Anna Politkovskaya on Russia, from
Beslan ushers in Putin’s new age of terror, 10/17/2004:
"The authorities are so afraid of us. Every age has its own characteristics. Russia in Brezhnev’s time was cynically demented. Yeltsin’s reign was a time for casting your net wide and seeing how much you could catch. Now it is the Age of Putin, an era of cowardice, and the more afraid he becomes, the more he tightens the screws. Cowards cannot counter terrorism. That is something only the resolute and the intelligent can do.
"Today we stand on the brink of an abyss. This month the funeral marches played in memory of the victims of terrorism seem to accompany the funeral of Russian democracy. The opposition has been routed and is almost silent. A political winter is closing in and nobody can tell how long we may have to wait for the next thaw.
"How have Europe and the world in general taken Putin’s “anti- terrorist” policies? Viewing their reaction from Moscow, it seems they have simply turned a blind eye to it all. Instead all we get is the vodka, the caviar, the gas, the oil, the bears, people of a certain profession . . . exotic Russia seems all still to be in place."
Here's another Freeper's comments on Politkovskaya:
A vanity from a former Hostage
I would like to summon up my courage and declare that, of all the participants in this discussion, only I am personally acquainted with Anna Politkovskaya and, perhaps, the reality of Russia.
And so, I feel that I have the right to say the following: 1. It is an abominable idea, that Anna was not poisoned, but was only trying to enhance her image. She has already made her name and displayed her authority, not only in the former Soviet Union, but in other countries as well. None of you show her any sympathy, though no one has the right to take her life outside of the law, no matter how bad she may be.
2. Have any of you, as Anna did, sat in a hole without food or water, as a hostage of the federals in Chechnya, have any of you seen murdered children and the faces of their parents, so that you can accuse her of deceipt or hypocrisy for the sake of popularity? Who of you has left all business behind in the USA, in order to stand in the middle of a city square under the guns of spetsnaz and terrorists, awaiting the decision by some headquarters on whether you could buy some juice with your own money to carry into the Moscow theater, to help us, the hostages there?
3. Why has the elementary thought not occurred to any of you, that a person can love their country, their city, their people, and want that life in their country should be as comfortable as in the USA?
Scroll through the comments, some are very brutal.