Posted on 09/16/2004 2:22:02 PM PDT by Lukasz
The European and Russian governments are living in two different worlds
"Business is politics in up-to-date Russia. The government controls all aspects of the nation's life and the commercial field is not an exception," the chairman of the committee "2008: Free Choice", Grand Master Garry Kasparov said on September 13th at the Baltic Forum of Development in Hamburg. Below you can find excerpts from the chess player's speech.
"We must draw a distinction between the current Russian leadership and the citizens of Russia. The rich culture, creativity, the knowledge and humanity of our nation is still alive and means a lot more to the world than the whole Russian oil," Kasparov said. "High oil prices make the only support for Putin's regime. Citizens of other oil-extracting countries do not derive profit from the oil wealth. Both oil and all other natural resources of Russia should have their own markets and open ways to reach those markets."
Garry Kasparov believes that Russia should unite with Europe. "This union would be important to the Russian nation for social and economic reasons. The traditions of the European democracy and the relative economic stability will help Russia become a modern state. However, Putin's regime mixes up the past and the present. A lot of Russia's neighbors are still being suspicious about Russia, and they have reasons for it. An order in the past is necessary for the future progress. The European and Russian governments are living in two different worlds," Kasparov stated in Hamburg.
"One of the examples to prove it is the fact how our media outlets defend the notorious pact of 1939 between Nazis and Soviets. The USSR attacked Finland because of the pact, it invaded the Baltic republics, occupied a part of Poland and assisted in unleashing WWII. Russia needs to acknowledge the crimes of its Soviet predecessors.
"The avowal of guilt is a good spiritual remedy, which also means the acknowledgement of universal moral values, which the Kremlin currently rejects. One of these values is the ability to find common language. Putin's administration does not know how to speak this language.
"The Soviet past still dominates the Russian reality and politics. Putin is aware of that. In his address to the nation after the hostage crisis in Beslan, the president said that the nation is living under the conditions, which have been created with the collapse of a great state, which proved to be helpless in the changing world. It would be the same to say that you have been living in a house without the water supply system," Kasparov said.
"The Soviet Union could not and cannot be a part of modern Europe. It could become a part of Europe only with its conquests. We must distinguish between modern Russia that we need and the Soviet past that Putin is trying to retrieve.
"There is no place for Committee 2008 and the real opposition in the Russian press. However, there is a place for nationalists and Stalinists, who grieve about that "great state." They decline basic democratic values. These talks about the return to the erstwhile glory are becoming more frequent now. The Nazi propaganda is prohibited in Germany, but not in Russia," Kasparov said.
"Unfortunately, this is not the only aspect, in which Putin exercises himself as a Stalinist. He talks about everything in the old Soviet language. He suppresses freedom of speech, freedom of commerce, he has led Russia astray.
"Putin announced that he would cancel elections of regional governors as a measure to struggle against terrorism. Local parliamentarians will have to approve the selected nominees. Putin is destroying democracy at the time when we need it most. Western politicians might say that the Russian Constitution technically allows it. However, if the West keeps silent, we will most likely witness similar changes happening in the presidential election procedure.
"Even the national lucrative oil market does not function according to the standards of the civilized world. The scandal with Yukos and its CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has exerted a destructive influence on the economy.
"It is impossible for Europe to deal with the current Russian administration. Europe should press on Putin for changes. One should not let Putin mix the Soviet past with the Russian future in an attempt to keep the relations.
"Schroeder and Chirac are using double standards instead, which brings a lot of harm to the Russian nation. It is not time for Realpolitik. Each meeting of the Group of Seven with Putin's participation is perceived as the approval of Putin's home policy.
Hmm, I think some serious control measures were instituted, and we had nowhere near the corruption that Russia has.
With people like that it will only make Putin's restoration of the Soviet Union that much easier.
And he's going to fix everything by bringing back the Soviet Union.
Game, set, match...you lose.
