to ours. But, excuse me, how do people live in Russia and how do people live in Austria and Korea? [...]

Nikita Belykh, the leader of the Union of Right Forces party - July 5, 2007, 2:37 PM:

Sochi-2014

I'm genuinely happy!

I was at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. One day before the opening nothing was ready yet: they were painting something, attaching, finishing up. At the bleachers, railings were still sticky with paint.

[...]

The mess was everywhere - hotels didn't have vacant rooms, roads were jammed, no one knew anything, everyone was fussing around, service personnel [...] almost didn't speak any English. But it was fun.

And I've a feeling that it's going to be more or less like this in Sochi, too.

[...]

After all, Russians are often compared to Greeks in their mentality and temperament.

The Olympics is a really useful project. First, such events help to reveal the area's problems with infrastructure. For example, in [Perm], they talked about the lack of hotels for a long time, but didn't do anything about it. And all these problems came to the surface when Perm was hosting the European Boxing Championship and the ULEB basketball events. Today, there are several new, very good, modern hotels in Perm. Same thing about roads, etc.

[...] Those objects that would be built for the Olympics will stay there when it's over, too [...]. [...]

And the last point. I'm an oppositioner. But in this case I think that the authorities are doing everything absolutely correctly: the way the campaign was organized and the president's presence in Guatemala.

The Olympics in Russia - it's really cool! And for me it has a special meaning.

There is a chance that I'll have to be responsible for the Olympics-2014.

***

mr_fatcat:

Minus one vote for SPS. Sorry.

***

dwow:

Nikita, why can't infrastructure be built without the Olympics?)

kobsev:

Are you serious? You don't understand?

dwow:

What I do not understand is how come the state that can spend $12 billion on infrastructure development would only do it in case of the Olympics, but not if there's no Olympics.

Leonid Nevzlin, former CEO of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's oil company Yukos, currently living in Israel - July 5, 2007, 12:56 PM:

Respect [...]

For the first time, Putin has acted like a real president. Perhaps, it's his personal involvement that has played a role in promoting the country's interests through sports. It was beautiful.

***

baruhgerman:

I congratulate the Russians on their success! I remember the International Youth and Students Festival of 1957, four years after Stalin's death. It was a gulp of fresh air, a powerful push towards free thinking. The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow made extremely obvious the contradiction between the Communist ideology and practice ([the war in Afghanistan]) and the people's thirst for renewal. It was ten years before the Soviet Union's collapse... [...]

dictator_of_rus:

Is this how he acted: he gave orders to Gazprom and [made] the oligarchs buy the IOC?! Leonid, if you turn into a [Putin-lover], too, I'm speechless...

Valeriya Novodvorskaya, a Russian dissident:

July 8, 2007, 11:28 PM

[Question:] Hi, Valeriya Ilyinichna!

What do you think, is the Sochi Olympics a chance for the country to improve its image in the West, or is it the opposite and we risk spoiling everything with a typically "Russian" approach to organizing events of this level [...]?

[Novodvorskaya's Answer:] Russia's image does not depend on the quality of the roads and the number of stars at a hotel - in China, they have skyscrapers, super-fast trains, technology and clothes, but there's no freedom whatsoever. In Guatemala, Putin's regime has received an indulgence for the next seven years for any type of actions against the rights and freedoms. For any free-thinking person, this quote from O'Henry becomes relevant: There'll be music at your plantation, but you won't hear any of it. Do you seriously believe that good service can obscure the prison cells of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, [Svetlana Bakhmina] and [Igor Sutyagin]? The West knows very well what we are, but unfortunately, it doesn't give a damn so far.

Russia: "Completely Different Other Russias"

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, June 27, 2007


Riot police just off Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow during the June 11 Dissenters' March - photo by LJ user msmetana

On Dec. 6, 2006, Maria Gaidar, leader of the Da! ("Yes!") youth movement and daughter of former acting premier Yegor Gaidar, and Ilya Yashin, leader of the youth wing of Grigory Yavlinsky's Yabloko party, featured in a Global Voices translation that dealt with their intrepid attempt to protest a bill that abolished minimum voter turnout (20 percent) for all elections in Russia: they had spent an hour and a half suspended on ropes from a Moscow bridge facing the Kremlin, flying a 10-meter banner that said: "GIVE THE ELECTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE, BASTARDS!"

