I wasted on the Russian parliamental elections. It’s not worth it, and everybody that even has the slightest sympathy for that country knows a sad day just passed. I did read everything today, from the arrest of ‘ballot-man‘ to latest predictions. Putin wins all.
The New York Times quotes Yabloko leader Yavlinsky:
Grigory A. Yavlinsky, leader of Yabloko, one of the mainstream liberal parties that have opposed Mr. Putin, said Mr. Putin had put himself in a bind because he wants to retain power but knows that if he tries to obtain a third term immediately, he will be seen as illegitimate by some in Russia and abroad.
“He has created really an authoritarian system, in which he is like a hill in the desert, and nobody is around,†Mr. Yavlinsky said. “Now time has come to make a transfer of power, and he really, really has no idea how to do that. And nobody else has any idea. And his character is such that he has no confidence in anybody. So he creates a procedure that is abnormal. That is why he is in real difficulty.â€
“And that is why there is this instability now, and why the bureaucracy is very nervous,†Mr. Yavlinsky said.
But its an instability without any momentum. I’ve seen the momentum in Ukraine a couple of years ago, and it was civil, it was in the hands of thouse thousands of citizens who took it to the streets. Here, its in the hands of a small political elite. There goal is quoted in diamonds. I might be bitter, but it seems that in 16 years Russia managed to transform communism into wild-capitalism, and straight into tzarism. Bravo.
И вот наÑтал великий день -
Мне дали в руки бюллетень…
In september kwam in de V.S. de film ‘The Hunting Party’ uit, een actie/avonturen–thriller over drie journalisten die in Bosnië op zoek gaan naar naar ‘The Fox’, de meest gezochte oorlogsmisdadiger. Wat begint met een impulsieve opdracht word al snel een avontuur waarin de lokale bevolking, en de autoriteiten denken dat ze niet met journalisten, maar met de CIA van doen hebben. Aan de basis van dit verhaal ligt het relaas van Harald Doornbos. De Nieuwe Reporter zocht hem op in Beiroet. (deel I, deel II)
