Time to End an Obstacle to U.S. Access to the World's 9th-Largest Economy
Edward Lozansky
President Obama, Use Your Legal Authority to Remove Russia From Jackson-Vanik!
In December 2011, the Russian Federation was invited to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). President Barack Obama phoned his Russian counterpart, President Dmitry Medvedev, to congratulate him. The White House released a statement hailing the move:
"Russia's membership in the WTO will lower tariffs, improve access to Russia's services markets, hold the Russian government accountable to a system of rules governing trade behavior, and provide the means to enforce those rules. Russia's membership in the WTO will generate more export opportunities for American manufacturers and farmers, which in turn will support well-paying jobs in the U.S. President Obama told President Medvedev that the administration is committed to working with Congress to end the application of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to Russia in order to ensure that American firms and American exporters will enjoy the same benefits of Russian WTO membership as their international competitors."
The reference to the Jackson-Vanik amendment - a U.S. law - means that as long as Washington continues to apply that discriminatory statutory provision against Russia, Moscow can discriminate against importation of American goods and services. In effect, U.S. exports to Russia would suffer as a unique exception to the Russians' WTO obligations.
A reform-minded Russian blogger, Alexei Novalny, was the target of a photoshopping scam that tried to link him to the discredited plutocrat Boris Bereshovsky. It looks like something the old KGB might have done, so fingers pointed to the Kremlin where Novalny's blog have been unwelcome lately. To retaliate against whoever smeared him, Mr. Navalny ran the real picture, which showed him standing with presumptive Presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov, a likely rival for Vladimir Putin in the March 4 elections. Then Novalny photoshopped a hilarious procession of other figures--from Stalin and Napoleon to Putin himself to even a Space Alien. And posted them on his blog.
The message: in the age of the Internet you can't photoshop as in days of old. Come clean!
Protesters' poster compares Vladimir Putin to Muammar Gaddafi and mocks him with an old Soviet joke "You're on a faithful path, comrades!"
The Putin regime has little to fear from the latest public protests which, despite drawing large crowds, are apolitical. True politics will only become possible in Russia when both the opposition and the regime focus on the tedious work of practical politics, says Nicolai N. Petro in his highly personal view of recent events.
Kudos are due to both the Russian police and opposition leaders for having managed the second successful mass protest in Moscow without incident and in an appropriately festive spirit. After the Christmas eve demonstration in Sakharov square, the crowd was told that the next protest meeting would be held some time in February since, obviously, nobody wants to disrupt the extended Russian winter holidays which last well into January. By February, presumably, holiday cheer will have subsided and it will be time for another manifestation of civic outrage. As Putin quipped during his televised Q&A with the nation, if these protests are a product of 'the Putin regime,' he is only too happy to take credit for them.
Russia Blog Editors wish you a very happy new year! We hope that 2012 will be prosperous and successful for you in every possible way! Please, come back soon for more fresh content on Russia, Former Soviet Union, and U.S.-Russia relations.
There are several issues about democracy under discussion in Russia. One is corruption and the stories of major public officials, including V. Putin, enjoying lavish palaces--and owning them?--on a government salary. Powerful elected officials after a few years in any country often come to chafe under the limits to personal wealth that coexist with their much less limited public power. That resentment is the seedbed of public pilf in any country, and that seedbed is apparently well-watered in Russia now. The official typically thinks, "Why is it that I can make others rich, but get nothing for myself?" The public thinks, "If you don't like your job, quit!"
But Putin isn't quitting.
In America, presidents are limited to two four year terms, after which they get a reasonably large annual pension and office staff, plus a presidential library named after them. They also can cash in, or not, in the private sector, based on their friendships and name. That seems to suffice. Almost no US presidents are accused of personal enrichment while in office.)
A second issue is whether freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are truly honored in Russia today, or are they offered only as window dressing? In the past, protests were small and could be ridiculed and criticized officially for not following proper procedures for permits, etc. The size of the recent protests make such ridicule ridiculous itself, and thanks, perhaps to calmer voices in the Kremlin, the approach of mockery has been muted.
Let us pause in the midst of the twelve days of Christmas to remember, and (if so inclined), to say a prayer for political prisoners around the world. One of them, Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, has published a letter in The Moscow Times from her prison cell that reminds us of the personal risks leaders assume even in supposedly democratic regimes. Some regard Tymoshenko as corrupt, but it's hard to judge. The state in such countries has most of the instruments of publicity, as well as law, on its side.