Earlier this month, following the June 11 Dissenters' March in Moscow, both Gaidar and Yashin briefly found themselves in the Russian blogosphere's spotlight again - and here's why.

There was no police "overreaction" during the opposition's latest Dissenters' March in Russia's capital - possibly, because the organizers decided not to follow up the rally on Pushkinskaya Square with the actual marching. Everyone made their speeches - or so it seemed, until the blogosphere offered a not-so-pleasant revelation: Maria Gaidar was prevented from addressing the crowd by, allegedly, Eduard Limonov, leader of the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) and Garry Kasparov's close ally in the Other Russia anti-government coalition.

Ilya Yashin (LJ user yashin) happened to be among the first whistleblowers when he wrote this (RUS) on his blog on June 12:

Attended the Dissenters' March yesterday.

To be honest, I'm not very happy. Too many hammers and sickles, too many [Russian Imperial flags], too many fervent "Long live Russia" chants... Some guy was saying from the stage that "democracy ended in 1991" - and was booed by part of the crowd. And when the [National Bolsheviks] started yelling "Russia is all, the rest is nothing," my mood was ruined completely.

But I do not regret having attended. And I'll come next time, too. First, because it's stifling in the country, and the Dissenters' March has the spirit of freedom. Second, after the April beatings it was impossible not to come.

I'd like to say a few words about the following.

[Maria Gaidar] was supposed to speak at yesterday's rally. Half an hour before the beginning, both she and I were offered to say something by the organizers. But Eduard Limonov learned about it and issued an ultimatum: if they let Mashka speak, he's leaving. The organizers apologized to Gaidar and she ended up without an opportunity to make an address.

So here goes. Eduard Veniaminovich, you... how to say this politely?.. you are taking too much upon yourself.

Have you forgotten what you were yesterday? Have you forgotten about Stalin-Beriya-Gulag? About how you were calling Yeltsin to initiate bloodshed in Chechnya? About how you demanded the dispersal of anti-war rallies of the 1990s?

We are going against our principles after this, when we stand next to you on stage and tolerate your emblems, which imitate Hitler's banners.

And you should appreciate it that many people believe that you really do not subscribe to your past cannibalistic convictions anymore.

Respect the people, Eduard Veniaminovich.

Maria Gaidar (LJ user m_gaidar) offered her perspective (RUS) on the incident on June 13:

I feel obliged to comment on the situation, since a scandal has broken out because of my failure to speak at the Dissenters' March.

Before the rally, Aleksandr Osovtsev came up to me and suggested that I speak. I agreed. About five minutes before the rally began, he apologized and said that Limonov is categorically against my address, that he had threatened to leave.

I am not part of the Other Russia, nor was I one of the organizers of this rally, and I think that the organizers have the right to decide who will speak and who won't. I didn't want to [make this incident public] because I knew that everyone would immediately attack the Other Russia and the Dissenters' Marches. That's why I only told several people about it, those I came there with, those who knew that I was to speak at the rally. And I asked not to spread this information...

It's a pity that this ugly episode has become public.

I, like many of you, am not comfortable with Limonov. I'm not comfortable with their emblem, with their rhetoric. I'm not comfortable when those on stage say that democracy ended in 1991 and yell that "Russia is all, the rest is nothing." The only reason I try to ignore this is because there are real political prisoners in the ranks of NBP. These people are in jail for this slogan: "Respect our Constitution."

The traditional myth circulated by the [National Bolsheviks] is that [they] are the vanguard of the marches. We held a rally two years ago, also on June 12. There was no Limonov there - but there were as many people (or even more). I am absolutely convinced that the main body of the marches is made up of the liberal-democratic public that has to make quite an effort to tolerate Limonov.

But! Right now, the Dissenters' March is the main oppositional platform. And not because Limonov and NBP are there, but because people who wish to express their protest come there - and no one except the organizers of the marches offers them such an opportunity. If you want to organize the Dissenters' Marches without Limonov - just do it.

The Dissenters' Marches are not controlled by the Kremlin, at least. That's why I suggest that we, first of all, fight against Putin's bloody regime (TM), and not against Limonov, no matter what he does.