Quotation: Metropolitan Pitirim, a senior figure in the Moscow Orthodox Patriarche was quoted in 2000 as saying that "children should be taught to love the smell of barracks and soldiers' boots " [The Electric Telegraph, 13 February 2000, Guy Chazan, « Putin restart military training for Schoolboys », selected by Johnson Russia List, # 4104].
I'm starting to see where your Orthodox Church is getting their support of Putin...he's promised to make them partners this time in the new Soviet Union. Personally, I don't think "children should be taught to love the smell of barracks and soldiers' boots" is exactly what most people would have in mind for church indoctrination of children.
Try this for a more truthful version. Geeze, the "commies are everywhere paranoids" are out in full force these days.
"They also organize rallies against Communists, whom they despise"
"Those who join are expected to attend six concerts or plays a year, visit four historic cities, check out six books from the library and volunteer at least once a month at orphanages or senior citizen homes — all to inculcate a sense of Russian history and culture, Mr. Yakemenko says.
"He ( the leader) speaks often of the need for "spiritual education" and rails against those he perceives as enemies of a strong, modern Russia: Communists, Boris N. Yelstin, gays and, most of all, modern writers and artists who, he says, revile high Russian culture."
Good try. You must believe everything you read. I have long admired this group, which works closely with the church in Russia. Take a look at our culture for teens and get back to me.
LOL! Actually, I believe the problem you have is you believe anything that Putin says.
Ooh yes. Putin runs the New York Times, from whom the above article about the group Walking Together came.
Communist values like atheism and central planned economy? This is not Putin.
Under Yeltsin decentralization and "privatization" average life expectancy dropped by SEVERAL years - it means MILLIONS of people died. Mobsters supported by international corporations stole most of national wealth. Radical Islamists infested the country. Putin has to fix this mess.
You should probably stop before you really step in it. Even though most of what you have posted so far I havre successfully and quite easily shown to be lies and paranoia. LOL.
You don't know anything about my church nor about the Moscow Patriarch. But go ahead and continue to show the rest of FR how quickly you speak and form opinions in ignorance.
It doesn't matter, the rest of the world is starting to recognize him for the maniacal Soviet throwback he really is.
Seems you are missing a lot of facts:
I just quoted the Moscow Patriarch, who believes children should be taught to love the smell of barracks and soldiers' boots.
God bless his heart. And listen to the euroweenies and some US officials telling him he is wrong.
Thank God for Sharon, who has stepped out in full support and compassion.
Once wary Moscow Patriarchate now supports resurrecting former national anthem
CHRISTIANITY TODAY
By Andrei Zolotov in Moscow
After initial hesitation, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church has expressed support for President Vladimir Putin's proposal to resurrect the musical setting of the communist Soviet national anthem.
President Putin is pushing ahead with the proposal, which is about to be discussed by the Duma in Moscow, despite stiff opposition from liberal politicians and intellectuals. Putin's plan has caused astonishment in Western capitals.
The president wants Russia to have a range of national emblems combining both tsarist and Soviet symbols, including the tricolor pre-revolutionary flag, the tsarist double-headed eagle and the music of the Soviet national anthem by Soviet composer, Alexander Alexandrov, for which new lyrics are to be written. Putin believes this mix will ensure a sense of continuity with the many strands of Russia's past.
"I think that the president has made a very worthy decision," the spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, told Interfax news agency this week. "It is very important that all the symbols of the country are viewed in a combination: a pre-revolutionary flag and coat of arms, which show the continuity with the pre-revolutionary period of our history, and at the same time Alexandrov's music, which shows continuity with the Soviet era, in which, of course, there were terrible tragedies, but there were also a lot of good things. Thus the continuity of all Russian history is restored and demonstrated."
During a heated public debate about the anthem, several Russian media outlets reported, without citing any sources, that the church's head, Patriarch Alexei II, opposed the return of the Soviet anthem. But Chaplin stressed this week that the patriarch had never publicly expressed his opinion. "His Holiness has never rejected the possibility of the old anthem's melody returning," Chaplin said. "He said only that the issue of state symbols should not divide society, but unite it."
In fact, discussions about the anthem have proved highly divisive in recent weeks. The Soviet anthem, which cleverly combines musical features of both a march and a song, was written by Alexandrov in 1943, originally as the Communist Party anthem. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin approved the music and ordered the lyrics to be rewritten so the song could serve as the national anthem. After Stalin's death, lyrics praising him were dropped and eventually new lyrics were added retaining praise of Lenin and the Communist Party.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the tricolour was adopted as Russia's flag. But the Communist-dominated parliament refused to accept President Boris Yeltsin's proposals to make the double-headed eagle the national emblem and the "Patriotic Song" by the 19th century composer Mikhail Glinka the national anthem.
In 1993, after Yeltsin put down a parliamentary rebellion, he imposed the emblem and the anthem by presidential decree. But the eagle has never been approved by two thirds of the parliament, as required by the Russian Constitution.
The anthem has proved even more problematic. No official lyrics had been adopted for Glinka's music, which most Russians find complicated, uninspiring and hard to remember.
In October, President Putin raised the matter in public after Russian athletes complained that they had no words to sing when they were awarded medals at the Sydney Olympics.
The president put the issue on the agenda of the State Council - which is made up of regional governors but has limited powers. Various options were discussed, but a public poll taken at the same time showed that Alexandrov's music, familiar to most Russians, led with 49 percent support.
"Let us not forget that we are talking here about the majority of the people," President Putin said last Monday in a passionate plea on national television. "It is possible that the people and I are mistaken," he said, but he added that rejecting all Soviet symbols would suggest that "our mothers and fathers lived a useless life, lived their lives in vain. I cannot agree with this, either in my head, or in my heart!"
A group of 35 prominent intellectuals, including a progressive Orthodox priest, Alexander Borisov, published an open letter to the president warning that a return to the Soviet anthem could cause a national schism. "The attempt to resurrect the music of the Soviet anthem triggers nothing but protest and disgust," the letter stated. "There is no new text that could hide the immortal [original] words praising Lenin and Stalin."
Leading Orthodox Church officials appear to have changed their mind during the debate. A prominent church leader, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk, initially expressed support for Glinka's music in a newspaper article. But late last month he appeared on the state-owned RTR television station to support Alexandrov's music.
Other religious leaders also contributed to the discussion. A Muslim official, Mufti Talgat Tadzhutdin, said he had no problem with either the double-headed eagle or with the Soviet-era anthem. "It is our past, and you cannot escape it," Tadzhutdin told Interfax. "For seven decades we and our ancestors lived in the Soviet state, and many recall their youth with warm feelings. It is wonderful that we won't forget that period."
More argument is expected when the new lyrics for the anthem are published. A draft by the poet who wrote the lyrics for the Soviet anthem, Sergei Mikhalkov, and another by former prime minister Yevgeni Primakov have appeared in the press in recent weeks. In his new version Mikhalkov, who once composed verses to glorify Lenin and Stalin, writes: "With hope and faith, forward, Russians! And may the Lord safeguard us on the path!"
Some of the drafts were clearly ironic, including one from a liberal party, the Union of Right Forces, stating: "We work honestly and pay our taxes! Glory to you, O private property!"
But despite the opposition and the irony, Putin's proposal is almost certain to be approved by the Duma.
Just ilke that ever so communist group Walking Together, turned out to be exactly as you posted. NOT. LOL.
If you thought the old Soviet Union was a barrel of laughs, you'll just die with the Evil Empire Part II.
"The orgin of the double-headed eagle 'motif' which appeared in Byzantium after the 12th century and was adopted by a number of the principal noble families at that time; later being assumed by several imperial houses, such as in Russia, and states such as Serbia."
See the cross and Saint George on it? Not of the USSR, sorry to once again burst your bubble.
A Putin is an ex-KGB agent who comes from the Soviet Union and wants to restore it to power.
I think it is mostly your liberal and Russophobic sources which are the laughs here. I have met you match for match with each of your so-called Soviet paranoias. And each time proven you wrong.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.