[RD] The Russia News Thread

[Daw]

Human greed isnt so different in the East and West.

I'm glad we understand it similarly.

(Sorry? No mention of Mr Gudkov's aunty?)

No, why? Did she talk publicly about anything relevant to either subject?

Because rules and regulations?

Exactly.

If you have gas detectors, but management basically ignores those, it seems a bit irrelevant to even carry them.

True. But here's what: according to the regulations - and that's mentioned in the article - the mine is equipped with a safety system also using gas detectors. That system, and the detectors it relies upon, are supposed to be checked and calibrated and verified, and there are regulations on that, too.

So when we, as two fellow miners, go to our management with our portable gas sensors readings off the scale, the management counters that with their system readings - properly checked, calibrated and verified - showing gas levels within the safe range. And then we have slim chances of countering that in court or anywhere. Because any corporate lawyer will easily prove that the corporate system readings are more credible.

Then the management expects us to either get back to mining or quit if we are still dissatisfied with anything.

Then I assume we look at each other in dismay, practice some advanced swearing (as mentioned in another thread), and go back down the mine, because quitting is associated with difficulties I've described above.

The problem with the corporate safety system is - and that's also mentioned in the article - that their sensors are located where gas concentration is expectedly lower than in the poorly ventilated dead-ends where the actual mining is going on. But that's NOT a violation of any regulations, it's the regulations flaw. The management is violating exactly nothing, technically.

To fix the regulations, the parliament (be it local or federal) must revise and amend them. For that to happen, understandably, some parliamentarians must stop being busy arranging public protests in Moscow, go back to their desks and do some reading and writing, which is essentially their job.

This is not 'forced labour capitalist style', it's the same old corruption problem.

First, I am not so sure. Second, the whole corruption problem arises from the "right to compete" when the only thing people compete for is money, and those who are supposed to set the rules for the competition and ensure adherence actually participate in that competition as well.

I've been told that the right to compete is a natural right though, so the problem will stay for as long as either the right to compete maintains its holy status or money is the only aim of the competition.

I don't see the duma change anything about it, with a president that thrives on corruption.

But interesting diversionary rant again.

Interesting indeed is how you don't see the duma change anything about the regulations they issue and seemingly hold the president responsible for not personally checking every gas sensor in every mine for compliance to yet legally non-existent standards.

 

[Agent327]

True. But here's what: according to the regulations - and that's mentioned in the article - the mine is equipped with a safety system also using gas detectors. That system, and the detectors it relies upon, are supposed to be checked and calibrated and verified, and there are regulations on that, too.

So when we, as two fellow miners, go to our management with our portable gas sensors readings off the scale, the management counters that with their system readings - properly checked, calibrated and verified - showing gas levels within the safe range. And then we have slim chances of countering that in court or anywhere. Because any corporate lawyer will easily prove that the corporate system readings are more credible.

Then the management expects us to either get back to mining or quit if we are still dissatisfied with anything.

Then I assume we look at each other in dismay, practice some advanced swearing (as mentioned in another thread), and go back down the mine, because quitting is associated with difficulties I've described above.

The problem with the corporate safety system is - and that's also mentioned in the article - that their sensors are located where gas concentration is expectedly lower than in the poorly ventilated dead-ends where the actual mining is going on. But that's NOT a violation of any regulations, it's the regulations flaw. The management is violating exactly nothing, technically.

To fix the regulations, the parliament (be it local or federal) must revise and amend them. For that to happen, understandably, some parliamentarians must stop being busy arranging public protests in Moscow, go back to their desks and do some reading and writing, which is essentially their job.

Not some parliamentarians, the duma. And some parliamentarians didn't arrange public protests: citizens organized a publicly approved march. By the Moscow government, so your parliamentarians had absolutely nothing to do with it.

But here's the real issue: the safety precautions employed in mines are to protect miners, not management. Given the occurrence of mining accidents (and the apparent powerless of miners in Russia), the duma has some more work to do. assuming they care, of course. Seeing as the duma doesn't even care about one of their own getting assassinated, chances are someone is waiting for the duma to act in vain.

First, I am not so sure. Second, the whole corruption problem arises from the "right to compete" when the only thing people compete for is money, and those who are supposed to set the rules for the competition and ensure adherence actually participate in that competition as well.

Actually, it doesn't. Corruption didn't miraculously spring up after the fall of Communism, it always was present. So your basic premise is flawed.

Interesting indeed is how you don't see the duma change anything about the regulations they issue and seemingly hold the president responsible for not personally checking every gas sensor in every mine for compliance to yet legally non-existent standards.

What's interesting is how you tend to misrepresent people's opinions - and plain facts. To wit, you're now arguing with a statement I never made, and that's not even close to anything I think. But if you're interested, I'll inform you how my family is doing.

News - or discussion thereof - it is not.

 

[Daw]

Spoiler :

Not some parliamentarians, the duma.

Breaking news: it turns out the duma is a parliament and thus consists of parliamentarians.

And the more parliamentarians are not distracted with their own PR and undermining the state opposition struggle, and are instead busy with lawmaking, the better the duma works.

And some parliamentarians didn't arrange public protests

Some did not, sure.

Some other? Oh yes they did: "Along with Ilya Ponomarev, Dmitry and Gennady Gudkovs became a leader in the 2012 protests against Putin's re-election." - for one. Interestingly, even the wikipedia has this in the "duma career" section of D.Gudkov's article, as if being protests leader was related to parliamentary work.

But here's the real issue: the safety precautions employed in mines are to protect miners, not management.

Wrong.

The safety precautions employed in mines are should be to protect miners, not management.

However, the management is more interested in non-stop mining (profit) than miners safety (costs). They have to install some safety system as the regulations stipulate. So they do - to protect themselves from lawsuits, and exactly as much (and exactly the way) it is sufficient for that.

Therefore, the reality is that the safety precautions employed in mines are to protect miners management, not management miners.

To change that, the regulations must be changed. And that's lawmakers' job.

Another aspect is that bribing the inspectors might be cheaper than putting a good (and expensive) safety system that will hinder the mining resulting in further profit loss. This cynical way the papers will be just fine and the actual status/condition of the safety system becomes unverifiable after the mine blows up.

Given the occurrence of mining accidents (and the apparent powerless of miners in Russia), the duma has some more work to do. assuming they care, of course.

That's where we agree at last.

Seeing as the duma doesn't even care about one of their own getting assassinated

Breaking news: Yaroslavl oblast parliament (the Yaroslavl regional parliament), which Nemtsov was a member of since 2013, and the duma (the Federal Parliament), Nemtsov was not member of since 2003 when his party failed to get over the 5% threshold, are not one and the same thing.

chances are someone is waiting for the duma to act in vain.

The mining business owners? I bet they are.

Spoiler :

What's interesting is how you tend to misrepresent people's opinions - and plain facts. To wit, you're now arguing with a statement I never made, and that's not even close to anything I think. But if you're interested, I'll inform you how my family is doing.

News - or discussion thereof - it is not.

Indeed. Speaking of which, I even have a link in my signature to follow for anyone who wants discuss me or my way of posting. You're also welcome if you want to leave a feedback.

 

[REDY]

The both interests are in coexistence. Protests or lawsuits by miners are also costs while non-stoping mining is in interest of miners too. I do not think that problem are laws itself. And basing new ones on confrontation which doesnt exist would hardly help. What seems to be problem is general enforcement of current laws.

 

[Daw]

The both interests are in coexistence. Protests or lawsuits by miners are also costs while non-stoping mining is in interest of miners too.

I am not sure. Maybe you're right, I don't know. But according to the Labor Code (clause 212) it's the employer's responsibility to ensure the employees are safe. So when the red lightbulb goes off indicating too much gas and the mine is closed(?) to be degassed, it means that the miners get a paid day off.

I mean, I'm neither a mine nor a mine manager, but an expert the MT quotes says:

"Such system detectors can be located in a place where the ventilation is better — hence lower gas levels," says Alexander Sergeyev, chair of the Independent Mining Union and a former miner himself. "The concentration of methane is significantly higher in the segments where workers mine the coal — that's why their portable detectors showed higher, and more worrying counts."

There must be a reason for the management to place the sensors like that. The only plausible explanation I can think of is that they a) can't get rid of the sensors entirely because of the regulations; b) want the sensors to give as low readings as possible.

Because miners don't want to get in the blast, they wear their own portable sensors - but that indicates that they and their management are interested in different gas level values.

So the conflict of interests seems to be there after all.

What seems to be problem is general enforcement of current laws.

That's a huge problem, indeed. But it's an additional one, not the only one.

 

[Agent327]

Meanwhile RT reports on a press conference regarding the MH17 police investigation:

Dutch call for more transparency in MH17 probe as police briefs victims' relatives

Relatives of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 victims were briefed by Dutch authorities on the course of the criminal investigation into the crash.

Continued here: https://www.rt.com/news/334862-dutch-mh17-relatives-transparency/

(I'm not sure why official comments to the latest Bellingcat report are attached nor why this is a 'RT exclusive'. The press conference, as the name indicates, was attended by various press reporters.)

Dutch news version in English: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archiv...ice-officers-full-time-on-mh17-investigation/

The press conference was held by the leader of the investigation team Fred Westerbeke. Investigators suspect to be able to pinpoint the launch position, as well as who gave the order. An important question for the judiciary is whether the shoot down of MH17 was intentional or not. Over 100 relevant witnesses have been questioned in the course of the investigation.

A Russian reporter asked why the Russia 'own investigation' was not being used and why a letter on that question remained unanswered. Somewhat irritated Mr Westerbeke replied that the letter had indeed been answered

Dutch version here: http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland...ng-in-zaak-mh17-is-zeer-aannemelijk~a4258747/

(I considered posting this on the Ukraine thread, but the subject seems to be moving in Russia's direction, so I posted it here instead.)

 

[FriendlyFire]

1) The Russian Defence minister was embazzeling $100 Million ? Is this urh "normal" for Russia
2) Voting rigging, they mean tampering with the results or just buying votes with monies and vodka Food and drink ?
3) The main opposition is actually the communist which hold some 20% of the lower house, kinda weird that there is still so much support for communist
4) Communist are actually promoting democracy and capitalism. Thus communist in name only or are they real communist as is want no capitalism and want state run economy again ?

Thanks

Russia's Communist Party is making a comeback

In late January, speaking in the Russian city of Stavropol, Vladimir Putin denounced Soviet Communist leader Vladimir Lenin for, as Putin put it, placing an "atomic bomb" under the foundations of the Soviet Union by nationality policies that allowed non-Russians the right to secede.

Putin’s comments might seem like a matter of arcane history, but they’re not: They’re part of a debate over the legacy of Lenin’s revolution, which is itself actually about an unexpected challenger to Putin’s government today: the Communist Party.

Next year is the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution that brought Lenin to power. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) wants to see the anniversary celebrated.

We know Putin’s United Russia bloc and its allies will win a majority — one way or another, not least with some judicious vote rigging, the Kremlin will make sure of that.

But this is not the point. In Russia’s present pseudo-democracy, elections are not to decide who will run the country; they are a legitimating ritual, a chance to prove that the country is happy, confident, and behind the Kremlin. At a time when economic crisis and political drift are increasing popular discontent, this electoral legitimation is going to be all the more important — and all the more difficult.

This means the elections matter, even if the composition of the next Duma is not really in doubt. The more the government has to use propaganda, payout, promises, and muscle to get the votes it needs, the weaker it will look — and the more dissatisfied the elite will be with Putin’s leadership.

Communist parliamentarians — who hold 92 of the Duma’s 450 seats — see corruption as a key issue to connect with the voters and have been proposing new anti-corruption measures.

One was a bill to ban anyone convicted of corruption offenses from ever working in government service. After all, what usually happens if anyone senior is caught is that he is found a comfortable sinecure after a token time in the wilderness

Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, for example, was sacked in 2012 amid allegations that he was involved in a $100 million embezzlement case. Three years later, he quietly took up a position as a director at the state-owned Rostec corporation.

Given the extent to which corruption is at the heart of the political system Putin has built, that is indeed a serious challenge.

Meanwhile, the Communists are advocating higher taxes on the rich — who currently pay just the 13 percent flat income tax — and warning that more than half of all Russians live near or below the poverty line.

Ironic as it may be, the Communists may be about to help advance the cause of democracy and reform in Russia.

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/8/11179332/russia-communist-party

 

[Agent327]

4) Communist are actually promoting democracy and capitalism. Thus communist in name only or are they real communist as is want no capitalism and want state run economy again ?

Well, according to Communist theory you have to achieve capitalism first before you can advance to Communism. I understand the Chinese comrades are busily experimenting with that first stage (and doing rather well).

 

[Daw]

1) The Russian Defence minister was embazzeling $100 Million ? Is this urh "normal" for Russia

No, it is not normal. That's why the guy is not the Defence minister any more. And that's why there was the investigation. However, the guy apparently was smart enough to do it insufficiently blatantly and rich enough to hire good enough lawyers to pass as a witness through the case. The "allegations" never grew into anything more than that.

Although personally I, as many others, would prefer him to be jailed. I mean, I think the minister of Defense must be clean enough for no allegations to ever arise at all, right? But I'm not a lawyer and I haven't studied the case papers.

Hopefully, the minister we have now will be better that way.

2) Voting rigging, they mean tampering with the results or just buying votes with monies and vodka Food and drink ?

It's a PR tradition of never accepting a loss in a vote. N parties go to elections, 1 party wins, N-1 parties complain about voting rigging.

The result is that every next elections see new systems preventing tampering with the results installed. So, probably, every next elections see less results tampered.

And nobody ever tried to buy my vote. Moreover, if I wanted to sell my vote, I don't know where to go to find a customer. I admit I've never tried selling it on e-bay or something though...

3) The main opposition is actually the communist which hold some 20% of the lower house, kinda weird that there is still so much support for communist

We have a lot of heritage coming from there. And not all of that heritage is negative, as you can gather from what Russians post here.

As my great-grandfather - a devoted communist himself - used to put it about communism, "The idea is awesome, the implementation sucks." And I think he was right. In fact, the same can be said about so many things as well...

Anyway, I don't see anything weird about substantial communist support here. FWIW, I even feel supportive myself

4) Communist are actually promoting democracy and capitalism. Thus communist in name only or are they real communist as is want no capitalism and want state run economy again ?

It's another rare case when I agree with what Agent said: capitalism is a transit point on the road to communism - theoretically.

However, I don't see communists supporting capitalism when they propose graduated taxation. It's the same old idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, which is the biblical idea of sharing what you have with those who don't have it to start with, and then socialist. It has little (if anything at all) to do with capitalism.

As to democracy, I've been constantly saying it is not contradictory to socialism/communism at all. After all, the word "soviet" (rus: "совет") has a meaning of "council", a board where elected representatives of the people discuss stuff and come up with what to do, which is a democratic tool working through the democratic process.

Like my old man used to say, "The idea is awesome, the implementation sucks."

So, there is nothing weird about the communists promoting democracy as well.

Thanks

My pleasure.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I though these $100 million corruption happens all the time with the Russian government, some in the west speculate that there is an internal fight against corruption but it looks to be a losing battle for the Honest Russian.

Sometimes whistle bowers in the west are suppressed or try to discredit but torture, killing and then killing hes partner and son as well ?
It seems far to much brutal assassinations occurring and the Russian Justice system is becoming a tool of state once more.

Sergei Magnitsky verdict 'most shameful moment since Stalin'

The courtroom cage in Moscow stood empty on Thursday as a judge found the late whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky and his London-based employer guilty of tax evasion in a move likened to Stalin-era justice.

The case against the two defendants – Magnitsky, allowed to die an excruciating death in prison in 2009, and William Browder, banned from entering Russia since 2005 – has come to symbolise the brutality of Russia's system and the penalties incurred by those who uncovering official wrongdoing.

Magnitsky, a lawyer hired by Browder's London-based Hermitage Capital Management fund, uncovered a $230m (£150m) tax fraud scheme run by a host of Russian interior ministry and tax officials using documents stolen in a raid on Hermitage Capital. Magnitsky and Browder were then charged with running the fraud themselves.

"The Russian government is effectively a criminal regime now," Browder said by telephone from London

OnceRussia's largest portfolio investor, and one of President Vladimir Putin's biggest foreign fans, Browder appeared to have run afoul of the Kremlin after picking up stakes in some of the country's largest state-run companies.

"Doing business in Russia means either you've effectively become part of a criminal regime or a victim of a criminal regime," Browder said.

"There's no way to do business in Russia without seriously compromising yourself or putting yourself in grave danger

Speaking of Magnitsky's relatives, Browder added: "As you can imagine, it's one thing to have their son and husband murdered. But it's just beyond sadistic to them to prosecute his corpse."

The Magnitsky verdict comes days after a Russian court convicted a dead woman in the first posthumous trial in Russia in decades. Olga Alexandrina was found guilty of causing the car accident that killed her despite widespread evidence that the other driver, a vice-president at Russian oil major Lukoil, likely caused the crash.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/sergei-magnitsky-russia-trial-verdict-tax-fraud

 

[Daw]

William Browder started his Russian operations in 1996. And he managed to make lots of enemies back then, understandably. It had to echo back on him one day, no surprise there.

However, again, I am not a lawyer and I haven't studied the case papers - I have no grounds to take sides there.

I do support and share Mr.Browder's opinion that if you're known for never paying bribes, nobody expects you to. Basically, this means that bribery is avoidable in Russia after all. At least Mr.Browder says he's never paid anyone anything.

As for that car accident with Lukoil vice-president, I guess that's the evidence of independence of Russian courts. I mean, being a private company with 61,78 % of it belonging to the Bank of New York and the last state owned 7,59% sold in 2004, the company could not have any administrative leverage over the court, could it?

 

[FriendlyFire]

A refreshing view from the Western media on Russia.

The rapid expanse of Nato to the Baltic states and then the deployment of missile defense which made Russia distrustful, but the Putin made everything much worse with hes annexations and it went downhill from there.

I dont think Russia ever lost its super power statues like England or France, Its just that US became a hyperpower and dominated in a way that the world has not seen. Since then the US idiotic military adventures has signaled its decline. Bush was an idiot and the people who voted for him are idiots what a complete waste of money and lives.

Russia on the other hand, well Ivan is crazy and prestige, respect were important to Ivan expansion of Nato could have been done without making Russia angry. Kinda odd Figure Nato would have pushed to fix up Kaliningrad and Transdniestria first. Rather then expand Nato everywhere which also seem to be looking for buffer states. In hind sight yes it expanded too much and bent many of its own rules. Which made Nato weaker and not stronger.

Of course Russias lets say, terrible rule had kinda made it unpopular in many places whom wanted to join the West. Not that Russia hasnt done such a good job of dealing with its former states either what with so many annexations and endless treaty violations made it look like the bad guy once again.

Russian hostility 'partly caused by west', claims former US defence head

The current level of hostility in US-Russian relations was caused in part by Washington’s contemptuous treatment of Moscow’s security concerns in the aftermath of the cold war, a former US defence secretary has said.

William Perry, who was defence secretary in Bill Clinton’s administration from 1994 to 1997, emphasised that in the past five years it has been Vladimir Putin’s military interventions in Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere that have driven the downward spiral in east-west relations.

But Perry added that during his term in office, cooperation between the two countries’ militaries had improved rapidly just a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union and that these gains were initially squandered more as a result of US than Russian actions.

“In the last few years, most of the blame can be pointed at the actions that Putin has taken. But in the early years I have to say that the United States deserves much of the blame,”

“Our first action that really set us off in a bad direction was when Nato started to expand, bringing in eastern European nations, some of them bordering Russia. At that time we were working closely with Russia and they were beginning to get used to the idea that Nato could be a friend rather than an enemy ... but they were very uncomfortable about having Nato right up on their border and they made a strong appeal for us not to go ahead with that.”

In his memoir, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, Perry writes that he argued for a slower expansion of Nato so as not to alienate Russia during the initial period of post-Soviet courtship and cooperation. Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomat, led the opposing argument at the time, and was ultimately supported by the vice-president, Al Gore, who argued “we could manage the problems this would create with Russia”.

Perry said the decision reflected a contemptuous attitude among US officials towards the troubled former superpower.

second major misstep by Washington DC as the Bush administration’s decision to deploy a ballistic missile defence system in eastern Europe in the face of determined opposition from Moscow. Perry said: “We rationalised [the system] as being to defend against an Iranian nuclear missile – they don’t have any but that’s another issue. But the Russians said ‘Wait a bit, this weakens our deterrence.’ The issue again wasn’t discussed on the basis of its merits – it was just ‘who cares about what Russia thinks.’ We dismissed it again.”

Obama administration has since modified the missile defence system in eastern Europe, replacing long-range with medium-range interceptor missiles but that has not mollified Russian objections.

poisoning of US-Russian relations was Washington DC’s support for pro-democracy demonstrators in the “colour revolutions” in former Soviet republics including Georgia and Ukraine. Perry agreed with the ethical reasons for backing such revolutions but noted their severely damaging effect on east-west ties.

“After he came to office, Putin came to believe that the United States had an active and robust programme to overthrow his regime,” the former defence secretary said.

“And from that point on a switch went on in Putin’s mind that said: I’m no longer going to work with the west ... I don’t know the facts behind Putin’s belief that we actually had a programme to foment revolution in Russia but what counts is he believed it.”

Perry described the current tensions between Russia and Nato as having “the potential of becoming very dangerous,” and argued for a radical reduction in nuclear arsenals and in particular the removal of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Over 1,000 ICBMs in the US and Russia remain on hair-trigger alert

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/russian-hostility-to-west-partly-caused-by-west

 

[Agent327]

Meanwhile on the Chechnyan border:

Reporters beat up on Chechnyan border

A group of journalists and human rights activists has been held up and beaten on Wednesday in the border region of the Russian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia. According to Russian news broadcaster Dozhd among the eight victims are a Swede, a Norwegian, and Russian reporters. According to TASS there were 6 injured, of whom 4 hospitalized.

