Russia's Crime of the Century
foreignpolicy.com
foreignpolicy.com
Look at how slanted, jaded, corrupt and inept the US gov't has become and we have much more visibility into those dealings. Not to mention a refresh of power every so often and bloodless changeovers of power. I can't imagine living in a place where you actively fear your government...
One thing I always say to myself when I start to really rail on the US/AU/UK/Can etc is that they are still orders of magnitude better places to live than Russia, China or other places of the sort.
In the case of Russia, you would be very, very wrong. You'd have to go back to the Kievan empire of the 13th century to find the last time the place wasn't an ethical quagmire.
I take your point about holding Western governments to a higher standard -- we definitely should -- but don't assume all cultures had a similar starting point. Your average Canadian has never had to deal with the cultural memory of anything quite so devastating as the Mongol invasion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Rus%27).
I'd also beg to differ on your point that Canadians have no ancestry of invasion - Canadians descend primarily from France and the UK (with a little German as well), and it would be a tad outrageous to pretend these nations haven't endured bloody and violent invasions throughout history.
And grandparent's point wasn't that Canadian's don't have a cultural heritage of invasions and battles, but rather that the Mongol invasion was somewhat different from most of the things going on in Western Europe (e.g. almost all major cities were sacked; casualties were at levels not to be seen in Western Europe until World War 2) and had widespread and long-ranging effects on society that made it qualitatively different from Western Europe. Second paragraph of the "Influence of the Mongol invasion on Rus' society" section of the cited Wikipedia article is relevant here.
The very notion of the American dream is codified on New York's main landmark: "give me your poor huddled masses" etc. The story of America is necessarily the story of many populations coming together to create something new. The Irish may have the old country to look back on, for example, but their original cultural heritage has been superseded by that of America itself.
Russia has no such story; along with its disparate satellites (Ukraine, Belarus and so on) it has a long history of single peoples mostly staying still, or emigrating. The idea of a "Russian people" with a common cultural heritage has been a fairly constant concept for hundreds of years, whereas "the American people" is a very new one, historically.
It's not something I'd dismiss out of hand. For example, England was invaded by the Normans over 900 years ago, and the results of that invasion still affect everyone's everyday life today. Or consider that some cultural entities can be very long-lasting, such as religions, languages and writing systems.
You are saying that like that's a bad thing.
If you're ever in Berlin make a point of visiting the following museum/exhibition: http://www.topographie.de/en/topography-of-terror/exhibition...
edit: fixed some typos. Additionally, a poignant example: many laws/acts in Nazi Germany were passed by Ja/Nein referendums. Of course, if you voted unfavorably in those referendums you were harassed and publicly humiliated (i.e. marched through town with signs labeling you as the enemy of the people)
i am terribly sorry, where do people take these stunning facts? like 'often for trivial things', 'mass torture' etc.
there are a lot of documents revealed, online too. is there some real case where it is said 'sentenced to imprisonment for having a foreign stamp'? i want to see a link
Basic example: Singapore looks like a great developed country. But it's ranked just near Russia in Press Freedom Index. The ruling party (and it's a parliamentary republic) is ruling there for 10 years longer than Gaddafi has been ruling in Libya. Oops.
It's just a question of scale. Small local problems go unnoticed by the world. If this particular story did not involve foreigners, you would have never heard about it.
They do not have a free press, and many other freedoms are lacking.
OTOH, they have a very, very strong anti-corruption standard. They consistently rate at the top of anti-corruption indexes: http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/...
I should point out that my comment is simply about perspective, not complacency. Of course we should strive to fix and hold gov't officials repsonsible, fix the mess that led to the GFC etc etc...I was more or less pointing out that if we are myopic in our views we cannot take stock and realize the good we do have it. It is hard sometimes for someone who was born in the US to realize how much we simply take for granted (ask any recent immigrant from war torn countries or very oppressive regimes about their experiences and what they can and cannot do etc etc).
Or so the story goes, anyway, since we only hear one side.
You mean like
http://www.lvrj.com/news/exclusive-police-beating-of-las-veg...
or
In both the cases you've cited, the book is far from closed on the incidents. It's hardly even opened.
To establish anecdotal evidence of real injustice, you need to cite cases where the legal system failed to provide any sort of redress. Which with more effort you certainly could; I'm not claiming otherwise, nor am I claiming that you can't build a more comprehensive fact-based case against the US on some grounds. My point is simply that the implicit standard you are using by citing two things that haven't been through the system can't be used to score points for or against the system yet. The question is less "can you be put in jail" than "can you be kept in jail", and the corresponding second-order effects that has on society.
I am not entirely satisfied with the US; I am simultaneously not aware of any place that strikes me as obviously better, or even obviously on a better long-term trajectory. (Some places are better in some ways but end up being worse than others.)
EDIT: singularize topic of article
in Russia people have a lot of visibility into all the corruption and how the things are being done.