[...]

Yashin posted another comment (RUS) on the situation, also on June 13:

A few more words on yesterday's discussion on Limonov. Please believe me, I'm not trying to exacerbate the contradictions, but there are important issues that shouldn't be ignored.

So here. I ran into a couple of comments by NBP activists regarding the situation.

New York-based (!) [National Bolshevik] Sasha Lenina writes:

[National Bolsheviks] are not renouncing any of their views. Those who carried out the "shock therapy" are in for "stalin, beriya, gulag." Ichkeriya will be cleansed according to Beriya's method.

The whole active of the marches are the [National Bolsheviks]. You can dislike Limonov. And it's natural that your associates (the liberal part of the Other Russia, the real cannibals) are the ones who can't stand him. But do they really have a choice?

And Moscow-based [National Bolshevik] Pavel Zherebin continues his colleague's thought:

It's simple: you keep silent about Yeltsin, your favorite USA and "Israel," about the Russian "fascism," about your support of gay pride parades, about the totalitarian [Soviet state], about the fight against international terrorism, about Lukashenko, etc. Then we'll keep from voicing our opinions on these issues, too, and will concentrate on the criticism of Putin's regime.

The rest of it we'll discuss in the Parliament of the Free Other Russia.

[...] [Let the likes of Maria Gaidar] act in "Israel." It's Russia here, even though it's [the Other Russia].

Listen to me carefully, friends.

I've been involved in politics since 2000, joined Yabloko in 2001. In these seven years, I've never renounced a single slogan of mine. All that I said, all that I believed in seven years ago is still relevant for me today.

And you, [National Bolsheviks], have gone a long way during this time. You've publicly renounced the cannibalistic slogans, you've changed your program and are using my - liberal - slogans.

Your comrades are behind bars not for their "Stalin-Beriya-Gulag" - but for [Andrei Sakharov]'s "Respect the Constitution" addressed to the presidential administration. And through this your comrades have earned everyone's respect.

Today you declare your support for the fight for the free election, for independent courts and against censorship of the mass media.

First of all, I'd like to remind you that all these values were born thanks to the ideologues of the liberal movement, which I'm honored to belong to. Today, all the adequate ideological movements (conservatives, social democrats, and all the rest) accept these values as the fundamental ones. And it is these values that have earned the liberal ideology its right to exist and a place in history. And you have to respect this.

Second, you can't fight for civil rights and freedoms while also keeping your "traditional" National Bolshevik convictions. It's impossible to simultaneously "torture and hang, hang and torture" and demand fair elections to the independent parliament. [...]

I find it offensive to hear slogans like "Russia is all, the rest is nothing" at a rally I'm taking part in (this is how it was at the latest March). This isn't patriotism, it's pure Nazism. Patriotism is the love for your country and respect for other countries and cultures. Nazism is the propaganda of the national superiority and contempt for those around you.

And one more thing. It's hard to accuse me of being [against Limonov]. You know that I've taken part in rallies to support NBP's political prisoners more than once, and I wrote letters to judges, and I helped your lawyers [...]. I really respect many [National Bolsheviks] and consider them decent people, and some - real heroes.

But you'll have to renounce all the ugly stuff that you propagated in 1990s. Otherwise, guys, we have completely different other Russias with you.

Soon after Yashin blogged about his views, members of the "adult wing" of Yabloko spoke against any kind of alliance with the Other Russia and announced their intention to nominate Grigory Yavlinsky as their 2008 presidential candidate - a move that, among other things, further emphasized the Russian opposition's famous lack of unity.

Russia: A Letter to Putin

Global Voices Online
Sunday, December 10, 2006

It's a letter-writing season in Russia.

LJ user yashin posted an appeal (translated here) to the judge who had given a harsh sentence to an activist for placing a banner saying “Putin, go away on your own” on Hotel Rossiya in Moscow.

LJ user aneta_spb has come up with a letter (RUS) to president Vladimir Putin himself, and for a while, it was one of the highest-ranked posts at the Yangex Blogs portal. Below is a rough translation:

Here, I've written a letter to the president.

Gospodin [Mr.] Putin!

Or, Gospodin President of [the Russian Federation].

