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RedditOn Monday, President Obama heads to Moscow for two days of talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He also plans to meet with Russian opposition leaders and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and deliver what White House officials are billing as his third major foreign policy address--after his April arms control speech in Prague and his address in Cairo to the Muslim World. And today the White House confirmed that Obama will give an interview to Russia's leading opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
This is very good news.
In April, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev gave his very first print interview to Novaya and its courageous editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov. The view inside Russia at the time was that Medvedev's interview gave the paper protection at a time when the economic and human rights situation in Russia is, at best, unstable.
Indeed, the Kremlin's tightening grip on the media, especially national and local television, and authorities' harassment of opposition parties, has led Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky to draw a parallel between Putin's Russia and Soviet Russia. "Russia stands on the threshold of the restoration of Soviet-style single-party rule."
President Obama's interview to Novaya signals support for the paper and for the importance of independent media in Russia.
As someone who's been close to Novaya over the years, I'm pleased to learn that "Dima" Muratov and his colleagues's tenacious efforts to get an interview with Obama were rewarded. When my husband Stephen Cohen and I were in Moscow in March, we spent considerable time talking to Muratov about such a possibility--and the substance of the interview.
For those who want to know more about this remarkable paper and its editor, it is worth reading Muratov's powerful remarks when he was in New York in November 2007 to receive the Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Award. I had the honor and personal pleasure of presenting the award to him. My husband Steve and I first met Muratov--a tenacious and brave editor-- in 1993. He and a few other colleagues had gathered in the basement cafeteria of Moscow News--then a bold paper of the glasnost era--to plan the launch of Novaya Gazeta. Survival of a different kind was on their minds at that time; they were beginning the paper with two computers, one printer, two rooms and no money for salaries!
An initial boost of financial support came from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who contributed part of his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize Award to pay for more computers and salaries. By 1996, Novaya's circulation had risen to 70,000 from its initial run of 10,000; today it's national circulation is close to 600,000 and 100,000 visit its website every week.
I knew in 1993 that "Dima" was a bold and creative editor. What I did not foresee was that he would become one of the last defenders of press freedom in Russia. The newspaper, which continues to publish against great odds, has paid a heavy price for its crusading investigations into high-level corruption, human rights violations, brutality in Chechnya and abuses of power. Three of its most courageous reporters --Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin and Anna Politkovskaya--have been murdered for their unflinching investigations
One by one, newspapers and television networks have yielded to Kremlin pressure and surrendered their independence. Nonetheless, as Russia has descended from the media freedoms of Gorbachev's "glasnost" to today's conformity and compliance, Dmitry Muratov and Novaya Gazeta's reporters and editors have continued --despite the financial, political, physical threats and pressures---to remain independent and publish.
In his remarks at the Committee to Protect Journalists' dinner in NY in 2007, Muratov spoke powerfully, and personally, of his fight for press freedom--and for justice on behalf of his slain colleagues.
Let all who care about a free press and a democratic society work to ensure that Novaya Gazeta survive and thrive as an independent, oppositionist force--and that the journalists' killers be brought to justice.
Here are his remarks:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Esteemed Colleagues,
Igor Domnikov was murdered for investigating corruption. Yuri Shchekochikhin, my best friend, deputy, and a nationally famous journalist was murdered. Anna Politkovskaya was murdered. Three of the most important people in my life. And it's me who gets to stand here in a tuxedo and receive an award. It's not normal. I feel no joy. I never will.
If she were alive, Politkovskaya would have had some of her favorite red wine with me. With Domnikov and Shchekochikhin--I would have had lots of vodka. And we would've been happy. But now we cannot be. And I won't ever be.
So why do this? Why continue to publish a paper that endangers people's lives?
Because our million readers share the values of democracy. Real democracy-- not its imitation. This is not fashionable in Russia today. This could damage one's career and reputation. Because today there is only one official god -- the State and its interests. As opposed to society and individual rights.
The state, alas, became a corporate business--the business of special security forces.
