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Conflicting stories abound from different spokesmen and newspapers concerning New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft presenting his newest Super Bowl championship ring to Vladimir Putin this week.
More interesting reading than the kerfuffle over the "bling-bling" is Putin's presentation as the upbeat CEO of Russia, Inc. Indeed, Russia's queen cities Moscow and St. Petersburg are booming, but most economists chalk this up to higher global oil prices and not Putin's flat tax reforms. Even if the price of oil continues to climb indefinitely, genuine modernization in the energy sector has been overshadowed in the minds of foreign investors by the Yukos carve-up. Businessmen want to know: is any investment in Russia secure from mafia extortion and the whims of an authoritarian state (with the lines between the two often being blurred since the collapse of the USSR)?
Foreign policy watchers in the English-speaking world will probably be more intrigued by the prominence of FOX/SKY News media mogul Rupert Murdoch looking on at the Putin/Kraft handshake than the fate of the NFL baubles. Will we soon hear about "Faux News" succumbing to the Putin charm offensive? Kommersant's Andrey Kolesnikov claims that most of the American and German businessmen present privately weren't buying Putin's "Russia is stable for investment" pitch. However, the NY Newsday says that Kraft gives Putin's "quarterbacking" of Russia a thumbs up.
Kommersant's Kremlin sources are now saying that Mr. Kraft's ring will be put on display along with gifts from other foreign dignitaries.
The latest survey by the independent Levada Center pollster shows
Russian ambivalence about politics.
Here are some figures with the survey questions:
- Do you approve president Putin's policies?
57% say "Yes" (up from 53 in March)
- Are you worried by fact that Putin still has not developed any
economic plan?
60% say "yes, worried"
- Are you worried by fact that Putin still had not finished the Chechnya military operation?
77% say "yes, worried"
RussiaBlog commentary: It must be love. A majority supports Putin's
activity, but at the same time this majority is worried by Putin's
inactivity. How can one explain it otherwise? Well, love or the media.
Here are some other apparently contradictory figures:
- Who's ruling Russia now - representatives for the people or elites unaccountable to the people?
83% respondents answer - "unaccountable elites" - no surprise, many Russians don't believe in democracy in Russia.
- Do you approve of the present government's activity?
65% say "No" (it was 68% in March)
- Are mass protests against low quality of life possible in your region?
68% say "No"
Contributed by Russian journalist Anton Verstakov
And I'll Tell You Who You Are
The Levada Center, Russia’s independent and respected polling agency, has produced an amazing piece of social research. The poll attempted to answer the question: how do Russians see the world? The results confirm the persistence of Cold War logic in Russian politics.
The pollsters pushed such bipolar, us vs. them thinking by asking Russians to choose between “enemies” and “friends”. Most respondents ranked Belarus as Russia’s best friend, and Latvia as Russia’s worst enemy. The top five results:
Russia's Friends (according to Levada research):
Belarus - 46%
Germany - 23%
Kazakhstan - 20%
Ukraine - 17 %
India - 16 %
Russia's Enemies (according to Levada research):
Latvia - 49%
Lithuania - 42 %
Georgia - 38 %
Estonia - 32 %
United States - 23 %
This research reflects the slant of state television news coverage over the last year. President Putin’s policy of rapprochement with the U.S. has removed America from the top of Russia’s most hated list. In contrast, anti-Baltic propaganda through state-run media made Latvia and Lithuania the most hated countries. Belarus took the title of Russia’s best friend, in spite of criticism in state-controlled media of the Lukashenko regime. While Belarus seems an unlikely choice, consider that after the velvet revolutions in the former Soviet republics, the term “friend” has a whole new meaning. So Belarus and Kazakhstan, demonstrating their “best intentions”, are seen by Russians as best friends.
Contributed by Anton Verstakov (Russian Journalist) with the data taken from the Washington Times article.
The official expenses of the Russian head of state in the federal budget are only 2.4 million dollars. However, according to sources in the Kremlin, most of Putin's expenses were funded by wealthy patrons.
Here are some of President Putin’s big ticket expenses from his five years in power according to the Scotsman, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Vedomosti, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta, Newsru.ru, newspapers:
$117 million – refurbishment of Putin’s summer retreat, the Konstantinovsky Palace, outside of St Petersburg.
