The State of Affairs in Russia

[Viking]

So Jaron is an African American?

lets not extend the definition of "we" too far.

[Eddie Teach]

Jaron is African-Mexican.

[Syt]

The headline made me chuckle.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19293465

Gay parades banned in Moscow for 100 years

Moscow's top court has upheld a ban on gay pride marches in the Russian capital for the next 100 years.

Earlier Russia's best-known gay rights campaigner, Nikolay Alexeyev, had gone to court hoping to overturn the city council's ban on gay parades.

He had asked for the right to stage such parades for the next 100 years.

He also opposes St Petersburg's ban on spreading "homosexual propaganda". The European Court of Human Rights has told Russia to pay him damages.

On Friday he said he would go back to the European Court in Strasbourg to push for a recognition that Moscow's ban on gay pride marches - past, present and future - was unjust.

The Moscow city government argues that the gay parade would risk causing public disorder and that most Muscovites do not support such an event.

In September, the Council of Europe - the main human rights watchdog in Europe - will examine Russia's response to a previous European Court ruling on the gay rights issue, Russian media report.

In October 2010 the court said Russia had discriminated against Mr Alexeyev on grounds of sexual orientation. It had considered Moscow's ban on gay parades covering the period 2006-2008.

[Neil]

He's going to the ECHR?  Does he think that'll do any good?  Does he think it's possible to use international pressure to get Russia to do anything?

[Maximus]

I've heard that Azeris in particular get called "blackasses." Though the only Azeri I know is really pale.

My impression is that "blackass" was a common term for any of the mostly muslim ethnicities within the former USSR. As such it would include Azeris etc but not Georgians or Armenians.

[Siege]

I wanna be Magneto.

[Solmyr]

I've heard that Azeris in particular get called "blackasses." Though the only Azeri I know is really pale.

My impression is that "blackass" was a common term for any of the mostly muslim ethnicities within the former USSR. As such it would include Azeris etc but not Georgians or Armenians.

Them too. Pretty much anyone non-white and non-Asian can get called that.

[jimmy olsen]

Good. I hope they find some country that will give them asylum. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48793869/ns/world_news/#.UDrqjaBZZlc

Rebel punk band Pussy Riot says two members flee Russia
"They are in a safe place beyond the reach of the Russian police," says rocker's husband

updated 8/26/2012 9:21:08 AM ET

MOSCOW - Two members of Russia's anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot have fled the country to avoid prosecution for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin at a church altar, the band said on Sunday.

A Moscow court sentenced three members of the all-female opposition band to two years in prison on August 17 for staging a "punk prayer" at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February and calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

The sentence drew sharp international criticism of the Russian government, while opposition groups at home have portrayed it as part of a Kremlin clampdown on dissent.

Police said earlier this week they were searching for other members of the band.

"In regard to the pursuit, two of our members have successfully fled the country! They are recruiting foreign feminists to prepare new actions!," a Twitter account called Pussy Riot Group said.

Defence lawyers of the convicted Pussy Riot members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - are expected to appeal against their sentences next week.

Tolokonnikova's husband, Pyotr Verzilov, told Reuters on Sunday that the two members of the group who have fled Russia had taken part in the cathedral protest along with his wife.
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"Since the Moscow police said they are searching for them, they will keep a low profile for now. They are in a safe place beyond the reach of the Russian police," he said by phone.

Asked if that meant a country which had no extradition agreement with Russia, Verzilov said: "Yes, that suggests that."

"But you must remember that 12 or even 14 members who are still in Russia actively participate in the band's work now, it's a big collective," he added.

The Kremlin has dismissed criticism by Western governments and prominent musicians including Madonna and Sting as politically motivated.

Putin, back at the Kremlin since May for his third presidential term, said before the three band members were sentenced that they should not be judged too harshly.

Under Russian law the three Pussy Riot members put on trial could have faced as much as seven years' jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, but the prosecutors asked for three years and they were sentenced to two.

