The open mike part of the show was very depressing. Both sides. Most of what they said. And those stupid t-shirts - Pora and the Regions - after the nice, expensive ties and suits of the politicians. These people, on both sides, seem to believe their views matter. Even the dumbest of their views. Yanukovych and svetloye budushcheye (a Soviet way of saying 'happy future'). A new election as a way to cleanse ourselves of the shit we are up to our knees in right now.
This country needs more football, not more elections.
Friday, July 14, 2006
I'm watching Savik Shuster's Svoboda Slova.
Lots of crap.
Socialist Mykola Rudkovsky, for example: he is speaking on behalf of the new coalition, in the future tense, promising monthly salaries of $1,000 in five years.
Party of the Regions guys lack charisma, tact and brains so completely it hurts. (All of them, on all sides, are pretty useless now - and this is when charisma all of a sudden begins to matter. Well, not really all of a sudden, okay...)
Moroz isn't in the studio, but they are airing his video now, in which he's speaking about the new coalition; I'm not sure why and I'm sort of sure I'm wrong, but my feeling is he is taking too much upon himself, he won't last too long, one way or another.
Pora's Kaskiv advocates a new vote - but not too convincingly, using all those political cliches like 'let the people rule again' blah blah blah.
Mykola Katerynchuk, sexy as ever, wasn't making too much sense at the beginning, sounded too political, but a minute ago he asked Rudkovsky a simple, human question: why didn't you tell your voters during the campaign that as soon as you get into the parliament, you'll make Yanukovych the prime minister.
Every now and then, each side says something meaningful, something I can easily agree with. Rudkovsky asking what would change if there is a re-vote. (Moroz would lose, most likely, right? but that wouldn't make this coalition-building business easier... Rudkovsky, of course, wouldn't admit what his party's stake is, why he wouldn't want a re-vote...)
The audience has been brought to the studio from Maidan - Party of the Regions t-shirts on one side, Pora t-shirts on the other, and a bunch of undecideds who are closer to the Regions than to the other side.
***
Why did Moroz have to wait for so long before he switched sides?
Why did the Regions of Ukraine wait for so long before buying Moroz? Did they really hope Yushchenko would join them - and when he didn't, when the first coalition was formed, was that the crucial point that forced them to part with their money?
***
Treason is the key word coming from people like Yosyp Vinskyo and Oleksandr Turchynov.
Turchynov is literally preaching against treason - it's a sin, it's not moral, don't teach the young people to cheat, etc. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of blah blah blah, too.
Lots of crap.
Socialist Mykola Rudkovsky, for example: he is speaking on behalf of the new coalition, in the future tense, promising monthly salaries of $1,000 in five years.
Party of the Regions guys lack charisma, tact and brains so completely it hurts. (All of them, on all sides, are pretty useless now - and this is when charisma all of a sudden begins to matter. Well, not really all of a sudden, okay...)
Moroz isn't in the studio, but they are airing his video now, in which he's speaking about the new coalition; I'm not sure why and I'm sort of sure I'm wrong, but my feeling is he is taking too much upon himself, he won't last too long, one way or another.
Pora's Kaskiv advocates a new vote - but not too convincingly, using all those political cliches like 'let the people rule again' blah blah blah.
Mykola Katerynchuk, sexy as ever, wasn't making too much sense at the beginning, sounded too political, but a minute ago he asked Rudkovsky a simple, human question: why didn't you tell your voters during the campaign that as soon as you get into the parliament, you'll make Yanukovych the prime minister.
Every now and then, each side says something meaningful, something I can easily agree with. Rudkovsky asking what would change if there is a re-vote. (Moroz would lose, most likely, right? but that wouldn't make this coalition-building business easier... Rudkovsky, of course, wouldn't admit what his party's stake is, why he wouldn't want a re-vote...)
The audience has been brought to the studio from Maidan - Party of the Regions t-shirts on one side, Pora t-shirts on the other, and a bunch of undecideds who are closer to the Regions than to the other side.
***
Why did Moroz have to wait for so long before he switched sides?
Why did the Regions of Ukraine wait for so long before buying Moroz? Did they really hope Yushchenko would join them - and when he didn't, when the first coalition was formed, was that the crucial point that forced them to part with their money?
***
Treason is the key word coming from people like Yosyp Vinskyo and Oleksandr Turchynov.
