T042614
Lib book
This author promises to give a look of todays average Russian. He puts the spotlighf on Putins' Russia and what is happening today since tbe fall. Russia is undergoing vast and frightening changes. I the aftermath of the fall, the country was sold to seven men. Now inequality and corruption reign. We will take a walk with our author as he details the long term results of all this on the common man in today's Russia.
14 We open at a decadently conspicuous opening of yet another new place for the "minigarchs" to go to. In a city with mass prfound poverty rich nightspots are doing a thriving business. Typical.
16 Moscow is home to the worlds' largest collection of millionaires and about 80 billionaires as well. Wow apparently this new way agrees with at least a few Russians.
22 I guess wherever you go people are people. Their one percent is looting their country too just like ours is. 70 billion dollars a year is invested elsewhere. I wonder where all their money and ours goes to? I know wherever it's treated best.
23 The old stars of Russia working through Putin are seeking to reclaim some oc the wealth a resojrces that went in fire sales in tbe 90,s. Its a "redistribution of the wealth," from one group of elites to another. Its like Dice Clay when his girl tells him she dropped thirty pounds. He says," yeah, from your belly to your ass babe." Yukos Oil magnate and oh-oh (original oligarch) Khodorkovsky was Putins, first target. "Success in taking back the better of Russia's oil industry" only spurred them on. Actions like this one send a clear message that no matter how big your business is, gou operate in Russia at the consent of the state. No one is safe. That is why today's minigarchs cospicuously spend less and hide their wealth better, so as not to draw unfavorable attention from Putin's faction in Moscow
30 Now with Yukos's assets firmly in hand, Putin begins to reach out for Lukoil's oilfields as well. Those in charge know that he who controls the oil flow controls those depending on it. Moscow has already shut gas off to the "Ukraine during a price dispute in 2006." This also holds true for Russia's western European neighbors. Germany, relying on Russian supply, is far less likely to criticize. You dont chastise the country, who through its shell company Gazprom, is providing "more than 40% of your nation's natural gas.
32 The author claims it's like a new cold war only with gas and oil.
34 Top oligarch Berezovsky speaking of his group the seven oligarchs says "Now we have the right to occupy government posts and enjoy the fruits of our victory." Hence his puppet Vladamir Putin appears on the scene seemingly out of nowhere.
36 Get this. THe man who said that above quickly had a falli g out with Putin and lect to live in exile. Even this didn't save him, he soon committed suicide abroad and most of his holdings wound up in state hands under Putin. It's dangerous to be on Oligarch in Russia and deadly to criticize Putin.
37 Berezovsky had originally gone to Putin with a scheme "of creating two political parties like in America." And like America, the top one percent would control both outcomes. It would give an appearance of choice, while the overriding agenda would continue no matter which side won. Sound familiar? But he was too late in asking. By then Volodya ( lil' Vladdy) was all grown up and didnt need to deal anymore.
40 Jeffery Sachs and the world bank people were present at the fire sale advising Yeltsin. The biggest fraud ever committed in any country was about to begin.
52 Meanwhile outside of Moscow the future is bleak and the population is shrinking. Despair and gloom ade the only things being manufactured in the suburbs. Industry itself is dying out.
A recent study shows that rich Russian's doubled their incomes in the last 20yrs while the rest (80%) just got poorer. Now where have I heard this before?
59 Life after the fall was so bad that Russians' wefe remembering life under communism as the good old days. Todays poor in Russia will starve themselves to carry an Iphone. There is a priority derangement in progress.
66 In Kachatka the Salmon are being poached to extinction for the caviar. And the bears who feed on the Salmon are now seeking other sources of food (and I dont mean picnic baskets) I mean the two-legged kind. For the poor resident's it's fish or die, but it's unsustainable.
76 Siberia is melting. 10 thousand year old tundra is thawing so fast that you can see the water rise. No global warming there though.
84 When the going gets tough the tough start drinking especially if you're Russian.
87 Dmitri Mendeleev, yes that Dmitri Mendeleev, also had a hand in standardizing Russian Vodka as well as the periodic table.
89 "Russia's already legendary alchohol consumption has tripled since the collapse of Communism." They also smoke more than anyone else. When reminded of the health hazzards associated with that lifestyle they remain unconcerned. They are like "yeah whaddaya gonna do?" It happens. Now thats beat down. I thought we had it bad.
042714
This morning in tbe NYT. Lil Vladdy apparently is sittin on a pile. They estimate he's stolen some 70billion. He's getting almost as despicable as a wall streetb banker. Good job Vladdy. You go boy. Also South Park episode 1613 at the end they have frree pussy riot tee shirts.
120 The mass oppression of the Stalanist era and the the depravation of the Khrushchev era solidified common Russians. They were united against the common enemy and they stuck together and stuck up for.each other. Today, one of the changes seen and felt is the breaking up of these bonds. Today is more odlf a western "everyman for himself and wi ner take all" feel.
121 The common man wanders around Russia today aimless with very little sense of community and the past and alsmost no belief in the future past oil. "The American writer Ri hard Laurie calls it Zombie Russia."
133 Sex is far less repressed in Russia than otber places. The natural sexual instinct is readily followed. The American Exposition in 1959 brought American goods to display to the Russians. In one such display house-of-the-future was where the Kitchen Debate between Nixon and Khrushchev.
138 "Permissive attitudes towards sex ended with the fall of Communism, when, paradoxically, it was suddenly everywhere. "
144 Russian attitudes toward roles.for women and toward same sex relationships remain stoneage. After announcing her divorce from Putin, a Russians joked that Luidmilla was the only Russian to ever liberate herself from Putin.
146 Abuse of women by their husbands or partners is rampant. It is estimated that one woman per hour dies in this way, far more than western societies.