The perpetrators, about 20 in number, held up the vehicle of the group, dragged the passengers out, calling them 'terrorists', and started using bats on them. The reporters were on a press voyage, according to Russian media.

Such incidents are not uncommon in Kadyrov's Chechnya. Recently the office of the Committee against Torture in the capital Grozny was demolished.

(Translated from here: http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/journalisten-afgetuigd-aan-grens-tsjetsjenie~a4260165/)

William Browder started his Russian operations in 1996. And he managed to make lots of enemies back then, understandably. It had to echo back on him one day, no surprise there.

However, again, I am not a lawyer and I haven't studied the case papers - I have no grounds to take sides there.

I do support and share Mr.Browder's opinion that if you're known for never paying bribes, nobody expects you to. Basically, this means that bribery is avoidable in Russia after all. At least Mr.Browder says he's never paid anyone anything.

And it ended up with his lawyer dead in prison - and prosecuted after. Yes, very possible 'to avoid corruption in Russia'... Just not very possible to report on corruption to the authorities.

As for that car accident with Lukoil vice-president, I guess that's the evidence of independence of Russian courts. I mean, being a private company with 61,78 % of it belonging to the Bank of New York and the last state owned 7,59% sold in 2004, the company could not have any administrative leverage over the court, could it?

It seems your 'not taking sides' has a double standard. A woman being convicted after death for causing a car accident (even though evidence points into another direction) shows rather the utter corruption of the Russian judicial system. It's interesting you can't seem to put two prosecutions after death together. No other country in the world prosecutes dead people.

 

[Daw]

Just to fill the gaps:

According to Dozhd:

a criminal investigation has been initialized, and Dmitry Peskov told, "It's absolutely outrageous. It's a blatant thuggery, as we understand the victims' lives were threatened. It's totally unacceptable." He added that the law enforcement authorities are expected by the Kremlin to take the most active measures to identify the perpetrators.

<edit>I guess the next news about Kadyrov's Chechnya will be about law enforcement Kremlin puppets ruthlessly stomping poor humble common people.</edit>

Also, according to Tass, the health condition of those injured is "satisfactory".

__________________________________

Just not very possible to report on corruption to the authorities.

Corruption is a crime. One has to realize that. Moreover, corruption is a crime involving authorities - by definition. That also has to be realized. Criminals are not bound with any rules but their own, according to which they will defend themselves by all means technically feasible and accessible to them.

When we talk about criminals within the authorities, the means and facilities are practically unlimited.

So, when one decides to oppose crime, they must realize the decision involves any danger they can imagine and maybe some dangers they can't think of. Including the threat of physical extermination.

If one is not ready for that, they should not engage. If they engage and fall, it's simply a likely outcome.

To summarize:

Staying away from corruption is absolutely possible.

Fighting corruption is a different thing, which is much harder, and which is not a businessman's business.

 

[Agent327]

I would agree with that last statement. Except your argument is a bit peculiar, seeing as Magnitsky wasn't fighting corruption (as you say, that is matter for appropriate authorities), but reporting it - to appropriate authorities. The response of these authorities was then to arrest the lawyer who brought the report - on accusation of corruption. The lawyer then died under not so pleasant circumstances inside prison. Next the selfsame authorities decide to continue the prosecution after the lawyer's death. This is beyond absurd. The only thing missing was the lawyer's dead body in the court room being treated as a 'hostile witness', because of not responding to any questions.

Unfortunately this ins't the only incident involving charges of 'corruption' against people who apparently displeased the powers in control. It would seem then that Mr Putin's 'fight against corruption' is indeed as hilarious as a cartoon. And lo and behold, Mr Putin's party brings out a cartoon showing Mr Putin 'fighting corruption'. This is beyond comical.

What has been happening in Kadyrov's Chechnya is just Russian conditions taken to the extreme - as witnessed by Mr Kadyrov's actions against opposition and basically anybody with a less than submissive attitude.

Perhaps it's true that Russians are backward, But personally I tend to think that as true as claiming Russia is not a party in the Ukraine conflict. But at least in that area things appear to be moving towards a more peaceful solution. But let's not digress too much.

