Russia today

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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Thu Jul 22, 2021 1:59 pm

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An Expendable Navalny’s Downfall was Inevitable, and Just a Matter of Time
July 20, 2021
By Serge Rousskikh – Jul 18, 2021

Navalny became expendable because everyone got what they wanted from him.

The sky is silent. A slight breeze from the northeast keeps the city comfortable. Workers from all walks of life retreat to the subway for another commute home, while those already home step out for an evening walk.

After days of whipping winds, torrential downpours and bolts emanating throughout an angry sky, a calm sets over Moscow.

Just hours before Russia’s capital would take its tranquil state, the Moscow City Court designated Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) an extremist entity, bookending the 12-year political rollercoaster ride.

However, unlike the past, there were no protests, no seemingly obligatory press releases from the world’s highest offices, or even casual outrage from even the most ardent Russophobes – Russia experts as they prefer to refer to themselves.

The weather reflected the political climate in Moscow because Navalny’s downfall was as inevitable as the calm following a storm.

Navalny rises, then falls

Navalny’s political career began in 2000, coinciding with President Vladimir Putin’s ascension to power, when the then-24-year-old joined the Western-style neoliberal Yabloko Party. Navalny quickly rose through the ranks, although he was turfed from the party in 2007 by its seemingly eternal leader, Grigory Yavlinsky, for “causing political damage to the party; in particular, for nationalist activities.”

During his time in the Yabloko Party, Navalny was introduced to several influential acquaintances, including Maria Gaidar, the daughter of Egor Gaidar – a universally reviled figure in Russia for his “shock therapy” transition from socialism to capitalism and widely considered the perpetrator of the chaotic privatization regime of the 1990s which plunged much of the population into poverty – and Nikita Belykh, the future governor of Kursk Oblast, who would play a key role in the blogger’s first conviction.

After his exclusion from Yabloko, Navalny, with the help of his new acquaintances, polished his nationalist credentials, co-founding the National Russian Liberation Movement, known as NAROD, aligning the movement with other nationalist movements, the Movement Against Illegal Immigration and Great Russia.

Navalny’s crowing moment came in the spring of 2012.

In advance of Putin’s inauguration following the 2012 presidential election, which saw him return to the Kremlin following the one-term presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, a united Russian non-systemic opposition staged a series of protests culminating in the violence at Bolotny Square on March 6 and 7. The aftermath saw many of the central figures handed significant jail sentences.

Navalny, who escaped conviction under dubious circumstances, became the Western face of opposition to Putin.

Navalny’s rise was inevitable. He was a tall, good-looking and charismatic young man that promised Russians the world. He promised “decent wages” for all, speaking to those disaffected by the economic woes that lingered since the fall of the Soviet Union. The future blogger promised to address the “ethnic question” that was top of mind following nearly a decade of war in Chechnya, vowing to arrest strongman Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Navalny even assured his followers that in his “Russia of the future” roads – a national source of comic relief – would be restored.

Navalny’s assurances elicited comparisons to a soundbite often attributed to Russia’s populist mastodon Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who once jokingly promised supporters “a man for every woman and a bottle of vodka for every man.”

What Navalny never explained is how he would follow through on each of the promises. In hindsight, Navalny was a precursor to the populist wave that swept the globe in the middle to late 2010s. However, all interested parties, including the Kremlin, were more than happy to let Navalny ride the wave.

In Navalny, the NATO bloc received a neoliberal flagman in an increasingly independent – from the unrivaled neoliberal world order established at the conclusion of the Cold War – and assertive Russia.

Marginal Russian opposition parties and movements, left leaderless and disjointed following the events at Bolotny Square, saw Navalny as a brand they could latch onto to stay in the spotlight.

Mainstream opposition parties opportunistically piggybacked on his notoriety.

Most notably, contrary to established consensus, the Kremlin also had a vested interest in seeing Navalny as the non-systemic opposition’s mantle bearer.

The protests that swept Russia beginning in 2011, culminating in the Bolotny Square case, were Putin’s toughest test since assuming power at the turn of the century. The protest saw Russia’s communists, nationalists and neoliberals unite to protest Putin’s return to the Kremlin.

Those truly well-versed in Russian domestic politics are tuned to the fact that in the pecking order of threats to the current government, the neoliberal agenda trails leftist and nationalist doctrines by a country mile.

As such, Navalny, whose public support never cracked 5 percent and personal approval rating never rose above 20 percent, according to even friendly pollsters such as the Levada Center, perfectly suited the Kremlin. While Navalny was a great outlet for disenchanted Russians to blow off political steam, the Putin administration was not concerned in the least that he would be able to galvanize a national uprising.

Navalny, for his part, was more than happy to collect money from a variety of sources, including members of Russia’s crony business elite, who used the “anti-corruption crusader” to conduct smear campaigns against rivals, unfriendly foreign governments and NGOs. Neither was the man, who always claimed to be ‘one with the people,’ one to shy away from international PR tours on the Western taxpayers’ dime.

The Kremlin and Navalny had a mutually beneficial relationship, with both parties careful not to overstep their bounds, as evidenced by their respective overtures when things went too far; the Presidential Administration allowed Navalny to seek treatment abroad after being doused with “zelyonka,” despite being on probation, while the blogger held a clandestine meeting with businessman Yevgeni Prigozhin, better known in the West as “Putin’s chef.”

However, as inevitable as his rise was, Navalny’s fall from grace, too, was a matter of time.

Throughout his meteoric rise, Navalny, who despite his noble claims, was still a by-product of Boris Yeltsin’s crony capitalist regime that ingrained itself in the fabric of the Russian state following the fall of the Soviet Union, never straying from monetary pursuits.

The anti-corruption crusader has twice been convicted on corruption charges. Navalny’s current jail term is for his involvement in the Yves Rocher case, concocted by his brother. Furthermore, the blogger was found guilty in the lumber smuggling scheme with old friend Belykh and miraculously escaped prosecution for illegally appropriating funds during his nationalist days.

The European Human Rights Court condemned the convictions, albeit citing procedural inconstancies rather than a politically motivated prosecution. In a statement ahead of Navalny’s sentencing on February 2, Yves Rocher issued a statement saying that it considers the case to be “closed.”

“Suspicions of fraud on the part of the Navalny brothers against private companies have been confirmed by three judgments and this case is therefore closed and it is no longer possible to reverse it,” the French cosmetics giant said in the statement.

Navalny also never shied away from accepting help from foreign, and certainly not friendly, entities or governments. An investigation showed that some of Navalny’s nationalist-era work was funded by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) agency. And a clip published by state-funded broadcaster RT showed the FBK’s acting director, Vladimir Ashurkov, meeting with British Embassy staffer James Ford, identified by Russian intelligence as an MI-6 agent, to secure support for the anti-corruption foundation.

The pandemic, meanwhile, has made Navalny expendable and conversely liable for his previous misgivings.

Like the rest of the world, Russia is seeing societal problems, such as income inequality, the lack of social elevators and corruption, amplified by the effects of COVID-19. The Putin administration, like the others is dealing with growing discontent, most importantly among members of his base.

Putin’s base, consisting largely of those still haunted by memories of Russia’s experience with ‘wild west capitalism’ during the 1990s, was increasingly dismayed by impunity granted to the non-systemic opposition, while rank-and-file Russians face increasing administrative and legal burdens.

Putin loyalists had long been skeptical about Navalny’s ability to avoid serious consequences, but seeing Navalny flagrantly thumbing his nose in the face of the Russian legal system during one of the country’s most significant challenges since the Great Patriotic War was too much for some; ignoring Navalny’s nearly sixtieth breach of probation, could have overloaded a system already stretched to the max.

The Kremlin also understands that in the age of great power competition and geopolitical realignments, sanctions are a reality and an inevitability. If not Navalny, the Western alliance could impose sanctions at any time for any reason. Further leniency for Navalny in exchange for the sake of postponing sanctions was simply not worth the political risk of alienating the base.

Navalny, for his part, began taking things too far.

The 45-year-old blogger was no longer the fresh-faced, charismatic blowhard he once was. Increasingly criticized for his iron grip on Russia’s neoliberal opposition scene, more recently, Navalny began taking a more hardline tone, feeling the pressure to act or risk being supplanted.

