Ukraine Cease-Fire Said To Be Holding Despite Scattered Incidents | No one should be under any illusions, Portnikov says. “Russia is a classic fascist state,” one in which the majority of its residents support Putin’s variant of “the ideology of Hitlerism.” The Russian leader has been working in this direction since 1999, but after the Maidan in Ukraine, “Russia finally cast off its mask”... A genuinely fascist regime, be it Hitler’s or Putin’s, “can only die.” - Putin’s Russia is Already ‘a Classic Fascist State,’ Portnikov Says by Paul Goble | Russia in Far Worse Shape than Most Assume, Moscow Commentator Says by Paul Goble | Security Firm: Cybercrime Ring Stole Up to $1B From Banks
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Ukraine Cease-Fire Said To Be Holding Despite Scattered Incidents
No one should be under any illusions, Portnikov says. “Russia is a classic fascist state,” one in which the majority of its residents support Putin’s variant of “the ideology of Hitlerism.” The Russian leader has been working in this direction since 1999, but after the Maidan in Ukraine, “Russia finally cast off its mask.”
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A genuinely fascist regime, be it Hitler’s or Putin’s, “can only die.”
Putin’s Russia is Already ‘a Classic Fascist State,’ Portnikov Says by paul goble
“By its own policies,” Zharkov says, “Russia has put itself and its future at risk. The world looks at [it] with surprise and horror.” For a time, it may be frightened into going along. But as with everything, there is a limit to this – and the world may decide that it can do without Russia just as it has learned to live without Carthage and without the Golden Horde.
Russia in Far Worse Shape than Most Assume, Moscow Commentator Says by paul goble
KIEV - Ukraine plans to borrow $1 billion to establish a strategic reserve of natural gas and fuel oil to cover local needs in emergency situations, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Saturday.
 Диалог.UA - Всегда два мнения |
Заявление Президента Украины Петра Порошенко - прямая видео трансляция
Диалог.UA - Всегда два мнения В 23.30 14 февраля, за полчаса до начала режима прекращения огня, достигнутого за результатами переговоров в Минске, Президент Украины Петр Порошенко сделает экстренное заявление. Если минские договоренности по Донбассу будут нарушены, то на всей территории ... и другие » |
 Business Insider |
Hungary and Russia: The Viktor and Vladimir show
Business Insider putin and orban Yuri Kochetkov/APRussian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban shake hands during their meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014. and more » |
 Версии.сом |
Аваков отдал приказ подразделениям МВД Украины и Нацгвардии прекратить огонь в полночь
Коммерсантъ Все подразделения Нацгвардии и МВД Украины прекратят огонь в полночь по киевскому времени, согласно минским договоренностям, сообщил 15 февраля глава МВД Украины Арсен Аваков. «Подписал шифротелеграмму всем подразделениям МВД, находящимся на передовой линии ... Аваков сообщил о приказе подразделениям МВД и Нацгвардии прекратить огоньИнтерфакс Аваков приказал подразделениям МВД и Нацгвардии Украины прекратить огоньLenta.ru Аваков отдал приказ прекратить огоньГазета.Ru Комсомольская правда -СЕГОДНЯ -ЛІГА.net Все похожие статьи: 58 » |
 RT |
Russia shrugs off US envoy's 'evidence' of Russian troops in Ukraine
RT On Saturday, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, posted on Twitter what he says are satellite photos proving there are Russian artillery systems stationed near the town of Lomuvatka, about 20 kilometers northeast of Debaltsevo. The images ... |
 РИА Новости |
Задержан экс-глава фракции Партии регионов Украины в Раде
РИА Новости КИЕВ, 15 фев — РИА Новости. Бывший глава фракции украинской Партии регионов (ПР) в Верховной раде Александр Ефремов задержан, сообщает Генпрокуратура Украины в воскресенье. Здание Генеральной прокуратуры Украины. Архивное фото · © РИА Новости. Сергей ... ГПУ задержала Ефремова по подозрению в коррупцииBFM.Ru На Украине задержали экс-председателя фракции Партии регионовИнтерфакс Экс-председатель фракции Партии регионов в Верховной раде задержанВзгляд УНИАН -NEWSru.com -СЕГОДНЯ Все похожие статьи: 37 » |
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 ЛІГА.net |
В украинской армии сообщили о минометном обстреле позиций в Луганской области
Интерфакс Москва. 15 февраля. INTERFAX.RU - Позиции украинских военнослужащих были обстреляны из минометов в селе Золотое Луганской области. Об этом "Интерфаксу" сообщили в штабе украинской армии. "Блокпост украинских военнослужащих в районе н. п. Золотое в 00:25 (01:25 по ... Украинские силовики заявляют, что их обстреляли из минометов после наступления режима прекращения огняBFM.Ru Российские войска нарушили режим прекращения огняЛІГА.net Еще и получаса не прошло с начала перемирия, как позиции украинских военнослужащих были обстреляны из минометов в селе Золотое Луганской ...Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Интерфакс - Украина -NEWSru.co.il -УКРАИНСКАЯ ПРАВДА Все похожие статьи: 16 » |
On Mary Venezi’s first day at Greece’s state broadcaster, ERT, her editors told her: “No matter what happens, the news will go live, even if there’s an earthquake, a fire or if we all die. News will go live or it’s a dictatorship.”
