How Vladimir Putin Lost a Chance to Become George Washington
Yuri Mamchur
In the 1700-s British King George III called George Washington "The greatest man in the world." American history is taught well in Russian public schools, but probably wasn't delivered as well during the Soviet times when Vladimir Putin was a boy. Had Putin looked into the history books, he would've found out that he had given up the opportunity to become the Greatest Man in Russia's history. In fact, he lined himself up to become one of the less impressive men in history, one whose personal hobbies and views, combined with age and historically long terms at the steering wheel (surpassing even Stalin) may lead to some results other than a free market economy...
What is the secret sauce for being the "Greatest Man in the World?" It is simple: be humble. Or as Bob Lefsets, an LA-based music producer says about the record industry and technology at large, "It's all about the timing." Putin failed at both. Unfortunately, his failures are much more than just his personal business. What really hurts is the fact that Putin built a strong, wealthy country and the momentum of that could have made Russia a role model to all, including the United States - responsible spending, non-involvement in foreign affairs, strong financial system, and... That's where the list ends. When talking to a Moscow friend, I mentioned Putin's accomplishments, to which he responded, "What do all of them mean if he failed at the most important thing -- grooming the leadership among the future generations."
In 1775, when George Washington accepted command of the Continental Army, he promised Congress he would resign his commission when the war was over. Once the British withdrew, he was true to his word. Just before then, Washington had been approached by the officers who pledged their support if he decided to seize civilian power. In response, General Washington scolded the conspiring officer.
Today, one American dollar buys 32 Russian rubles. Most likely, this is not what Putin envisioned as the result of his economic reforms ten years ago.
Vladimir Putin can be personally credited with a lot of positive developments in Russian economy over the past ten years. Because of Vladimir, today, Russia has private land ownership, functioning banking system, credit system, next-to-zero government debt, and the rising middle class. However, as far as the world is concerned, Russia is still not the investors' dreamland. The little table of ruble-to-dollar exchange rate shows up on all Russian websites and TV screens, and it tells a not-so-good story. In the middle of America's worst financial crisis, the dollar is stronger than ever. Russian ruble, backed by barely any government debt and solid cash flows, is one of the least desirable currencies. When I left Moscow half a year ago, dollar could buy 26 rubles. In the past two weeks, that number has shifted to 32 rubles per dollar.
In the meantime, Russian websites and general population publicly make fun of Putin-Medvedev team and show dissatisfaction with the inability of choosing their own governors, Medvedev's failure to curb the corruption, and the growing wealth of bureaucrats. All the aforementioned problems were supposed to be short-term growing pains of the improving Russia. Instead, the pains became the norm. Why do world's investors chose the American dollar over the Russian ruble? Because American legal and court systems work, secretaries of states and governors earn a fraction of corporate CEOs' salaries, and a speeding driver means a speeding tickets, regardless of whether you're a star, a homeless, or a daughter of a former U.S. president. Maybe in the new decade, the (hopefully) new Russian leaders will take a closer look at Russia's corruption problem and society's needs. As they say, money will come later - it always does.
Microsoft Earns Over $1 Billion in Russia in One Year
Yuri Mamchur
Microsoft's Moscow office
Do you remember the days when all software in Russia was bootleg and it wasn't worth an effort to try to sell the legal copies? Well, those days are gone. Russian families and businesses finally make enough money to forgo the challenges of viruses and cracking headaches of illegal software, and just pay hard dollars to good old Redmond, WA -based Microsoft.
The piracy is still rampant throughout Russia; but so it is in America, where music artists must hit the road to make income even after their songs reach Top-40 chart positions. Not to compare apples to oranges, but as far as business is concerned, it's all copyright law, respect for the law, and its enforcement. Lady Gaga lost several million dollars on her album release -- mostly due to teenage piracy and lacking sales; 99 cents an album creates a financial loss even on transaction, not counting the fixed costs of production and label's overhead. However, she is the hottest selling show in the world, and that's where the real money is. Even in the Western world where internet is fast and respect for copyrights is low, the money is in "bread and circuses" and not in legal digital downloads.
Given the financial crisis in America and relative financial prosperity in Russia and Brazil, Microsoft is seriously concentrating its efforts on those "developing" markets. Russian market yielded over $1 billion in revenues for Microsoft in just one year, and continues to significantly grow. Microsoft has offices in 70 Russian cities, and its best-selling products in Russia are Microsoft Sharepoint Server and Microsoft Project. Once again, private business proves to be more capable of reset and healthy international relations than our respective governments...
The Lesson from the Russian Hockey Team's Plane Crash
Yuri Mamchur
What can Western businessmen learn from the Russian hockey team's plane crash? The obvious: Do not fly Russian-made airplanes. Seriously. On the afternoon of September 7, The Russian-made Yak-42 was carrying 45 people - eight crewmembers and 37 hockey players of Russia's most famous hockey club, "Lokomotiv." Trying to take off, the plane ran the entire length of the runway, traveled another 400 meters on its wheels through the post-runway gravel, rose up, crashed into a light post, hit the ground and burst into flames. Only one person survived the crash. The investigation of the accident so far filtered all the possible options of the crash to one reason: improper load and weight distribution.
Now, the plane is built to carry 120 passengers and luggage. Only 45 people and hockey sticks were onboard. The plane was built in the Nineties, has had all the requisite inspections, and the pilot and copilot had 6,900 and 13,000 hours of flight experience respectively. If an improper load of a suitcase can cause a plane to fall, maybe you need to think twice before boarding such an aircraft. Whatever, the real (or surreal) reasons of the crash are, the statistics work against the Russian airplane industry. There have been five major airplane crashes in Russia in 2011. They cost nearly 200 lives and all of the accidents involved Soviet- and Russian-made planes: Tu-134, Tu-154, An-148, An-24, and now Yak-42.
