Happy birthday 'gaspadin' Obama!

Congrats to Obama from Russian president Medviedev... on twitter...

Sometimes I see corruption, mister president

A police officer in Russia uses the Internet to challenge the country's leaders to address rampant corruption.
And it seems that others are willing to do so. 

Police in S. Russia to probe donkey parasailing claim

Police in the Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia will investigate a case of animal cruelty involving a donkey forced to parasail along a beach on the Sea of Azov, a local police spokesman said on Monday to RIA Novosti. 

collage

"The donkey was taken on a parasailing ride to draw attention to this attraction. The donkey was braying and children were crying but no one had the sense to report it to the police," the spokesman said. 

Wow!

President Medviedev visited twitter

And wrote his first tweet.

When you have memory you create better front pages

PapersPapers noticed.

The anti-utopian revolution

“Anyone who has suffered that humiliation, at some level, wants revenge. I know all the lies. I saw people being killed. But I also know that revanchism is never ending. And my obsession has been that we should have a revolution that does not resemble the French or Russian, but rather the American, in the sense that it be for something, not against something. A revolution for a constitution, not a paradise. An anti-utopian revolution. Because utopias lead to the guillotine and the gulag.” Adam Michnik.

Watching Putin beside Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, NYT columnist Roger Cohen thought of François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl hand-in-hand at Verdun in 1984 and also remembered Willy Brandt on his knees in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1970. And writes: "Do not tell me that the people in the streets of Bangkok and Bishkek and Tehran dream in vain of freedom and democracy. Do not tell me that lies can stand forever. Ask the Poles. They know"

"He speaks very well ... but still do not know for whom he works"

I once asked my russian landlord his opinion about president Putin. "He speaks very well ... but still do not know for who he works." Russian sense of humor is sometimes indecipherable, but perhaps because of that is the best clue to understand this huge country.

Putin, former KGB agent, is now prime minister of a country were people think that "there are no ex-KGB agents, they never cease to be."

What does not kill, fattens. So it would not be surprising that the carnage on Monday in Moscow would make Putin more popular. One of his most famous phrases is: "Who does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Who wants it back has no brain." Today poverty is not rare, but Saint Petersburg welcomes you with a huge Lenin.
 
Ninotchka is a 1939 film in which Greta Garbo plays a Russian communist agent who is sent to Paris to investigate the work of three comrades lured by the trappings of capitalism. They ask:

- And how is Moscow?
-Okay, mass trials have been a success. Russians will be less but will be better.

Pruning is becoming more fine now: only the elites matter, the murder in the right dose. Lenin said that democracy is a form of government in which changes every four years tyrant. Surrounded by the Urals and the North Pole, some Slavs want to last forever.

In Lithuania: cut, cut and cut again

Credit rating agencies said the worst appeared to have passed for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after the crisis .  But NYT writes that if many indebted countries want to see what austerity looks like, they might want to visit this Baltic nation of 3.3 million. Lithuania cut public spending by 30 percent — including slashing public sector wages 20 to 30 percent and reducing pensions by as much as 11 percent. Even the prime minister, Andrius Kubilius, took a pay cut of 45 percent. The baltic countries rode a boom driven by banking and real estate earlier this decade. Low interest rates spurred a housing boom. Many Lithuanians took out low-interest-rate mortgages denominated in foreign currencies. With the crisis, house prices plunged and thousands lost their jobs and began to default on their debts. Now austerity has exacted its own price, in social and personal pain. 


The article of NYT about Lithuania is among the most emailed of the week from Business section.  Another proof of Lithuanian power?

The Russian Indy?

You read the headline this week: Russian Billionaire Buys U.K.'s Independent for $1.49‎ 

In his early life in London Alexander Lebedev was a KGB man. "He is now businessman willing to make the investments he thinks necessary to produce a superior product that will win back readers and if that doesn't work then he would likely give up the ghost . That gives him an easier time than Rupert Murdoch who does not want to go down in history as the man who killed The Times of London even though it is now losing more than £1 million a week", says Philip M. Stone 

He said this week: "I invest in institutions which contribute to democracy and transparency, and at the heart of that are newspapers which report independently and campaign for truth. I am a supporter of in-depth investigative reporting and campaigns which promote transparency and seek to fight international corruption. These are things The Independent has always done well and will, I am sure, continue to do."

