Mangled Thoughts

The Russkies are barracking from the sideline, crying , loudly:

Go Dubya, and, Bush for President.

The Moscow Times is a good read: far better journalism than the crapola purveyed by Oz medja. In a reasonably well argued column, the writer observes:

Whither Relations After November?Many politicians and experts in Russia prefer the current president as a more convenient choice. Arguments in his favor tend to follow a single line: a good personal relationship with the Russian president and the traditionally decent results in bilateral relations under a Republican government, versus the prospect of a strengthened desire to “teach democracy” in the case of a Democratic victory.

Some Russian’s reactions to Whale Bum Moore’s bilge, mixed

I fell asleep halfway through,” a user named Slava wrote on Kino.ru. “It is ordinary black PR for zombified people who can’t think on their own.”

Slava focused in particular on Moore’s manipulation of footage showing the president receiving news of the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, while reading a book to a classroom of children. Instead of reacting immediately, Bush continued reading, and Moore zooms in on the president for added effect.

“What was he supposed to do, run around the room shouting, ‘We are lost!’ and scare all the children?” Slava wrote. “The film is useful to watch so you don’t fall into the same kind of PR trap in your own country.”

Other web posters proved as anti-Bush as Moore, pointing out parallels between U.S. and Russian policy and noting the unlikelihood of such a film being made here.

For others, the film tapped a different vein — not anti-Bushism, but anti-Americanism.

“This confirms that the government there is full of bastards,” said Sergei, 25, a doctor attending the second showing of “Fahrenheit” at the Baikal-Atlantis cinema in northern Moscow. “America is more of a terrorist than any other country.”

On fighting terrorists:

Keystone Kops Take on Terrorism
By Yulia Latynina

An epidemic swept across Russia a couple of years ago. Not a week passed without the police discovering a cache belonging to Chechen terrorists in a rented apartment somewhere — half a kilo of TNT here, automatic rifles there.

And when the police discovered these caches, they did just the opposite of what they had been trained to do, i.e. stake the place out and wait for the terrorists to arrive. The police never staked out these apartments. They rushed to announce yet another success in the war against terror. There’s only one explanation: They knew no one would be coming to collect the bombs.

On Putin:

Propping Up Putin’s Myth

By Pavel Felgenhauer The Beslan hostage crisis exposed the weakness and inefficiency of President Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian and ostensibly tightly controlled regime. Putin’s dictatorial rule and repression of the media, along with the corruption of law enforcement and the judiciary, elicited only disjointed, ineffective protests in the West. The West does not speak with one voice: The German government, composed of Social Democrats and Greens, continues to support Putin’s policies publicly. The financial community, from the president of the World Bank to business leaders and investment analysts, has expressed similar indifference.

The people who made billions in deals with Saddam Hussein, who do business in Nigeria and Venezuela and who support cooperation with China despite its dismal human rights record are not going to get worked up when Putin cracks down on a few pesky journalists. If the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians in Chechnya isn’t enough to make Russia …

Putin’s Days Are Numbered

By Yevgenia Albats In the midst of all the bad news coming out of Russia, last week offered some hope. A survey conducted by the pro-Kremlin Public Opinion Foundation revealed that despite a massive advertising campaign on state television, ordinary Russians do not support President Vladimir Putin’s proposed reforms, including the appointment of regional leaders.

Sixty-one percent of respondents from across the country voiced their opposition to the proposal, which would for all intents and purposes allow the Kremlin to handpick regional leaders. The poll showed that an overwhelming majority of Russians also oppose Putin’s proposal to scrap the election of State Duma deputies from single-mandate districts. Instead, the lower house is to be composed exclusively of candidates elected from party lists, effectively excluding the election of independent candidates. Only 9 percent of respondents supported this change. Meanwhile, 50 percent said they trust deputies elected from single-mandate districts.

Well, at least in Oz we have two newspapers worth reading:

The London Telegraph and the Moscow Times.