I haven't heard about that organization, though it sounds very praiseworthy. I assisted someone with an adoption in the Ukraine, and it was a chore. Ukraine's a bit simpler than Russia - you can call a bribe a bribe and no one gets huffy. Russians, now, they take it personal, especially if the vzyatka in question isn't enough.
It's not so much about corruption, as no one is getting paid (or enough), and for that extra bit of service you're expected to give a little token of your esteem.
Here's something related, which I completely disavow.
About Viktoras Petkus... I can almost understand why he's so vehemently anti-Russian. Many in Eastern Europe have transferred their hate of the Soviets onto the Russians. I had a friend in Brno, Czech Rep, who was fluent in Russian, but he'd make me stumble along in German because he wasn't going to speak another world of it.
A lot of mercenaries in the first Chechnyan war were from the Pri-Baltic (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and they hate being called "Pri-Baltic"), there were a pair of female super-snipers from one or another of those countries, whom the Russians called the beliye kalgotki (white pantyhose?). Supposedly they worked just for the pleasure of plugging Russian officers. A friend from Donetsk, Ukraine, who served in the Russian army in Chechnya told me that he captured a Black American ex-serviceman who was working for what they called back then the "Khattabists".
Mr. Petkus deserves more than a measure of respect for his dissident work. The Soviet Union is gone, however, and there are scarier animals in the woods these days.
A lot of mercenaries in the first Chechnyan war were from the Pri-BalticAh, that explains a lot to me about the personalities on the chechen lists. Thanks. Actually not personalities, but nationalities, definitely heavily along those lines.
I always wondered why that was so. Thanks.
Too funny. You have only to spend time in a Russian Orthodox church to believe that Russia is a matriarchal society. Most Orthodox live in fear of the Ba-ba's and what they may do if you cross them. :-)
They say the sisterhood runs the church and the priest is lucky if they let him do the liturgy that day. Even so, later they will tell him what he did wrong. Not so far from the truth at all, really.
I never lived with a Russian family that thought I was even close to an adequate mother. Each Russian woman I lived with did not let 1/4 of a day go by without informing me what I was doing wrong in parenting my child, starting with plain old saying "no" of course.
My husband was on the street in Moscow near the Metro with our oldest daughter and had bought for her a candy bar. Which she ate and then demanded another. My husband declined, so our daughter threw herself on the ground and began screaming. At least six Russian women, strangers, immediately surrounded our daughter and began soothing her. Then they told my husband he needed to buy her the second candy bar, because of her Russian soul. He was fit to be tied.
A friend from Donetsk, Ukraine, who served in the Russian army in Chechnya told me that he captured a Black American ex-serviceman who was working for what they called back then the "Khattabists".Wow. No kidding. That is fascinating.
The Soviet Union is gone, however, and there are scarier animals in the woods these days.
So true.
Also I was going to comment on those women at passport kontrol at Sheremetyov, down in the dark dungeon there, in reference to your link. Geeze, do you think they ever smiled? Even at home? I will never forget their faces. Always the same every time I was there.