Russia: Other Points of View

KHODORKOVSKY TRIAL

Dear Readers,  many of us are quite unhappy with the flash flood of  half truths being circulated this week regarding the Mikhail Khodorkovsky trial in Russia, the oligarch's innocent portrayal of  himself, and his self appointed mission to "democratize" Russia.  Eric Kraus, a financial analyst who has lived and worked in Russia for two decades, has written an indignant line by line rebuttal of  the  Financial Times article on Khodorkovsky, his trial and his assessment of Russia's leadership.  We concur with Kraus' points.  We were in  Moscow during the 1990s when Khodorkovsky and his cohorts were  grabbing the USSR's primary assets, depositing the revenues in offshore banks and living like Csars.  Crime was rampant as were  contract killings.  It was wholesale criminality, not democracy building.  The complex truth must come out rather than hiding behind the theme song of 'Russia's richest entrepreneur who is being railroaded by sinister PM Putin.'

Eric says the following:  "Our language is a bit strong, but readers  are invited to suggest another interpretation of what we find in the pages of the Financial Times (FT), a purportedly independent source. Indeed, the most interesting thing about the FT coverage of Russia is not what they write – it is why they write it. A friend of T&B was told face-to-face about six months ago by an FT editor that, 'as a journalist here, one's role has to be to write about how awful Russia  is'. This recent propaganda piece in praise of Khodorkovsky – proudly splashed across the front page of the Financial Times in defiance of  the most basic journalistic ethics – it is so transparently self-serving, dishonest, and in a few points frankly absurd, that one is at  a loss where to start."

Please note Eric's numbering of Khodorkovsky's quotes from the Financial Times article below.  Following these quotes, note Eric's corresponding numbers addressing the truth of what happened on ground  in Moscow and other sites across Russia where the assets were being grabbed.

Your feedback, as always, is welcome.   Sharon Tennison

Download T&B_Is_Putin_Pitiable_ Desk_Note

ISLAM, ISLAMISM AND POLITICS IN EURASIA REPORT NO.31, DEC 17 2010

by Gordon Hahn

Monterey Institute of International Studies

CONTENTS:

RUSSIA

• CE-RELATED BELGIAN PLOT UPDATE
  
• DAGESTAN VILAIYAT SHURA: AMIR KHASAN REAFFIRMS BAYAT TO UMAROV, THREATENS MORE SUICIDE ATTACKS IN RUSSIA, AND ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES
• ONE PROMINENT NEW MUJAHED, ONE PROMINENT VETERAN MUJAHED KILLED IN DAGESTAN
• DAGESTAN VILAIYAT ATTACK VIDEO
• THREE MUJAHEDIN REPORTEDLY KILLED IN TATARSTAN
• RECENT FOREIGN GLOBAL JIHADI REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGICAL-THEOLOGICAL TRACTS IN CE MEDIA
• WIKILEAKS: U.S. AMBASSADOR IN MOSCOW REPORTED GROWTH OF ISLAMISM/JIHADISM IN CAUCASUS IN 2006
• ISLAMIST TAJIK NATIONALS DETAINED IN MOSCOW (by Yelena Altman)

CENTRAL ASIA by Yelena Altman

• IMU AND VIOLENCE CONTINUES IN TAJIKISTAN
• ISLAMIST TEENAGE RECRUITMENT CONTINUES IN TAJIKISTAN
• RADICAL ISLAMIZATION ON THE RISE IN KYRGYZSTAN

To access the full report, please click here  Download KAVKAZJIHAD_MonTREP_IIPER_31_Dec_2010

ISSUES OF TRUST IN RUSSIA

REPRINTS

Most Russians Don't Trust Anybody Else, but Believe They Have the Right to Deceive Others

By Svetlana Kononova

Russia Profile
December 20, 2010

The Soviet system allowed citizens to shirk their responsibilities in return for dependence on the state. But two decades after the collapse of the system, Russian citizens are reluctant to trust each other, readily willing to cheat each other and skeptical of everyone apart from their closest relatives.   

"She cheats and doesn't blush. But we are honest," claims an advertising billboard on the Moscow metro, depicting a rude and devious saleswoman. It doesn't matter what this poster is promoting  what is much more interesting is that it appeals to customers by exploiting their deep fears and longings. A large-scale survey titled the "Post-Soviet Man and Civil Society," conducted by the independent Levada Center, found that most Russians find it difficult to trust other people. Such surveys have been conducted every year since 1991, recording the most important changes in the Russians' mentality since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The results of the survey reveal some bizarre trends. The number of people who trust others has decreased significantly over the last two decades. In 1991, only 41 percent of respondents were skeptical and suspicious. Now, 70 percent say they do not trust anybody, 72 percent do not want to help anybody, and 75 percent do not want to cooperate with other people in solving problems.