What one can say is that politics should not be criminalized (to use Mark Helprin's useful phrase). There may be some corrupt politicians in jail, but there are surely many more in prison on trumped-up charges, guilty mainly of threatening the political prospects of their opponents. In the popular view, courts treat elected officials more leniently than ordinary people. But the opposite is often the case if the official or former official is a dissident.
Ronald Reagan made brilliant use of a weapon that did not exist -- his Strategic Defense Initiative -- to hasten the end of a war that was never fought: the cold one.
Thus, at its inception, missile defense had a fruitful purpose-to bring to a close the Cold War, i.e., the division of Europe into mutually antagonistic blocs. Reagan was so concerned that his plans for missile defense not destabilize the nuclear balance and thus deepen and prolong pan-European discord that he offered to share the technology with Moscow that was still the capital of the Soviet Union.
The Obama Administration, having launched its wise and admirable reset by canceling President Bush's plans to deploy a missile system on Russia's borders, has since revived that very bad idea, and thereby torpedoed one of its few solid foreign policy achievements. It plans to park elements of a missile defense system in Poland and Romania, prompting Russia's once and presumably future president Vladimir Putin to ask publicly: "So where is this reset?"
Sadly, Obama has shown himself unable to withstand the pressures of powerful lobbies and factions within his own party for empire-that is to say for the maintenance and expansion of our globe-girdling hive of compliant states.
Many protesters in Moscow came out into the streets for the first time in their lives on December 10, 2011
No country's history proceeds on its own anymore, uninfluenced by events elsewhere. Thus, there was a great deal of interest in Russia in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, just as there were with the Arab Spring. Yet, in the aftermath of the demonstrations against Vladimir Putin and United Russia that followed the parliamentary elections, Putin is blaming the public displays on--Hillary Clinton.
This is like politicians in the American South during the civil rights movement who blamed the demands for change on "outside agitators." If Putin merely expressed annoyance with the tone of U.S. scolding, it would be hard to disagree. Whether it is Clinton or her predecessor, Condolezza Rice, moralizing U.S. Secretaries of State seem to think that they should be constantly announcing what other governments "must" do. It's hard to know what such near-daily lectures accomplish, other than infuriating heads of state with whom we must deal. Once in a while? Sure. All the time; it is a little hard to take.
Nonetheless, Putin cannot imagine that his problems with the Russian people are the result of comments made by Hillary Clinton and the United States government. There was too much Internet evidence of fraud in the elections. One blogger became famous for the beatings he endured in government hands. These protests hardly look like the work of Ms. Clinton or the CIA.
President Medvedev's stern warning to the United States and NATO on the eve of parliamentary elections seems to be directed at domestic audiences, to rally nationalist votes. However, if his intension was to influence U.S. or NATO policies on missile defense, it most likely misfired. Obama is in no position to yield to the Kremlin's demands, and the only thing that Medvedev has achieved with this outburst is to supply ammunition for the White House critics who keep crying foul of the 'reset' policy. Additionally, Medvedev's threat to quit START sounds pretty irrational since this treaty was praised by Moscow itself as one of its most successful diplomatic efforts in recent years.
This is not to say that U.S. missile defense policy is justified. Russia has many valid reasons to complain, but if it wants its voice to be heard, it should use a different approach. Issuing threats and saber rattling did not work even in the Soviet era, and it definitely will not work now. One should add that Moscow's proposal for 'sectoral' defense responsibilities is not very serious, either. Justifiably, NATO says that it cannot delegate its members' defense to a third party.
However, the Kremlin's strong card is its offer to the West to develop and deploy a joint missile defense system. This offer has fundamental meaning since it proves that Russia is absolutely serious about its wish to be part of the global security infrastructure.
RT (Russia Today TV News Network) has covered the Occupy Wall Street movement so extensively and boldly that it begs the question: What does the Kremlin have to do with the OWS movement? From what I have observed in both Russia and the USA, the answer is: Very little or nothing at all, to my regret, which I'll explain later. More than a month-- from September 17 when the OWS started in New York to October 21 when I returned from Moscow to Washington--I watched OWS the way Russians see it, through government-controlled TV channels.
I was struck by how little attention Russian media paid to this massive explosion of discontent that was clearly embarrassing to US government and media pundits who would much rather talk about "lack of democracy" in Russia than American about 1% "plutocrats." After checking online reports from Truthout, I realized that in OWS did not receive a coverage it deserved. So I had remained unaware of the movement's huge scale until I came back to my Alexandria home--and to a new TV set supplied with dozen channels, including RT. Now I'm glued to RT every morning. And what do I see?
