Thousands protest against Putin in Russian city

Summary:

In the city of Arkhangelsk, Russia, thousands gathered to protest the high costs of living and demanding to see Prime Minister Vladimir Putin put out of office. The protesters were heard shouting things like: "Down with this useless state power, down with United Russia." The protest was filled with red hammer-and-sickle flags. The protesters were arguing for things like pay raises, lower household bills, and the abolition of transport taxes.

"Putin and Medvedev, along with all deputies and bureaucrats and governors, must be sacked, because they have deprived us of everything, because we cannot afford paying for municipal services," pensioner Nina Kozhukhova told one of the reporters.

Recent local elections have all shown that support for united Russia has declined since the economic crisis.

Correlation:

This article correlates to Comparative Government because it relates to legitimacy, political institutions, as well as citizens, society and the state. The people of Russia obviously seem to be questioning the legitimacy of their government. I think that people protesting the more expensive costs of living shows nostalgia for the Communist era, as many probably miss having government support to cushion their economic problems. This will be an interesting phenomenon to watch, because I think that many people are unsure as to whether or not democracy in Russia will stick. Also interesting in this article is how many people are dissatisfied with United Russia. In pervious presidential elections, United Russia has always won with about 60-70 percent of the vote. If this dissatisfaction continues, power in Russia could very well be transferred to the hands of another party by the next election. This also shows a cleavage between the government and the people, as they are questioning their government't legitimacy. On the other hand, I'm surprised that such a protest didn't end with violent police interference. This shows that Russia is being a lenient towards the public voicing their opinions and a developing civil society. Although protests might not be that 'civil' it is still a group of people gathering together for a common interest!

The U.S. and Russia Battle Mistrust to Finalize Nuclear Arms Agreement

In the recent New York Times article "Twists and Turns on Way to Arms Pact with Russia", published March 26, 2010, Peter Baker reports on the multiple hurdles that the two countries have jumped in order to finally come to an agreement on the long time issue of nuclear arms reduction. Rose Gotemoeller of the United States and Anatoly Antonov of Russia were appointed to head the agreement between the two nations, and although the majority of the agreement was supposed to come from the administration of both states, their respective leaders, Obama and Medvedev, were incredibly focused and involved in the negotiations. At first the two countries simply wanted to extend the original Start I treaty that expired in December, but negotiations proved that they needed to tackle more than just the extension and update of inspections and verifications systems and modest arms reductions. President Obama took a trip to Moscow in July in order to "narrow differences over treaty goals" as American negotiators pushed for a specific numerical limit for arms and Russian negotiators pushed to leave it relatively undefined, eventually compromising by enacting a target range. The Russians also brought up missile defense, wondering how Moscow was expected to cut its arsenal while the U.S. could negate the small nuclear force. Also, the Russians refused an update of the verification system because they viewed it as an agreement made when the country was weak and therefore American inspections were an insult, as well as unnecessary between to friendly countries. In addition to those demands Russia called for a reduction in American missile launchers and refused to the American proposal of required telemetry (the science and technology of automatic measurement and transmission of data by wire, radio, or other means from remote sources, as from space vehicles, to receiving stations for recording and analysis). However, at a meeting concerning climate change in Copenhagen the two leaders met and finally found common ground on all of the above issues, and the Americans left in celebration, but none of the agreement was put down in writing. Later a team of Americans traveled to Moscow and finalized everything, except for the sore subject of missile defense. After one final push in Moscow Russia and the U.S. drafted their statements, but Russia stipulated that it would pull out of the agreement if it deemed American defense missiles to be a threat, and the U.S. clarified that it would continue to build its defense system, but it was not making a target of Russia. The two leaders ended everything with a phone call stating " 'If you want something done right,' Mr. Medvedev began in English, and Mr. Obama finished his thought: 'you do it yourself.'"