While in his earlier career there were lines he wouldn’t cross, Navalny, in the months leading up to his jailing, openly mused about lustrations and politically motivated repressions in his “Russia of the future,” alienating remaining moderates while attracting young radicals, best characterized as “alt-Russians,” considering their semblance to Q-Anon-like cultists ready to steamroll anyone perceived to be an impediment to their leader.

For the West, Navalny, too was becoming a burden.

Of course, should Navalny be jailed for an extended period of time, he will likely become the recipient of an international award, up to and including the discredited Nobel Peace Prize, or perhaps have his name attached to an anti-Russian sanctions package or legislation, as previously seen in the case of the late Sergei Magnitsky. However, there’s very little stock left in a free Navalny.

His low approval ratings and a host of legal issues leave him with no viable options for a future in politics.

Even his ability to draw a crowd increasingly came into scrutiny. Since the Bolotny days, when upwards of 100,000 Muscovites hit the streets in protest, attendance at opposition rallies has continued to decline throughout the decade. In the aftermath of Navalny’s arrest following his return from Germany, protests billed as a now or never moment for regime change advocates drew 15,000 attendees. The following weekend barely 3,000 showed up. Navalny’s right-hand man, Leonid Volkov, who is coordinating the remnants of the movement from Latvia, canceled rallies until the summer but ultimately had to retool the format of the protest to make it easier to participate in, to save face.

Navalny’s demise also has roots in the West’s own problems. Like Russia, Western countries, too, face an increasingly irritated public, exhausted by systemic issues that the pandemic has exacerbated. Additionally, NATO countries no longer have unlimited financial resources or the time to consistently breathe new life into the Russian opposition, especially in light of an increasingly ambitious China preoccupying the bloc’s attention.

The West’s resignation was on full display during Navalny’s return to Russia, following his stay at the Charite Hospital, where he was treated for poisoning. German authorities were fully aware of Navalny’s impending legal issues before he boarded the ironically named Pobeda (Victory) Airlines flight back to Moscow. In fact, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service communicated their intention to detain the opposition figure days before the opposition figure arrived in Moscow.

But for Berlin, Navalny had to go. It would be hard to explain to the average German struggling to make ends meet amid the pandemic why a foreign political figure enjoys German taxpayer-funded perks, including a €15,000-a-month private rental home and around-the-clock police escort.

Ultimately, even Navalny understands that the inevitable has become a reality and his career as a politician has run its course, evidenced by his tirades in Moscow courtrooms. Navalny received an 850,000 ruble ($11,475 USD) fine for the slander and subsequent harassment of a Second World War veteran after calling 94-year-old Colonel Ignat Artemenko a “traitor” for appearing in a TV ad advocating for the adoption of Russia’s constitutional reform last summer. The 44-year-old blogger miraculously escaped prosecution for contempt of court after being reprimanded on 20 different occasions for his meltdowns.

Apart from the two-and-a-half-year prison term for repeatedly violating the terms of his probation conditions stemming from his conviction in the Yves Rocher case, Navalny’s legal troubles are far from over.

The blogger is under investigation on fraud charges in relation to the misappropriation of campaign funds for his “presidential campaign.” In advance of the 2018 Russian Presidential election, Navalny, who in light of his numerous convictions is legally barred from running for public office, announced his intention to run against Putin and subsequently collected $8 million in donations. Russia’s equivalent of the FBI, the Investigative Committee, alleges that the opposition blogger appropriated 4 million dollars’ worth of donations for personal expenses. According to the Russian stature, Navalny faces an additional ten years of jail time if convicted. Russian legal analysts say that the likelihood of conviction is high.

In total, Navalny could potentially spend the next dozen years behind bars, a remarkable fall from grace for a politician with his prospects.

When Navalny next emerges from prison a free man, perhaps more than a decade from now, he will step foot into a new world and a new Russia, but he will be long forgotten considering the speed at which the modern world moves. The world and Russia will be immersed in different issues and new challenges, and Navalny, whose downfall was as inevitable as his ascension, will be, also inevitably, an afterthought.

https://orinocotribune.com/an-expendabl ... r-of-time/

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Navalny’s Links with British Intelligence Service Revealed
February 4, 2021

The relationship between the British Intelligence Service and Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was revealed in a recording in which millions of dollars are requested from a British agent.

The images, recorded covertly by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), show a close associate of Navalny—detained on January 17 at an airport in Moscow after his return from Germany— negotiating with a suspected British spy for financial and intelligence assistance, local network RT reported on Monday.

The video recorded in 2012 shows a meeting held in a café in Moscow, the Russian capital, between the Executive Director of Navalny’s so-called Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), Vladimir Ashurkov, and then-Second Secretary of Political Affairs of the UK embassy in Russia, James William Thomas Ford. The FSB suspected that the diplomat in question worked for the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), operating under diplomatic cover.


At one point during the meeting Ashurkov indicated that “if we had more money, we would expand our team, of course,” adding that his goal of getting “a little money” like “$10, $20 million a year” would make a huge difference.

He suggested, as seen in the video footage, that the organization’s activities would benefit London companies (British capital). “And this is not a great deal of money for people who have billions at stake,” said Ashkurov. “This is not a big amount of money for people who have billions at stake. And that’s the message I am trying to project in my fundraising efforts and talking to people in the business community.”

In addition to requesting financial assistance, Ashurkov requested that the Navalny organization gain access to British government information on certain Russian individuals.

Navalny’s organization, according to RT, was founded with the supposed objective of exposing corruption in Russia, and although presented under the guise of journalism its goal is in line with the attempts of the Russian opposition leader to seize power.

Ashurkov, currently residing in the United Kingdom, is wanted in Russia on charges of committing fraud to finance Navalny’s 2013 campaign for the post of mayor of Moscow.

The disclosure supports the Russian government’s claim that Navalny and his team are “foreign agents,” a term associated with espionage activities.

Russia has repeatedly denounced the role of the West, led by the US, in the unrest caused by Navalny’s arrest, and urged Western countries to stop meddling in Russia’s internal affairs.

https://orinocotribune.com/navalnys-lin ... -revealed/

The enemy of our enemy is not our friend.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:07 pm

Are we one people?
07/21/2021

On the unity of peoples and the unity of parasites

From the Editor: Putin's article was published on the Kremlin's website on July 12 as a fulfillment of a promise made by the president during the Direct Line in response to a question about Russian-Ukrainian relations. Putin said that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, one whole. He emphasized that these words are not a tribute to some conjuncture, current political circumstances, but these are his firm convictions. In order to state his position in detail, share his assessments of the current situation, Putin released this article with an extensive excursion through the pages of the history of relations from the time of unbaptized Rus to the present day.

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The article was published in Russian and Ukrainian, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has already drew attention to it, praised it, promised to carefully study it and formally respond, and possibly discuss it in person.

Viktor Tyulkin, head of the ROT FRONT, comments on the situation.

VT: The article is extensive, with a claim to be scientific, with a detailed overview of historical events, documents, dates, characters, value judgments. But this work is not intended to study the history of the issue. The formula has long been known that history is the politics of the present day, looking into the past. So Putin is clearly concerned about how, in today's unattractive environment, to explain the failures not by his own blunders accumulated over more than 20 years of his rule, but to attribute them to the intrigues of external enemies, and, especially, to blame the Soviet government and the Bolsheviks.

Putin even specifically recalled:

“By the way, in the Soviet period, the natives of Ukraine held the most significant, including the highest posts in the leadership of the unified state. Suffice it to say that for a total of nearly 30 years the CPSU was headed by N. Khrushchev and L. Brezhnev, whose party biography was closely connected with Ukraine . "

Putin himself will soon be within reach of Stalin, but on business it turns out to be absolutely bad. For the Soviets, the result is an argument, while Putin's only reasoning about unity. By the way, this is already his crown theme - he created United Russia as a product of market policy, now he is developing the theme. So our guarantor cares about himself beloved, and not protects history.

