Ñåé÷àñ ïî÷èòàë åãî êîììåíòàðèè íà êîììåíòàðèè ðîññèéñêèõ æóðíàëèñòîâ. Âïå÷àòëåíèå óäðó÷àþùåå. Îí âûãëÿäèò ãëóïî è çëîáíî ñî ñâîèìè íàïàäêàìè. À îíè íà íåãî âîîáùå íå íàïàäàþò, íó òàê, âûðàæàþò ñâî¸ ìíåíèå, ìîæåò è îøèáî÷íîå, íî ñïîêîéíî è äîñòîéíî, áåç ëè÷íûõ íàïàäîê. À îí íàïàäàåò èìåííî íà íèõ ëè÷íî. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Stifling free media, arresting journalists, bullying its neighbours – Moscow is stamping on freedoms and the EU turns a blind eye
In the capitals of European democracies, leaders are hailing a new era of co-operation with Russia. Berlin claims a "special relationship" with Moscow and is moving forward on a series of major energy projects with Russian energy giant Gazprom, one of which is led by the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi traveled to St Petersburg late last year to join in the celebration of his "great friend" Vladimir Putin's 59th birthday. And in Paris, negotiations are under way for a major arms sale that would allow Russia to acquire one of the most advanced ships in the French navy.
At the same time, democratic dissent inside Russia has been ruthlessly suppressed. On 31 January, the Russian government refused to allow the peaceful assembly of citizens who demonstrated in support of ... the right to free assembly, enshrined in article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation: the right "to gather peacefully and to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets".
Likewise, Russian journalists have been increasingly harassed for expressing any criticism of the government. But prosecution is hardly the worst outcome for Russian journalists who fail to report the news in a "patriotic" manner. In 2009, more than dozen of journalists, human rights activists and political opponents were killed.
Having stifled internal criticism of its policies in the Caucasus, the Russian government is now turning its attention to those who criticise them from abroad – and it is being abetted in this project by European businesses and governments. The last victim of Moscow's censors and their western friends is called Perviy Kavkazskiy (First-Caucasian). This young Russian-language television station was, until the end of January, freely available to people living in Russian-speaking areas. Now, Eutelsat – the leading European satellite provider based in Paris – has taken the channel off the air and refuses to implement the contract negotiated with the TV.
It seems the Russian company Intersputnik made Eutelsat an offer it couldn't refuse on 15 January, holding out the possibility of millions of dollars in business with the media holdings of Russian gas giant Gazprom on the condition that Eutelsat stop doing business with First-Caucasian. Eutelsat capitulated and sent a disastrous message to the world: no Russian-language television that is not controlled by the Kremlin will be allowed to be aired in the Russian Federation. Even if it is based abroad. Even if it has a contract with a European satellite provider.
The English-language satellite channel, Russia Today, funded and controlled by the Russian government, did not face such problems with European satellites. This channel has recently launched an advertising blitz in the United States and the United Kingdom featuring billboards that show the face of US President Barack Obama morphing into that of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Nobody raised any concerns about Russia Today and western viewers will be allowed to receive the propaganda that is broadcasted in Russia. But the very idea of an alternative channel in Russian language seems too "provocative" to some Europeans.
Eutelsat's collaboration with these policies is a clear violation of the spirit of the EU laws protecting freedom of the press, and French courts may well find that the firm violated more than just the spirit of the law as the case against Eutelstat unfolds in the coming weeks. Still, this is just the latest example of European complicity in the Kremlin's consolidation of political power inside the country and its reconstitution of the military used to coerce those nations that lie just across the border.
This is the context in which came recent reports that the French government intends to go forward with the sale to Russia of one or more Mistral-class amphibious assault ships. The Russian military has not concealed its plan for these weapons. In September of last year, the Russian admiral Vladimir Vysotsky triumphantly declared that "a ship like this would have allowed the Black Sea fleet to accomplish its mission [invading Georgia] in 40 minutes and not 26 hours".
