Russia: Beslan School Siege Survivor's Account

Global Voices Online
Saturday, September 4, 2010


The first anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, 2005. Photo by Natasha Mozgovaya

Agunda Vataeva (LJ user agunya) was a 13-year-old girl about to begin her ninth-grade studies on Sept. 1, 2004, the day when she, her mother and more than 1,100 others were taken hostage at School #1 in the North Ossetian town of Beslan. She survived the three-day siege. Her mother, a teacher, didn't. Of the 334 hostages who lost their lives six years ago, 186 were children.

Agunda is a 19-year-old college student now. In the past three days, she has posted three installments of her recollections (RUS) of Sept. 1-3, 2004, on her LiveJournal and Radio Echo of Moscow blogs.

She writes this in the introduction to her first post:

While at the hospital, right after I got a notebook [computer], I began writing down what I remembered of those three days that I spent as a hostage. Six years later, I'd like to publish the notes I was writing then, [when the memories were still fresh]. [...]

On the Echo of Moscow blog, this Sept. 1 entry has been viewed 7,554 times and has generated 55 comments so far.

Agunda begins her account with the description of a festive yet ordinary morning, warm and very sunny, her walk to school with her mother, the final preparations for the welcoming of the new school year, and her casual chat with friends - which was suddenly interrupted by shooting:

[...] I turned around and saw three boys running towards the exit, and behind them a man in fatigues and with a thick black beard. He was running after the boys and shooting in the air. I thought: "Someone is making a bad joke, must be a prank or perhaps yet another drill." These thoughts vanished as soon as the shooting started from all sides and they started pushing us towards the boiler house. We were all huddled together. Trampled flowers, shoes and bags were strewn on the asphalt. [...]

Agunda and a couple of her close friends found themselves trapped in the school gym, together with hundreds of other hostages:

[...] People were panicking, we were hysterical. To quiet us down, They got one man up and threatened to kill him if we didn't fall silent. We were trying, but the fear and the panic prevailed. A gunshot was heard. They killed him... this is when the silence set in, dead silence, literally. Only the children's crying and screaming interrupted it. [...]

Soon enough Agunda's mother was allowed to join her daughter:

[...] We immediately started asking her what would happen, whether they would let us go or not. [...] Mama was talking very calmly, saying that everything would be fine, that we would be rescued. But as I looked at her, I knew that even Mama didn't know how it would all end, she was just calming us down, as her students, as kids. Kids - we were nothing but the scared kids then. [...] In a situation like that, even the most mature ADULTS were turning into cranky kids. [...]

Some more details from Day 1 of the siege:

[...] A gunman walked by, then stopped abruptly, [...] looked at Madina [Agunda's friend] and got very angry. He threw some jacket to her with these words: "Cover your shame!" She had bare knees, and, frightened, she covered herself right away. I felt a little bit better after this. "At least, they aren't going to rape us," I thought.

[...]

Time went by very slowly. It was hot, terribly hot. We took off all the clothes we could take off without looking indecent. There was little space, we sat on a bench. [...]

[...]

[...] It was around 8 PM when it started raining [...]. We sat by the broken windows and were catching raindrops with our mouths - this is how thirsty we were. Mama kept covering me and the girls with her jacket, but I kept getting out to get some rain. I felt so good - I think it's the best memory from that hell. [...]

Closer to lunchtime, by the way, They tried setting up a TV in the gym (to entertain the hostages with newscasts, obviously), but [it didn't work]. They told us that, according to the TV reports, there were 354 hostages. We felt [...] outraged. [...]

[...]

Throughout the night, we took turns sleeping in couples for an hour. While Madina and I sat on the bench, Mama and Zarina slept on the floor. An hour passed, and we'd switch. [...]

In the Sept. 2 entry (9,626 views, 92 comments on the Echo of Moscow blog), Agunda writes, among other things, about the hostage-takers' phone conversations, their demands (which included withdrawal of the Russian troops from the neighboring Chechnya and recognition of its independence), the visit of Ruslan Aushev, ex-president of the neighboring Ingushetia, and the resulting release of "11 nursing women and all 15 baby children" - an event that revived Agunda's hopes.

The account of Day 3 of the siege was the hardest for Agunda to write about - and is the hardest one to read:

[...] It was the day I remember best, and for too long these memories were causing me pain, keeping me from writing them down. [...]

As of now, this Sept. 3 entry has been viewed 16,185 times and has 178 comments on the Echo of Moscow blog (and these numbers continue to grow).

Agunda describes her own and other hostages' exhaustion, thirst and despair:

[...] All this time, Zarina's cousin, a first-grader, was with her, and she was very worried about him. On the third day, he was extremely weak and kept asking for water. Somewhere, she got some urine, in some broken cheap box, and she was giving it to him in small portions, wiping his and her own face with it. I couldn't overcome my squeamishness, or perhaps my thirst wasn't bad enough to drink this. [...]

Around 1 PM, Agunda writes, the hostage-takers announced that the Russian troops would withdraw from Chechnya and, if that information were true, they would start releasing the hostages soon:

[...] This was when I felt like crying for the first time in these three days, because there was some hope now that we would get out of there. And then... I just lost consciousness, and when I came to, the roof was burning over me, everything was falling, people were lying all around. The first thing I saw when I got up was a burning and burnt corpse of one of the terrorists, [...]. They started yelling that the ones who were alive should get up and get out of the gym into the hallway. I don't know why, but Mama and I got up and walked off. [...] By the door, I saw something that I still think about when I think about the terrorist act... I saw the body of a little, skinny girl, and when I looked above her neck, I realized that I just didn't see the upper part of her skull [...]. It was the most horrifying moment, and it was then, I guess, that I realized that this was all happening for real. [...]

The next few minutes brought another explosion, and more carnage and horror. Agunda was severely injured, but she was still capable of moving. Her mother wasn't:

[...] Mama was lying nearby. "My leg," she said. "Leave." I'll never be able to forgive myself for having obeyed her, for turning around and leaving. I don't know what it was. Where this betrayal came from.

I crawled to the broken window on all fours. There were some stoves by the window, and I reached the window sill. On one of these stoves lay two corpses of undressed, emaciated boys. They looked like brothers. Their eyes... [...]

I was one movement away from the street when my leg slipped into some hole. I could barely feel the leg at that point, couldn't find it, kept dragging it, but nothing came out of it. Our local militia and the soldiers were already waiting for me down below. They were yelling to me: "Come on, the golden one, come on, little sun!" But I couldn't. This feeling of weakness and hopelessness made me cry. For the first time in three days I was crying. But then I somehow pulled myself together and managed to free the leg. [...]

Agunda goes on writing about how she was taken to the hospital, how she learned about her mother's death. She writes about her friends and teachers who did not survive. She writes about living with the pain:

[...] People are still dying because of the consequences of the terrorist act. People are still reliving these events over and over again. I haven't told you even half of it, I guess. Memory is an amazing thing: one tries to forget everything that's bad, horrible, painful.

[...] I'm telling you my story. All that happened, happened in my dear school, with the people I love, and I think I have the right to tell you about my pain. What I used to call life back then was taken away from me. [...]

The people of Beslan are trying to let the truth be known. We aren't too good at it. The investigation has been going on for six years already, but it hasn't moved a bit. All the questions that we had then, remain today. [...]

