The State of Affairs in Russia

[KRonn]

That will solve everything. Finally, impartial ratings from a non-political source!

Potemkin village rating agency...   

[Valmy]

the Central Bank of Russia said, adding that its initial capital would be about $52 million.

Million? Not billion?

Well that's just precious.

[Archy]

RUSSIAN BONDS AAA+
ABCHAZIAN BONDS AA+
UUKRANIAN STOCK CCC-

[Admiral Yi]

Several EU governments were suggesting the same thing at the start of PIIGS.

[Syt]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-archives-cast-doubt-on-legends-of-soviet-war-heroes/525353.html

Russian Archives Cast Doubt on Legends of Soviet War Heroes

Russia's state archive service has published a secret memo by Stalin-era prosecutors arguing that legends of heroism attributed to a group of soldiers credited with having heroically halted Nazi tanks headed for Moscow before perishing together on the battlefield were in fact a product of shoddy news reporting.

The 1948 memo, signed by Soviet Chief Military Prosecutor Nikolai Afanasyev and marked "top secret," corroborates a view long held by some of Russia's liberally minded historians and pundits, arguing that the "Panfilovtsy," (Panfilov's men) were nowhere near as heroic as they had been cast in Russian history books.

But its publication on the state archive service's website Wednesday seems to fly in the face of Moscow's recent fervor to dispel any doubts of the Red Army's heroism, and comes shortly after the Russian culture minister praised a soon-to-be-released film glorifying the "Panfilovtsy."

The "28 Panfilovtsy," who fought under Major General Ivan Panfilov, have long been a household name in the country, with scores of films and books having credited them with stopping German tanks during the Battle of Moscow, and praised them as Red Army legends.

According to a long-held official version of the events, the men all died during the battle, and were posthumously decorated as Heroes of the Soviet Union.

But instead, according to the Soviet prosecutor's secret report, at least several of the men survived — including one who was arrested in 1947 on charges of high treason and confessed to having "voluntarily" surrendered to German troops and later joined a German police force.

The more glamorous version of their fight to save Moscow appears to have been invented by reporters for the official military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, who first wrote about the story in late 1941, and then added more heroic details in subsequent dispatches, the prosecutor's memo said.

It was the glamorous version that has taken root and has persisted even after some historians denounced it as inaccurate when the findings of dictator Josef Stalin's investigators were declassified after the Soviet collapse.

At least one of the men still listed among "Panfilov's 28" — Ivan Dobrobabin, also known as Dobrobaba — survived the war and returned to his hometown in Kyrgyzstan to find a monument commemorating him as a dead hero, according to accounts published in Russian press after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When he tried to reclaim his identity as a living member of "Panfilov's 28," he was reportedly arrested for treason and sent to the gulags, while the legend of his heroic death lived on in Soviet films and textbooks.

A similar fate reportedly befell another of the original "Panfilov's 28," Daniil Kozhubergenov, whose name is said to have been removed from the list and replaced with that of another man when he turned out to be alive and tried to demand the military benefits due to a decorated soldier, according to an account by independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Now a Russian studio is working on a film entitled "The 28 Panfilovtsy," which is meant to heap praise on the soldiers. The project is being crowd-funded by Russian netizens, who have raised more than 33 million rubles ($575,000) so far, according to its website.

The film's producer Andrei Shalyopa has denounced the state archives' publication of the memo as undermining the "moral potential" of the nation, the Titr news portal reported.

"This is something that is part of our national self-awareness. These are simple examples that help us raise new generations," he was quoted as saying. "Trying to debunk instances of national heroism can only be done to weaken the people's moral foundation. One can hardly think of a noble motive for that."

Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky earlier this summer praised the planned release of the film, scheduled for this fall, telling the upper chamber of Russia's parliament that the production reflected the country's interest in patriotic films, TASS reported.

He had also praised the planned film during the project's initial stages in late 2013, calling it "very symbolic" and saying it reflected a "healthy society, [where] people are ready to spend their time and money on some of the right things."