$50 million – for the royal class yacht Olympia, built in the Netherlands. The yacht is 57 meters (180 feet) long, has five rare wood decks, marble walls and a golden fit-out. According to Russian opposition sponsor and exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a well-known Russian businessman (and governor at the same time) Roman Abramovich bought this yacht as a gift for Putin.
$10 million – to refit the Presidential Ilyushin Il-96 aircraft; it was decked with silks and tapestries, given a sophisticated high-end sound system, a huge flat-screen television, and a bathroom with gold-plated taps.
$7 million – for the 32 meter (100 feet) long, triple-decked yacht Pallada.
$3 million – for the VIP launch Burevestnik, built by state-owned defense factory.
$2.8 million – for the refitting of the state-owned Kavkaz yacht, a 45 meter (150 feet) vessel built for the General Secretary of the Communist Party Brezhnev; it was refurbished two years ago using different types of cherry and Honduran mahogany wood.
Links:
The Scotsman
SPTimes
Newsru.ru
Contributed by Anton Verstakov (Russian Journalist)
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov has attacked the Prosecutor General's Office, saying that he "does not understand how after four years of the trial, a lawyer can be saying that the 'not guilty' decision of the second jury has absolutely nothing to do with justice".
Ivanov was responding to the Prosecutor's case against Captain Eduard Ulman and several fellow Spetsnaz soldiers, who were part of an elite Russian army unit deployed to Chechnya in January 2002. At that time, Russian forces received intelligence that the "field fighter" Arab terrorist Hassan Hattab and twenty other foreign jihadists were hiding in the village of Dai.
When an SUV exiting the village failed to stop at a checkpoint, Russian soldiers opened fire on the vehicle, killing one Chechen and wounding five more. After questioning the wounded Chechens, Captain Ulman contacted his superior, Major Alexei Perevelevsky. The Major then ordered Ulman to kill the Chechens.
Although the slayings were proven in court, Ulman and his men were acquitted of war crimes charges by two tribunals. Ulman and his men have since been promoted and continue to serve in the Army of the Russian Federation.
Chechnya is a former Soviet republic that remains Russian territory. Chechnya's status can be compared to the same as a state in the U.S.A. Chechnya is a Muslim region that started fighting to secede from the Russian Federation after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Article by Pravda.Ru - June 6, 2005
"With his talent for tax-dodging he would have been behind bars in America long ago"
The former president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, urged Russia's oligarchs to bring back to Russia the huge amount of money they have siphoned abroad. "Some think $1 trillion has been hidden away by Russian businessmen. If they don't return that, our courts are likely to decide they acquired it illegally. Then they couldn't use that money anywhere. One day it will be used for the benefit of Russia", - said Mr. Gorbachev on May 5 in his interview to Sunday Times.
The British papers considered this statement as primarily aimed at the owner of the Chelsea Football Club, the billionaire oligarch in exile Roman Abramovich. Gorbachev "supports "risky" plans being drawn up by President Vladimir Putin to offer an amnesty to Abramovich and and his fellow oligarchs: if they bring their wealth back home, they can keep it", writes the UK Sunday Times.
The former Soviet leader expressed his opinion on the Khodorkovsky trial. "I fail to understand why some in the West make a hero of [Mikhail] Khordorkovsky. He is talented, I agree; he started his business when I was president and I have known him for some time. But with his talent for tax-dodging he would have been behind bars in America long ago."
Given the enormous popularity of Gorbachev in the West - the Times' interviewer calls him no less than "a hero who changed the world more than any living soul", a "giant who ended the Cold War and dismantled the evil empire" - his opinion can easily ruin the costly effort of Khordokovsky's PR machine to represent the Yukos trial as "politically-motivated" and thus "unfair" or even as "suppression of opposition".
Meanwhile the deputy of the public prosecutor, Vladimir Kolesnikov, said in the interview given on Sunday to NTV, that the Yukos case wasn't closed, and that new charges against Yukos's CEOs were yet to be brought. This time the charges won't involve just white collar crimes (tax evasion and fraud) but also racketeering, extortion and murder. "If not 100%, some of the company's top managers are stained with blood", said Kolesnikov. According to him, a co-owner of Yukos, Leonid Nevzlin, absconding now in Israel, will be charged with ordering the contract killings of rival businessmen. Leonid Nevzlin stands behind the media campaign in support of Khodorkovsky and his accomplices.