Many bloggers have linked to and quoted from Agunda's posts in the past few days. Many people have written to let her know that they remember what happened six years ago and that they feel her pain and the pain of other survivors. According to some bloggers (RUS), however, neither President Dmitry Medvedev, nor PM Vladimir Putin, has issued any statements regarding the sixth anniversary of the Beslan tragedy. And on Sept. 1, one of Agunda's readers left this short comment (RUS) on her Echo of Moscow blog:

Will Putin's daughters read this?

The first anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, 2005. Photo by Natasha Mozgovaya

More of Natasha Mozgovaya's 2005 photos from Beslan are here; her Russian-language LJ blog is here.

Earlier GV posts on Beslan are here.

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.

Russia: Notes on the Post-Election Protest Rallies

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

On Monday, riot police in Moscow arrested dozens of people who attempted to take part in an unauthorized post-election protest rally.

Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001, an aide to Garry Kasparov) was one of those who got detained. Here's part of what she wrote (RUS) following her release:

I'm home, yes.

Briefly: my arm is bruised, my glasses broken, I was upside down when they threw me into the riot police bus, [hit] my head on the stairs a bit. Not the best way to enter a bus.

Inside my bus [...] there were mainly those who got detained at McDonald's. Riot police burst into [the McDonald's] and snatched people out. They seized those who [had nothing to do with the rally], too. We had two underaged [schoolkids]. Also, God forgive me, there were two [members of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi] on our bus. Nice kids, who quickly enough [received a political orientation] from other detainees ;) Well, and the situation [was as good as any political orientation], too... [...]

Sergei Davidis (LJ user blacky_sergei) wrote this (RUS) about the election and the Moscow rally:

Sad...

The election has made me sad somehow. Not because of Medvedev's victory - it was predictable. But because of the boldness and disrespect for law, which was evident in Moscow, for example. Shameless [falsifications], mass voting by dead souls, attempts to chase away and bribe the observers, refusal to accept complaints... followed by bold statements that there had been no complaints... All this with no real need for all this...

There are no rules that these jerks are prepared to respect, and it makes me feel helpless.

And then there's also the Dissenters' March today. It wasn't enough that these jerks hadn't approved it in a timely and lawful manner, it wasn't enough that they packed the whole neighborhood with cops. It wasn't enough that they were grabbing anyone who tried to chant or attracted too much media attention. But they were also seizing people who committed no violations whatsoever. Mikhail Kriger [LJ user kitaychonok_li was detained around 4:20 PM with no explanations given to him; he obeyed the police, as usual, even though their demands were unlawful. And in the evening, it became known that he was being accused of [resisting the police] and they wanted to subject him to administrative arrest. Since the cops were purposefully searching for him both at the protesters' gathering place and inside the buses carrying those already detained, it appears that they chose to punish him for an overly active position. He, for example, was one of those who initiated and took part in the single-person rallies in support of [Vasily Alexanyan], and then in support of [Natalya Morar].

And [LJ user dmitryhorse], along with other [members of AKM, the Vanguard of the Red Youth movement], was detained at the Chistyye Prudy McDonald's around 4:45 PM. In the protocol they wrote that he was marching along Chistoprudny Boulevard at 5:30 PM...

And there's practically no doubt that the courts would stamp these decisions, ignoring the witnesses' accounts... [...]

LJ user ilugru described (RUS) a march of his own - a one-person protest rally of sorts:

I left work earlier, but still too late to really take part in the event - by 5:50 PM they had detained nearly everyone they could detain, there was a hellish crowd of cops by Turgenevskaya [subway station], the remnants of the protesters and a crowd of journalists. I didn't encounter anyone I knew and decided to carry out a tiny individual march. Good thing [The New Times, a Russian-language weekly] had made a really good pre-election issue, which consisted mainly of pages full of slogans. I opened the page with the words "Vote or not, [you'll still get a male reproductive organ]..." and walked along Myasnitskaya St. towards Lubyanka, holding it close to me. I didn't run into riot police along the way, [regular] cops were looking intensely [at me], some were making steps towards me, but no one [really got me]. At the square near the Solovetsky Stone [Lubyanka], I saw a really amusing scene - hordes of cops were guarding all entrances to the square, which was occupied by six (!) people gloomily waving flags of the [pro-Kremlin Young Russia youth movement]. [...] I would give a lot to listen to the thoughts of the big riot police guys who had to stand along the perimeter, guarding these clowns.

In St. Petersburg, the post-election protest rally was an authorized one - and it actually did take place. One of the protesters, LJ user aneta_spb, wrote this (RUS) on her blog:

It was good. But not much. It's clear that in the nearest future we will not see tens of thousands of protesters. [...]

***

Links to some photos and a video from the Moscow and St. Petersburg rallies are in these earlier Global Voices posts: here, here, and here.

Russia: Sergei Dorenko on Badri Patarkatsishvili

Global Voices Online
Thursday, February 14, 2008

Badri Patarkatsishvili, an exiled Georgian tycoon, opposition politician and Boris Berezovsky's longtime friend and business partner, died unexpectedly on Feb. 12 in England.

World media are providing extensive coverage of the ongoing investigation into Patarkatsishvili's death, and the Russian blogosphere offers plenty of commentary as well.

Here is what journalist Sergei Dorenko, who headed Berezovsky's ORT channel's news service under Patarkatsishvili, has written (RUS) about his former boss and the people who surrounded him:

I called Boris [Berezovsky], asked him whether it was really so.

He could barely talk - very difficult for him. But he confirmed, yes, Badri [Patarkatsishvili] is gone.

Strange and hard to believe.

Then I also talked to a friend who was doing some business with Badri, and they'd had a phone conversation at 7 PM London time yesterday. Badri was full of energy during that conversation, joked a lot and sounded beautifully.

He died at 11 PM London time.

And I had also spent nearly two weeks with Badri, from Dec. 14 to 26. Saw him for many hours daily - from morning till evening. A very strong person. Very energetic. Don't remember him complaining of being tired, not once, don't remember him feeling unwell, or taking any medication, or visiting doctors.

Since he was running for president of Georgia, there was a lot of work to be done. But he was managing well. He was coping with pressure better than I'm capable of - because I can't stand sleep deprivation at all.

He was 52. He would've turned 53 at the end of October.

Everyone's asking me about him, but I don't know what to say, except for what I've said above.

He is Berezovsky's friend. More than a friend. More than a brother.

He was a good friend of Kostya Ernst [director general of ORT]. Until Putin invited Kostya to join him. They had reached an agreement. Kostya called Badri after the meeting with Putin and told him very loudly and clearly: "Badri, I'm a piece of shit." And then he hung up right away. I think this says a lot about Ernst. Characterizes him positively overall as a human being. He could've abstained from calling, but he did call. It means a lot. And this is how Badri thought about it. And Kostya today could've said a lot about his friend.

[Andrei Lugovoi, ex-KGB operative, currently a deputy of the State Duma, accused of murdering Aleksandr Litvinenko] had been working under his command for a long time. Lugovoi has a lot to tell, I think.

I used to run into Lugovoi in Badri's reception area. As for Kostya Ernst, I used to see him in Patarkatsishvili's study. Though it wasn't too often that I passed through that reception into that study. Badri ran the finances of [the ORT Channel], while I was in the news. We the news folks are a special caste, the elite [...]. We don't need money, don't give a damn about the money - that is, we don't count the money and never will, and who gets the money and where from, it's none of our business. Well, Badri was somehow getting the money, and we never bothered to ask whether it was easy for him or not...

