Putin to visit Iran for nuclear talks: report

spacewar

By Staff Writers

Moscow (AFP) July 24, 2013

President Vladimir Putin is to visit Iran in August to try to restart talks on Tehran's controversial nuclnegocear drive, a Russian newspaper reported Wednesday.
Putin's visit is planned for mid-August, shortly after Iran's moderate new president Hassan Rowhani takes office on August 3, Kommersant reported, citing sources in the Kremlin and the Iranian foreign ministry.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP: "I cannot so far confirm this".
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi told the ISNA news agency: "I do not confirm the report regarding Putin's visit," which would be his first to Iran since 2007.
Moscow hopes the visit will provide impetus to restart the currently stalled talks on Iran's nuclear programme, Kommersant reported.
It cited a source in the Iranian foreign ministry as saying the trip would take place August 12-13. It said a Kremlin source confirmed the trip, but said it was not yet decided whether it would last one or two days.
Western governments have expressed cautious hopes for a change in tone in talks after the June election of Rowhani, a centrist cleric who has vowed to engage constructively with the international community in a bid to ease the burden of EU and US sanctions on Iran's economy.
Russia is a member of the so-called P5+1 group made up of the five UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany that has for years been engaged in talks with Iran to try to persuade it to curb sensitive nuclear activities.
After the last round in Almaty in April, the talks were put on hold as Iran prepared to choose a successor to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ahmadinejad's eight-year term was marked by a defiant expansion of the Iranian nuclear programme, which fuelled Western suspicions that it masked a drive for a weapons capability.
Both the European Union and the United States slapped tough sanctions on Iran's key oil and banking sectors which have taken a heavy toll on the economy.
During his election campaign, Rowhani hit out at the "sloganising" of the Ahmadinejad regime, which he said had unnecessarily aggravated the sanctions, and promised a more conciliatory approach in a bid to get them eased.
Following Rowhani's election, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on the West to consider relaxing the sanctions, saying Tehran was ready to make a major concession.

Putin on Snowden: No extradition, accusations against Russia 'nonsense & rubbish' (FULL VIDEO)

RussiaToday

Fugitive Edward Snowden still at Moscow airport, says Russia’s Putin

nbcnews

Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport/ russiatrek.org

By Matthew DeLuca and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

Edward Snowden is still inside the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, according to Reuters – the first official word on the fugitive's whereabouts in more than two days.

Putin said the former self-identified leaker of classified data arrived as a transit passenger and had made no arrangements with Russia over his future.

The comments, made at a news conference in Finland, appeared to confirm speculation that Snowden is seeking permission to fly to another country – most likely Ecuador, to which he has already applied for political asylum.

Meanwhile, Snowden remains beyond the reach of American efforts to extradite him placing a strain on U.S. relations with Russia, Ecuador, and China where irate officials denied they has assisted his escape from Hong Kong on Sunday.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov angrily denied Russian involvement in the Snowden case.

“He never crossed the Russian border, and we consider unfounded and unacceptable the attempts we see to accuse Russia of violating the U.S. law and conspiracies, or the threats addressed to us,” Lavrov said.

No one had bought a ticket under Snowden’s name for a daily Aeroflot airlines flight from Moscow to Havana on Tuesday, airline employees told NBC News before the plane took off. The next flight to the island nation 90 miles from the U.S.  is scheduled to leave on Thursday.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday he hoped Russia would see its best interest in not helping Snowden flee justice, Reuters reported.

The 30-year-old former employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton was expected to be aboard a flight from Russia to Cuba on Monday amid speculation that he would stop there en route to Ecuador. The plane eventually left the airport full of journalists, but with no sign of Snowden.

The government in Hong Kong, where Snowden disappeared after saying he had leaked documents revealing top-secret U.S. Internet and phone data-gathering programs, released a statement on Sunday saying that Snowden had departed “on his own accord for a third country.”

Secretary of State John Kerry has called on authorities in Russia to “do the right thing” and prevent Snowden from leaving Moscow, where he is thought to be after departing Hong Kong on Sunday.

“I’m not going to get in to the details of what I think is going on, but we hope that the Russians will do the right thing,” Kerry told NBC News in New Delhi, India, on Monday. “We think it is very important in terms of our relationship. We think it is very important in terms of rule of law. There are important standards.”

Asked whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Barack Obama said on Monday that the U.S. government is “following all appropriate legal channels and working with all countries to ensure the rule of law is being followed.”

A former CIA and FBI official told the TODAY show on Tuesday that Russian officials have likely already spoken with Snowden, much as U.S. intelligence officials would if they found themselves in a similar situation.

“The likelihood that there’s either been no conversation with him or they haven’t downloaded stuff from his electronic gear is about zero,” former CIA director of counterterrorism Philip Mudd said.

Authorities in China have also pushed back against claims from Washington that they let Snowden slip through their fingers after the U.S. requested his extradition.

“The U.S. has no reason to call into question the Hong Kong government’s handling of affairs according to law,” China foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chungying said at a briefing, according to Reuters. “The United States’ criticism of China’s central government is baseless. China absolutely cannot accept it.”

Sources familiar with the case have told NBC News that Snowden’s passport has been revoked – a move that would be standard procedure, a State Department spokeswoman said.

“As is routine and consistent with U.S. regulations, persons with felony arrest warrants are subject to have their passports revoked. Such a revocations does not affect citizenship status,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

“Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States. Because of the Privacy Act, we cannot comment on Mr. Snowden’s passport specifically,” the spokeswoman said.

The government in Hong Kong said in its statement that extradition documents presented by the U.S. did not satisfy the requirements set by the law in Hong Kong, and that Snowden left the country “through a lawful and normal channel.”

WikiLeaks, the Internet publisher of confidential documents founded by Julian Assange, released a statement on Sunday saying that Snowden had requested the organization’s legal and diplomatic assistance.

Even as Snowden himself remained elusive, speculation continued about the extent of the information he gathered on U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities.

In an interview with Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post, Snowden said that he had taken his job with defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton so that he collect information on secret data-gathering programs conducted by the NSA. NBC News could not independently verify the report.

“My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA had hacked,” Snowden reportedly said in his interview with the paper. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”

Snowden, who was fired from his job at the defense contractor, told the Post he collected documents showing U.S. hacking into computer systems in mainland China, and that he did not want to release all the documents he had gathered at once.

“I did not release them earlier because I don’t want to simply dump huge amounts of documents without regard to their content,” Snowden told the Post. “I have to screen everything before releasing it to journalists.”

