WILL THERE BE AN ORANGE REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA?

[Alex_Ivanov]

Originally posted by mikeaverko
Russia appears closer to being "ready" for a Jewish president

I think our tolerance has some limits. We may be closer, but it's still million miles away.

[mikeaverko]

You guys are much more peaceful and tolerant than others like this wild Irish person would give you credit for.

[HumanRightsMatter2005]

There should be. But the context is different.

Ukrainians regarded the visit of Putin to help Yanuckovych's campaign as an imperial attempt to tell the Ukrainians who they should vote for. They also knew of Yanuckovyh's criminal past. And his gangs of electoral thugs with baseball bats that went around beating up Yuschenko supporters. They were having none of it.

Kuchma's government was implicated in the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. He was burnt alive. The price of criticising his government. The Ukrainian people have brought things back to the way they should be - the government serving the people. Not the people being the slaves of the government.

Under Putin, autocracy is returning to Russia. Journalists who criticise him are jailed or poisoned e.g. Andrei Babitsky and Anna Politkovskaya. Political opponents all of a sudden turn out to have "criminal pasts". It's interesting that Putin only noticed Mikhail Kasyanov's supposed shady past when he declared he would run for president. It's amazing how such things can re-awaken a memory isn't it?

The Russian people should have control over their politicans. The Western model of democracy should exist in all countries. A government should fear its people. The will of the people should guide the government's actions. The media needs to be able to criticise the government in an unlimited way, and have to right to investigate alleged human-rights abuses. This usually brings the government to heal and while no country can be corruption-free entirely, there will be less under the model I have described.

For proof of this look at all the African dictators and former dictators like Mobutu and Mugabe with their billion dollar fortunes stolen from their people.

[Alex_Ivanov]

Originally posted by HumanRightsMatter2005
The Western model of democracy should exist in all countries.

Why so? We're different, let us have different models. You said Putin does not believe in democracy (supposedly western). So what? Neither do I.

[mikeaverko]

Crapola in quotations:

"There should be. But the context is different.

Ukrainians regarded the visit of Putin to help Yanuckovych's campaign as an imperial attempt to tell the Ukrainians who they should vote for. They also knew of Yanuckovyh's criminal past. And his gangs of electoral thugs with baseball bats that went around beating up Yuschenko supporters. They were having none of it.

Kuchma's government was implicated in the murder of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. He was burnt alive. The price of criticising his government. The Ukrainian people have brought things back to the way they should be - the government serving the people. Not the people being the slaves of the government.

Under Putin, autocracy is returning to Russia. Journalists who criticise him are jailed or poisoned e.g. Andrei Babitsky and Anna Politkovskaya. Political opponents all of a sudden turn out to have "criminal pasts". It's interesting that Putin only noticed Mikhail Kasyanov's supposed shady past when he declared he would run for president. It's amazing how such things can re-awaken a memory isn't it?

The Russian people should have control over their politicans. The Western model of democracy should exist in all countries. A government should fear its people. The will of the people should guide the government's actions. The media needs to be able to criticise the government in an unlimited way, and have to right to investigate alleged human-rights abuses. This usually brings the government to heal and while no country can be corruption-free entirely, there will be less under the model I have described.

For proof of this look at all the African dictators and former dictators like Mobutu and Mugabe with their billion dollar fortunes stolen from their people."

*******************

Poland and some Western NGOs were backing Yushchenko with $$$. Irish says nothing about that.

Yanukovych was at best a nominal ally of Kuchma. Yushchenko and Tymoshenko were once allied to Kuchma as well. "Freedom House" voted Kuchma "Man of the Year" in '96 after he overthrew the democratically elected pro-Russian Crimean government and closed down Russian language schools. This is apparently all okay with Irish.

Ukraine is a political mess right now with an oligarch as its prime minister.

Irish is extremely ignorant, so I will presume that he/she lies without knowing it. The number of independent media outlets in Russia has increased under Putin.

Politkovskaya and Babitsky aren't in jail. That putrid b**** Politkovskaya wasn't poisoned. Where does Irish get this crap from?