Only a little more than a year ago, as Russian tanks occupied parts of Georgia, Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer declared that there could be "no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances". Russian forces still occupy Georgian territory, in violation of the ceasefire brokered by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and yet Nato, too, is back to business as usual with Putin's regime.
As Moscow shuts down opposition newspapers, arrests journalists who fail to toe the government line and bullies its democratic neighbours into submission, some European leaders are not silent. Instead they are arguing for closer ties to Moscow, for energy cooperation, for military for arms deals.
European leaders must take a stand for freedom of speech and in defence of the free media that enables it. This starts by making clear to European companies that they are not supposed to be the obedient tools of the Kremlin's censorship. The same leaders should also show that, at the beginning of the 21st century, one cannot occupy a foreign territory without consequence. It clearly does not imply selling weapons to occupation forces. At stake is not only the freedom of Russian citizens, but also the very meaning and the honour of Europe.
• The following people endorse this article: Elena Bonner-Sakharov; Konstantin Borovoï, chairman of the Party for Economic Freedom; Vladimir Boukovsky, former political prisoner; Natalia Gorbanevskaia, poet, former political prisoner; Andreï Illarionov, former adviser to Vladimir Putin; Garry Kasparov, leader of United Citizens Front; Serguei Kovaliev, former minister to Boris Yeltsin; Andreï Mironov, former political prisoner; Andreï Nekrasov, filmmaker; Valeria Novodvorskaya, leader of Democratic Unity of Russia; Oleg Panfilov, TV presenter; Grigory Pasko, journalist, ecology activist, former political prisoner; Leonid Pliouchtch, essayist, former political prisoner; Alexandre Podrabinek, journalist, former political prisoner; Zoïa Svetova, journalist; Maïrbek Vatchagaev, historian; Tatiana Yankelevitch, archivist, Harvard; Lydia Youssoupova, lawyer
• Editor's note: Three minor typographical corrections were made to this article at 14:30 on 23 February; in the original version, Barack Obama's name was misspelt. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
Tina
: 10.11.2005 : 4579
: , 25 2010, 09:30:43 : Re: Ãàððè Êàñïàðîâ
Loanka ():
íî àðìÿíèí â êà÷åñòâå Ïðåçèäåíòà ÐÔ ìíå êàê-òî ñ òðóäîì ïðåäñòàâëÿåòñÿ, áóäü îí ñåìè ïÿäåé è ñî çâåçäîé âî ëáó...
President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for two hours last week during the Group of 20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. The meeting was described in the press as "chilly," which is no surprise. For Mr. Obama, seeing Mr. Putin across from him was a concrete reminder that his administration's "reset" policy has been a bust, that all the time spent promoting the fantasy of former president Dmitry Medvedev as a liberal alternative to Mr. Putin had been a waste.
Immediately prior to the G-20 summit, top Russian officials announced that Mr. Putin's highest priority in meeting Mr. Obama would be the Magnitsky Act, a piece of pending U.S. legislation that would apply travel and financial sanctions against Russian functionaries complicit in the 2009 torture and murder of anticorruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Critically, the act can also be extended to those who commit similar crimes.
This was a startling admission for the Putin regime to make. I have long promoted the idea of going after the money and travel privileges of the Kremlin loyalists who keep Mr. Putin's criminal regime operational. The surprise was his in effect confessing how afraid of the act he is. He clearly felt it necessary to publicly reassure his rank and file that he would fight to protect their ill-gotten wealth and lifestyles.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is focused on improving trade relations with Russia, emphasizing the need to repeal the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which prevents the U.S. from granting most-favored-nation status to countries that restrict emigration. In doing so she has argued that even the Russian opposition is in favor of repealing Jackson-Vanik.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin
This is a half-truth. We of the opposition are hardly of like mind on everything, but nearly all of us agree that it is important to replace the obsolete Jackson-Vanik Amendment with the Magnitsky Act instead of simply repealing it. The objective of such a law is to deter further human-rights violations in Russia by altering the climate of impunity.