Ecuador, which has provided refuge to Assange at its embassy in London, said on Monday that it was reviewing a request for asylum from Snowden. Foreign minister Ricardo Patino told reporters on Monday that Ecuador had been in “respectful” contact with Russia over the issue.

NBC News’ Jim Maceda and Ed Flanagan contributed to this report.

The Putin Divorce: What Russia's Rulers Hide

The New Yorker
By Masha Lipman

On Thursday evening, a television reporter approached Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, in the Grand Kremlin Palace. The First Couple was leaving after the first act of the ballet “La Esmeralda.” After a few minutes of small talk about music and dancing, she asked a most impossible question: Why did they appear so rarely in public together? Putin’s response, confirmed by his wife: they had decided it was time for them to divorce. This is not the first time ballet happened to be the setting for a Russian personal and political drama: back in August, 1991, state television was playing “Swan Lake” just as Communists attempted a coup.

The scene in the Kremlin was so theatrical, so obviously staged—it is inconceivable in Putin’s Russia that a journalist would ask the President a question so personal without prompting—that the venue was strangely appropriate. Putin and his estranged wife were standing next to each other, but not too close; they referred to each other formally, with name and patronymic; their sentences were neither too long nor too abrupt. “This is our joint decision,” Putin said. “I join the words of Vladimir Vladimirovich,” Lyudmila Putina echoed, “This was indeed our joint decision.” Putin: “We practically don’t see each other. Each one has his and her own life.” Putina: “Our marriage is over because we practically don’t see each other.” She concluded, “One can say this is civilized divorce.”
In his thirteen years as Russia’s most powerful political figure, Putin has appeared around wild animals from tigers to polar bears; at the wheel of all kinds of vehicles, from a military vessel to a strategic bomber; fighting on tatami and riding on horseback. He was an athlete—macho. We’ve seen him on vacation swimming in an energetic butterfly stroke and and in the pool as a daily exercise, with his dog or around other people’s children. On one occasion, he kissed a little boy on his belly for the cameras. What he was not was a family man.
Putin never appeared in public with his family; the Russian people have never even seen either of his two daughters. On the very rare occasions that he even mentioned his daughters, Putin hasn’t said their names—he just refers to them as “they”. His wife Lyudmila barely acted as the First Lady. After the first years of his tenure she stopped accompanying him abroad, and more or less disappeared from the scene. A common half-serious suggestion was that Putin had had her locked in a nunnery—just as the Russian tsars did when they sought to get rid of unwanted tsarinas. Lyudmila Putina’s absence was especially striking at a recent Easter church service, where Putin stood with Dmitri Medvedev, his substitute President and current Prime Minister, and Medvedev’s wife. The trio was then joined by the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobianin. An unknown Photoshop master promptly covered Sobianin’s head with a lacy scarf—so he and Putin would look like a couple. The image was a great hit on social networks.
There has been no traditional role for a leader’s wife in either the U.S.S.R. or the new Russia. Yet some rulers have been more open about their families than others. Coincidentally or not, those leaders who presided over softer or more open regimes were also more likely to show their families to the public. Joseph Stalin addressed the family question in a most radical way: he drove his wife to a suicide and had her relatives executed. He went on with his rule by terror, and was never seen around women. Nikita Khrushchev, who condemned Stalin and released his victims from labor camps, dearly loved his wife. She accompanied her husband on foreign trips, though she could hardly compare with her Western counterparts in elegance. (A joke of the era: “What would happen, if Khrushchev were assassinated instead of Kennedy?…Like hell would Onassis marry Nina Petrovna.”) Their children—a son, a weapons engineer, and a daughter, a journalist—grew up to be modest, decent people. Leonid Brezhnev launched a creeping re-Stalinization; his tenure was associated with persecutions of dissidents and the use of punitive psychiatry. His wife, much like Putin’s, was hidden from public view. Their daughter came to be known for her passion for jewelry and alcohol, and ended her days in a psychiatric asylum. Raisa Gorbacheva was Mikhail Gorbachev’s beloved wife, his friend and his most trusted adviser. She was Russia’s first true First Lady, and an elegant one at that. She was also widely resented by the Soviet people for everything—her outfits, her assertiveness, her influence over her husband. But even the most resentful couldn’t help being moved by Gorbachev’s deep grief over her death. Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first President, who gave his nation a promise of democracy, had a large and loving family. His wife wouldn’t interfere with government affairs, but her charm on some occasions worked to soften the hard public feelings toward her husband.
Putin came in, and the promise of democracy is all but gone. As the regime hardens and elements of Soviet-style governance are brought back, the leader’s family is no longer in sight. But Putin’s cultivation of a virile image, combined with his de facto singlehood, soon generated rumors that he was involved with a younger woman—a former rhythmic gymnastics champion turned lawmaker. A Russian tabloid that dared publish this gossip, was promptly forced to close. But foreign tabloids (the New York Post among them) have also reported that Putin has had a child, and perhaps two, with the former gymnast.
Asked about such rumors by an Italian reporter back in 2008, Putin said they were an outright lie, adding an angry remark about “those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives.” The TV journalist who on Thursday got the first-hand information about Putin’s divorce did not ask an obvious question: Are you seeing somebody else? This was not part of the script. (Putin’s press spokesman said on Friday that Putin does not have any new marital plans; he went even further to say that there’s no other woman in Vladimir Putin’s life.)
A dramatic toughening of Putin’s anti-liberal policies in recent years has given a boost to social conservatism in Russia. As it happened, just as Putin made public his plans to divorce his wife, a Duma lawmaker, Elena Mizulina, came up with a new legislative initiative: to revive traditional family values, she suggested a kind of “immorality fee”—a federal tax on divorce. What Mizulina most likely thought of as a timely and loyal act—she is a Putinist—suddenly looked like a faux pas.
Photograph of Putin and former gymnast Alina Kabayeva by ITAR-TASS/Presidential Press Service/Getty.

Russia’s Putin and his wife say their marriage is over

worldnews

Alexei Nikolsky / AFP - Getty Images file

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila attend a service at Blagoveshchensky Cathedral in Moscow on May 7, 2012.

By Albina Kovalyova, Producer, NBC News

Standing awkwardly side by side, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila Putina announced Thursday their decision to divorce on Russian television.
Putin confirmed the two no longer live together.
“This is the case,” he said. “All my activity is to do with publicity, absolute publicity, and some people like this, and others do not. But there are some people who are absolutely incompatible with this ... Lyudmila Alexandrovna has stood by this post for eight or nine years - so it's a mutual decision.”
Lyudmila confirmed Putin’s words, adding: “Our marriage is over due to the fact that we no longer see each other.”
She also said she did not enjoy publicity or flying on planes.
Their appearance was filmed by the state-controlled television Russia24 as the two prepared to attend the ballet Esmeralda at the Kremlin Palace in Moscow.

Putin's private life has been shrouded in mystery. He has rarely been seen together with Lyudmila in recent years, and rumors have circulated that the first lady had moved to the Elizarova monastery. In 2008, Russian media reported that Putin was set to marry the former Olympic gold medalist gymnast, Alina Kabaeva. The two have also been rumored to have a child together.

Although neither Putin nor Kabaeva have confirmed these rumors, they have been seen and photographed together at public events. Kabaeva retired from sports and became a member of the Public Chamber of Russia – which drafts laws for the Russian parliament.
Putin’s private life has long been a no-go area for journalists, and some critics have raised concerns about how a man with so much authority could be trusted, when so little was known about him. Putin and Lyudmila have two daughters together, but almost nothing is known about them. Maria was born in 1985 and Ekaterina Putina in 1986 and both have been rumored to be living abroad, although in 2011 some photos of them surfaced online.
Putin said both his daughters had been educated in Russia, where they continue to live.
Putin, now in his third term, won the presidential election last year, a move followed by large anti-government demonstrations. There has since been a clampdown on the Russian opposition and demonstration participants, with critics viewing his new term as a return to old authoritarian tactics.

Russia launches ’unprecedented’ crackdown, rights group warns

worldnews

Yuri Kadobnov / AFP - Getty Images file

A woman holds a leaflet, reading "For human rights" and featuring a picture of Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny, during an opposition rally in Moscow on April 17.

By Ian Johnston and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

Vladimir Putin's Russia has launched an "unprecedented" crackdown on political activists and civil society groups, Human Rights Watch alleged in a report released Wednesday.

The New York-based group’s report described a "nationwide campaign" of harassment and intimidation by the former KGB officer's government.

It came on the day Putin critic Alexei Navalny urged a court to throw out what he said were trumped-up charges intended to silence him. It also comes weeks after the State Department cataloged a series of human concerns in Russia, including restrictions to harsh fines for unsanctioned political meetings, electoral fraud and the detention and trial of citizens without due process.

The HRW report, "Laws of Attrition: The Crackdown on Russia’s Civil Society after Putin’s Return to the Presidency," said:

• Putin’s government has sought to portray critics as "clandestine enemies" 
• a number of political activists have been jailed 
• and a series of restrictive laws, including one against treason that could criminalize international human rights campaigners and others that impose "draconian limits on association with foreigners," have been passed.

It also said that hundreds of organizations had been subjected to "intrusive" inspections about a raft of matters such as tax affairs, fire safety and air quality.

In one case, the report said a group was asked for chest X-rays of its staff to ensure they did not have tuberculosis. In another, officials demanded copies of speeches made at a group's meetings.

"Taken together, the laws and government actions described in this report violate Russia’s international legal obligations to protect freedom of association, expression, and assembly and threaten the viability of Russia’s vibrant civil society," the report said.

Nikolay Petrov, scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank, echoed the HRW findings, saying the democratic climate in Russia has got “much worse” over the past year.

“At first, these new laws were portrayed as something that would only be used as a threat, not a tool that would actually be used,” he said. “Now we are seeing these laws used a lot to target [non-profit] organizations and protests.

“Huge numbers of law enforcement officers are now involved” in the clampdown against political opponents and rights groups, he added.

Sergei Chirikov / EPA file

Russian police officers make their way through a crowd to detain opposition activists in Moscow last month.

“It is important for all democracies to be aware of what is going on in Russia.”

The HRW report cited two cases as "further examples of Russia’s waning commitment to its international human rights obligations": The two-year prison sentences given to two members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot for a political stunt in a Moscow cathedral and the fate of Leonid Razvozzhaev, a political activist accused of organizing a riot who attempted to claim asylum in neighboring Ukraine.

Razvozzhaev went missing in Ukraine after stepping outside the office of a partner organization of the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees "to take a break during an asylum interview."

"Several days later he reappeared in custody in Russia. Razvozzhaev appears to have been forcibly disappeared and was forced to sign a confession under duress while in incommunicado detention. Razvozzhaev is in custody awaiting trial in Russia," the report said.

In response to the State Department comments earlier this month, Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement accusing the United States of politicizing human rights issues, according to Reuters.

"Americans prefer not to recall their own record (of violations)," the statement said, adding that Washington has recently resorted to disproportionate use of force in Iraq and Afghanistan, causing civilian casualties, Reuters said.

On Wednesday, a court in the industrial city of Kirov adjourned to consider Navalny’s request to throw out charges that he stole $500,000 from a state-run timber firm, The Associated Press reported.

The most prominent opposition leader to be tried in post-Soviet Russia, Navalny has suggested Putin ordered the charges trial to stop his criticism of "swindlers and thieves" in government and sideline him as a potential presidential rival.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

La chica que besó a Putin

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Cuba Encuentro

Carlos Espinosa Domínguez

Pues señor, érase una vez una adolescente que vivía en una ciudad de provincia del centro de Rusia. Supo de la existencia de una organización juvenil que le pareció “la más impresionante subcultura”. Se unió a ella y como era guapa e inteligente, pronto se convirtió en su cara más representativa y visible. Por su entrega y fidelidad, la recompensaron con un auto, un apartamento, una plaza en una de las universidades más prestigiosas y un programa de televisión. Pero la chica conoció a unas personas que pensaban de otra manera, y poco a poco se fue dando cuenta de que la organización de la que tan orgullosa se sentía tenía su lado oscuro. Finalmente, se salió y emprendió una vida independiente.

Contada así, en términos de cuento infantil, la historia de Masha Drokova no parece despertar demasiado interés. Pero lo tiene, y mucho, pues aparte de representar el caso individual de una joven rusa de nuestros días, aporta una imagen del clima político que vive su país, donde existe una lucha entre el despotismo y la democracia. Eso es lo que ha logrado captar la realizadora danesa Lise Birk Perderson en su documental Putin´s Kiss (Dinamarca, 2011, 85 minutos). El filme tuvo su estreno mundial en el Festival de Sundance del año pasado, donde recibió el premio a la mejor fotografía. Desde entonces, se ha proyectado en algunos países. En Estados Unidos, por ejemplo, se pudo ver en Nueva York a mediados de febrero.