Turchynov is literally preaching against treason - it's a sin, it's not moral, don't teach the young people to cheat, etc. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of blah blah blah, too.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Yesterday, a Party of the Regions deputy Oleg Kalashnikov and a group of the party's supporters attacked STB channel journalist Margaryta Sytnyk and cameraman Volodymyr Novosad, who were filming the tents in the park near Rada. They beat up the cameraman and took away the tape.
So far, over 300 Ukrainian journalists have signed a letter (Ukrainska Pravda, in Ukrainian) protesting the attack and demanding the tape's return, as well as expelling Kalashnikov from the faction and opening a criminal case against him.
So far, over 300 Ukrainian journalists have signed a letter (Ukrainska Pravda, in Ukrainian) protesting the attack and demanding the tape's return, as well as expelling Kalashnikov from the faction and opening a criminal case against him.
I hated Leonid Chernovetsky's guts during the election, and now I feel somewhat bad about it, because at this crazy time Kyiv's weird new mayor seems like the only politician talking some sense out there, in his own, peculiar, way, of course, which, among other things, is somewhat hard to translate (Ukrainska Pravda, in Ukrainian - Mish jan, thanks for alerting me to it):
I'm not into politics now because I'm more interested in [garbage], it almost led to a catastrophe... the way garbage is being collected, all this has to be taken care of, so I won't take any side in politics now.
According to Korrespondent.net (in Russian), there are about 10,000 people by the Rada now, supporters of the Communist-Socialist-Yanukovych coalition - and some Stalin fans, too:
Those people are so fucked up.
Victor Taran, a deputy from Yulya's bloc, fired from a rubber-bullet gun into the air last night to chase Valeriy Bondik, a deputy from the Party of the Regions, away from a BYuT tent.
This ain't Maidan, obviously.
***
About 50 Yanukovych tents by the Rada and 30 or so Yulya tents by the Cabinet of Ministers: if I had stayed at Besarabka, we wouldn't have a place to go for walks now.
Some 50 Pora and 20 Yulia tents at Maidan.
***
The March 26 election was pronounced free and fair and all - and I don't see how a new round of voting would help them fix things. Well, maybe if they follow it up with a couple more elections - then most parties would run out of money and only one would remain. That would be cute, I guess.
Victor Taran, a deputy from Yulya's bloc, fired from a rubber-bullet gun into the air last night to chase Valeriy Bondik, a deputy from the Party of the Regions, away from a BYuT tent.
This ain't Maidan, obviously.
***
About 50 Yanukovych tents by the Rada and 30 or so Yulya tents by the Cabinet of Ministers: if I had stayed at Besarabka, we wouldn't have a place to go for walks now.
Some 50 Pora and 20 Yulia tents at Maidan.
***
The March 26 election was pronounced free and fair and all - and I don't see how a new round of voting would help them fix things. Well, maybe if they follow it up with a couple more elections - then most parties would run out of money and only one would remain. That would be cute, I guess.
From the backlog:
When Mishah was on a train to Kyiv the night of the sad Ukraine vs Italy game, there was a man with an expensive portable TV set in his compartment - but they didn't manage to catch the game's broadcast.
When Mishah was on a train to Moscow the night of the France vs Italy final, border control guys at the Ukrainian-Russian border in Konotop were filling the passengers in on the game's details.
When Mishah was on a train to Kyiv the night of the sad Ukraine vs Italy game, there was a man with an expensive portable TV set in his compartment - but they didn't manage to catch the game's broadcast.
When Mishah was on a train to Moscow the night of the France vs Italy final, border control guys at the Ukrainian-Russian border in Konotop were filling the passengers in on the game's details.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
wa z33kjnjp0jn7ygv? ?37?? 7???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????>? 8??????? ???6b n§§§ §8nm 35555555555tb ff2dc v5gtb vf rrffdcw1s§qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqwqBFGD VCZ3VCWDQD3 DEWAAA`W~[<]uj
This was Marta's first blog entry. She wanted to say more but it's time for her bath now )))))))))
P.S. It wouldn't post, tells me this, in red letters: "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is broken: [<]uj." That goddamn HTML... )))
Oh, and those question marks - they are Cyrillic letters - she's managed to switch alphabets!
This was Marta's first blog entry. She wanted to say more but it's time for her bath now )))))))))
P.S. It wouldn't post, tells me this, in red letters: "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is broken: [<]uj." That goddamn HTML... )))
Oh, and those question marks - they are Cyrillic letters - she's managed to switch alphabets!