Quality papers have found it close to impossible to bring revenues and costs into equilibrium, let alone generate a sustainable profit margin. Robert Peston says his strategy may be to challenge the internet at its own game, by giving the Indie away (as he has already done with the Evening Standard in London) Advertising rules...

In addition to the London Evening Standard, the Lebedevs also co-own, with former president Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's few pro-democracy newspapers. The paper has a reputation for independence and high-quality reporting and was where the celebrated journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006, worked.

The Guardian wrote that Lebedev will bring hope, not instant salvation

Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on the Moscow subway: 35 killed

The suicide bombers were believed to have set off their explosives as trains approached Lubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations.



"We will continue operations against terrorists without compromise and till the end," said Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev.

The pictures are here. The last time Moscow was hit by a confirmed terrorist attack was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people. Check the terrorist timeline here.

Interesting bed questions

Some day you woke up and you read that Putin and Hitler slept in the same room.

And then you think: Is Putin = Hitler?

Really you think so?

A grip of the Euro-blogosphere (updated)

Jon Worth  (European, social democrat, federalist, atheist, anti-monarchist, ENTJ, inline skater, blogger, website designer, avid Mac user, trainer) groups together all the different EU blogs he follows. Including this one :-)

"I don't feel the 'Obama' of Central Europe"

Dalia Grybauskaite, economist at 53, not even a month has been installed at the presidential palace in Vilnius (Lithuania) but she has managed to at least show that it is serious. He said she would cut costs and started for his salary, which halved. But after the cuts have come to the officials and all kinds of expenses. Their determination coupled with small gestures such as his official car stops at traffic lights to Grybauskaite can win the trust of many, something essential in a country which has fallen 15% this year. The slump in economic activity surpasses that of its neighboring Latvia, forced to tap new IMF aid to avoid bankruptcy. But Grybauskaite, former European commissioner and a black belt in karate, does not want outside help. Although certainly need more than gestures to treat more complicated with its neighbor, Russia. Text I published in EL MUNDO, (in spanish) here

-Just as happened in Latvia, once a woman ruling a country in Central Europe, and again he succeeds without the support of a political party.
-It's a trend in the new EU members, who have suffered a major political transformation. In any case it is uncommon for a woman governs a country, there are only seven in the world and Lithuania never happened, although the former president also was related to a political party.

-But he was very involved in the secession of Lithuania in the 90's. And you don't.
-Everybody is different. It has been 20 years since that and probably more people are looking forward rather than backward. I do not want to evaluate why they trusted me, but the devaluation of the quality of politicians I think that was one reason.

-Woman, single, no children. Why people just need things done in the personal life of a politician when is a woman?
-Women are starting, but in Europe is becoming commonplace. Somehow most interesting results to discuss us, I notice that people talk about the clothes on my man and if only speak of what I do.

-Does you feel like the Obama of Central Europe?
-I have never had this news not compare myself to anyone, every political leader is different. And my country do not regard as central Europe but as a country of northern Europe.

- Are you a feminist?
-Depends on what we call a feminist. I've never participated in any of those movements.

-Your predecessor, Valdas Adamkus, didn't had good relations with Russia, and you have advocated a more pragmatic stance. What will change?
-I never said "pragmatic", that was an interpretation of my words. What I have always said is we have to have a constructive dialogue with our neighbors, of course without sacrificing our values.

- What will you do if Russia is to condition the position of Lithuania through the price of energy?
-I've said that some values are not negotiable.

-You are not the first, they tried other presidents before and this new relationship with Russia was not possible.
-Now all countries are in difficulties, Russia too. And both there and here there are political forces that seek to divert attention from problems for a common enemy. We are showing goodwill, and from there we'll see. Russia expect mutual respect based on our values.

