Blogging the democratic revolution
The State Duma, in all of its scary Soviet decor, has completed its first reading of a bill that seeks to essentially halt the abilities of NGOs operating in Russia. It will forbid foreign funding, force them to register with the government, and allow the authorities to monitor every last activity that these organizations undertake. Most dreadfully, it will allow the government to brand any of them as an extremist organization, paving the way for politically motivated closings. It’s Yukos all over again, but instead of focusing on oligarchic opposition, the authorities are now focusing on civil society opposition. This…
It has been ten years since the Dayton Accords ended officially ended the war in Bosnia, which killed over 200,000 people and displaced over a million more. The agreement marked a peaceful separation of nations into a loose, autonomous confederacy of three peoples who had been forced together under Soviet totalitarianism and left to kill each other after its fall. But after all these years, it’s possible that these people are willing to begin the move toward living — together — under a unified nation. The first step will be reforms to enable more effective governance, along with the capture…
President Putin made some cabinet shuffles today. It’s looking interesting. MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin gave his defense minister the additional post of deputy prime minister Monday in a Cabinet shake-up he said was designed to bolster efforts to improve Russia’s military. At a cabinet meeting shown on television station NTV, Putin said the appointment of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was aimed at overcoming a lack of coordination among ministries. Putin also named his chief of staff Dmitry Medvedev to become first deputy prime minister. Both Medvedev and Ivanov have been seen as potential candidates to run for president in…
There are a lot more blogs from Belarus now than there was when Publius was first started. Given that Belarus is biggest focuses for democracy promotion going, I think it would be good to get out the word on some of these blogs; which, by the way, make for very good and interesting reading. – Tobias Ljungvall on Belarus: Expert and author on Belarus, blogging with unique insight. – The BEING HAD Times: An American based in Pinsk, Belarus, writing about issues in the country. – BR23 Blog: Blogging about issues straight out of Minsk, Belarus. If you’re interested in…
Mark Steyn has a new killer essay at the Spectator about the collapse of Russia and the spread of Islamic fascism. It’s worth reading if only for the, er, fowl pun partway down page one (there’s one that’s actually funny further down, but I won’t ruin it for you). Excerpt: Moscow has reduced Grozny to rubble, yet is further than ever from solving its Chechen problem. Moreover, the sheer blundering thuggery of the Russian approach has no merits other than affording Moscow some short-term sadistic pleasure as it exacerbates the situation. The allegedly seething ???????Arab street????????, which the West????????s media…
Yesterday’s The Messenger (an english-language Georgian daily) covers the formation of a new political party out of smaller opposition groups, primarily the Conservatives and the Republicans. This new party shares in the heritage of the Rose Revolution, although it now finds enough room for disagreement with the ruling National Movement: Several leading members of both the Conservative and Republican parties originally were members of the pro-government party but broke away over the last 20 months, disenchanted by the policies of the government. “I can say for sure that we are a revolutionary opposition, in that we supported the Rose Revolution.…
The day of solidarity with Belarus on Oct. 16 that I talk about was an outstanding success, even moreso than I thought it would be. Over 100,000 people lit candles in their windows all around Belarus on Sunday in a form of protest yet unseen in this country, where protestors are roundly beaten and arrested. More than 100,000 citizens of Belarus have taken part in the Day of Solidarity on October 16. The action has been supported in many Belarusian towns and in many countries of the world. In this connection representatives of the civil society of Belarus proposed continuing…
…in Hungary, where the memories of bleak, gray communism and the tanks and massacres of 1956 are not entirely forgotten. I wrote up the whole unexpected turn of events, with the rightful blog links on Babalu here.
Today is the anniversary of the day when President Lukashenko held an illegal referendum to secure his limitless rule in Belarus. With parliamentary elections scheduled within the year, it is more important than ever for the people of Belarus to stand with each other and to know that others stand with them. This is why students from around the world walked for democracy on October 15. Knowing that you have support in your actions against a force as seemingly unstoppable as a dictatorial government will help you have the moral fortitude to stand up against what is blatantly wrong and…
Students for Global Democracy has more of the photos from the worldwide Walk For Democracy In Belarus. Here is the press release, accompanied by a sampling of the pictures. Remember, here are the pictures from our own walk in Boston. ******* October 17, 2005 – Ann Arbor, MI; Bloomington, IN; Istanbul, Turkey; London, Canada; London, United Kingdom; Santa Cruz, CA; Boston, MA; Washington, DC????????For hundreds of Students around the world, October 15th was not just another Saturday: it was a day to commemorate the courage of democracy advocates in the Eastern European nation of Belarus. Held in the iron grip…
In less time than it takes for a new baby to reach U.S. voting age, the nation of Estonia has transformed itself from a cold, gray, stagnant outpost of the Soviet Empire to one of the world’s most impressive dynamic democracies. Its banks are pristine, its one of the most wired countries in the world, it is famous for its absence of corruption, as well as its flat tax, its sound stable money, its property rights, its free trade (unilaterally done with no miserable CAFTA battle, as Alvaro Vargas Llosa noted.) The only shortage out there for Estonia is enough…
This doesn’t look very good. Baku, 17 October 2005 (RFE/RL) — Azeri opposition leader Rasul Quliyev has been stopped by Ukrainian police in the Crimean capital of Simferopol en route to Baku, where he was returning after nearly 10 years in exile, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported. Former parliamentary speaker and Democratic Party of Azerbaijan Chairman Quliyev planned to return to Baku today to participate in the country’s legislative elections next month. He has lived in exile in the United States since 1996. When Quliyev’s charter plane stopped in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol en route to Baku, the Ukrainian authorities…
It was cold and rainy. People were tired and hung over from Friday night festivities. Some cancelled at the last minute and some just kept sleeping. However, despite all that, we still came through and marched out with our signs, deteriorating and wet as they were. There were about a dozen of us total, a mix of students from Bentley College and Brandeis University. We stood out in major intersections shouting slogans like “Free Belarus!” Some people asked us what we were protesting and we told them about it. Others slowed down and honked. It was cool. Here are the…
I’m preparing for the Walk for Democracy in Belarus all day today. Posters, people, all that. Should be pretty cool, and we’ll have pictures and video up for viewing. If you’d like to get involved, just go to the link. I hope to see you all there!
