Total Licensing Winter 2007 - (Page 126)

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The average Russian surely had more comfort than he had had in Soviet times. A new class of super-rich developed, and their luxuries could be seen in the right neighborhoods. The affluent, especially in the urban centers, got a giant share of the improvements, and the growing middle class benefited a little too. With the change of generations, the specter of the Soviet Union lost its gruesome colors of danger and cruelty. The gap between the young professionals and their ever more impoverished aged parents and grand parents widened. That was where the vague search for the security and strict order of the This book publisher has expanded for fifteen years a wise authority innate in Russian history arrived, handpicked by resigning Yeltsin. A new face: Vladimir Putin. He was ex-KGB, seemed somewhat remote, and colorless - at least at first glance - but he seemed safe. Russia wanted to use its new found muscle to regain some of the pride that the loss of its Satellite States, presided over by Gorbachev, had cost it. It seems possible that the Russia of his day needed these amputations to grow into a healthy rump. It all seemed too much to worry about – better to leave it to the wise leader! True , there was still crime, violence and wide-spread poverty, especially in the provinces. True there was an unending conflict in Chechnya. True, there was still the unreasonable censorship of a free press and the government’s taking over of critical TV channels and newspapers. Except for one oligarch in jail for not playing ball Khodorkovsky , and two oligarchs who chose exile Gusinsky, Berezhovsky , the countless other Super-Rich had learned to accommodate President Putin and his all-powerful, all-seeing organization. As long as they did not bother him, he would not make again the liberation of the hostages there are events that are hard to cost a hundred dead and burned. ignore or overlook: Again, the first government news On September 4, 2006, the last reaction cautious and secretive as independent daily newspaper Komever was to silence and then belit- mersant sometimes critical of tle the event while State controlled the government is sold to metals TV, afraid to show this, did not magnate Alisher Usmanov, who is report the attack but played Soap known to be loyal to the Kremlin. Operas, while horrified parents The same fate also had earlier beat the scene watched their children die. No One side of an eightsingle senior officer of lane Moscow Boulevard the security services was ever brought to trial for this botching. A few days later, however, President Putin used the occasion to cancel the gubernatorial elections. This rid him of some more Independents, and he could now appoint all the governors himself in all of Russia’s eightynine regions. fallen Izvestia, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, WHITHER RUSSIA? Gazeta, Moskovskiye Novosti, which “Putin’s Russia is no longer Com- all had been snapped up by Gazmunist but not quite Capitalist. prom, or business men loyal to the It is no longer a tyranny but not government for the same reasons. quite free,” wrote a Moscow cor- I quote Oleg Panfilov, head of the respondent for the Washington Center for Journalism in Extreme Post. The word “democracy” had Situations . been discredited during the politi- Raf Shakirov, a former editor of cal maneuverings under Yeltsin and Kommersant, reminds us that Uzthe reign of the oligarchs. Putin manof coincidentally is also the appeared as the man who “knows head of a Gazprom subsidiary and what order is.” Yevgeny Yeftush- the chairman of Gazprom is Medenko, a very popular bard and poet, vedev, who also took over Gusinwrote anticipating Putin’s re-elec- sky’s remember him! NTV Media tion in 2004: Empire in 2001. And again it just so “The half free are half enslaved happens that the same Medvedev We are half afraid, half-way on a ram- will run for President when Putin’s page. A bit of this, yet also half of that term must end in 2008. He is conCan there be with honor – a half sidered to have Putin’s blessing. motherland and a half conscience.” For news or reports of this type And another pop song rose to the in Russia, there remain only the top of the charts at the time: English language Moscow News and “And now I want a man like Putin Petersburg News, owned by a FinnA man like Putin, full of energy ish group, who by their very nature A man like Putin who doesn’t drink have only extremely limited readA man like Putin who won’t hurt me ership and influence. A man like Putin who won’t leave For free trade and self-determiname.” tion democracy adherents, the DaThe country had been sick of Yeltsin vid and Goliath conflict between and the squabbling of oligarchs and ex-Soviet Georgia and Russia’s democratic politicians. Most never heavy-handed policies, banning imrealized, that what was wrong was ports of all Georgian goods, are imnot freedom of expression, but the perial hubris. To my regret, there lack of a free judiciary, so that a dic- are now no more of the previously tatorship of the law exercised by inexpensive and great Georgian political power was able to persist wines to be found, and very medioand shield the government from cre European imported wines cost unwanted openness. from $15-20 per glass in restauNot to belabor failings – I don’t rants . Parliament now also wants want to play political pundit –still, to ban the wiring home of money “good old times” still lingered, but for the new generations politics was no longer important. Debates about the future gave way to “good living” as a goal. The perestroika dream of half understood democracy as a system waned – the hunger for stability and control of violent crime became the new dream. With the legendary patience and desire for their life too difficult. Yes, there was too much secrecy and bungled response when Chechen terrorists entered the theater showing the musical Nordost. The terrorists took the complete cast and audience hostage. Fifty-seven hours later, 130 hostages, and all Chechens, except one, were dead. Again, later, Beslan School #1, was attacked by Chechen terrorists, and 126  Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Total Licensing Winter 2007

Total Licensing Winter 2007

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