MANEZH SQUARE RIOTS

ARTICLE CRITIQUE

Response to the Washington Post's "Moscow clashes put authorities in a quandary" by Will Englund, December 13, 2010

By Gordon Hahn

Not surprisingly, the Washington Post (WP) has given readers a one-sided and inaccurate account of the Manezh Square riots story and its context.  This is a story of growing inter-communal (interethnic, inter-confessional) tensions across the Russian Federation driven by radicals on both sides: ethnic Russian neo-fascists and ethnic North Caucasian jihadi and criminal groups.  The WP and the rest of the U.S. mainstream media have largely omitted the Caucasus jihad from their reporting on Russia and even the North Caucasus, discussing the North Caucasus only in terms of the state’s violations of human rights and ignoring the mujahedin’s far greater violations of those rights.  The WP, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other U.S. mainstream media have never produced one article featuring the Caucasus Emirate mujahedin, their ideology, goals, and ties to the global jihadi revolutionary movement. 

The noted inter-communal tensions are being exacerbated by the brutality and corruption of the Russian police, which liberally take bribes to free criminal suspects and beat or even torture lesser criminals and innocents.  This particular story analyzed below ignores the ethnic criminal groups that dominate entire neighborhoods threatening and commiting crimes against ethnic Russians.  Indeed, the violence that the article focuses on was sparked by the murder of an ethnic Russian by a person of Caucasus nationality from the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, the region that has seen the second largest number of jihadi terrorist attacks this year.  This point is buried late in the article so that it is de-emphasized in readers’ minds.  There is no innocent party in this growing conflict whether one is talking about Caucasus jihadists, immigrants, Russian neo-fascists, the police, or the authorities.  The last seem to have woken up to the risks of its previous nonchalance toward the neofascists recently and has even undertaken attempts to foster inter-communal tolerance.  The question is whether it is too late or whether the authorities need to devote considerably greater attention to this dangerously explosive state-building issue.

To access the full analysis, click  Download WP_RiotsMoscow_Dec21

SHIFT IN GLOBAL POLITICS 2010

Russia says global politics shifted from conflict to cooperation in 2010

Interfax

Moscow, 20 December: The year 2010 has seen some progress in international politics, but the situation remains far from perfect, Russian Foreign Minister has said.

"One the whole, there has been an improvement in the global situation, against a backdrop of the processes involved in shaping a new polycentric international system becoming more intensive. A shift from an international relations model of confrontation and conflict to cooperation lies at the basis of these changes," he said.

According to Lavrov, this was most evident in the North-Atlantic, "where efforts were made to build partnerships based on principles of undivided security, mutual trust, transparency and predictability".

"The development of Russian-American relations was a significant positive aspect in the development of the situation in the Euro-Atlantic space and in the world as a whole," he said. (Passage omitted)

"Of course, we are far from being able to paint a rosy picture of the international situation for ourselves. We have no reason for that yet, unfortunately," he added. "There are still many forces in the world which are, for one reason or another, not satisfied with a lower demand for conflict and who fear making a decisive step from the past towards the future," he said.

"We see that the USA and certain European countries are also making attempts to return world politics back (to the past)," he added. Furthermore, tensions in the Near and Middle East, on the Korean peninsula and in the wider region of East Asia are growing, Lavrov said. 

ECONOMIC GLASNOST IN RUSSIA

REPRINTS

By Chris Weafer 

Moscow Times
December 20, 2010

Chris Weafer is chief strategist at UralSib Capital.

Twenty years after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost brought about the end of the Soviet Union, the government of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is again embarked on a strategy of openness. Only this time they are banking on economic glasnost to attract the investment flows that Russia needs to both create greater diversity in the country's oil-dependent economy and to rebuild its aging infrastructure.

They are also hoping that the open door will swing both ways as Russia's industries also need to create strategic links with established companies, especially in Europe. That is what is behind the government's greater determination to improve how foreign investors, legislators and major corporations view Russia. It also explains why the country is so keen on attracting major sporting events such as the World Cup and a Grand Prix, and why, after 17 years of hesitancy, there is now greater urgency to be admitted into the World Trade Organization in 2011. Russia needs the investment capital and the expertise of Western companies if it is to break the stranglehold of oil. That is why the modern-day economic glasnost is real and will be sustained.

GAZPROM CITY, KHIMKI, AND RUSSIAN CIVIL SOCIETY UNDER THE THAW

COMMENTARY

By Gordon M. Hahn

In a recent Washington Post (WP) article, journalist Kathy Lally cherry picks facts and cases to demonstrate the WP’s typically one-sided account that the Russian state never pays heed to demands of ‘Russian society.’ (Kathy Lally, “Despite protests, Russia will build road through Khimki forest,” Washington Post, 14 December 2010).  In contrast, the New York Times (NYT) in a rare bow to objectivity and balance, to its credit, reported on an important recent case in which the Russian state in fact fully surrendered to societal demands (Andrew Kramer, “In Rare Bow to Public, Russian Tower to be Moved,” New York Times, 10 December 2010).