Hey everyone, I’d like to thank you all for expressing your interest in participating in the Walk for Democracy in Belarus. It is an event that will be held worldwide in places as far-ranging as Nepal, Taiwan, Ghana, England, and right here in Boston in order to raise money for pro-democracy organizations that oppose the current dictatorship. I’m emailing you all to let you know the final plans and instructions for participating in the walk. Please, do not hesitate to forward this info on to anyone you know so that they can participate. The more people coming, the better. You…
Andy Young has a good post on Russia’s closed cities, in which over 2 million people are sealed off from the world.
The democratic opposition to the government of Belarus has formally united, with the selection a single candidate to represent its broad interests in the 2006 presidential election. The choice is Alyaksandr Milinkevich, a civil society advocate who is relatively unknown and untarnished by regime propaganda. They also chose as their symbol a red tree on a white field, which takes from the original red and white Belarussion flag that was discontinued under Lukashenko. A 1-2 October congress of pro-democratic forces in Minsk selected Alyaksandr Milinkevich as its candidate to challenge President Alyaksandr Lukashenka in next year’s presidential election. More than…
With the announcement of a new set of cabinet ministers, the Ukrainian government is getting back to normal. Economic projections are starting to be hopeful about the future, at least in the short term, and in the very least it means some stability for awhile. But politics in Ukraine is far from normal right now. The split between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko has effectively left a lot of Ukrainian voters disillusioned with the former and cautious about the latter. Yushchenko signed a deal with arch-rival Yanukovich in order to get Yekhanurov approved as the prime minister, while Tymoshenko went to Russia…
Hey everyone, Corresponding with SGD’s official press release below, I will be organizing a Walk For Democracy here in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday the 15th of October. I urge anyone who is able to attend to email me: robertmayerÉgmail.com The donation will be $15 minimum, which will get you a t-shirt to wear with the other demonstrators. You can use the button below to donate, which will then be transferred on to SGD. You do not have to attend the march to donate, however, and you don’t have to donate just $15. If you would like to contribute to a…
This is great. Gateway Pundit has the roundup. And the left fades into oblivion…
Even though he missed approval by only three votes the other day, President Yushchenko’s pick for prime minister, Yuriy Yekhanurov, was easily approved by the parliament. But you’ll never guess who gave him the necessary votes. Dan McMinn has the count. Ä1Å Communist Party faction (0 out of 56 votes of MPs), Ä2Å Regions of Ukraine (50 out of 50), People’s Party (45 out of 47), Ä3Å Our Ukraine People’s Union (44 out of 45), Ä4Å Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc – (7 out of 41), Ä5Å Socialist Party (25 out of 25), Ä6Å Ukrainian People’s Party (23 out of 23), Ä7Å…
Transitions Online discusses the future of unstable Albania, who in July’s parliamentary elections re-elected former strongman Sali Berisha to the premiership. It’s really detailed, especially for a subject so elusive.
The Kyiv Post has a hilarious, lively, and insightful editorial about the political games going on in Ukraine. But here’s the best part, which seriously takes Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to task for their latest jockeying. And one more word for Tymoshenko, and indeed for Yushchenko: talk of rigging the political reform process one way or the other should not be heard again. On Sept. 19 it emerged that the Tymoshenko Bloc might try to move up constitutional reforms from their scheduled date on Jan. 1. The move would give Tymoshenko a shot at becoming a vastly more powerful prime minister…
After Ukrainian President Yushchenko disbanded the government of Yulia Tymoshenko, he appointed Yuriy Yekhanurov as the new prime minister. However, in order to become installed permanently, the Verkhovna Rada must approve him by majority vote. Well, it looks like that won’t be happening. (AP) – The Ukrainian parliament on Sept. 20 rejected the candidacy of acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. Yekhanurov won only 223 votes, three less than he needed to be named to the job. President Viktor Yushchenko had tapped Yekhanurov to replace his Orange Revolution ally, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he fired on Sept. 8. The…
A string of well-connected men are re-entering Russia’s political fray by directly entering as election candidates. These are household names, the men who made up and binded the country’s oligarchy during the ’90s. The big news today is that Mikhail Kasyanov, prime minister under Putin until 2004 and a man with big ties to the Yeltsin family of political and economic giants, has thrown in his hat for the presidency when Putin’s term expires in 2008. Mikhail Kasyanov, former Russian Prime Minister who was sacked by President Putin in 2004, said in a radio interview on Wednesday that he planned…