Mr. Putin's May 7 inauguration was followed by crackdowns against the pro-democracy movement, including raids on the homes of opposition leaders and their families and a massive raise in the fines and jail sentences for participating in demonstrations. While more than a dozen protesters are already behind bars, the raids and arrests continue. As ever, the application of the law is focused on punishing opposition activities that are supposed to be protected by the Russian constitution. The police and judiciary understand that by protecting Mr. Putin's power, they gain ultimate immunity.
The Magnitsky Act would shake the foundation of Mr. Putin's power base. It is less clear why the Obama administration has worked so hard to bury it. Abroad, Mr. Putin's Russia continues to sell arms to the Assad dictatorship in Syria and generally do everything possible to keep the Middle East at a boil—the better to keep oil prices high.
In March, President Obama was overheard telling Mr. Medvedev he would have "more flexibility" to address Russian interests after his re-election. Yet Mr. Obama looks all too flexible already. Negotiating on trade or missile defense is all well and good, but when you put moral values on the table with a dictatorship you lose every time.
America should be siding with the Russian people, not with Mr. Putin. Russia is not America's foe. We have much in common—struggles with radical Islam, concerns about Chinese influence and expansionism, real shared strategic interests. Mr. Putin's Russia, on the other hand, is concerned only with power and the oil and gas profits needed to maintain it. Yes, a free Russia will compete with the U.S., but it will not be an unwavering adversary.
Ronald Reagan understood history and its lesson that appeasing dictators never works for long. By passing the Magnitsky Act, which was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the United States will be supporting the Russian people, strengthening democracy and the rule of law, and protecting its own long-term interests. Being "flexible" on these issues will only prove the old saying that by standing for nothing, you will fall for anything.
Mr. Kasparov is the leader of the Russian pro-democracy group the United Civil Front and chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. He lives in Moscow. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
http://www.kasparov.com/press-conference-by-kasparov-at-united-nations/
One simple question at a Geneva press conference has set off a firestorm of conjecture about my not returning Russia, so I want to set the story straight myself! Russia is and will always be my country. I am still traveling on a Russian passport, and though I was born in the USSR, and have spent most of my adult life traveling constantly, Russia is my home even when I am not able to be there. I refuse to allow Putin and his gang define Russia. They are a temporary disease that the Russian immune system will soon fight off.
I am doing everything I can to help win that fight. Before I retired from chess I represented Russia fighting battles on the chessboard around the world. I have spent years marching in the streets against Putin, speaking at rallies, and facing the police. Today I am still representing Russia and fighting harder than ever in America and Europe to bring international sanctions against the criminals and thugs in the Kremlin. I have had hundreds of meetings and appearances to promote such legislation, and the US has adopted the Magnitsky Act and Europe is increasingly open to doing the same. Such laws attack Putin's power at its foundation: the loyalty of his gang that is based on the protection he provides so they can enjoy their stolen riches abroad. Putin is at the center of the web, but the fight for human rights is a global one and it is critical to both assist and to seek assistance from allies abroad.
Meanwhile, Putin is cracking down harder than ever and is showing he is willing to create a new generation of political prisoners unseen since the days of Stalin. I have already been "invited" to speak to prosecutors and such invitations have a way, at a minimum, of limiting ones freedom of movement. Adding another victim to the regime's list will not do much good. I will not casually put myself at the mercy of the investigative office of Alexander Bastrykin, who deserves to be the top Russian official on the Magnitsky List himself!
Please, let no one doubt my commitment to the cause of a free and strong Russia, or doubt for one moment that I am working constantly to achieve that goal. I have dedicated my life to my human rights activities and my education programs and it is impossible to imagine I would be allowed to continue this work inside Russia today. Many of my friends in the opposition are risking their lives and their security every day and they deserve the full attention and protection of the global community and bringing this support is part of my efforts. I am present; I am in touch on a daily basis with what is happening with the opposition, and I will do whatever I can to support my colleagues and my compatriots until Putin and his cronies are gone for good. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà