Posted on 10/14/2002 5:33:26 PM PDT by Askel5
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  The Empire strikes back: Putin cult reaches new levelsBy Andrew Jack in MoscowFinancial Times | Oct 12, 2002They came bearing tributes from all parts of the empire: a crystal crocodile from Moldova; a slow-growing Siberian pine tree from Tomsk; even promises of a reproduction Tsarist crown from the Urals, and of a mountain in Kyrgyzstan. As officials in the Kremlin begin sifting some of the more extravagant presents offered to President Vladimir Putin in the past week, others are considering the underlying significance of the pomp surrounding the head of state's 50th birthday this week.
To some observers, the celebrations signalled a return to a Soviet-era cult of personality;
It must have seemed rather alien to foreign leaders such as Tony Blair, the British prime minister, who left Moscow yesterday at the end of a two-day trip just as the tributes were dying down. The child-bearing capacities of Mr Blair's wife have gathered plenty of media attention in the UK but few are aware of the date of their prime minister's birthday.
He draws a distinction with the UK's elaborate ceremonies for the 100th anniversary of the Queen Mother. "She personifies the idea of the state. Russia is a republic, and Putin is a head of state in a country where life remains very difficult for the majority. To have a private celebration is fine but such a public celebration is almost immoral." To some extent, the tributes to Mr Putin are an extension of a far broader Soviet and post-Soviet love of anniversaries, Kommersant, a daily Russian business newspaper, publishes daily obsequious birthday congratulations to political and corporate leaders - the latter often aged only in their thirties - from acolytes and colleagues. But the cult around Mr Putin, whose ratings remain very high, has reached new post-Soviet levels. Two pop groups sing his praise; a youth movement marches in his support; In offices across the country, an increasing variety of portraits and photographs of Mr Putin hang on the walls. And in the most recent example, a village in Ingushetia, where a former head of the FSB security service supported by the Kremlin was elected president earlier this year, named a street in his honour last week.
Indeed, in a classic Soviet tradition at times of controversy, Mr Putin was out of the country on his birthday, attending a But it seems that Russian officials and ordinary citizens still need little encouragement to take their own initiatives that they believe will please their leaders. As Mr Zorin says: "Today's Russian public is still by majority a Soviet republic which felt rather uncomfortable with the economic disaster and ideological vacuum of Yeltsin's era. It will be a long time before this totalitarian way of life is destroyed."
The Ultimate Birthday GiftThe Mayor of Moscow is leading a campaign to resurrect a monument to the founder of the feared Soviet Secret Police: Felix Dzherzhinsky. The City Planning Committee meets tomorrow to discuss the proposal. As NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports from Moscow, Russian liberals are up in arms over the plans to rehabilitate a man they see as a ruthless murderer. It was the middle of the night on August 22nd of 1991 and the shortlived coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev had just collapsed. Hundreds of anti-communist protestors cheered as cranes ripped the imposing 15-ton bronze monument to Felix Dzherzkinsky from its pedestal in front of KGB headquarters. It's a moment some saw as marking a symbolic end to the Soviet Era. One man watching the spectacle that night was "Valery Valitchko," a career KGB officer. Seeing his ideological godfather, Dzherzhinsky dangling from a giant noose made Valitchko's blood boil: "We saw the column of marchers coming toward the building," Valitchko said. "Like other KGB officers, I was startled. My first impulse was to take up arms and fight." Now, KGB veterans like Valitchko may get symbolic retribution. Moscow's populist Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, is championing Felix Dzherzhinsky's rehabilitation. He wants the statue put back in front of the former KGB building, now home to Russia's FSB Security Services. "The wave of protest of those times was aimed against the existing political order," Luzhkov says, "it wasn't aimed against Dzherzhinsky's monument," Luzhkov argues. Dzherzhinsky did good deeds, like ending homeless among Russian children after the October Revolution. He notes he helped build Russia's gigantic network of state railroads. But that logic shocks liberal Russian politicians like Boris Nemtsov. "Everyone knows Dzherzhinsky was an executioner," Nemtsov says. "Upon his orders, millions of our compatriots were destroyed: women, children, priests and intellectuals." Nemtsov points out that Dzherzhinsky personally sanctioned unleashing terror against his anti-communists opponents. He also set up the first labor camps which later became part of the Gulag Archipelago. Nemtsov calls the idea to restore Dzherzhinsky's statue "an affront to the millions of victims of Stalinist terror." But the idea is popular, even in relatively liberal Moscow, a majority of Russians say they want Dzherzhinsky back in front of the old KGB building. 