Russian Acts of Kindness

[Alina Israeli]

Galina,

Have you asked yourself why in the country where there is such a great  
freedom of speech (Russia) there is such a long list of killed  
journalists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia 
  ?

It does not include those who were beaten up and harassed. Just  
recently Beketov died http://expert.ru/2013/04/8/himkinskaya- 
tragediya/; he was beaten up in 2008. Attacks on journalists are a  
daily business: http://www.cpj.org/europe/russia/

After Oleg Kashin was attacked http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIYVd_0W2U 
  Medvedev promised to get to the bottom of it. He is still getting to  
the bottom of it and will be till the second coming.

There was also a wonderful story when Bastrykin threatened a  
journalist of Novaya Gazeta to the point that he had to go into  
hiding: http://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2012/06/13_e_4624421.shtml

Bastrykin was forced to apologize after weeks of denying the incident.

These are the measures of freedom of speech, not what we can say in  
our kitchen with impunity, although for 40 years that was also  
dangerous.

And we are not even talking about the repressions against the  
manifestation which occurred a year ago today. The number of people on  
trial promises to be very impressive.


On the subject of ecology, the attacks on the concept of global  
warming come from the right and from the left (Latynina). The debate  
reminds me the one about the roundness of the Earth. Not everybody is  
good at calculations, Latynina makes sometimes ridiculous blunders due  
to her inability to understand science, but together with the  
officialdom they got the issue covered.

Meantime Russia is ahead (впереди планеты всей) on  
some forms of pollution http://www.geotochka.ru/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=274:---&catid=34&Itemid=119

But I believe the thinking is: It's going to get warmer, we are going  
to grow bananas in Russia.
Here's the projected temperature change: http://www.global-climate-change.ru/index.php/ru/climate-rf/78-about-climate-rf/184-climate-change-ggo
Not enough for bananas or even oranges, but permafrost is already  
melting.


On May 6, 2013, at 7:40 AM, Rylkova,Galina S wrote:

> Dear Paul Gallagher,
>
> Russian people (and intellectual in particular) have been  
> traditionally infinitely more critical of any political regime than  
> their American counterparts. In 2011-2012 Putin was accused of every  
> possible failure and crimes. For the most extreme summary see Masha  
> Gessen's "The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir  
> Putin" (2012). This book was highly advertised through various blogs  
> and was on sale in one Moscow bookstore. Do you think that Putin  
> (who had a meeting with Masha Gessen after this book's publication)  
> was unaware of its content?
>
> Russian journalists have been working extremely hard to uncover the  
> truth and  often show extreme/unprecedented courage. Yet they think  
> that what they do is a mere fraction of what their American  
> counterparts are supposedly doing here. This phenomenon of living up  
> to some non-existing standards is explored (albeit very gently) in  
> Todorovsky's film "Stiliagi" (The Totalitarian Rock).
>

Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
WLC, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu






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