The attacks in Copenhagen are a loss of innocence for liberal Denmark’s attempt to take a non-punitive approach towards its citizens who have gone off to fight for Islamists in Syria and Iraq.
A few miles out of Artyomovsk, there is a turn to the right. There, most civilian vehicles disappear, and the highway turns into a dramatic artery of war, with green diesel trucks, rocket launchers, missile transporters, armoured vehicles and tanks pulsate along the frozen road, over the hill towards the theatre of Debaltseve.
 РИА Новости |
Керри в разговоре с Лавровым призвал к выполнению Минских соглашений
РИА Новости В полночь по киевскому времени в Донбассе, согласно минским договоренностям, должен был наступить режим прекращения огня. Госсекретарь США Джон Керри. © REUTERS/ Heinz-Peter Bader. ВАШИНГТОН, 15 фев — РИА Новости. Госсекретарь США Джон Керри в телефонном ... Керри позвонил Лаврову, чтобы в очередной раз обсудить проблему урегулирования украинского кризисаBFM.Ru На востоке Украины в эти минуты должно вступить в силу перемирие.Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Госдеп США выразил МИД РФ озабоченность попытками отрезать Дебальцево накануне режима тишиныАпостроф РБК -Вести.Ru -BBC Russian Все похожие статьи: 31 » |
 УНИАН |
Порошенко предупредил военных об угрозе срыва режима прекращения огня
ИА REGNUM Президент Украины Петр Порошенко за несколько минут до 00 часов 15 февраля выступил с обращением в генеральном штабе вооруженных сил Украины. Его выступление транслировалось центральными телеканалами страны. Украинский президент предупредил военных о том, ... Порошенко: сепаратисты могут сорвать мирный процессBBC Russian Порошенко призвал ОБСЕ начать мониторинг ситуации в ДебальцевоГазета.Ru «Пусть простит меня Господь»: Порошенко обещал нанести удар по ополченцамНТВ.ru ЛІГА.net -Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ -Комсомольская правда Все похожие статьи: 138 » |
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A man shot in the head near a synagogue in central Copenhagen early today died soon afterwards from his injuries, police said. Two police officers were shot in the arms and legs during the incident. The suspect fled on foot.
 ЛІГА.net |
Порошенко обсудит соблюдение режима тишины с Кэмероном и Обамой
ЛІГА.net 15 февраля и в ближайшие дни президент Украины Петр Порошенко проведет телефонные разговоры с премьер-министром Великобритании Дэвидом Кэмероном, президентом США Бараком Обамой и другими мировыми лидерами о соблюдении Минских соглашений и в частности ... Порошенко скоординировал действия с ОбамойБиржевой лидер Все похожие статьи: 121 » |
Security Firm: Cybercrime Ring Stole Up to $1B From Banksby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
A multinational gang of cybercriminals has stolen as much as $1 billion from as many as 100 financial institutions around the world in about two years, Russian computer security company Kaspersky Labs said Saturday. The company said it was working with Interpol, Europol and authorities from different countries to try to uncover more details on what it called an unprecedented robbery. The gang, which Kaspersky dubbed Carbanak, takes the unusual approach of stealing directly from banks, rather than posing as customers to withdraw money from companies' or individuals' accounts. It said the gang included cybercriminals from Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, as well as China. Carbanak thieves used carefully crafted emails to trick pre-selected employees into opening malicious software files, a common technique known as spear phishing, the company said. They were then able to get into the internal network and track down administrators' computers for video surveillance. In this way, Kaspersky said, the criminals learned how the bank clerks worked and could mimic their activity when transferring the money. In some cases, Carbanak inflated account balances before pocketing the extra funds through a fraudulent transaction. Because the legitimate funds were still there, the account holder would not suspect a problem. Kaspersky said Carbanak also remotely seized control of ATMs and ordered them to dispense cash at a predetermined time, when a gang member would be waiting to collect the money. "These attacks again underline the fact that criminals will exploit any vulnerability in any system,'' Sanjay Virmani, director of Interpol Digital Crime Center, said in a statement prepared by Kaspersky. "It also highlights the fact that no sector can consider itself immune to attack and must constantly address their security procedures.''
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As Vladimir Putin achieves his minimal goal in Minsk, Russia is isolated from Europe and the US but spreading its reach to new alliances
After the ceasefire negotiated in Minsk, a peace settlement in eastern Ukraine remains distant. Most of the points in the agreement, including Ukraine’s constitutional reform and the resumption of Kiev’s control over the entire Ukrainian-Russian border, will probably never be implemented. The most one can hope for is that the conflict is frozen and people stop dying. Even that, however, cannot be taken for granted, as continued fighting ahead of the ceasefire’s formal entry into force suggests.
If the truce sticks, it will be the first negotiated arrangement in a newly divided Europe, leaving Russia almost alone on the east, with much of the rest of Europe supporting Ukraine. This split can grow much worse if the conflict in Donbass continues. But even if it stops, reconciliation is not on the cards. This means that in the foreseeable future there will be no common security system on the continent of Europe, no commonly agreed-upon norms and no rules of behaviour. The world disorder has entered the recently most stable and best-regulated part of the globe: Europe.
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Staunton, February 1 – There are denials, “non-denial denials,” and then denials that have the effect of confirming exactly what those doing the denying are seeking to disown and providing additional information as well. A classical example of the last is provided by the head of a Kremlin think tank who was trying to undercut the revelations of one of his former staffers.