So yeah, it'd be worth it to ask Kostya some questions. And Lugovoi.

And me, what can I recall?

He tried to look very respectable. He was imitating Stalin a little bit? The way he acted, the way he spoke...

Once, at Berezovsky's birthday party in 1997, Badri came up to me and patted me on the should, saying: "Attaboy, attaboy!" Then he moved his hand the way I interpreted as an attempt to pat me on the cheek superiorly. I'm not sure, because I turned around and evaded his pat, and left outraged.

I waked through the hall. I walked through the vestibule. I walked down the stairs of the [LogoVAZ] receptions building. I got outside and ran towards my Pajero. Got behind the wheel. But couldn't shut the door - because Boris had been walking behind me all this time. He held the Pajero's door and asked: "Don't leave, it's my birthday, forgive him, this is the way he is, this is how he's used to be, he's Georgian. Over there in Georgia it's okay for people to touch one another, it's not considered offensive." I responded angrily and with curses, said bad things about the Caucasian habit of standing 20 cm from each other, yelling right into the other guy's mouth, patting on the shoulder, etc. Boris said he really wanted me to accept Badri the way he was, because Badri was his friend, the only REAL friend. Boris was standing out in the freezing Moscow street on Jan. 23, without his jacket on. At some point, I pointed out to him that he was freezing, standing the way he did, holding the Pajero's door. He admitted the absurdity of the scene - bodyguards five meters away, on tram rails, me inside the car, he right next to it. Well, it was kind of silly. It was his birthday, moreover. And so I returned.

Then in Nov. 1998 Badri decided at some point that ORT might cease to exist at any moment. And he threw a party at LogoVAZ's receptions building. Shabdurasulov, Pozner, Yakubovich, Lyubimov were all there. There were some ten people, including Berezovsky. They were serving suckling pigs from some Georgian restaurant. Badri said that we had done a good job, and that we would probably not work any longer, if a loan didn't turn up. Then someone said a toast. Then I got up and spoiled the evening. I said that I manage 500 people - the news service. That those people haven't been paid their salaries since August [following the financial crisis of 1998]. That these people had lost their [bank savings]. That my colleagues were coming to work with plastic bags with buckwheat meals in them - they couldn't afford eating at the cafeteria, it was too expensive for them. And that I considered this party [immoral] - with those piglets and well-fed [faces]. And I couldn't stay with this crowd. And so I left. And this time no one tried to get me back. Because, moreover, my resignation got exchanged for a 100-million loan at the order of [Yevgeniy Primakov]. And thank God for that. These words sounded very appropriately and beautifully afterwards: "You want your staff to get their salaries, don't you? Then leave and don't stand in the way - this is [Primakov]'s condition."

Eventually, we did forgive each other. Me and Badri. When I became déclasséd and he turned into an exile. We started to interact, little by little, carefully, every minute expecting to find a reason to have a fight. And we didn't find any reason to fight.

And now we'll never have it at all.

Though, here's one: this death of his is so sudden and inexplicable - what kind of a prank is that?

I really, really regret it. It's bitter for me to think that our Badrik is dead. And I'm happy to have known him and to have worked with him.

And I fear for Boris - Litvinenko was quite a blow, and Badri is a blow that's many times as forceful.

A question: did he [leave] by himself or was he helped to. I'd like to get an answer to this question.

Garry Kasparov's aide Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) posted a link to Dorenko's account on her blog and wrote (RUS):

Other people's lives.

Dorenko writes in his LJ about Badri, Berezovsky, Ernst, about his departure from ORT (in exchange for a loan for ORT from Primakov - the war of clans had already started then, and it ended with Putin's arrival).

Nice, useless details - and the significant ones are showing through.

Russia: Violence in Ingushetia

Global Voices Online
Sunday, September 9, 2007

Attacks on civilians in Ingushetia have increased in the past few months. The most recent victims of violence include the family of an ethnic Russian teacher from the town of Karabulak, two ethnic Koreans in Stanitsa Ordzhonikidzevskaya, and a 66-year-old ethnic Russian doctor at a blood transfusion center in Nazran. Attacks on law enforcement authorities are also reported to be on the rise. To help local security forces manage the situation, some 2,500 interior ministry troops were sent to Ingushetia (pop. 467,294) earlier this month.

In Karabulak, the Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out a "special operation" on Sept. 2, which resulted in the death of Apti Dolakov, a 21-year-old man allegedly involved in the murder of the teacher's family.

LJ user shurpaev - Ilyas Shurpaev, a journalist with the state-owned Channel 1 - wrote this (RUS) about the incident:

So I'm sitting in the lobby [of the Karabulak prosecutor's office] and in comes a huge guy in camouflage, and he is fuming - "How can it be! Why did they have to kill?! They could've just arrested him, if there had been something on him, they could've just arrested him and that's it, and now they'll just put all the blame on the guy!" The secretary hissed at him - "There are journalists here!!!"

According to the official story, the guy was killed as he attempted to escape and resist the police. And he had a hand grenade. So we go to the site of the incident, find the backyard where he was killed, talk to the witnesses of the special operation, and what do you think? Everyone says the same thing. And we weren't recording the crowd, we walked from one apartment to the other, so I think there is a substantial grain of truth in what they were saying. Here are [...] the facts.

- the guy had no weapons on him, there was nothing in his hands as he was running away, but he was being followed by armed men.

- the crowded neighborhood, in which the special operation was taking place, had not been cordoned off. But there was [a great deal of] shooting there.

- the guy was shot in the backyard, then it looks like they made a "control shot," then they lifted his body and placed a hand grenade underneath. [...] No one said they'd placed the hand grenade into his pocket, into his hand, etc. Everyone said they'd lifted the body, and they even thought they wanted to administer first aid to the guy. [...]

At the end of his post, Shurpaev explains why what's going on in Ingushetia now is similar to the situation in Dagestan two years ago - and why it appears to be much worse:

The situation in Ingushetia sucks and I doubt it'll improve. The terrorist act statistics is nearly the same as in Dagestan two years ago. But over there, special services where not fighting guys "with hand grenades" - but were killing weathered gang bosses. In [Dagestan] now, it's not three terrorist acts a night, but one every two weeks at the most.

Other explanations of the situation in Ingushetia feature the neighboring Chechnya - in one way or another.

According to some officials, militants from Chechnya and other North Caucasian republics are behind some of the attacks.

Ruslan Isayev, a Prague Watchdog author, whose recent text was translated from Russian by David McDuff of A Step At A Time, reports on this scenario that's now being discussed in Ingushetia:

One rumour that is spreading says that the situation in the republic is being aggravated on purpose so that the forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen President Kadyrov can be called in to restore order and to unite the two republics in future, and that [Ingushetia's extremely unpopular president] Murat Zyazikov will tender his resignation [...] this month.

Isayev also notes that the ongoing violence in Ingushetia is viewed by many as a possible beginning of yet another war in the North Caucasus:

Many people are now comparing the situation in Ingushetia with the situation in Chechnya before the second war. Some observers even draw parallels with the most active phases of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya, when members of the federal forces were able with impunity to abduct any person or simply shoot a passer-by who didn’t look at them in the right way.