Este trabajo estará dedicado a comentar el documental. Pero antes de pasar a hacerlo, me parece conveniente proporcionar algunos elementos informativos que, en buena medida, no se dan en el filme. A partir del 2000, Vasili Yakemenko (1971), un joven más o menos guapo que estudió economía, empezó a hacerse notorio al frente de Caminar Juntos, un grupo juvenil declaradamente partidario de Vladimir Putin. Entre otras actividades, fue notorio por sus ataques contra el escritor Vladimir Sorokin y la banda punk Leningrad. Caminar Juntos además tenía como patrocinadores a dos compañías con vínculos con el Kremlim y Ayuntamiento de Moscú. En los medios de prensa, adquirió el sobrenombre de Putinjugend, en alusión a las Hitlerjugend o Juventudes Hitlerianas.

En el año 2004, Caminar Juntos se vio envuelta en un escándalo, cuando varios de sus miembros estuvieron involucrados en la distribución ilegal de películas pornográficas. A eso se sumaron las disputas financieras de las secciones de Moscú y San Petersburgo. Esa crisis llevó a Yakemenko a crear otra organización, a la que dio el nombre de Nashi (Nuestros). Eso data del año 2005, y ocurrió en un momento muy oportuno para el gobierno de Putin. Tan oportuno, que dista mucho de ser casual.

Entonces, en el Kremlim había un verdadero ataque de nervios a causa de los incidentes ocurridos en algunos de los antiguos países socialistas. Concretamente, se trataba de Serbia (2000), Georgia (2003-2004) y, sobre todo, Ucrania (2004). En este último, había tenido lugar la llamada Revolución Naranja. Durante quince días, medio millón de personas se lanzaron a las calles para protestar por unas elecciones que consideraban fraudulentas. Las manifestaciones populares lograron revertir el resultado de los comicios, ganados por Víctor Yanukovich, el candidato favorito de Putin. Tras una nueva votación, salió encumbrado el opositor Víctor Yuschenko.

Nashi fue creada desde arriba para cumplir una misión específica. Al iniciar el último año de su segundo mandato, Putin encargó al controversial Yakemenko la tarea de formar una organización para comprometer a los jóvenes en actividades de apoyo al gobierno. Nashi, que se define como democrática y antifascista, tiene una agenda que incluye entre sus tareas el trabajo voluntario en orfanatos, ayudar a restaurar iglesias y monumentos en memoria de la Guerra Patria, programas educacionales, campamentos de verano. Sus miembros piensan que Rusia debe ser líder del mundo en el siglo XXI, y para lograrlo es necesario apoyar al gobierno. Quienes no apoyan a este y además lo critican, son etiquetados como enemigos de Rusia.

Esta última labor pasó a ser la prioridad número 1. Putin concibió Nashi como un medio para evitar un movimiento popular como el de Ucrania. Tenía temor de que, siguiendo ese ejemplo, la juventud rusa tomara las calles. En 1905, el zar Nicolás II ordenó que sus tropas dispararan contra unos ochocientos trabajadores, que se congregaron frente al Palacio de Invierno para exigir mejores condiciones de trabajo. El ataque escandalizó a los círculos que rodeaban al zar y este se vio obligado a aceptar las reformas reclamadas por los manifestantes. Los primeros ministros y secretarios generales soviéticos después de 1917, sacaron una enseñanza de aquel hecho: la mejor manera de responder a las manifestaciones populares es evitar a toda costa que tengan lugar.

Luchar contra cualquier forma de oposición

Vladimir Putin, quien llegó al poder después de las masivas protestas ocurridas durante la etapa de la perestroika, adoptó un enfoque similar al cortar las manifestaciones de raíz, aunque la mayoría de las veces trató de evitar la violencia. Durante las elecciones de 2008, a los miembros de Nashi se les asignó la tarea de ocupar las plazas de las grandes ciudades como Moscú y San Petersburgo. Lo hicieron durante todo el día, y con eso impidieron que otros ocuparan ese espacio público para expresar cualquier protesta u oposición. La organización garantizó así que Dimitri Medvedev tuviera una transición tranquila y sin problemas.

Una vez que la “tandemocracia” Putin-Medvedev se estableció en el gobierno, Nashi pasó a encargarse de mantener su relevancia en el panorama de la Rusia postelectoral. Conviene anotar que la relación que sus miembros mantienen con Putin es literalmente la de una religión. Para ellos el mandatario es un dios. Un buen ejemplo es algo que sobre él expresa Masha Drokova en el documental. En su opinión, Putin es de esa clase de hombre que ella escogería como compañero para toda la vida. ¿Las razones? Es carismático, inteligente y, lo más importante, responsable. Va más allá en sus elogios, y declara que Putin “fue enviado a Rusia por Dios”.

Las líneas directrices por las cuales se rige Nashi tienen una gran influencia de los trabajos de Vladislav Surkov (1964), el ideólogo del Kremlim y arquitecto del actual sistema político. En mayo de 2012 fue nombrado viceprimer ministro de la Federación Rusa por un decreto presidencial. Es defensor de la “democracia soberana”, que refuta la idea de que solo puede haber un tipo de democracia. Surkov sostiene que, por el contrario, cada país debe tener la libertad de desarrollar su propia forma. Quienes echen una ojeada a la página web de Nashi, comprobarán que la única fuente que se cita son los textos de Surkov. Aunque rechaza la política de Occidente, le gusta el estilo de vida occidental. La edición rusa de la revista masculina GQ señala que le gustan los trajes a la medida del famoso diseñador italiano Ermenegildo Zegna. Asimismo en su tiempo libre Surkov compone canciones para el grupo de música Agata Kristi.

Oficialmente, el objetivo de Nashi es apoyar el gobierno, creando una futura elite entre los jóvenes más brillantes y leales. Sin embargo, en la práctica su trabajo se centra más en la lucha contra cualquier forma de oposición a Putin. Nashi proclama ser una organización democrática y antifascista, pero sus acciones demuestran algo bien distinto. Si bien es cierto que por un lado denuncian a las tiendas que venden productos caducados y alcohol a los menores (de ello se ven imágenes en el documental), por otro sus miembros tienen ideas conservadoras respecto a cuestiones como el aborto y el uso del condón. Además promueven la hostilidad hacia Europa y Estados Unidos. “Hoy Estados unidos por un lado y el terrorismo internacional por “ se empeñan en controlar Eurasia y el mundo entero”, dice el manifiesto de Nashi. Y agrega: “Su mirada está puesta directamente en Rusia. La tarea de nuestra generación es defender la soberanía de nuestro país, al igual que nuestros abuelos hicieron hace sesenta años”.

