Europe Archives
NATO 2, Russia 0
Filed under: Europe
Vladimir Putin's Russia has suffered another devastating defeat in the former Yugoslavia. First Kosovo managed to successfully declare its independence despite Russian opposition, and now the pro-Russia government of Serbia itself has collapsed. The BBC reports:
Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica [pictured] has said his coalition has collapsed and is calling for elections. The move follows his failure to get his cabinet to reject closer ties with the European Union in the wake of Kosovo's declaration of independence. Mr Kostunica, a nationalist, has described the decision by EU states to recognise Kosovo as illegal. "The government of Serbia has no united policy any more on an important issue related to the future of the country - Kosovo as a part of Serbia," Mr Kostunica told reporters as he announced his move in Belgrade.
The more pro-EU president of Serbia, Boris Tadic, will now call new elections.
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redditIt's Come to This: Pakistan is More Civilized than Russia
Filed under: Europe ~ Pakistan ~ Russia ~ South Asia
Andrei Illarionov has been conclusively proven right: Pakistan is more civilized than Russia.
An election has just occurred in Pakistan and that county's military dictator Pervez Musharraf has allowed not one but two viable opposition parties, both dedicated to ousting him from power, not merely to contest the election but to win the overwhelming majority of seats in parliament. As the New York Times reports: "Benazir Bhutto's the Pakistan Peoples Party was on pace to win 110 seats in the 272-seat National Assembly, while a second rival party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the faction led by Nawaz Sharif, like Ms. Bhutto a former prime minister, was looking to take 100 seats. Musharraf's party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, was crushed, holding on to just 20 to 30 seats." They could kill Bhutto, but they could not stop her from winning a plurality of seats in the new legislature.
Meanwhile, Russia has already held parliamentary elections where not one real opposition party was permitted to take a single seat, and will hold presidential elections the first week in March in which all the real opposition candidates, including former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former first deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, have been excluded.
Vladimir Putin: Less democratic than a military dictator. Is that because he has more to fear from the voters?
How is it possible that country that is less democratic than a military dictator is a member of the G-8, one of the most significant democracy organizations in the world?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditHave the Swiss Become Racist, Or...?
Filed under: Europe
I've written an article over at Pajamas Media about yesterday's parliamentary election in Switzerland, where the press has heaped on the scorn over what it perceives as a Nazi-like campaign by the country's biggest party. I take the time to throw that notion in the trash. If you know about the controversy surrounding this issue then I think you'll be interested in the article for sure.
"Do the election results show the Swiss have become racist?"
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIs the Armenia Vote Anti-Democratic?
Filed under: Europe
Writing in the Washington Post, Fred Hiatt argues that the recent vote regarding genocide in Armenia by Turkey is actually a vote against democracy:
Imagine what the Armenian diaspora might have accomplished had it worked as hard for democracy in Armenia as it did for congressional recognition of the genocide Armenians suffered nearly a century ago. It's even possible that modern Armenia would be as democratic as modern Turkey. Things began well, with the honest election of a former dissident as president. But authoritarian tendencies soon emerged, the former dissident rigged his reelection in 1996, and things went downhill from there. As Freedom House noted last year, "all national elections held in Armenia since independence have been marred by some degree of ballot stuffing, vote rigging, and similar irregularities." Meanwhile, opposition politicians have been jailed, protests have been brutally suppressed, and broadcast media have been taken under government control.Armenia was sidetracked early on by a war with neighboring Azerbaijan over an Armenian enclave inside that country. The enclave is under Armenian control today, but a cease-fire has not given way to a peace settlement. Consequently, the two main Armenian American lobbying organizations in Washington have focused more on security questions -- opposing arms sales to Azerbaijan, for example, and opposing Turkey, Azerbaijan's ally -- than on promoting democracy in Yerevan. Armenia's rulers have known that, no matter how they trample on individual rights at home, the lobbying groups will cover for them here.