Trash update: yesterday, there was none - neither inside the containers, nor outside - and they weren't burning anything, either. It wasn't ideally clean, but compared to those really bad days, it was ideal.
It turned out to be a collective effort: our neighbor did call the district administration numbers I had given her and the guy I couldn'trich reach :-) talked to her, very politely. She took some photos, too, and is going to send them to the mayor - and, possibly, to some newspapers.
Now, jumping way sideways, sort of: it's really easy to talk about Ukraine's willingness to join the EU/NATO/WTO/whatever, it's easy to bullshit everyone saying we're moving in that beautiful direction, westward, away from Russia. It's really easy to talk about moving toward Russia, too, of course. But this is all such abstract talk. When that trash lay rotting for the second week in a row and no one gave a shit, I finally began to understand why certain countries make it very difficult for Ukrainians to obtain their entry visas - and I couldn't blame them for it. They have enough of their own shit to want some of ours. All our current political mess is as abstract as all those promises and statements made by Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Moroz or Yanukovych - while the mess in the beautiful Pushcha Vodytsya is totally real, and so is the mess in many local administrations, and in many other places all over Ukraine, beautiful or ugly.
It turned out to be a collective effort: our neighbor did call the district administration numbers I had given her and the guy I couldn't
Now, jumping way sideways, sort of: it's really easy to talk about Ukraine's willingness to join the EU/NATO/WTO/whatever, it's easy to bullshit everyone saying we're moving in that beautiful direction, westward, away from Russia. It's really easy to talk about moving toward Russia, too, of course. But this is all such abstract talk. When that trash lay rotting for the second week in a row and no one gave a shit, I finally began to understand why certain countries make it very difficult for Ukrainians to obtain their entry visas - and I couldn't blame them for it. They have enough of their own shit to want some of ours. All our current political mess is as abstract as all those promises and statements made by Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Moroz or Yanukovych - while the mess in the beautiful Pushcha Vodytsya is totally real, and so is the mess in many local administrations, and in many other places all over Ukraine, beautiful or ugly.
The mess inside the parliament has poured out into the street, and I sort of regret missing it all - regret not being able to take pictures. Otherwise, I'm doing wonderfully where I am - and I couldn't care less about this fight over the chairs for their fat asses. If they decide to do a new election, I'll finally vote against all - and won't feel guilty afterwards. Though I hope it won't come to that, I hope they'll sort it out without wasting all this money and paper again.
The bombings in Bombay, so sad...
I'm reading a very interesting book about the city right now - Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta. Not gonna be the same after yesterday, unfortunately.
I'm reading a very interesting book about the city right now - Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta. Not gonna be the same after yesterday, unfortunately.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
On Basayev's death, for Global Voices - nothing special and, to use someone else's words about Moroz, I feel unclean after compiling this. Must be because of the memory of Maskhadov's corpse: on every Russian channel, every minute that night - and Ramzan Kadyrov's sickening, sick sense of humor: a March 8 present to all women of Chechnya. Basayev's head (or his headless and legless body) must be Putin's present to the G8 folks arriving in St. Pete...
Anyway, here it is:
Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), announced Monday that Shamil Basayev had been killed shortly after midnight in a truck explosion outside a village in Ingushetia.
Timur Aliev (LJ user timur_aliev), editor-in-chief of the print/online weekly Chechen Society (Chechenskoye Obshchestvo), happened to be in Nazran (the capital of Ingushetia until 2000) last night, and below is the translation of his account (RUS) on how he learned about Basayev's death. Although FSB claims that Russia's most wanted man died as the result of a special operation, some people (and bloggers) doubt it.
***
English-language Russia bloggers are also reacting to the news.
TaliaXianne of Something In The Way She Moves waited for the Chechen sources outside Russia to confirm Basayev's death:
David McDuff of A Step At A Time is also relying on extraneous sources (and translates some, too):
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog reviews and links to various reports on Basayev's death and its possible causes, notes that this has been "a great week" for Putin - and offers a brief glance at the discussion to come:
Vilhelm Konnander cites Nikolai Patrushev on Basayev's plans to disrupt the upcoming G8 Summit:
He is pessimistic about the effect Basayev's departure is going to have on the future of Chechnya:
Charlie Ganske of Russia Blog recalls Basayev's most horrendous act of terror - the 2004 school siege in Beslan - by posting photos of the victims - and cheers the FSB:
Anyway, here it is:
Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), announced Monday that Shamil Basayev had been killed shortly after midnight in a truck explosion outside a village in Ingushetia.