La organización además permite e incluso promueve la violencia para intimidar y socavar a los opositores al gobierno. Sus tácticas van desde los desfiles con grandes pancartas en las que aparecen fotos de los “enemigos de Rusia”, hasta defecar encima de sus autores y golpearlos salvajemente. Resulta muy significativo que en una entrevista que le hizo hace varios años Oleg Kashin, hoy uno de los enemigos jurados de Nashi, Yakemenko no tuvo reparo alguno en reconocer que al crear el perfil de la organización tomó algunas de las mejores cualidades de las Hitlerjugend, los Guardias Rojos de la Revolución Cultural China y el Komsomol de la extinta Unión Soviética (los colores y símbolos de Nashi son similares a los de esta última organización).

La asimilación que se ha hecho de esos modelos se pone de manifiesto en algunas de las acciones más notorias de Nashi. En 2006, desarrolló una campaña contra Anthony Brenton, el embajador inglés. Las protestas se fundamentaron en que este había asistido a una conferencia organizada por la coalición opositora La Otra Rusia. Nashi exigía a Brenton que se disculpase por haber apoyado a los que ellos consideran es un grupo de extremistas. La campaña estuvo marcada por concentraciones frente a la residencia oficial del diplomático, así como por interrupciones en los actos públicos en los que estaba previsto que él hablara.

Asimismo en mayo y abril de 2007, Nashi organizó protestas diarias ante la embajada de Estonia en Moscú, con la consiguiente obstrucción del tráfico. El motivo fue el traslado a otro sitio de la estatua al soldado del Ejército Rojo que se hallaba en el centro de Tallin. De acuerdo a la página web de Nashi, eso constituye una evidencia del establecimiento de un régimen fascista en ese país báltico. Las demostraciones estuvieron acompañadas del apedreamiento de la embajada, destrucción de banderas de Estonia y hostigamiento a los diplomáticos. Y aunque no hay pruebas que apunten a Nashi como responsable, por ese mismo tiempo se produjo un sostenido y bien planeado ciberataque a sitios oficiales de Estonia.

Otro incidente fue el acaecido en 2006 con Oleg A. Chirkunov, gobernador de la región de Perm designado por Putin. Permitió a un miembro de un partido de la oposición asistir a una conferencia de la juventud. Eso provocó la ira de los miembros de Nashi, que organizaron piquetes de protesta frente a su oficina, pese a las bajas temperaturas. Sus demandas eran que Chirkunov se disculpara por el error cometido. Por supuesto, este se vio forzado a hacerlo.

La oportunidad de convertirse en alguien importante

Paso ahora a ocuparme de Putin´s Kiss. Las primeras imágenes muestran a los miembros de Nashi cuando participan en un campamento de verano. Los jóvenes se muestran alegres y sonrientes, tras escuchar a Yakemenko expresar que después de los ocho días que durará el “vigoroso programa educativo”, saldrán convertidos en personas diferentes. De ahí, el filme pasa a unas imágenes de mala calidad en las que se ve a dos hombres golpear con unas barras a un tercero cuando iba a entrar en su edificio. Más adelante, nos enteraremos de que se trata del ataque que sufrió el 5 de noviembre de 2010 el periodista del diario Kommersant Oleg Kashin, y que lo dejó en estado crítico. El montaje que se hace en el filme es intencionado e ilustra las dos caras de Nashi, la amable y la siniestra.

Aparece luego Masha Drokova, a quien después vemos con sus padres y abuelos, cuando fue a visitarlos. Nacida en 1989 en Tambov, una ciudad de la zona central de Rusia, a los quince años se unió a Nashi y a partir de ese momento su vida cambió radicalmente. Como a muchos jóvenes ambiciosos, la organización le dio la oportunidad de “convertirse en alguien importante”. Eso ayuda a comprender por qué Nashi es tan popular, sobre todo entre la juventud de las provincias. Para ellos, es la vía más idónea de poder tener potencialmente una carrera en el futuro. Constituye una oportunidad que ganan a cambio de lealtad a Nashi, o lo que es lo mismo, al partido de Putin.

Masha demostró lealtad y dedicación, y pronto ascendió a lo más alto de Nashi. Fue premiada con un auto, un apartamento y una plaza en una de las universidades más prestigiosas. Eso le proporcionó unas condiciones de vida con las cuales muchos jóvenes de Rusia no pueden ni soñar. Además de convertirse en una conocida bloguera, pasó a ser la anfitriona de un programa de televisión. Devino la portavoz de Nashi, lo cual se comprende a través del documental. Para Nashi era el ejemplo vivo de la imagen que quería presentar: una chica provinciana que fue “elevada” por el movimiento juvenil para alcanzar grandes cosas. En Rusia se le conoció además porque produjo una pequeña conmoción cuando espontáneamente le estampó un beso en la mejilla al presidente ruso, cuando este le entregaba una medalla. A partir de entonces, pasó a ser “la chica que besó a Putin”.

Hay una escena de un programa de televisión en el cual Masha participa, que ilustra la manera en que se forma a los jóvenes en Nashi. Interrogada tras abogar por la quema de los libros de Eduard Limonov, no puede defenderse cuando es emplazada por los otros invitados, por sostener una idea tan reaccionaria y peligrosa. Como se ve a lo largo del filme, los miembros de Nashi no están preparados para dialogar y debatir sus convicciones y principios. Su táctica se reduce a insultar con la retórica más incendiaria y a satanizar a los adversarios políticos de Putin. Así, Limonov es gay, Boris Nemtsov es un traidor, Garry Kasparov tiene doble nacionalidad. A propósito de este último, en el documental se aprecia cómo una conferencia de prensa suya es interrumpida por unos jóvenes que hacen volar unos helicópteros de juguete con forma de dildo.

El encuentro y, posteriormente, la amistad que establece Masha con varios periodistas, algunos de ellos críticos del gobierno, hizo que la joven empezara a cambiar. Esas relaciones no fueron bien vistas por la dirigencia de Nashi. Le advirtieron que no debía mezclarse con esa gente; que no podía creer en Putin por el día y por la noche ser amiga de quienes lo critican. Eso la sumió en un conflicto interno y en un dilema moral: ¿le brindaba Nashi suficiente libertad para tener opiniones propias, o la forzaba a someterse por completo a la voluntad de la organización?