20,000 Moscow MMA fans are whistling and booing Putin, yelling "shame!" and "get out!" - the video has gotten 502,000 views in just a few hours
A mixed martial arts fight between a long-time Russian champion Fedor Emelianenko and an American fighter Jeff Monson resulted in the Russian's victory, and became the surreal stage for the unthinkable: 20,000 Moscow fans booed and whistled Putin off the stage. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin got up on the stage to personally congratulate Fedor with the victory. However, most of his speech couldn't be heard. People in the bleachers started whistling, booing and screaming "shame!" and "get out!" Prime minister's voice trembled for a split second, but he continued with his speech, speaking louder. Main government TV channel Rossiya was airing the show live, and was unable to edit the booing out. The other government channels edited the booing and whistles out, however, Russian free media exists, and Internet is unrestricted, thus we get the news.
This small event at an MMA fight may mean a big thing for a whole era. In Russia, Internet is free, so is the media, and so are the Russians. And even though Putin will still win the elections (due to the total lack of a viable competing leader) things have changed forever in Russia, on November 20, 2011.
Anti-Russia Lobby Praises Reagan, Misconstrues His Legacy
Edward Lozansky
A Call for a New Republican Approach to Moscow
Two decades after the fall of Communism, Ronald Reagan is as popular as ever. Praise for Reagan is routine on the right, but also emanates from the center and not infrequently from the left. This broad appreciation of Reagan is usually bound up with his deft handling of the Cold War's denouement, and yet not a few of his admirers are motivated by a Russophobia Reagan would have found alien. Thus, they wind up undermining his legacy, whether inadvertently or not.
Those who consider themselves admirers of Ronald Reagan, and we count ourselves among their number, should support the deepening of President Obama's reset with Russia under the next Republican administration, which we hope will take office on January 20, 2013, and not a resumption of the efforts of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to strategically encircle Russia.
170,000 Celebrate Muslim Holiday Kurban Bayram in Moscow Streets
Yuri Mamchur
Today, more than 170,000 Muslims celebrated the important Muslim holiday Kurban Bayram. Russian nationalists were predicting an ethnic mayhem, terrorist explosions, and racial clashes. However, the celebrations were peaceful and joyful. In one of the Moscow's mosques along the festivities were attended by 80,000 people! Even though the Moscow police was prepared for extraordinary situations, the officers were impressed with the smooth flow of events. The successful and peaceful celebration, amid troubling nationalistic tensions in the Russian society, is an important statement that Russia's peaceful Muslims and Christian can coexist, just like they have for the past 500 years.
Herman Cain explained how he'll answer tricky foreign policy questions: "When they ask me who's the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan, I'm gonna say, 'You know, I don't know, do you know?' And then I'm gonna say, 'How's that gonna create more jobs?' I wanna focus on the top priorities of this country. That's what leaders do."
Although it is still a year to the US presidential election, the fight for the White House is in full swing. In this fight, everything goes, and the Republicans are determined to take away every chance of Obama winning. As he has done rather better in international affairs than in the economy, and the Reset in relations with Russia is among the brightest feathers in his cap, it clearly has to be compromised at all costs, even if the US own interests may suffer in consequence.
One would have thought that John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, has little time to waste. Congress is fiercely debating the impending dramatic budget cuts, attempts to reduce unemployment, and lessen the national debt that is nearing the astronomical $15 trillion, i.e. over 100 percent of GDP. The Occupy Wall Street protest movement is on the rise, and several cities have already seen serious clashes with the police.
Russia "Reset" Should not Be a Political Football in U.S. 2012 Election
Edward Lozansky
We the undersigned--Reagan Republicans, all--think President Obama deserves credit for the broad direction of his "reset" with Russia. Although not without faults in the implementation, we welcome the President's effort to move American policy away from the sterile and gratuitous hostility toward post-communist Russia and its legitimate national interests that characterized the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
Between December 2011 and November 2012, the United States and Russia will be holding legislative and presidential elections. In Russia, it is widely assumed that Vladimir Putin will return to the presidency, a position from which he voluntarily stepped down in 2008. Despite criticism directed against him both at home and abroad, it is indisputable that tens of millions of Russian citizens from all walks of life esteem him as a strong leader who has restored their country to international respect and domestic stability.
Heritage Foundation Strikes Again or Do They Really Care about American National Interests?
Yuri Mamchur
Honorable Boehner, the Heritage event's keynote speaker, should be occupied with the problem of nearly $15 trillion U.S. national debt, and should not have time for a political circus like this one.