Once again, Kasyanov is fair game. In America, when people seek higher office, their past gets scrutinized. Irish is a flat out fraud if he/she thinks that Kasyanov isn't fair game.

The Russian people do have as much control over their government as those in the West do of theirs.

IMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIAN TELEVISION

http://english.intelligent.ru

During a week-long visit to the Russian city of Novgorod-the-Great in mid-March I had a chance to watch a bit of television. I was expecting rather dull fare, given the concerns over state ownership of the media, and was quite surprised by the large number of talk shows discussing the most controversial topics – from Aslan Maskhadov's death to abuses in the Russian military.

Several primetime evening shows have an interview format in which participants express different points of view, after which their partisans in the audience pepper the other side with questions. This group includes Vyorsty (“Miles”) with Leonid Mlechin (TVS); Post Scriptum, with Alexei Pushkov (TVTs); Osnovnoi instinkt (“Basic Instinct”) with Svetlana Sorokina (ORT), and Personal'no vash (“Personally Yours,” TVS-Ekho). There is also a rather highbrow interview program on the Kultura (“Culture”) channel hosted by former culture minister Mikhail Shvydkoi that tackles controversial subjects of particular interest to writers and artists.

Straight interviews of prominent newsmakers are preferred in Shkola zlosloviya (“School for Scandal,” NTV), Zerkalo (“Mirror,” RTR), Glavnoe (“Main Thing,” NTV), Vremena (“Times,” ORT), and the morning show Apelsinovy sok (“Orange Juice,” NTV). An intriguing direct debate format between two opposing viewpoints is the calling card of Vladimir Solovyov's K Baryeru (“On the Firing Line”) program on NTV.

Analytical news programs with commentary include Besplatnyi syr (“Free Cheese,” TVS-Ekho), Moment istiny (“Moment of Truth,” TVTs), Professiya Reportyor (“Profession: Reporter,” NTV), Spetsialnyi korrespondent (“Special Correspondent,” RTR), and Rossiiskaya panorama (“Russian Panorama,” TVS-Ekho). More on the “straight news” side are Strana i mir (“The Country and the World,” NTV) and Euronews which is shown weekdays from 8-9 AM. There is also now a 24-hour news channel called RBK (for RosBusinessConsulting) that provides a running mixture of financial analysis interlaced with political commentary.

I was particularly struck by a segment on Anna Maksimovskaya's show Nedelya (“Week,” REN-TV) that was very sympathetic to the late Aslan Mashkadov's wife Kusama and son Anzor. Along with brief interviews with them, it showed protests among the Chechen diaspora in Turkey, support for new Chechen rebel leadership in Baku, as well as scenes of their commemoration of Aslan Maskhadov's death. Overall, it presented Maskhadov's relatives in quite a favorable light.

Historical exposes of the Soviet era and its legacy still seem to be quite popular, and include shows such as Sovershenno sekretno (“Top Secret,“ NTV) which that week had a report on abuses inside the current Russian military, Istorichesky detektiv (“Historical Detective,” RTR), Osobaya papka (“Special File,” TVTs), Sekretnye materialy (“Classified Materials,” TVTs) and Kak eto bylo (“The Way It Was,” TVS-Ekho).

Building on the popularity of long-running legal information show Chelovek i zakon (“Man and Law”), there is a now a show that can be seen up to four times a day! It is modeled after the courtroom television shows popular in America and is called Chas suda(“The Hour of Trial”). Even the website is similar to its American counterparts. It is hosted by noted jurist Pavel Astakhov, who recently served as counsel to the newspaper Kommersant in its successful appeal against the libel suit brought against it by Alfa Bank. You can view many of these shows at their website or, for a small fee, they can be downloaded from the “Russian digital television archive” at http://www.regnet.ru/intl/en/channels/.

All these channels, with the exception of TVS-Ekho, can be received with simple rabbit ear antennas in Novgorod, which is all we had back in 2002. Today, however, cable is available throughout the city, for a modest fee. The basic service includes 19 channels – including two Ukrainian channels, one Belorussian station, and one Romanian movie channel. Internet service is extra.