Marina Litvinovich - LJ user abstract2001, Garry Kasparov's aide and founder of the PravdaBeslana.ru website - is dismayed with president Vladimir Putin's lack of response to the situation in Ingushetia and links it to the upcoming presidential election, scheduled to take place on March 9, 2008. She appealed (RUS) to the president's press service on her blog:

If I still had an opportunity to advise president V. Putin to issue a statement, I would definitely insist on a statement about the events in Ingushetia.

Because Russians and not just them are being purposefully killed there, educated and respected people more often than not. Extrajudicial killings (shootings) of civilians are also taking place there (most often for their religious beliefs). All this has been going for two months already.

It's about time the president paid attention to this.

Because he regularly signs condolences when citizens of other countries die, and the same about congratulations, but there's no reaction from him whatsoever when bloody events and deaths of citizens occur in his own country.

But here's what's even worse. They are "setting up the stage" now by killing people in Ingushetia, then they'll organize some terrorist act, and when it's all over, Putin would appear "in front of the nation" and say something like this:

"We are not dealing with singular acts of intimidation or with unrelated attacks by terrorists. We are dealing with a direct intervention of international terror against Russia.

We're dealing with a total, cruel and full-scale war, which is taking lives of our compatriots again and again.

All international experience shows that such wars do not end quickly, unfortunately. In such circumstances, we cannot afford and shouldn't live as carelessly as before.

Our country has entered the election period. It is obvious that the terrorist underground is willing to make use of the time when the power in Russia is being transfered. Our enemies want instability and chaos. But we won't let them drag us into war and terror.

I'd like to say the following in this regard.

First.

A set of measures aimed at strengthening the unity of the country will be prepared in the nearest future.

Second.

To preserve stability in Russia, I have sent the chambers of the Federal Council of the Russian Federation a proposal to introduce changes into paragraph 3 of Article 81 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation [which reads: "No one person shall hold the office of President of the Russian Federation for more than two terms in succession."]

I hope that the citizens of Russia will understand and support my decision.

Today, we must be together. Only this way shall we able to overcome the enemy."

Vladimir Vladimirovich, it's good in Australia, but Ingushetia is burning right next to you.

Thank you for your attention.

LJ user varfolomeev66 - Vladimir Varfolomeev, Radio Echo of Moscow host - is dismayed with public indifference towards violence in Ingushetia. On his blog, he wrote (RUS):

[...] We think that what's going on in Ingushetia - so distant from both capitals [Moscow and St. Petersburg] - will not affect us, that the bony hand of the militants and "death squads" will never reach us.

We are wrong to be so hopeful.

The war in Chechnya ended up resulting in the hijacking of planes, explosions of residential building, theater and school sieges. If the Ingush boiler explodes, you and I may end up being buried under its debris, too.

We should at least think about this - if no one, unfortunately, cares about the fate of the Ingush people.

Russia: Beslan Anniversary

Global Voices Online
Thursday, September 6, 2007

Moscow City Day celebrations this year coincided with the third anniversary of the 2004 Beslan school siege. Like many others, LJ user varfolomeev66 (Vladimir Varfolomeev, Radio Echo of Moscow host) found this shockingly inappropriate and wrote this (RUS) on his blog:

City Day or the Day of Grieving?

Why aren't New Yorkers and Washingtonians having public celebrations on September 11?
Why aren't there loud fireworks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on January 27?
Why aren't they holding concerts and holiday festivals in Grozny and Nazran on February 23?
Why wouldn't you see picturesque parades in Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka on December 26?

Because over there, these dates are associated with national catastrophes, whose victims' memory they are trying to keep and honor in these countries. Over there live and rule the Human Beings who don't think it possible to hold any celebrations on the days of Grieving. Events like Moscow's City Day - the most shameful and disgusting action that one can possible imagine on September 1.

Before you set out to have fun at Manezhnaya or Poklonnaya Squares today, to the Christ the Savior Cathedral or to Luzhniki, remember that on this very day 1,128 people were taken hostage, and 333 of them died, including 186 children.

LJ user mgtverskoy offered this explanation for the authorities' heartless initiative:

All this is being done so that people forgot [about Beslan]. [...]

A relatively small memorial gathering did take place in Moscow, however. LJ user abstract2001 (Marina Litvinovich, founder of PravdaBeslana.ru site) posted a few pictures (RUS) from it on her blog (more pictures are here). The first photo is of Dmitry Milovidov, whose daughter died during the 2002 Dubrovka theater hostage crisis; at this year's September 1 rally, he held a poster with photographs of the children and adults who had died in Beslan.

Below is one of the conversations that took place the comments section of abstract2001's post:

lugerp08:

400 people is too few, perhaps there haven't been enough victims yet. :(

abstract2001:

Should there be victims for other people to wake up? ;((((((((((((((((((((((

lugerp08:

Apparently, yes, if it's predominantly the victims and their relatives who attend such rallies. The rest probably lack the time, they were saying goodbye to the summer with beer outdoors, and were celebrating September 1 at home.

rgkot:

And what's going to happen if one goes to such a rally? Will the Chechen terrorists drop their weapons [...] and repent?

lugerp08:

No, the terrorists will leave the Kremlin if we stop acting like sheep.

LJ user drugoi posted a selection of 2004 Beslan photos from various sources, most of them heartbreakingly graphic. Although he didn't write a single word, his post generated seven pages of comments, the majority of which were wordless, too.

Below are a few comments that broke the mournful silence (RUS):

lach_gas:

It's amazing that you hear more about Lady Diana [...] than about Beslan. The capital is celebrating. On [...] TV, on this most tragic day in recent history, they are broadcasting ice dancing and outdated Hollywood tits.

ptiza_s4astja:

Well, all of this has to be forgotten and we should pretend as if nothing had ever happened. Hey, we live in the most well-off, developed country, all's cool, people live in prosperity and safety, and Beslan doesn't fit into this scheme at all.

bifurcus:

Horrible. One is willing to forget, but such things should not be forgotten, there's no way we can forget.

Russia: New Beslan Footage & YouTube

Global Voices Online
Thursday, August 9, 2007

It will be three years on September 1 since the beginning of the 2004 Beslan school siege - which ended with the deaths of 331 people, 186 of whom were children.

And on October 23, it will be five years since the beginning of the 2002 Dubrovka/Nord-Ost theater siege in Moscow. At least 129 hostages lost their lives then.

In a comment to a recent post by Marina Litvinovich (LJ user
abstract2001, founder of the comprehensive Russian-language resource on all the Beslan-related developments, PravdaBeslana.ru/Truth of Beslan), a U.S.-based reader asked this question (RUS) about president Vladimir Putin's responsibility for the tragedies:

san_diegan:

[...] Reading your notes and other people's opinions, I sometimes find myself a bit perplexed. Why is it that Nord-Ost and Beslan are treated as "the crimes of the regime"? I've encountered this view often and not just in your journal. I don't see it this way. The Nord-Ost hostage rescue headquarters had to bear responsibility - or, yes, there was a total mess in Beslan. But the desperate words "the criminal regime" conceal something worse - an unwitting exoneration of those who had actually made Nord-Ost and Beslan happen. The terrorists... It starts to feel as if the terrorists are not guilty at all. And when the two planes were blown up that same year [August 24, 2004]? It's obvious that a [bribe-taking] cop who allows just about anyone onto the plane is guilty of criminal negligence. But is this cop the regime? But those who blew up the plane are immeasurably worse. They are the obvious evil. I understand that analogies [don't work well in this context] and I don't know exactly what the the left-wing U.S. journalists are writing about 9/11. Or are they also putting the blame for the instant killing of 3,000 compatriots and destruction of the country's symbol not on the terrorists, but on the FBI and the CIA - which have incredible material resources at their disposal, unlike those half-literate cops from Beslan?