As usual, Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have spoken tough, demanding new regulations, and promising to solve all the evils of the world. Do not be fooled; nothing will change. Putin and Medvedev have good intentions, but modern-day Russia does not have the system to implement them. In fact, the obvious result of their hands-on governing is the absence of any system. New military missiles don't fly, planes fall out of the sky, and people don't bother to call the police when something wrong happens. Don't participate in this!
There are plenty of reliable airlines in Russia, including Aeroflot that has daily flights from everywhere in Europe and the U.S. to everywhere in Russia and in between. Before booking your flight, just make sure you're going to fly on an aircraft made by Boeing or an Airbus. If a company switches an aircraft to one that's Russian-made, refuse to fly. Even if you end up losing the money, better to be safe than sorry (alive than dead).
Russia Blog extends its condolences to the victims' families and friends.
A census worker surveys Medvedevs at the presidential residence. Not every Russian was surveyed like President Dmitry Medvedev...
Businesses need sound demographic data on which to base investment and marketing decisions, especially in foreign countries. Russia, despite its oil wealth, is a country that would like to attract more foreign investors. But the latest Census there is probably unreliable. At the very base of collection it was substantially invented.
The 2010 Russia Census was unfunded until late in the process. The operation was about to be postponed when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intervened and found 10.5 billion rubles to pay for it. Now, as official results trickle out a year later, one would think that a big success was achieved. The national newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports: "Russia's population has declined by 1.6 percent since 2002 - from 145.2 million to 142.9 million people. There are only two regions where the population increased. In the Perm region the population grew by 11,800 people, and in Usolksky - by 800."
Such precision in Usolksky or anywhere in Russia is suspect, however. The U.S. Census Bureau's Center for International Research believes that specific official Russian numbers may be off by as much as 87 percent from site to site. Anecdotally, I've had the chance to witness a census count in both the U.S. and Russia. The two counts couldn't be much different.
President Obama Can and Should Lift the Jackson-Vanik Amendment Against Russia
Edward Lozansky
On April 18, 2011 my partner, a former Reagan administration official Anthony Salvia, and I filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia demanding that U.S. president annuls the Jackson-Vanik amendment in relation to Russia. We argue that since Russia is now a free market economy and has no emigration restrictions at all, it automatically has to be excluded from JVA and that its continued application to Russia is illegal. It is our belief that U.S. president has the constitutional authority to state that and declare the JVA null and void with respect to Russia without congressional resolution as previously stated by Clinton, Bush and Obama. Therefore, the main goal of our lawsuit is to help Barack Obama to close this Cold War chapter once and for all and concentrate instead on positive and mutually beneficial cooperation between the United States and Russia.
The historic nature of this case, even at this point is clear. For almost two decades, three successive US administrations (Clinton, Bush, Obama) have said, in effect, "Gee, we'd love to graduate Russia from Jackson-Vanik but we can't do it without getting legislation through Congress." That excuse ¬ and that's all it is ¬ now has been shown conclusively to be false. The President can permanently lift Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions on Russia any time he wants, without any action by Congress. In fact, the way the law is written, since the finding already was made years ago that Russia permits free emigration, the only finding needed to trigger Russia's permanent removal from J-V trade restrictions has been made ¬ but the White House still refuses. Also, as Richard Perle has indicated, Russia is not a "nonmarket economy country," certainly was not in 1974 (when the Russian Federation was not even an independent state), and J-V does not properly apply to it. In fact, as we argued to the Court, Russia is only on the J-V list because in 1993 Clinton unilaterally (without Congress) deleted the name of the USSR and put on Russia. Obama can take it off just as easily.
Corruption in Russia: the Question Is Not whether it Exists, but How Much and How Often...
Yuri Mamchur
An average bribe in Russia today, according to the law enforcement agencies, is $10,000. It grew 500% since a year ago. However, the investigators say that it's not the bribe that grew, but the efficiency of their work. Over the past year, Russian police and FSB caught several multi-million-dollar bribes, and landed some of high-profile officials in jails. The statistics involve everything, from several-dollar drivers bribes to traffic police all the way to 50-60-million-ruble bribes (approx. $2 million) to high-ranking officials.
According to Ernst&Young;, Russia is Europe's leader in business corruption. The average amount of a bribe has been consistently at least doubling each year since 2005. Once again, the anti-corruption officials are stressing that the doubling of the bribe's price tag is correlated with the efficiency of their work. We at Russia Blog are wondering though, why is it doubling consistently since 2005, instead of dissappearing? Curbing the corruption has been Medvedev's top priority since day one of his presidency. Instead, his employees are patting each other on the backs for just uncovering the bribes, and in no way reversing the trend. China has a corruption problem as well. The way they deal with corrupt officials is medieval, but it works: they literally shoot them. In Russia, as my friend said the other day, officials -- on par with Putin -- funnel billions to Swiss and Cyprus accounts, go under investigation, share some of the stolen money with the court, get conditional penalties, and wave goodbye before boarding jets to take off for far-away lands.
Of course, undisputed rumors of Putin's $1 billion cottage/castle don't help to set the trend or serve a good example. Russia must harshly prosecute rather than just uncover the corruption. However, the officials are not too inspired to work hard fighting the corruption, when their salaries aren't big enough to go out for 10 dinners with a family. That's where the evil circle comes around. A role-modeling from the top (Putin and Medvedev) would be a good place to start. However, for now, the two enjoy fishing, diving, and driving Mercedeses and Porsches. No wonder, every Russian kid would rather be a Putin than Steve Jobs...