This article related to Comparative Government because of the huge foreign relations issue that arose. The agreement increased the legitimacy of both governments, as well as the transparency in the realm of nuclear arms. The breakthrough in foreign policy also serves as a landmark on the road to rebuilding relations between the two major countries.

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Week 7: With Breakdown of Order in Russia’s Dagestan Region, Fear Stalks Police

Summary: The following article, "With Breakdown of Order in Russia’s Dagestan Region, Fear Stalks Police" was written by Ellen Barry and was published on March 20th 2010 in the New York Times. This article is about the recent slayings of police officers in Dagestan, a region in Northern Caucasus. Last year, fifty-eight police officers were,according to the republic’s Interior Ministry, killed while running errands or standing at their posts.Last month alone, according to press reports, 13 officers were killed in bombings and gangland-style shootings.Who were responsible for these killings? The perpetrators were a combination of Islamist militants, alienated young people, ordinary criminals and foot soldiers in private armies. After these people kill the officers they float back into the city, and aren't found by authorities. They are known to Russian authorities as "Persons Unknown."The Police in Dagestan responded to these killings by removing the blue stripe off of police vehicles, requiring officers NOT to wear their uniform, and having an assault rifleman backing up every police officer on duty. The man in the photo above,Mukhtar Mukhtarov, is a retired police officer of 25 years. His son, Gassan, is now a lieutenant. He has received pressure from his family and friends to quit, although refuses too. Gassan has said, “If you had a son, would you let him work as a policeman?” he asked. “I wouldn’t let my own son do it.” These recent set of murders are thought to be the result of a long rocky relationship between Northern Caucasus police officers and the civilians who reside there. Civilians have long thought Police Officers to be brutal and corrupt and prefer to settle disputes between them in an unjust manner. These accusations made by civilians aren't entirely false...there are records of police officers tying suspects down to a chair and beating them whilst interrogating them. This has left behind a residue of rage among the public. Reports of abductions and deaths of civilians are common. They are abducted by a group of masked men who whisk civilians away. As the article reads, "it is hard to say who works for the federal government and who for the police."As Gassan says, “It’s a war,” Gassan said. “It won’t ever end in Dagestan.”

Correlation: This article correlates to what we have been learning in Comparative Government in regards to legitimacy and corruption. Obviously, the Russian relationship between the Police force and the civilians is severely off kilter. There is a sort of 'war' going on between them which is leading to abductions and killings coming from both sides. The police are supposed to be there to protect the civilians. If one can't even trust their own police force/is scared of their own police force, how are they going to feel safe? They won't. This is the result of corruption within Russian Authorities. Secondly, this article correlates with legitimacy. The police are trying to maintain legitimacy by fighting back to the civilians instead of letting them get by free whilst killing police officers. The officers are abducting the civilians in order to try to show who is boss and maintain their legitimacy. Although, the officers don't know who killed who, therefore they are killing random civilians which is a source of the corruption in this system.

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Russia Fumes Over Olympic Teams' Showing

In the wake of Russia's not so ideal performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics, Medvedev has chosen to lash out at the trainers and the trainers have lashed out at their athletes. Medvedev stated that those to blame for the athletes poor performance must take responsibility. The coaches, trying to sway the blame, have placed the fault on the athletes. “Let’s put up a bunch of guillotines and gallows,” said Vyacheslav Bykov, the team’s coach, responding to a reporter’s suggestion last week that the hockey team might not have seriously prepared. “We have 35 people on the hockey team. Let’s go to Red Square and dispatch with them all.” Medvedev is typically known by his people as a more level headed man, but his frustration is most likely related to the fact that Russia is set to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Russia, whose teams have in former years been known to steal the show, only took home three gold medals at the Vancouver games. Russia, on top of their current political and economic problems, now has to channel sizeable funds into the next olympic games, creating a stressful situation for Medvedev, the coaches, the athlets and the people of Russia.