Marina Litvinovich replied (RUS):

You are right: with Nord-Ost and Beslan, there're crimes committed at the operations headquarters. Very often we speak of "the regime's crimes" because I (as well as many others) know how decisions are being made in emergency situations. Putin makes the key (political) decisions. Other decisions are taken by the head of the FSB [Federal Security Service), head of the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs) and their subordinates. In the case of Beslan, it was Putin (along with [FSB head Nikolay Patrushev and MVD head Rashid Nurgaliyev]) who decided there'd be "no negotiations" and [ordered] "to prepare for the storming." And it was Putin who [ran] things during Nord-Ost (I saw it myself). [Litvinovich used to head the Internet Department of Gleb Pavlovsky's Foundation for Effective Politics and, among other things, worked on Putin's 2000 presidential election campaign.]

As for the terrorists and their guilt - they've been punished. Well, thank God for that.

What we're talking about here is that not a single public official who made criminal, wrong decisions in Beslan and [Nord-Ost] has been punished.

During 9/11, the government was trying to save people, and, as far as I know, firefighters and rescuers were acting professionally.

In the case of [Nord-Ost], 130 people died, and of this number the terrorists killed three, if I'm not mistaken. Who is to blame for the deaths of 127 people?

In the case of Beslan: 330 people died, and the terrorists killed approximately 40 of them. Who should bear responsibility for the deaths of the rest of them?

Despite years of official investigation, these and other crucial questions about Dubrovka/Nord-Ost and Beslan tragedies remain unanswered.

One of the key mysteries in the Beslan story is the cause of the two explosions that, around 1 P.M. on Sept. 3, rocked the gym where over a thousand hostages were being held. Russian authorities insist that it was the terrorists who set off homemade bombs strung all around the gym. Recently, however, a video has emerged, in which two Russian bomb experts are heard saying that, judging by the nature of the damage, there could have been no blasts inside the gym - and this seems to lend support to a claim that special forces were responsible for the initial explosions.

On July 30, Marina Litvinovich posted the new footage on YouTube, here. She was delighted (RUS) to have reached so many people in such a short period of time:

I've been making the clips till 6 A.M. today and was uploading the Beslan video of Sept. 3-4, 2004, footage of the prosecutor's office. While I was making them, I really felt like getting drunk - quickly and with vodka, because it is simply impossible to watch all this ;((

[...]

To save space, I've uploaded [the video] on YouTube (pravdabeslana). And it turns out it was the right thing to do. YouTube rules! The clips have already been watched by hundreds and hundreds of people - even though there've only been links from my LJ [blog] and today from Kasparov.ru [opposition site].

But on July 31, two clips - parts 6 and 8 of the Sept. 4 examination of the scene by the prosecutor's office experts - were deleted. Litvinovich wrote (RUS):

[...] On the one hand, this is right, on the other - it's wrong.

In part 6 - there's the blown off head and legs of [a female suicide bomber]. In part 8 - a couple more corpses of the terrorists.

What can I say? This is what the examination was like - and I've uploaded it the way it was, facts remain facts, I haven't edited anything out. I've written a warning everywhere, to save people's nerves. Should I have edited the corpses out? I don't think it would've been right.

I, of course, understand that YouTube has to be cheerful, but this footage is unique, it's got to exist. Maybe not as accessible as it is on YouTube, but where should I put it then? I'll solve this problem somehow, of course, and upload it all on PravdaBeslana.ru, but not everyone who's interested in the subject (especially those who don't speak Russian) will get there...

[...]

One reader alleged that Litvinovich was being "jammed" and another suggested appealing to YouTube, explaining that the footage was "significant politically and historically" and thus should be kept online, but in the end, LJ user nl unearthed a rather obvious explanation for what initially may have looked like censorship - the YouTube Community Guidelines:

Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don't post it.

YouTube is not a shock site. Don't post gross-out videos of accidents, dead bodies and stuff like that. This includes war footage if it's intended to shock or disgust.

All 12 parts of the video - and other relevant footage - can be downloaded here, at PravdaBeslana.ru. The disclaimer typed in red warns that children and people who are "emotionally unstable" should not watch this video.

Russia: Dissenters' March in Samara

Global Voices Online
Saturday, May 19, 2007

On Friday, police at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport prevented Russian opposition leaders Garry Kasparov and Eduard Limonov from boarding a flight to Samara, where they planned to take part in the Dissenters' March, scheduled to coincide with the Russia-EU Summit. A number of other opposition activists and journalists didn't make it to Samara as well that day, and Kasparov's aide Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) was one them. Here's what she wrote (RUS):

[...] I've just returned from Sheremetyevo-1, where they didn't allow us to take our 9 AM flight. We were released around 1:45 PM, only after the 1:30 PM flight to Samara had departed (we, of course, didn't have tickets for it, and we couldn't buy them without our passports [that were taken away by the police], and moreover, they were not letting us out of the waiting lounge). [...]

Despite the absense of Kasparov and Limonov, the opposition rally did take place.

LJ user insie (Stanislav Sazhin) attended and posted his photos here and a 27MB video - here (WARNING: both links are bandwidth intensive). Below are excerpts from two of insie's May 18 posts (RUS):

01:57 pm

The situation around the Russia-EU Summit is incredibly banal. "Potemkin Villages" is what it's called. Mr. Putin thinks that Merkel and company are a bunch of idiots if he hopes that by showing Russia's presentable side he'll manage to deceive the European leaders. And this exactly is the goal of all the latest actions, which are more like state terrorism.

First of all, all who in some way had been revealed to have something to do with the marches were hunted down in a rude and mean way on their way to Samara. And they aren't even looking for reasons to detain. They give no reasons. They just detain and that's it. [...]

The second stage is no less intricate and smells even worse because of that. All the Summit's guests are transported from the airport to the site of the event ... on helicopters! Yes, on helicopters, to keep them from seeing the Russian reality, so that they didn't notice the empty villages, broken down roads, rusty cars. And you know what - I've seen it all on the way from the airport to the city today. [...]

What is the regime thinking of - does anyone really believe that the European leaders aren't aware of the way things really are in the country? Is Putin really sure that it's possible to [embellish the truth] of his crimes [...] by ordering all villagers to stay away from their garden plots during these days (yes, so that they didn't spoil the view)? [...]

This morning, I saw for myself how the arriving passangers stood in line at Samara international airport. But it wasn't an ordinary line, no. People were being searched. Their personal passport information was being read aloud and they were forced to wait. Those who complained were rudely admonished. [...] Every last name was openly checked against some printed list. And they were openly saying this: "You aren't on the list of undesirable persons, you may go!" The very fact that citizens of the Russian Federation can be undesrable persons in the Russian Federation - this needs no further comment, I guess.

[...]

07:10 pm

Streets leading up to the fountain on Osipenko blocked, empty asphalt, lots of water cannons and gloomy policemen on every crossing: each step I was making in this sleepy kingdom led me to think that soon I'd see Something. Something that all these special services are so afraid of.