Here's the flip side, from a Greek perspective:
Today Turkey finds itself in a position where its value as an ally is countered by the political clout of Armenians within its allies. So time has run out. Turkey will, eventually, have to come to terms with its history or face the prospect of turning its back on the world that it set out to join in 1923. The only way that this can be achieved is if the Armenians and their backers make clear that the matter is moral and not political - because the issue is to honor the victims of the past, and not to undermine the common future of Turks, Armenians, Azeris and all the other nations of this troubled region. As for Turkey's allies, including the United States, they need only consider the simple part of the question: are you on the side of right, whatever the cost - or are you not?
What do you think? Should the U.S. side with Armenia or Turkey?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPutin Lashes Out Against Tymoshenko
Filed under: Europe ~ Russia ~ Ukraine
Removing all doubt as to who the winner of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections was, Vladimir Putin's Kremlin lashed out against the democrats yesterday in a fit of hysterical, barbaric rage -- illustrating once again the cowardly Putin's fundamental maxim of cosa nostra governance: "If you can't beat 'em, kill 'em."
As the Moscow Times reported: "[State-owned energy monopoly] Gazprom on Tuesday threatened to reduce gas supplies to Ukraine if it did not receive $1.3 billion it is owed, just as it was looking more likely that Western-leaning Yulia Tymoshenko would become Ukraine's next prime minister." The Kremlin's stooges in Ukraine explained: "Volodymyr Bronnikov, a parliament member with the Party of the Regions, said a price hike from Gazprom could come in response to an attempt by Tymoshenko to move Ukraine closer to the West. 'If Ukraine is an ordinary European country, then it must pay ordinary European prices for gas,' Bronnikov said."
These crude, neo-Soviet threats can only serve to convince Ukraine's democrats that Russia is a bloodthirsty enemy with whom cooperation is simply impossible. The Kremlin's action should also be a wakeup call to NATO that urgent action is necessary to assure Ukraine's security.
As of now, according to Ukraine's Central Election Commission, 99.44% of the ballots in the parliamentary poll have been counted. Here's an overview of the results:
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGul is Turkey's new President
Filed under: Europe
Abdullah Gul is elected as Turkey's 11th President amid warnings from the military over undermining country's secular constitution. In the third round of the election Gul received his own party AKP's 339 votes out of the 448 MPs present. The main opposition party CHP did not participate. Gul will take over the presidency tonight in Cankaya (the presidential palace) from Ahmet Necdet Sezer with a modest ceremony.
While massive celebrations are planned in Abdullah Gul's hometown Kayseri and other places, not all Turks are happy.
Read more about it here and here
update: Chief of Staff Yasar Buyukanit said that "our nation has been watching the behavior of centers of evil who systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic". That means the army is not happy at all with Gul as President. We did not expect any less from the guardians of secular Turkey. "The military will, just as it has so far, keep its determination to guard social, democratic and secular Turkey." Glad to see the army is not about to surrender.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditLife in UK is unbearable for some
Filed under: Europe
England is Vanishing says Cal Thomas.
"Between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 British citizens chose to leave the country for a new life elsewhere. During the same period, at least 574,000 immigrants came to Britain. This number does not include the people who broke the law to get there, or the thousands unknown to the government."
Why the exodus?
"They fear lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the loss of a sense of Britishness, exacerbated by the growing refusal of public schools to teach the history and culture of the nation to the next generation. What it means to be British has been watered down in a plague of political correctness that has swept the country faster than hoof-and-mouth disease. Officials say they do not wish to "offend" others."