45-year old Vladimir is strolling about the Moscow sculpture garden where Dzherzhinsky currently stands. "Dzherzhinsky, along with Lenin and his team, helped to build a powerful state for over 70 years. They made it one of the great countries of the world," says Vladimir, "History is history and there's no way of getting away from it. Only time can be the judge," he says. Pollster "Masha Volkenstein" says a yearning for the order of Soviet times helps explain the popularity of the campaign to rehabilitate Dzherzhinsky as does a desire by Russians to see their history in a more positive light. "Also important is that a big part of the population don't know Dzherzhinsky. I mean, young people - they don't just, they don't have any idea who he was and what it is about." President Vladimir Putin hasn't commented personally on the idea of rehabilitating Dzherzhinsky, although his administration expressed some muted concerns. But Putin opponents describe the idea by Mayor Luzhkov to put Dzherzhinsky's statue back in front of the FSB building as "the ultimate birthday gift" to Putin, himself a former KGB spy. The Kremlin leader turned 50 years old today. Lawrence Sheets, NPR News, Moscow.
  Reorganization of the WorldVladimir Putin and George Bush to discuss the philosophy of relations of the two countriesIzvestia | 14.11.2001, 01:54 The first official visit of Vladimir Putin to the United States coincided with a plane crash in New York. Yet, all the officials on both sides assure that the program of the state visit as well as its importance will remain intact. On Tuesday, after a meeting and a lunch with Putin in the White House, George Bush will leave for his ranch. Putin will be there on Wednesday: only after he attends a grandiose reception at the Russian Embassy. It is said that the embassy has not seen such a number of high-standing American guests ever since it was built. On Wednesday morning Putin will host a similar meeting in Huston - this time, economics will be the main theme and businessmen of the American South will be the guests. Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov and Secretary of the Security Council Vladimir Rushailo joined State Secretary Colin Powell and National Security advisor Condoleezza Rice during the negotiations in the Oval office. Strategic security was to be discussed during this meeting. According to press secretary Ari Fleischer, during the lunch the presidents discussed economic themes. The two presidents are to sum up their meetings during a press conference (at the time this article is being written, the meeting is still going on. Izvestia will write about the joint statement tomorrow). About six joint documents are being expected. We can conclude that the experts on both sides had done the bulk of the work prior to the visit and today and tomorrow on the ranch the presidents will rather talk about the future than the present. It is quiet telling that "Philosophical aspect of Russo-American relations" is listed among the possible themes of discussion. After Kabul is liberated by the Northern Alliance ("President Bush is content with the operation," says Fleischer), the theme of the future political organization of Afghanistan is at the top of the list. Unlike Russia, the US favors the presence of the so-called "moderate" Taliban in the coalition government. There are no doubts that the presidents will discuss the level of military presence in Central Asia of both Russia and the US. In other words, the political face of Central Asia for the next decade or so is to be agreed upon in Texas. Another important theme is relations with the so-called "renegade states" - Iran and North Korea most of all. Russia is expecting a certain change of attitude from the US. Finally, the conditions of Russia's WTO membership are to be discussed in Texas as well. As of now, Bush is showing Putin the White house and the Russian leader admires the flowers that grow alongside the columns: roses and chrysanthemums are forming peculiar figures. |
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during their meeting in the Moscow at the Kremlin, Monday, Sept. 30, 2002. Sharon is on a two-day visit to Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Karpukhin, Pool)
But in most essential ways Russia is closer to China than to Western Europe --- if you measure the proximity by the tolerance to and respect of power; the role assigned to an individual in society vs. that of community; the weight given to one's physical age vs. the extent of knowledge.