As Kseniya Kirillova documents on Novy Region 2, the head of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISI), earlier part of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and now in the Presidential Administration, admits his institution “over the course of the year has actively cooperated with analysts of the Greek SYRIZA Party” and that its leader, the new Greek prime minister, visited RISI.
That admission came in the course of a press release from RISI director Leonid Reshetnikov, a retired lieutenant general, concerning statements by Aleksandr Sytin, his former staffer, about RISI’s involvement in planning the Russian Anschluss of Crimea and the war in the Donbass and its current appeals for forming “pro-Russian” groups in Belarus on the basis of ties with the security agencies in that country.
Reshetnikov clearly intended his remarks to undercut what Sytin had said, but in fact, the director’s words serve to confirm in large measure what the Russian analyst has said. Thus, as Kirillova notes, during the course of 2014, the director said, “the institute…prepared more than 600 analytic materials for those involved in the foreign policy of our country.”
In response, the former lieutenant general said, the institute and its staff “received for many of them a highly positive assessment from the policy-making organs of the government.” Clearly, at least in Reshetnikov’s mind, RISI is not one voice among many but a key player in the policy process in Moscow.
More than that, it continues to play a role far beyond Ukraine. Reshetnikov noted that RISI analysts have “devoted great attention to the situation” in other former Soviet republics and beyond and to economic problems as well.
But perhaps most immediately intriguing, Reshetnikov pointed to the close cooperation RISI has with Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek prime minister, who is also thought to have close ties with Eurasian ideologue Aleksandr Dugin who has also been a major advocate of Putin’s “Novorossiya” program.
And lest anyone think that RISI is out on its own, Reshetnikov concludes his statement with the observation that his institute “occupies a correct government position, and with complete conviction,” he says, “we will continue this line!” – words that should worry anyone concerned about the aggressive positions he and RISI have taken up to now.
For background on Sytin and RISI, see my “Russian Think Tank that Pushed for Invasion of Ukraine Wants Moscow to Overthrow Lukashenka,” Eurasia Daily Monitor, 27.I.15.
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Denmark On Edge After Double Shootingsby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
A massive police search was under way early on February 15 in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, after a shooting that police labeled a terrorism attack was followed by second shooting hours later near a synagogue.
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 Voice of America |
US: Russia Resupplying Pro-Russian Forces as Cease-Fire Nears
Voice of America STATE DEPARTMENT—. The United States says Russia is sending large amounts of military supplies and equipment to pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine, as the deadline for a cease-fire draws near and raging fighting kills at least 26 people. Fears for Ukraine's ceasefire as clashes with Russia-backed rebels intensifyThe Guardian Ukraine Cease-Fire Goes Into Effect, but Rebel Leader in Key Town Repudiates ...New York Times Images Appear to Show Russian Artillery Targeting Ukrainian TownWall Street Journal RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty-Financial Post all 8,778 news articles » |
Shelling suddenly stopped in Donetsk and Mairupol at midnight after President Petro Poroshenko gave order was given to government forces
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 Аргументы и факты |
В центре Варшавы загорелся один из мостов через Вислу
Коммерсантъ В центре польской столицы горит Лазенковский мост через реку Висла. Движение по нему полностью перекрыто. «Предварительная информация указывает на то, что могли вспыхнуть доски, которые складировались под мостом. В результате пожара загорелись деревянные ... В центре Варшавы полыхает мост через ВислуИА REGNUM Мост в центре Варшавы тушили более 10 часовLenta.ru В центре Варшавы загорелся мост через ВислуКомсомольская правда Взгляд -Подробности -НТВ.ru Все похожие статьи: 31 » |
 bigmir)net |
Штаб ДНР: мы вынуждены открывать огонь для подавления киевских диверсантов
ИА REGNUM После экстренного совещания представитель министерства обороны ДНР заявил, что украинская армия нарушила режим прекращения огня, передает Донецкое агентство новостей. Как сообщил заместитель командующего корпусом Минобороны ДНР Эдуард Басурин, ополченцы ... 5 часов перемирия на востоке УкраиныРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Киев заявил о десяти случаях нарушения ополченцами перемирияАргументы и факты ДНР: украинские силовики открыли минометный и артиллерийский огоньНТВ.ru Маяк -Российская Газета -РИА Новости Украина Все похожие статьи: 1 197 » |
 РБК |
5 часов перемирия на востоке Украины
Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ В целом режим артиллерийской тишины соблюдается. Зафиксировано 10 обстрелов, 9 из них в одном секторе, сообщили "Интерфаксу" в штабе украинских войск. Согласно информации, на данный момент потерь среди военнослужащих нет. Особенно напряженная обстановка ... Штаб ДНР: мы вынуждены открывать огонь для подавления киевских диверсантовИА REGNUM Террористы ДНР уверяют, что готовятся отводить вооруженияПодробности ДНР: ополченцы вынуждены отвечать огнемНТВ.ru Маяк -Российская Газета -Взгляд Все похожие статьи: 1 462 » |
 РБК |
Хакеры из России, Китая и Европы похитили со счетов более 100 банков в 30 странах $300 млн
Московский комсомолец Международная группировка хакеров из России, Китая и стран Европы похитила со счетов клиентов банков около $300 млн, пишет The New York Times. Издание ссылается на доклад «Лаборатории Касперского», который будет опубликован в понедельник, 16 февраля. «Лаборатория ... Хакеры похитили 300 миллионов долларов у сотни банков, в том числе и из РоссииРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Хакеры украли 300 млн долларов с банковских счетов по всему мируЮжный Федеральный Хакеры похитили $300 млн со счетов сотен банков по всему миру — NYTGlobalural.com Медийно-новостной портал 24smi.org -Tengri News Все похожие статьи: 57 » |
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Putin: Will he go nuclear? by Marc Bennetts
The Ukraine crisis has turned into a potentially apocalyptic nuclear stand-off as President Vladimir Putin primes Russia for conflict with the West. But how scared should we really be?