Even before my recent visit, it struck me as oddly implausible to regard the Russian print media as essentially “free” simply because it is largely in private hands, but Russian television as “not free” simply because corporations in which the Russian government has a controlling stake also own television stations. The implausibility lies in the fact that, if people were truly dissatisfied with what they were seeing on television, they could very easily subscribe to their favorite national (or international) newspaper. This can be done at your local post office. The national press thus acts as an important control on the quality of what is shown on state television channels.

The sheer variety of subjects discussed and opinions expressed on Russian television explains why a shift away from state-supported television has not occurred, and should lead us to rethink our rather simplistic notions about the state of the media in Russia.

Nicolai Petro

[mikeaverko]

http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/editorial/23036/

Orange shame Aug 04 2005, 00:14

Here’s a bombshell of a news item: If a top Yushchenko administration figure is to be believed, Ukraine’s fast-living First Son, Andriy Yushchenko, is making money in a sleazy way. According to State Tax Administration deputy head Mykola Katerynchuk, President Viktor Yushchenko’s 19-year-old son owns the copyrights for the slogans and catch-phrases used during the Orange Revolution. These presumably include “Tak!” the omnipresent horseshoe symbol, and so on.

How did Andriy get his hands on these rights? Katerynchuk simply gave them to him.

“I personally gave it to him,” Katerynchuk told the daily Kommersant on Aug. 2. “That was after the victory in the third round. The transfer of the brands was verified by notaries and all these brands currently belong to Andriy Yushchenko.”

In other words, Andriy was given a gold mine – a gold mine that was excavated, if you’ll let us extend the metaphor, by the citizens who took to the streets to support the Orange Revolution. Though the situation is complicated by Ukraine’s ineffective copyright enforcement, in principle every time someone sells a “Tak!” calendar in a bookstore, Andriy gets a cut.

How utterly disgusting. It’s beyond bad taste for Yushchenko’s son to be (allegedly) profiting from the Orange Revolution. The Revolution that elevated Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency was powered by tens of millions of Ukrainians. If it belongs to anyone, it belongs to them. Andriy Yushchenko has no right to be making a profit from it. No one who slept out in the snow protecting Viktor Yushchenko did so to provide Yushchenko’s kid with a cash cow. And the idea of Katerynchuk giving the president’s lucrative intellectual property is almost unbelievably shabby. Is it even legal?

Come on, kid. Come on, President Yushchenko. What’s going on here? We demand an explanation – and demand that whatever money been made be either returned or used for better purposes than paying for young Andriy’s Cristal champagne tab at Decadence House. We can think of effective charity organizations that could put that money to use.

In fact, maybe Andriy Yushchenko should take that money and start a charitable foundation (maybe he’s already doing so). Among other things, it will give a kid who seems to have too much time on his hands and energy something worthwhile to do.

*******************************************************************************

http://euronews.net/create_html.php?...e=303064&lng=1

Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution': a victim of privatisation ?

It is causing a scandal in Ukraine. The 'Orange Revolution' has apparently been privatised - and by the president's own son. It appears Andriy Yushchenko owns the copyright on products derived from the popular uprising that swept his father, Viktor, to power. Mugs, clothes, stickers and badges emblazoned with the trademark downturned horseshoe or 'Tak!' meaning yes are still widely sold in Kiev. Andriy, a 19-year-old student, has been in the papers a lot recently because of his extravagant lifestyle. One vendor says it is clear the sales pay for his BMW.

Andriy says a part-time job allows him to rent a top-of-the-range car, and own a platinum-bodied mobile phone. Political analyst Mikhail Pogrebinsky says revolutionaries are "insulted". "They stood in the cold to force changes, now one person has the right to profit from their ideals," he adds. Presidential aides say the 'Orange Revolution' symbols were registered as trademarks. But only to prevent political opponents using them against Yushchenko - and not for commercial gain. The President has not commented on the row. But it is all a far cry from last year's huge popular uprising that brought him to power. His son supported him then. Now, say critics, the Revolution is supporting his son.

[mikeaverko]

SCENARIO FOR RUSSIA OR PROVOCATION?

http://english.intelligent.ru