Russians love power and have always employed it. The deam there is a good Tzar rather than no tyrant at all. Now we experience yet another wave of idealism about the future of that country. But for a long, long time to come, it will be a shaky democracy, if a democracy at all.
Captain Needa.
Since we're at it with comparisons, another headline today (Spielberg Stresses Need for Compassion announces the filmaker's memories of scouting years. He knows how push buttons the right buttons, as do all real politicians, including Augustus long ago. Incidentally, in the film episode Vadar loses his cool . And appropriately so. It is the impatience of what they call the dark side. One can expect it from any of the several corners of the world to send shivers through the flowers of the cult. Real politicians always seem to know so much because of their special relation to the many (Michael Oakeshott!) and they often mistake their own promethean presence for a charter of independence.
(They're everywhere, you know.)
Go Putin Go!
Putin is so capitalistic we can buy his vote on the U.N. Security counsel :-)
I can't help but like him.
This is precisely what sets them apart from "us".
None of those I pictured with him (save perhaps Bush, Jiang and the strangely resistant Berlusconi) have that "charter of independence. They've always known better than that. No one who presumes a "charter of independence" lives very long on the "former Soviet" side of the fence. Putin's GRU. It's not like our boy the bureaucrat is under any illusions he's some kind of rockstar. There are no "ex-KGB", there are no "ex-terrorists". Saddam himself must put the revolution before his own family. He's certainly not the first and won't be the last "evil dictator" or "terrorist" who's had to slaughter his own family, friends and comrades. They all know the score.
Not everyone's quite as immune to genuine human emotion as a trick pony like Clinton. I'll always wonder if he ever wept about McDougal, even.
Clinton once thought he had the independence thing ... riding high well into impeachment, even, until something went wrong, they had to kick the Serbia thing into action three months early and he was white as a sheet for days ... even "dropped the ball", so to speak. I've always wondered what they did to get through to him like that. I think he aged five years in five days. It was fascinating.
I think if anyone's impatient, it's our guys. The ones who ... who ... who "won't get fooled again." They don't even take the time to learn their lines, much less dwell on the irony or what exactly is being telegraphed.
"READ MY LIPS," we didn't exactly get the impressarios or deep thinkers where the world's politicians are concerned. They'll tell you themselves they "don't like campaigning" any more than they like broccoli. They don't speak foreign languages, they aren't well-read and they are embarrassingly bereft of a true statesmen's grasp of the world's history, the mosaic of national identities, relationships and protocols (much less the heads of states).
Maybe it has something to do with the way they see us as either Useful or Unproductive consumers, Wanted or Unwanted Live. "Living" or "fit for the garbage".
So it's not just that they're champing at the bit to effect their plans ... they're bored in the process because all but the transnational Bidness of the Organization and the Political Gamesmanship of Personal Destruction means nothing to them.
Who knew it would take over 30 years to implement the recommendations of the "Earth Resources and Population" task force?
We can only hope they don't lose their cool ... at this point it's one false step and the floor falls out ... leaving us swinging on the rope we sold.
It's not going to turn out like the Pragmatists planned because it's not been the Pragmatists who've been doing the planning. It's those who set up the Circumstances on which the Pragmatists hedged the bets of their Best-Laid Plans who get the credit for that.
Yup. Great success the earth's population has atleast doubled in the last thirty years...What's next the government will conspire to deliver a letter...on time.
Remind me to buy Reynolds stock tomorrow...your tin-foil comsumption must be huge.
I meant what I said where the recommendations were concerned. We have been "educated" into accepting their premises. That was their push at the time. Abortion has now been enshrined as a right and we no longer balk at a President's pronouncement that "excess" manufacture human lives fit only for the slag pile are suitable for research but -- instead -- cheer his "clever" compromise that was the "killed by" date.
