Russian Acts of Kindness

Mon May 6 16:14:08 UTC 2013

Dear all,
let me bring in one more illustration of the state of Russia's freedom of speech. Roughly a year ago we all witnessed / followerd the act, arrest and trial of Pussy Riot. On the one hand Russia had a diverse and very interesting coverage of the case. on the other hand the trial was nothing but a show trial, Putin took the 'insult' personally and did not even hide it. Were the defendants, lawyers and media allowed to speak freely? They sure were. Did they stand a chance to get a just trial? Absolutely not. it was  obvious that the fate of the accused was sealed even before the trial. 
What kind of freedom of speech are we talking about?
Svitlana Kobets

On 2013-05-06, at 11:24 AM, Alina Israeli wrote:

> 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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Svitlana Kobets, PhD, LMS
Literature Instructor
Continuing Education Division
St. Michael's College 
University of Toronto 
81 St. Mary Street 
Toronto, ON   M5S 1J4
Phone: 647-924-8435
Fax: (416) 926-7287
www.slavdom.com

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