But I failed to see it. Didn't see it! From afar, it seemed as if young people were getting drunk near the fountain. The only thing that seemed to ruin this idyllic Friday afternoon were the [Imperial flags] [...].

[...] Near the fountain, there were about 200 people - merry, relaxed, happy young faces, enjoying the sun [...]. These people waved flags, chatted, and the already familiar black banner of the Other Russia was in the vanguard. I thought - are civilized rallies possible in Russia, withough fights and hysteria? The police were barely visible. They encircled the square loosely and were also present all the way along the street up to the embankment.

But this was nothing compared to the April clashes in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This was victory. The first and last one this evening. The regime decided against using harsh measures [...].

Journalists were slightly less numerous than the young people, mainly photographers - I've counted at least 150 people. Plus the usual old women, sympathetic city residents and the coalition's leaders (those who had not been caught) - all in all, 500 people or so.

[...]

And then the farce began. At the command of the cheerful guy Yura [...] all these folks moved along the street. It bacame clear right away that the people had gotten too relaxed in the sun, as they kept refusing to march, and didn't chant anything, and felt more like taking a merry walk and chat on various topics.

Yura and his assistents were screaming menacingly at them, the column rearranged shoulder to shoulder again, but their slogans subsided after two or three times, and the straight rows were beginning to stray apart once the leaders looked the other way.

Special respect to journalists. There were so many of us! Photo and video cameras literally surrounded the marching protesters. [...]

A crowd of onlookers as large walked along on the sidewalks and small paths - they didn't have it in them to join the march, but they didn't want to walk away either. What if the fighting starts - you gotta watch it from the first rows!

So this is how we walked cheerfully to the embankment [...]. By then, some of the onlookers had decided to join the march. It all looked pretty funny - half-naked girls with guys or mamas, elderly women, men in suits. Democracy! [...] All in all, I'd say there were about a thousand people.

Despite the quantity, the march still failed. The chants were kind of weak, and only the [National Bolsheviks] were yelling them, and the rest were silent. These phrases that we've already heard a million times are boring. "Russia Without Putin" - yes, I agree, but is there some other way to say it!?

[...]

For the next half an hour, there were boring speeches on the same subjects, and in the hellish heat, and without a microphone (the police did not allow to use amplifying equipment). The same slogans were being repeated over and over again. The boredom was diluted only by a woman from Belarus [...]. She was harshly critical of Lukashenko, and it turned out that there were many of his supporters in the crowd. [...]

The great finale of the evening were the handshakes between the rally's leadership and the leadership of the local police [...] - all went great, not a single person has been detained. And really, no one wanted to fight in such heat.

And would they want to? The regime has achieved its goal - it eliminated the backbone before it reached Samara. And the rest turned out to be ineffectual, to tell the truth.

My verdict - a great walk, great company, great acquaintances and smiles, no march, no politics. Simply a great evening.

Russia: Listening In On the Police; St. Pete Rally

Global Voices Online
Thursday, April 19, 2007

Marina Litvinovich - LJ user abstract2001, Garry Kasparov's aide and PravdaBeslana.ru founder - has posted recordings of the walkie-talkie conversations of riot police officers deployed for the opposition's Dissenters' Marches in Moscow (RUS) on April 14 and in St. Petersburg (RUS) on April 15. Radio Echo of Moscow has been playing one of these clips (RUS) all day long today, an edited copy, with beeps instead of the curses.

Here is one of abstract2001's summaries (RUS):

[...] There are some really interesting parts that could be combined with the video from the March. "Detain them all!", "About 30 pensioners are standing there, what should we do with them, should we detain them?", "About 50 people are moving toward Triumfalnaya Square and Kasparov is with them," "Detain them all, with Kasparov!", "Make sure that Kasparov doesn't leave, take him," "Get us more [trucks for prisoners]!", [...] "Take them all and load them on!", "Order them to detain Kasyanov! Take them and put them on the buses! Do you need more men?", "They've fought Kasyanov off, he's walking along the boulevard!", "What do you mean, they let Kasyanov go? Who's responsible for Kasyanov?" et cetera........................ [...]

There is also this thread (RUS) on RadioScanner.ru forum, whose users were listening in on the police during the Moscow rally:

Ivanov, April 14, 2007, 13:02:27 -

A quote: "There's no one on Rozhdestvenskiy Boulevard! Not a single person, only OMON. Who are we supposed to detain, damn it?!"

Ivanov, April 14, 2007, 13:03:21 -

And in reply - "Detain everyone - with or without [flags, posters, etc.] - detain them all!"

They'll have to detain the OMON guys :)))

***

Below are a few photo posts and reports from bloggers who attended the opposition's rally in St. Petersburg on April 15.

(Warning: as with the previous two installments - here and here - some links lead to blogs with bandwidth-intensive content.)

- Forty-eight pages of photographs from the Dissenters' March in St. Petersburg this past Sunday - available for download in .pdf format here - by LJ user studio204 (St. Petersburg-based Russian photographer Dmitry Shubin). Two separate posts with these photos are here and here.

- LJ user gangleon (photos and text):

[...] Some 200 people were pushed with shields towards the Vitebsk Train Station. OMON used force against the people gathered there, despite the fact that they were not trying to do anything unlawful (well, except for attempting to break through the cordons). The other group was pushed towards Zagorodnyi Prospekt. OMON also cut off a group of journalists and also started beating them (not sure about this, didn't see it), breaking their cameras and other equipment. The newly-arrived reinforcement, yelling and doing the beat with their shields, moved toward the last, numerous, group, of which I was part. As a result of the law enforcement's actions, many participants of the rally were wounded. One pensioner had his leg broken, for example.

The rally's organizers were not calling the participants to march. [One party leader] asked everyone to go home when the rally was over, and if some intended to walk to Smolny, they had to do it on their own. Nevertheless, people were not allowed to freely leave the square. [...]

- LJ user miiir (text):

Soundproof

- We came here so that our voice was hea...

The microphone breaks off.

- ...rd by all genuine citizens of the City, - the speaker continues without the amplifier.

All sounds drown in the hum of the helicopter hanging above the square, with the word MILITIA written on its door. The helicopter's door is open, so the word reads as MILIA.

- LJ user zirkov (photos);

- LJ user flilm (photos - here and here);

- LJ user near_bird (photos - here and here).

Russia: LJ and Politics

Global Voices Online
Saturday, October 28, 2006

On October 25, International Herald Tribune published Evgeny Morozov's opinion piece on the recent developments in the Russian blogosphere. On his blog - Sharp & Sound: Perspectives On Modern Politics - Morozov wrote:

[...] I’ve been surprised how little coverage the story has received in the Western media…Hm, virtually none…

Russian bloggers, unlike the world media, have been all over the controversial Six Apart-Sup deal in the past few weeks - and some, including Maxim Kononenko (LJ user mrparker, creator of Vladimir Vladimirovich™ spoofs on Vladimir Putin), have also been monitoring what little is being written outside Russia. Never too congenial, Kononenko passed an extremely harsh judgment (RUS) on Morozov's piece - and Morozov provided a translation:

I’m honoured: Mr Parker, one of the most odious figures on the Russian blogosphere, has just awarded with “prize of the month” for “the most clinical idiotism, which can only be reached in analytic journalism”.

Coming from him, it’s equivalent to Nobel Prize in literature… ;-)

I’m anxious to see other prizes from the Russian bloggers.

