December 2005 Archives

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Someone wake the CIA

December 30, 2005 08:27 AM

From a piece on Russian industrial policy, in Kommersant.

Yuganskneftegaz, the main Yukos production unit, was auctioned off in late December 2004. At that time, experts believed this to be a mere coincidence. In their opinion, that auction was an inevitable consequence of the Kremlin's war against disgraced oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. They were wrong because it heralded the beginning of the most ambitious industrial nationalization program since the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Two state-controlled holding companies were set up on the basis of Rosneft and Gazprom.

[Translation: Novosti]

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Friends Like These...

December 30, 2005 07:48 AM

From Moskovsky Komsomolets, another reminder why former Soviet bloc countries don't trust security guarantees from Old Europe. Here's Iosif Diskin of the National Strategy Council in Russia:

"Europe's rhetoric has changed drastically over the last two weeks. Earlier, the issue was seen as purely political, it was about the evil Russia oppressing the most democratic Ukraine; but now they are simply worried about their own gas supplies.

"In this war of nerves Europe is a poor ally for Ukraine. It has begun to dawn on Kiev that at 10 a.m. on January 1 Russia will start sending only as much gas as has been bought by, say, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, etc. And if one of the addressees does not receive all or part of its order, we can easily prove that it has been stolen." [Emphasis mine]

[Translation: Novosti]

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The Potemkin Analysis of Russia

December 27, 2005 06:34 AM

Graham Allison, a former assistant secretary of defense who now teaches at the Kennedy School at Harvard, has a piece on Russia in today's Boston Globe that defies parody (and believe me, I tried). You'll just have to read it for yourself. But bear in mind as you do that if the virtue of today's Russia is its "stability," as the author suggests, then this "backsliding on democracy" that he so casually refers to is a pretty serious threat. In Vladimir Putin's Russia there is virtually no press freedom, domestic political opponents are jailed and intimidated, its empire-minded government bullies and menaces independent neighboring states, and the military continues a slow-motion demolition of Chechnya. Sounds a bit like the old, unstable Russia, no?

Yet like an International Relations major exchanging bong-hits in his dormroom over the din of a Grateful Dead bootleg, Allison's analysis ultimately boils down to, Hey, it's complicated, man.

Russia remains a kaleidoscope of contradiction. It is still, in Winston Churchill's oft-quoted line, ''a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." ...[snip]

Most Americans see Russia's glass as half empty rather than half full...there are always enough negatives to support the pessimists.

In my view, Russia is still the land of the Matrushkas and Potemkin's village -- much more subtle and complex than we realize. One peels off one shell only to find another -- each layer embodying elements of truth, competing with contradictory realities both within and beyond. [Emphases mine]

Now pass me the bong....

UPDATE: For more on Russia's "stability," it is worth checking out this editorial in today's Financial Times.

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Great Moments in Humanitarianism

December 26, 2005 04:23 PM

Meet German "humanitarian" and former Iraq captive Susanne Osthoff, a Muslim convert with the forgiving soul of Jesus:

Osthoff described her captors as "poor people" and that [sic] she "cannot blame them for kidnapping her, as they cannot enter(Baghdad's heavily fortified) Green Zone to kidnap Americans." [AFP]

As the Prophet Muhammed might say, Well, they had to kidnap someone....

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Putin's Useful Idiot

December 26, 2005 05:18 AM

Imagine this: A sitting Member of Congress who disapproves President Bush's foreign policy opens an office in Calgary devoted to mustering opposition -- with, of course, the tacit approval of the host government. Now meet Natalya Vitrenko, the radical socialist who leads the New Opposition bloc in the Rada:

MOSCOW, Russia [AP] -- A Ukrainian lawmaker on Thursday harshly criticized her nation's plan to join NATO and opened an information center in Moscow aimed at opposing the move.... [snip]

"If Ukraine joins NATO, it will become an open enemy of Russia," said Vitrenko, who represents a fringe party. "Ukraine will host NATO bases presenting a direct military threat to Russia." ...

...she said, speaking from the capital of a country that remains a direct military threat and all-round antagonist to the country she ostensibly serves in parliament.

Yushchenko has made NATO membership a top goal.

Vitrenko, who ran in Ukraine's 1999 presidential election, spoke at the opening of the Anti-NATO Information Center, which is located on a freshly painted ground floor of a shabby apartment building at 10 Khokhlovsky Pereulok.

I'm wondering if this foreign NGO will survive Russia's new restrictions on outside agitators. Actually, I'm wondering why this group doesn't have Kremlin office space. Did Gerhard Schroeder take it?

Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-linked political analyst who helped run the ill-starred campaign of Yushchenko's Moscow-backed rival, also attended the opening.

You don't say.

"Our nation is being dragged into NATO behind the people's back," Vitrenko said. ...

...about a process that is covered in Russian and Ukrainian papers virtually every day.

"We must mobilize all healthy forces of society to oppose this evil scenario." ... [snip]

You know, evil scenario. Like routinely meddling in the internal political affairs of a neighboring country. Or threatening to violate an explicit agreement and quadruple the price of gas sold to Ukraine almost overnight. During the winter.

During recent weeks, Moscow and Kiev have been locked in an acrimonious dispute over Russian natural gas deliveries to Ukraine. Gazprom more than quadrupled the price for Ukraine starting next year, and Ukraine has refused to pay.

And here to accept the award for silliest conspiracy theory...

Markov claimed Thursday that Gazprom had been caught in a "trap" set by the Ukrainian authorities, who will use the conflict to fan anti-Russian sentiments. [Emphases mine]

Something's got to make people distrust those Russians. Maybe freezing to death will do it.

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The Truth About "Iran"

December 19, 2005 04:20 PM

Okay, which one of you took my jackboots?

Iran does not exist. Yes, I realize that statement will sound extreme and out-of-touch to many supposedly educated people. But the truth must be revealed: "Iran" is a myth that has been created by sinister Zionists in order to win sympathy from the feckless Europeans. Ask yourself: Whose agenda does this "Iran" serve? "Iranians"? Um, okay. So just as Europe is settling back into its accustomed posture of blithe anti-Semitism, along come 80 million people or so who are anxious for a human rights lecture from France, of all places. Jacques Chirac held a state funeral for Arafat! Oh, and this cruel caricature of a "president," who, one must note, looks like the son of a pig or monkey -- a Capuccine monkey, to be exact. I suppose this also was by "Iranian" design! This guy just happens to have apocalyptic fantasies about the return of the 12th Imam and the destruction of Israel.

These Zionists are too clever by half!

Look, I'll make you a deal. I'll pretend that this "Iran" exists. In return, you will agree to relocate its occupiers to Europe or maybe Alaska, and make the land available instead to those mischievous Jews, who thought they had us all fooled.

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Journalists of the Kremlin, Unite!

December 19, 2005 08:42 AM

What is it like to sit in Vladimir Putin's lap, yipping like a poodle and playfully licking his face? Why, it must feel awfully similar to writing articles for Russia's Pravda, an online newspaper formed by dejected Communist "journalists" after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Scroll through! And be sure not to miss the article on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's crusade for "tranquility and sustainable peace" in spite of harrassment from "some countries" (and we know who they are...).

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Reporters Without Funny Bones

December 16, 2005 08:31 AM

The only group more stupidly humorless than the Kazakh government, which has blocked use of the ".kz" Internet domain by comedian Sascha Baron Cohen (a.k.a. Ali G a.k.a. ignorant "Kazakh" journalist Borat), is Reporters Without Borders, which has condemned the Kazakhs for doing so. As if Kazakhstan could have done Cohen a bigger favor. Here's an excerpt from the AP story:

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev said.

In a statement posted on the now-blocked Borat Web site, Cohen, who is Jewish, said: "I like to state, I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew."

"Since the 2003 ... reforms Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world," [Cohen] said in his video address using the blue Kazakh national flag as a backdrop. "Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hat and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

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The most sophisticated readers in the world

December 16, 2005 06:50 AM

What's the most significant news in your world today? If, perhaps, it is that yesterday's first-ever parliamentary elections in Iraq produced an extraordinary turnout, a rebuke to local bullies and jihadists and much-improved prospects for democratic reformers in the Arab world... you probably don't read the New York Times. On the other hand, if you are impressed by advances in digital camera picture-quality, or turned on by the prospect of tasty champagne at asti spumante prices, you probably do!

Most E-Mailed Articles

Past 24 Hours | Past 7 Days | Past 30 Days

Updated every 15 minutes

1. TECHNOLOGY / CIRCUITS | December 15, 2005
David Pogue: Digital Photos Even a Miser Can Enjoy
By DAVID POGUE
Among sub-$300 cameras, it's clear that picture quality is improving and that screens are bigger, too.

2. OPINION | December 15, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor: The Rock Star's Burden
By PAUL THEROUX
Money and celebrity gestures won't solve Africa’s problems.

3. FASHION & STYLE / THURSDAY STYLES | December 15, 2005
A Happy Hipster Hanukkah
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
An increasing amount of irreverent and sometimes R-rated Hanukkah productions are popping up, largely in reaction to what many Jews say is an overwhelming amount of Christmas hoopla.