Given that the law enforcement in Chechnya answers to Mr Kadyrov a serious investigation may be questionable. But perhaps things will change after Mr Kadyrov leaves 'voluntarily' in April. We'll see.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Another prominent Russia dead, in Washington this time, at a cheap hotel of all places seems enemies of Putin seem to die a lot.
What is strange is that the Russian embassy and media would confirm that he originally died of a heart attack ?

New twist in D.C. death of a former Putin aide fuels Moscow conspiracy theories

MOSCOW &#8211; A former senior Kremlin aide died in a Washington hotel from blunt force trauma wounds &#8211; and now Moscow is filled with conspiracy theories about who might have wanted him dead.

n a world in which ex-KGB agents are poisoned in London by radioactive tea and the lawyers of Kremlin critics die in Moscow prisons, the death of Lesin, 57, at a mid-tier Dupont Circle hotel was bound to raise eyebrows.

Now the revelation from the D.C. Medical Examiner's Office that Lesin had suffered a blow to the head, and also had extensive trauma wounds elsewhere on his body, has snapped attention back to the case.

After Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Lesin took over the unruly anti-Kremlin NTV channel and reversed its orientation. He was a longtime confidante and PR adviser to Putin, and helped shape Putin&#8217;s domestic image as a virile, uncorrupt leader.

&#8220;Nothing is clear except for the fact that the cause of his death was not natural,&#8221; said an editor at the Russian business daily Kommersant, Dmitry Spiridonov &#8220;Well, this is at least something, but still nothing is clear."

What is so strange is that the Russian embassy in Washington confirmed Mikhail Lesin's death last November. State-owned RIA Novosti reported that he died of a heart attack, citing a spokesman for his family.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-putin-aide-fuels-moscow-conspiracy-theories/

Mikhail Lesin, 57, also had blunt force injuries to the neck, torso, arms and legs, Washington DC's chief medical examiner said, without concluding how the injuries had been sustained.

Russian media had reported Lesin's death as a suspected heart attack.

He was one of the most influential figures on the Russian media scene.

European Court of Human Rights accepted Mr Gusinsky's argument that the state had forced him to sell his media business in return for fraud charges against him being dropped. It ordered the Russian state to pay him &#8364;88,000 (£69,000, $97,700).

but respected Russian newspaper RBK reported that he had fallen out with a Gazprom-Media shareholder and close Putin associate, Yuri Kovalchuk.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35781333

 

[Daw]

Magnitsky wasn't fighting corruption (as you say, that is matter for appropriate authorities), but reporting it - to appropriate authorities.

As I said, we need to realize that corruption is crime and the criminals are among the authorities, which makes them both unleashed (as criminals) and powerful (as authorities).

Tell me honestly, if you were a criminal, wouldn't you qualify an attempt to report you as an encounter, and wouldn't you retaliate?

Next the selfsame authorities decide to continue the prosecution after the lawyer's death. This is beyond absurd. The only thing missing was the lawyer's dead body in the court room being treated as a 'hostile witness', because of not responding to any questions.

The guy was quite a character from what I gather. He managed to appear in 10 cases. And if I got it right, the only one still ongoing is the one involving the Hermitage Capital management team, which he was a member of.

The story of the Hermitage Capital is also a detective story. It looks like they were in fact walking the edge of fiscal law with a branchy tree of daughter companies tossing money to each other for whatever reasons. The process involved Cyprus offshore beneficiaries (tax reduction) and Kalmyk-based companies enlisting disabled people in personnel (also tax reduction). Some companies were apparently fake ones, because statutory books and stamps of at least 3 of them were seized while search was performed at Firestone Duncan, the HC's legal services vendor. What on Earth those papers and stamps were doing there? Why weren't they kept in a strongbox in the respective companies' offices, as they should have been?

I've never quite figured out what they were all busy with. I guess their product was basically debts to the businesses they lent money to invested in.

Look, I am not trying to say he was a bad guy and deserved death in prison, and neither I am saying the corrupt authority guys he messed with were good. But really, the investment companies business is basically making money out of money and thin air, and a guy whose job is reducing taxation for them by whatever means are out there simply does not match the definition of a Paladin of Light in my book.

Besides, he was sitting on his ass tight and quiet until charges of tax dodging were brought up against one of the HC's affiliated companies in 2004.

Altogether it makes me indifferent to the case. This ophidiarium in not pleasant to observe, let alone to dig in.

I think it's best to be survived, which is exactly what I'm busy with.

 

[Daw]

Another prominent Russia dead, in Washington this time, at a cheap hotel of all places seems enemies of Putin seem to die a lot.

