Job Discussion Forums

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

Much as I dislike the oligarchs and what they have done to Russia and it's people,I can't help admiring Berezovskis nerve by admitting openly that he is plotting to bring-down Putins regime!Of course his latest statements may be just 'tongue in cheek' but a lot of what he alleges is unfortunately true about Russia today and the way it's going.Relations with the west, especially the U.S.A. and now Britain have been worsening for quite some time to quite an alarming degree that does not bode well for anyone so let's hope common sense prevails all round!I also fully agree with B. that the present regime of ex K.G.B. 'siloviki' are unlikely to give-up power by democratic means,although nobody wants a return to the chaos of the Yeltsin era or worse!Someone should politely remind B. that he engineered Yeltsins re-election in the late 1990's and that he has already said enough......
I suppose us ex-pats could use the deteriorating situation to justify demands for better salaries and conditions for working in Russia though!

sebastienupper · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 29 Location: Australia, Western

The latest I heard is that Russia was demanding that the UK extradite Berezhovski on the basis that he had broken the law by calling for the violent overthrow of a sovereign government.

This would be somewhat ironic for the UK to consider doing at the current time. I mean, you can't have people calling for the regime of certain sovereign governments to be changed if it involves force can you?

It's also an amusing call for Russia to make when you consider that they have developed an explicit policy to hunt down and murder 'enemies of the Russian Federation' overseas. Why do they need Berezhovski to be extradited?

Well I suppose you can't have too many Russian ex-pats in Britain dying of polonium poisoning in rapid succession or people tend to become a little suspicious ...

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

Dragging people away from the middle of the street for no reason is quite legal in Russia so a bit of radiation poisoning is no problem either!Don't forget that in the Soviet Era(and even later according to Anna Politkovskaya!) they just took dissidents to psychiatric hospitals to treat their 'schizophrenia' with mind altering drugs!The person in charge of one notorious institute then still has her job today!

sebastienupper · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 29 Location: Australia, Western

There seems to be little ability to be in 'opposition' in Russia at the current time.

A peaceful protest in Saint Petersburg is the only way to demonstrate this idea.

9,000 police move in to quell this demonstration (of just 200 people) to drag the protestors away. We see, on the news footage, a few skulls have to be cracked by the police, seemingly, as a matter of course.

Is there anyone from the Putin camp who would like to put a positive spin on this for him?

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

The only thing that will really wake people up to reality there is another financial crash and there has been serious speculation recently that it could happen this year or possibly next, despite the high oil price revenues etc.A front-page article in Exile.ru recently based this assumption on the excessive consumer debt which has beeen created as a result of banks lending people far too much unsecured money.For as long as Russians have money in their pockets they do not care about politics etc. and this is why Putin has been able to create his authoritarian regime without any serious opposition,although the cracks are now beginning to show with the income differential continually widening and only 10-15% of the population enjoying any benefit from the enormous revenue the country is earning.
Anything is possible in Russia and this applies as much now as ever before...