You decide

As all of you undecided voters prepare for Tuesday's choice, I leave you with this:



A leader we can all be proud of for the respect he gets worldwide. The article is actually about Karl Rove, or, as the cover says, "The man who made George Bush." The magazine - Kommersant-Vlast' - is one of my favorites.

Government domination of the "NGO" sphere

First, they kicked out the Peace Corps. The excuse given for foreign consumption was the environment of "changing economic and social tasks facing our country." For domestic consumption, the Kremlin relied on reasoning more along the lines of Soviet propaganda, sowing paranoid suspicions among anyone who had ever had a pleasant interaction with a Peace Corps volunteer by suggesting that they "were collecting information on the social, political and economic situation in Russian regions, on officials of governmental bodies and departments, on the course of elections and so on" (that's CNN's sound bite from Patrushev on the occasion).

Then they unceremoniously threw Mikhail Khodorkovsky in jail, in no small part because of his support for various political causes and civil society initiatives.

Then Putin infamously shed unjustified suspicion on and engendered fear among the NGOs hard at work in Russia in his State of the Union address.

Now, there's a bill in the Duma to make donations tax-deductible only if they are made to state-funded organizations.

And the Duma (and odious Deputy Viktor Alksnis of the Rodina party) is going after the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, and at least part of the basis for their attack seems to be that this organization accepts relatively small grants from foreign grant-making organizations.

The situation is similar to the rejection of foreign aid in the Kursk submarine tragedy - the public spin was that the foreigners needed to be kept out because they might see something secret (and the insinuation was made for some time that maybe "they" were even responsible for the tragedy in the first place), but the authorities' actual reasons for refusing assistance were more likely a mix of shame at the situation; pride and false certainty in their own ability to solve the problem; and genuine suspicion, left over from the Cold War, of the motives of those foreigners proffering assistance.

Blaming outsiders and refusing assistance is the logical course of action for a government which wants to be seen as the sole source of strength and salvation for the Russian people - if only that government were up to the lofty goals which it sets for itself.

Does anyone think that the Russian government will solve the coming demographic crisis without the assistance of international NGOs? Maybe the solution proposed recently by Patriarch Alexey - make more babies - will somehow prove to be a brilliant low-cost solution? Somehow, I think not.

Russians are right to be proud of their nation; I don't begrudge them their pride and have a healthy respect for the historical strength, ingenuity, and endurance of the Russian people. However, it becomes difficult to understand and respect a country when its people allow the supposedly democratically elected government to act as irresponsibly as the Russian government has acted with respect to foreign assistance.

Free postcards

My mother was visiting us these past few days (she gets top billing as a loyal reader), and one night we went to a restaurant that for me has over the past couple of years illustrated just how eclectic Moscow can be. When we moved here, it was called "The Great Canadian Bagel," and they did serve bagels & cream cheese, along with a relatively complete menu and full bar service, all open 24 hours a day. Google has once again revealed its powers to me by just now enlightening me on the fact that this is actually a Canadian franchise operation. At some point maybe a year or so ago (I don't remember for sure) it became "No Name Cafe," now serving sushi instead of bagels, but still with a complete menu of European cuisine and desserts, and still open 24 hours a day. The takeout sushi has become a favorite of ours because of the location directly on my walk home from work.

It's one of the many, many places here where the free postcard providers who infiltrated this market from points west have put up a rack, and once in awhile there are actually visually appealing cards on offer:



I guess it's a matter of taste, but I liked this one.

Flu shots

It's amazing to observe from afar the controversy (impassioned letters to WaPo, a series of articles on Slate) surrounding the shortage of flu vaccines in the US. There has been no such shortage here, probably because many Russians believe getting the shot will do you more harm than good. I got vaccinated today at work, as did every one of my American co-workers who was in the office (5 out of 5, including one spouse who came in specifically to get the shot), but not many of our Russian colleagues were interested in joining us (6 out of about 35). That tells you something, although I'm not sure exactly what. Take your pick: a) we're more enlightened about the benefits of modern medicine and believe we can take control of our health and prevent certain illnesses, rather than being fatalistic; b) we are gullible and will believe whatever the medical services industry tells us to believe; c) we just wanted the chance to crow to our friends at home, FINALLY, about being able to get in Russia something that is desirable but not available in the States.