Next week's Russia event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. is astounding in its irrelevance and detachment from today's world's issues. The all-day conference titled "The Risks of the Reset: Why Washington Must Watch Its Step with Moscow" features the usual suspects, including Heritage's own Ariel Cohen, the famous Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov, and the speaker of the house himself (!) Honorable John Boehner (R-OH). In light of America's greatest problems of the day - the sinking economy and overspending on military actions abroad - the event surprisingly does not feature a single business executive or a military expert. Had they been invited, maybe they could explain how exactly Russia hinders the interests of American shareholders by inviting Starbucks, McDonalds, Mattel and other American corporations into the country, and what are the unknown evil Russians who blew up American cities and shoot at American troops...
To make it clear, no one is excited about Putin's announcement to return to the Russian presidency, aside from Putin himself, a handful of money-laundering bureaucrats, and nearly 27% of Russians (according to Levada Center survey); 27% is low, but better than Kasparov's 0.5%. If Heritage would love Kasparov to be the president of Russia, he first needs to challenge Russian communists and fascists who each have 8% of the Russian population's pre-election endorsement.
Russian People Try to Take Prosecution into Their Hands in the Absence of Law (and God)
Yuri Mamchur
Caution: graphic video, a YouTube sign-in is required
While Vladimir Putin in stylish ties talks about liberalization and the need of another 12 years to fix things in Russia (after a 13 year trial?), Russians stopped believing in the rule of law, and the Russian countryside is building up its emotions for another revolution. In the Russian city of Bryansk, Irina Dobrzhanskaya (a 20-year-old inexperienced driver) was speeding about 10 miles above the speed limit on a major street/highway. (Usually, Russians double the allowed speed limit). A mother with a 3-year-old daughter was crossing the road on a crosswalk. Now, a few facts are important for a proper interpretation of the story before the punch line: the city officials didn't bother to put white crosswalk paint on the pavement (either the paint was stolen or the painters were drunk when the job was due); a police unit was present on the scene, but was occupied with collecting cash bribes about 30 yards away from the crosswalk; Irina was driving in the left lane, did not see the mother and the child, did not get the queue from a stopped bus (that blocked the view) that there may be a reason for why it had stopped...
Irina hit the mother and the child. The 3-year-old girl died. The bus drove away. Bystanders did not come to help. Police did not immediately leave its vehicle. Only one person walked slowly to the scene. Three-year-old Sonya was the eighth deadly victim of the crosswalk in three years. And everything was caught on tape!
Now, OMON (special units of Russian police) are guarding Irina's house. After immediately pleading guilty and offering all her savings and more to help the girl's family, Irina has already tried to commit a suicide and is now residing in a mental institution. Then, why does police guard her condo, located in an old five-story Soviet building? Because the town people promise to burn Irina's mother alive and kill Irina once she is out of the hospital.
Town people are remembering the 3-year-old Sonya with tears and pointing at the driver and the Kremlin with fists.
How Vladimir Putin Lost a Chance to Become George Washington
Yuri Mamchur
In the 1700-s British King George III called George Washington "The greatest man in the world." American history is taught well in Russian public schools, but probably wasn't delivered as well during the Soviet times when Vladimir Putin was a boy. Had Putin looked into the history books, he would've found out that he had given up the opportunity to become the Greatest Man in Russia's history. In fact, he lined himself up to become one of the less impressive men in history, one whose personal hobbies and views, combined with age and historically long terms at the steering wheel (surpassing even Stalin) may lead to some results other than a free market economy...
What is the secret sauce for being the "Greatest Man in the World?" It is simple: be humble. Or as Bob Lefsets, an LA-based music producer says about the record industry and technology at large, "It's all about the timing." Putin failed at both. Unfortunately, his failures are much more than just his personal business. What really hurts is the fact that Putin built a strong, wealthy country and the momentum of that could have made Russia a role model to all, including the United States - responsible spending, non-involvement in foreign affairs, strong financial system, and... That's where the list ends. When talking to a Moscow friend, I mentioned Putin's accomplishments, to which he responded, "What do all of them mean if he failed at the most important thing -- grooming the leadership among the future generations."
In 1775, when George Washington accepted command of the Continental Army, he promised Congress he would resign his commission when the war was over. Once the British withdrew, he was true to his word. Just before then, Washington had been approached by the officers who pledged their support if he decided to seize civilian power. In response, General Washington scolded the conspiring officer.
Today, one American dollar buys 32 Russian rubles. Most likely, this is not what Putin envisioned as the result of his economic reforms ten years ago.