-And meanwhile Europe remains wihout a common energy policy.
-The EU has never had a common position on energy, not on the treaties. It is more a necessity, a trend. But coordination is necessary to reflect the quality of EU integration, and if no agreement will be split and supply difficulties, and that includes Russia. But the joint efforts to ensure the supply were very important and very visible after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine last winter. It is an evidence that such coordination is important, but still a long way to go.

-The global crisis may be triggered by lack of regulation, but in the European elections have won just more liberal positions.
-It's a unique phenomenon. A lack of international intervention in financial markets has created many problems for the world, hence the stresses in the financial sector. This means that international regulatory organizations like the IMF or the World Bank need to be radically reformed and already lagging behind in this process. But in each member country the situation is quite different. After the election we can say that European governments were able to center the most votes, which is very unusual in a downturn. But it is also a sign that the ideological barriers are falling, at least in my country. The political powers do not behave in a purely ideological: some more leftist governments to protect companies and other center-right people are protecting more than the Social Democrats, at least in my country. The ideological differences are being dissolved by what leaders do.

-It seems that this crisis makes the euro more attractive to both Lithuania and more inaccessible.
-Yes, because for me the euro is not just a currency but monetary discipline that prevents governments are populist tax policy and this is a guarantee for the stability of countries. But certainly in a slowdown situation will be very difficult to achieve in the next three years because of the stability pact criteria are stringent. But if there were no euro in Europe would be worse off.

-Your country has benefited from European cohesion funds. But you refuse to seek help from the "rescue funds" from the IMF.
-There are no bailout funds. There are funds that can borrow, but with many conditions.
In practice, this means you are leaving for an outsider to dictate your entire economic policy because the government does not know how to deal with the situation. I do not want my country to be treated as if it were not capable of governing. We know what we do: we are cutting public spending on wages, investing in infrastructure to stimulate the economy. We are sinking and need outside help, we can rescue ourselves.

- Is it possible to go further enlargement of NATO?
-Probably yes but I prefer quality to quantity, not only to expand expand. But it's something everyone has in mind, also in the EU, which wants to enter Iceland.

-But every time a former member of the USSR into Russia is angry.
-Nobody can dictate to NATO and develop.

- Do you think that after the fiasco of the European Constitution EU is more difficult to catch up beyond the Lisbon Treaty?
-The treaty of Lisbon is a small step forward, talks about how to make decisions but does not reform. We must make reforms in the budget and review common policies and all or that determines the quality of integration.

-You've been commissioner of the Budget. As a Lithuanian citizen have you got the feeling of arriving in the EU when there is less desire to redistribute to those with less?
-For new members the EU is not just money, but political, security and freedom of movement. Of 27 members, 21 are still receiving. But for us it was not just money but freedom.

-The Lithuanians were not just as enthusiastic of the EU in June. It was the country where fewer people voted.
-In Lithuania has always been low participation in European elections. It is a question of political culture and lack of information, plus the votes were weeks after the presidential election. But somehow the everyday people at home, not in Brussels or Strasbourg.

Polish immigrants leaving Britain: What the Poles did for UK

Increased prosperity in Poland and the prospect of a severe recession in Britain mean that the economic gap between the two countries is closing fast. The dream of fast cars, fast living and fast fortunes is as attractive as ever but, for many Poles, the odds of achieving it here are lengthening fast. Britain's Polish workers are heading home in search of a better life – and it's a loss, says Harry de Quetteville in TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

No question of "what Obama can do for us, but what we can do for Obama"

Prime minister Zapatero said this no NYT. Spain is willing to increase its troops on long-term assignment in Afghanistan. In a gesture of support to the Obama administration. 

Time to remember, USSR in the 70´s

English Russia » More pictures of USSR. Part 2

A great collection of photos of a world that will never come back.