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Danish police have shot and killed the man they believe was responsible for twoshooting attacks that claimed the lives of two civilians in Copenhagen within hours of each other. Вести.Ru |
В России отмечают годовщину вывода советских войск из Афганистана
Вести.Ru 26-я годовщина вывода советских войск из Афганистана отмечается в воскресенье. Как сообщает ТАСС, в Москве памятные мероприятия пройдут в парке Победы на Поклонной горе — там состоится торжественное возложение цветов к памятнику Воинам-интернационалистам, затем ... Россия вспоминает погибших в горячих точкахДни.Ру Афганистан 26 лет спустя: возможно, мы ушли не навсегдаРИА Новости Все похожие статьи: 199 » |
 НТВ.ru |
Ангелу Меркель хотят выдвинуть на Нобелевскую премию мира
Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Канцлер ФРГ должна быть отмечена за вклад в урегулирование ситуации на Украине. Если быть точнее – за договоренности, которые при ее непосредственном участии были достигнуты на этой неделе в Минске. То, чего добились госпожа Меркель и президент Франции, невероятно, ... Бундестан призвал наградить Меркель Нобелевской премией мира за УкраинуМосковский комсомолец В бундестаге предложили номинировать Меркель на Нобелевскую премию мираВзгляд Депутаты бундестага предлагают вручить Меркель Нобелевскую премию мираКомсомольская правда НТВ.ru -Аргументы и факты -ИА REGNUM Все похожие статьи: 47 » |
Pro-Russian rebels have shelled Ukrainian positions ten times since a ceasefire started at midnight – but the truce is still generally being observed, Ukraine’s military has said.
Two Ukrainian citizens killed by Grad missile fire after the start of a ceasefire deal, pro-Kiev official says
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• Police in Copenhagen have shot dead a man they believe was responsible for the two deadly shootings
 Вести.Ru |
Генштаб Украины признает выполнение ополченцами условий перемирия
Вести.Ru Действия ополченцев после вступления в силу режима прекращения огня в Донбассе не дают повода говорить о срыве перемирия, заявил в воскресенье представитель Генштаба Украины Владислав Селезнев. Он также озвучил условия, при которых украинские военные откроют огонь. Режим прекращения огня соблюдается везде, кроме ДебальцевоУтро.Ru Ополченцы и силовики подтвердили соблюдение режима перемирия в ДонбассеKM.RU Режим прекращения огня в целом соблюдается, - пресс-секретарь ПорошенкоРБК Украина MIGnews.com -Mail.Ru -ЛІГА.net Все похожие статьи: 168 » |
The first attack took place on Saturday, when a gunman sprayed bullets into the cafe where a Swedish cartoonist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad was speaking, killing one man.
Amid doubts, truce in Ukraine appears to take holdby Karoun Demirjian, Michael Birnbaum
ARTEMIVSK, Ukraine — A newly-declared cease-fire in eastern Ukraine appeared to mostly hold through the night Sunday, though both Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels had traded accusations of violations by the morning.Read full article >>
Russia is marking a holiday in honor of soldiers who "performed their duties to the Fatherland outside of the country."
Russia in Far Worse Shape than Most Assume, Moscow Commentator Says by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 15 – Vladimir Putin’s bombast and aggressiveness both is rooted in and helps conceal the underlying reality: “the situation of Russia is much more difficult than it appears,” as even the most superficial examination of Russian realities demonstrates, according to Moscow political analyst Vasily Zharkov.
In a commentary in yesterday’s “Novaya gazeta,” the scholar at the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences points to five reasons that Moscow propaganda has with some success sought to conceal not only from Russians but from citizens of other countries as well (novayagazeta.ru/comments/67273.html).
First, he writes, “Russia is a poor country.” However much people focus on the limousines of its wealth, the future pensions of its citizens are so small that they would elicit only pity “in the poorest of the EU countries” and the state of its villages and other rural areas is comparable to “the poorest countries of Africa.”
Indeed, Zharkov says, “the shine of the capital windows is not so much a sign of wealth as evidence of the bestial inequality and injustice which somehow is accepted as the norm.”
Second, he argues, “Russia is far from united. Moscow and the provinces are not simply different countries,” but on opposite sides of the border “between the first and third worlds.” As it has worked out, Russia has established “within itself” the global inequality which exists elsewhere between countries.
Third, having lost Soviet political institutions but “not acquired any others in exchange, Russia is balanced at the edge of a war of all against all,” an “internal” conflict which was concealed during the period of high prices of oil but is now very much on public view for anyone who will look.
