Tag Archives | Russia

Pussy Riot’s Closing Statement Denounces ‘Totalitarian System’

By on August 11, 2012 in News 19

The eloquent and defiant closing statement from band member Yekaterina Samutsevich in the Pussy Riot trial explains the meaning (which Americans might not have understood) behind the punk band’s acts of art. Via chtodelat, translated:

I now have mixed feelings about this trial. On the one hand, we now expect a guilty verdict. Compared to the judicial machine, we are nobodies, and we have lost. On the other hand, we have won. Now the whole world sees that the criminal case against us has been fabricated. The system cannot conceal the repressive nature of this trial.

During the closing statement, the defendant is expected to repent or express regret for her deeds, or to enumerate attenuating circumstances. In my case, as in the case of my colleagues in the group, this is completely unnecessary.

The fact that Christ the Savior Cathedral had become a significant symbol in the political strategy of our powers that be was already clear to many thinking people when Vladimir Putin’s former [KGB] colleague Kirill Gundyaev took over as head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Dozens Of Children Freed From Subterranean Islamic Cult In Russia

By on August 10, 2012 in News 2

Led by a delirious, bedridden, elderly self-described prophet, the so-called “catacomb sect” was attempting to establish an underground kingdom. Via the BBC, a likely preview of how we will all be living in twenty years:

Four members of a breakaway Muslim sect in Russia’s Tatarstan region have been charged with cruelty against children for allegedly keeping them underground.

Police discovered 27 children and 38 adults living in catacomb-like cells in an eight-level underground bunker. The sect was uncovered last week in a suburb of the city of Kazan during an investigation into recent attacks on Muslim clerics in Tatarstan, a mainly Muslim region on the River Volga. Prosecutors said some of the children had lived there for more than a decade.

The sect’s elderly leader, Faizrakhman Sattarov, who had declared himself a Muslim prophet, had reportedly wanted to build his own Islamic caliphate beneath the ground. He and his followers began to shun the outside world in the early part of this century.

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Russian Spy Ring In The United States Was Grooming Children To Be Spies

By on July 31, 2012 in News 1

Regarding the next generation of spy kids, the Wall Street Journal writes:

A Russian spy ring busted in the U.S. two years ago planned to recruit members’ children to become agents, and one had already agreed to his parents’ request, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The effort to bring children into the family business suggests the ring was thinking long term: Children born or reared in America were potentially more valuable espionage assets than their parents because when they grew up they would be more likely to pass a U.S. government background check.

Tim Foley was among the children most extensively groomed for a future spy career, officials say. Though he wasn’t American-born, his parents lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, under the assumed names Donald Heathfield and Tracey Foley. Mr. Foley was 20 when his parents were arrested and had just finished his sophomore year at George Washington University in the nation’s capital.

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Russia Is Stockpiling Drones To Spy On Populace

By on July 26, 2012 in News 5

“The secrets of our private lives have become a thing of the past,” says an executive at the leading drone-making company. Wired writes:

Russia’s infatuation with drone technology to monitor and spy popular protests is the Kremlin’s latest attempt to clamp down on civil unrest, both on the streets and online.

Russia is going to allegedly spend around $13 billion on unmanned aerial vehicles through 2020… Small drones are perfect to monitor dissatisfied Russians marching down the streets. “They will be used mainly to maintain public order during local demonstrations and marches, when we shall be keeping watch from the air to avoid any incidents,” said Sergei Kanunnikov, the head of the air operation center in the Department of the Interior of the eastern state of Amur.

Drones will also be deployed at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, a Russian city on the Black Sea. And Sochi won’t be the first Olympic city to secure its skies with robots; London will do the same starting this weekend.

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Horror in Russia: Fisherman Discovers Hundreds of Mummified Fetuses

By on July 24, 2012 in News 9

According to Russia Times, a Russian fisherman near the Ural mountains made a gruesome discovery while hiking in search of firewood: hundreds of canisters containing human fetuses. The 50 milliliter canisters and their horrific contents were abandoned on the outskirts of the small town of Nevyansk. Authorities there denied that the fetuses originated in their town, claiming that Nevyansk is too small to have produced this many abortions and miscarriages.