Timur Aliev (LJ user timur_aliev), editor-in-chief of the print/online weekly Chechen Society (Chechenskoye Obshchestvo), happened to be in Nazran (the capital of Ingushetia until 2000) last night, and below is the translation of his account (RUS) on how he learned about Basayev's death. Although FSB claims that Russia's most wanted man died as the result of a special operation, some people (and bloggers) doubt it.
Has Basayev Been Killed?
[...]
I was spending the night in Nazran tonight and heard a powerful explosion around midnight, and some 15 minutes later, a few shots - singular, automatic.
In the morning, it turns out there are blockposts on many roads in Nazran - traffic police and some others, unidentifiable, wearing masks - and IDs are being checked. I ask what's going on - they tell me a car with rebels and explosives blew up in Ekazhevo. And around the same time I start getting phone calls from various journalist acquaintances from Moscow - hasn't Basayev been killed? I call my friends from ITAR-TASS in Ingushetia - what have been heard in this regard? Not known yet, they say, two rebels of the four killed cannot be identified yet. All this I tell to my Moscow colleagues. But to myself I think: I'll stay in Ingushetia till the evening and see how the situation develops.
Then I get a call from our newsroom in Grozny - they say the FSB people stopped by, were checking us in relation to something (irrelevant to this post), and one of them said that Basayev had been killed in Ingushetia. He was identified by a missing leg (without a prosthesis, by the way), and it looks like a DNA analysis showed a match. Though it's not clear how is it possible to do such an analysis in a couple hours.
But since we've already got burned on this topic once [Basayev had been reported dead a few times before], I decided to wait until the release of official confirmation. And here it is - Patrushev reports on a successful operation.
upd. Patrushev is talking about a successful operation, but it appears that the whole operation was about identifying a one-legged corpse. Moreover, it turns out that Basayev has been driving around next to the federal highway, just like that - and if it hadn't been for an accidental truck blast, he would have continued to.
***
goldyz: They [the Kremlin] are trying to score a few points on the eve of the [G8] summit. IMHO.
timur_aliev: Yes, of course...
realavatar: [...] They were reports recently that Basayev was somewhere in the former Soviet republics...
timur_aliev: Most likely, he transplanted his DNA to someone else and left... :)
vozrozdenie: [...] How popular was Basayev [...] with the Chechens?
timur_aliev: I'd say that with time he was becoming less and less popular. But he definitely did have admirers: radicals always attract young people other radicals...
***
English-language Russia bloggers are also reacting to the news.
TaliaXianne of Something In The Way She Moves waited for the Chechen sources outside Russia to confirm Basayev's death:
Shamil Basayev
is, allegedly, dead... again.
However, as I just told a friend, 'maybe I am in denial, but I do not buy it'. But I told myself earlier, when I first heard the rumours, that I would only believe it when Kavkaz and Zakayev said that it was true. And now they both have. [...]
David McDuff of A Step At A Time is also relying on extraneous sources (and translates some, too):
[...] Update: Now Kavkaz Center has also confirmed the death, following the view that it was the result of a military accident, and not of a "successful special operation" by Russian or Russian-backed forces. [...]
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog reviews and links to various reports on Basayev's death and its possible causes, notes that this has been "a great week" for Putin - and offers a brief glance at the discussion to come:
Be sure that over the next day or so analysts and commentators will deal with the obvious question: Does Basayev’s death signal the end to the Chechen resistance and the Chechen War?
Vilhelm Konnander cites Nikolai Patrushev on Basayev's plans to disrupt the upcoming G8 Summit:
[...] Basayev was killed while preparing a terrorist attack in Ingusheti capital of Nazran on occasion of the St. Petersburg G8 Summit this week.
He is pessimistic about the effect Basayev's departure is going to have on the future of Chechnya:
Basayev's death will most likely mean little for the conflict. With Moscow-backed Ramzan Kadyrov as leader of Chechnya, criminality as a form of government has been institutionalised. When Kadyrov turns 30 in October, he will most likely succeed puppet president Alkhanov to rule Chechnya without much restraint from Moscow.
Charlie Ganske of Russia Blog recalls Basayev's most horrendous act of terror - the 2004 school siege in Beslan - by posting photos of the victims - and cheers the FSB:
Russia Blog congratulates the Russian security forces for a job well done. We know that Basayev's death is small comfort to the families of his victims, but it is a huge step towards peace and prosperity in the Caucuses and another stinging defeat for the global jihad.
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