It is not really a state in the modern sense. Instead, it is a “neo-feudal” structure in which corruption plays the key role. Theft of oil and gas revenues are in fact at the core of the much-ballyhooed “power vertical” because they and not anything else are “the basis of loyalty to ‘the system.’”
Fourth, “Russia cannot any longer be considered a big country” because its “enormous territory has still not been colonized completely.” Instead, it is hollowing out as a result of irreversible demographic decline, something that won’t be reversed because Russia “remains among those countries least attractive for immigrants.”
Some people are afraid that the depopulation of Russia will lead to its occupation by others, “but there is another variant,” one in which it will become a territory no one needs or wants except for its natural resources. Those others will be able to take because Russia will not be able to prevent them from doing so.
And fifth, Zharkov writes, “Russia is no longer a country where Nobel laureates are born. All out cultural and scientific achievements are in the past. In the present, libraries burn, schools and universities contract, obscurantism replaces humanitarian knowledge with magicians driving out contemporary medicine.”
Some say that Russia can lift itself out of all these problems as it did in the 1930s by a mobilization regime. But that is a false hope. There aren’t any more peasant masses who could become a new “labor army,” and bringing in labor migrants from abroad is going to be ever more difficult, whatever the government thinks.
Moreover, he points out, Russia has succeeded in getting embroiled in a fight with the West, “without the participation of which over the last 500 years not a single branch of industry in Russia has arisen.” Even Stalin’s industrialization would have been impossible “without the technological participation of the United States and Germany.”
Many Russians have exalted in the annexation of Crimea without recognizing that that action carries with it a threat to their country as well: if Russia doesn’t respect the borders of other countries, it “shouldn’t be surprised if at some point” its own borders are changed and “not only by our will.”
Still, many Russians and others are convinced that Moscow still has the ultimate support – nuclear weapons, “which were achieved for the USSR by the American family of the Rosenbergs in the name of the unachievable idea of the construction of communism.”
In recent months, Moscow has threatened the world with its nuclear weapons, something that will work only until the US and China develop new weapons that Russia cannot and leads the rest of the world to wonder “what can be done with a country which threatens to organize the end of the world.”
“By its own policies,” Zharkov says, “Russia has put itself and its future at risk. The world looks at [it] with surprise and horror.” For a time, it may be frightened into going along. But as with everything, there is a limit to this – and the world may decide that it can do without Russia just as it has learned to live without Carthage and without the Golden Horde.
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Russian Language Not United or Unifying Even Inside Russian Federation by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 15 – Despite Vladimir Putin’s having put the Russian language at the center of his ideas about a “Russian world,” ever more people recognize that in Ukraine and elsewhere, many who speak Russian even as their first language identify not as Russians in the way the Kremlin leader hopes but as loyal citizens of other countries.
Putin’s misconception of the role of the “great and powerful” Russian language is not limited to that, however. As Aleksandr Lyabin points out in today’s “Komsomolskaya pravda,” the Russian language is far less unified and unifying within the Russian Federation than most people have been led to think (m.kp.ru/daily/26342.7/3222103/).
Lyabin discusses some 150 words used by Russian speakers in various parts of the country but not in others and argues that this shows “the wealth of the language.” But at the same time, he points out that most of these words confuse Muscovites or people from other parts of the Russian Federation who have no idea what they mean.
And while he does not cite Bernard Shaw’s classic observation that “England and America are two countries divided by a common language,” it is clear from Lyabin’s 3800-word article that today, Russians in Russia are becoming increasingly “divided” by dialects within the language Putin insists is the basis of unity.
Although the existence of dialects within Russian has been known to experts for a very long time, Lyabin’s article brings that issue very much into the center of public attention in a way that not only calls into question the success of Moscow’s effort to promote standard Russian but also challenges the self-confident assumption of many Russians that their language like their nation remains an assimilator and unlike others is not at risk of assimilation.
As Lyabin shows, many of the words Russians have incorporated into their language are taken from the peoples they live among or near, from non-Russian nations within the Russian Federation like the Tatars, Buryats, and Udmurts – or even from neighboring countries like China, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia.
Among the many regional Russian usages he discusses are those found in Irkutsk, in Pskov oblast, and in St. Petersburg.
In Irkutsk, he says, people routinely use words that a visitor from European Russia would have no idea as to their meaning. Some of these are inherited from the ancient Turkic peoples who populated the region. Others come from words developed by the first Russian colonizers. And still others come from Chinese or other oriental languages.
In Pskov, he says, Russians have replaced the letter “ch” with the letter “ts” in many words, something that makes them unintelligible to many outsiders. According to the Moscow journalist, these substitutions in many cases reflect “the strong influence” of Belarusian, Latvian, Estonian and Ukrainian languages on Russian speakers in Pskov.
And in St. Petersburg, natives use many words that no Muscovite would, Lyabin says, although he notes that he Northern capital has often been the path in for foreign words that then spread to the rest of the country. For example, people there began using the word ban-lon for sweaters of a particular type, although they have now corrupted that to “badlon.”
The “Moskovsky komsomolets” journalist freely admits that he has touched only the tip of this iceberg, and he invites his readers to send in other examples so that he will be able to compile a dictionary for the perplexed. The postings so far suggest that this is likely to be a growth industry in the coming days.