[...]

What unnerved Kononenko was Morozov's assertion that Anton Nossik - LJ user dolboeb, "a former associate of Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin's spindoctor" and the "chief blogging officer" of the company taking over LJ's Cyrillic sector - may be aiding the Kremlin "in destroying a viable and vibrant public forum."

But Nossik is not alone in the Russian blogosphere when it comes to having ties to one of Putin's chief image-shapers: Kononenko co-hosts a political TV show with him, and there are also Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) and Marat Guelman (LJ user galerist), who were both closely linked to the Kremlin and Pavlovsky in the past - and are in opposition now, to various degrees.

Guelman - a gallery owner, among other things - founded the Foundation for Effective Politics think tank together with Pavlovsky in 1995 (and Pavlovsky is still its president). Litvinovich - founder of PravdaBeslana.ru, among other things - served as the head of the Foundation's Internet department (Pavlovsky doesn't seem to have a blog).

Guelman has been having an eventful time lately. First, on Oct. 20, Russian customs officials at Sheremetyevo-2 airport seized 11 photo collages by Blue Noses that were being transported from the Guelman Gallery in Moscow to Matthew Bown's gallery in London. On his blog, Guelman posted reproductions of two collages created five years ago and depicting Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden lounging together in underwear (here and here). He also wrote (RUS) that the authorities were threatening to persecute him for offending the Russian president, and noted that some media, both local and international, were using his blog to gather information:

[...] Others called me and Matthew, but one way or another, 13 publications[,] two radio stations and [R]euters - [their] source was LJ. Who needs press conferences ;))

The following day, on Oct. 21, a group of men described as skinheads burst into Guelman's gallery, destroying paintings by an ethnic Georgian artist Aleksandr Dzhikia and beating Guelman up. In his journal, he later posted a brief note (RUS), which received 287 comments, most of them "get well" wishes:

;alive and in one piece)

LJ user mnog posted photos of the gallery after the pogrom (150 comments, RUS).

Litvinovich, like Guelman, had been attacked and badly beaten earlier this year; like Guelman, she posted a brief update on her blog shortly after the incident took place in March and received some 500 "get well" comments from her readers.

Lyndon of Scraps of Moscow was following the story at the time and, among other things, he provided some background information on Litvinovich and her involvement with Gleb Pavlovsky:

Perhaps the powers-that-be are even more angry at Litvinovich because, years before her recent attempt to get possible Putin successor Sergei Ivanov booted from his job as Defense Minister, she seemed to be on their side. Without wanting to call her opposition cred into question, it seems relevant to mention that she got her start working for Kremlin spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovsky's Fond Effektivnoi Politiki, though, to be fair, I think back in '99 Pavlovsky wasn't considered to have gone over to the dark side - actually, back in '99, concern about the Putin administration becoming a "dark side" was rather muted overall.

Recently, Litvinovich has posted photos from her visit to Chechnya soon after the beating - here, here and here: ruins again and again, ads calling people to "come out of the shade" and pay taxes, Ahmad Kadyrov's monument in Grozny - "The only monument I know of a man with prayer beads." On several photos, one can still see scars on Litvinovich's face.

Also recently, Litvinovich posted photos from her visit to the Korallovo children’s home and lyceum, founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. She wrote (RUS):

Have been to the birthday party of the Podmoskovny Lyceum in Korallovo. As you know, orphans live and study there. Including many children from [Beslan], orphans of [Nord-Ost], the fallen planes, children of the border guards, etc.

The lyceum is still under arrest. Nevertheless, they exist and continue to develop. Few people know, but the lyceum's motto is "Duty. Honor. Fatherland." They say it as part of the lyceum student's oath, too.

Last I was there was three years ago, with Mikhail Borisovich [Khodorkovsky], a week before his arrest. Today, only [Khodorkovsky's mother] Marina Filippovna was there. [Khodorkovsky's fahter] Boris Moiseyevich was in the hospital.

The children performed a wonderful concert. If you are interested, you can see the photos I took (part 1 and part 2).

God willing, all should be good for them and the lyceum.

Russia: Disagreements Over Beslan Memorial

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Founder of PravdaBeslana.ru Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) writes (RUS) about one of the problems that survivors and relatives of those who died in Beslan in September 2004 have to deal with now:

Orthodox Christianity in Beslan

I've always been amazed by how the local authorities in North Ossetia and Beslan can breed problems where there shouldn't be any. Right now the authorities, with active support from the Orthodox Church, are planning to tear down the School and build an Orthodox church where the gym used to be.

Discussions on the School's future have been going on for a long time in Beslan. Many variants have been proposed - the most adequate one, to my mind, is a memorial in place of the gym. Christians, as well as Muslims, as well as atheists, and also just kids, who were not yet consciously considering religion, died in the School. (The number of Muslims who died in the School can be determined by the way the graves are turned at the cemetery: their gravestones are facing another direction.) To my mind, the construction of an Orthodox church on the spot where they died may lead to conflicts.

And the conflicts have already taken place: a few weeks ago we accidentally witnessed the setting in the center of the gym of a wooden Orthodox cross blessed by an impressive delegation of the Orthodox clergy. A couple days later, I learned that one man who'd lost family members in the School took the cross down. After that, they screwed the cross into the gym's floor.

But these are all my views. In this case, they don't matter, and what matters is the opinion of the relatives of those who died. Here's the view of the victims, the Voice of Beslan committee [RUS]. I also know that there is no unanimous opinion on this issue at the Mothers of Beslan committee.

Below are some of the responses from Marina's readers - including one from a representative of the Voice of Beslan (LJ user golosbeslana):

mike67: If they start putting up memorial signs, there should be a Christian and a Muslim one.

cross_xx: Excuse me, but how would it look, if the most appropriate engraving for a cross is "save and hold me safe" and for a crescent "kill an infidel"?

denies: I read not long ago that paganism is popular in Ossetia. Even more popular than [Islam]. And the principal religion is a mix of Christianity, Islam and the faith in the local gods and dzaurs (heroes). So it better to always be very tactful with religion.

mike67: Yes, they do have that. And they also have some cheese cake ritual, I think. One should be careful with religion. It would be best for the relatives to decide. In this situation, the fewer orders from "above," the better.

signorina_autun: It would be good if they bother to ask the relatives at all.

mike67: Yes, I've a feeling they won't ask. They are afraid to ask because then they can start making other requests and demands - that are highly inconvenient for the regime. It's like in [Sergei] Dovlatov's "The Zone":

- Have you got questions?
- Tons of questions, - replied voices from the line. - Do you want to hear? Where is [the soap]? Where are the promised warm portyanki [wrappings for the feet]? Why haven't they brought a movie in three months? Will [those who cut branches] be given gloves?.. Want more?.. When will they build a hut [in the forest where trees are being cut by the prisoners]?..
- Quiet, quiet! - yelled Khuriev. - You should file complaints following the set order, through brigadiers. Disperse now.

mgtverskoy: Yes, the church is advancing. They don't care about the souls, they care about the outer form.

hoholusa: You are absolutely right. The best is a memorial without any religious inclination.

ivansim: Nonsense without borders. It seems as if their heads were amputated when they were kids and now they are wearing artificial copies. :-[

Has there been an initiative yet to put up a bronze bust of [FSB chief] Patrushev or [head of the United Russia Party] Gryzlov? ... :-[[

kim00: [...] The process of grieving is considered normal if a person is gradually coming out of the state of acute grief and comes to terms with the loss. When this is not happening, qualified help is needed. Some of the techniques used is the secondary experience of the tragedy, which includes visiting the place where it occurred. But these are one-time, short acts, which should not become the key ones in the new value system of the person, damaged by the loss of the loved ones.