Putin casually, as it were, condescending to historical knowledge, casts as a sentence:

“In the end, what exactly were the leaders of the Bolsheviks guided by, cutting the country, no longer matters. You can argue about the details, about the background and logic of certain decisions. One thing is clear: Russia was actually robbed . "

Note that this bazaar approach - “we were robbed”, “Russia is feeding all the republics”, we have heard many, many times from the perestroika and reformers of the Yeltsin period, but now the Russian guarantor has taken this argument into his arsenal.

Once again, in this article, Putin announces his illiterate version of the mine laid by Lenin under the USSR:

“In 1922, during the creation of the USSR, one of the founders of which was the Ukrainian SSR, after a rather heated discussion among the leaders of the Bolsheviks, Lenin's plan for the formation of a union state as a federation of equal republics was implemented. In the text of the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR, and then in the Constitution of the USSR of 1924, the right of free withdrawal of the republics from the Union was introduced. Thus, the most dangerous “time bomb ” was laid in the foundation of our statehood". It exploded as soon as the safety and security mechanism disappeared in the form of the leading role of the CPSU, which eventually collapsed from within. The "parade of sovereignties" began. On December 8, 1991, the so-called Belovezhsky agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States was signed, in which it was announced that "the USSR as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist . "

Interestingly, this time Putin is calling for help to support his arguments from the spirit of his teacher, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak:

“Let me remind you here of the assessment given by one of the brightest political figures of the new Russia, the first mayor of St. Petersburg A. Sobchak. As a highly professional lawyer, he believed that any decision should be legitimate, and therefore in 1992 expressed the following opinion: the republics - founders of the Union, after they themselves annulled the 1922 Treaty, should return to the boundaries in which they joined Union. All the rest of the territorial acquisitions are a subject for discussion, negotiations, because the basis has been canceled. In other words, leave with what you came with. It's hard to argue with such logic. "

Once again we see the approach of shopkeepers, hucksters - with what you came, so leave. Not seeing and not considering the main abolished foundation - the political system of Soviet power as the power of the working people. Putin is trying to shift the responsibility onto the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Like, a time bomb exploded as soon as the safety mechanism disappeared in the form of the leading role of the CPSU, which eventually collapsed from the inside . But this is only a visible collapse of the form, but in reality the CPSU collapsed from the inside because it ceased to be a party of the working class, it recruited such Sobchaks and Putin, Yeltsin and Gorbachev, who led the country into the market, i.e. into capitalism.

At the XXVIII CPSU, the party and the people were openly warned about the inevitability of the collapse of this course in the Minority Statement (1259 votes in favor, 2012 - against, 414 - abstained, 160 delegates to the Congress did not participate in the vote):

“We consider it necessary to warn all the communists of the country: an ill-considered transition to the market, ... forcible, contrary to objective processes, treatment of socialism with capitalism will entail not an increase in production and living standards, but their inevitable fall, will cause a wide social protest, will lead to severe suffering of the people. ... The party cannot carry out perestroika, which has led to a deterioration in the life of the people. There are other concepts of economic restructuring, moreover, not one, which does not mean a return either to the bourgeois system or to the command-administrative system. We consider it necessary to record at the congress this opinion of the minority of its participants, so that it is possible to conduct a broad discussion of alternative projects in the party on an initiative way from below and to be prepared for possible collisions in the near future as a result of complete collapse of the current economic course. To summarize, let us note that the main idea is that the party cannot carry out perestroika, which has led to a serious deterioration in the life of the people. As for the Communist Party, it simply will not withstand these shocks, and there will be no one to defend the ultimate goals of the movement. "
(July 11, 1990. Transcript of the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU. Bulletin No. 12) .


As we know, these predictions, unfortunately, came true. This is also an experience of theoretical and political struggle for the communists of the whole world. So all these cataclysms were scientifically predicted back in the days when the future president Putin was carrying a portfolio for a young communist, a delegate to that very congress, Sobchak. It was not Lenin and Stalin and the Soviet regime, but the traders and "capitalizers" that ruined the Union.

As for the historical truth of the development of relations between the peoples of the Russian Empire, which formed the Soviet Union, you need to know the following. In pre-revolutionary times, half of the country's population suffered from national oppression. The new workers' power in 1917 brought social and national liberation to the numerous peoples of Russia and declared equality. Each nation received the right to national self-determination - either to remain a part of the Country of Soviets, or to stand out as an independent state. The national policy of the workers' state dealt a blow to great power chauvinism and bourgeois nationalism.

The victory of Soviet power in the October Socialist Revolution in the national regions in 1917, in the Civil War, changed the fate of the previously oppressed peoples of Russia. All the peoples of a large country were able to unite into a single union state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Union of the SSR was formed on December 30, 1922 by the unification of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR into one state with unified authorities with the capital in Moscow, with de jure retaining the right of free withdrawal from the Union for each union republic.

The creative power of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the Soviet government manifested itself in full force in the birth of a new historical community called the Soviet people.
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Conditions were created in which many nations oppressed in the past made the leap from feudal-patriarchal relations to socialism. The economic and cultural backwardness of the national regions was overcome.

Earlier, the Russian Empire was called the prison of nations among progressive people - in a large state, mechanically, with the help of direct violence, economic or other methods of pressure, nationalities, different in their previous historical path and cultural development, were united. Within Russia, nationalism, beneficial to the ruling classes, was implanted; cases of interethnic strife, pogroms and ethnic discrimination were frequent.

In contrast to any nationalism, proletarian internationalism assumed the unity of workers of all nationalities, their fusion in workers' organizations, in joint creative activity and in defense. The new proletarian government was able not only to proclaim equality for all peoples inhabiting the USSR. In the course of joint activities, in the struggle against the exploiting classes, in the construction of thousands of cities and enterprises, in the course of the most difficult war against Nazism, the peoples that were previously scattered and at different stages of development were able to become a single whole, the Soviet people. The working people of all nationalities in the USSR perceived Soviet power as the most important and common historical achievement. People of various nationalities have shown miracles of perseverance and heroism during the construction of the new world, in the course of protecting it from encroachments by the imperialists. Within the new historical community, the development of each national culture included in it was observed, and the flourishing of a common, new Soviet culture.

The right of nations to self-determination, granted to peoples by the dictatorship of the proletariat during the revolution, implies the unconditional equality of all nations in the state and unconditional respect for the rights of all national minorities, the introduction of broad self-government, and the autonomy of national regions. This principle presupposes both the freedom to leave the Union and the freedom to remain in it. The Soviet Union remained united and invincible precisely due to the preservation of the basis of unity - socialism and Soviet power.

When, as a result of the mistakes made, the power lost its class proletarian character and socialism was destroyed, then the collapse of the USSR took place, whose components spread to national corners, not only in Ukraine, each with its own bourgeoisie at the head.

Today, bourgeois propaganda and leading politicians, from Putin to Zhirinovsky, are trying to shift the blame for the collapse of the Soviet Union on the Bolsheviks and their model of the federal structure of the USSR and with the right of nations to self-determination up to secession. Putin, commenting on Lenin's actions at the presidential council, even made the following expression:

“They planted an atomic bomb under a building called Russia, and it went off later. And we didn’t need a world revolution ”.

These figures are trying to drive a wedge between Lenin and Stalin, opposing them to each other, allegedly because of fundamentally different approaches to building the Union.

The falsity of this statement is obvious if one understands on what political foundation the building of the new type of state was erected. The main national-territorial structure of the USSR, equally understood by Lenin and Stalin, was Soviet power, that is, the organizational form of the implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The highest, truly progressive form of democracy - proletarian democracy - for the working people and for the working people, Soviet power. The workers, as you know, do not need to divide places on the market for trays. They will always agree with each other. History has proved that neither internal nor external enemies, even such vanguard units of imperialism as Hitlerite fascism, could destroy the Soviet Union while the government was Soviet and the party was communist.

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Poster "For our great Motherland!" Author: Vatolina N.N. / Publishing house "Art". 1944

When today Putin writes in his article: “ This unyielding generation fought, gave their lives for our future, for us. Forgetting about their feat means betraying your grandfathers, mothers and fathers , ”he simply lies primitively.

In no way did the Soviet unyielding generation fought for new masters around their necks. And to assert this, as Putin is doing, is really to betray your grandfathers, fathers and mothers .