> Not to mention a refresh of power every so often and bloodless changeovers of power.
you should be confusing Russia with Iraq or some other country. in modern Russia there were only bloodless power changes.
> I can't imagine living in a place where you actively fear your government...
the people in the West have this advantage - not to fear their governments, everybody should admit. there are not very many stories about how some businessman or ordinary citizen was killed or imprisoned.
Oops sorry, was going to stay on track with the Russian story. Don't know what happened there. Wait, what? The russian politicians only stole $235 Million? Man, they are small potatoes. Our politicans print hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air every month, and we say 'sir, may we have some more'.
It starts with grade school where you have to bribe the teacher so they don't lower the grades of your child, you have to bribe your way out of a traffic ticket, you have to pay "extra" to not be ignored by nurses in a hospital, you have to pay public officials under the table to pretty much do anything. Then it goes to the top -- if you run a small business you often have to keep paying larger sums to avoid a mountains of artificially created red-tape, if you are unlucky you might have to also pay protection money to the local police/mafia. Then it gets worse as you go higher. Once you reach a certain level then you really have to start worrying about your life. Contract killings are just part of the business there.
One of the first questions my wife asked me when were were thinking of starting a business in the US was who we had to pay to make sure nothing bad happened.
"Russia is a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a "virtual mafia state", according to leaked secret diplomatic cables that provide a damning American assessment of its erstwhile rival superpower."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables...
I am much less impressed of stories where someone who had a lot of money killed or harmed rather than of stories where someone "socially unprotected" killed or harmed.
Reason: That organized crime you all referring to was on the rage in early- and mid-90s. And they practically killed themself out. If you go to some cemeteries you would find a lot of expensive monuments to mobsters aged 30-40 yrs. There are much, much less organized crime now (you don't hear about it even if you know where to listen), partly because some of it legalized, partly because most of it killed itself. They just could not help it.
Levels of high-profile corruption vary in Russia, but everyone would agree that real estate is the apex of it. If you got there and got killed, it's like if you gambled with borrowed money and lost it all and then got your legs broken. Happens everywhere if one is stupid enough. (rem took the debt-legs breaking concept from US popular culture).
So while for someone with US/European background this story reads like the crime of the century, Russians would instead focus more on issues which can hurt ordinary people more likely (hint: list of issies which can realistically hurt you in Russia if you're an ordinary person does not include mafia, not at all).
(hint: list of issies which can realistically hurt you in
Russia if you're an ordinary person does not include
mafia, not at all)
1) Foreign companies are not investing in Russia because of this behavior. Billions of dollars and euros could be flowing into Russia, but aren't. Such investments would reduce unemployment significantly and a normal share of the money could reach the ordinary Russian.
2) Every ruble extorted from a rich Russian or foreigner by the mafia cannot trickle down to poor Russians. Corruption cannibalizes an economy. Poor or unemployed? The corrupt government officials and their henchmen mafia are directly to blame.
I'll try to mirror it: Let's assume we would find an article about how Russian girl came to USA, was dragged into prostitution, drugged, abused and eventually killed. This is a terrible story, but you would hardly name it "Crime of the Century". While it's basically the same thing: come to foreign country, do unsafe things, get murdered.
It's sad that real estate development in Russia is corruption-ridden violent disaster, but this fact is neither very new nor very important to average Russian. Probably not even in top 10. There just are more urgent matters.
Out of curiosity, what are some of the top issues (of governance) that are important to the average Russian?
- Alchoholism and the sorry state of health. There are too many people in Russia who seem to drink too much. Which kills them slowly, but also increases crime, decreases health and life expectancy and certainly isn't benefical economically. Male life expectancy is comparable to poorer African nations.
- Degrating infrastructure - most of out infrastructure (houses, roads, power grid, but also schools, hospitals) is inherited from USSR, and it got no love during 90-s. Presently it is unclear whether it is improving or still degrating - of course some things are getting done, but some other things break as well. There are fears that (any) health care or education reforms detoriate their subjects.
- Some smaller towns and most of countryside aren't viable economically, some people leave, most people basically rot there.
- The combination of declining core population (low birth rate, bad health) and influx of immigrants from Russian Caucasus and asian CIS countries surely create some tension.
- Political system is stuck. It's debatable how bad it is, but it's certainly non-transparent and not too efficient.
- Culture and education tank. TV is awful, radio is absolutely horrible. Soviet high level of cultural involvement mostly vanished, people don't care about anything. Some okayish films got produced from time to time, there surely are some bright spots, in bigger cities you can find any leisure you can possibly imagine, but the average cultural level stinks bad. The church seems to like the idea of derailing education and promoting obscurantism, and government just does not care.
The list goes on and on, seriously.
Or rather, Russian TV would focus more on ordinary folk issues, because reporting high profile crimes is a taboo.
Therefor when you skim through ORT news, it's mostly hood crimes, house fires and Chechen insurgence.