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditHow Neo-Soviet Can Russia Possibly Get, Part I: Annals of Russian "Diplomacy"
Filed under: Europe ~ Middle East ~ Palestine ~ Russia
So let's see now:
Last Tuesday, Russian officials met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and called him the "legitimate leader of the Palestinian people." It seemed Russia was actually attempting to be civilized for once, and distance itself from a standing pattern of active support of the isolated terrorist regime of Hamas (Russia has also supported Hezbollah and sent weapons to Syria). But the very next day, Hamas "lawmaker" Khalil al-Haya announced that his organization had a new date to meet with the Kremlin, specifically a Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Mashaal, the Islamic group's exiled leader, who is based in Syria. At first the Kremlin denied these reports, repeatedly claiming there was no effort to meet with Hamas as it sought to milk the positive PR cow, but then on Sunday the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Kremlin's foreign ministry, headed by the leering Minister Sergei Lavrov (shown above), had indeed confirmed the new meeting with Hamas. Lavrov was quoted as saying: "It's important to hold such talks and countries that do not do so are wrong."
Do you dare to imagine Russia's reaction if Condi Rice decided to have a sit-down with Shamil Basayev and, faced with Russian objections, said "it's important to hold such talks and countries that do not do so are wrong." Russia apparently feels that there are two sets of rules in the world, one for Russia and one for everybody else. Its behavior is in no way different from that of the old USSR, just as heedless of the consequences, just as self-destructive, just as provocative and delusional.
It's the evil empire, all over again.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDanish Candidate MP - OK to Attack Danish Troops in Iraq
Filed under: Europe
"Asmaa Abdol-Hamid told BT that she supports the Iraqi resistance movement against the occupation forces and that they have the right to live in a country where they can make their own decisions. She therefore does not want to distance herself from Iraqis using weapons against Danish forces in Iraq either. In a reaction to the controversy which her interview started, she maintains her support for the Iraqi resistance, and even goes as far as to compare them to the Danish resistance movement against the German occupation during Second World War. She thinks resistance against a foreign occupation is not only legitimate but even a human right."
Some appear to think that she is confused. I doubt it. She is just being honest.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditTalk about Burned Toast: Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, the New Axis of Evil
Filed under: Americas ~ Cuba ~ Europe ~ Russia ~ Venezuela
During his visit to Moscow last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez revealed that when he and Cuban leader Fidel Castro last met in Havana, they had drunk a toast to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his famous speech at the Munich security conference in February that attacked Washington for imposing its will on the world community.-- Asia Times, July 7, 2007 (above, a sign welcomes Putin to Cuba)
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditUK government bans two Islamist organizations
Filed under: Europe
Tony McNulty, the British minister for counter terrorism and security has proposed banning two more militant Islamic organizations. In the wake of last week's attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow, McNulty has published a draft order in parliament to ban Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh and Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi in the country. They would join 44 other organizations already forbidden under the Terrorism Act, which prohibits belonging to, or encouraging, support for the groups. The two organizations have been associated with terror attacks in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but reportedly are not connected to last week's attempted terror attacks. "Proscription powers are a key tool in the fight against terrorism," McNulty said in a statement.
The new prime minister, Gordon Brown, has informed parliament that he wants to set up a National Security Council that includes all agencies and ministers dealing with security and anti-terrorism matters.
Meanwhile, Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip have released the abducted British reporter Alan Johnston, who had been held hostage since March 2007. The BBC correspondent told a Gaza City press conference: "They were often rude and unpleasant. They did threaten my life a number of times. There was one 24 hour period when they seemed to get very angry and chained me up but that only lasted 24 hours. It was like being buried alive and removed from the world, in the hands of people who were dangerous and unpredictable." (WJG)
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussian Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds
Filed under: Americas ~ Europe ~ Russia ~ Venezuela
Yup, that's Hugo Chavez and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov laughing and holding hands like lovers whilst they gaze upon a spectacle of Russian folk dancing as part of Chavez's state visit to Moscow. Do you dare to imagine how Russians would react if Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev (or, for that matter, exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky) had been invited to visit the White House, stopped by New York City on the way, and been photographed cuddling with Mayor Michael Bloomberg under similar circumstances?