I, a rank-and-file citizen of the Russian Federation, Gavrilina Svetlana Dmitrievna, have started writing this letter to you and became puzzled right away.

For some reason, addressing you the way I did is considered impolite. The polite way is "Vladimir Vladimirovich." Or "[dear] respected Vladimir Vladimirovich." This takes aback right away. Because I can use the first name and patronymic to address an uncle twice removed or an old high school teacher, etc. But when I'm writing to the head of the state - that is, to a person who is not related to me in any way personally, but is placed in this position by the will of the people and lives on the people's money, and I'm part of this people (even though I didn't vote for this character)... In Great Britain, I wouldn't write "dear Tony," right, or in the States, "dear George"? And in the times of the Czar, so beloved by many of your brothers-in-arms, they didn't write "Nikolay Aleksandrovich" or "Aleksandr Nikolaevich" - but "Your Majesty" or "Sovereign." Title, function...

In any case, there is something in the word gospodin... But we're talking about a form of address here - wouldn't fit to call you tovarishch [comrade], right?..

Whatever, done with the addressing part, sort of. Now, on to the essence.

As I've stated above, I didn't vote for you. But it absolutely doesn't matter. Let's have flies and cutlets separately. Those who vote or not, those who [make big money] or not, those who [get their salaries from the state budget] or work for private [entities] or for themselves - in any case, we are the tax-payers. We buy a loaf of bread - [and pay a value-added tax]. And if not a loaf of bread, then a piece of meat, [clothing], a fridge, a tram ticket, a cell phone operator's services... Everyone has the right to vote or not vote. Because we are all humans, alive, and for now it is not up to you to deprive us of the right to live and breathe.

Anyway, since you've been installed into your position on our money, I'm writing you. Because in a normal country, it would have been enough for me to address a municipal elected official with the issues I'm concerned about. But [you know] what a farce has the so-called local self-government turned into.

[...] I actually this that you impressed the great Russia with, above all, your pure, St. Petersburg, pronunciation, without hek-ing and ok-ing, after all the previous Leonid Ilyichs [Brezhnev], Yeltsins and [Chernomyrdins]... Though, at one point, [Andropov] conquered many weak souls with the same thing, too. Ah well, [I digress] again.

Here's why I'm writing to you. I find you annoying. Not really you, the person, but all this disgusting pharisaism, improprieties and the lies that literally get under one's skin - and everywhere, there's corruption of society worse than during the Soviet times.

I live in the city of St. Petersburg, at [Okhta].

And here, they are going to dig a tunnel and build a skyscraper. Your faithful [...] [Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko], has once again totally ignored the city residents' protest. [...] They are going to worsen the people's life quality, which is already not too good. I'm sorry, but I don't believe that you aren't aware of it. One reason [I don't believe it] is because you haven't yet refuted the rumors that for a while, after you've installed the "successor," you're planning to have some rest at the post of [Gazprom]'s head...

This is really interesting. Excuse me, are you an expert in gas extraction? A professional? Or is there a putsch going on now, invisible to the world, when this Gazprom is basically seizing power in the country? While the majority of the villages are not equipped to receive gas?

Do you know what people are talking about? They are saying that the government's goal is to just destroy the population, because they don't need so many people to serve the pipe... Some people, out of stupidity, see [non-Russians] behind it, others see "the hand of America," but despite this, people do have intuition.

You know, I left the big politics a long time ago. I'm not interested in the party hustle, I'm a modest person and have never been too interested in my own career. And if they didn't try to get me right by the door of my own apartment, I'd be quietly reading good books and listening to good music.

But I'm annoyed by the billboards at the St. Petersburg-Moscow highway: [UNITED RUSSIA] TOGETHER WITH THE PRESIDENT! ([I'm annoyed] because it's like "Long live the [CPSU]!") I don't like it when there's a public transportation paralysis in my favorite city. I don't like it when [towns and villages] in the European part of the Russian Federation are cut off from the civilized world - roads are broken down, phone connection is terrible, and there is no internet whatsoever... I don't like the disgusting bootlicking in the media. Do you really think that people pray to you as they do in front of an icon? If every type of official has your portrait in his study, it doesn't mean that your portraits hang in people's homes... If you find one idiot like this, I think all the central media would show up and do stories...