[DGuller]

Well, I stand corrected regarding the Russian race-speak.  I've just read a Youtube thread where a couple of idiots called Aliya Mustafina black filth, because her father is a Tatar and Muslim.  Amusingly enough, others came to her defense by hurling antisemitic epithets toward the two idiots.  Russia is quite an enlightened country.

[Tonitrus]

I am not sure it's a great idea to judge a nation by Youtube comments.  Not that I disagree the conclusion, mind you.

[Queequeg]

Well, I stand corrected regarding the Russian race-speak.  I've just read a Youtube thread where a couple of idiots called Aliya Mustafina black filth, because her father is a Tatar and Muslim.  Amusingly enough, others came to her defense by hurling antisemitic epithets toward the two idiots.  Russia is quite an enlightened country.

Link?

[DGuller]

I am not sure it's a great idea to judge a nation by Youtube comments.  Not that I disagree the conclusion, mind you.

Yeah, good point.  If Russians ever ventured into Yahoo comments sections, they would think that all American are hopelessly retarded.  Well, they would feel it even more strongly.

[citizen k]

Russia's Putin calls for Stalin-style "leap forward"

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Russia needs a "leap forward" to rejuvenate its sprawling defense industry, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, harkening back to the ambitious industrialization carried out by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the run-up to World War Two.
"We should carry out the same powerful, all-embracing leap forward in modernization of the defense industry as the one carried out in the 1930s," Putin told his Security Council, without mentioning Stalin by name.
Stalin, who ruled the Soviet empire with an iron fist for 27 years, is blamed for the death of about six million people but also is praised by many Russians for winning the war and industrializing the country.
Putin made renewed industrialization a priority during his third term in the Kremlin which started in May amid the largest protests of his 12-year rule. He conceded that the defense industry, once the heart of the Soviet economy, was in tatters.
"Unfortunately, many of our enterprises are technologically stuck in the previous century," Putin said, complaining about poor discipline at plants working on state defense orders.
In the 1930s Soviet leaders transformed a rural country devastated by civil war into an industrial superpower, using terror and executions to impose strict discipline at new plants built across the vast country.
Putin's top defense industry official Dmitry Rogozin posted on his Facebook page a copy of a 1940 letter from Stalin to gun factory managers and accompanied it with a sarcastic warning: "Such methods of improving discipline also exist".
Stalin's letter to the managers said: "I give you two or three days to launch mass production of machinegun cartridges... If production does not start on time, the government will take over control of the plant and shoot all the rascals there."
"Of course, it was a joke," Rozogin told reporters regarding his posting but added that failures would not be tolerated.
"Our satellites are falling, our ships are sinking, we had seven space failures in the last 18 months but not a single plant felt the consequences," he said after the council session.
"The culprits should come on stage. The country should know them."
Putin plans to spend $680 billion in the next eight years to modernize the military, with the bulk of the money going to 1,350 defense plants which employ about 2 million Russians. Many defense sector workers backed Putin during the election.
He sees the sector as a new growth driver for the stagnating economy which can help wean Russia off its dependency on energy. He promised to open up the sector to private businesses.
Putin's critics argue that the arms industry is too backward and corrupt to be given such money and point to numerous recent failures and delays such as space satellite crashes or failed test launches of new intercontinental missiles.

[DGuller]

Putin's top defense industry official Dmitry Rogozin posted on his Facebook page a copy of a 1940 letter from Stalin to gun factory managers and accompanied it with a sarcastic warning: "Such methods of improving discipline also exist".
Stalin's letter to the managers said: "I give you two or three days to launch mass production of machinegun cartridges... If production does not start on time, the government will take over control of the plant and shoot all the rascals there."
"Of course, it was a joke," Rozogin told reporters regarding his posting but added that failures would not be tolerated.

Good one.

[Cecil]

And which countries will they be marketing their goods from the newly revitalized armaments industry to?