Vladimir Putin can be personally credited with a lot of positive developments in Russian economy over the past ten years. Because of Vladimir, today, Russia has private land ownership, functioning banking system, credit system, next-to-zero government debt, and the rising middle class. However, as far as the world is concerned, Russia is still not the investors' dreamland. The little table of ruble-to-dollar exchange rate shows up on all Russian websites and TV screens, and it tells a not-so-good story. In the middle of America's worst financial crisis, the dollar is stronger than ever. Russian ruble, backed by barely any government debt and solid cash flows, is one of the least desirable currencies. When I left Moscow half a year ago, dollar could buy 26 rubles. In the past two weeks, that number has shifted to 32 rubles per dollar.
In the meantime, Russian websites and general population publicly make fun of Putin-Medvedev team and show dissatisfaction with the inability of choosing their own governors, Medvedev's failure to curb the corruption, and the growing wealth of bureaucrats. All the aforementioned problems were supposed to be short-term growing pains of the improving Russia. Instead, the pains became the norm. Why do world's investors chose the American dollar over the Russian ruble? Because American legal and court systems work, secretaries of states and governors earn a fraction of corporate CEOs' salaries, and a speeding driver means a speeding tickets, regardless of whether you're a star, a homeless, or a daughter of a former U.S. president. Maybe in the new decade, the (hopefully) new Russian leaders will take a closer look at Russia's corruption problem and society's needs. As they say, money will come later - it always does.
Microsoft Earns Over $1 Billion in Russia in One Year
Yuri Mamchur
Microsoft's Moscow office
Do you remember the days when all software in Russia was bootleg and it wasn't worth an effort to try to sell the legal copies? Well, those days are gone. Russian families and businesses finally make enough money to forgo the challenges of viruses and cracking headaches of illegal software, and just pay hard dollars to good old Redmond, WA -based Microsoft.
The piracy is still rampant throughout Russia; but so it is in America, where music artists must hit the road to make income even after their songs reach Top-40 chart positions. Not to compare apples to oranges, but as far as business is concerned, it's all copyright law, respect for the law, and its enforcement. Lady Gaga lost several million dollars on her album release -- mostly due to teenage piracy and lacking sales; 99 cents an album creates a financial loss even on transaction, not counting the fixed costs of production and label's overhead. However, she is the hottest selling show in the world, and that's where the real money is. Even in the Western world where internet is fast and respect for copyrights is low, the money is in "bread and circuses" and not in legal digital downloads.
Given the financial crisis in America and relative financial prosperity in Russia and Brazil, Microsoft is seriously concentrating its efforts on those "developing" markets. Russian market yielded over $1 billion in revenues for Microsoft in just one year, and continues to significantly grow. Microsoft has offices in 70 Russian cities, and its best-selling products in Russia are Microsoft Sharepoint Server and Microsoft Project. Once again, private business proves to be more capable of reset and healthy international relations than our respective governments...
The Lesson from the Russian Hockey Team's Plane Crash
Yuri Mamchur
What can Western businessmen learn from the Russian hockey team's plane crash? The obvious: Do not fly Russian-made airplanes. Seriously. On the afternoon of September 7, The Russian-made Yak-42 was carrying 45 people - eight crewmembers and 37 hockey players of Russia's most famous hockey club, "Lokomotiv." Trying to take off, the plane ran the entire length of the runway, traveled another 400 meters on its wheels through the post-runway gravel, rose up, crashed into a light post, hit the ground and burst into flames. Only one person survived the crash. The investigation of the accident so far filtered all the possible options of the crash to one reason: improper load and weight distribution.
Now, the plane is built to carry 120 passengers and luggage. Only 45 people and hockey sticks were onboard. The plane was built in the Nineties, has had all the requisite inspections, and the pilot and copilot had 6,900 and 13,000 hours of flight experience respectively. If an improper load of a suitcase can cause a plane to fall, maybe you need to think twice before boarding such an aircraft. Whatever, the real (or surreal) reasons of the crash are, the statistics work against the Russian airplane industry. There have been five major airplane crashes in Russia in 2011. They cost nearly 200 lives and all of the accidents involved Soviet- and Russian-made planes: Tu-134, Tu-154, An-148, An-24, and now Yak-42.
As usual, Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have spoken tough, demanding new regulations, and promising to solve all the evils of the world. Do not be fooled; nothing will change. Putin and Medvedev have good intentions, but modern-day Russia does not have the system to implement them. In fact, the obvious result of their hands-on governing is the absence of any system. New military missiles don't fly, planes fall out of the sky, and people don't bother to call the police when something wrong happens. Don't participate in this!
There are plenty of reliable airlines in Russia, including Aeroflot that has daily flights from everywhere in Europe and the U.S. to everywhere in Russia and in between. Before booking your flight, just make sure you're going to fly on an aircraft made by Boeing or an Airbus. If a company switches an aircraft to one that's Russian-made, refuse to fly. Even if you end up losing the money, better to be safe than sorry (alive than dead).