The same story showed that after the party and the state lost their class character, the state was destroyed quickly, comparatively without resistance, with a course towards the market, that is, towards capitalism. So we emphasize once again the defining importance of the class basis of the state.

It is not the Bolsheviks who proclaimed the principle of the right of nations to self-determination, but the restorers of the bourgeois order and the stranglers of socialism, who are guilty of the destruction of a large multinational country.

The historical example of the friendship of peoples in the USSR and the emergence of a new community of the Soviet people on the basis of the dictatorship of the proletariat show well how the unification of all mankind will go when capitalism is finally finished.

Modern bourgeois propaganda is constantly trying to slander socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat in the USSR. Gloomy deceitful pictures of horror, oppression, darkness and lack of culture are created. It is clear that the capitalists are afraid of the power of the working people and try to convince modern workers by means of lies and silence that socialism is something unattractive or outdated.

But an objective analysis of the history of the Soviet Union brings us to other conclusions: the dictatorship of the proletariat is a powerful tool in the hands of the workers and allied working classes for the establishment of social and national equality. All modern long-standing conflicts, even if they go back centuries, can be effectively and bloodlessly resolved in the interests of the working people using the methods tested in practice discovered during the construction of socialism in the USSR.

Today we have a very instructive lesson in the aggravation of relations between Russia and Ukraine, which Putin seems to be so sincerely worried about. But here the matter is not in the evil will of the West, but in the objective laws of the market, which was also warned about. Developed capitalist countries need neither Russia nor Ukraine in a strong form as their competitors. Imperialism is doing everything to pit our peoples against each other. To understand the essence of the process and find a way out of the situation, it is necessary to remember Lenin.

His personal explanation about different opinions about the alliance of Russia and Ukraine, given in the most tense days of the Civil War in a Letter to the workers and peasants of Ukraine :
“... It is self-evident and quite generally recognized that only the Ukrainian workers and peasants themselves at their All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets can and will decide the question of whether to merge Ukraine with Russia, whether to leave Ukraine as an independent and independent republic, and in the latter case which federal establish a connection between this republic and Russia.
How should this issue be resolved from the point of view of the interests of the working people? from the point of view of the success of their struggle for the complete emancipation of labor from the yoke of capital?
First, the interests of labor demand the fullest trust, the closest alliance between the working people of different countries and different nations. Supporters of the landlords and capitalists, the bourgeoisie, are trying to divide the workers, to intensify national strife and enmity, in order to weaken the workers, in order to strengthen the power of capital.
Capital is an international force. To defeat it, an international union of workers is needed, an international brotherhood of them.
We are opponents of national enmity, national strife, national isolation. We are internationalists, internationalists. We are committed to closer integration and a complete fusion of the workers and peasants of all nations of the world into a single world Soviet republic. <...>
Therefore, constantly striving for unity of nations and ruthlessly pursuing all that separates them, we must be very careful, patient, compliant to the Remnants national distrust. Uncompromising, irreconcilable, we must be to everything that concerns the basic interests of labor in the struggle for its liberation from the yoke of capital.And the question of how to define the state borders now, for a while - because we are striving for the complete destruction of state borders - is not the main, not important, secondary issue (hereinafter, ed. - ed.) With this question you can wait and must wait , for the national distrust among the broad masses of peasants and small proprietors is often held extremely firmly, and haste can strengthen it, that is, damage the cause of complete and final unity. <...>
Among the Bolsheviks there are supporters of the complete independence of Ukraine, there are supporters of a more or less close federal connection, there are supporters of the complete merger of Ukraine with Russia.
Because of these questions, the discrepancy is unacceptable . These questions will be decided by the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. <…>
Whoever violates the unity and the closest alliance of the Great Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants helps the Kolchaks, Denikins, capitalists-predators of all countries. <...>
Defeating Denikin, destroying him, making it impossible to repeat such an invasion - such is the fundamental interest of both Great Russian and Ukrainian workers and peasants. The struggle is long and difficult, for the capitalists of the whole world are helping Denikin and will help all kinds of Denikins.
In this long and difficult struggle, we, Great Russian and Ukrainian workers, must march in the closest alliance, for we cannot possibly cope alone.Whatever the borders of Ukraine and Russia, whatever the forms of their state relations, it is not so important, in this it is possible and must make concessions, in this it is possible to try both, and another, and the third, - from this the work of the workers and the peasants, the cause of victory over capitalism will not perish.
But if we fail to preserve the closest alliance among ourselves, the alliance against Denikin, the alliance against the capitalists and kulaks of our countries and all countries, then the work of labor will probably perish for many years in the sense that both Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia will then be able to crush and strangle the capitalists.
Both the bourgeoisie of all countries and all sorts of petty-bourgeois parties, "compromise" parties that admit an alliance with the bourgeoisie against the workers, tried most of all to disunite the workers of different nationalities, stir up mistrust, break the close international alliance and the international brotherhood of workers. When the bourgeoisie succeeds in this, the workers' cause is lost. May the communists of Russia and Ukraine succeed with patient, persistent, persistent joint work to defeat the nationalist intrigues of every bourgeoisie, nationalist prejudices of all kinds and show the working people of the whole world an example of a really strong alliance of workers and peasants of different nations in the struggle for Soviet power, for the abolition of the oppression of the landlords and capitalists. , for the World Federative Soviet Republic ".

Vladimir Lenin 28. XII. 1919 g.
Today, as we know, the bourgeoisie has just succeeded in separating the working people of Ukraine and Russia and other republics. Therefore, the cause of the working class is still losing. In Ukraine, Bandera's people rule the show, and in Russia their class allies are Vlasovites. No wonder the Ukrainian Nazis after the Maidan immediately began to demolish the monuments to Lenin in the cities of Ukraine. But the same processes are going on in Russia. During parades, Lenin's mausoleum is bashfully masked with pictures. The state flag of the Russian Federation is the one that fought in the Patriotic War on the side of the Nazis. In Putin's hometown, Leningrad, renamed by Sobchak and Putin to Petersburg, as indicated on Hitler's maps, two monuments to Lenin were blown up, on the square near the Finland Station and in Pushkin. The perpetrators of this fascist action have never been found, and the monument in Pushkin has never been restored. Everything is like in Ukraine, i.e.

As for Putin's final statement that he is “I am convinced that the true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible precisely in partnership with Russia. Our spiritual, human, civilizational ties have been formed for centuries, go back to the same sources, tempered by common trials, achievements and victories. Our kinship is passed down from generation to generation. It is in the hearts, in the memory of people living in modern Russia and Ukraine, in the blood ties that unite millions of our families. Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. After all, we are one people, ” one could agree with him.

But with a radical clarification of Lenin himself, written on a demolished monument in Kiev:

"With the united action of the Great Russian and Ukrainian proletarians, a free Ukraine is possible, without such unity there can be no talk of it."

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Poster V. Mayakovsky "Ukrainians and Russians cry one" / 1920

Today, the bourgeoisie has not just staged a conflict in Ukraine. It destroys the close international alliance and the international brotherhood of workers. And it is not for nothing that the fascist scum always and everywhere conduct their activities precisely from the destruction of Lenin's monuments, from the vilification of his ideas and deeds, to which Putin also joined. This lesson must be known and learned by all communists, all working people of the world.

The commentary was written by Dmitry Volgin. July 14, 2021 Leningrad.

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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:19 pm

The government will give money to businesses and simplify the import of migrants
07/25/2021
The "great construction sites" of capitalism need wage slaves

The idea of ​​turning the construction industry into a new locomotive of the Russian economy is acquiring new details. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin promised to compensate the construction business for the rise in prices for building materials. Capital gains will be supported, as usual, from the tax deductions of Russians. At the same time, Khusnullin assured that the import of labor migrants to Russia will be simplified in the near future . Construction workers need cheap labor. And the Russians will wait with their salary expectations.

The pandemic, which caused disruptions in production around the world, and the devaluation of the ruble have caused an avalanche-like increase in prices for building materials. For example, the price of ferrous metal began to rise last year; rental prices went up by 50-150% . Since Russia is firmly attached to the world market, inflation has fully affected domestic prices as well. It is this price fire that the government intends to extinguish with a "rain of gold" of compensation. As Mr. Khusnullin told reporters:

“The situation with prices for building materials is very difficult, but from the good news I can say that at the government level it has been decided that we will pay for the rise in prices for building materials. We will try to compensate ”.

