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May 7th, 2008


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Russia: Putin Out, Medvedev In 

a small portrait of this author Veronica Khokhlova · 23:56
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On Wednesday, Dmitry Medvedev became Russia's third post-Soviet president.

LJ user kozenko - Andrey Kozenko, journalist for the Russian daily Kommersant - wrote this (RUS) about the legacy of the outgoing president, Vladimir Putin:

[…] I feel all but indifferent about Putin's departure. Nothing to thank him for. He ruled the way he could, according to the mentality. Many people liked it.

But still, there is something to this phrase: “Former Russian president Vladimir Putin”… mmmmm :) […]

In an earlier post, Kozenko explained (RUS) his decision to take part in the Dissenters' March in Moscow on May 6 (his thoughts on what the rally turned out to be like were featured in yesterday's Global Voices translation):

[…] I don't like the [Soviet-style] “rapturous and long ovations” [to Russia's leaders] on TV. I don't like news styled as propaganda.

I don't like aggressive patriotism and hostile rhetoric.

I feel dirty when I hear of a certain governor who was sweating as he sat with a suitcase of cash in the reception area of the head of a certain state-controlled corporation - in order to have his region included into some [state-funded development] program.

I no longer find it funny that in my native region half of the officials have been sent to jail for corruption. Especially, considering there's an opinion that they were jailed not because they deserved it, but due to clan war. Because, basically, they all deserve to be jailed.

I really dislike it that all my friends and acquaintances involved in business [may be jailed all too easily]. And they're saying that they try [as hard as they can] to do their work in accordance with the law.

Anyway, I do have the reasons to dislike this regime. And I want to vote for the opposition. And I don't really understand why the regime has annihilated all the oppositional politicians who could have been representing my interests. I'm not even saying they should make up the parliamentary majority. I just want for them to be there and to have influence. But they aren't […]. And I'm presented not even with a choice, but with something given: forget about it, stop caring. We are experiencing a consumer boom, enjoy it. Buy yourself something. Or, well, go to the Dissenters' March if you are so oppositional.

But I don't want to go to this march at all, with people I don't consider close. One of them […] is a writer [Eduard Limonov], the other is a chess player [Garry Kasparov]. I don't like this form of protest, I don't like to chant slogans and don't know how to. But, I repeat, I have no choice. Either I go, or I stop caring about what's going on.

Here is the last comment to this post:

stas_ya:

How about everything exactly [the way you describe it], but there's no money as well? And [no hope of getting some in the future.] What consumer boom are we talking about? The only thing left is angry apathy - would make it neither the [protest] march, nor to a store…

Back to Medvedev's inauguration: LJ user dolboeb (Anton Nossik) was so impressed with the traffic situation in Moscow on Wednesday that he decided to write a letter (RUS) to the new Russian president:

[…] Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich,

Congratulations on assuming your new post. I hope you enjoyed the ceremony as much as I did. I thank you for providing me with a rare opportunity to see daytime Moscow without traffic jams. Please consider holding inaugurations once every week, preferably on Wednesdays. I think this could contribute to solving many traffic problems of the Russian capital. […]

Judging by this popular “bold/hairy algorithm” cartoon - posted, among others, by LJ user tumbochka - Medvedev is to have more than one inauguration in the next few decades (if not weeks):


Soviet/Russian leaders: Lenin (bold), Stalin (hairy), Khrushchev (bold), Brezhnev (hairy), Andropov (bold), Chernenko (hairy), Gorbachev (bold), Yeltsin (hairy), Putin (bold), Medvedev (hairy)… Putin (bold), Medvedev (hairy), Putin (bold), Medvedev (hairy), Putin (bold), Medvedev (hairy)

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Japan: Death Penalty Broadcast, 53 Years Later 

a small portrait of this author Chris Salzberg · 09:38
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An audio tape recorded 53 years ago of a death penalty execution in Japan, aired by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting on May 6th and and by Asahi television's Super Morning show [ja] on April 29th, has triggered conversations among bloggers about the country's death penalty system. The 50-minute audio footage, which features the last moments of one unnamed death row inmate, is the first of its kind to have ever been released. The airing of the footage comes just as Japan is moving toward the implementation of a citizen judge system, with debate surrounding issues such as the Hikari murder case still ongoing.