Do you think that people pile up in big cities voluntarily? Deprive themselves of fresh air and nature? Look into the federal laws that you've signed - and then you'll understand why only thanks to autostores [...] there's still some life out there... And the money being thrown into the construction of the tunnel and Gazprom-City would suffice, for example, to build a new bridge in Veliky Novgorod and to mend the roads in the north-west...

I understand perfectly well that all my questions and exclamations are rhetorical. [...] Because [...] in the first years of your rule, I was still trying to find a compromise... And thus I learned all the mechanisms and the style of your regime.

...And also, your rhetoric drives me mad. The theme of the "czar" and "master" is being beaten into the country's conscience. [...]

Things like this don't end well, I'd like to remind you. [...]

Anyway, leave us alone with your Gazprom. You're a person of age [Putin is 54]. Lenin was already a "dedushka" [old man] at your age. It's time to think of your soul.

I end this halfway through. Please note that I haven't used the words "democracy," "human rights," "free enterprise," etc. Because it's not nice to use the words unfamiliar to the person you're talking to.

Here are a couple comments:

mgtverskoy: Svetlana, "dedushka" Lenin didn't survive to this age. He died before turning 54, and VVP has already passed that.

Are we sending this by regular mail?

aneta_spb: I emailed it. Would be too much honor to bother about an envelope.

[...]

lgdanko: You are wonderful in your genuine naivete or naive ingenuousness. I'll distribute this. Even if the Colonel [Putin] doesn't read it - let the people read it.

Russia: Stunt Protests and the Law

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

On Nov. 17, the Russian Duma approved a bill that abolished minimum voter turnout (20 percent) for all elections in Russia. Today, president Vladimir Putin has signed it into law.

On Nov. 23, two young political activists - Ilya Yashin and Maria Gaidar - protested the imminent change by spending an hour and a half suspended on ropes from a Moscow bridge facing the Kremlin and flying a 10-meter banner, which said: "GIVE THE ELECTION BACK TO THE PEOPLE, BASTARDS!"

Yashin (LJ user yashin) and Gaidar (LJ user m-gaidar) were taken off the bridge by the emergency services, detained by the police and fined 500 rubles (about $20) each by the court.

LJ user 50x50 posted a photo report on the stunt protest; Very Russian provided a link to the video on RuTube.ru.

Gaidar - coordinator of the Da! ("Yes!") movement and daughter of former acting premier Yegor Gaidar - posted a brief note on the court's decision to fine her and Yashin, and here're some of the responses she got (RUS):

[...]

kreatiff: You should've dealt with them on the spot - would've cost you 200... and you'd have avoided having your driver's license punched ))))

prava3: You can start a business. 1,000 rubles for the right to hang over the Moscow River, 500 to the state, the rest to the businessman. :) A joke. In reality, all's well that ends well.

mendkovich: Well, you're lucky. Certain people had a criminal case opened against them for similar actions.

nah42: Oh great. [Spoiled, overfed] kids of the famous parents get a free ride. And for the ordinary mortals - jail. Everything's as always. [...]

domohozjayka: Do they all have to be sent to jail or what? In your anger and jealousy you forget that if you personally don't need the election, there are others who think differently.

harding1989: Right. Of course, the election would come back on its own because two members of the "golden youth" decided to hang over the river. Like waving a magic wand. The law is the same for everyone.

In the discussion above, two LJ users hint at another case, in which the components were the same and the outcome different: in May 2006, Olga Kudrina, a member of Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for climbing the Rossiya Hotel and hanging a banner saying "Putin, go away on your own" on the side facing the Kremlin.

Yashin - who heads the youth wing of the Yabloko Party - pointed out the injustice by writing an emotional open letter (RUS) to Sergei Podoprigorov, the judge who had sentenced Kudrina:

[...]

I'm not going to raise the morality side of the issue - there's no point, I'm sure. If it's so easy for you to ruin the young people's lives just because of their civil position, then calling to your conscience is a waste of time.

[...]

It's obvious that Judge Pugachev [who fined Yashin and Gaidar] made his decision on the basis of the law and common sense. But what was guiding you, Sergei Gennadievich, when you didn't think twice before sending people my age behind bars for a similar violation?