4. NATIONAL | December 15, 2005
See Baby Touch a Screen. but Does Baby Get It?
By TAMAR LEWIN
More parents are buying electronics for their young children, but there is little evidence that the devices are educational.

5. NEW YORK REGION | December 15, 2005
The Furry, 4-Legged Centerpiece of a Custody Battle in Court
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
The legal fight over a cat may be important to the vast system in New York that handles tens of thousands of stray and lost pets.

6. OPINION | December 15, 2005
The City Life: A Convenient Amnesia About Slavery
By BRENT STAPLES
By conveniently "forgetting" slavery, Northerners have historically absolved themselves of complicity while heaping blame onto the shoulders of the plantation South.

7. FASHION & STYLE / THURSDAY STYLES | December 15, 2005
Chronically Ill Patients Turn to Yoga for Relief
By CAROL E. LEE
People with chronic illnesses from AIDS and cancer to osteoporosis are increasingly turning to yoga classes that single out their specific ailments.

8. DINING & WINE | December 14, 2005
Wines of The Times: Champagne: How Low Can You Go?
By ERIC ASIMOV
The tasting panel was relieved and happy to find some cheap Champagnes that it could recommend enthusiastically.

9. HOME & GARDEN | December 15, 2005
House Proud: Glossy Skin, Vinyl-Clad Heart
By PAIGE WILLIAMS
The architect Charles Rose merged old and new by wrapping an old colonial house inside a cedar box and adding a modern wing.

10. BOOKS | December 15, 2005
After a Century, an American Writer's Library Will Go to America
By ALAN COWELL
The 2,600-volume Edith Wharton library has been sold to the custodians of the Mount, the writer's estate in Lenox, Mass., for $2.6 million.

[Continue to articles 11-25]

Read More »

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Pottinger on Point

December 15, 2005 05:27 AM

Read this piece in today's Wall Street Journal, and you'll understand why I'm proud to count Matt Pottinger among my closest friends. I've known him since he arrived in Washington back in late 1995, shortly after his college gradution and shortly after I, too, arrived in the city. We started together as cub reporters at States News Service, a dynamic but unstable -- and unremunerative -- news organization that was (and perhaps still is) a rite of passage for journalists in the nation's capital. Matt already spoke Chinese so fluently that actual Chinese would look upon him with astonishment on those occasions when we'd slip into Chinatown for a late dinner. Few knew that Matt was also a highly accomplished jazz keyboardist -- he and a former band were once offered a recording contract -- who had an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and jazz history. (He could, it seemed, name virtually any jazz tune and who was playing it from only a couple of notes.) Although he, like I, had very little experience in journalism at the time, it came as no surprise, given his in-born, almost manic curiosity and energy, that he seemed to master the craft almost immediately.

We stayed in touch as he moved on from States to graduate school at Stanford, then on to reporting assignments in China -- first for Reuters, and then for the Wall Street Journal. China, with its ancient customs, its dynamic cultural landscape and its tormented modern history, naturally appealed to Matt's passion for exploration. He would mesmerize others -- me in particular, I guess -- with his well-informed, erudite commentary on the country's oppressed Huigurs or the disastrous folly of the Iron Rice Bowl or the Three Gorges Dam. Yet I could detect an increasing sense of worry creeping into his reflections on China. The first signs appeared in 1998, after a U.S. missile inadvertently hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Matt was sent to cover the demonstrations at the American embassy in Beijing, where Chinese students were somewhat mindlessly chanting nationalist and revolutionary slogans. It was not long before Matt's pale complexion, coupled with his light blonde hair, led some students to infer that he was American. Despite his (false) avowals that he was in fact "Irish," Matt soon found himself surrounded by a clot of angry Chinese students, shouting slogans and epithets at him and beginning to punch and kick. Matt credited a lone student with yanking him from the scrum, allowing him to flee. Later, in describing the incident to me back in Washington, Matt appeared to be awed by the stridency and blind fanaticism he witnessed there. He was to see far more of the same in the years ahead.

The last time I saw Matt was at the beginning of the summer. He came to Washington to conduct some interviews and stayed with me at what was then my apartment. (I now live in Kiev.) He made no mention of the Marines, or his interest in joining. But it was clear from talking with him that he now registered the full measure of concern about China. I don't think I am sharing any confidences in saying that he was deeply alarmed about the situation with Taiwan, because cultural dynamics appeared to be drawing a confrontation ever-closer, and the matter seemed to resist traditional diplomatic pressures and persuasion. For a large segment of the Chinese population, Matt averred, Taiwan was a matter of racial destiny -- the rightful property of a superior race -- in much the same sense that the Sudetenland had been for Hitler's Germany. What's more, Matt perceived that sentiments such as these were actually stronger among the younger generation of Chinese than among the country's current ruling elite. This, of course, reflected the Chinese regime's "success" in its domestic propaganda efforts. It also left Matt with a worrying impression about the future there. In his WSJ piece today, Matt writes:

When you live abroad long enough, you come to understand that governments that behave [as China does] are not the exception, but the rule. They feel alien to us, but from the viewpoint of the world's population, we are the aliens, not them. That makes you think about protecting your country no matter who you are or what you're doing. What impresses you most, when you don't have them day to day, are the institutions that distinguish the U.S.: the separation of powers, a free press, the right to vote, and a culture that values civic duty and service, to name but a few.

I'm not an uncritical, rah-rah American. Living abroad has sharpened my view of what's wrong with my country, too. It's obvious that we need to reinvent ourselves in various ways, but we should also be allowed to do it from within, not according to someone else's dictates.

I have never in my life met anyone funnier than Matt, nor anyone who could be as serious-minded and circumspect when he has to be. It's a weird combination -- one which earned him the nickname "Dark Angel" back in our States News Service days. In my mind's eye (so to speak) I have a great deal of trouble imagining Matt commanding a Marine batallion, unless he's doing it in a pair of pink garters, and solely for the shock value. I also can't imagine Matt -- slim, but bookish -- being physically fit. But I also doubt there is anyone out there who would approach service to his country with a firmer sense of duty and moral commitment. God bless him.

Please read the whole thing.

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Bottom Story of the Day...

December 15, 2005 04:23 AM

...But top story on my Yahoo homepage:

Mortar Lands Near Green Zone As Polls Open By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

Iraqis lined up amid tight security Thursday to vote in a historic parliamentary election the U.S. hopes will lay the groundwork for American troops to withdraw, with a mortar landing near the heavily fortified Green Zone just minutes after polls opened.

No injuries were reported in that blast, but a bomb killed a hospital guard and wounded two other people near a polling station in the northern city of Mosul. The violence underscored security concerns despite a promise by Sunni insurgent groups not to attack the polls....[snip]

Emphasis added. Got that? A mortar round landed near the Green Zone. Did anyone die? No. Was anyone hurt? No. Did it set off any of those annoying car alarms? Did any dogs begin barking excitedly?

One might get the impression that this AP reporter and his editors spend their day scouring Iraq for reports of explosions -- while in other news, millions of Iraqis went to the polls to elect the first representative government in the Arab World.

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White Hunter, Black Heart

December 14, 2005 08:09 AM

Leave it to the Germans to set a new standard for cynicism. Gerhard Schroeder, failed former chancellor, America-baiting demagogue, terrorist appeasor and all-round gasbag has now surrendered his lone remaining virtue: At least he wasn't one of Vladimir Putin's stooges. In case you haven't been following affairs here in the former Soviet Bloc, the Russian leader has been threatening to force Ukraine to pay market rates for oil and gas from its Eastern neighbor. Fair enough. But this would, according to most reports, triple the price of petrol here overnight. When the price spikes, ordinary Ukrainians will be the ones to suffer, and scores of people in this desperately poor country will die. Putin, of course, knows this. Which is why he's been using Russia's supplier role to put the screws into Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, who insists on building relations with the West. (No similar pressure has been put on Lukashenko's regime in Belarus, which buys its gas at the same rate as Ukraine.) The one card Yushchenko has had to play in all this is the fact that Ukraine could block Russia's shipments of oil westward -- 80 percent of Russia's gas exports pass through Ukraine via pipelines. This would hurt both countries but, well, there you have it.

Enter plucky Gerhard. Few understood the logic when the former chancellor spent so much political capital on backing an oil pipeline through the Baltic Sea from Russia. Oh, yes, there were claims that the pipeline would bolster supply guarantees for Germany. But the plan's only logical basis was to put the squeeze on Eastern European countries -- Ukraine in particular -- that were gravitating away from Russia and toward the West. And Germany, one of the West's anchor economies, could not want that, right? Well, no one calculated that Schroeder's interests were somewhat different than Germany's. They know now: Last week, Schroeder signed on to work for Gazprom, the Russian gas giant that is essentially controlled by the Russian government. The company believes it's high time Ukraine paid the market rate for its gas shipments. Last week, Putin publicly concurred. Does anyone need to ask Schroeder for his opinion?

P.S. As this Washington Post editorial page points out, the more you know about the details of Schroeder's arrangement, the more sordid this tale becomes....

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The Ivy Insurgency

December 10, 2005 07:20 AM

Ralph Peters' column describing the "moral collapse" of American journalism since Watergate [requires registration] is obnoxious, mean-spirited and underhanded, and... I don't disagree with a single word of it.

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Judicial Stalingrad on the Dnipro

December 5, 2005 01:29 PM

Okay. A Ukrainian court orders the country's ousted prosecutor general to be reinstated. But there's a twist: The new prosecutor general won't abandon the office. Meanwhile, in direct contravention of the laws of Ukraine, the president who fired the first PG refuses to enforce the court's decision, on grounds that it was tainted by "corruption." Question: Will either of these PGs prosecute this insoucient flouting of executive responsibility?... P.S. This is not an easy one. Ukraine's courts are notoriously corrupt and Vyatislav Piskun, the ousted PG, is an ineffectual putz who has botched the most important investigation on his docket -- the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. But if a country's president isn't at the very least investigated for brushing aside a specific mandate from the judicial branch, there's not much sense in having a prosecutor general, no? Ukraine ain't supposed to be Belarus....

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More of those 'Lying Liars'

December 3, 2005 03:48 AM

I've been stateside since Thanksgiving, so I'm a bit out of the swim of current events in Ukraine. But this rather brief report from London's Independent caught my eye.

KIEV, Ukraine -- A Ukrainian presidential bodyguard who exposed the country's biggest political scandal, involving murder, corruption, and illegal arms sales to Saddam Hussein has returned home, vowing to put his former boss, Leonid Kuchma, behind bars.

Major Mykola Melnychenko fled Kiev in 2000 after revealing excerpts from secret recordings he made of Mr Kuchma which implicated the president in the murder of a journalist who had exposed the corruption of Mr Kuchma's 10-year rule.

Major Melnychenko has been provided with a bodyguard by the Ukrainian intelligence services since his arrival on Wednesday from the US where he was given political asylum in 2003. He was with a former Ukrainian MP, Oleksandr Yalyaskevych, also granted US asylum after claiming Mr Kuchma's henchmen had tried to kill him....[snip]

Major Melnychenko says he saw Mr Kuchma taking bribes, and recorded him allegedly authorising sales of sophisticated defence systems to Iraq in contravention of UN sanctions.

Emphasis added. Ah, yes, another timely reminder that Saddam was not the properly chastened "dictator-in-a-box" of anti-war fantasy. In this particular case, his purchase included three so-called Kolchuga radar systems, an anti-stealth technology that can detect radar signals and electromagnetic pulses from warplanes at distances of hundreds of miles, while emitting no signal of its own (meaning pilots do not know they are being tracked). Presumably the goal here was to shoot down American and British warplanes that were, at the time, enforcing 'no-fly' zones north and south of Baghdad. The zones, you might recall, were intended to prevent any further massacre of Iraq's Kurdish and Shi'ite populations. But the specific purpose for which the radars were sought was moot, of course: International sanctions had forbidden Saddam from purchasing and acquiring any weaponry since 1990.

I guess in this instance, as in so many others, "containment" meant restraining one's impulse to collapse in gales of laughter at the impotence of the international sanctions imposed on Saddam.

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Ethan's Bag of Predictions - Part I

December 1, 2005 02:03 AM

I predict... that not long from now, Iraqi journalists will start being killed by jihadists on the grounds that they must be in the pay of the United States, because their articles are favorable -- or simply not unfavorable -- toward the American military presence in that country. I further predict that when that time comes, the New York Times will editorialize that Iraq is falling further into chaos and plunging toward civil war. I predict, still further, that the paper's smug editorialists will note that our public diplomacy in the Middle East -- perhaps most notably our military's (formerly) secret attempts to counter the bold propagandists of the Arab and Muslim worlds -- has been a tragic boondoggle, because not only are the taxpayer-financed efforts not fooling anyone, but now Iraqi journalists are being killed because of this failure. I predict, even further, that no connection will be cited between these occurrances and the fact that American news media expose the country's clandestine operations to world scrutiny, and thus feed the dark suspicions of those most susceptible to the propaganda that the military has been trying to undercut.

Finally, I predict that after all the propaganda ops are exposed; after all the disguised charter operations, CIA fronts and secret jails are revealed; after every last photo snapped by some drooling half-wit at Abu Ghraib has been aired -- after all of it, the Times editorialists will demand, with exquisite sincerity, that Bush administration figures be punished for revealing Valerie Plame's employment at the CIA to journalists. After all, the disclosure may have harmed national security....

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