And that business--like special security forces--needs silence, not press freedom.
On November 9, one of our regional editions was shut down - Novaya Gazeta in Samara. The pretext: police found unlicensed Microsoft software in its computers during a search.
The paper is no longer. All of its documents and equipment were seized ahead of parliamentary elections, now just two weeks away.
Our paper is denied advertising for political reasons. American companies and institutions are allowed to advertise in other Russian papers, not us. I call on advertisers to work directly with Novaya Gazeta.
Support us and our smart, highly intelligent, thinking readership. My paper needs your support.
On the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's death we turned on her cell phone. There were thousands of calls on the phone. The readers appealed to us to continue her work; to not be silent.
We will not be silent.
But we can allow ourselves a moment of silence for our murdered journalists. I am asking you to honor them right now.
[A moment of silence]
A granddaughter was born to Anna Politkovskaya this year. Her name is Anna Victoria. Life goes on.
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Katrina vanden Heuvel
Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not--but should be.
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obama is good at walking tightropes.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/02/2009 @ 2:01pm
Obama is driving the cons crazy and crazier. that is how I know that he's doing a good job.
he seldom goes directly at them. he holds back on his reactions. and he rarely settles for slogans and sound bites.
I am proud of my president.
Posted by emile duBois at 07/02/2009 @ 2:08pm
obama is good at walking tightropes.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/02/2009 @ 2:01pm
And he needs to get better and better....as more and more hungry UNemployed are circling, jumping, grasping for his skinny hide from below....LOL!
AhmaDineInYourJeans getting on the same tightrope from one end trying to shake Magic off the rop......Kim Jung Il getting on from the opposite end shooting bottle rockets towards his Hawaiian toes.....
The Boy has got problems but yes, he "is good at walking tightropes!"
Posted by Happy at 07/02/2009 @ 2:58pm
Obama certainly puts the left on edge. Perhaps they thought that upon the removal of Bush their own agenda would be on the table, but the President has shown a marked realization that the left's agenda is no more appealing, and makes no more sense, than that of the right.
Unlike most of the current leadership nowadays, this guy actually thinks for himself.
Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 07/02/2009 @ 3:02pm
The Boy has got problems but yes, he "is good at walking tightropes!"
Posted by Happy at 07/02/2009 @ 2:58pm
Yeah, but, if you really know your markets, you should be cleaning up in the midst of the chaos.
Why the concern, then, about his "problems"?
Posted by schnellerheinz at 07/02/2009 @ 4:02pm
Why the concern, then, about his "problems"?
Posted by schnellerheinz at 07/02/2009 @ 4:02pm
Did I express "concern"? You're projecting!
Posted by Happy at 07/02/2009 @ 4:33pm
gotta lean Ilya's way on this one. BTW, I appreciate that Stephen Cohen isn't apparently a raving Russophobe, but has he called for a two-state on the way to one-state solution, (secular with right-of-return for all Palestinians,) as has Norm Finklestein, Chomsky?
Posted by zionopp at 07/02/2009 @ 5:04pm
I love how happy only speaks about Obama in racist terms. Magic Negro, Boy. It's quite revealing.
Posted by Cccomfo1 at 07/02/2009 @ 5:08pm
One step closer to One World Order.
Sweet, sweet socialism for all!
Posted by winyahn at 07/02/2009 @ 8:55pm
Sweet, sweet socialism for all!
Posted by winyahn at 07/02/2009 @ 8:55pm
As opposed to socialism for the rich, which we've always had.
Posted by Shingo at 07/02/2009 @ 9:39pm
Only the rich are fully human.
Posted by winyahn at 07/02/2009 @ 10:04pm
We would do well to pay attention to the state of our domestic media. Our standards have been dropping precipitously. All of our major outlets, print and electronic, reflect the views of their corporate owners. Anyone who wishes to be informed has to make a real effort by looking elsewhere. Which leaves most of America unknowingly uninformed. Pretty much as intended.