What was happening in your head when you were signing the verdict?

I can see one and only reason for your decision: you are nothing but a coward. Of course, they were calling you and demanding to jail Kudrina [...]. Of course, you were shaking over the verdict in your tiny [study]. Of course, you realized that by sending the guys to jail you'd commit a crime, but letting them go would deprive you of your warm chair.

I demand that you admit publicly that you were wrong and resign. People like you are a shame to Russia's judicial corps. And if you think that your Kremlin bosses would safe you from inevitable responsibility for your crime - don't count on that.

You'll get as much as you deserve.

[...]

Below are a few reactions (RUS):

[...]

arkashamos: Perhaps the reason is that you, Ilya, are the leader of the youth "Yabloko" and Masha Gaidar is Yegor Gaidar's daughter. If they sent you to jail for three years, there'd be lots of noise in Russia and the world. And who knows [...] that girl? Only her party comrades and Edichka Limonov, who, absolutely obviously, doesn't give a crap about those boys and girls that he had attracted [to his party].

yashin: This is what selective use of law is.

sorex: I agree. By the way, are you ready to [go to jail]?

[...]

newreft: Khodorkovsky has been sent to the colony for eight years. There was noise in Russia (meetings took place in almost all big cities, although not too many people attended). There was even more noise [outside Russia]. So what? Has it had any effect? It would have been the same with Ilya and Masha. So this is not the reason.

Russia: Butovo Land Dispute

Global Voices Online
Friday, June 23, 2006

The recent land dispute between Moscow city authorities and residents of Butovo, a suburb just outside the capital's beltway (MKAD), included such dramatic elements as a tent camp, bulldozers and riot police. Ilya Yashin (LJ user yashin), leader of the youth wing of the Russian social-liberal party Yabloko, writes about the incident and shares his thoughts on how the standoff could've been avoided. The post (RUS) generates a discussion of the local officials' ways.

Butovo

Moscow authorities have decided to replace a village outside MKAD with high-rise apartment blocks. People living in the small village houses were offered to move to the city concrete buildings. They refused because they were being moved to tiny, one-room apartments, and, in addition to this, they were being deprived of the chance to work on the land (for some, it's the only way to make a living). The officials are filing lawsuits, winning them and sending eviction officers with riot police - breaking the fences and doors, twist hands, operate with rubber sticks.

There's one thing I don't get. Obviously, profits to be received after the village has been razed are incredible. To use some of these superprofits to deal with the village locals - is that such a big problem? Why can't they be offered not a tiny one-room cage, but a normal three-room apartment, and some additional cash?

Yes, it's always hard to part with money, even when there's much of it. But when will these jerks from the mayor's office start using a rational approach - by spending money, the regime basically buys insurance against social problems: protest rallies, the critical media, fights with riot police. People are being forced out of their houses, and it's natural that they are going to resist, even if you show them a dozen of court decisions. And they'll hate the regime. And the society will sympathize with them, not the mayor's office.

***

terika: You are the generous one. Because it's not you who's got those potential two/three/four-room apartments. And to give them away just to preserve that mythical social stability in the village of Butovo? It's ridiculous and, of course, no one would want to spend money on this. Riot police is cheaper. Try to think the way they do. Would you give ten rubles to a beggar, just to keep him from following you up to your front door and begging? Someone would give the money, others won't. Someone would call the police. The same with these apartments.

yashin: Well, the beggar comparison isn't very correct. Butovo residents aren't begging anyone about anything, they've just been living in their houses for many years and want to be left alone.

As for the problems, the police is, of course, cheaper, that's true. But the reputation of the officials after such informational bombs suffers quite a bit. Then again, they don't care anymore - the governors' elections have been cancelled [governors get appointed now].

terika: The officials' reputation :))) You've answered your own question.

yashin: I was absolutely serious, by the way. This is the essence of the civil ideology - an official values his reputation, because if it's affected, then he (or his boss) has much less chances at the elections. But it's not about Moscow, unfortunately.

terika: And it's not about Russia, too. I've been on a business trip to Germany recently. They arranged a city tour for us. So we come to the Bundestag. It's surrounded by three rows of bicycles. Public officials have come to work. Then the local guide sees a Mercedes near the entrance to the parliament. His face changes and he yells: "And who is this? On our money!" And then: "Ah! That's the Russian delegation..." :))