According to Gazeta.Ru, in the next few days the independent newspaper Izvestia will be purchased by Gazprom-Media, a subsidiary of the government-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom. This means that before the new presidential and parliament elections, one of the largest independent media outlets will be controlled by Kremlin; more than that, by Putin personally.
The new chief-editor of Izvestia will be Oleg Kuzin, editor of another Gazprom-owned newspaper, Tribuna. Mr. Kuzin served as a senior member of the Communist Party until the very last minute of its existence, holding executive positions through his career in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Putin's hometown. Kuzin has been a friend and political ally of the president since the early 1990s.
Izvestia is one of the most popular newspapers along with Moskovsky Komsomoletz and Pravda. The first Izvestia was printed on March 13, 1917; today it’s a daily newspaper with a circulation of 200,000. It is vital for Putin's regime to have this outlet under control for the upcoming election campaign. Earlier, Gazprom-Media purchased 51% shares of the only national independent TV channel NTV.
The Russian government's conservative projections warn that by 2050, the country's population will shrink by 30 percent from 143.6 million to 101.3 million; its worst case scenario predicts that the population could drop to 77.2 million, a reduction of nearly 50 percent.
Babies in Russia are born smaller and more sickly today than in the past. Key statistics provide an alarming snapshot of Russia's looming infant health crisis:
Nearly two-thirds of all Russian babies are born unhealthy, and at least 75 percent require an extended hospital stay or intensive medical treatment;
Russia's official infant mortality rate remains 4 times higher than in Western Europe and North America, and Russia reports the second highest rate (behind Romania) of under age-5 child mortality in Europe;
The percentage of Russian babies born with a dangerously low body mass (less than 2.5 kg, or 4.4 lbs.) jumped nearly 6 percent from 77,500 in 1996 to 82,000 in 2000, due in large part to rising rates of tobacco and alcohol consumption among Russian women;
Ten percent of pregnant women in Russia lose their unborn children as a result of health problems, and nearly half of Russia's expectant mothers are malnourished.
Statistics presented by Center for Defense Information.
See also The Sick Man of Europe by American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt.
The Russian government has announced more startling statistics for World No Tobacco Day and Children Day.
Russia's Ministry of Education and Science announced their latest statistics on youth in Russia. Today in Russia there are:
- 2 million homeless children
- 800 thousands orphans and children left without parental care
- 2 million illiterate teenagers who can't write and read
- 6 million children who live in socially negative conditions
“A political decision on a serious review of the state policy regarding children is needed now” - Russian human rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin said Wednesday. He noted that children’s rights are not fully secured in Russia. "Too many children need various aid of the state and society all over Russia."
According to Lukin, today:
- Only one third of Russian children (32%) are healthy
- 52% have functional physical problems
- More than 16% of children have chronic diseases
Russia's Ministry of Interior has announced their latest statistics on drug usage and criminal activity among Russian teenagers:
- 4 million Russian teenagers use or have tried heavy drugs
- 1 million teenagers are drug addicts
- The number of teenage deaths related to drug usage has increased 42 (forty two) times in recent years.
More than 1 million teenagers were registered with the Russian police for various criminal violations this year. There are more than 200,000 crimes committed by teenagers in Russia each year There are 150 youth street gangs registered as criminal organizations by police in Russia.
Russian State officials and World Health Organization have announced that:
Smoking leads to 300,000 premature deaths each year in Russia
-30% of Russian smokers try their first cigarette before they turn 12...80% before reaching the age of 17
-30% of all premature deaths in Russia annually are alcohol-related
Today, Russia is leading the European alcohol and smoking deaths list. In the past decade the number of deaths caused by alcoholism has tripled in Russia.
The average male life expectancy in Russia has dropped to 58 years.
There are 68 million males and 77 million females in Russia, as of 2004.
Russia's population declined by 1.7 million during the past year.
Contributed by Anton Verstakov (Russian Journalist)
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