Russia Blog extends its condolences to the victims' families and friends.
A census worker surveys Medvedevs at the presidential residence. Not every Russian was surveyed like President Dmitry Medvedev...
Businesses need sound demographic data on which to base investment and marketing decisions, especially in foreign countries. Russia, despite its oil wealth, is a country that would like to attract more foreign investors. But the latest Census there is probably unreliable. At the very base of collection it was substantially invented.
The 2010 Russia Census was unfunded until late in the process. The operation was about to be postponed when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intervened and found 10.5 billion rubles to pay for it. Now, as official results trickle out a year later, one would think that a big success was achieved. The national newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports: "Russia's population has declined by 1.6 percent since 2002 - from 145.2 million to 142.9 million people. There are only two regions where the population increased. In the Perm region the population grew by 11,800 people, and in Usolksky - by 800."
Such precision in Usolksky or anywhere in Russia is suspect, however. The U.S. Census Bureau's Center for International Research believes that specific official Russian numbers may be off by as much as 87 percent from site to site. Anecdotally, I've had the chance to witness a census count in both the U.S. and Russia. The two counts couldn't be much different.
President Obama Can and Should Lift the Jackson-Vanik Amendment Against Russia
Edward Lozansky
On April 18, 2011 my partner, a former Reagan administration official Anthony Salvia, and I filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia demanding that U.S. president annuls the Jackson-Vanik amendment in relation to Russia. We argue that since Russia is now a free market economy and has no emigration restrictions at all, it automatically has to be excluded from JVA and that its continued application to Russia is illegal. It is our belief that U.S. president has the constitutional authority to state that and declare the JVA null and void with respect to Russia without congressional resolution as previously stated by Clinton, Bush and Obama. Therefore, the main goal of our lawsuit is to help Barack Obama to close this Cold War chapter once and for all and concentrate instead on positive and mutually beneficial cooperation between the United States and Russia.
The historic nature of this case, even at this point is clear. For almost two decades, three successive US administrations (Clinton, Bush, Obama) have said, in effect, "Gee, we'd love to graduate Russia from Jackson-Vanik but we can't do it without getting legislation through Congress." That excuse ¬ and that's all it is ¬ now has been shown conclusively to be false. The President can permanently lift Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions on Russia any time he wants, without any action by Congress. In fact, the way the law is written, since the finding already was made years ago that Russia permits free emigration, the only finding needed to trigger Russia's permanent removal from J-V trade restrictions has been made ¬ but the White House still refuses. Also, as Richard Perle has indicated, Russia is not a "nonmarket economy country," certainly was not in 1974 (when the Russian Federation was not even an independent state), and J-V does not properly apply to it. In fact, as we argued to the Court, Russia is only on the J-V list because in 1993 Clinton unilaterally (without Congress) deleted the name of the USSR and put on Russia. Obama can take it off just as easily.
Corruption in Russia: the Question Is Not whether it Exists, but How Much and How Often...
Yuri Mamchur
An average bribe in Russia today, according to the law enforcement agencies, is $10,000. It grew 500% since a year ago. However, the investigators say that it's not the bribe that grew, but the efficiency of their work. Over the past year, Russian police and FSB caught several multi-million-dollar bribes, and landed some of high-profile officials in jails. The statistics involve everything, from several-dollar drivers bribes to traffic police all the way to 50-60-million-ruble bribes (approx. $2 million) to high-ranking officials.
According to Ernst&Young, Russia is Europe's leader in business corruption. The average amount of a bribe has been consistently at least doubling each year since 2005. Once again, the anti-corruption officials are stressing that the doubling of the bribe's price tag is correlated with the efficiency of their work. We at Russia Blog are wondering though, why is it doubling consistently since 2005, instead of dissappearing? Curbing the corruption has been Medvedev's top priority since day one of his presidency. Instead, his employees are patting each other on the backs for just uncovering the bribes, and in no way reversing the trend. China has a corruption problem as well. The way they deal with corrupt officials is medieval, but it works: they literally shoot them. In Russia, as my friend said the other day, officials -- on par with Putin -- funnel billions to Swiss and Cyprus accounts, go under investigation, share some of the stolen money with the court, get conditional penalties, and wave goodbye before boarding jets to take off for far-away lands.