According to German FAZ, culture minister Medinsky criticized the publication of the 1948 document: "Those who dig with their dirty and greasy fingers in the history of 1941 should be sent via time machine to the trenches to fight fascist tanks with nothing but a hand grenade. My conviction: this disgusting tarnishing of this topic must stop!"

The dean of a St. Petersburg university is quoted, calling it a "shameful fashion to doubt heroic deeds. We were raised in the spirit of self sacrifice for our home. If someone declares what we believe in to be lies, then we are more than justified to be appalled." He continues that there were way more than 28 deaths, and even of Panfilov's division fought somewhere else entirely, the history of the home country must not be tarnished with such "revelations."

[Valmy]

The dean of a St. Petersburg university is quoted, calling it a "shameful fashion to doubt heroic deeds. We were raised in the spirit of self sacrifice for our home. If someone declares what we believe in to be lies, then we are more than justified to be appalled." He continues that there were way more than 28 deaths, and even of Panfilov's division fought somewhere else entirely, the history of the home country must not be tarnished with such "revelations."

The dean of a university said that? Man Russia really is a special place.

[DGuller]

"Stop celebrating my heroic sacrifice!  I'm alive!"
"Yes, this was a regrettable error, thank you for bringing this to our attention.  Ivan, have this man shot."

[Razgovory]

I remember this battle from Panzer General II.  They all died in that one as well.  Any story that ends with all the heroes dying is immediately suspect, since is left to tell the story?

[DGuller]

I remember this battle from Panzer General II.  They all died in that one as well.  Any story that ends with all the heroes dying is immediately suspect, since is left to tell the story?

Maybe one of those 28 soldiers was noting down every event in his notebook.  Maybe the Nazis were understanding, and waited until everyone else was dead and he finished writing things down.

[garbon]

Makes sense.

[Syt]

The dean of a St. Petersburg university is quoted, calling it a "shameful fashion to doubt heroic deeds. We were raised in the spirit of self sacrifice for our home. If someone declares what we believe in to be lies, then we are more than justified to be appalled." He continues that there were way more than 28 deaths, and even of Panfilov's division fought somewhere else entirely, the history of the home country must not be tarnished with such "revelations."

The dean of a university said that? Man Russia really is a special place.

This is the guy: http://persona.rin.ru/eng/view/f/0/20371/zapesotsky-alexander

[Syt]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/us-national-endowment-for-democracy-becomes-russias-first-undesirable-organization/526374.html

U.S. National Endowment for Democracy Becomes Russia's First 'Undesirable Organization'

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S.-based international organization that exists to promote democracy, was declared an "undesirable organization" Tuesday by Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, meaning all its activities are banned on Russian soil.

"Using the capabilities of Russian commercial and non-commercial organizations under its control, the National Endowment for Democracy participated in work to recognize election results as illegitimate, to organize political action with the goal of influencing government policy, and to discredit Russian army service," the Prosecutor General's Office said in an online statement.

Prosecutors said the NED allocated $5.2 million to Russian organizations in 2013-14 for these purposes, and concluded that it posed a threat "to the constitutional order of Russia, its defense and security."

From now on, all the organization's work in Russia — including with any Russian organizations — will be banned.

The NED has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on raising awareness of corruption and conducting training seminars in Russia on issues such as local activism, women's rights and migrants' rights, according to its website.

The law on undesirable organizations was passed by the government in May in a move that was seen as signaling its growing fear of a foreign-inspired revolution. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. funds civil society organizations in countries around the world with the aim of destabilizing their ruling governments.

Earlier this month, senators of the Federation Council — the upper chamber of the Russian parliament — proposed a list of 12 foreign NGOs whose work they said posed a threat to national security and who should therefore be declared undesirable. The NED was one of them.

[garbon]

Ok?

[Eddie Teach]

Ok?

If you aren't interested in hearing about how Russia is becoming increasingly Orwellian, this is the wrong thread.

[garbon]

No, I just meant like 'Who cares, Russia?' Hardly a vital organization and/or one that we would be surprised that Russia might be annoyed with.