Picking up Mom at Leningradsky Vokzal

Right next to the exit to the train platforms, I noticed this helpful sign indicating a number to call with "citizens' suggestions and complaints about the work of militia employees":



On the platform at night:

Blast from the past

This Belgian equivalent of a Good Humor truck reminded me of the VW van our family had in the 1970's through 1981 when we left it in Nigeria - same color and just about the same model (except ours didn't have the big window or waffle griddles!).

Birds in Brussels

Brussels – lunch at Tea & Eat and overpriced boutiques on Avenue Louise. I picked the wrong days for this trip, as the dollar is at an 8-month low against the Euro. Budgie birds (pictured) who were scared of me in a cage outside a florist’s shop just off Avenue Louise at Stephanie Square. They seemed to be doing OK despite the chilly weather, although they were a little alarmed when I stuck my cell phone up to the cage and snapped a picture - I wasn't able to catch them cuddling because they were startled by my presence.

It's all about soul

My ticket to Brussels was the first place I saw the English-language version of Aeroflot's relatively new "...потому что от души" ("...because it comes from the soul") campaign. I guess they mean blue-eyed soul...

End of the line #2 - Выхино

The southeastern end of the purple line - Vykhino.

Selling flowers in the shadow of a port-a-potty and some classic end-of-the-line-type high-rise apartment buildings:



Waiting for one of the marshrutki (minibuses that run on regular bus routes) to depart:

Doloi Putina!

I stuck around until almost the end of the rally - a social commitment intruded and I couldn't stay until the very end, although I did catch Valeria Novodvorskaya's remarks (pictured here) and several instances of the crowd chanting "Down with Putin!"



I tried to tape some of the remarks using my mobile phone's dictaphone feature, but think the journalists in attendance probably had better equipment and got the best sound bites.

Here's what the Moscow Times had to say about it:

At least 2,000 people gathered on Pushkin Square on Saturday to call for an end to the war in Chechnya. It was one of the largest antiwar protests in years and also provided a rare public platform for broader criticism of President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Protesters listened to speeches from prominent antiwar figures and chanted slogans like «Peace in Chechnya!» and «Down With Putin’s Politics!»

They held «No to War» balloons and signs that said «Putin Is Killing Our Freedom," but they also held posters of jailed former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and photographs of people who died in the storming of the Dubrovka theater in 2002.

Saturday’s protest acquired an extra sharpness because it fell on the second anniversary of the beginning of the Dubrovka hostage crisis.

The protest, which began under gray skies at 4 p.m. and lasted for about two hours, was organized by For Human Rights and the Committee for Antiwar Activities and supported by the Committee 2008. [...]

There was some debate about how many protesters showed up. Ponomaryov said there were 2,500 to 3,000. City police, who had 200 officers on hand, counted about 2,000 protesters, Interfax reported, citing city official Sergei Vasyukov.

But in any case the number of participants was well higher than anticipated, Vasyukov told Interfax, noting that organizers had predicted around 500 people would show up when applying for permission to hold the rally. Vasyukov complained that this made providing security difficult.

Speakers included prominent human rights activist Valeria Novodvorskaya, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, State Duma Deputy Oleg Shein of Rodina and Vladimir Kara-Murza of Committee 2008.

Politkovskaya, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta who negotiated with the hostage-takers during the Dubrovka crisis, addressed the crowd from the podium and above a sign that read, «Five Years of Putin, Five Years of War and Terror, Enough Already!» [...]

The MT won't let you see the article without paying, but the Chechen Times website has the full text available.