The 5 Biggest Events That Shaped Putin's 2013
Looking back at the main events that shaped Russia over
the past 12 months, it is clear that 2013 will go down in history as
President Vladimir Putin's "anti-year."
It was in 2013 that the powers that be not only
embraced anti-smoking and anti-alcohol policies, but they also showed that
they are anti-gay, anti-children, anti-chocolate and even anti-Halloween.
Perhaps new efforts by Putin to spread anti-American
sentiment was predictable, but his decision to portray Russia as anti-Big
Brother by granting asylum to U.S. intelligence leaker Edward
Snowden took many by surprise — including Putin himself, who told
reporters in Finland in late June that Russia was "completely
surprised" by Snowden's trip to Moscow. How, then, does Putin
explain reports that Snowden spent several days in the Russian consulate
in Hong Kong just before he flew to Moscow?
Furthermore, Putin's credentials in a nationwide anti-corruption
drive took a hit last week when he pardoned former Yukos chief Mikhail
Khodorkovsky. His arrest in 2003 and 10-year combined jail terms have
been widely interpreted as the Kremlin's punishment for the
businessman's political ambitions aimed at Putin.
As it turns out, you can be as corrupt as you want if you
are a friend of Putin, but if you are his enemy you get
the "a-thief-must-sit-in-jail" treatment — at least
until Putin needs to improve his image before the Sochi Olympics.
In any event, Putin's selectively ruthless legal assault
on Khodorkovsky brought new meaning to the expression attributed
to Spanish dictator Francisco Franco: "My friends get everything,
while my enemies get the law."
Here's a look at the top five political events of 2013
and how they shaped Russia.
1. The year of the ban.
Russia set a record for the number of bans
this year. A ban on smoking in public places, enacted
in June, was long-needed. But few actually believe that this law will
make it any easier for nonsmokers to breathe as they walk down
a crowded street or sit on a park bench. After all, smokers make
up 40 percent of the population, and finding creative ways
to skirt the law is a centuries-old Russian tradition, many
would argue - particularly when it involves a highly addictive habit.
Nonetheless, there is still hope that a ban
on heavy-duty trucks entering the Moscow Ring Road from 6 a.m.
to 10 p.m., enacted in April, will help clear the air
a bit. And to help clear the streets of intoxicated
pedestrians and drivers, Russia enacted another ban: on alcohol
sales in stores and kiosks after 11 p.m.
Chief sanitary inspector Gennady Onishchenko also had
a record year for bans.
First, he banned chocolate imports from the Ukrainian
company Roshen in July and Moldovan wine in September.
The real reason, of course, had nothing to do with sanitation
and everything to do with bullying Kiev and Chisinau
into walking away from partnership agreements with the European
Union.
Then in early October, he banned Lithuanian dairy
products. The measure was to punish Vilnius, the host
of the EU summit in late November, for pushing Ukraine, Moldova,
Georgia and Armenia to sign the partnership agreements.
In late October, Onishchenko himself was
"banned" when Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev did not renew his
contract as head of the agency, purportedly because of his excessive
banning zeal.
Also this year, Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir
Zhirinovsky tried to ban foreign words, while one of the
party's deputies, Mikhail Degtyaryov, tried to ban the U.S. dollar.
But not all was lost in this category of absurd bans: The Omsk
region succeeded in banning Halloween celebrations in local public
schools.
2. Anti-American campaign against U.S. adoptions.
This ban deserves its own listing. The adoption ban, which
the Kremlin said was needed to protect Russian children from "abusive U.S.
parents," was imposed shortly after U.S. President Barack Obama signed
the Magnitsky Act, which punishes Russian officials implicated in human rights
violations. But instead of a tit-for-tat — for example, the U.S. imposing
sanctions on 18 Russian officials with Russia responding by targeting 18 U.S.
officials — Russia adopted a blatantly asymmetric measure that punished
thousands of U.S. parents who had never committed a crime against children.
These parents badly wanted to adopt Russian children, who badly wanted to
escape the grim, often abusive, life in Russian orphanages.
In reality, less than 0.2 percent of U.S. parents
who have adopted Russian children over the past 20 years were charged with
child abuse. What's more, contrary to what the Kremlin's propaganda
machine has claimed, the overwhelming majority of parents
who were found guilty of child abuse received significant jail terms.
The other 60,000 or so law-abiding U.S. parents provided loving, caring
homes to Russian children, including many with disabilities.
Russia's flat ban on U.S. adoptions deserves
the "Most Cynical Political Revenge Award" of the year.
The Kremlin had two main political goals in passing the ban. One
was to incite anti-Americanism among President Vladimir Putin's core
electorate by trying to characterize the majority of U.S.
parents as pedophiles, psychopaths and sadistic child abusers.
Second, by presenting the U.S. adoption ban as
"protecting the rights of Russian children,"
the Kremlin tried to deflect attention away from the fact that
the only thing it was really protecting was the group
of 60 government officials linked to the 2009 prison death
of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky and the related $240
million embezzlement scheme that Magnitsky exposed. Incidentally, not one
of those 60 suspects has been tried in court.
Thus, for the sake of a cover-up and scoring
cheap political points as part of its broader anti-American campaign,
the Kremlin was willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands
of Russian orphans.