Posted by thepeoplechoose at 07/03/2009 @ 08:38am
'"Independent"??? WOW, you have some fucking nerve, Katrina.'
Yes, "IlyaKuryakin," independent. That doesn't mean that the NOVAYA GAZETA doesn't have an opinion. Nor does it mean that it funds itself by money drawn from thin air. It's about as independent as a newspaper can be that has lost three journalists to murder.
Your view of the world is simplistic and offensive. I am tempted to "ignore" you.
Posted by JakobFabian at 07/03/2009 @ 09:40am
Posted by schnellerheinz at 07/02/2009 @ 4:02pm | ignore this person | warn this person
obama's biggest problem by far is the helluvamess into which the neocon satano-aynrando policies of the last 30+ years have gotten us.
for any neocon apologist to harp on the shortcomings of mr. obama smacks of hypocrisy and blind partisanship to say the least.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 11:12am
obama's biggest problem by far is the helluvamess into which the neocon satano-aynrando policies of the last 30+ years have gotten us.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 11:12am
Say I accept the above statement....a "helluvamess" he campaigned on to resolve.
The inescapable conclusion so far, is his solutions, now in the execution stages, aren't working. Isn't it amazing so many on the Right, not TO toot my own horn (too loudly), have proven EXACTLY right? The Pork Bill was and remains, an $800 Billion albatross?
IMHO, its passage put many decision-makers on notice, that recklessness have arrived.....Hopey and Changey of the smelly types rule! That stops investments and new risk undertakings.
By Rasmussen's poll a day or two ago, there are still 42% of the people who APPROVE of Magic's handling of the economy......guess that means these folks want the UNemployment to keep going up and hours worked by the employed, to keep sinking below 45-year lows!
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 12:04pm
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 12:04pm | ignore this person | warn this person
yes, HAP, the marching morons MAY buy into the charge that 6 months of obama policy SHOULD be putting us back on track after two to three decades of runaway train satano-aynrando irresponsibility...
6 months to reverse the creeping damage to the very foundation of our prosperity that now results in a rapidly collapsing structure.
6 months to reverse 2 to 3 decades of outsourcing manufacturing and service jobs to wage slave labor powers, letting the fox watch over our economic/financial hen house...
6 months to retract our military from a disastrous and unneeded military adventure that contributes mightily to the continued bankrupting of our once great nation...
6 months to fix a bubble/ponzi economy duct taped up at least twice over the last two decades for the purpose of grasshopperesque political expediency, rather than facing the truth and taking meaningful steps to ensure SUSTAINABLE economic growth under sane policy...
6 months to reverse three decades of selling our nation down the oily stream of limited and filthy energy reserves in foriegn lands when if we had followed the initiatives of that stupid ol' p-nut farmer rather than the quick profit grasshopper policies of those who deny science in favor of self serving ideology...
the hole we find ourselves in is deep and rather than continue to dig, as your ideology demands, we must make some changes.
the irresponsible social/economic experiment in anarcho-libertarian fantasy has concluded and the results are more obvious every day.
will obama survive? who knows? will the american people revert to the pridefully and willfully ignorant state of being that enabled this experiment to continue for so long?
we shall see!!!
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 12:38pm
we shall see!!!
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 12:38pm
What I `see', is that you're prepared to go down with USS Obama! Wonder where that `bottom' will be? The last 20 percenters......LOL?
What is happening, is as clear as day, of how valid supply-side, trickle-down economics is. Those w/more money than needed for bare essentials, have gone partially Galt!
Case in point: A few weeks ago, I gave up on one of my small start-up companies.....I bailed before it goes down, for good, with your USS Obama. I didn't want to participate on its next equity-diluting stock offerings....this is a direct reflection of my outlook on Obamanomics!
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 1:02pm
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 1:02pm | ignore this person | warn this person
your fantasy that this mess we are in is naught more than the last couple we duct taped ourselves "out of" is telling.
the damage to our economy and system of absurd expectations is far more profound than a simple economic downturn. it is indicative of serious problems that cannot be patched up by ANY quicky fix...
nothing wrong with supply side economics as long as the demand side is not ignored...supply AND demand, remember?
the problem you guys face is this...