Of course, undisputed rumors of Putin's $1 billion cottage/castle don't help to set the trend or serve a good example. Russia must harshly prosecute rather than just uncover the corruption. However, the officials are not too inspired to work hard fighting the corruption, when their salaries aren't big enough to go out for 10 dinners with a family. That's where the evil circle comes around. A role-modeling from the top (Putin and Medvedev) would be a good place to start. However, for now, the two enjoy fishing, diving, and driving Mercedeses and Porsches. No wonder, every Russian kid would rather be a Putin than Steve Jobs...
Ukrainian Women Get Naked for Yulia Timoshenko's Freedom
Yuri Mamchur
Just recently, Russia Blog shared with you an interesting story about Ukrainian women who get naked in Kiev to protest local and global injustice (their movement is called "Femen"). The organization's last protest was against the driving ban in Saudi Arabia. Today, we bring you the news of the most recent protest where the ladies demanded that the former Ukrainian prime minister and the Orange Revolution hero Yulia Timoshenko be freed from prison.
Funny things aside, the Orange Revolution with its consequences has been a disaster. Ukraine has not modernized, corruption is at historic highs, the new president Yanukovych is a pro-Russian uneducated former-criminal-turn-Communist-party-activist-turn-Ukrainian-president disaster, and the former prime-minister -- once glorified in the West -- today is wanted in Russia and its native Ukraine for corrupt gas deals. James Brooke with the Moscow office of the Voice of America has the extended story that he reports directly from Kiev.
In the meantime, in Seattle, WA, the former Ambassador to the United Nations mission in Vienna, former Director of U.S. Census Bureau, and currently the President of Discovery Institute Bruce Chapman says "this is a show trial, and a shameful one. No officials should be removed from office, let along put on trial for decisions made within the normal practices of their offices. She made a decision about a gas deal, and it can't be a crime, unless it involves corruption. If there is corruption, as many say, then she should be tried for that, not for making an administrative decision."
What Do Putin, Obama and Ben Affleck Have in Common?
Yuri Mamchur
Coincidentally, I used to work for a foundation that sponsored the Fanagoria archeological expedition, and my friend, just like Putin, retrieved a similar vase; it's now resting at our family's dacha (country home) in the Moscow suburbs. A photo of our vase is coming, after my family back in Russia takes it and sends it over to Seattle where I am currently.... -- YM
What do Putin, Obama and Ben Affleck have in common? They are celebrities, and nothing more! Everybody knows them, but no one is too sure what exactly any of them is doing. Karl Rove's article in The Wall Street Journal "Obama's No Good, Very Bad Week" nails all the necessary points in regards to the American president. Obama talks, blames, and smiles in his white unbuttoned shirt. That, apparently, is not enough to curb the worst financial crisis in world's modern history.
Ben Affleck? He is a celebrity and a handsome man. But no one can really remember his most recent hit movie. To help out Russia Blog readers who are his fans -- the movie is called The Company Men, and features another now-irrelevant star, Kevin Costner. With a production budget of $15 million, the movie grossed only $4.9 million worldwide. An "ouch" moment for the film's investors -- a feeling similar to that which the Chinese government is experiencing in relationship to Obama's White House economic program.
However, in our weekend stardom marathon, Vladimir Putin takes first place with his new action movies of diving underwater and retrieving ancient Greek artifacts. By a pure coincidence, I used to work for a foundation that sponsored archeological expedition in Fanagoria--a Russian town that is the location of an ancient Greek city. The Russian government under back-then President Putin didn't want to do anything with the expedition, leaving the sponsorship to Russian private businessmen, some of whom fell out of Putin's favor... But that's a different story. Today, when Putin is prime minister, the government donates about 50 rubles (one dollar and eighty cents) per day to the income of each of the scientists and archeologists working on the site. That is, not much. However, uncomfortable facts and unwritten rules of ethics do not prevent the prime minister from going on a lavish vacation to the site he never supported. Meanwhile, Russia's ruble--backed by piles of gold, diamonds, gas, oil, and zero innovation--is slipping alongside the "evil" dollar (the ruble has lost 10% of its value next to the struggling dollar in the past several weeks).
Unfortunately, even the most enthusiastic supporters of Obama's "reset" policy now admit that it is losing steam. This policy scored a few important and undeniable achievements, but the list was pretty short and, most regrettably, no new, significant breakthroughs are visible or expected on the horizon.
Considering the mood on Capitol Hill, where less than a dozen members out of 535 can be expected to say anything good or at least neutral about Russia, any progress in the development of a mutually advantageous strategic partnership envisioned by the "reset" can hardly be hoped for.