3. Edward Snowden.
The Kremlin thought it scored a major victory by giving
Snowden temporary asylum on Aug. 1. It endlessly praised Snowden as a
"U.S. dissident" and "hero of democracy," while also
painting itself as a supporter of privacy rights. But the absurdity and hypocrisy
of the Kremlin's stance was clear to nearly everyone, including Putin's most
ardent supporters, who know that the Federal Security Service is one of the
worst global violators of citizens' privacy rights.
Almost as if to underscore the Kremlin's own hypocrisy, in
late October the Communications and Press Ministry released a government order
that will allow the FSB direct access to the content of Russians' telephone
calls, e-mails, instant messages and other Internet communications without a
court order. Internet providers will be forced to install equipment on their
servers that will provide a direct link to the FSB.
Snowden, meanwhile, received the Sam Adams Award
on Oct. 10 for his "integrity in intelligence"
at an undisclosed location near Moscow, and he has accepted
a website job at an undisclosed Russian company.
In December, he announced his mission as
a whistleblower was accomplished, despite conveniently ignoring Russia's
surveillance abuses.
Putin put a nice cap on the Snowden affair by saying
at his expanded annual news conference on Dec. 19 that he is envious
of Barack Obama for being able to spy on anyone he wants
and getting away with it. Kudos to Putin at least for his
honest admission on this count.
Snowden, however, wasn't the only whistleblower
to make news in Russia in 2013. The country's own top
whistleblower, Alexei Navalny, was found guilty of embezzlement
and given a suspended five-year sentence this summer in a
politically driven trial. He then got his a revenge of sorts
in September, winning an impressive 27 percent of the vote
in the Moscow mayoral race. Russia's other most prominent whistleblower,
the late Sergei Magnitsky, was found guilty of tax evasion
in July in an outrageous and shameful posthumous trial that made
even Josef Stalin's show trials look tame in comparison.
4. The state-sponsored anti-gay campaign.
The Kremlin's propaganda machine went out in full force this
year to convince Russians that the greatest threat to Russia — along with the
U.S. and NATO — are homosexuals.
Leading the homophobia campaign throughout
the year were Dmitry Kiselyov and Arkady Mamontov, news
and talk show hosts on Rossia 1 state television, and a series
of pseudo-documentaries on other state-controlled television
stations. They all told viewers that homosexuality in Russia was
a Western conspiracy meant to corrupt the country's fundamental
moral and spiritual values, exacerbate its demographic crisis
and spread HIV among Russians.
The State Duma joined the anti-gay campaign,
passing the controversial "gay propaganda law" unanimously
in June. The law, which essentially codifies Russia's homosexuals
and lesbians as second-class citizens, states that anyone who expresses
a "distorted understanding of the social equality
of traditional and nontraditional sexual relations" in the
presence of a minor is subject to a fine of 5,000 rubles ($150).
At least three Russians have already been fined under the law.
The irony is that if anyone has a "distorted understanding"
of homosexuality, it is the Duma deputies. The Liberal
Democratic Party took this ignorance one step further, introducing a bill
that would use state funds to "treat" homosexuals of their "illness"
with the goal of turning them into heterosexuals.
The other irony is that while the new law is
presented as a defense against gay propaganda, the real
propagandizers are the government and Russian Orthodox Church, which
are trying to impose their "spiritual, traditional
and moral values" on those who have "nontraditional"
values.
5. Mikhail Khodorkovsky's pardon.
It would seem that Putin wanted the pardon as much as
Khodorkovsky as it gave Putin a nice opportunity to appear merciful. At the
same time, however, many of Putin's critics have rightly asked: Who was behind
the politically driven case to put Khodorkovsky in jail in the first place 10
years ago? And why did Putin wait until seven months before Khodorkovsky's
scheduled release in August 2014 to show mercy?
With the pardon, Putin might hope to share some
of the glory as the "kind tsar" in advance of the
Winter Olympics and the Group of Eight summit, both in Sochi
next year. Had Khodorkovsky served his full sentence, he would have been
the only hero in this drama. Now, Putin hopes to get some of the
global spotlight for his "humanitarian gesture."
Despite Kremlin efforts to spin the pardon as
a sign of Putin's strength, Putin is still very concerned about
Khodorkovsky's influence and moral authority as a free man. That is
why Khodorkovsky was whisked away and placed on a private jet
to Germany within hours after he was released from prison -
a scene taken right out of a Cold War spy thriller.
That is also why Khodorkovsky must effectively remain abroad
in exile forever. If he returns to Russia, he will likely be forced
to pay a $550 million fine — reportedly more than his current
net worth — that dates back to his first conviction in 2005, or
face another criminal trial. In addition, he must refrain from engaging
in Russian politics and from seeking legal claims to former
Yukos assets that were essentially nationalized by state-controlled
Rosneft in 2004.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, a close Putin ally who is
considered the mastermind behind the state takeover of Yukos,
will never give Khodorkovsky his $40 billion company back, of course.
But he did offer him a mid-level job at Rosneft —
and "only if his background meets the qualification requirements
for the position," as he put it. This malicious sarcasm was matched
only by presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who, in answering
a question from an Interfax reporter, smugly concluded that
Khodorkovsky's pardon request meant that he finally admitted his guilt, which
was a blatant lie.
But these snide remarks just days before New Year's should
not ruin the holiday spirit for any of us. Amid all of the
anti-news throughout 2013, the fact that Khodorkovsky is now free is
certainly the best news we have heard all year.
Source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/the-5-biggest-events-that-shaped-putins-2013/492198.html
The Russian aircraft flying over Europe are said to include types of MiG-31