[...]

solo_d: Taking into account the proverbial Russian mentality, it's possible to assume that the reputation of the officials who solved the problem peacefully will suffer even more than the reputation of those who simply send the riot police to attack the people. Force, and especially rough force, is respected in our country. And to go against the regime - for some it's nothing but amoral. And for a certain segment of the population, officials who are solving problems without bulldozers or riot police, covered by the cameras of Channel 1, appear to be the weak ones.

oleg_kozyrev: No, I think you're wrong. Because an official's considered strong when no one at all learns about the situation. And if they do, that means he's been weak.

Hungary: PM's Lies and Riots in Budapest

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Several weeks after the general election in April, Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said this at a closed meeting with members of his parliamentary faction:

I almost died when I had to pretend for one and a half years as if we were governing. Instead we lied in the morning, we lied in the evening. I am through with this. We either do it and then you've got your man, or you pick someone else.

A tape with Gyurcsany's speech - which contains a fair amount of obscenities - was leaked to the media this past Sunday; excerpts were broadcast on state radio; Gyurcsany, a blogger-politician, posted the Hungarian-language transcript on his blog.

On Monday night, thousands of demonstrators gathered by the parliament to demand Gyurcsany's resignation; the non-violent rally turned into a riot when some of them later moved to the state TV (MTV) building and broke through police lines.

Henrik of Hungarian Accent explains why the protesters chose to storm the TV building:

[...] this is an iconic factor dating back to the revolutions of 1956. Ironically enough, even the state TV used this factor a few months ago in its marketing campaign: “If there would be a revolution which TV station would You want to take over?”. I’m sure this was not the answer they were hoping to get.

Henrik also sums up some of the Hungarian bloggers' reactions (links in Hungarian):

En1 writes that if the Prime Minister were a responsible leader, he would step forward and announce his resignation, because for this matter he is the only responsible.

Korbely’s opinion is that these violent mob actions should not be confused with a revolution. Instead these are illegitimate actions for any cause and are much similar to a violent soccer-fan-war than a revolution.

[...]

There are opinions about the media coverage also, especially about an opposition-party-close news TV called HirTV.

Kond is worried about freedom of press. Because HirTV has been banned from the covering. Especially as CNN and BBC has also used their previous coverage about the siege, so they should be treated with respect in protection of freedom of press.

On the other side Bakura writes that the siege coverage of HirTV was in his opinion disgusting as the coverage were cheering for the mob.

Henrik himself hopes for a quick and peaceful resolution of the conflict:

Not long after I started this blog I wrote that it is not easy to chose topics which could be really interesting to an outsider about Hungary. These past weeks have proven me wrong. And I think I’m not very happy about it.

[...]

Still as I write these lines according to news there are more people on the streets and police forces are on a much higher readiness state. God help us to get over this crises soon, without any further extension of violence.

Though in Budapest, Paul of Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar watched the events unfold on TV - just as Henrik did:

[...] From what I could see, the first initial outburst of violence was one blond-haired individual walking directly up to the police lines and clobbering the riot shields with a piece of wood. Again, for some unknown reason, the police didn't just give him a quick kick in the unmentionables and drag him off to the cop shop, but stood back and took his abuse. Stones and rocks then started flying and the more "respectable" (and the HIR TV reporter) protesters started to move away from the front of the building.

At this stage, if I'd been a genuine blogger, I'd have hopped in the first available taxi and started blogging realtime at the square. But my armchair, HIR TV and another glass of Jamesons were more appealing, sorry!

[...]

The main core of rioters last night did not look like the normal right-wing Hungarian political activist (middle-aged, respectable, middle-class, long twirly moustache), more like people who'd taken a night off from bashing heads for Fradi, for a different kind of recreational hooliganism.

The police regrouped and at about 12.15 there were signs of other police reinforcements being brought into the square and things once again seemed to calm down...so I went to er...bed. And missed the eventual invasion of MTV at 1.30am. [...]

For the prime minister, Paul has a recommendation:

Gyurcsany to date (and to my knowledge) has not apologised for lying during the last government. If he is serious about dragging the socialists and Hungarian politics into a new era of integrity and honesty, that's the least he can do.