Obviously, we are talking about financial injections from the state budget. In other words, the next portion of the money collected from Russian taxpayers will move into the pockets of the "captains" of the construction business. With money from citizens, the government will support their profits at the proper level.

But maybe the developers will use the money received from the state, for example, to increase the salaries of construction workers? Apparently, this should not be expected. After all, another important measure announced by the Deputy Prime Minister is to simplify the procedure for the import of labor migrants into Russia. Khusnullin said this live on Instagram:

"I think that in the next month we will still simplify the procedure for bringing workers to construction sites."

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Construction of the residential complex "Russian avant-garde"

At the beginning of 2021 , the unemployment rate in Russia increased and, according to official data, amounted to 5.9% . Taking into account the so-called. the situation is even worse for hidden unemployment. However, Russian employers - for sure all "patriots" and members of "United Russia" - are in no hurry to find jobs for their fellow citizens. After all, our fellow citizens for some reason do not want to work for 15 thousand rublesper month; in addition, Russians will have to be employed under a contract, provide them with proper working conditions, spend money on equipment, and in case of problems, prepare for the fact that a Russian can complain to the labor inspectorate. It is much more convenient for the employer to have a “stranger” worker - a guest worker, who can be thoroughly intimidated from the very beginning, allowed to work with fictitious documents, pay him a penny and throw him out of the gate at any moment ... in reality, profit turns out to be much more important than any "patriotic" show.

In an effort to get off the oil and gas needle, the state ultimately inflates a construction bubble. Having ensured the shock construction of infrastructure and residential buildings, capital will face the fact that there will be no one to buy apartments in these buildings. After all, the population of Russia continues to be impoverished , and even an affordable mortgage will not help if there is barely enough money for food. The inflated bubble will inevitably burst .

https://www.rotfront.su/pravitelstvo-da ... nesu-i-up/

***************************

Big business made an offer to privatize the forest
07/24/2021
The oligarchs' appetites are growing much faster than the natural resources they have sold

In an interview with RBC, the head of RFP Group Konstantin Lashkevich voiced the desire of business to privatize 2-3% of forest land. According to him, entrepreneurs will be engaged in intensive forest cultivation there. To do this, they will need the most fertile lands with high-quality tree species. So far, the rich "lumberjacks" do not feel like the owners of the leased plots and do not want to engage in reforestation.

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Forest after barbaric felling

There is less and less timber suitable for sale, and the natural growth of forests is about 80-120 years. The businessman claims that only privatization will make it possible to motivate timber merchants to invest in forest restoration.

“I will not do this because it will kill my operating economy, and an investment model cannot be built without rights to land or at least plantation. We need investments of about $ 5 thousand . per hectare, until the forest begins to grow by itself, ”the news agency quotes Lukashevich.
RFP Group is the largest timber industry enterprise in the Far East and one of the leaders in the export of timber from Russia to China. Roman Abramovich owns 58% of the company's shares. The other 42% belongs to the Russia-China Investment Fund.
While Rosleskhoz opposes this initiative:

“Privatization can call into question the preservation of the integrity of the state forest fund. The recent history of Russia confirms the existence of the risk of possible violations and unlawful alienation of the national heritage ”.

It is difficult to disagree with this opinion. And here we unequivocally support the position of the officials. But they do not listen to us from the word "absolutely", and time will show how weighty the arguments of the Federal Forestry Agency will be. Once, Putin himself was against raising the retirement age, but that's how it turned out. At least the trial ball has already been thrown. And there are enough examples when the state “with understanding” treated the interests of business . That is why it is bourgeois.

Appetites of big businessmen, as you can see, are growing much faster than the natural resources sold by them. One can only imagine how timber merchants will conduct business on their territory. So far, no laws, no lease conditions and permitted types of work have saved from barbaric deforestation . And for the actions "in their own garden" it will be impossible to "squeeze" them at all.

Forests can be saved only when they become national property, not on paper, but in fact. When the power in the country belongs to the working people. When the possibility of personal enrichment at the expense of the merciless use of natural resources disappears. In the meantime, this is not the case, ordinary citizens can be content only with collecting deadwood and mushrooms where it is still allowed.

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Sounds pretty familiar, huh? Them Russian oligarchs are just trying to 'get up to speed'. A bit blatant from the view of established, sophisticated capitalists, but if you wish to establish a dynasty of money following the lead of past masters like Peabody and Rockefeller seems to work.
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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:25 pm

Naryshkin called the opposition "traitors"
08/01/2021
Right. And who are the judges?

The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergei Naryshkin, has declared those Russian citizens who come to the United States and propose imposing sanctions against Russia as "traitors" . This is indisputable: the opposition, which links its fate with foreign governments, has nothing to do with the interests of our people. But who are the judges? Mr. Naryshkin himself traveled to the United States to negotiate with "Western partners", and presumably his son and close relatives tried to obtain a residence permit in Hungary.

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Russian patriots

Criticism of the "traitors" was voiced on the air of the YouTube channel "Soloviev Live" . Host Vladimir Solovyov, in an interview with Andrei Bezrukov , a retired intelligence officer , said that "a number of our oppositionists are happy to ride in the United States ... and beg for sanctions against sectors of the economy, individuals and the state as a whole . " Leonid Volkov , an assistant to Alexei Navalny , was mentioned , and Vladimir Milov , according to Solovyov, "expelled from the government for mediocrity . " After that, a fragment of a conversation with Naryshkin was included, where Solovyov repeated this argument, and Naryshkin reacted as follows:

“This is a betrayal. Betrayal of his country, his people. It is necessary to call everything by its proper names ... The family has its black sheep. But at the same time, such a minority, an overwhelming minority. Nevertheless, of course, you need to constantly work ... "

Of course, it is difficult to somehow characterize the people who turn to the governments of unfriendly states with proposals to directly or indirectly worsen the life of our country. (And this is exactly how it is: under capitalism, economic sanctions even against individual oligarchs or enterprises are invariably shifted onto the shoulders of the working people .) The management of the liberal opposition by the Western countries is so obvious that no one hides it. Any critically thinking person will treat with distrust people who declare their commitment to "freedom and democracy" and at the same time are closely associated with the state, which for the sake of "freedom and democracy" every year inspires wars and coups, sheds rivers of blood in different parts of our planet ...

However, along with such undoubted betrayal in our country, there is a more implicit and therefore more dangerous betrayal.

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Sergey Naryshkin

Mr. Naryshkin himself, the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, made a surprise visit to the United States in 2018. Moreover, with him were the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov , and the head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Igor Korobov . In other words, the entire leadership of Russian intelligence and counterintelligence ended up in the United States. How did this become possible? Can anyone, for example, imagine the visit of the head of the USSR KGB Yuri Andropov in 1975 to Washington? .. Why did the Russian "siloviks" go there? What did you talk about? The official version speaks of negotiations on the security of the FIFA World Cup - do such issues really require a visit to Washington by the leaders of Russian intelligence and counterintelligence?

Last year, the Russian government adopted (and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed) a new procedure for selling gold, which allows all the gold that is mined in the country to be exported abroad. And now on the agenda are similar documents on the sale of Russian platinum metals . Moreover, the presidential decree opens up the opportunity for exporters not to invest the proceeds from the sale of Russian raw materials into the Russian economy ... Is it not obvious that this gigantic sale of Russia under the hammer is a national betrayal carried out by the country's top officials?

There are a lot of facts showing how the Kremlin "patriots" closely cooperate with foreign capital: from joint work with Arab oil sheikhs who finance ISIS , to the recent scandal with the sale of thousands of hectares of Russian forest to the Swedish company IKEA . And that connection extends beyond the business. In the same 2018, after Naryshkin's visit to "Western partners", Russian and European journalists discovered that the full namesakes of Naryshkin's son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters applied for a residence permit in Hungary... These people had the same surname, first name, patronymic and dates of birth with Mr. Naryshkin's relatives. If this coincidence is not accidental, then it turns out that the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation is trying to find a place for his family on the territory of the European Union - the very one who follows US foreign policy and does not skimp on anti-Russian sanctions.