Ukrainian Women Get Naked for Yulia Timoshenko's Freedom
Yuri Mamchur
Just recently, Russia Blog shared with you an interesting story about Ukrainian women who get naked in Kiev to protest local and global injustice (their movement is called "Femen"). The organization's last protest was against the driving ban in Saudi Arabia. Today, we bring you the news of the most recent protest where the ladies demanded that the former Ukrainian prime minister and the Orange Revolution hero Yulia Timoshenko be freed from prison.
Funny things aside, the Orange Revolution with its consequences has been a disaster. Ukraine has not modernized, corruption is at historic highs, the new president Yanukovych is a pro-Russian uneducated former-criminal-turn-Communist-party-activist-turn-Ukrainian-president disaster, and the former prime-minister -- once glorified in the West -- today is wanted in Russia and its native Ukraine for corrupt gas deals. James Brooke with the Moscow office of the Voice of America has the extended story that he reports directly from Kiev.
In the meantime, in Seattle, WA, the former Ambassador to the United Nations mission in Vienna, former Director of U.S. Census Bureau, and currently the President of Discovery Institute Bruce Chapman says "this is a show trial, and a shameful one. No officials should be removed from office, let along put on trial for decisions made within the normal practices of their offices. She made a decision about a gas deal, and it can't be a crime, unless it involves corruption. If there is corruption, as many say, then she should be tried for that, not for making an administrative decision."
What Do Putin, Obama and Ben Affleck Have in Common?
Yuri Mamchur
Coincidentally, I used to work for a foundation that sponsored the Fanagoria archeological expedition, and my friend, just like Putin, retrieved a similar vase; it's now resting at our family's dacha (country home) in the Moscow suburbs. A photo of our vase is coming, after my family back in Russia takes it and sends it over to Seattle where I am currently.... -- YM
What do Putin, Obama and Ben Affleck have in common? They are celebrities, and nothing more! Everybody knows them, but no one is too sure what exactly any of them is doing. Karl Rove's article in The Wall Street Journal "Obama's No Good, Very Bad Week" nails all the necessary points in regards to the American president. Obama talks, blames, and smiles in his white unbuttoned shirt. That, apparently, is not enough to curb the worst financial crisis in world's modern history.
Ben Affleck? He is a celebrity and a handsome man. But no one can really remember his most recent hit movie. To help out Russia Blog readers who are his fans -- the movie is called The Company Men, and features another now-irrelevant star, Kevin Costner. With a production budget of $15 million, the movie grossed only $4.9 million worldwide. An "ouch" moment for the film's investors -- a feeling similar to that which the Chinese government is experiencing in relationship to Obama's White House economic program.
However, in our weekend stardom marathon, Vladimir Putin takes first place with his new action movies of diving underwater and retrieving ancient Greek artifacts. By a pure coincidence, I used to work for a foundation that sponsored archeological expedition in Fanagoria--a Russian town that is the location of an ancient Greek city. The Russian government under back-then President Putin didn't want to do anything with the expedition, leaving the sponsorship to Russian private businessmen, some of whom fell out of Putin's favor... But that's a different story. Today, when Putin is prime minister, the government donates about 50 rubles (one dollar and eighty cents) per day to the income of each of the scientists and archeologists working on the site. That is, not much. However, uncomfortable facts and unwritten rules of ethics do not prevent the prime minister from going on a lavish vacation to the site he never supported. Meanwhile, Russia's ruble--backed by piles of gold, diamonds, gas, oil, and zero innovation--is slipping alongside the "evil" dollar (the ruble has lost 10% of its value next to the struggling dollar in the past several weeks).
Unfortunately, even the most enthusiastic supporters of Obama's "reset" policy now admit that it is losing steam. This policy scored a few important and undeniable achievements, but the list was pretty short and, most regrettably, no new, significant breakthroughs are visible or expected on the horizon.
Considering the mood on Capitol Hill, where less than a dozen members out of 535 can be expected to say anything good or at least neutral about Russia, any progress in the development of a mutually advantageous strategic partnership envisioned by the "reset" can hardly be hoped for.
While White House statements on Russia are, as often as not, businesslike and pragmatic, the language at Congressional hearings or resolutions on Russia is getting strikingly similar to that of the Soviet or George W. Bush's times. Why that is so remains something of a mystery, seeing that Russia, with all its shortcomings, is still very supportive of America in many ways, most importantly on Afghanistan or Iran.
Time to Stop Sponsoring Georgia's Ski Resorts with U.S. Taxpayers' Money. Evidence Shows Russia Blog Right on Georgia War in 2008.
Yuri Mamchur
Statue of Joseph Stalin stood outside the Town Hall in Stalin's birthplace town of Gori, Georgia. After receiving significant subsidies from the U.S., Georgian government removed the monument as part of the country's "de-Sovietization" process.
Today three years ago, the short yet highly controversial war between Russia and Georgia took place. The events are especially memorable to the editors of the Russia Blog, who were typing away to provide an accurate picture of what was happening on the ground. (Click here to see our coverage of the events). Three years ago, Russia Blog's point of view was in a minority opposition to the American mainstream media and the U.S. government's official stance. Back then, Senator McCain called on bombing the Russian troops on approach to Georgia (in his own words "bomb bomb bomb Russia"), The Washington Post and the White House openly supported the untrue facts that the Russians were the first ones to attack, and among all of English-speaking media, Russia Blog was the only outlet saying the opposite: Georgia attacked, killed innocent people, Russia responded, and the U.S. wasted its money. The truth brought millions of visitors to our site, temporarily crushing our servers and flooding us with both praise and criticism.