How is it possible that Russians can wail to high heaven about America getting involved in Russia's "sphere of influence" in Eastern Europe (installing missile defense systems and inviting Ukraine and Georgia into NATO) and yet have no problem whatsoever providing massive quantities of AK-47s and attack aircraft to Hugo's dicatorship in South America? Hasn't Russia ever heard of the Monroe Doctrine? Does Russia really think it can have its cake and eat it too, even though it's economy is 1/12th the size of America's and it lacks any allies remotely comparable to the NATO group?
To put it simply, this is exactly the same "have your cake and eat it too" behavior we saw from the USSR, the same behavior that brought the USSR to ultimate destruction. And despite that lesson, the victims of the the USSR's brainwashing, like "president" Vladimir Putin, are so filled with anti-American venom that they are prepared to do the whole thing over again, and to have Russia go the same way the USSR went.
How depressing is that? Click the jump for more inspiring Chavez photo ops.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditMerkel: The Mother of All Protest Babes?
Filed under: Europe ~ Protest Babes
The BBC reports that the above image "appears on the cover of the Polish weekly Wprost, and is titled 'Stepmother of Europe'" and that "a Polish council overseeing ethics in the media said the montage overstepped 'the limits of good taste.' The mocked up image shows Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, nuzzling at [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel's chest." The Beeb explains the background thusly:
Ahead of the Brussels summit Poland demanded a boost to its EU voting rights at Germany's expense and threatened to refuse to sign up to a new EU treaty because it would give bigger countries such as Germany too much decision-making power. Poland eventually persuaded Ms Merkel, whose country oversaw the summit as the current EU president, to insert a clause into the treaty postponing the introduction of the voting system until 2014. In arguing for an extension of the vote system the Polish Prime Minister raised Poland's World War II suffering under Nazi Germany. And a day after Berlin said it wanted to heal the tensions exposed during the summit, Jaroslaw Kaczynski told Polish public radio "something very negative" is happening in Germany. He went on to compare modern-day Germany to the Nazi era of the 1930s but said Europeans did not dare speak out. "Like in an era which has already passed, the large majority of Europeans didn't have the courage to talk about it, it is the same today," Mr Kaczynski said.
It seems Europe is just one big happy family after all! And there's obviously much Americans have to learn from them as far as cultural sophistication and savoir faire are concerned.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussia and Belarus: Same Difference?
Filed under: Belarus ~ Europe ~ Russia
In 2002, two years into the "presidency" of Vladimir Putin and three years after he became Prime Minister, Russia had the world's third-highest rate of suicide among teenagers and was one of only four countries in the world with a teenage male suicide rate above 30 per 100,000. Recently, with nearly a decade of rule by Putin under its belt, a study confirmed that (based on 2004 data) Russia and its sister state Belarus are in the top three in the world for overall suicide rate in the general population, with a rate of suicide per 100,000 people three times higher than that in the United States.
Russia also has a divorce rate over 30% higher than that of the United States, placing it in the world's top three in that category as well -- once again right next to sister state Belarus. The Russian divorce rate isn't surprising if you know that Russia's rate of domestic violence is also stratospheric, with one Russian woman being murdered by her husband every 40 minutes for an average of 14,000 such killings per year -- whereas in the United States, with twice the population Russia has, the figure is only 1,200 per year. This means Russia's rate of spousal homicide is nearly 30 times greater than America's, and makes it suprising that Russia's rate of divorce isn't even higher. The explanation may be that it's somewhat difficult to file for divorce when you are six feet under.
Many might find it surprising that Russia is keeping company with lowly Belarus in these categories. After all, isn't Belarus a Byzantine quagmire governed by a madman, whilst Russia is a surging economic dynamo governed by a beloved patriot? But of course, the image that Russia is really different from Belarus is sheer poppycock. If the people of Russia really loved their leader to the tune of 80% as public opinion polls claim, would they be killing themselves in droves and beating their wives to death with blunt instruments? It seems unlikely. And how could they love a leader who presides over the net loss of up to a million Russians from the population every year and an average wage of $3 per hour? What's far more likely is that the propaganda machine operated by the proud KGB spy who rules Russia is more effective, being financed by oil revenues Belarus doesn't enjoy, and creates a better illusion. And that's perhaps the most disturbing Russian reality of all.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIs Russia Supplying Attack Aircraft to Syria?