IF obama "fails" (to perform miracles?) - and you guys SHOULD really hope he succeeds - AND somehow you guys get back in power and things continue to wallow along or get worse...
it may be too late to turn it around and eventually many of those who do NOT have the disposable wealth to play the investment game MAY begin flailing about violently and then the downward spiral will intensify indeed...
the big variable here is the average american. has he/she realized a few truths or not?
you on the supply side can disparage the demand side all you want, but without those who spend disposable income to purchase products and services made available by the investment class, what happens to the investment class?
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 1:16pm
but without those who spend disposable income to purchase products and services made available by the investment class, what happens to the investment class?
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 1:16pm | ignore this person | warn this person
it seems to me that a significant portion of the investment class, supported by a shrinking legion of dupes and pathetic lapdog wannabe's (as always), cares for nobody and nothing beyond their own narrowly defined personal and class interests.
those who do not share their vision, countrymen or not, are enemies to be crushed.
the irony...these enemies who have been slowly crushed over the last three decades are the same who enable the wealth of the investment class to accumulate by purchasing the products and services made available by the investment class...
and receive in return naught but elitist scorn and loathing in return. on the contrary, these ridiculed masses are expected to thank the investment class and worship them for "providing" the opportunity to EARN THE DISPOSABLE INCOME REQUIRED TO ENRICH THE "PROVIDERS"!
movements are underway among the formally and informally educated that are in their infancy now which will challenge the corrupt, foolish, wickedness of the corruption of capitalism under which we have suffered and strongarmed others to endure.
let us get about the work that will bring about this new reality.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 1:52pm
....but without those who spend disposable income to purchase products and services made available by the investment class, what happens to the investment class?
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 1:16pm
Problem you have, and most of your like, is you tend towards the provincial......
The US is much more than just the takers that you sympathize with, and the world is much bigger than the US. The US developed via selling resources to developed Europe and sucking in investments from same.
I have ten times the amount of money invested overseas than I did 10 years ago....if my country refuses to embrace Econ. growth above all else, there are many others who are eager....any my capital stands ready......along with my person, if this society turns its back entirely on what founded us and made us Numero Uno.
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 2:17pm
it seems to me that a significant portion of the investment class, supported by a shrinking legion of dupes and pathetic lapdog wannabe's (as always), cares for nobody and nothing beyond their own narrowly defined personal and class interests.
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 1:52pm
Another total fallacy!
I can't make money in the US with an impoverished population; except through unsavory means.....the model of Africa and most aid-dependent Third-World countries.
How do you give all our citizens a ladder that goes upward? Economic policies that encourages growth...that means, the reality that many of you denies, like Frosty, PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION!
Right now, Your Messiah is building a nice, wealth-spreading ladder downward.....standard fare for all past societies that went down the same path.
You would be proud, 20 years from now, to tell your fellow citizens..."Hey, the earth temperatures have been `saved' from being 0.5C warmer, and stop bitching about lack of upward mobility and no production jobs left in the US!"
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 2:25pm
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 2:25pm | ignore this person | warn this person
hell, i wondered twenty years ago just how long we could continue "growing" when we increasingly outsourced wealth producing industries yet were expected to keep consuming the products and service provided by others...
who often indeed did so with the help of native investment classes who were tickled to death at not having to pay high wages and salaries to stupid, ingrate americans...
yet somehow expected these ingrates and schlobs to keep buying and thereby enriching...them!!!
now if the terminally selfish had deigned to invest some of their rapidly accumulating semi-real wealth into bad ol' social welfare programs that made life a little easier for the consumer (rather than kneejerkingly slandering any such alternative as "socialism") and made the populace healthier, more secure, and better educated...
perhaps the semi-real nature of their self payed bonuses and wealth would have become REAL...based upon a sustainable economic model that was based upon certain understanding like the fact that the kind of economic growth we experienced in the post ww2 was in fact UNNATURAL and any attempts to live up to such was doomed to result in the opposite...
look - there are plenty of places left around the world where your ideas are perfectly in vogue with those who control everything. they are by and large some of the poorest and most backward places on the planet, but their traditions of class warfare and amazingly unjust wealth distribution are strong and established.
perhaps you should move there, where the masses are so impoverished they cannot fight back (legally).