However, this is what can be observed in Beslan. Their value system has been slanted toward the search of the guilty ones. In a small group setting - and in Beslan everyone affected knows everyone else - it becomes contagious.

[...]

It may sound cynical, but the ruins have acquired all features of a fetish - no practical value, just a giant emotional power, which someone wants to make even stronger by adding a religios component.

[...]

golosbeslana [the Voice of Beslan]: Do you mean to say that there's no point looking for the guilty ones after several years? And if you don't catch the criminal right away, then in a couple years it will be impolite to think of him as a criminal? And Beslan victims have to be treated by psychiatrists, so that they were not bothering everyone with their memories?

That's the worldview of a pig that doesn't want to know anything beyond its [food].

alexiy: Among those who died in Beslan were ten children from the Baptist Sunday school and their teacher. In the pastor's family, out of five kids who went to school only one returned. No one remembers about them. When religious leaders were gathered after the tragedy, the Baptist weren't even called.

Information Access in Russia; Hospice Work in Ukraine

Global Voices Online
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Marina Litvinovich - LJ user abstract2001 and founder of PravdaBeslana.ru (Truth Of Beslan, a site that contains transcripts of Beslan-related trials as well as other information on the tragedy) - notes that it's significantly harder to ensure free access to information in Russia than it is in the United States (RUS) :

Free access to information

The opening of the 9/11 terrorist act [trial] materials in the United States is a welcome development. I myself have been trying for two years already to do a similar thing on PravdaBeslana.ru. The only difference is that over there, it's the court that's doing it, while here, it's me and my friends.

Taking into account the peculiarities of our judicial system and investigative process, the work on uncovering and gathering information, testimonies and documents on high-profile crimes becomes extremely important. And it's not just that these documents allow a person to figure out independently what happened, and who is guilty and who is not. In our country, collecting these materials becomes the basis for future trials, which, under the current political regime, cannot take place.

Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time and energy to organize gathering of materials and transcribing of the trial transcripts in [Andrei Sychyov]'s case. I should've done it.

And the Vladivostok fire, and [the events in Nalchik] should have been taken up. And there are many other themes that exist for three days in the news, but then it's impossible to find any information on them: nothing. [...]

Marina expounds on the issues of timeliness and unbiased approach in her answers to the readers' questions:

_kleptos_: Isn't timeliness one of the most important factors in this kind of information gathering?

abstract2001: There are different situations and different stories. In the case of Kulayev trial, we tried to do everything in a timely fashion, so that it was possible to continue working with the people trial testimonies. But there are also stories that last many years. It depends.

_kleptos_: Thanks you. I'd also like to know how strong is the opposition to the gathering of this kind of information?

abstract2001: It is strong.

[...]

hoholusa: Sychyov. Vladivostok. Nalchik. What's the use of these materials?

abstract2001: The main goal is to gather politics-free witness and other testimonies. Due to censorship and self-censorship, the mass media cover many events either incorrectly or not at all. Besides, courts are not bias-free and don't aspire to justice. As time goes by, facts are mixed with fiction, myths, etc. It's important that there are accounts of "how it really was."

hoholusa: This is a good goal, of course... As long as this is really "politics-free" material. I won't talk about Beslan, but your participation in Sychyov's case (rallies, LJ) was nothing but an attempt at political evaluation of one specific person.

abstract2001: But the desire to figure it out and gather the facts remains.

The first comment to Marina's post is from Elizaveta Glinka (LJ user doctor_liza), who runs and fundraises for the first and only hospice in Kyiv, Ukraine - Vale Hospice International:

doctor_liza: Good luck to you, Marina. I wouldn't be able to do even one tenth of what you're doing.

abstract2001: You're also doing an important thing. It's hard to make comparisons here. We are both doing what we have to do.

doctor_liza: It's easier for me because I'm forced to be apolitical: because of - or for the sake of - my patients. Definitely without any evaluations, the public ones. It won't work otherwise. While you are constantly taking risks - with yourself, your child. Well, you know it all yourself. Thank you.

Below is the translation of one of doctor_liza's hospice stories, about a patient named Tanya (RUS):

She has bright blue eyes and a happy smile. On her left hand, there's a tattoo [with her name] Tanya, made many years ago in [Magadan].

She was born in Ukraine. I'm not asking how she ended up in Magadan, and she doesn't like to talk about it, either.

Alone. There's her daughter's phone number, but no one's answering it.

She was brought to the hospice by two people. One of them, when asked who he was to Tanya, replied: "Brother. In Christ." The next question the "brother" asked himself: "How to arrange trusteeship on Tania's pension?" The third question, and the last one in our communication, was asked by brother and sister - in Christ, of course, too: "How to arrange trusteeship on her apartment, while she's still conscious?"

Jehovah's Witnesses. She loves them. But she loves everyone who comes to visit her.

She is happy about everything that surrounds her: her roommates, flowers, candies, and even the hot water that we take to her instead of tea in the mornings.

- Tanyusha, where do you like to live better: here in Kyiv or in Magadan?
- In Magadan. People there were kinder. You know why?
- No.
- Because they were in exile. They are kind. All of them.

Of the 14 patients that the hospice can house, not all are adults. Below is doctor_liza's sketch of a new arrival - a baby boy:

I've received a 5-year-old baby into the hospice today.

The boy is very patient, though the move from home to the [hospice] has been very tough for him.

He'll be here with his mama.

I asked where it hurts and what can be done for him. He looked at me like an adult and said: "I want silence..."

There is some politics in doctor_liza's work, despite what she wrote in her comment to Marina Litvinovich. On her blog, she quoted this question to Vladimir Putin (RUS), posed by the mother of a sick child from Ukhta, Russia, on the eve of the July 6 online chat with the president:

[...]

Why is it that in order to save a child dying of leukemia, the whole town has to do fundraising? What are the country's medical and social insurance funds for? Why parents are left face to face with such trouble, on their own?

In order for Putin to answer this question, as many people as possible had to vote for it. In the comments to doctor_liza, many bloggers wrote that they did. Here is one such comment:

tiputya: I've voted. I'm very interested in this issue. [...] For a long time now. Ever since my husband's sister [lost] a 4-month-old boy, who was ready for a [heart surgery], which they didn't carry out because the parents hadn't had enough time to find $50,000. [...] Can any one of those "caring" officials survive for just two weeks on 1,550 rubles [roughly $55] that they throw [monthly] to a mother caring for a sick child? (Just one hormones test costs 1,000 rubles [roughly $35]!)

Indeed, money is much more of a problem in doctor_liza's work than politics. Her fundraising effort for the hospice, for example, is now taking place on her blog - because it's free, while running an ad on Vladimir Gusinsky's RTV International (RTVi) - a "Kremlin-free" channel - costs too much (RUS):

Social advertisement :)

Got a call from RTV International.

Would you like to know how much it costs to air a banner - just a picture, not a video (I simply don't have it) - for 30 seconds, three times a week - ONCE a day for thirty seconds?

$2,080. And no discounts.

Let it hang here. For free.