The real efforts at depopulation -- the Population Reduction of which they've been speaking in not-so private places for over a decade now -- will soon become blatant enough for even you to notice. It won't be a "gay" or "hemophiliac" or "African" thing anymore that This Group or That Region has brought on themselves.
Even a cursory study of the Futile Care Protocols being implemented in every region of our managed healthcare system suggests to any man of discerning that the groundwork is being laid in earnest to euthanize the unproductive.
As the Task Force noted:
As a result of reduced death rates, there are more people in their non-productive years than ever before. More children and more elderly people unable to participate in the world's work force increase the burden on the productive age group. [...] The National Academy of Sciences has said:
Either the birth rate must go back down or the death rate must go back up.
They said what they meant and they meant what they said.
So, not to worry. They'll be playing catch-up in earnest soon enough. You'll live to see it happen. Just like you'll live long enough to see Unwanted human clones harvested for their organs and a Wanted human clone walk the earth.
Not that either hasn't already happened, of course.
I recall what a sensation it was to see a human ear growing on the back of a mouse a couple years ago. Remember that?
Imagine my suprise when I found out that -- a decade earlier -- the eugenicists at the March of Dimes had funded the Robboy Experiments in which he was grafting fetal sex organs onto mice to study the teratogenic and carcinogenic effects of certain drugs on the human reproductive tract.
That never made the papers. Neither did the "severed head" experiments of the early 1970's for which (due to the US's yet backwards take on the use of Unwanted lives for research purposes) the March of Dimes had to fly their Dr. Adams to Helsinki for his study of "Fetal Brain Fuel Metabolism at Different Gestational Ages" which experiments involved "severing and perfusion of heads of live aborted babies (between the ages of 3 months and five months gestation) delivered by hysterotomy (a mini Ceasarean-section)"
We have every intention of making good on our promises of population control. Don't you worry 'bout a thing.
Otherwise just blame Bush for everything and feel good (while not doing anything about the problem). Now I must turn in. 6 am comes way too soon.
Good night.
Fact is while not every Republican may care about about the sanctity of human life, but a heck of alot more Republicans care about this issue than than the Democrat politicians who are beholden to the abortion (pro-death) industry.
He's not the only Leninist who understand State Capitalism (all of Trotsky's rant about "imperialist" capitalism for contrast aside).
and anti Islam
What gives you that idea? ... Oh wait, lemme guess: Chechnya?
I do not believe in Democracy so if he rules as a Tsar its fine with me.
It's "Democratization", dear. Get it straight if you're going to complain about our and Russia's current interest in imposing the "tyranny of the masses" as part of our Re-Organizing and Building nations more amenable to trading their sovereignty for a seat at the World State economic and defense collective.
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If the gifts were striking enough, just as eye-catching were the tributes and attention given to the event, from cards sent by schoolchildren to laudatory hymns from youth groups - all given extensive coverage in the Russian media.
to others, an aspect of the absolutist eastern- style potentate approach to governance that continues to pervade much of Russian business, politics and society.
"It reminds me of similar events in the Soviet period, with the birthdays of Stalin, Krushchev and especially Brezhnev - people with Putin's own ideology," says Andrei Zorin, a cultural historian. "In his deeds, Putin is continuing [former President Boris] Yeltsin's policies of privatisation and support for oligarchs, but in his ideology he reflects what he was taught in the KGB."
from the 70 years of the Socialist Revolution (celebrated not long before it all collapsed) to the 57th year of victory in the Great Patriotic War (still going strong as an annual national event).
tomatoes, cafes and people have been named after him; and museums opened and plaques installed where he visits.
In contrast to Mr Yeltsin, Mr Putin himself stressed that it was work as usual on Monday, and that all the gifts would be handed to the state. He appeared a little awkward with the celebrations. Sergei Mironov, the fellow St Petersburger he hand-picked to head Russia's upper parliamentary chamber, claimed the best gift for the president would be "hard work".
summit for the Commonwealth of Independent States in Moldova, and giving the impression that all the fuss was nothing to do with him.