Recent events demonstrate that Russian civil society is on the rise, and its voice is being heard in the corridors of power, though as yet on less than key issues such as major political reform.  In St. Petersburg a coalition of democratic parties, patriotic cultural heritage preservation groups, and ordinary citizens prevailed over powerful business and political interests to force the relocation of a planned construction of the ‘Okhta Center’ or ‘Gazprom City.’  St. Petersburg’s Governor Valentina Matvienko announced the decision to relocate the construction project on December 9^th.

MORE ONE-SIDEDNESS AND INACCURACY FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

COMMENTARY

Comment on Kathy Lally, “In Russia, freedom of speech belongs to the state,” Washington Post, 10 December 2010

By Gordon M. Hahn

In a recent Washington Post (WP) article, journalist Kathy Lally makes the exaggerated claim the in Russia “the government controls the media.”  To be sure, the Russian government controls much of the media but from all.  However, the statement is misleading, as it gives the impression that the government controls all or almost all media.  In fact, the Russian government has no control over the Internet, which is becoming the main source of news for young Russians and a large minority source for the overall population.  Within a few years, the majority of Russians will be getting most of their news via the Internet or from other independent sources via cable television.  There are small, independent radio and cable television companies.  The state-owned radio station ‘Ekho Moskvy’ gives airtime to all of the regime’s political opponents.  There are numerous independent newspapers, including Novaya gazeta, which is the article’s central focus.

The article notes: “The state does not offer such an admiring audience for crusading journalists such as Dmitri Muratov, the editor of Novaya Gazeta and recipient of the warning for promoting extremist views.” This sentence is an opinion, not news reporting, and it is one that does not stand up the light of data and facts.  Muratov was invited to the Kremlin along with Novaya gazeta co-owner, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as a gesture of support after the February 2009 killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya gazeta journalist Anastasia Barburova.  Medvedev promised the murders’ perpetrators would be found, arrested, and tried.  Two members of a neo-fascist group, Russkii Obraz (Russian Image), have been indicted and await trial.  Muratov is also an occasional guest on the popular radio station Ekho Moskvy, which is owned by state-owned gas company GazProm.  These key facts were omitted from the article to avoid complicating the article’s black and white picture; a picture that would better apply to countries like China, North Korea, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and many others, which the WP and the rest of the U.S. mainstream media to which the WP devotes much less attention.

THE STATE OF RUSSIA, THE THAW, AND THE CRIMINALITY/CORRUPTION CRISIS

COMMENTARY

By Gordon Hahn

The Economist recently published a somewhat overly pessimistic assessment of the state of Russia (“The State of Russia,” The Economist, 11-17 December 2010).  As usual the extent of criticism of Russia was not matched by that of the much darker situation in China, where neither the imprisoned pro-democracy activist Liu Xibao nor his wife were allowed to travel to Oslo to receive the former’s Nobel Peace Prize.  Liu is serving an 11-year sentence for writing an article on the families of the victims of the 1989 Tianenman Square crackdown. 

Such practices were foregone in Moscow over two decades ago, though corrupt authorities in collusion with criminals remain a threat to some journalists.  Tens of thousands of independent Russian journalists, commentators, and government officials are able, with frequent difficulties albeit, do write critically.  Yet on the day Liu Xiaobo was refused receipt of his prize in person, The Economist chose to target Russia with two articles on its democracy deficit and widespread crime and corruption in its December 11^th edition.  Meanwhile, it gave just 42 words to Liu Xiaobo and the thousands of Chinese who cannot engage in independent journalism because it does not exist in their country (See www.economist.com/printedition/ or “The State of Russia;” “Be Criticial, Not Hypocritical,” The Economist, 11-17 December 2010; and “Politics This Week,” The Economist, 11-17 December 2010).

THE NEW YORK TIMES LIVES IN A GLASS HOUSE BUT THROWS STONES ANYWAY

COMMENTARY 

  Comment on C.J. Chivers, “Embracing Georgia, U.S. Misread Signs of Rifts,” New York Times, 2 December 2010

By Gordon M. Hahn

As I argued on ROPV at the time of the August 2008 Five Day Georgian-Russian War in South Ossetia, there were many sides to blame for that war and that Western mainstream media, especially the U.S. media, was acting like a propaganda organ for one party in the war – the main culprit for its escalation into all-out war, the Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili (Gordon M. Hahn, “The Russo-Georgian War: It’s Not So Simple,” Russia - Other Points of View, 9 September 2008, and Gordon M. Hahn, "The Foibles of August: The Russo-Georgian War and Its Present Implications," Russia - Other Points of View, 18 August 2008).  One of the culprit U.S. mainstream media organs was the New York Times.