Ocurrió entonces un incidente que la obligó a tomar partido. Su amigo Oleg Kashin fue brutalmente golpeado a la entrada de su edificio. Como consecuencia de aquel ataque, le tuvieron que amputar varios dedos. Tenía fracturas en las dos mandíbulas. Recibió severos golpes en la cabeza, y ahora lleva una placa de titanio. Asimismo perdió algunos dientes y hasta hoy el ojo derecho le lagrimea. Dimitri Medvedev comentó en la televisión que en el país existen fuerzas que consideran que, con tales métodos es posible poner una mordaza a quien sea, a un periodista o a un político. Y aunque prometió que los atacantes serían llevados ante la justicia, hasta la fecha no hay ni un solo detenido. Kashin no alberga la menor duda de que fue un acto planeado por Nashi.

Un producto de ingeniería política

Durante el tiempo en que Kashin estuvo en el hospital, periodistas y blogueros realizaron demostraciones silenciosas para reclamar que las autoridades encontraran a los responsables. El tercer día, Masha se presentó y durante algunas horas sostuvo uno de los carteles. Como reconoce Kashin, hacer eso fue un acto de valentía moral. Mucho más lo fue su decisión posterior de abandonar Nashi. En el filme, Masha trasluce cierta melancolía al comentar su desencanto de la organización que la convirtió en su estrella ascendente. Después de su salida, se ha abstenido de participar en la política, aunque conserva su admiración por Putin. Sigue viviendo en Moscú, y de acuerdo a su cuenta en Twitter trabaja como relaciones públicas de una firma de alta tecnología.

Vasili Yakemenko dejó de estar al frente de Nashi. A partir del año 2008, pasó a dirigir el recién creado Comité Estatal para la Juventud. No obstante, sigue considerando la organización como su pequeña brigada. En Putin´s Kiss aparece sonriente, atento a todos los detalles y dando instrucciones, durante la marcha por el Día de la Unidad Nacional. Es indudable que siente mucha satisfacción cuando ve desfilar a aquellos miles de jóvenes traídos en autobuses del interior del país (les dan 500 rublos o bien comida gratis en McDonalds). Portan carteles con las fotos de quienes para ellos son “la vergüenza de la nación”. Entre ellos figura la octogenaria Liudmila Alexeeva, historiadora, disidente y activista por los derechos humanos. Mientras desfilan, se escuchan por los altavoces consignas: “¡No seas un Judas como el líder opositor Nemtsov! ¡Recuerda que vives en Rusia! ¡Este es el mejor país, y gilipollas como ese no se toleran aquí!”. Una vez que llegan al final, los jóvenes arrojan al suelo, con visible encono, las pancartas. Algunos incluso las patean.

Dado que Putin es ahora presidente por otros seis años y que ha prometido presentarse de nuevo a los comicios de 2018, todo augura que Nashi tiene asegurado un largo y brillante porvenir. Sin embargo, la organización que se encarga de hacerle los trabajos sucios al Kremlim no se ha librado de escándalos. No hace mucho, la sección rusa de Anonymous sacó a la luz el pago de 600 mil rublos hecho por los dirigentes de Nashi a blogueros y periodistas. El propósito era que escribiesen artículos para favorecer la imagen de Putin y desacreditar a sus oponentes en las pasadas elecciones. Antes de eso, en 2010 se produjo el embarazoso caso del calendario erótico editado para el cumpleaños del mandatario. En el mismo aparecían, jóvenes estudiantes de periodismo de la Universidad Estatal de Moscú aparecen fotografiadas en provocativas poses. Las imágenes iban acompañadas de frases de doble sentido como “¿Qué tal una tercera vez?”. Según los organizadores, la idea era demostrar que las chicas inteligentes también pueden ser hermosas. La universidad se desmarcó y calificó la iniciativa de inapropiada.

De todos modos, resulta muy poco probable que algo pueda afectar seriamente a Nashi, un producto de ingeniería política que tan eficazmente ha servido al gobierno. De hecho, el año pasado Yakemenko confirmó que la organización había recibido 12 millones de rublos de los fondos estatales. Como muchos han señalado, Nashi constituye la línea de ataque de la política institucional del Kremlim. En la Rusia de hoy, es un elemento clave para que Putin pueda consolidar su particular versión de la democracia. Una “democracia soberana” en la que a los opositores les puede suceder cualquier cosa, desde ser golpeados salvajemente, como Mijáil Béketov (el ataque lo dejó inválido y prácticamente privado del habla), hasta ir a la cárcel, como Mijaíl Jodorkovski, o ser asesinados, como Anna Politovskaia.

Topless protesters give Russia’s Putin an eyeful in Germany

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Dark side of Putin Winter Olimpics Games

AlJazeeraEnglish

Meet Neo-Soviet NYU, Princeton Professor Steven Cohen

Kim Zigfeld

markbebawi.com

Not surprising: following the passage of the Magnitsky Act — which penalizes Russians who were involved with the brutal torture and murder of a human rights attorney — supporters of Vladimir Putin’s KGB dictatorship criticized Americans for supporting American values in Russia.

But would you be surprised to learn that one of those minions is not just an American citizen, but a professor emeritus at New York University and Princeton?

Professor Steven F. Cohen — husband of Katrina vanden Heuvel, publisher of ultra-liberal The Nation – has been speaking up for the interests of Putin and Russia’s KGB. Writing at The Nation itself, he called the Magnitsky Act a “sanctimonious blacklist without due process” supported by a “feckless foreign policy elite”. (Do note: the Act was adopted by both houses of Congress in landslide votes with virtually no opposition.) Cohen claimed that Russia is far more democratic that the U.S. because “the Russian media were filled with heated controversy over the adoption ban,” while there was no such controversy over Magnitsky. (Putin’s response to the Act was to ban American adoptions of Russian children.) Cohen called American journalists “cheerleaders for a new cold war.”

This is not new behavior for him — Cohen has been bashing the U.S. media for reporting on Putin’s neo-Soviet crackdown for years now.

Politics truly makes odd bedfellows: Cohen and his wife’s publication are aligned with the likes of Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan on this issue — two of Putin’s strongest supporters in the U.S. But Cohen’s take was truly neo-Soviet: he trashed the Clinton administration for giving birth to the new cold war, and he stated that Obama has “surrounded himself with Russia advisers, including Hillary Clinton, wedded to the twenty-year-long approach” that calls for cold war.

Cohen then directly wrote for the Kremlin itself, on its Voice of Russia website where he maintains a blog and is also routinely the subject of the Kremlin’s “journalism.” Any American parent thinking of sending their children to Princeton or NYU ought to find this worrisome: NYU itself got into the act, publishing his article on its website.

