Russia 01 (May 08 - Jul 10)

[winston]

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Kremlin’s heavy hand triggers foreign exodus

“Foreign investors have become extremely wary of the Russian stock market after the Kremlin moved yet again to tighten its noose around the country’s energy and mining sector, launching anti-trust probes against London-listed Evraz Holding and Raspadsky Coal.

“The move follows last week’s assault on steel and coal giant Mechel for alleged overpricing of raw materials and using offshore trading to cut its tax bill.

“Moscow’s RTS stock market index has fallen by 25% since May on fears that premier Vladimir Putin is once again using probes or other heavy-handed methods to reorder the strategic landscape.

“The bare-knuckle fight for control over BP’s Russian TNK-BP has deeply shocked investors in the City and New York. The joint venture had been launched in 2003 with the personal blessing of Mr Putin, making it quite different from the foreign resource grab during the Yeltsin era that so enrages Russian nationalists.

“‘The market is panicking and foreign investors are pulling out of equities,’ said Michael Ganske, a Russia expert at Commerzbank.

“‘People fear that the rule of law is breaking down. I think this is an overreaction, but the Russian government has to be careful in the way it uses rhetoric in this investment climate,’ he said.”

Source: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, July 31, 2008.

[Dubby]

Solzhenitsyn dies at 89

Nobel prize-winning Russian writer and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who shone a light on the brutal Soviet Gulag camps, has died at the age of 89, bringing tributes from around the world.

Recognizable in later life by his flowing beard and ascetic dress, he had been frail for several years and died of heart failure late Sunday, his son Stepan said on Vesti-24 state television.

The Soviet Union's last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said Solzhenitsyn had helped undermine Stalinism by changing the views of millions through his writing and had fought until the end for the cause of democracy in Russia.

Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 after depicting in harrowing detail the Soviet labour camps, where he spent eight years from 1945.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[LenaHuat]

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN in July 2007:

SPIEGEL: How do you assess the period of Putin’s governance in comparison with his predecessors Yeltsin and Gorbachev?

Solzhenitsyn: Gorbachev’s administration was amazingly politically naïve, inexperienced and irresponsible towards the country. It was not governance but a thoughtless renunciation of power. The admiration of the West in return only strengthened his conviction that his approach was right. But let us be clear that it was Gorbachev, and not Yeltsin, as is now widely being claimed, who first gave freedom of speech and movement to the citizens of our country.

Yeltsin’s period was characterized by a no less irresponsible attitude to people’s lives, but in other ways. In his haste to have private rather than state ownership as quickly as possible, Yeltsin started a mass, multi-billion-dollar fire sale of the national patrimony. Wanting to gain the support of regional leaders, Yeltsin called directly for separatism and passed laws that encouraged and empowered the collapse of the Russian state. This, of course, deprived Russia of its historical role for which it had worked so hard, and lowered its standing in the international community. All this met with even more hearty Western applause.

Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible -- a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.

[blid2def]

See my reply in "Russia". I forgot there's a Russia thread liao. Shall we merge this back into Motherland Russia?

[LenaHuat]

Hi GR

I'm a Russophile. Russia is Fatherland and not motherland.

[blid2def]

Hi GR

I'm a Russophile. Russia is Fatherland and not motherland.

Hey Lena - do you mean that Fatherland Russia is the proper term instead of Motherland Russia? Hmm, I could've sworn I've seen the latter used before... well doesn't matter, happy to be corrected.

Well, lemme merge this back into the Russia thread; my bad opening a new one.

[blid2def]

There we go... all back united. Fatherland Russia is united with Motherland Russia.

[kennynah]

actually ...it could be a father mother land...

[blid2def]

Now I remember where - all those US TV movies, mini series... they keep using "Mother Russia" (e.g. in "The Company").

[LenaHuat]

Oh, sorry. Gonna explain.
If U read Lermontov, Puskin, Tolstoy, Russia is always Fatherland in Russian literature. That explains alot abt the Russian psyche and patriotism for their land, history and culture. Russians do not have soft belly.