Filed under: Europe ~ Middle East ~ Russia
The Jerusulem Post reports:
Russia has started delivery of top-of-the-line fighter jets to Syria under a new deal estimated to be worth US$1 billion, a newspaper said Tuesday -- but the report was quickly denied by the state arms trader. The business daily Kommersant said that Russia had begun delivering five MiG-31E jets under a deal apparently negotiated during Syrian President Bashar Assad's trip to Moscow last autumn. Commenting on the report, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement that "all of Russia's deals in the sphere of military-technical cooperation comply with international law and Russia's obligations under various treaties and United Nations resolutions." He would not elaborate. But Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms-trading monopoly Rosoboronexport, flatly denied the Kommersant report. "Russia has no plans to deliver fighter jets to Syria and Iran," Chemezov said at a Paris air show, according to the Interfax news agency. Russia has shrugged off US and Israeli criticism of its previous weapons deals with Syria and Iran, saying the deals complied with international law.
The photo above, taken from the Kommersant story linked to in the quote, is captioned: "In Syria, even children love Russian military hardware, and they have ever since the Soviet MiG-17 (in the photo) took part in the 1973 war against Israel."
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditBush in Albania: Can you feel the love tonight?
Filed under: Europe
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPro-US Albania cheers President Bush
Filed under: Europe
While anti-Americanism is very strong and on the rise in Europe, nations that suffered from dictatorships or ethnic cleansings usually tend to be very friendly at the United States. Albania welcomed President Bush, as it remembers that America contributed a lot to its liberation by helping in the fight against Soviet Union and rescuing Kosovo's Albanians from the regime of deceased Serbian Communist and war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. While I'm not sure if independence for Kosovo is a good thing, I think that the photos below just show the genuine gratitude of a people who suffered communism and, in Kosovo, has been slaughtered in its thousands by the pro-Russian Serbs.
Kudos to Albania!
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditCommunist-Fascist moronic convergence against the US in Rome
Filed under: Europe
“Anti-War”, “Peace” activists, Fascists converge in Rome, show their true colors
Peaceful desire to destroy America
Peaceful Anti-semitism
Note: I read on a website, that there was a sign reading “We are all with the Taliban”.
The t-shirt this idiot is wearing represents the symbol of a communist ‘humanitarian’ NGO that has been operating in Afghanistan to supposedly ‘offer medical assistance to war victims’, while in reality it is a staunchly anti-american, stalinist organization whose members in Afghanistan include Taliban ‘militants’.
Showing their desire for peace..
Al-Reuters caption for this photo: “A protester waves a flag”
The Fascists joined their communist cousins:
“Bush, Rome will be your grave”. The Celtic Cross has been often abused by Fascism.
It has been reported that some of these retards assaulted the grave of Aldo Moro, the Christian Democratic Italian PM who was kidnapped and murdered by the Red Brigades terrorists in the late 1970s.
Cross-posted at Free Thoughts.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditMajor International Arms Trafficker Arrested in Spain
Filed under: Europe
Monzer al-Kassar, an international arms dealers responsible for tens of millions of dollars in munitions going to rogue states and terrorist organizations, was arrested last night as he flew into the Barajas airport here in Madrid. His two associates, Tareq Mousa Al Ghaza, a Syrian national, and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, a Chilean national, were arrested in Romania.