Months after the events, The Washington Post switched sides and finally told the truth (which was very similar to our initial writings), though--as I recall--only on the the third page. Only outcries and criticisms of Russia deserve the first page, everything else goes elsewhere. (Though the same is true for anything - in Western media bad news is great news, and good news is no news). During the WikiLeaks scandal it became apparent that neither American intelligence nor the State Department had any idea what they were talking about. They lost access to any information on the ground and control of Georgia's semi-insane President Saakashvili (who literally ate his tie while on Georgia national TV). Furthermore, WikiLeaks-released documents stated that even after the officials in Washington found out the truth, they still stuck to the "party line." "Oooppssies" moment of missing the start of the war and being blind throughout the whole process was too hard to face.
Russia and the Arab Spring: the Kremlin's Short-Term Gains Are Russia's Long-Term Losses
Yuri Mamchur
When the recent anti-government demonstrations began in the Arab world, the planet's only superpower--the United States of America--became actively involved. The American government cheered, making public statements supporting Arab nations' rights to freedom. But given how much closer Russia is to the Arab world than the United States--geographically speaking, at least--it's worth asking where Russia has been during the Middle East's great upheaval.
More Russians than Americans travel to Egypt. According to RusTourism News, in March 2009 alone 300,000 Russian tourists traveled to Egypt. In March 2010, that number grew by 90.4 percent. Oil prices affect Russia more than they do America--after all, not only private businesses, but Russia's federal budget is strictly tied to the price per barrel of oil. Simply put, stability in the Arab world would seem to matter at least as much--if not more--to Russia as it does to the US. But action, or in this case, inaction, may speak louder than words.
The dearth of official Russian involvement in the "Arab spring" demonstrates the country's fading influence in the world, at least the type of influence needed to carry out precise international intelligence operations and foresee long-term geopolitical effects. While some have said that the US intelligence community may have helped facilitate the Arab spring (or at least desired it), no one is even giving Russian intelligence the honor of such speculation and rumor. Instead, Russia's most notable intelligence activity of recent international memory was the embarrassment over last year's spy scandal, when Russian intelligence officers were kicked out of the US after being caught spying for Russia. Embarrassingly for Russia, the only "intelligence" those intelligence officers ever obtained were nothing more than street rumors and data from daily print media, all of which could have been easily found online, without ever leaving Moscow.
The overheated political debate on reducing the United States' astronomical debt has transfixed the world. From an international perspective, the United States - due to the size of its economy and its exclusive ownership of the green printing press - can help the entire global economy right now or plunge it off the cliff.
Two factors are overlooked in the political debate on reducing the national debt, which is fast approaching the mind-boggling figure of $15 trillion, or close to 100 percent of the country's GDP.
First, you do not have to be an elite economist to figure out that even if the Republicans in Congress force President Barack Obama to accept a $4 trillion "deficit reduction" over the next decade, it does not mean that the current national debt will diminish by $4 trillion. It only means that the growth in the national debt will be $4 trillion less than otherwise, but 10 years from now the debt will still be much higher than the current $15 trillion. However, all these calculations may become totally meaningless as reckless policies lead to a global economic and financial collapse.
Norwegian Terrorist Anders Breivik Trained in Belarus Militant Camps
Yuri Mamchur
While U.S. news feature information that Breivik purchased ammo from a U.S. supplier, Eastern European feeds are full of details of Breivik's multiple trips to Belarus, changes in his behavior and wealth, and the training he underwent in Belarusian militant camps. In fact, Belarus' tight government regime and active intelligence have served a great purpose this time around. Even though Breivik didn't do anything suspicious at the time, Belarusian KGB kept precise records on Breivik, who was called "Viking" in the intelligence reports.
First time, Anders Breivik visited Minsk on March 4, 2005. He flew Vienna-Minsk-Vienna roundtrip, departing from Belarus on March 11, 2005. At the border, Breivik told customs officials that he came to visit the Vikings' graves. Centuries ago, Vikings went through the region multiple times, and there are indeed multiple ancient graves visited by the Vikings' ancestors. Thus, the first visit didn't trigger any suspicion. It is still unknown whether Breivik visited the graves, but he did investigate Belarus' governance, political structure, and the results of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The tour guides, who chaperoned Breivik in 2005, remember that he was afraid of poisoning with radioactive food products - a normal, they say, tourist behavior for a Western tourist. Now, that the stuff hit the fan, Belarusian KGB looked closer into what Breivik was really doing in their country.
Russian Military Ready to Deploy New Generation Vehicles
Yuri Mamchur
The last delivery of conceptually new, "modern" vehicles in the Russian army took place in back-then Soviet Union in 1961!
The information about new Russian "Humvees" became available after the vehicles were shown to the government press, and bloggers hunted down some of the engineers who designed the machines. To kick things off, these are the world's first ground vehicles that can move at 60 miles an hour on cross-country terrain while loaded with people, survive 16 pounds of explosives blowing up directly underneath the carriage, withstand armor-piercing shells and bullets fired from a close-up range, bust through thick walls, and fire ground-air missiles--all at the same time!
The vehicles are protected with ceramic shells and equipped with sophisticated computers and touch-screen monitors that simultaneously control the independent hydro-suspensions, clearance, speed, and weapons. Troops should be able to survive nearly any possible attack on the vehicle.
Just today, Patrick McDonald, First Sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, showed me around the Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, WA. While showing off the American striker vehicles and humvees, he mentioned the fact that American weapons and vehicles have significantly evolved since the beginning of the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said, "soldiers' feedback and officers' observations were taken into account to improve the safety and the attack capabilities of the equipment. In contrast, when Soviets were in Afghanistan, they failed to learn from the lessons and upgrade their equipment at all." According to First Sergeant McDonald, the Russians may have hurried up with the new weapons after the 2008 Georgia war, that allowed them to capture several American-made Humvees and realize that today's warfare can barely rely on outdated Soviet tanks.