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 ИА REGNUM |
Путин о советских солдатах в Афганистане: они воевали с честью
ИА REGNUM В 26-ю годовщину вывода советских войск из Афганистана президент России Владимир Путин встретился с ветеранами — «афганцами». Почтив минутой молчания память тех, кто погиб, исполняя воинский и гражданский долг перед Отечеством, глава государства заявил, что советские ... Путин: Поводом для ввода советских войск в Афганистан стали реальные угрозыКомсомольская правда Путин обсудил проблему экстремизма с ветеранскими организациямиРоссийская Газета Путин: причиной ввода советских войск в Афганистан были реальные угрозыАргументы и факты Взгляд -Вести.Ru -Московский комсомолец Все похожие статьи: 34 » |
Two years ago, the Earth caught a glimpse of disaster in the form of a 12,000-tonne meteorite that exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk
It happened at 9:20am local time. A fireball appeared from out of the crystal clear blue sky over the southern Ural region in Russia. Rapidly increasing in brightness, it blazed brighter than the Sun.
The lightshow turned dangerous when the fireball abruptly exploded, injuring more than 1200 people. Some were burnt by the heat but most were cut as the shock wave from the explosion violently smashed windows. The city sustained 1 billion roubles (£10m) worth of damage.
Continue reading...Kvas Patriots Harming Russia More than Its Nominal Enemies, Samoylov Says by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 15 – “Kvas patriotism,” the term Russians have long used to describe the crudest and most uncritical form of loyalty to the state among them, once again has won out in Russia, Aleksandr Samoylov says; and it is again inflicting more damage on the country than the foreign states that both those infected by it and the Kremlin identify as Russia’s enemies.
The reason for that conclusion, the Moscow commentator says, is that kvas patriots “support any actions of the existing authorities” in ways that do not in fact provide real support to those in power but which convince the latter they are always right, something that has led to disaster in Russia again and again (maxpark.com/community/politic/content/3290515).
As a result, he continues “our country has frequently shown that the government” which has such supporters and which takes their declarations of loyalty at face value nonetheless completely incapable of “guaranteeing national security of the country or a happy future for the descendants” of the kvas patriots and everyone else.
. The USSR was only the latest example, Samoylov writes. In Soviet times, “the terms patriot and patriotism were extremely popular, but this was far from the feeling of patriotism which makes the people and each individual responsible for the life of the country. In fact, we delegated this responsibility to the regime and left ourselves in the comfortable position of outside observers.”
That meant that when the USSR collapsed, many Russians “threw up their hands and said ‘well, what could we do!?’” They blamed the three leaders who assembled in Beloveshchaya and “under the influence of alcohol organized things for hundreds of millions” of people, and they utterly refused to assume that they themselves had anything to do with this – or should.
The harm that such “quasi-patriots” have inflicted on Russia “unfortunately has still not received an adequate assessment,” and quite possibly for that reason, they continue to inflict such harm even now, allowing the leaders to avoid facing reality and allowing themselves to view Russia as something others but not themselves are responsible.
Again and again this has happened: it led to the ignominious loss to Japan in 1905, to the deaths of millions in World War II, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and to more recent adventures as well, including not just Georgia and Ukraine but the conversion of Russia into a raw materials supplier to the world without industry but with an ever more impoverished people.
In the months following the annexation of Crimea, Russia has experienced the latest wave of kvas patriotism. One can only speculate, Samoylov says, to what new disaster it will lead a country whose population likes to call itself patriotic but shows no readiness to take responsibility for what is going on.
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Putin’s Russia is Already ‘a Classic Fascist State,’ Portnikov Says by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, February 15 – Fascism is no longer a threat in Russia, Vitaly Portnikov says; rather, it is “an accomplished fact,” the result of a step by step process in which Vladimir Putin has realized that ignominious goal by destroying all democratic institutions, exploiting the grievances of the population, and increasingly using force abroad and at home.
Thus, it is time to stop speaking about fascism as a possibility in Russia as many, including most recently Anton Oleynik in “Vedomosti,” continue to do and to face up to the factnthat it is already in place -- and that the real question is what Russians and others now must do in response (rufabula.com/news/2015/02/15/fashist-state).
After the Crimean Anschluss, Russia’s part system was “finally liquidated,” and “United Russia, Just Russia, the KPRF and the LDPR can at any moment be united in some sort of National Socialist Workers Party of Russia. All of them will only be glad to do so,” something that makes a mockery of the Russian opposition’s complaints about electoral fraud.
That opposition has been declared “’a fifth column,’” he points out. “Big business just like in [Hitler’s] Reich finances the projects of those in power. There is a fuehrer. Nothing else is needed” – except of course using force rather than any other means to achieve Putin’s goals. And he has done that in Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine as well as inside Russia as well.
No one should be under any illusions, Portnikov says. “Russia is a classic fascist state,” one in which the majority of its residents support Putin’s variant of “the ideology of Hitlerism.” The Russian leader has been working in this direction since 1999, but after the Maidan in Ukraine, “Russia finally cast off its mask.”
Consequently, first Russians and then all the rest of the world “now have seen the disgusting grin of its statehood.” It is irrelevant that Putin doesn’t call himself a fascist. As Oleynik pointed out, neither did Hitler. Thus Nazisn was “a form of fascism” just as Putin’s regime is “a form of fascism. No more and no less.”