Obama+Zapatero

http://estaticos.elmundo.es/documentos/2009/04/06/portada.pdf

Again the hand in the shoulder...

Los in transition

President Vladimir Putin, constitutionally barred from running for a third presidential term, says that he has not ruled out running for prime minister, triggering widespread speculation about his intentions. In the run up to Russia's presidential and parliamentary elections, a new book from the Carnegie Moscow Center's Lilia Shevtsova examines the legacies of Presidents Putin and Boris Yeltsin and how they will shape the upcoming electoral cycle and Russia's immediate political future.Sixteen years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has startled the international community with its assertive rhetoric and economic might. In Russia—Lost In Transition: The Yeltsin and Putin Legacies, Shevtsova contends that Russia's resurgence in the global arena disguises political stagnation and failure to modernize. She argues that the political regime and the type of capitalism that have been adopted over the last fifteen years are not sustainable in the long term and are unlikely to promote further economic growth and social improvements.

Key Conclusions:

• To avoid becoming a lame duck president, Putin will seek to perpetuate the uncertainty and suspense around the election and his own political future. Putin's recent reshuffling of his cabinet and the appointment of a relatively unknown prime minister demonstrated his need to prove he is still in charge. A new struggle for control and influence over the incoming political regime is likely to emerge.

• Russia's next leader must address the pressing social problems plaguing the nation, notably population decline and economic disparity. While anti-Western rhetoric has distracted the public, Russia's shattered social infrastructure threatens economic and social stability.

• Russia's recent assertiveness in foreign policy has greatly mobilized the public, and the ruling elite would like Russia to simultaneously be both friend and foe to the West.  Potential domestic crises in Russia could result in a more nationalist and authoritarian regime that eschews cooperation with the West and purges moderates from the Kremlin.

• To create a fertile environment for Russia's further economic and political transformation, Russia and the West must recognize that they have common interests rooted in shared values. Western policy towards Russia should avoid isolation at all costs and should be based on understanding, strategy, and engagement.
  • In particular, Western nations must understand Russia's unique dilemmas and choices;
  • develop a coherent strategy addressing the Kremlin leadership, the political class, and society;
  • and engage with Russia on areas where their interests overlap—counter-proliferation, combating international terrorism, energy security, and climate change—but not at the expense of acquiescing to the crackdown on democracy.

"Perhaps the greatest challenge for transforming Russia will be the need for its leadership to start the new reforms, of which the most radical will be dividing state power among independent institutions.  Will a new leader be prepared to embark on political self-castration and hand over some of his power to other institutions? This is Russia's metaproblem for which no solution was found under Yeltsin and Putin," concludes Shevtsova.

"Nasing spesal..."

Wreckage of Latvia's retailing industry: has declined 17% year on year according to the latest figures. But one item is selling well: T-shirts with seemingly mysterious slogans such as "Nasing spesal". Latvians are glad to have something to laugh about, even if it is only their finance minister, Atis Slakteris. In an ill-judged foreign television interview, using heavily accented and idiosyncratic English worthy of the film character Borat, he described his country's economic problems as "nothing special". Put mildly, that was an original interpretation, writes The Economist . Fuelled by reckless bank lending, particularly in construction and consumer loans, Latvia had enjoyed a colossal boom, with double-digit economic growth and a current-account deficit that peaked at over 20% of GDP. Conventional wisdom would have suggested applying the brakes hard, by tightening the budget and curbing borrowing. But the country's rulers, a lightweight lot with close ties to business, rejected that. Fast economic growth made voters feel that European Union membership was at last producing practical benefits, after a disappointing start when tens of thousands of Latvians went abroad in search of work, leaving rural villages and small towns depopulated.

Stalin no better than Hitler?

Orlando Figes wrote the book The Whisperers, It's subtitle is "private life in Stalin's Russia'' and it tells – in numbing detail – what happened to the Russian people under the Great Terror, a tale of barely imaginable horror. Russian publication of 'The Whisperers' has just been cancelled. By Putin?