Discussions on the effectiveness of the Putin-Medvedev tandem started right after the 2008 presidential election and will definitely continue at least until the next one in 2012. Whether such a tandem is good or bad for the country appears to me to be a moot point. Frolov believes it is good for Russia's domestic development while counterproductive with regard to its foreign policy. In my humble opinion, though, even in foreign policy the picture is not necessarily all black: there are some clear white areas as well.
First, when Medvedev became president in 2008 he had practically no experience in international affairs. U.S. - Russian relations were at the lowest ebb since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the new edition of the Cold War was almost there. Worse still, just a few months after the new president was settled in the Kremlin the war with Georgia broke out. At a certain point the situation was pretty close to World War III breaking out. Had Vice President Dick Cheney's proposal to bomb Russian troops in the Roki tunnel linking South Ossetia to North Ossetia succeeded, the consequences would have been horrific indeed.
Frankly, I like Medvedev and wish him every success in the upcoming election. But! Please let us be honest, dear ladies and gentlemen. Do we really believe that a young and inexperienced professor of law was ready to calmly handle this quagmire without strong backing from his mentor Putin?
Excerpts from the July 15, 2011 Moscow Times article by by Andrew Squire "Hot Dogs, Baseball Meet Borscht, Hockey." (Read the full article here).
On the first day of his American history class at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Ivan Ivanov and his classmates had a pop quiz: What comes to mind when you think of America? For Ivanov, a 19-year-old Kazan native with an American stepfather, it was Elvis, Washington, democracy. For his friend, it was baseball and hot dogs.
[Yevgeny Savostyanov, senior vice president of Sistema Mass-Media and deputy chairman of the Society for Russian-American Rapprochement], pointed to history and culture to explain the sustained animosity between the United States and Russia. "There is a profound difference in the histories, cultures and mentalities of our two peoples. At the heart of the American tradition are individualism, initiative and personal responsibility. The basis of ours is paternalism and conformity. This is the reason for the irregular and sometimes aggressive treatment of internal events, when you look at them from the other side," he said.
Troy McGrath, director of the Russian-American Center for American Studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities, or RSUH, characterized Russians' feelings as aspiring to "rivalry" rather than expressing animosity, and chalked it up to a relic of the Cold War. "Russians are still adjusting" to a different world order, he said. Most of the truly anti-American sentiment is generated by the Russian media, McGrath added.
Lozansky, a Soviet dissident who moved to the United States in 1976 before returning over a decade later, offered another explanation: ignorance. He noted that Russians and Americans "don't know what's really going on" in each other's countries. A professor and several students of American studies at Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) supported that theory. "I have friends who think America is still full of cowboys and Marines," Ivanov said.
Micromanagement Instead of Leadership: "Manual Control" Goes On as Putin Visits the Site of Cruise Ship Tragedy
Yuri Mamchur
Today, Vladimir Putin paid a surprise visit to Kazan - a Russian Volga river town that witnessed the sinking of the river cruise boat that killed nearly 200 and left. Since the tragedy, a few more details on the sinking emerged: the ship was built in 1955, the operator didn't have neither a tourism permit nor a permit to operate the vessel, and the vessel itself was not licensed to even be on the water. All in all, in a normally functioning country (or, as they call it these days, "system") nothing would've happened as the business would've not been operating, tickets would've not been sold, the ship would've not sailed, and no one would've died.
Here is what prime-minister Putin said in Kazan: "Where was the Transportation Agency? Where was the Waterways agency? How could a company without tourist and [ship operating] licenses sell vacation packages and sail? I'm ordering to find the guilty parties and harshly punish them!" For the purposes of clarification - Vladimir Putin is Russia's prime minister and is responsible for the executive branch (which includes Russian Transportation Ministry, Waterways Agency, etc.), so technically, the ultimately responsible party is him. Additionally, according to the Russian constitution, the court is separate from the executive branch (Putin), and technically a judge, not Putin can demand the punishment. Putin also ordered to pay 1 million rubles ($37,000) to the families of each victim, which is a great gesture, but shows that since the insurance system doesn't work, Vladimir is ready for the "manual control" here as well. President Medvedev already offered his two cents on the day of the tragedy, demanding the senior transportation officials to be fired (Ivan the Terrible preferred the beheading...).
How much longer can the country be micromanaged (not lead or governed) by two people? What if both Putin and Medvedev fell asleep at the same time? Would all the ships sink, all the planes fall, and the Russian nation go hungry? True leadership starts with trust and delegation. In fighting the corruption, it was important to consolidate the powers in the early 2000s, however the long-term consolidation (Cuba, North Korea) is not an option for a modern country. Also, the power consolidation in Russia seems to have offered very little in fighting the corruption. If a decade ago Putin's tough talk appealed to Russians and showed promise in the brighter future, today it shows weakness and inability to act, rather than talk. Russia's upcoming elections may be more exciting than many think.