Something that both the supporters and the opponents of Putinist fascism need to remember is this, Portnikov says. “there are practically no cases of the modernization of fascist regimes.” Spain isn’t really an exception because the Caudillo was “not a classical fascist.” He simply included the Falangists in his regime.
A genuinely fascist regime, be it Hitler’s or Putin’s, “can only die.” How that happens is something for history to decide. But the task of hastening it is something anyone who cares about democracy and freedom cannot avoid facing – and facing right now. Acting as if this is not the case is not only a delusion; it is a critical political mistake that will entail enormous costs.
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The cease-fire in Ukraine that came into effect during the night is generally holding, despite some reports of scattered shelling.
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Shelling stopped abruptly at midnight on Saturday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk after President Petro Poroshenko ordered government forces to halt firing in line with a ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the country's bloody conflict.
Staunton, February 14 – Despite his success in intimidating some European governments into inaction or even willingness to come to terms with the results of his aggression, Vladimir Putin in fact is having to cope with an ever-shrinking Russia world as his insistence on Minsk as a venue for talks about Ukraine shows.
Indeed, had European leaders understood that the Kremlin leader could hardly tolerate talks anywhere else, they would have been in a far better position to make more demands not only of Putin concerning Ukraine but also of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, their official “host” in the Minsk talks.
In a comment for the Charter 97 web site, Iryna Khalip, a Belarusian journalist who writes regularly for Moscow’s Novaya Gazeta, says that Putin needed his meeting with the German chancellor and the French president to be in Minsk “and not in any other place in the world” for three reasons.
First of all, she says, Putin chose Belarus because it is one of the few places outside of Russia where he feels himself to be “the master.” That is not the case in Kazakhstan, and the Kremlin leader isn’t inclined to travel beyond the borders of his Eurasian Economic Community whose rulers defer to him most of the time.
Second, Belarus was about the only place where the Donbass separatists “could feel themselves safe” and where they would “not only not be arrested but would be able to sit at one table with the adults.” That gave them the status Putin wanted them to have, and just their being at the same talks was “sufficient” for his purposes.
And third, “by insisting on Minsk as the site of the meeting, Vladimir Putin reduced to nil all the declarations of the leaders of the EU countries made after the mass arrests” in Belarus in December 2010. At that time, they said that any high level contacts between the EU and Belarus were impossible.
Despite those declarations, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande came to Minsk, where they were hosted by the author of those arrests, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and said nothing about the freezing of former presidential candidate Mikola Statkevich or anyone else. He remains in prison. Had the Europeans insisted, Putin would have convinced Lukashenka to release him.
Khalip then addresses the larger problems of this venue as a summit. Summit meetings, she points out, are not occasions for negotiations but rather “the last stage” in such a process. But Merkel and Hollande acted otherwise and that gave Putin the opportunity to “wrap them around his little finger” and get what he wanted out of the session without yielding anything in return.
“The difference between Merkel and Hollande, on the one hand, and Putin and Lukashenka on the other is that the latter two not once for many years has kept his word,” Khalip writes. The Europeans are accustomed to the idea that promises will be kept, while Putin and Lukashenka assume that promises are made for anything but that.
And the Europeans, or at least Merkel and Hollande, suffer from another problem as well: they can’t afford to take part in a meeting after which they would have to say to their electors at home: “forgive us, we weren’t able” to reach an agreement. That means they need to know going into a meeting what will be agreed to or they will be manipulated.
This need also means that the Europeans do not always understand what the meeting is about or what the other side wants. Putin knew what he wanted at Minsk and it was not about the Donbass. He had much bigger goals in mind, including the end of sanctions, an end to his isolation, and a reaffirmation of his role in Belarus.
“Europe in these negotiations thus demonstrated all its weaknesses,” Khalip says, including its “complete inability to defend itself, its lack of a strategy toward the Russia of today, its indifference to the territories of others,” and its willingness to pay off bandits like Putin and Lukashenka in order to continue to live quietly until they make new threats and new demands.
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Staunton, February 13 – In what Vladimir Putin may see as an additional benefit and others as collateral damage, the Minsk accords have deepened splits within the European Union, with European Parliament Vice President Ryszard Czarnecki saying that the German and French leaders “sacrificed” Ukraine at Munich for the economic interests of their own countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, “without the participation of the EU and promoting the economic interests of their own countries, have sacrificed Ukraine,” Czarnecki says, legitimating Russia’s “achievements” and creating a world more beneficial to Moscow than to Kyiv.
In other comments, the Polish and European politician says that it is unfortunately the case that some European countries “would like to have peace at any price,” something they may have achieved in the short run by their concessions at Minsk but not something that is likely to last for long.
On the one hand, Czarnecki says, the pro-Moscow militants in southeastern Ukraine with continuing Russian backing are likely to try to seize even more territory and undermine Ukrainian statehood. And on the other, Kyiv will have no choice but to try to block them whatever the Minsk accords say.
By insisting on the negotiating arrangements in Minsk, Putin not only excluded the US, legitimated his agents in Ukraine, but has divided Europe still further, an amazing Russian achievement but one that the leaders of Germany and France in large measure facilitated, something that Ukrainians and all people of good will should never forget.
Staunton, February 14 – Most in Russia and many in the West are so used to thinking of fascism and especially Nazism as a phenomenon of the extreme right that they do not remember that Nazism was National Socialism and that until the Rohm Purge it was as much a movement of the left as of the right.