While White House statements on Russia are, as often as not, businesslike and pragmatic, the language at Congressional hearings or resolutions on Russia is getting strikingly similar to that of the Soviet or George W. Bush's times. Why that is so remains something of a mystery, seeing that Russia, with all its shortcomings, is still very supportive of America in many ways, most importantly on Afghanistan or Iran.
Time to Stop Sponsoring Georgia's Ski Resorts with U.S. Taxpayers' Money. Evidence Shows Russia Blog Right on Georgia War in 2008.
Yuri Mamchur
Statue of Joseph Stalin stood outside the Town Hall in Stalin's birthplace town of Gori, Georgia. After receiving significant subsidies from the U.S., Georgian government removed the monument as part of the country's "de-Sovietization" process.
Today three years ago, the short yet highly controversial war between Russia and Georgia took place. The events are especially memorable to the editors of the Russia Blog, who were typing away to provide an accurate picture of what was happening on the ground. (Click here to see our coverage of the events). Three years ago, Russia Blog's point of view was in a minority opposition to the American mainstream media and the U.S. government's official stance. Back then, Senator McCain called on bombing the Russian troops on approach to Georgia (in his own words "bomb bomb bomb Russia"), The Washington Post and the White House openly supported the untrue facts that the Russians were the first ones to attack, and among all of English-speaking media, Russia Blog was the only outlet saying the opposite: Georgia attacked, killed innocent people, Russia responded, and the U.S. wasted its money. The truth brought millions of visitors to our site, temporarily crushing our servers and flooding us with both praise and criticism.
Months after the events, The Washington Post switched sides and finally told the truth (which was very similar to our initial writings), though--as I recall--only on the the third page. Only outcries and criticisms of Russia deserve the first page, everything else goes elsewhere. (Though the same is true for anything - in Western media bad news is great news, and good news is no news). During the WikiLeaks scandal it became apparent that neither American intelligence nor the State Department had any idea what they were talking about. They lost access to any information on the ground and control of Georgia's semi-insane President Saakashvili (who literally ate his tie while on Georgia national TV). Furthermore, WikiLeaks-released documents stated that even after the officials in Washington found out the truth, they still stuck to the "party line." "Oooppssies" moment of missing the start of the war and being blind throughout the whole process was too hard to face.
Russia and the Arab Spring: the Kremlin's Short-Term Gains Are Russia's Long-Term Losses
Yuri Mamchur
When the recent anti-government demonstrations began in the Arab world, the planet's only superpower--the United States of America--became actively involved. The American government cheered, making public statements supporting Arab nations' rights to freedom. But given how much closer Russia is to the Arab world than the United States--geographically speaking, at least--it's worth asking where Russia has been during the Middle East's great upheaval.
More Russians than Americans travel to Egypt. According to RusTourism News, in March 2009 alone 300,000 Russian tourists traveled to Egypt. In March 2010, that number grew by 90.4 percent. Oil prices affect Russia more than they do America--after all, not only private businesses, but Russia's federal budget is strictly tied to the price per barrel of oil. Simply put, stability in the Arab world would seem to matter at least as much--if not more--to Russia as it does to the US. But action, or in this case, inaction, may speak louder than words.
The dearth of official Russian involvement in the "Arab spring" demonstrates the country's fading influence in the world, at least the type of influence needed to carry out precise international intelligence operations and foresee long-term geopolitical effects. While some have said that the US intelligence community may have helped facilitate the Arab spring (or at least desired it), no one is even giving Russian intelligence the honor of such speculation and rumor. Instead, Russia's most notable intelligence activity of recent international memory was the embarrassment over last year's spy scandal, when Russian intelligence officers were kicked out of the US after being caught spying for Russia. Embarrassingly for Russia, the only "intelligence" those intelligence officers ever obtained were nothing more than street rumors and data from daily print media, all of which could have been easily found online, without ever leaving Moscow.
Russia Blog presents up-to-date news, facts and commentary on the state of events in Russia and the former Soviet Union. The blog was created and is managed by Yuri Mamchur, Director of Discovery Institute's Real Russia Project, Executive Director of the World Russia Forum, and a Vanderbilt University MBA graduate.
Today, more than 170,000 Muslims celebrated the important Muslim holiday 
In the 1700-s British King George III called George Washington "The greatest man in the world." American history is taught well in Russian public schools, but probably wasn't delivered as well during the Soviet times when Vladimir Putin was a boy. Had Putin looked into the history books, he would've found out that he had given up the opportunity to become the Greatest Man in Russia's history. In fact, he lined himself up to become one of the less impressive men in history, one whose personal hobbies and views, combined with age and historically long terms at the steering wheel (surpassing even Stalin) may lead to some results other than a free market economy...