The canisters were later tracked to three hospitals in the area, but the mystery doesn’t end there: the containers were filled with formalin and labeled with identifying information regarding the mothers, both completely out of accordance with Russian medical policies. Even stranger? This gruesome cargo has apparently been in storage for ten years…

Read More at Russia Times.

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Jailed Russian Punk-Rockers ‘Pussy Riot’ Begin Hunger Strike

By on July 10, 2012 in News 15

Игорь Мухин (CC)

Via Common Dreams:

Three members of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk-rock band, began a hunger strike Wednesday after a Moscow court suddenly told them they must prepare their defense for trial by Monday.

Maria Alyokhina, Yakaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were taken into custody in March, after the group’s February performance of “Virgin Mary Put Putin Away,” an anti-Putin song, inside the Russian Orthodox Church’s main cathedral, asking the Virgin Mary to chase President Vladimir Putin out of power.

The three women were arrested over four months ago and have been held without bail on charges of criminal hooliganism  — which carry a possible seven-year prison sentence. Two other female members of the band have avoided arrest thus far.

“I announce a hunger strike because it is unlawful,” said Tolokonnikova, wearing a T-shirt with the famous slogan of the Spanish Civil War, “No pasaran!” (“They shall not pass”), emblazoned across it.

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This Time, A Mysterious “UFO” Spiral Is A Spaceship

By on June 12, 2012 in News 4

Writes Discover’s Bad Astronomy:

Last week, over the Middle East, people were shocked to see a bright fan of light moving across the sky, which suddenly turned into a gigantic glowing spiral! This is not just some uncorroborated eyewitness story; there’s video.

Pretty cool, huh? People are claiming it’s a spaceship… and they’re right. But it’s not an alien spaceship. It’s from Russia.

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Russian Millionaire Hurls Money Paper Planes From Office Window, Starts Riot

By on June 4, 2012 in News 14

Midday summer sport for the 1 percent? Gawker writes:

Pavel Durov, founder of the popular Russian Facebook-alike VKontakte, took a bread-and-circuses approach to generosity over the weekend, spending time with VK’s vice president tossing paper airplanes made of money out of the company’s St. Petersburg offices.

A crowd soon formed outside the building, eager to catch every 5,000-rouble ($160) bill. As tends to happen in these situations, the scene quickly devolved into an all-out brawl. “People turned into dogs as they were literally attacking the notes,” said one eyewitness. “They broke each other’s noses, climbed the traffic lights with their prey – just like monkeys.”

For his part, the 27-year-old, whose net worth is valued at some $260 million, appeared to be enjoying the commotion, reportedly “laughing and filming” as people trampled over each other in desperation. He later claimed he was simply hoping to create “a festive atmosphere,” and stopped as soon as “people turned into animals.”

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Pussy Riot Facing Long Prison Sentences For Performance At Cathedral

By on June 4, 2012 in News 9

Can anyone save the world’s boldest feminist punk rockers, now that they have been unmasked and thrown in Russian jail? Is this the last stand for politically-subversive pop music? The Art Newspaper writes:

The lawyer for three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, who are currently awaiting trial for an allegedly blasphemous protest in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral shortly before the election that saw Vladimir Putin returned for a third term as Russian president, says only appeals from Western celebrities and high-profile cultural figures can save them from further criminal charges and long jail sentences.

The performance infuriated the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill I, and other top church officials, who were criticised in the “punk prayer” performance which also asked the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin.

“The authorities must now, in essence, falsify the charges,” says Nikolai Polozov. “It’s very hard for them to back down.

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Russia Wants To Build A Permanent Moon Base

By on May 27, 2012 in News 4

RoscosmosReports Aviation Week:

Mankind’s next objective in space exploration should be the establishment of a permanent international base on the Moon, in the “professional opinion” of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, instead of the near-Earth object (NEO) visit that is the stated goal of U.S. space policy.

Vladimir Popovkin, the Roscosmos head, told the Global Exploration Conference in Washington May 22 that the next big international exploration effort should build on the past 40-plus years of lunar exploration, and not repeat the sortie missions of the Apollo era.

“It’s a new Moon,” Popovkin said of his agency’s concept during a panel appearance with other space agency chiefs. A long-term permanent base could take advantage of the water-ice at the lunar poles, continue exploring the lunar surface, and prepare for the next leap into the Solar System, he says.

The concept, which is roughly the same one NASA pursued under President George W.

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