Some other people of my demographics (not TV watchers, can read international information sources, young and educated) would have the same focus.
So please, do not underestimate our own inherent bias against "high profile" and towards "ordinary people".
I think they lost their way after the end of the cold war. I didn't find any mention of Magnitsky on their website. It's rather depressing.
There was only 1 reason why Bradley Manning was moved: 2012 election. Obama knows that as long as Manning was being tortured, this would be a sore sticking point with his core Democrat supporters. And I speak as one of them, someone who put in a lot of time and money into getting him elected in 2008.
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/10/bradley-manning-... (latest in a long line)
The 19th century wasn't so great either.
The CEO, once the richest person in Russia, is now rotting in prison - many believing this was due to his public complaints of corruption and his funding of opposition parties.
He started out selling stolen gasoline, then, after a stint in the black market, he eventually stole a train containing 55 cisterns of diesel fuel !! , ended up as friends of the mafia-government, which sold him Gazprom for only 100 million dollars (it is worth billions).
According to Wikipedia, Abramovich later admitted in court that he paid huge bribes (in billions) to government officials and obtained protection from gangsters to acquire these and other assets
If anything, the cultural effect of the purges was the most devastating.
I used the conjunction "educated and intelligent". Intelligent people tend to gravitate towards education, formal or informal. IQ tests show that university students score on average 120-130 compared to 100 in the general population. Removing educated people from the common gen-pool in a closed society may have an interesting collective effect.
Putin and Medvedev have been repeating over and over how innovation is important for Russia's future (I'm not certain how much they believe that actually); and more ironically how innovation is in Russia's blood and has defined its whole history. But I don't see many people willing to innovate. It's not even a problem of stifling bureaucracy, or corrupt officials, or some mafia extortions. Simply, majority of people are not willing to think outside the box, or to put any effort to bring their ideas to mass market.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinen...
(Also: I'm not entirely clear on what you mean by "out of control" - plenty of countries engage in extrajudicial killings: Russia, obviously, but also Israel, Syria, America...)
The assassins even took a British Airways flight to leave a radioactive trail behind. And the material was identified to come from a specific nuclear plant in Russia.
I've never heard of anything like this before.
Some reading material for you then :) -
Really? I have friends in Russian and Ukraine and from the limited stories I hear, this seems not too surprising to me.
When corruption and bribery becomes a cultural norm, it takes a long time (or never) to go away.
Video report by Hermitage CEO who can no longer visit Russia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW0AnZLSCcg
Rule of law (vs. rule by decree), freedom are deeply engrained in American and ersatz-British (UK, but also Canada, Australia, Ireland, etc...) ethos. A pupil on a school yard, when confronted by a teacher screams "it's a free country, you can't make me". People feel entitled (I am using it in a dictionary definition, in the positive sense of the word) to freedom, to human rights.
This isn't the same way in Russia: elders would frequently tell me "the place for people who want freedom is in jail". Philosophy was taught in an entirely different way in university: my parents were surprised when I told them that Plato and Hegel (who taught that real freedom is the right to submit to an absolutist state) were considered fascist by my (American) professors. Their anti-democratic (in the greater sense of the word, which encompasses not just elections but also concepts of minority rights, free speech and the like), anti-freedom theories were taught as being more "advanced" than philosophies of Locke and Kant.
To be fair, there are many abhorrent and brutal ideas in the American ethos as well, but they're token compared to the Russian/Soviet ethos: compare for example, Russian behaviour in Chechnya with US behaviour in Iraq or Israeli behaviour in Palestine. As another example, it's shameful that United States is even publicly debating torture, but in Russia torture isn't an abstract debate about "ticking time-bombs": it's something that you _expect_ to happen to you if you're arrested. I remember a neighbour recounting how, when he was found publicly drunk, the police patrol put him on the trunk of the car and struck his liver and kidneys with a truncheon to teach him a "lesson".
United States, Canada and England are blessed, historically. Russia had been occupied by Mongols, ruled by tyrannical czars (who styled themselves after Mongol Khans and Byzantine Emperors), ruled by the worst tyrant known to man (with an intercession of Nazi Germany rule, during which heavy racist propaganda was further imprinted into the popular ethos). You can't expect this backdrop to produce an environment in which the next Google will be built (there's a reason Sergey Brin didn't stay in Russia to build it!).
As far as I know, in 90s mafia had the strongest influence on government's decisions in Russia. Then again, it might have really became the government. I'm too young to remember and moved from the Soviet Union some time ago.
Defiance, or: How to Succeed in Business While Being Targeted by the FBI, the KGB, the Department of Homeland Security, the INS and the Mafia Hit Men
considering that U.S. itself is currently torturing the Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning in prison who exposed the fraud and war crimes of U.S. at the much greater international scale
so that Germany is protesting the inhumane prison conditions of Manning
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42571392/ns/world_news-europe/
leave politics aside would be a good idea ..