Alpha 
Post by fretslider on Aug 19, 2012 4:54:51 GMT -5
As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
What would the great man make of Putin's Russia? Although there was a rigged election, the state is barely discernable from its Soviet past. Its certainly obvious that under 13 years of Vladimir Putin, free speech has been eroded to a great degree. Putin and his circle have cracked down on attacks aimed at him directly or over allegations of corruption and criminality among those close to him. Journalists, too, have been threatened, dismissed from their jobs and some have been killed. Former business magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky is currently serving a long jail sentence for tax fraud, although that isn't the real reason for his incarceration.
Khodorkovsky worked his way up the Communist apparatus during the Soviet years, and began several businesses during the era of glasnost and perestroika. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he accumulated wealth through the development of Siberian oil fields as the head of Yukos, one of the largest Russian companies to emerge from the privatization of state assets during the 1990s. He was a threat. In February, 2003, at a televised meeting at the Kremlin, Khodorkovsky argued with Putin about corruption. He implied that major government officials were accepting millions in bribes. Putin privately told Lord John Browne, the former head of BP, "I have eaten more dirt than I need to from that man." Khodorkovsky has become Russia’s most trusted public figure and Putin’s biggest political liability. As long as Putin rules Russia and Khodorkovsky continues to act like Khodorkovsky, Khodorkovsky will remain in prison—and Putin will remain terrified of him".
Despite this policy of persecuting critics, the pursuit of the three members of Pussy Riot, who absurdly spent five months in custody even before the trial, is more than usually worrying, not least because of the strong evidence that shows how Putin, judiciary and church have formed an alliance to ensure the women's conviction. It was Putin himself who poured petrol on the flames by calling for action against their blasphemy. The verdict in what was a show trial makes Putin in particular look fearful and foolish. Two top clerics in the Orthodox church appeared on TV to say the church had forgiven the group. (Good job it isn't an Islamic state!)
Oleg Kashin, a journalist on Kommersant, argues that the Pussy Riot prosecution has not been an aberration but part of a very calculated policy of setting the "simple people", who Putin believes support him, against the "creative class" who he believes have supplied most of the protesters who took to the streets in December demanding free and fair elections. It has been part and parcel of a longer-term campaign by Putin and those close to him to undermine democracy at all levels and expand control by the government over ever-larger parts of Russian life. Inevitably, perhaps, given the anger provoked in the west by Russia's contribution to the worsening bloodshed in Syria through its support of the Assad dictatorship, governments have seized on the Pussy Riot verdict as yet another example of Russia's trajectory under Putin towards a harsh and uncompromising place where dissenting views increasingly are punished.
If Putin has miscalculated in this case it is because, unlike in his pursuit of Khodorkovsky, an ambiguous figure, the issues around Pussy Riot are so clear cut. Even before the verdict, he was challenged about the case, in meetings with other leaders, including David Cameron, during the London Olympics. That pressure is only likely to grow, becoming a source of irritation for a man who likes to see himself as "handshakeable" when he meets fellow leaders. Which means that Putin has a simple option – to show clemency and issue a pardon – which is what natural justice demands. Inaction would confirm, as Malcolm Rifkind, former British foreign secretary said: Russia is in danger of becoming a "neanderthal" state.
What would the great man make of Putin's Russia? Although there was a rigged election, the state is barely discernable from its Soviet past. Its certainly obvious that under 13 years of Vladimir Putin, free speech has been eroded to a great degree. Putin and his circle have cracked down on attacks aimed at him directly or over allegations of corruption and criminality among those close to him. Journalists, too, have been threatened, dismissed from their jobs and some have been killed. Former business magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky is currently serving a long jail sentence for tax fraud, although that isn't the real reason for his incarceration.
Khodorkovsky worked his way up the Communist apparatus during the Soviet years, and began several businesses during the era of glasnost and perestroika. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he accumulated wealth through the development of Siberian oil fields as the head of Yukos, one of the largest Russian companies to emerge from the privatization of state assets during the 1990s. He was a threat. In February, 2003, at a televised meeting at the Kremlin, Khodorkovsky argued with Putin about corruption. He implied that major government officials were accepting millions in bribes. Putin privately told Lord John Browne, the former head of BP, "I have eaten more dirt than I need to from that man." Khodorkovsky has become Russia’s most trusted public figure and Putin’s biggest political liability. As long as Putin rules Russia and Khodorkovsky continues to act like Khodorkovsky, Khodorkovsky will remain in prison—and Putin will remain terrified of him".
Despite this policy of persecuting critics, the pursuit of the three members of Pussy Riot, who absurdly spent five months in custody even before the trial, is more than usually worrying, not least because of the strong evidence that shows how Putin, judiciary and church have formed an alliance to ensure the women's conviction. It was Putin himself who poured petrol on the flames by calling for action against their blasphemy. The verdict in what was a show trial makes Putin in particular look fearful and foolish. Two top clerics in the Orthodox church appeared on TV to say the church had forgiven the group. (Good job it isn't an Islamic state!)
Oleg Kashin, a journalist on Kommersant, argues that the Pussy Riot prosecution has not been an aberration but part of a very calculated policy of setting the "simple people", who Putin believes support him, against the "creative class" who he believes have supplied most of the protesters who took to the streets in December demanding free and fair elections. It has been part and parcel of a longer-term campaign by Putin and those close to him to undermine democracy at all levels and expand control by the government over ever-larger parts of Russian life. Inevitably, perhaps, given the anger provoked in the west by Russia's contribution to the worsening bloodshed in Syria through its support of the Assad dictatorship, governments have seized on the Pussy Riot verdict as yet another example of Russia's trajectory under Putin towards a harsh and uncompromising place where dissenting views increasingly are punished.
If Putin has miscalculated in this case it is because, unlike in his pursuit of Khodorkovsky, an ambiguous figure, the issues around Pussy Riot are so clear cut. Even before the verdict, he was challenged about the case, in meetings with other leaders, including David Cameron, during the London Olympics. That pressure is only likely to grow, becoming a source of irritation for a man who likes to see himself as "handshakeable" when he meets fellow leaders. Which means that Putin has a simple option – to show clemency and issue a pardon – which is what natural justice demands. Inaction would confirm, as Malcolm Rifkind, former British foreign secretary said: Russia is in danger of becoming a "neanderthal" state.