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Sergey Brilev, Russian journalist, patriot and British citizen

The interlocutor of Mr. Naryshkin, the same Russian "patriot" Vladimir Solovyov, together with his children, has a residence permit in Italy . His colleague, Sergei Brilev , a TV presenter on the Russia-1 TV channel and an equally ardent "patriot", went even further and received the citizenship of Great Britain , a loyal US ally in the NATO bloc. British citizenship does not prevent Mr. Brilev from telling Russians about state "patriotism." Another "patriot" Robert Schlegel , a former commissar of the pro-Kremlin movement Nashi, a former State Duma deputy from United Russia, who has repeatedly criticized Geyropa, received German citizenshipand moved there to live and work. The son of Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev , British businessman Yevgeny Lebedev recently received the title of "Baron of Siberia" from the Queen . The list goes on and on right up to the top ...

The Russian elite - oligarchs, officials who serve them, journalists and others - are linked by thousands of threads with their "sworn friends" from the West. Their property is there, their families are there, their future is there. If Russia finds itself in a real, "hot" confrontation with the West, with whom will this elite remain: with the people of Russia or with their palaces, yachts, families, villas? The answer is obvious.

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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 03, 2021 12:59 pm

VTsIOM: Russians are interested in politics, but do not go to elections
08/02/2021
Mistrust in the system peaks since 2004

The share of those who are not interested in political and public life has decreased to a 14-year minimum - to 15% . At the same time, the number of Russians who still go to the polls has more than halved since 2004. This is evidenced by the data of VTsIOM.

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Elections are fashionable

In 2004, 55% of those polled said that they had participated in certain elections, but today this figure is 22%. The number of people conducting election campaigns also fell from 8% to 6%, and those who participate in rallies and pickets - from 5% to 3%. It seems that such political activity does not appeal to citizens.

The well-known political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko told why the Russians do not go to the polls.

“First, a certain apathy due to the fact that many people are not satisfied with the existing party-political system as a whole. Quite a lot of polls were conducted, in which there were figures that up to half of voters are not satisfied with the current party-political system, ”Minchenko said.

In addition, the head of the communication holding Minchenko Consulting draws attention to the fact that the number of barriers hindering the participation of candidates in elections has increased.

"Direct elections of mayors is one of the attractors, because it directly affects people's lives," however, the municipal filter in the elections of governors played a role - competition has decreased. At the same time, Minchenko notes that "in itself now the situation with the coronavirus has added depressive relationships . "

Russians explain their unwillingness to participate in public and political life by the lack of time (28%), the position that professionals should be involved in politics (20%), and trust in the president (19%).

16% of Russians are sure that their participation in politics is not capable of changing anything - this is at least since 2007. Only 15% of those who are not interested in politics and public life.

“In fact, the political space has been cleared, the elections are absolutely controlled and servile, and citizens find other mechanisms of communication with the authorities. This includes direct communication with governors through social networks, and communication with official authorities through direct lines with the president. Accordingly, the institution of elections as such makes less and less sense for citizens, ”said Grigory Dobromelov, managing partner of the KGD group, on the current situation .

Over 17 years, citizens have become more active: they have become more likely to participate in collective appeals and petitions (from 4% in 2004 to 8% in 2021) and engage in mutual assistance - fundraising for people in difficult situations (from 9% to 20%).

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Election flyer 2018

The number of people working in local self-government and house committees has more than tripled, the number of trade unions and public organizations has grown several times.

The percentage of people who still cast their votes to the ballot box is scanty and continues to decrease, because elections do not change our lives either today or 17 years ago. However, the number of those who hope to cash in on the will of citizens during the campaign is quite large. Election of candidates will be good for candidates, but not for voters, and this is the main reason why elections have ceased to be an effective political institution in our country. Russians realize that real politics does not depend on election campaigns and papers in the ballot boxes. Real politics is not a parliament or a governor's office, it is a trade union, a public association, a meeting of residents - it is a fist of an organized collective.

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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Sat Aug 07, 2021 2:08 pm

The oligarchs earned 33.2 billion rubles on the vaccine
08/06/2021
To whom the war, to whom the mother is dear

It became known how much Russian businessmen earn from the production of vaccines against coronavirus. So, since the beginning of the year, the Gamaleya Center - the developer of the Sputnik V vaccine - has placed production contracts totaling 95 million rubles. 60% of this amount falls on Pharmstandard, owned by Viktor Kharitonin . For the vaccines already produced, the company received about 33.2 billion rubles.

Image

Smaller contracts were awarded to other Russian pharmaceutical companies: Binnopharm - 50% owned by Valery Egorov, Biocad, R-Pharm JSC by Alexey Repik. In addition, other pharmaceutical companies may join the vaccine production in the near future.

Judging by the numerous data, publications in scientific journals, expert reviews, the Sputnik V vaccine really leads to the formation of immunity against coronavirus. And its massive use (like other vaccines) will reduce the incidence of this disease, as well as reduce mortality from it. Universal vaccination will save millions of lives.

But the use of this vaccine will not only save millions of lives, but will also allow billionaires to put new billions in their pockets, enrich themselves on the pandemic. Business apologists, its paid propagandists like to talk about charity, about the social responsibility of business. But what do all these crumbs from the lord's table mean against the background of hundreds of billions and trillions of profits that the business puts in its pocket? The situation with the coronavirus vaccine just exposes all the hypocrisy, the whole chimera of bourgeois charity: according to some reports, "the cost of the vaccine, logistics costs, tax payments and deductions to the copyright holder - the Gamaleya Institute - make up no more than 60-65% of the purchase price", and "600-700 rubles from each kit is received by the supplier of vaccines to domestic hospitals."

In total, there are about 118 million adults in Russia . If we consider that the authorities want to vaccinate about 60% of adults, then in total it is necessary to vaccinate about 71 million people, which gives about 42.6 billion rubles in net profit. But, according to officials, revaccination will need to be carried out every 6 months, so this amount can be multiplied by two. It would seem that this is a reason for charity, for the manifestation of the notorious "social responsibility": you just have to give up the profit and release the drug at cost. As a result, the state would save tens of billions of rubles a year, using them, for example, for treating sick children or purchasing equipment for hospitals. But no, business does not go for it, preferring to profit from a difficult situation.

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It's absolutely hysterical that some US 'law makers' still choose to refer to Russia as communist. Can't we sue or something?The truck loads of money the Big Pharmas are charging our government on our account are briefly noted and forgotten. Wouldn't do for our media to dwell upon such things...that ain't their job.
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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Mon Aug 09, 2021 1:16 pm

Rogozin offered to shoot for corruption ... Shoot himself?
08/08/2021

Another populist statement by the head of Roscosmos

Dmitry Rogozin , general director of the Roscosmos corporation , said that corruption crimes committed in the military-industrial complex (OPK) should be punished up to “executions”. Can this statement be taken seriously? Of course not. Living proof of this is Anatoly Serdyukov , the former Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, and now - the head of the United Aircraft Corporation PJSC. Yes, and Rogozin himself has questions ... But the main thing is different. There is no way to fix things with any executions, when the very public relations give rise to corruption every hour.

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Rogozin and Serdyukov

The head of Roscosmos made a loud and, no doubt, populist statement on the online broadcast of the Solviev Live YouTube channel. In particular, he stated:

“When I was still working in the Duma, I spoke and publicly stated that, from my point of view, corruption in the military-industrial complex should be punished by shooting, not imprisonment. Because here we are talking not only about crimes related to embezzlement of state funds, but they steal from the defense, from the security of the country. In fact, this is conniving at the aggressor. "

Even if we assume that this statement is made sincerely, it still remains an empty declaration. The Russian authorities have repeatedly proved that they "do not abandon their own people." Anatoly Serdyukov was prosecuted for unsightly privatization and embezzlement deals at Oboronservis, as well as related assistance to his son-in-law, whose property was being improved by Russian servicemen. What is the bottom line? Serdyukov never got to trial, but he was amnesty in honor of the 20th anniversary of the constitution as a "defender of the fatherland." Subsequently, he was appointed head of a strategically important structure for the defense industry - the United Aircraft Corporation - and had already managed to drive it into debt . And his girlfriend (then wife) Evgenia Vasilyeva, Who headed the Defense Ministry apparatus, received 5 years in prison, he has stayed in prison for two months and then was in violation of the procedures available .