This article says alot about foreign relations in Russia. It is a quite unprofessional for Medvedev and the Russian coaches to behave so rashly at an event that is supposed to bring all the countries of the world together. This is not good for the Russia's reputation with the rest of the world, because I think that other countries would be concerned to interact with a country who responds so ruthlessly when events do not play out in their favor. I think that this would also cause the people of Russia to question their safetly and the government's legitimacy, because the government chose to put so much blame on their people for events that were out of their control.

Russia and France Form a Unique Partnership

On March 1st, 2010 The New York Times published the article "Medvedev Visits France in Bid for Closer Ties" in which Steven Erlanger explains Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's desire to form a special relationship with Europe. Medvedev arrived in France on Monday, March 1st for a three day visit with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that was "intended to enhance the prestige of both men, profit their companies, and remind French voters that Mr. Sarkozy's foreign policy is not beholden to Washington." Sarkozy announced that France had opened negotiations with Russia to sell four "Mistral-class amphibious assault ships" against the strong criticisms from the EU and the U.S. Russia's justification comes from their assertations that if such ships were available to them at the time, the invasion of Georgia would have been much faster. Medvedev called the deal "a symbol of trust between our two countries" and Sarkozy explained that "it was time to turn the page on the Cold War" and that the world can not call upon Russia to assert peace, then say that Russia can not be trusted. During the trip the two also praised a deal struck between France's dominant natural gas company, GDF Suez, and the holder of Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom, in which GDF agreed to buy a 9% stake in the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline in exchange for 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Gazprom.

This article's application comes mainly from the increased foreign relations between France and Russia. France stands as a force in the western world, and its increased interaction with Russia could bring further trust in Russia from other western democracies, or it could alienate France. Russia and France's future actions with each other also hold major implications for the legitimacy of both governments.

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Week 6: Investigator Says Killer of Rights Worker Identified

Summary:The article, "Investigator Says Killer of Rights Worker Identified" was published on February 25th in the New York Times by Ellen Barry. This article closely correlates to the article that I spoke about last week about four civilians being killed in the Chechnya region of Russia. This article is also a human rights violation. Last July, Natalya Estemirova (a human rights worker), was also abducted and murdered in the Chechnya region of Russia. Estemirova was one of the most known and well respected human rights workers in all of Russia. If this is the case, than why did it take the investigative committee of the Southern Federal District prosecutor’s office 7 months to start attempting to find her killer? Simple. Once again Russian authorities are attempting to cover up severe corruption within the Russian's political system. Natalya Estemirova had spent decades documenting kidnappings and killings that she linked to the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, who was appointed by the Kremlin and has used brutal methods to bring separatists under control. Ms. Lokshina, a colleague of Natalya's has suspected that Kadyrov was involved: “There are good grounds to believe that people in high official positions could be involved.” Ms. Lokshina has also said that she and other fellow colleagues have long sensed that investigators know who shot her, but are adamant about identifying the person who ordered the killing. Also, the investigative committee is wary of all evidence due to the fact that "heaps of evidence" at the crime scene were reported destroyed. Currently, nobody has yet to been brought to justice. Most immediately laid blame for Natalya's murder on Mr. Kadyrov. He responded by suing for libel, though this month he withdrew several of those suits.

Correlation: This correlates to what we have learned in comparative government in regards to transparency, legitimacy, and corruption. This article is yet another example of these three concepts directly and inversely related. It seems that Russian Authorities are aware that the Chechen president Ramzan A. Kadyrov is responsible for the killing of Natalya but they continue to dispute it in order to save the government's legitimacy. They aren't being transparent and don't want to expose the truth to the public for fear if they do that the public will stop seeing the government as legitimate. Also, this article correlates strongly to corruption. The fact that a president of a region of Russia is suspected of murdering a civilian is atrocious. The fact that the Russian authorities won't investigate the case deeply nor admit to any faults also signifies corruption within the government. If a country's people can't trust their police force to investigate a case and can't trust their judicial system to press charges how can they possibly feel safe?

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