That failure to understand the roots of Nazism, a failure largely maintained by Soviet and Russian insistence that the Nazis never be identified by the full name of their party – the National Socialist German Workers Party – and by intellectual laziness in the West is limiting the ability of analysts to understand the kind of fascism Vladimir Putin is building.
As a result, while many have talked about “a Weimar scenario” for Russia, few have considered that Vladimir Putin may seek to promote what could be called “left-wing” fascism rather than the “right wing” kind that most people think is the only one that can exist or that the “left-wing” variety, which stresses socialist elements, explains the support he and it have.
In Vedomosti on February 13, Anton Oleynik, a scholar at Memorial University in Canada, argues that fascism has its roots not in the class politics Marxism suggests but elsewhere, in “the discrediting of formal institutions because of the lack of correspondence between them and actual practice” and a sense that in that situation one’s interests can be defended only by force.
To the extent that is the case, he argues, fascism in Russia would not necessarily be introduced by the extreme right but could draw support “by its actions” from ordinary citizens and representatives of the authorities,” who have lost any faith in the “formal institutions” of domestic governance or international relations.
In that event and for that reason, “as was the case in Weimar Germany, the fascist project in Russia has the chance to gain the support of the majority,” although those who support this project won’t call it fascism or themselves fascists. But then, as Oleynik points out, “Hitler didn’t call himself a fascist either.”
Oleynik begins his article by observing that it is now fashionable in Russia to use the word “fascist” and its derivatives to talk about the extreme right in that country. But that use by itself distracts attention from “a source of fascism which allows it to flourish precisely in Russia today – the inability of formal institutions to correspond to the expectations of the population.”
Institutions, as Douglas North has pointed out in his book Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, establish the frameworks for human interaction, that is, “the rules of the game.” But what is critical, Oleynik says, is whether formal institutions correspondent to actual practice or not.
If they don’t, then sooner or later, people turn away from the formal institutions because “no one likes playing in an ‘alien’ game.” That is exactly what has happened in Russia both with regard to democracy at home and the international rules of the game established by the West over the last two decades abroad.
When an individual or a country refuses to play by the rules, it either “refuses to play” and leaves the game to others or makes an effort to impose its rules on others by force.
The Weimar Republic lasted only 14 years, but it represented an attempt to find “a ‘wise compromise’ between revolution and the status quo. (It was also, Oleynik notes, “the first attempt at the existence of a unified Germany.”) The attempt did not succeed and ended with Hitler’s coming to power.
There has been much interest in Russia in the Weimar case “because of certain analogies between Weimar Germany and post-Soviet Russia. The latter also became the product of a rejection of a revolutionary variant of development.” Indeed, “in 1991, a real revolution did not take place.”
Instead, “in place of the Soviet empire which had disappeared gradually has been restored another empire, a New Russian one. Its size is not comparable with the Soviet one, but the principle is the same,” Oleynik says. That sets up the possibility that after a Weimar-like period, Russia could enter into a fascist one.
One of the first to warn of this danger was Aleksandr Yanov in his 1995 book, After Yeltsin: ‘Weimar’ Russia in which he pointed to the internal weakness of the empire, something exacerbated by the weakness of democratic institutions into what he suggested was “an explosive mixture.”
During the prosperous first decade of the 21st century, many forgot about this prediction, but in fact, it was exactly during that period that the preconditions for its fulfillment were met: “The empire stood up again. Sovereign democracy strengthened. Art and sport flourished,” again just as in Weimar times.
In many respects, Oleynik says, “the defeat of the USSR in the Cold War played a role analogous in contemporary Russia” to what Germany’s defeat in World War I did. “Formally, there wasn’t any capitulation, but the status of super power was lost” and from the point of view of others, Russia was no longer an empire but “an ordinary country.”
As in Weimar Germany, so, too in post-Soviet Russia, many people were anything but accepting of that change, and their feelings were exacerbated by the fact that “as in Weimar Germany,” democratic institutions in Russia “’haven’t worked.’” As a result, democracy has come to be associated only with elite games and popular suffering.
German theorist Peter Sloterdijk said of Weimar that “everywhere the bitter feeling of having been deceived was combined with the sense that everything had to begin again from square one,” a statement that could be applied with equal force to post-Soviet Russia, Oleynik argues.
Moreover, as Sloterdijk has written, fascism “directly rejects efforts to somehow legitimate itself by openly proclaiming cruelty and ‘holy egotism’ as a political necessity and a historical-biological law.” In such circumstances, nationalism “becomes one of the means of rejecting formal institutions of democracy and international agreements viewed as alien and as having been imposed from the outside.”
Again, Russia fully fits into this pattern, deploying force outside its borders to correct what it sees as a world order that was imposed on it and force within its borders to correct a situation that the institutions it was compelled to accept do not work or in fact work directly against its interests.
If the economic situation worsens and popular dissatisfaction increases, Oleynik suggests, these forces working to bring fascism, especially a left fascism, to Russia will only increase not only as a survival strategy for the elites but also as a means of resolving the sense of betrayal among many members of the population.
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Francesco Schettino made an irresistible villain as the world sought someone to blame for the Costa Concordia disaster. Not only had he recklessly piloted his huge cruise liner on to rocks, he also escaped the scene of the crime, leaving passengers to drown.
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