Russia: the Land of Falling Planes, Sinking Ships, and Crumbling Infrastructure
Yuri Mamchur
The title of this article is not an over-exaggeration. The YouTube clip--filmed by bystanders yesterday--shows plane AN-24 literally falling out of the sky. Out of 36 people on board, seven people died, others suffered various injuries. The top comment left for the video reads (translated from Russian): "The remains of the Soviet Union are crumbling away, and nothing new is being built. Modernization, innovation, Go Russia! "
When comparing their multi-national country to the United States, Russians tend to pride themselves in a lesser amount of freak accidents and unnecessary deaths, such as shootings in colleges, hostage takings in shopping malls, and armed robberies. However, the sentiment is very different these days. Just in the past month, the world has witnessed two major accidents in Russia - a plane landing half a mile short of the landing strip and killing nearly everyone on board, and a ship sinking--not in the open ocean--but in a river, killing more than half of its passengers. The incidents, overlooked by the Western media, in the last two weeks include more helicopters and planes falling out of the skies, and the debates around Russia's new ballistic missile Bulava, that flies correctly only half of the times--a disturbing success rate if armed with a nuclear warhead. What is happening to Russia?
What if They Gave a Cold War and No One Came? Heritage Foundation Calls for a Stop in U.S.-Russia "Reset" in Light of Russia's Agression
Yuri Mamchur
Heritage Foundation's announcement for today's event at the Rayburn House Office Building called for a stop in U.S. - Russia relations reset and read like a "hello" from 1981, a joke, or a political play. It made us wonder - who was the real enemy: Obama or Medvedev? Did the hearing target the White House's new policies towards Russia or actual events in Russia unknown to the common folk? America and Russia have their differences, but come to think of it, United States is currently in three wars (four or five, depending on how you count), and none of those are with Russia! Furthermore, the solid fact generally unknown to the American population might have complicated today's hearings: American military supplies get shipped to Afghanistan via Russian railroads and Russian airspace, and often on Soviet-built Antonov jumbo jets. Drugs harvested in Northern Afghanistan (that is not controlled by the Americans) create catastrophic issues back in Russia and specifically Moscow, where--unlike to Washington D.C.--you can hike to with a backpack from Kabul, Teheran, or Baghdad.
Here at Russia Blog, we will be fascinated to learn the facts and commentary pronounced at the hearings regarding Russia's acts of aggression towards the U.S., and the number of the attendees who came to this fascinating and surreal event.
Event invitation (we are publishing it purposely after the fact):
Time to Pause the Reset? Defending U.S. Interests in the Face of Russian Aggression
You are respectfully requested to attend the following open hearing of the Full Committee to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building.
DATE: Thursday, July 07, 2011
TIME: 10:00 AM
LOCATION: Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building
WITNESSES: Mrs. Katrina Lantos Swett, Ph.D., President, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights
Mr. Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow, Russian Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy, The Heritage Foundation
Ukrainian Women Drive Naked Outside Saudi Embassy to Protest the Saudi Driving Ban
Yuri Mamchur
Since 2008, Ukrainian organization "Femen" has held epatage protests against corrupt government officials, unfair bills, and even Saudi law banning women from driving. Today's protest against Ukrainian members of parliament is too--how can we put it--straightforward and we choose to not show it on Russia Blog (though you can see it here), and below is the photo from the June 16 protest held outside of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia to Ukraine. The protests tend to be extremely successful, as they attract general public's and media attention, and frazzle predominantly male law enforcement officials.
Kremlin Needs Opposition, Opposition Needs a Vision
Yuri Mamchur
Like hamsters, Russian politicians are spinning the wheels without embarking on a real journey to lead the nation.
Registration failure of PARNAS, Prokhorov's entry to Russia's political scene, David vs. Goliath victories of blogger Alexey Navalny (who's still alive), nationalistic uprisings in downtown Moscow, and country's "manual control" of Medvedev and Putin - all these are the pieces of one puzzle. Russia does not have a formulated point of view, everybody knows it, and everyone--including Kremlin--needs it. Absence of checks-and-balances is driving Kremlin crazy, as all failures are blamed directly on Medvedev and Putin, and in the leadership vacuum their authority is disrespected by the entire nation. The only reason they have the power is lack of not a better, but any alternative. Western media says that the lack of an alternative is Putin's calculated plan. We think differently. Now for a decade, Russian opposition failed to formulate a single goal or a clearly understandable objective, aside from just opposing the Kremlin. The means became the goals, and the dog keeps on chasing its tail. The absence of a vision is not attractive.
In Russia's major cities, T1-speed internet (faster than $100-a-month Comcast's service) costs $12 to $25 a month. It is unrestricted (unlike in China), unprosecuted (unlike in Egypt), and unlimited (unlike in Comcast's America). Egyptians proved that the Internet can be used to take down decades-long dictators. Blogger Alexey Navalny proved that the Internet can be used to expose very powerful people. (So far, Navalny hasn't been killed or intimidated - he freely roams across the country delivering speeches and participating in public forums). When Russian soccer-fans-turn-nationalists-turn fascists went into the streets, observers could see wide-angle photos of thousands of people demanding for Putin to step down. Police tried but failed to disperse the crowd. When Prokhorov announced his bid for Putin's post, two days later Medvedev invited him for a meeting. Certain anti-Russian observers may say that Prokhorov is part of Kremlin's hegemony conspiracy, but that would be equal to saying that George Bush orchestrated 9-11 to finish his father's job in Iraq; all points of view deserve to exist ("Putin is a fascist" and "9-11 was an inside job"), but we'll stick with the reasonable scenarios.
"My Perestroika" Tracks Classmates from Soviet Childhoods to Putin's Russia
Yuri Mamchur
An Era of Dramatic Historical Change Is Rendered in Vivid Detail, as Five Muscovites Recount Their Personal Stories and Old Ideals Shift to New Realities. Watch it on Tuesday, June 28, 2011, on PBS at 10 PM.