Al-Kassar is one of the biggest arms dealers in the world. He has sent weapons to nearly every major insurgent group and dictatorship in the world, often funding both sides of a conflict. I mean everyone. Military dictatorships in Chile and Argentina, Colombian Marxist rebels, the PLO, Iraqi insurgents, Yugoslav war criminals, you name it. He's been tried before but there was never enough direct evidence to put him in jail. Now they've got him. Having this guy rot in prison with no access to the outside world will be a boon to humanity.
I haven't read any of the news reports yet, but now that they've gone and done the press conference I might as well spill what I've learned while I was at the embassy today.
The operation took over four years, with DEA agents posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. They basically inked out a deal with al-Kassar to ship thousands of assault rifles, millions of rounds of ammunition, and even rocket grenade launchers and surface to air missiles to the FARC. It basically got down to the point where the weapons were all ready to be shipped out and he got nabbed just beforehand. In fact, al-Kassar has a compound just outside of Madrid where Spanish officials are expecting to find the weapons cache.
Arresting al-Kassar came after a provisional arrest request by the United States, and the takedown was coordinated between Spanish authorities, the Embassy, the DEA, and Southern District of NY's US Attorney's Office. The next step is to file the extradition request, and Spain is apparently very happy to do so. Here is a list of the charges:- Conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a US-designated foreign terrorist organization {FARC]; - Conspiracy to kill US nationals;The political differences between the United States and Spain are great, largely due to Zapatero's withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq and his policy of engagement with Cuba. The people at the embassy are greatly anti-Castro and you can always look around to find some sort of anti-Castro cartoon up on the bulletin boards. Because of big disagreements on this issue -- Condi even made comments about it on her visit here last week -- other more minor disagreements are often misinterpreted between agencies as having to do with Spain's Cuba policy.
- Conspiracy to kill officers and employees of the US ;
- Conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles; and
- Money laundering [Al Kassar and Moreno Godoy only].
This operation is a great example of cooperation between the two governments that extends beyond political differences into the field of precision and professionalism. They had a job to get done and they did it.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditWho Can Enjoy Tinker to Evers to Chance . . .
Filed under: Europe ~ Iran ~ Middle East ~ Russia
. . . when you have to deal with Russia to Syria to Iran, and they don't have a baseball they have this:
What is it? According to Jane's Defense Weekly, it's a Russian Tor-m1 missile system launching vehicle during exercises at an undisclosed location in Russia. Reuters says:
Syria has agreed to supply Iran with at least 10 out of 50 air defense systems that Damascus is in the process of buying from Russia. Iran would take delivery of them in late 2008. To reward Syria for its middleman role, Tehran would part-finance Syria's Pantsyrs as well as paying for its own. Syria struck a $730 million deal with Russia earlier this year for some 50 Pantsyr-S1E self-propelled short-range gun and missile air defense systems. Its source said Moscow had not been officially notified of the reported Syrian arrangement with Tehran, which flowed from a November 2005 strategic accord between the two countries on military and technological cooperation.
These systems will be used, of course, to shoot down Western aircraft if/when they seek to take out Iran's nuclear weapons capacity. In other words, they'll assist Iran in developing nuclear weapons, and increase the cost in Western lives of addressing that threat. Looks like this "cold war" thing could get pretty damn hot pretty damn fast if the Kremlin continues down its crazed current course. How is it possible that the nation providing weapons to one of NATO's most hardened and dangerous foes is a quasi-member of the G-8? How long will it take us to come to our senses on Russia?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditProtest-Against-Russia Babes
Filed under: Europe
That's the glam shot of Viktoria Azovskaja, the Estonian contestant for the title of 2007 Miss Universe. The contest is now underway in Mexico City with the finals to be broadcast on Monday. As Publius Pundit readers well know, Russia is attacking Estonia for daring to move a war memorial involving Russia to a new location within its own country (even though Russia has recently done exactly the same thing to a Ukrainian memorial in Russia). Russia is inserting the Nashi youth cult to provoke criminality on the streets, boycotting Estonian goods and waging a massive cyber war of terrorism against Estonian servers. Wouldn't it just be too sinfully delicious if Miss Estonia were to win the competition this year?
