More Russian Silliness

It sounds like a broken record, but here we go again with the Russians:

The most outspoken Kremlin opponent in Russia's presidential contest was denied a spot on the ballot yesterday by election authorities who said tens of thousands of signatures on his nominating petitions were forgeries.

Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov angrily rejected the official claims and accused President Vladimir V. Putin of ordering his removal from the March 2 election.

Kasyanov, a liberal politician who was running as an independent, urged voters to boycott the vote.

"The country is moving deeper into a totalitarian deadlock," he said at a news conference yesterday. "This election without choice is a mockery of citizens of Russia."

Opinion polls showed support for Kasyanov hovering between 1 and 2 percentage points, giving him little chance of posing a significant challenge to Putin's hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. However, Kasyanov could have brought an element of unpredictability to a campaign carefully orchestrated by authorities, embarrassing the Kremlin with his criticism.

Putin and his people just continue to do more and more to damage the view of Russia as a modernizing western democracy. The fact of the matter is that, more and more every day, Russia is reverting back to the old totalitarian ways with which they are most familiar. And I'm not sure if there is any foreign policy failure (and yes, that does include the war in Iraq) by the Bush Administration any larger than it's failure to deal with the Russians in a way that prevents this sort of thing from happening.

More of the Same

Yeah, this is a good sign:

Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader, was arrested Saturday and sentenced to five days in jail after trying to lead a march to the offices of the federal election authorities.

Mr. Kasparov was taken into custody during a scuffle between protesters and security officers on the route to the offices, where he had intended to present a letter asserting that the parliamentary election on Dec. 2 was biased toward President Vladimir V. Putin's party.

Taken into a small bus, he gave a victory sign through the back window as he was being driven away.

On Saturday night, a Moscow judge ordered him to serve five days in jail for holding an unauthorized march. City officials had given his loose opposition coalition, Other Russia, permission to conduct a rally on Saturday, but not a march.

In a statement, Mr. Kasparov said the court proceedings had been “a choreographed farce from beginning to end.” He added, “It was a symbol of what has happened to justice and the rule of law under Putin.”

I think we can all agree that President Bush misfired just a touch when he looked into Putin's soul. I mean, they've threatened missile attacks, they have opened reeducation camps, and now have moved on to arresting protesters.

Putin's ploys a power are pretty transparent. And he's trying to move towards tin-pot dictator status like Castro, Chavez, and Kim Jong-il....

A Golden Oldie from the Soviet Years

Today is starting to look a lot like yesterday (H/T Instapundit):

Hundreds of students and state railway workers were ordered to attend demonstrations in Russia calling for Vladimir Putin to stand for an illegal third term as president, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

Regional government officials demanded that schools in Tver region and railway departments in Novosibirsk provided pupils and employees to cheer for the president at Soviet-style rallies in recent weeks.

Prosecutors are examining official telegrams laying out requirements for attendance at the rallies. The papers were uncovered by opposition politicians and appear to be a blatant breach of electoral law.

Aren't you glad that people wouldn't stoop so far as to use students and state employees for abjectly political purposes here in the states? Oh...wait a minute:

Students and education leaders from around the state rallied in Lawyers Mall this afternoon in support of Gov. Martin O'Malley's revenue proposals.

University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan said O'Malley's plan, which includes restructuring taxes and is contingent upon the legislature approving slot machine gambling, would create the "first dedicated source of money for higher education in the state's history."

"This is a bold vision for our future," Kirwan said to the crowd of placard-waving students clad in their college sweatshirts. "They don't just want to pay the bills and balance the budget; they want to invest in our future, in health care and in higher education."

I'm so glad that all of these state employees came to Annapolis during working hours to attend these rallies. And I sure am glad as a taxpayer that public colleges and universities were open today to not educate these students who skipped out to beg for their parents to pay higher taxes.

Like the lack of support for Putin's third term, does any taxpayer in the state who is not:

1. A Democratic Party apparatchik;
2. A state employee who reports to a Democratic Party apparatchik;
3. A Union leader;
4. A student "encouraged" to participate in a rally; or,
   
5. A Baltimore Sun editorial board writer,
   

support these massive tax hikes? Is that why these educators and students had to be goaded into participating in a rally, much like union members were goaded into rallying Monday?