At the Happy Road blog (ハッピーロード笑店街), one blogger writes:

やっぱり聞いてしまいました。文化放送は５３年前に執行された死刑の瞬間が録音されたテープを５月６日放送した。テープは大阪拘置所長が、死刑囚の処遇改善などのため１９５５年に録音したもの。約５５分間の番組では、死刑囚の氏名は伏せられいた、執行２日前に面会した姉との会話や絞首刑執行時の音などが約１０分間放送された。　死刑囚は姉に「泣かないで、笑って別れましょう」と語り、執行直前には刑務官と談笑。読経が響く中、刑場の床板が外れる音が放送された。感想は・・・んーだな。　凶悪犯罪が後を絶たない中、死刑廃止を考えさせられる。

Of course I listened to it. On May 6th, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting aired a tape, recorded 53 years ago, of the instant at which a death penalty execution was carried out. The tape was recorded in 1955 in order to allow the head of the Osaka detention center to review the treatment of death row inmates. In the 55-minute program, the name of the death row inmate was withheld, and they broadcast 10 minutes of sounds from a conversation with the inmate's older sister two days before the execution, as well as from the hanging execution itself. The death-row inmate told his older sister: “don't cry, let's say our goodbyes while still laughing,” and just before the actual execution, he had a friendly chat with the prison guard. The sound of the floorboards being removed was broadcast against the backdrop of sutra chanting. My impression was … hmm. In the midst of never-ending atrocious crimes, it made me think about abolition of the death penalty.

Many bloggers objected to what was perceived as a biased presentation by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. Blogger Moriri writes:

私は死刑賛成とは言いませんが、少なくとも死刑廃止には反対していますので、その考えに立てば今回の文化放送の行う内容では片手落ちであると考えます。なぜならこれは死刑囚が刑を受けて殺されるときの音声しか放送しないからです。これでは明らかに死刑囚寄りの放送内容であって、このような放送を行えば当然ながら「死刑囚が殺されるのは可哀想」という意見を醸成することになるでしょう。しかしこの死刑囚が本当の罪人だとするのであれば、彼が死刑を受けるに至った行為についてもきちんと説明する必要があるでしょう。それが公平な放送、ということになります。

I wouldn't say that I am for the death penalty, but I am at least against the abolition of the death penalty, and from that perspective I consider the contents broadcast in this case by Nippon Cultural Broadcasting to be one-sided. The only thing that was broadcast was the voice of the death-row inmate when he received the death sentence and was killed, this is why [I consider the broadcast to be one-sided.] This is clearly a broadcast that is biased toward the death-row inmate, and it is natural that broadcasting this kind of content will lead people to “feel sorry about the killing of death-row inmates”. However, if we take it that the death-row inmate is actually a criminal, then there would appear to be a need for a proper explanation of the actions that led him to receiving the death penalty. Then this would be a fair broadcast.

Blogger Takao Yoshiki (高尾善希) meanwhile argues that the blame for the death penalty finally comes back to Japanese citizens through the game of shiri-tori:

尻取り遊びをしてみよう。死刑執行の時の床板は誰が外すのだろう。それは刑務官に決まっている。刑務官はどうして床板を外すのだろう。それは法務大臣から紙が来たからに決まっている。しかしなぜ法務大臣は紙に判をついたのだろう。それは法務大臣になったからである。じゃあなぜ彼は法務大臣の椅子に座っているのだろう。それは国民が選んだからである。そこでこの尻取り遊びは仕舞いになる。つまり床板は廻り廻って国民が外したという理屈になるから、床板を外す状況を国民に向けて放送したとしても何ら差し支えないということになる。この放送についてどのような意見を述べようと自由であり、法務大臣を誰にするかということも、当然自由である。

Let's play shiri-tori [Japanese word game/cap verses]. Who is it who removes the floorboards at the moment of the death penalty execution? That's the prison guard. And why does the prison guard remove the floorboards? That's because a paper arrived from the Minister of Justice. But why did the Minister of Justice put his seal on the paper? That's because he became the Justice Minister. So then I wonder, why did he take on the position of Justice Minister? That's because the citizens chose him. And that's where this game of shiri-tori comes to an end. In other words, since the logic loops around back to the start with the citizens removing the floorboards, broadcasting the removing of the floorboards to citizens is somehow permissible. [People are] free to state whatever opinions they like about this broadcast, and they are also naturally free to make whoever [they like] the Minister of Justice.
3 comments · »»

Georgia: War with Russia? 

a small portrait of this author Onnik Krikorian · 07:15
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The South Caucasus has always been a volatile and unstable region riven by ethnic conflict and instability. This has especially been the case since the breakup of the Soviet Union and not least because the region is often considered the gateway between Europe and Central Asia, as well as where the competing interests of the West and Russia collide.

For those readers that have no idea where the Caucasus is, The Reference Frame provides a handy color-coded guide.

Look at the map. Start with the yellow disk, a global perspective. We are discussing the piece of land (blue rectangle) in between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. There are Caucasus Mountains over there as well as many cacophonic pairs of nations. The region is as dangerous for the peace as the Balkans on the opposite side of the Black Sea. […]

This is definitely the case in Georgia where tensions with Russia have increased to the extent that Reuters reports that the battle of words between Tbilisi and Moscow might yet turn into war over the breakaway and defacto independent [Georgian] region of Abkhazia.

The increased tension follows last month's apparent downing of a Georgian drone allegedly by a Russian MiG-29 and reports that Russian troops are being sent to Abkhazia in case of a Georgian attempt to re-take the territory by force. As Hot Air explains, Russia and Georgia are playing brinkmanship again, but this time the consequences are uncertain.

Russia and Georgia have played at brinksmanship for quite a while, and while neither of them would benefit from a war, the tussle over Abkhazia might inadvertently set one in motion. Abkhazia is actually a secondary issue for Russia, although not a false premise for their policy. They see Abkhazia as within their sphere of influence, but Putin really wants an end to NATO expansion at the expense of Russia.

[…]

Both Moscow and Tbilisi are playing hardball over Russian attempts to keep Georgia within its political orbit. It demonstrates that the collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed consequences that have not yet fully played out, and that the “end of history” was anything but. If Putin and his hardliners insist on maintaining a quasi-empire in the breakaway republics, and if the West continues to counter those impulses, a flash point seems almost inevitable.

The Oil and the Glory, the blog of former Wall Street Journal and New York Times journalist Steve Levine who has covered Central Asia and the Caucasus for over a decade, wonders why the situation has emerged now.

What is Russia's move really all about? Surely it's not concern over Abkhaz security — a Georgian military attack in order to bring the region back into the Georgian fold verges on ludicrous, mainly since Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili knows he would lose, either to the Abkhaz themselves or a predictable Russian counter-offensive.

Is Putin simply demonstrating yet again that Russia won't be pushed around? Is he bestowing an image-building conflict on his successor, in the way that Chechnya built up Putin's own nationalist credentials when he took power in 1999 with a popularity rating of 2%?

Others are also asking why the increased tensions are happening, but from a different perspective. TOL Georgia, for example, thinks it is not coincidental that parliamentary elections are due to be held in the former Soviet republic later this month. Tensions with Russia usually result in increased support at home for the Georgian authorities, it says.

If there are elections in Georgia, you may bet some major scandal will take place with Russia — most probably over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia or South Ossetia.

There was a spy scandal before the elections in 2006; then there was President Saakashvili’s brave intervention in a brawl in Gunmukhuri camp and finally now there is the downing of the Georgian drone and Russia’s decision to legalize ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

[…]

It is not to say of course that Russian and Georgian authorities somehow act in accord. No, far from that. Just that Russians are consistently aggressive and if they wanted to see Saakashvili leave Georgia, they would not pitch him the major international incidents right before the elections.

Registan, however, considers that the latest Georgian-Russian spat has more to do with other factors, and not least support from the West for Kosovo's Independence as well as problems with Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This is probably tied to Georgia’s quest to block Russia’s membership in the WTO. Georgia has suspended its bilateral talks with Russia, which are a condition of Russia’s WTO ascension, on the condition that Moscow halt its growing ties with the separatist governments in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. And now Russia steps forward with talks of Georgia invading Abkhazia.

It’s not that the timing is too convenient, which it is, but that is might not matter. Both Georgia and Russia have a habit of badly overplaying their hand in the battle for sympathetic ears in the West. In this case, Russia has a particularly weak hand—its fondness for separatist movements appears not to extend to either Kosovo, or Chechnya.

Foreign Policy Passport isn't too concerned about the possibility of war between Georgia and Russia, although it does acknowledge that the situation could get out of hand. Indeed, it quotes one Russian commentator: “Recall how World War I began. […] This scenario could be repeated in the Caucasus,” but still concludes that the escalation is likely just belligerent posturing.

Despite the inflammatory rhetoric, it still seems unlikely to me that Georgia would actually go to war with its much larger and militarily superior neighbor. Since Georgia is looking for NATO protection and Russia wants keep Georgia out of NATO at any cost, the war of words seems tailored for an audience in Washington and Brussels. Both sides have a vested interest in the rest of the world perceiving the threat of war as genuine.

In a volatile region such as the South Caucasus where conflict always runs the risk of overspilling into neighboring countries and destabilizing more than just the immediate area, let's hope that remains the case.

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Iraq: Stop the massacre in Sadr City… 

a small portrait of this author Salam Adil · 00:18
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… so says Al-Ghad.

In the weeks following the high profile attack on Basra by the Iraqi army and its high profile failure something of a low-level war has been going on across Iraq much behind the scenes of the mainstream media. Yet now the situation seems to be coming to a head.

Al-Ghad issued a statement giving an urgent warning that an imminent massacre of the people of Sadr City is being planned:

The occupiers have decided to implement the Israeli style ghettos of imprisoning people in concrete walls. When this didn’t solve their problem, they came to the idea of mass slaughter of the whole of Sadr-City, using mass bombing, rockets and heavy artillery against a civil population.

Wafaa' Al-Natheema condemned the attacks against hospitals in Baghdad:

Today the Shu'la hospital in Karkh district was attacked… Historically, I am unaware of military operations targeting civilian hospitals!!…

Who will evacuate the dead bodies and heal the wounded? I really can not keep silent when today my colleague, the journalist, Yasir Shammri described Sadr City Hospital as the hospital of death whose function is just to keep corpses.

While Ladybird reports rumours of plans to use chemical weapons on Sadr City:

I don’t know the truth behind this story … but there are rumors .. that neighborhoods around Sadr-City are being evacuated.

According to al-Badeel al-iraqi, their sources in Sadr-City sent a message saying that the attacking forces are preparing to hit the city with opiate fentanyl non-lethal gas, the same gas the Russians used to attack the rebels in Moscow theater in 2002.

Whatever can be said about the new security plan in Iraq, it has not come without cost. The new Iraqi army can hardly be called non-sectarian. Zeyad posts a video showing Iraqi Security Forces raiding a small town in Iraq in a scene reminiscent of Saddam's violent quelling of an uprising in 1991. He writes:

A massacre that you will not see on CNN, perpetrated by the US-backed “Iraqi security forces” or, more accurately, Badr/SIIC/ Da'wa gangs in uniform and out of uniform… The soldiers are heard spitting out obscenities at the wounded detainees and even at dead bodies. Others are seen dragging another injured detainee, kicking him violently and cursing him before throwing him on a pile of dead bodies… Those are the “security forces” that our American friends want us to trust and to condemn attacks targeting them.

Raed posts stills from the same video and writes:

The Iraqi police, army, interior ministry forces, and other US backed forces are nothing more than nice titles for militias that happened to be called “governmental”. The Sunnis and Shiites allied with the US get to have their militias treated as “good militias” with governmental titles, but the other Sunnis and Shiites who represent the majority of Iraqis and oppose the occupation are the ones with “bad militias” that are described as terrorists and extremists…

The congress has approved billions of dollars of US-taxpayers money to fund these sectarian militias who are directly responsible of the ethnic and sectarian cleansing that has been taking place in Iraq during the last 5 years.

On a lower level Last of Iraqis has a confrontation with the same kind of soldiers at a checkpoint in Baghdad. He was stopped and nearly arrested. He writes:

During the ordeal many things were running through my head, I was thinking about the previous trouble that I have faced and remembered the comments; that really helped me to be cool, I was thinking about my dead friend; Omar who was killed by the Iraqi army in a situation like mine, he was talking with my other friend on the phone when he reached a checkpoint for the Iraqi army in Harthia neighborhood so he placed the phone aside and my friend could hear everything through the phone…it was so similar to my case but they took him and the next day his dead body was found in a garbage!!!

I know you are bored from the same story being told over and over by me but this is what the ordinary Iraqis go through everyday despite the countless explosions and assassination. That's the army and police that should protect us!! How funny.

These events leaves me with the same questions that Wafaa' raised:

Aren't these disasters sufficient to move the conscience? What freedom and democracy and what government reform, reconstruction and national unity are those? Will these events move the corrupt political parties to PM Maliki's table? What constitution allows the army to kill people and insults and threatens doctors? Is there any wise man amongst you, deputies and ministers? Where is the Islam of the Islamic parties where is the democracy of the liberal and patriotic parties?

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