"'My Perestroika' gives you a privileged sense of learning the history of a place not from a book but from the people who lived it. . . . Astoundingly timely." -- Stephen Holden, The New York Times
The 1970s-era home movies featuring well-scrubbed, rosy-cheeked kids playing in the snow or at the beach would not be out of place in an American family. Even the 1977 parade of children through Red Square in uniforms that are evocative of American scouting outfits does not appear alien. It takes one child's resoundingly enthusiastic salute, thanking "Dear Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev . . . for the fact that we live in the Country of Happy Childhood!" to remind us that we are gazing into the looking-glass world of the last years of the Soviet Union.
And nobody knows more about that world -- and its sudden, spectacular crumbling -- than the generation of children pictured in the opening sequences of My Perestroika. "I simply was like everyone else," says Lyuba Meyerson, one of the women profiled in the film. "I was completely satisfied with my beautiful Soviet reality."
A rare account of the collapse of the Soviet Union as experienced by five members of the last generation of Soviet children, Robin Hessman's My Perestroika has its national broadcast premiere on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 10 p.m. on PBS as part of the 24th season of POV (Point of View). (Check local listings.) POV's regular season continues on Tuesdays through Sept. 27 and concludes with special broadcasts in 2011 and 2012. American television's longest-running independent documentary series, POV has won a Special Emmy for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, an IDA Award for Best Continuing Series and NALIP's 2011 Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity.
Mikhail Prokhorov, age 44, occupies 39th position in the Forbes list of world billionaires; his net worth is $13.4 billion (read his Forbes profile).
In an unexpected turn of events, Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire and owner of the American basketball team, the New Jersey Nets, was elected the leader of the liberal opposition party "The Right Cause" (Pravoye Delo). Immediately after the confirmation of his leadership, he announced that "there are no reasons to keep Khodorkovsky in prison," and that he is going to fight for the Russia's prime-minister's position in the upcoming post-elections leadership shuffle. Prokhorov made his wealth similarly to Khodorkovsky in the chaos of the post-Soviet Nineties, but has been smart--unlike Khodorkovsky--to stay away from the politics and to obtain the ownership of several foreign entities, which buys him the "escape route" in case something goes "wrong." Similarly, another Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has been the owner of the English premier soccer club Chelsea.
Almost simultaneously, President Medvedev announced the introduction of the bill that will lower the needed minimum votes quota for entering the Russian Duma from 7% to 5%, and potentially even 3%; but only in 2016. (Russian liberals have been failing to gain even 1% in prior elections, which has kept them away from the country's leadership altogether.)
All the developments come in the light of the unsuccessful bid for governmental registration of another opposition party--the People's Freedom Party "PARNAS"--lead by the old-timers Mikhail Kasyanov, Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Vladimir Milov, who had government positions in Yeltsin's and Putin's offices. According to the government, the registration papers of PARNAS contained signatures from under-aged and deceased citizens. The government claims were valid, which makes it unclear why the "new" opposition party with the weathered leadership didn't invest time and effort into a proper due-diligence, and why it is not trying to recollect the signatures if its members are truly passionate about standing up to Putin's United Russia. Just as with the monthly protests in Moscow, seems like the main purpose of the registration exercise was to fail it and attract the West's attention. It is important to remember that the so-called liberal leaders made their wealth and names in the Putin's system and not outside of it. On the brighter side, Mikhail Prokhorov's new political leadership, goals, and personal wealth might have significantly changed Russia's political spectrum overnight.
UPDATE (June 26, 2011, 6PM EST): Hours ago, Mikhail Prokhorov announced that he will spend at least $100 million of personal money for "The Right Cause" opposition party's election campaign. After all, the world may witness more suspense during the upcoming Russian elections than expected!
VIP Blue Light Driving in Russia - Reason for a Revolution or Further Obedience?
Yuri Mamchur
Two weeks ago, a member of parliament from Putin's party United Russia got drunk (as in smashed) and took his Porche Cayanne for a ride, killing a 23-year-old student, an only provider for his disabled parents...
On June 14, 2011, Foreign Policy magazine, in its article "Road Rage in Russia," asked: "Moscow's elite has decided it doesn't need to follow the traffic laws. Will there be a pedestrian revolution?" RussiaBloghas written about the issue for years (here are samples from 2005, 2006, 2007, and more), exposing crimes and murders committed by Russia's ruling elite on the roads; to save the suspense - the answer to the Foreign Policy's question is: "No, there will be no revolution." The reasons behind the answer are complex and rooted into a thousand-year history of the nation, its mentality, geography, and ruling style of the past 500 years (that surprisingly hasn't changed from Ivan the Terrible to Bolsheviks to Yeltsin to Putin).
As mentioned in the RussiaBlog's article "Enough Is Enough. President Medvedev - Stop the Killing of Russia's Innocent Drivers!" - Ivan the Terrible was the first person to make sure that his carriage wheels splashed bystanders with mud. It made him laugh back in mid-1500-s. Tsars, Soviet secretaries, and first presidents of modern Russia (Yeltsin, Putin, Medvedev) have done the same. Here's what many Westerners don't know and probably will have hard times understanding: the majority of common people--on the outside oppressed by the elite's driving techniques--in fact are proud of this old Russian tradition.
"Manual control" has become an established term in Russian media and among common people when referring to the ruling style of Putin and Medvedev. Wait, it's not what you are thinking, even though - yes it sounds like it. Medvedev and Putin rule "hands on" not because of their hunger for power, but because otherwise nothing gets done. In some ways, the managerial structure can be compared to one of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who--in his 40-year rule--ensured that governmental institutions do not exist and do not function without the key man. However, it is still different in Russia - neither Putin nor Medvedev intended for it to be so. CIA's World Factbook wrongly describes Russia as a "centralized semi-authoritarian state." In fact, Putin wished well, that's why he lost both - the centralization and the authority, along with the population's respect. While the non-existent Russian opposition and the West think that Putin is tough, the reality is - he is not. The moment the ruling duo turns away, stuff gets stolen, abandoned, unfinished.