Click the jump to see the swimsuit photos of the girls from Estonia and some of the other nations waging cold war with Russia.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIn Neo-Soviet Russia, Being a Protest Babe Will get you Blown Up
Filed under: Europe ~ Protest Babes ~ Russia
That's Yelena Tregubova, Russian author and former reporter for Kommersant, holding a copy of her book Tales of a Kremlin Digger. Here's what the Britain's Independent says about her:
She is a vivacious blonde who narrowly escaped death from a bomb which exploded outside her flat, thanks to a last-minute decision to give her hairstyle a final crimping before running out to a waiting cab. Now she sits in an anonymous hotel lobby in central London having fled Russia to seek political asylum in Britain because she is in "mortal danger". Her crime? Apparently having offended the master of the Kremlin with her bestselling writings that have accused President Vladimir Putin of stifling political and press freedoms in Russia. Tregubova published her account in October 2003 after spending three years travelling the country with President Boris Yeltsin, and another year covering his successor, Putin. "The main point was to say: Putin has killed freedom of speech in Russia. Of course, Yeltsin had his problems, but it was an era of freedom, an era of hope."
Despite the pretense of strength that he projects, Vladimir Putin is desperately afraid of individual female writers, like Tregubova and Anna Politkovskaya, in just the same way that the Politburo, which claimed to be so strong, cowered before Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn. It's really quite pathetic.
More images and info after the jump.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussia Foments Genocide in Darfor
Filed under: Africa ~ Europe ~ Russia ~ Sudan
That's a photograph of Russian Mi-24 attack helicopter on the tarmac in Darfur, Sudan.
What's it doing there, you ask? Didn't the United Nations enact an arms embargo on the Khartoum regime as a way of trying to stop the horrendous genocide occurring in the country? Sure they did! It was July 2004, almost three years ago. And now Amnesty International says that Russia and its partner in slime China have both run the embargo to supply millions of dollars in weaponry now being used to slaughter innocent people and eradicate democracy in this troubled nation. Read Amnesty's full report here. According to Amnesty:
In 2005, the Russian Federation exported to Sudan $21 million worth of aircraft and associated equipment including spare parts and $13.7 million of helicopters, adding to its substantial arms deliveries in previous years.The use of various types of military helicopters, particularly the Russian Mi-24 helicopter gunships acquired by the Sudan Air Force, to launch attacks in Darfur in which civilians are subjected to indiscriminate fire is of particular concern to Amnesty International, as outlined further below. It is a matter of international concern that for several years the Sudan Air Force has used this type of attack helicopter for operations during Janjawid indiscriminate attacks on villages in Al Darfur. For example, on 15 November 2006, soldiers of the Sudanese armed forces and armed militia, supported by helicopter gunships, attacked several villages in the Birmaza area, killing at least three civilians, torching dozens of houses and destroying four relief halls of an international non-governmental organization. Given the previous pattern of indiscriminate attacks over the past four years and the fact that the Government of Sudan still refuses to recognise the authority of the UN Sanctions Committee to move such weapons into Darfur, there remains danger of further such indiscriminate attacks.
Once again, Russia flouts international law, heedless of the consequences, in return for "gains" which can only be described as illusory.
Looks like a job for Super Bono!
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditKhatami visits the Pope
Filed under: Europe
Mohammad Khatami, Iranian former President is scheduled to meet this week with Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. He will also hold separate meetings with Premier Romano Prodi and Foreign Minister D'Alema.
I wonder what is he up to... any ideas?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGul's out
Filed under: Europe
Over 1 million Turks protested against AK party government and against Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul's presidency. Turks made it clear to AK party that Islamists are not welcome to rule the country. Although, Gul's agenda would have been presumably less religious than that of
Premier Tayyip Erdogan, the general feeling was that his succession to the presidential chair will bring to an end the secularism and the political openness that began with Kem