153 Being flush with oil and gas wealth is certainly no panecea. The resojrce curse is in action here demonstrated be the fact that "life in the 'worker's paradise' has barely improved in the last two decades." And quality of work is nonexistent. "Russia now produces no manufactured goods that can compete in the world market."
154 The people.who do well today in Russia "are almsot exclusively those who steal state property, company shares, and money. And don't forget the biggest most lucrative theft of all, state resources.
160 After the costs of theft and corruption are added, the price for one kilometer of paved road in Moscow comes to 570 million dollars.
169 According the the author, Edward Keenan's Moskovite Political Folkways "is one of the most seminal articles about Russian history." So far, I have been unable to find this but I will keep looking.
171 Putin paints himself as the hero who snatched order again from the choas filled 90's. And with a Russian tradition of "concern that tbe government be right rather than legitimate" goes a long way. Basically, as poles confirmed, "Russians still believed order to be more imlorfant than democracy." Putin exploits this tendency richly.
180 Wesfern fairy tales value persistence while eastern/Russian tales champion stoicism anx being resigned to fate. It is what it is. Eh whaddaya gonna do. I think that's where all that great comedy and being able to laugh at tbeir situation comes from.
184 The author states that "the average Russian student now ranks close to the American student and neither country should be proud of that."
185 True to form, the added ost of corruption made the So hi Olympic Games the most costly in history. Huge sums were pocketed but lil Vladdy and his chums.
190 We visit Star "Star City" and pay tribute to tbe father of the Russian space program Sergei Korolev. This is man referred to as the "architect" in The Right Stuff.
191 October 4 1957 Sputnik! After the collapse, most of them lost their jobs.
203 The Bolshoi, left unfunded also collapsed. Fine art is holding on thanks to all the rich people who clustered in Moscow. Literature takes a hit as easy acess to other types of western media "threatens to turn a country of readers into viewers. "
214 Opposition to Putin's return is growing everywhere in Russsia. Pussy Riot and other prtest groups are proliferating. 60% of Russians are alreadh online creating a vast reservoir the protest movement can draw on.
217 Those In charge got the message that the internet was facilitating rebellion. "The year 2012 marked a turning point for authorities. " The leaders now see the internet as the enemy and are moving to shut it down or at least dampen its allure.
Inspite of all you heard about the internet as the great equalizer. In Russia its seen as another tool for control. This is the premise of Morozov"s book.
219 Russians are not really inclined to fight back right now. A recent poll shows that "more than 70%" would refuse to stand up for the rights or protest "falling living standards." I fear we are becoming a nation similar.
229 A bedraggled survivor of the gulag archipelago says the failure of calling the Communists to task for what was done to them during the Stalin generation still affects them today. The extreme injustice "has a perpetuation and catastrophic effect on the Russian psyche.
232 You can judge a society level of civilization by seeing how it treats it's prisoners wrote Dostoevsky. Russians score low on this scale.
233 Its a veritable prison economy in Russia and still they don't lock up as many people as we do. We're numbed one!! USA !USA!
265 Putin's new ruling elite is referred to as "Politburo 2.0."
268 So as Yeltsin is faltering a series of explosions start in Russia. Putin, who some say engineered the whole thing, blames it on the Chechnyas and uses that as a pretex for war. False flag operations like this run throughout history.
In tbe classic stamp of false flag ops, debris from the explosions was quickly carted away before any real investigation could begin. Classic! They get away with it everytime because we let them. And when caught red handed trying to bomb a building the FSB said the whole thinv was actually a drill. Don't worry, just a drill. Wow amazing how the playbook never changes. Anyone who attempted to prove it was acutally the FSB (ie Putin) who was responsible for the Russian apartment bombings wound up in jail or dead. Yep works everytime, everywhere.
274 "Don't carry garbage out of the hut." (Old Soviet adage)
287 "lawsuits have replaced the contract killings of the 1990's as a more humane way to get rid of competitors." Russia explores a new/old tactic.
302 The author is expressing here how the "mass-murdering" leaders of old are being reworked into sort tbe stewards oc the golden age. "Wbile no one can devine the future, Russia is the only country with an unpredictable past." (Old Russian saying)
311 As early as 1835 De Toqueville alreaxy had the future all mapped out. He new it would come down to Russia and America as the leaders of the new world that would one day dominate. Pretty stellar predi tion I"d say. One would be through freedom and tbe other through servitude but "each seems marked out by heaven to sway half the globe."
I too thought it was a sad day when Russia went down. I miss our old predictable enemy. There were rules we lived by in our warfare and hatred of each other. Russians never would have crashed planes into buildings, way to passe'. Way too low class
312 Although Putin seemed to want to join in our "so called" War On Terror, it was really just an excuse to go after the Chechnyens. Its now business as usual. Putin even ocfered Snowden political asylum to embarrass America. Then after commiting some of the most egregious human rights violations since his hero Stalin, he gets on the stage as a Russian pot calling the American kettle black. And of course it works, it always works. Putin even went so far as to denounce his his "soul mate" W. And acted Bush said such sweet and loving things about you lil Vladdy.
314 They ( the Russians) hate our guts and we pay them through USAID 50 million dollars a year. So when they say Americans are assholes, someone corrects with yes but assholes with money. Dont you just love our largess.
316 The tide turned to backlash after the NATO bombing of Serbia. They did not like that one bit, still dont.
334 When the price of oil crashex to a dollar a Barrell in 1986 Russia who was dependi g on oil revenue to keep the system going, also collapsed. The catalyst was oil. And even today, more than ever, Russia continues to be buoyed up by oil.
Books:
To Save Everything Click Here Evgeny Morozov.
Journey Into The Whirlwind by Yevgenia Ginzburg (remains one of the best accounts of life in the Gulag.)
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