A year ago, President Medvedev shared one interesting number - government bureaucrats annually steal $35 billion from government budgets during routine purchases; Medvedev is yet to give an update on how he succeeded in fighting the trend. Last year, during the severe wild fires, Putin had to personally fly over the woods, and even drop a bucket of water from a plane. Not for show, but because the Ministry of Emergency Situations failed in fighting the fires. After the fires died out, all the destroyed homes were rebuilt, right in time for the winter season. One caveat that Westerners are unfamiliar with - Putin watched live video feed from the construction sites on his office screens; so workers would work and not steal the construction supplies. Apparently, there was nobody aside from the country's prime minister to ensure the proper construction process in a "centralized semi-authoritarian state."
From Russia with Love? Will Russia Help with the Currency Crisis in Belarus?
Iain Miller
By Jessica Cook
The question on the lips of the finance market is: 'will Russia bail out Belarus'?
The Belarus ruble, also knows at BYL, was originally instated to replace the Soviet Union ruble. The Belarus ruble has been notoriously unstable since it was introduced in 1992 and today, Belarus is still struggling to keep its currency stable. The moniker "the black Tuesday" has been daubed onto the recent devaluation of Belarusian currency and it is almost impossible to exchange your Belarusian rubles for foreign currency because: simple put, no one wants to touch it. Knee deep in financial crisis and struggling to keep its currency head above water, the world can only speculate what will become of the Belarus ruble and the financial future of Belarus itself, which is being forced to sell many of its assets to try and stopper its growing debts.
Because of its poor value, many British exchange outlets are currently wary to deal with the Belarus ruble at all. Belarus currency exchange offices are reported to have a noticeable increase in customers as people try desperately to protect their hard-earned savings by exchanging them to a more stable currency such as the euro or the dollar. Because of the rush for foreign exchange their government has been forced to tighten the legislation surrounding currency exchange. These new restrictions and the reluctance of the rest of the world to participate in a collapsing currency mean that it's almost impossible to exchange the Belarus ruble, in Belarus or outside of it, and Belarus foreign exchange locations are actually running out of other currencies to sell. The high number of people trying to exchange Belarus rubles for other currencies has led to a physical drought of other currencies due to the rising demand created by financial panic. To combat financial collapse foreign exchange offices have been limited so that they can sell only what they buy from clients. Because of the volatile nature of this currency, the government have also frozen the prices on certain foodstuffs but ordinary Belarusians are thought to be hoarding staples in case of future problems in a classic case of currency panic.
Russia Blog presents up-to-date news, facts and commentary on the state of events in Russia and the former Soviet Union. The blog was created and is managed by Yuri Mamchur, Director of Discovery Institute's Real Russia Project, Executive Director of the World Russia Forum, and a Vanderbilt University MBA graduate.
In the 1700-s British King George III called George Washington "The greatest man in the world." American history is taught well in Russian public schools, but probably wasn't delivered as well during the Soviet times when Vladimir Putin was a boy. Had Putin looked into the history books, he would've found out that he had given up the opportunity to become the Greatest Man in Russia's history. In fact, he lined himself up to become one of the less impressive men in history, one whose personal hobbies and views, combined with age and historically long terms at the steering wheel (surpassing even Stalin) may lead to some results other than a free market economy...
First time, Anders Breivik visited Minsk on March 4, 2005. He flew Vienna-Minsk-Vienna roundtrip, departing from Belarus on March 11, 2005. At the border, Breivik told customs officials that he came to visit the Vikings' graves. Centuries ago, Vikings went through the region multiple times, and there are indeed multiple ancient graves visited by the Vikings' ancestors. Thus, the first visit didn't trigger any suspicion. It is still unknown whether Breivik visited the graves, but he did investigate Belarus' governance, political structure, and the results of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The tour guides, who chaperoned Breivik in 2005, remember that he was afraid of poisoning with radioactive food products - a normal, they say, tourist behavior for a Western tourist. Now, that the stuff hit the fan, Belarusian KGB looked closer into what Breivik was really doing in their country.
Just today, Patrick McDonald, First Sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, showed me around the 
On the first day of his American history class at the Russian State University for the Humanities, Ivan Ivanov and his classmates had a pop quiz: What comes to mind when you think of America? For Ivanov, a 19-year-old Kazan native with an American stepfather, it was Elvis, Washington, democracy. For his friend, it was baseball and hot dogs.
Troy McGrath, director of the Russian-American Center for American Studies at the Russian State University for the Humanities, or RSUH, characterized Russians' feelings as aspiring to "rivalry" rather than expressing animosity, and chalked it up to a relic of the Cold War. "Russians are still adjusting" to a different world order, he said. Most of the truly anti-American sentiment is generated by the Russian media, McGrath added.
Two weeks ago, a member of parliament from Putin's party United Russia got drunk (as in smashed) and took his Porche Cayanne for a ride, killing a 23-year-old student, an only provider for his disabled parents...
"Manual control" has become an 
The Belarus ruble, also knows at BYL, was originally instated to replace the Soviet Union ruble. The Belarus ruble has been notoriously unstable since it was introduced in 1992 and today, Belarus is still struggling to keep its currency stable. The moniker "the black Tuesday" has been daubed onto the recent devaluation of Belarusian currency and it is almost impossible to exchange your Belarusian rubles for foreign currency because: simple put, no one wants to touch it. Knee deep in financial crisis and struggling to keep its currency head above water, the world can only speculate what will become of the Belarus ruble and the financial future of Belarus itself, which is being forced to sell many of its assets to try and stopper its growing debts.