This time (in November, actually) it was a pro-Putin guy.

What is strange is that the Russian embassy and media would confirm that he originally died of a heart attack ?

What is strange is that the information of blunt traumas appeared only now. As per TASS citing Maria Zakharova (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson):

"We saw news referring to US investigation team representatives about that they have specific information about the causes to the Russian citizen's death," the diplomat said. According to Zakharova, the Russian side has checked the news and they "turned out to be genuine" but a real statements of the investigation team representatives. The information itself, she added, is awaited in Moscow through the official communication channels.
Zakharova told that the Russian side "has requested this information several times through diplomatic channels, through our embassy in Washington, from our American colleagues."
"Within several months we have not received from our American colleagues any specific substantial real information casting light on whatever details of what happened," she said.

 

[FriendlyFire]

You know Stalin could have NOT allied with Hitler and provided huge amounts of war material to the Nazis. Then there was the purges which decapitated the Russia Army, then Finnish winter war which Russian military incompetence went on display and shattered the image of Russian might. The mass starvation and millions dying, the repression which saw Millions of Russians join the Nazis as soldiers and Auxiliaries.

Anyway, Stalin is back, and the idea of purges, state terror and repression are going to become acceptable to the Russians people again. I suppose that is the price the Russian people are prepared to pay for power.

Oh well I can see a power struggle after Putin dies and the most ruthless and brutal will be placed in power again.
Especially as Russia is isolating itself and setting up confrontational with the West, Why cant everyone just get along ?

Stalin, Russia&#8217;s New Hero

Penza, Russia &#8212; AT School No. 58 in Penza, a regional capital that is an eight and a half hour drive southeast of Moscow, the jury is still out on Joseph Stalin.

&#8220;He was a great man, unique in history,&#8221; Zhenya Viktorov, an 11th grader, told me on a recent visit. His classmate Amina Kurayev was more circumspect: &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t as terrible as they say.&#8221;

And what about the millions of Soviets who were shot or sent to the gulags? &#8220;No one was repressed for no reason,&#8221; Zhenya said. When I asked him how many political opponents Stalin killed, he told me &#8220;thousands,&#8221; and argued that the purges weren&#8217;t as &#8220;big or inhumane as the media likes to say.&#8221;

At least 15 million people were killed in prisons and labor camps under Stalin and his predecessor Vladimir Lenin, according to Alexander Yakovlev, who led a commission on rehabilitating victims of political repression under President Boris N. Yeltsin. Estimates vary, but Stalin&#8217;s victims alone certainly number in the millions.

And yet views like Zhenya&#8217;s are becoming more common in Russia. Polls show a gradual improvement in perceptions of Stalin,

This quiet rehabilitation began after Vladimir V. Putin came to power in 1999. Stalin&#8217;s legacy has become a tacit justification as the Putin government has strengthened its own grip on power. Under Stalin, &#8220;order&#8221; and national prestige trumped human rights or civil liberties.

Moscow&#8217;s best-known bookstore was recently promoting a book called &#8220;How Stalin Defeated Corruption.&#8221;

School textbooks and state television programs, even if they briefly mention his human rights abuses, celebrate Stalin as a great leader. Mr. Putin has backed a planned monument to the victims of Soviet political repressions in Moscow, but that&#8217;s likely pure politics. He wants to play to the masses who are growing enamored of Stalin without alienating those Russians, such as the Moscow intelligentsia, who abhor him. The president has also carefully praised Stalin: &#8220;We can criticize the commanders and Stalin all we like, but can anyone say with certainty that a different approach would have enabled us to win?&#8221;

In today&#8217;s Russia, corrupt officials steal from the budget, police officers demand bribes and judges are believed to be bought and sold. Longing for the &#8220;order&#8221; of the past is palpable. The problem is that the fans of order never picture themselves as the ones being repressed, said Sergei Oleynik, head of the Penza branch of the liberal Yabloko Party. &#8220;When they talk about the Stalin era, they imagine the holster at the side, but not the barrel to the back of their neck,&#8221; he told me.

The Kremlin also plays on Russian nostalgia for superpower status, stressing the glories of the Soviet past &#8212; first and foremost, victory in World War II &#8212; over the persecutions and famines.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/o...nostalgia-in-vladimir-putins-russia.html?_r=0

 

[Daw]

Friendly, you know that Stalin also is rightfully referred to as a man who got the country with a scratchplow and left it with rocket science?

This person has been brought up so many times in discussions here that I doubt there's any point to do it again.