And these are just the most memorable episodes. Corruption in the "defense industry" blooms and smells. Recently, a financial scam was revealed around the modernization of the ships of the Northern Fleet. The size of the stolen is almost 700 million rubles. In 2018, a corrupt scheme for the sale of Russian uranium was exposed in the United States . In the same year in St. Petersburg, about 100 million rubles were stolen during the construction of a submarine.

The Russian defense industry has been torn apart into thousands of joint stock companies. Many strategically important operations are outsourced to private shops. Mediators are swarming around the "defense industry" who, according to gray schemes, pump budget funds into their pockets. What kind of security can we talk about if the government connection of the Russian Federation has been provided for a long time by an Israeli citizen?

Image

Is Dmitry Rogozin a ray of light in the dark kingdom of corrupt officials? .. Let's take a look at some of his affairs. The level of salaries of ordinary mortals in Roscosmos leaves much to be desired , so even the head of Roscosmos himself had to worry about this ; however, whether there will be money for this is not yet clear. But the money was found for branded alcohol , cosmetics and other junk. To divert attention from the deplorable situation in the Russian space industry, Rogozin amuses himself and the public with clownish initiatives: he will write songs , then he will gather on Mars , then he will offer to paint rockets like Khokhloma , then he will arrange a ridiculous skirmish on Twitter withElon Musk . Everything is there now: alcohol, and Khokhloma, and songs and dances; only this is how work is - at least quit. We have to blame everything on the technique . Meanwhile, the well-known "FBC" Alexei Navalny more in 2019 announced that Mr. Rogozin alone property - to 350 million rubles.

What about shooting corrupt officials, Dmitry Olegovich? .. It seems nothing. Rogozin is willing to refer even to Stalin, to speak formidable words to others, but he himself is not ready to follow them .

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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Fri Aug 13, 2021 1:07 pm

Deeds are more important than words
08/13/2021
On the propaganda methods of the "party of power"

We are all accustomed to the fact that elections in modern Russia are accompanied by all kinds of use of administrative resources. And this is usually associated with United Russia , since it was this party that perfected the method of its application. And our fellow countrymen were so fed up with this "perfection" that in 2018, already in the first round, they failed the candidacy of the United Russia in the person of the incumbent Governor Shport, who suffered a shameful defeat in the second round. Despite all the money and administrative resources that were used to the fullest. People went to the polls and with an eloquent gesture took themselves by the throat, saying: "That's where I got it!"

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"People's Council" of the Khabarovsk Territory

It would seem a telling example. And smart people should have made the appropriate conclusions ... But let's take a look at the facts and draw conclusions about how honestly the current acting governor, LDPR candidate Mikhail Degtyarev, is conducting the election campaign .

So, on March 28, 2021, the first meeting of the People's Council under the governor was finally held, which the interim government promised to convene since the beginning of last autumn. At the opening of the meeting of the People's Council, Deputy Chairman of the Krai government A.A. Bazilevsky spoke quite definitely: “Evil tongues say that we are opening the people's council before the elections, but this is not so! It has nothing to do with the elections . " All the participants in the meeting received beautiful sets in folders with the phrase "Deeds are more important than words!" After a short time, colorful banners with the same slogan, signed by the People's Council, appeared on the streets of the city.

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Election advertisement of "United Russia"

Further more! More banners, not cases, of course. At the beginning of summer, the logo of the People's Council disappeared from them, but the design, color scheme and content remained the same. And to them were added banners with images of famous historical figures and cultural objects with the slogans “We have someone to be proud of” and “We have something to be proud of”. As you might guess, everything is done in a single design, even the font of the slogans is the same.

And, finally, the cherry on the cake appeared already in July, when the face of the acting governor M. Degtyarev with the famous slogan "Deeds are more important than words!" Was placed in the design of banners already familiar to all Khabarovsk citizens. At the same time, the People's Council did not take any decision to support Degtyarev in the elections. Moreover, among the council members there are quite a few of those for whom his candidacy is unacceptable.

Of course, the banners of the governor candidate Mikhail Degtyarev are placed next to the banners of "social advertising". To make it clear to everyone who is our main guardian for the pride of the region and for whom deeds are more important than words.

Image

What do we see in the end? As a result, a huge amount of social advertising, which coincides even in the details of design with campaign banners, works for the election campaign of Acting Governor Mikhail Degtyarev, creating the image of the people's choice who honors the history and culture of the region and enjoys the full confidence of the people. And if Degtyarev's banners were paid from the funds of his electoral fund, who paid for all social advertising, which is several times higher than all Degtyarev's banners? Regional budget! The budget, which is formed, among other things, at the expense of our taxes. How much these banners cost is almost impossible to find out now. But I looked at the prices that are now relevant for the advertising and printing services market. The month of placing one side of a 6x3 banner varies from 8-10 to 20-25 thousand rubles. Making one banner - from 3-4 to 10 thousand rubles. There are hundreds of banners in Khabarovsk and the Khabarovsk Territory. These are millions of rubles of expenses. Our millions of rubles.

Image
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A special piquancy is added by the fact that in 2021 the revenue side of the regional budget is 115 billion rubles, and the expenditure side - 122 billion rubles. The budget is in short supply. According to the data for 2020, the state debt of the region exceeded 60 billion rubles and since that time there have been no cardinal changes. That is, to fulfill social obligations, the region takes loans from commercial banks, and then repays them with interest.

Do you agree with this spending of budget funds? Personally, I disagree. Moreover, I think this is not only the use of administrative resources and misappropriation of budgetary funds, but also cynical meanness, disgusting fraud. At one time, United Russia member Vyacheslav Shport was "elected" by such methods. But LDPR protege Mikhail Degtyarev also uses this. The technique that I have described is not the only one. Turn on the radio, television, open regional newspapers ... Mikhail Degtyarev will be looking at you from everywhere, and the regional government and its apparatus will weigh heavily on the words of the acting governor with figures, individual facts and examples. It turns out that Degtyarev's headquarters are government bodies, and not the headquarters that was created for the elections. How familiar, right? Apparently it is no coincidence that United Russia refused to nominate its own candidate for governor. And, apparently, it is no coincidence that the slogan "Actions are more important than words" became the slogan of the United Russia election campaign in the Vologda region and was used by this party in other regions (Novosibirsk region, Sevastopol).

Actions are often more important than words. Especially if bad-smelling deeds are hidden behind the declared deeds and loud words.

Stanislav Slivko ,
member of the People's Council under the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory,
activist of the RKWP and ROT FRONT

https://www.rotfront.su/delishki-vazhnee-slov/

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"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Mon Aug 16, 2021 1:45 pm

LDPR remembered the Soviet experience of postgraduate distribution
08/15/2021

Election Populism Gains Momentum

State Duma deputy from the LDPR faction Yaroslav Nilov proposed to return the "distribution" system for students of medical and pedagogical universities. On the eve of the elections, parliamentary parties are trying to outmaneuver each other with populist initiatives that send the electorate to Soviet stability and living standards. However, copying the Soviet experience to the realities of Russian capitalism will only deceive the naive expectations of the electorate.

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The problem of employment of graduates

Yaroslav Nilov, deputy head of the LDPR faction in the State Duma, chairman of the committee on labor, social policy and veterans' affairs, told reporters that the distribution system should be returned for students of pedagogical and medical universities studying on a budget on a preferential program.

“If a person enters the budget under a preferential program, then mandatory distribution after graduation from the university should be envisaged. Benefits are provided upon admission, free education is provided, while the obligation is placement for distribution ... It is advisable to apply a compulsory distribution system, encouraging them [graduates] to resolve social issues ... Then we will solve the problem with the shortage of local staff. "

True, what kind of "social issues" the state should take upon itself, Nilov prudently did not specify.