Following the Soviet and Nazi models, the falsehoods in Cohen’s analysis are difficult to document simply because there are so many, and his delivery is so propagandistic and shameless. Cohen does not give one example — not one — of Russian mainstream media (all national TV stations and all major circulation newspapers are Kremlin-controlled) challenging the Kremlin’s adoption ban, as he claims they did. Of course, none of them actually did challenge Putin’s decision to bar American parents from adopting in Russia, and polls show that the Russian people overwhelmingly supported that move.

Keep reading on PJMedia >>

Que que le dijo Putin al rusito?

como es habitual los medios 'americanos' siempre andan despistados. que que le dijo putin al rusito???; lo mismo que le han dicho a cientos de millones de personas incluyendo a los herederos chavistas ayer en la'bana: "si no te portas como yo espero de ti, no vas a tener oportunidad de arrepentirte".

Depardieu el "ruso"

cuando le metan un microfono en el trasero mantecoso saldra corriendo para punto uno.

---------------------------- 

elpais/

El presidente de Rusia, Vladímir Putin, ha concedido la ciudadanía rusa al actor Gérard Depardieu, quien había expresado su deseo de renunciar al pasaporte francés por la decisión del Gobierno galo de aumentar al 75% los impuestos sobre la renta de los más ricos. Según informa hoy el Kremlin, Putin firmó el decreto de concesión del pasaporte ruso a Depardieu, nacido en Francia en 1948 y que ha dado vida a personajes como Obelix, Cyrano de Bergerac o Martin Guerre, en virtud del artículo 89 de la Constitución rusa.

Putin ya había garantizado en diciembre pasado la expedición de un pasaporte ruso al artista francés si este decidía definitivamente renunciar a su ciudadanía original, aunque destacó que "él (Depardieu) se considera francés". "Él se considera europeo y ciudadano del mundo. Pero quiere mucho a su país, su cultura y la vive. Estoy seguro de que ahora no está atravesando un buen momento, pero esto acabará", apuntó. Putin subrayó que los artistas son personas con "un espíritu especial" y que "es fácil herir sus sentimientos". "Estoy convencido de que los máximos dirigentes (de Francia) no querían herir a Depardieu, pero como cualquier funcionario de alto o medio rango siempre defendemos nuestra política y las decisiones tomadas", dijo.

El Kremlin se había tomado en un principio a broma las afirmaciones de Depardieu quien, según el diario Le Monde, dijo que el presidente ruso le había enviado un pasaporte. El actor, de 64 años, anunció hace unas semanas el traslado de su residencia fiscal a la localidad belga de Néchin, a apenas un kilómetro de la frontera francesa. Su decisión fue tachada de "lamentable" por el primer ministro francés, Jean-Marc Ayrault, lo que indignó a Depardieu, quien reaccionó anunciando su voluntad de renunciar la nacionalidad francesa.

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Obama Seizing Control of the US Military – Potential Cataclysm Ahead

TrevorLoudon

Barack Obama has worked with pro-Moscow Marxists including Frank Marshall Davis and Alice Palmer, and pro-Cuban radicals like Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, his entire life.

Their number one priority has always been the destruction of the US military, the only significant block remaining, to global revolution.

Now that the Davis/Palmer/Ayers/Dohrn protege has the reins of power, President Obama is working hard to destroy US military superiority, consciously or unconsciously, to the advantage of the Russia/China/Cuba/North Korea/Iranian/Islamic alliance.

From William Bigelow at Breitbart.com:

In an attempt to seize total control over national security and bypass congress, a frightening new step by the Obama Administration is coming into play. As noted in Friday’s Wall Street Journal in an op-ed by John Bolton and John Woo, a State Department advisory group that is run by former Secretary of Defense William Perry is advising that the U.S. and Russia both reduce nuclear weapons without a treaty, as a treaty would require ratification by Congress. This would allow Obama and his executive branch to unilaterally cut our nuclear weaponry and ignore the treaty clause of the Constitution.
As Bolton and Woo point out, the US has a greater global responsibility than Russia; Iran and North Korea, neither of which is far from Russian interests, can only be countered by U.S. military strength. In addition, they note that Russia is not a trustworthy partner in weapons reduction; it has violated many arms-control agreements, such as the 1991 Presidential Nuclear Initiatives.
Some of the inherent problems in the seizure by this executive branch of decision-making power is Barack Obama’s desire to deeply cut our nuclear forces. A joint decision with Russia would place long-term limits on our cache of arms, thus placing constraints on us catching up if Russia decides to go ahead and build and the blurring of the lines deliberately drawn by the Constitution’s Framers separating the executive and legislative branches power.
Obama has made no secret of his desire to dismantle our nuclear capacity; the New Start Treaty he championed in 2011 forced the U.S. to observe a ceiling of 700 strategic delivery vehicles and 1,550 strategic warheads, and this past March he stated his desire to cut our arsenal further:
“ … a step we have never taken before – reducing not only our strategic nuclear warheads but also tactical weapons and warheads in reserve.”
It is naïve to assume that Obama is simply blind to the results of his actions and trusts the world around him to act with generosity. There has been too much evidence of Russia’s support of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and Russia has cunningly avoided supporting sanctions on North Korea for its rocket launches; in December, Georgy Toloraya, Director of Korean Research at the Institute of Economics, simply said:
“In Russia we believe that resolutions must be observed and UN decisions must be implemented. We think that North Korea has the right for space explorations but only after all the issues linked with the UN sanctions banning rocket launches with the use of ballistic technologies are settled. It is necessary to divide two aspects – we support the discussion of the rocket launch issue by the UN Security Council but we don’t think that this must automatically mean tougher sanctions against Pyongyang.”
Obama knows all this. His step-by-step evisceration of the United States is not confined to its economic system but its national defense as well.

I go a little further. I say that Obama is happy to wreck the US economy, because this will enable him to completely destroy US military defensive capability. This is the REAL agenda of the left. The people Obama has worked with his entire life.

Four more years of Obama may well bring America to the point of no return.

If Obama is allowed to realize the Davis/Palmer/Ayers/Dohrn vision of a militarily impotent America, Americans will be faced with two very harsh choices.

Lay down your arms and give up your sovereignty to a United Nations world superstate.

Or face the combined military might of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, possibly Pakistan, Indonesia and Brazil, and several other countries… with hardly a friend in the world to come to your aid.

This won’t be a one or two front conflict. This will be a multi-polar, all out attack on the US homeland.

Americans need to wake up. And fast.

Putin to OK Adoption Cold War on US

uk.news.yahoo.com

Russian President Putin says he will sign a bill that bars Americans from adopting Russian children, despite criticism from US State Department officials, who say it would prevent unwanted kids from growing up in loving families.