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 2:40pm
From Forbes......I don't buy into his conclusion 100%, but a good article summing what's coming up on Magic's plate concerning trade w/China:
======================
New Asia
The Coming Trade War With China
Gordon G. Chang, 07.03.09, 12:01 AM EDT
More commercial disputes as economies disengage.
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 2:51pm
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 2:51pm | ignore this person | warn this person
post a link, HAP...
well its been a great little exchange as always. must go live my life and partake in life sustaining activities...
talk later?
you ARE tom tancredo, are you not? LOL ;)
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 2:58pm
perhaps you should move there, where the masses are so impoverished they cannot fight back (legally).
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 2:40pm
Perhaps you should move to California, where CalWorks is the perfect program dreamed up by Liberals!
Read what the Governator said about waste in Cali's spending....72% of recipients are frauds!
I say it again, and again, and again....why are there so many educated people who think the Gubbers can run any type of welfare (and CalWorks is certainly one) program tightly? There is ZERO incentives for the Gubber workers to look out for public money!
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 3:00pm
post a link, HAP...
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 2:58pm
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/02/trade-
war-china-geithner-opinions-columnists-
wto-renminbi.html
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 3:02pm
Posted by Happy at 07/03/2009 @ 3:00pm | ignore this person | warn this person
later. link the article above. i'm interested, but gotta go...
LATER!
Posted by ibbleblibble at 07/03/2009 @ 3:03pm
So Katrina vanden Heuvel is the wife of Stephen Cohen, a historian for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration. This is interesting. I think however that Americans and especially Obama should restrain their instincts to lecture other people, and especially Russians, about "democracy". Perhaps Obama should have a long chat with Professor Cohen about Russian/Soviet-American relations. But before that he should have a talk with his spouse.
Let's take the example of Obama's comment about Putin having one foot in the cold war. This remark takes the prize for insensitive, hypocritical stupidity. When Putin came to power in Russia, he was favourable to improved relations with the US, which reciprocated by moving NATO up to Russian frontiers, meddling in the Ukraine and Georgia, planning to build a missile defence system in eastern Europe and so on. The US War Department worked for the disintegration of the USSR and reveled when it happened. The Pentagon sought/seeks to keep Russia down except as a compliant state respecting American hegemony. So if Obama goes to Moscow to lecture Russia about American style democracy, he will not have great success. As informed people know, and not least informed Russians, the American government often accuses adversaries of its own belligerence, especially when those powers defend themselves against it, Russia being a case in point.
Posted by mikhailovich at 07/05/2009 @ 09:28am
Can he stay there and play with the Communist pigs that have taken over our businesses? Obama is so full of bullshit. I hate to say this, but Nader was very close to reality when he said that the Democrats and Republicans are very much alike. I believe the Democrats have become weak and cowardly, which brings them over to the evil, business first way of thinking.
Posted by Tiger2Lover at 07/06/2009 @ 02:58am
There is not a nickel's worth of difference...
Posted by IlyaKuryakin at 07/06/2009 @ 05:51am
Are you Frank Grits II? Same garbage. His hypocrisy and bitterness was exposed long ago.
For example, jump in and explain how ending slavery and Jim Crow and women's suffrage had NOTHING to do with politicians in Washington.
Identify a solution to a specific social or political problem like healthcare, gun violence, teenage pregnancy or the Middle East, involving real names and proposals that has NOTHING to do with politicians in Washington.
Posted by winyahn at 07/06/2009 @ 9:45pm