Let us recall what employment placement meant under socialism:

*Education was publicly available and free for students, i.e. it was paid from the state budget.

*Employment was guaranteed. The period of compulsory assignment work was 3 years.

*Simultaneously with the presentation of the diploma, the graduate received a referral, a scholarship and funds to travel to the place of work.

*A graduate working by definition had a special legal status of a “young specialist”. He could be fired only with the approval of the relevant ministry.

*Young specialists had the right to receive an out-of-order housing. Accommodation was also free for the recipient. If there was no separate apartment at that time, the specialist was provided with a place in the hostel free of charge.

*Young specialists received other social benefits, for example, when placing children in kindergartens.

*And, of course, even the smallest salary of a Soviet graduate in terms of its purchasing power was much higher than the salaries of Russian doctors , of whom little remains after paying for communal services and renting housing.

What of all this is Mr. Nilov ready to offer young Russians, in addition to the obligatory three-year work? The question is rhetorical.

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Do you want Soviet practices to have a positive effect? Place them in the environment for which they are designed - socialism.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Health is solving the problem in its own way - by inviting guest workers to work .

https://www.rotfront.su/ldpr-vspomnila- ... pyte-posl/

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That the Russian capitalists find it necessary to emulate the USSR, however superficially, should be worrying, for them. And as they cannot duplicate the results in a capitalist environment this will only clarify the inadequacies of the bosses' regime.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Russia today

Post by blindpig » Fri Aug 20, 2021 2:11 pm

Get ready: the "August putsch" - 30
08/18/2021
On the anniversary of the watershed events
Today the "August putsch" of 1991 is 30 years old. This round date is a reason not only to remember the past, but also to reflect on its relationship to the present ... By the early 1990s, Gorbachev's "perestroika" had reached a dead end. The official doctrine of building a renewed "socialism with a human face" has failed miserably. On the other hand, the market sector was developing rapidly in the economy. Speculators, traders in "leftist" and stolen goods, individual entrepreneurs and owners of cooperatives - all of them were eager to increase capital, to seize new industries. The best way: to achieve the promotion of "their people" to powerto carry out market reforms and eliminate the monopoly of the mossy CPSU. Citizens will realize what market reforms are in a few years - they will be helped by "shock therapy", accompanied by frantic inflation, bankruptcy of enterprises, mass unemployment, hopeless poverty and rampant crime.
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The communist wing was aware of these trends. But in order to prevent the impending threat, it was necessary to abandon the entire course of "perestroika" , of the treatment of socialism with market methods. And this course has been going on for six years. It was received and approved at party congresses, and the leader of the party, Gorbachev, persistently put it into practice. It was extremely difficult to give up this course. Fear caused indecision and powerlessness.

On the other hand, their opponents had no doubts, who understood that it was easier to seize power in individual republics than in the entire Union. They achieved that a number of Soviet republics, starting with Lithuania, proclaimed their sovereignty, that is, the supremacy of republican laws over union laws. "Sovereign" republics began to sign agreements on mutual recognition and cooperation among themselves. Thus, the central leadership was cut off both from interference in the internal affairs of the republics and from the coordination of interregional interactions. The central leadership of the USSR, which was under the control of the Communist Party, turned into a political corpse that could only be buried.

The change in the country's administrative-territorial structure during that period had far-reaching political and economic consequences.

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Boris Yeltsin, Alexander Korzhakov, Viktor Zolotov and others - on a tank in front of the White House (August 1991)

The Democratic attack forced the top party leaders to wake up from political hibernation. Feeling that the soil was slipping from under their feet, and the usual methods of influence (through the party or Soviet authorities) no longer worked, they introduced a state of emergency in the country and began to draw troops to large cities. However, even here the party leaders were unable to act decisively and made a number of serious mistakes:
1.no specific tasks were assigned to the troops, the situation was not communicated to the personnel, so the troops were virtually inactive;
2.the leader of the "democrats" Boris Yeltsin was not isolated;
3.the ban on mass events, introduced by the State Emergency Committee , was not actually implemented, anti-communists gathered thousands of rallies;
4.information support for the actions of the Emergency Committee was not organized: the media controlled by the committee were silent or broadcast neutral materials, while the "democrats" trumpeted the whole world about an "illegal, unconstitutional coup";
5.the planned measures to stabilize the economy were not taken.
All this led to the expected and predictable defeat of the Gekachepists and, as a consequence, to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ruin of the country and the impoverishment of millions.

In politics, the winner is the one who acts quickly and decisively. When, two years after the events described, President Yeltsin faced defiance of the Supreme Soviet , he not only sent troops to Moscow, but also stormed the White House with numerous casualties. While political opponents were not asleep and were not shy about the means, the Soviet communists were again not ready to use dirty methods.
We must be prepared for anything - the issue of power is decided by organization and discipline. Only by being vigilant and ready for decisive action will Russians be able to defend their right to a decent life, free work, healthy rest, and a future for children.
https://www.rotfront.su/bud-gotov-avgus ... putchu-30/

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The authorities will not lower the retirement age
08/18/2021
Senator communicates the intentions of the authorities

Commenting on the bill submitted by the Communist Party to the State Duma on reducing the retirement age to 60 years for men and 55 for women, Federation Council deputy Valery Ryazansky said that there would be no reduction in the retirement age. According to him, the Russian pension system has gone too far from previous values. At the same time, the introduction of the bill itself is an element of the election campaign.

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To be fair, it should be noted that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was against raising the retirement age from the very beginning of the pension campaign and took some actions against the adoption of the law, which, however, did not have any effect.

However, the senator is right that with the current government in Russia, there will be no return to the old retirement age. And not because “our pension system has gone too far from this age” (the previous system was also far from the future values ​​of the retirement age, but this did not become a particular obstacle), but because this will require an increase in spending on the payment of pensions, and how as a result, tax increases - on big business, on the super profits of top managers. But the authorities will in no case take this step, since they are trying to protect the interests of the main investors - big business. Large businessmen sit in the State Duma, ready to take any measures in order to prevent a rollback of the pension reform.

But nothing is impossible in the world if it does not contradict the laws of nature. So, workers can also achieve a reduction in the retirement age, but not by voting in elections for the relevant party, but by putting pressure on the authorities. This means the need to conduct a massive organized struggle to lower the retirement age, such a struggle and such methods that would force the authorities to make concessions on this issue.

There are examples of such successful actions of workers. The famous protests of 1998-1999 led to the criminalization of non-payment of wages. As a result of massive protests against the monetization of benefits that took place in 2005, the reform was significantly adjusted, and some of the provisions of the reform were canceled altogether.

https://www.rotfront.su/vlasti-ne-budut ... ionnyj-vo/

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LLC "Start" opened its doors for forced labor
08/17/2021
50 new jobs are ready

The press service of the Main Directorate of Regional Security (GURB) of the Moscow Region announced the opening of the first site in the region at a correctional center on the basis of the enterprise. Now 50 convicts to forced labor will be employed in a specially created institution at LLC Start , which is engaged in sewing clothes. In the near future, it is planned to open another site on the basis of the property complex of the organization in the Kolomensky urban district.


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Participants of the solemn event / Photo from the site gurb.mosreg.ru

We do not know in which column the authorities will put themselves a "plus": "social projects", "creation of new jobs" or "development of light industry." But, without a doubt, the quantity and "quality" of the participants in the solemn event testifies to the originality of the event for the region.

We have already written about why prison labor is beneficial . In pursuit of cheap labor, even such "respectable" organizations as Sberbank use it . And LLC "Start" with an authorized capital of 75 thousand rubles. found its place in this row, as well as reliable partners in the person of the regional administration and the Federal Penitentiary Service.

In the meantime, business and the state use the opportunity to replenish their pockets by appropriating the labor of prisoners, citizens who have not yet fallen into the circle of interests of the penitentiary system are forced to wander around the country in search of work "with decent working and living conditions . " And the "free market" stimulates this process by closing factories and increasing the number of applicants for one job.
How not to return to the times described in the story of O. Henry "Pharaoh and the Chorale", when in search of some acceptable conditions for life had to go to prison.
https://www.rotfront.su/ooo-start-raspa ... veri-dlya/

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Quick learners, them oligarchs...
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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