Keep reading on Fox news >>

Putin reshuffles top military brass after chief's ouster

President Vladimir Putin on Friday reshuffled the nation's top military brass following the defense minister's ouster, and instructed the new top military officer to be friendlier to Russia's defense industries. 

Putin's advice to Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, appointed chief of the armed forces' General Staff, appeared to shed more light on the reasons for the ouster of Russia's powerful Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov earlier this week.

While Putin linked the ouster to a probe into the alleged military corruption, most experts believe that Serdyukov was sacked because of an intensifying behind-the-scenes battle for the distribution of 20 trillion rubles ($635 billion) that the Kremlin plans to spend on buying new weapons through 2020.

Serdyukov demanded higher quality and cheaper prices from the military industry, often refusing to sign new contracts for months. He criticized arms makers for continuing to produce Soviet-era designs instead of developing new weapons, angering industry leaders with strong Kremlin connections.

Under Serdyukov, the military purchased amphibious assault vessels from France, bought Israeli drones, Italian armored vehicles and other foreign weapons.

"We have had a problem with the Defense Ministry changing its demands to the industries," Putin said on Friday. "Of course, we must seek cutting-edge items, but we need a certain stability too. I strongly hope that you will be able to develop a stable and good partnership with our leading defense plants."

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Moscow Expects President Obama to be “More Flexible” on Missile Defense Shield

It’s payoff time for Russia.

From The Washington Post:
Russia expects Barack Obama to show more flexibility in a dispute over U.S. missile defense plans in Europe following his re-election as president, a top official said Thursday…

In March, Obama, unaware that he was speaking on an open microphone, told Dmitry Medvedev, then Russia’s president, that he would have more flexibility on the issue after the November election.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin appeared to be trying to remind Obama of his promise when he said Thursday that Moscow hopes that the U.S. president will listen to Russia’s concerns about the U.S.-led NATO missile defense for Europe.
“We hope that President Obama after his re-election will be more flexible on the issue of taking into the account the opinions of Russia and others regarding a future configuration of NATO’s missile defense,” Rogozin told an international conference in Moscow.
Russia has urged the U.S. to provide guarantees that any future shield is not aimed against it and threatened to target elements of the U.S. shield with missiles itself if no agreement is reached.
U.S. promises to inform Moscow about details of the shield aren’t enough, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday, adding that Moscow will continue pushing for firm guarantees from Washington…
The Kremlin greeted Obama’s re-election enthusiastically… Putin wrote Obama a telegram expressing hope that the two countries’ relations would improve further and inviting Obama to visit Russia next year.
Referring to comments that Republican challenger Mitt Romney had made during the campaign, Medvedev said he was “happy that the man who considers Russia (its) No. 1 geopolitical foe won’t be the president of this very large and important country.”
Former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said he hoped that being on a second term will allow Obama to focus more on relations with Russia than Romney would have with his first term.

Four more years of Obama “flexibility” and defense cuts, will leave the US military in ruins and unable to defend US allies, or even the US homeland, from Russia, China, Iran and their allies.

At that point US sovereignty, and even physical survival, will be in serious question.

Is that the plan?

Russia marks Vladimir Putin's 60th birthday

Photo: REUTERS

Telegraph

Supporters of Vladimir Putin planted his portrait on a mountain peak on Sunday as Russia marked his 60th birthday with adulation worthy of the Soviet era, but some mocking protesters portrayed him as a pensioner fit for retirement.

The ruling party's loyal Young Guard movement was to unfurl a banner on a bridge in southern Russia which they say symbolises Putin's role in uniting the Asian and European parts of a giant country that stretches over nine time zones.

Its website published a video portraying Mr Putin as the ultimate ladies' man, waited on by a gaggle of adoring, long-legged women. Other events around the country played on the tough-guy image that has been core to Mr Putin's political appeal.

Anti-Putin activists say the president won a third Kremlin term by rigging March presidential elections and ridiculed the birthday festivities as a personality cult.

They ditched plans for a major march through Moscow but were to stage a smaller scale "Let's send Grandpa into retirement" action near Red Square, protesters asked to bring gifts suitable for a pensioner such as reading glasses or a pipe.

The authorities appeared to be seeking to play down the event. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president would spend the day relaxing with close family and no special celebrations were planned.

Rusia-Cuba: Pragmatismo

viejo y mentiroso es una combinacion fatal. raul, cuando cojones tu estudiaste en la universidad de la habana.

ALEJANDRO ARMENGOL: Moscú en La Habana y guerras imaginarias

"La Rusia de Putin sirve también como una especie de espejo mágico para avizorar el destino inmediato de Cuba. Cierto, no es más que uno de los posibles destinos, pero también hay que reconocer que se encuentra entre los más probables.

Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2012/07/02/1240795/alejandro-armengol-moscu-en-la.html#storylink=cpy

En lugar de la temida vía china –mencionada en Miami como una maldición del Celeste Imperio– una Rusia, experta en el vicio al alcance de la mano, puede estar a la vuelta de la esquina. No es Pekín sino Moscú en La Habana".

Continuar leyendo   Aqui >>

6,000 former KGB officers were holding positions in Russia’s central and regional governments

Indeed, as of June 2003, some 6,000 former KGB officers were holding positions in Russia’s central and regional governments. Among them:

Vladimir Putin, elected president of Russia; Vladimir Osipov, head of the Presidential Personnel Directorate; Sergey Ivanov, defense minister; Igor Sergeyevich Ivanov, minister of foreign affairs; Viktor Ivanov and Igor Sechin, deputy directors in the Presidential Administration; Vyacheslav Soltaganov, deputy secretary of the Security Council; Viktor Vasilyevich Cherkesov, chairman of the State Committee on Drug Trafficking; Vyacheslav Trubinkov, deputy foreign minister; Vladimir Kozlov, deputy media minister; Gennady Moshkov, first deputy transport minister; Nikolay Negodov, deputy transport minister; Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, deputy minister for economic development; Vladimir Makarov, Leonid Lobzenko and Igor Mezhakov, deputy chairmen of the State Customs Committee; Sergey Verevkin-Rokhalsky and Anatoly Sedov, deputy taxes and duties ministers; Anatoly Tsybulevsky and Vladimir Lazovsky, deputy directors of the of the Federal Tax Police Service; Alexander Grigoriev, general director of the Russian Agency for State Reserves; Alexander Spiridonov, deputy chairman of Russia’s Financial Monitoring Committee; Vladimir Kulakov, Voronezh governor; Viktor Maslov, Smolensk governor.

Can you imagine a democratic Germany run by Gestapo officers?

Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa - WorldNetDaily