Budapest-based Pestiside.hu had a regular contributor on the scene, who later posted this "assessment of how the various participants performed, on a one-to-ten scale":

The Police: 2/10
Pathetic in their "defense" of MTV headquarters. Never looked confident or organised and failed to take advantage of their superior firepower. Looked particularly woeful when 150 of them abandoned a water truck and its crew to the rioters. Clearly better training and discipline is in order. Recovered some dignity by eventually clearing the rioters out of the MTV headquarters, but by that time everybody had gone to bed. Poorly equipped, their riot gear only protects them up to their knees, which prompted rioters to throw rocks at their feet.

[...]

Speaker Katalin Szili: 8/10
The surprise package of the night. The speaker of Parliament stayed at her post until the wee hours, and gave the best quote: "This is not the same country this morning as two days ago." Positioned herself as the only person remotely capable of stepping in should Gyurcsány quit.

The Rioters: 7/10
Behaved as rioters should. Ripped up cobblestones to throw at cops, burnt cars and park furniture, committed gratuitous acts of graffiti and other vandalism. Took the fight to the opposition, refusing to be intimidated by water cannon and tear gas. Moved in for the kill when they sensed doubt in the police ranks. As a result, achieved their objective of taking the MTV building, but not of reading their demands on the air à la 1956. Score would be higher were it not for their fashion sense; the Lonsdale gym gear, Fradi shirts and Greater Hungary flags are all a dead giveaway of their extremism.

The author of My Little English Blog, currently in Scotland, knows the neighborhood where the rioting took place very well:

No liveblogging as I'm back in Scotland. In fairness I'm glad. I live next to the MTV (Hungarian Television) Building. My mum says she's fine.

[...]

Why the telly building???

Do people really think there's a chance to repeat 1956? Are we oppressed to such a degree that we have to run around destroying? [...]

Non-Hungarian bloggers are also chiming in.

Russell Mitchell of Publius Pundit sums up the events, analyzes the causes, makes guesses and provides links to updates:

[...] this is NOT a “Color Revolution, Round Two,” although the Hungarians are perfectly justified in being roundly furious at being lied to about tax cuts, again, in order to secure election. (The Hungarians are simply crushed by the tax burden, which continues to chase social programs, which then serve to divide and conquer the population based on what goes to whom.) [...]

Eric Gordy of East Ethnia states the obvious: the Hungarian prime minister is a liar. Seesaw of Sarajevo Photoblog responds:

Honestly I do not understand why all this fuss - they are all liars, Gyurscany only said what most politicians try to hide although they are doing it all the time. Don't tell me you believe them here or there?!? Strange coincidence, 50 years after 1956 uprising, and then the reason were Russian tanks on the streets of Budapest. Pity, it seems Hungary is having problems with economy, like all former communist countries.

Four Bees suggests another possible reason for the riots:

[...] It's actually a Hungarian Tourist Board promotion to get people to go to Budapest for the 50th anniversary of 1956, because nothing else of interest has happened in Budapest in the last 50 years. [...]

Finally, Ilya Yashin, leader of the youth wing of the Yabloko Party, is blogging directly from Budapest (RUS):

[...] It should be noted that there were quite a few young Hungarian fascists and skinheads in the city last night. One of them told me that the Communist government should have been taught a lesson a long time ago, especially since it's headed by a Jew. On the other hand, last night's pogroms will probably scare away the moderate supporters of the right-wind opposition. For example, a cab driver who was taking me to the hotel said that he hoped for an orange revolution in Hungary, similar to the Ukrainian one, but he wouldn't wish to be next to the radicals. [...]

Back home in Russia, some people seem to be overwhelmed by the various coups and riots taking place around the world. Here's the latest post from Yashin (RUS):

=)

A phone call to my cell.

- Ilya? Hi, are you still in Bangkok?
- ??? I'm in Budapest, that's Hungary...
- Oh, we are sorry, we've mixed it all up... The thing is, there's a military coup taking place in Bangkok now, too.

...Well, I've arrived in the city center. I'm on my way to the parliament building, where an opposition rally is to begin soon. There's significantly more police now than yesterday, but there are also many people with flags moving to the center.