I ask this seriously: is there any truly germane popular support for these tax increases outside of the Democratic ivory tower in Annapolis?

Not a Chance Pal

This Kremlin inside makes a logical point that won't see the light of day any time soon:

Russians should move the embalmed body of revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin from Moscow's Red Square and bury him as an act of closure on Russia's turbulent past, a Kremlin insider said on Wednesday....

...."We have only just moved away from revolutions, from turbulent political battles, the country wants to live normally, to work, to be rich," Vladimir Kozhin, one of the Kremlin's top administrators in charge of its property portfolio including Red Square, told the official daily, Rossiskaya Gazeta.

..."Of course, having this necropolis at the centre of the city is nonsense," Kozhin said, adding he wanted a national referendum on whether Lenin should be moved and buried.

Of course, that's not going to happen any time soon, because one Vladimir Putin likes the concept of honoring Lenin in this manner. And since Putin wants to hold on to power as long as possible, that's not going to happen.

Incidentally, I went to the Lenin Mausoleum when I was in Russia in 1997. And it's a pretty odd site to see the body of a guy who died 73 years before being guard by soldiers with Kalashnikovs...

The Bad Old Days

Hey, I've seen this movie:

It was like the first day of summer camp at this lakeside resort, but the scrubbed young campers in T-shirts and casual clothes had more than beadwork and canoeing on their minds.

Ten thousand young "commissars" — a title borrowed from the Communist Party leaders of the Soviet era — came here to learn to be Russia's next generation of tycoons and political leaders. Equally important, they came to prepare to stamp out any challenge from opposition groups to President Vladimir Putin's government.

All were summoned by Nashi, a pro-Kremlin organization that pays homage to Mr. Putin and seeks to promote Russia's resurrection as a superpower capable of frustrating what leaders call Western "imperialism."

We know that Putin's love affair with all things Soviet knows no bounds, but even this seems extreme:

Clad in red T-shirts, the commissars ran to classes in groups wearing name badges with electronic chips that monitored attendance. Skipping lectures was punishable by expulsion — as was drinking alcohol, cursing and unsanctioned fraternization.

Uh...yeah.

Cult of personality? Check. Vibrant use of socialist colors? Check. Use of education camps in order to indoctrinate youth? Check. This does not look like anything that is going to end well for a free Russian society...

An Escalating Superpower

Threatened missile attacks? Foreign policy squabbles? The US in the middle of it?

Yes, the US is in the middle of a foreign policy imbroglio that we did not start, over the plan to place missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic:

Nikolai Solovtsov, the commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, said on February 19 that Russia may withdraw from a 1987 treaty with the United States limiting short- and medium-range missiles in Europe if the U.S. plan goes ahead.

Solovtsov also warned that hosting the U.S. shield could make the Czech Republic and Poland targets of a Russian missile strike.

"If there is a political decision [made by Russia] to withdraw from [the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty] that was signed between the United States and Russia, the Strategic Missile Forces will be capable of carrying out this task [targeting sites in the Czech Republic and Poland]," Solovtsov said.

This was one of the toughest comments yet by Russian officials on the issue since President Vladimir Putin warned of a "new Cold War" in a speech in Munich two weeks ago.

Yes, the Russians are opposed to us conducting military operations with our allies.

Putin continues:

Russia's president has said he doesn't trust U.S. claims that the system would be designed to guard the U.S. East Coast and Europe against missiles launched from "rogue nations" in the Middle East.

Which is a curious statement, given the fact that the system would only impact the Russians if the Russians were planning on attacking the U.S. or its allies in Western Europe. Which tells me that Russian foreign and military policy is reverting back to those pre-Glasnost and Perestroika days. That in and of itself is a good reason to support expanded missile defense capabilities.

I'm sure glad that President Bush feels looked into his soul and felt OK. That makes me feel better...