Russische vlag op het parlement van de Krim

[E. Migrant]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door S-K

En dat bestaat allemaal wel hier in NL of België? LOL



Juist. Zoals het Vlaams Blang in België via het Cordon Sanitaire een fijn voorbeeld van democratie...lol

Maar in NL zijn ze er ook niet vies van:
http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1012/Nederlan...n-Almere.dhtml

Hoe zat het ook alweer met een referendum, gekozen burgemeesters, etc? Om maar te zwijgen van het koningshuis, bij uitstek een voorbeeld wat niet te rijmen valt met democratie.

Ontpoldering is in tegenwoordig.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door E. Migrant

Wat moet Moskou zich daar moeien bij die godsdienstgekken? De VS achterna?

Rusland steunt de seculiere krachten in het Midden-Oosten, net als in de Sovjet-tijd, naast ook het shiitische Iran. (dat geen bedreiging vormt want de meeste moslims in Rusland en de ex-Sovjet-Unie zijn soennitisch). Rusland beseft maar al te goed dat de situatie van de Palestijnen en westerse steun aan Israel het extremisme aanwakkert.
Als Rusland zich niet moeit, laten ze het over aan de VS, met alle gevolgen vandien. Zonder Rusland was het seculiere regime in Syrië al gevallen en heel Syrië nu in handen van moslim-extremisten. Eenmaal het Midden-Oosten in handen, zullen ze oprukken naar Rusland zelf en de ex-Sovjet-Unie.
Heel wat Joden in Israel zijn van Russische origine, dat Putin nu openlijk afstand neemt van de Israelische onderdrukking van de Palestijnen heeft dus wel degelijk impakt. Russische Joden die meewerken aan deze onderdrukking zullen dus moeten beseffen dat ze ingaan tegen de belangen van hun moederland.
Ik denk dat Rusland zich ook wil opwerpen in de regio, waar de VS hartsgrondig gehaat wordt, misschien wel nog meer dan in Rusland zelf, als een alternatief voor de VS, zoals tijdens de koude oorlog.

[tomm]

interessant artikel in the guardian over Oekraïne en de oorzaken van het huidige conflict.
Not long ago, former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko gave a wide ranging interview in which he offered the man who now sits in that seat some advice.

President Petro Poroshenko must understand, the ex-leader said, that half the country is against the imposition of the Ukrainian language, opposes the idea of a single national church, and does not want to join any military alliance.

With a candour that only a former politician can afford, Yushchenko acknowledged that Ukrainians live in two distinct countries.

His solution? To impose “spiritual unity” on the country. During his time in office Yushchenko insists he did just that, which might explain why his initially high popularity rating fell to under 5% by the end of his term.

Perhaps this is the consequence of the approach that politicians such as Yushchenko have taken towards those Ukrainian citizens they consider “utterly foreign”. It is a strategy that intellectuals such as Elena Styazhkina, professor of history at Donetsk National University, euphemistically term “positive, peaceful colonisation”.

The most recent example of this colonisation is the introduction of a law, about to come into effect, which bans the showing of “any Russian films, documentaries, serials, or cartoons” made since January 2014 or any productions portraying “the aggressor country” (Russia) in a favourable light made after August 1991 (the time of the Soviet coup).

But if colonisation of Russophone Ukraine were a realistic possibility, would we not have seen more progress on national consensus since independence, especially during the Yushchenko era?

A poll conducted last December by the Ukrainian news website Zerkalo Nedeli highlights the fact that the government’s efforts, instead of healing Ukraine’s wounds, are creating new rifts.

Recent events are already being mythologised very differently in different parts of Ukraine
Asked what had been the three most significant developments in their country over the past year, it found little consensus between respondents in western Ukraine and those in Donbass:

71% of those in western Ukraine included the deaths of the “heavenly 100” during protests in Kiev that overthrew the previous government, compared with just 15% of those living in Donbass.

Fewer than 3% of western Ukrainians but more than 30% of those in Donbass rated the self-declaration of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in their top three.

In western Ukraine, 18% rated the signing of an agreement with the EU among their top three, compared with just 1.5% of those in Donbass.

“Peaceful colonisation” is therefore likely to run into serious difficulties. The most obvious is resentment arising from the implication that any Ukrainian who feels a kinship for Russian culture or prefers to speak Russian is somehow disloyal. This would surely transform the current conflict into a conflict over Ukrainian identity.

A second problem will be increasing western frustration at the restriction of minority cultural and religious rights. Some European politicians are already on record as saying they cannot understand why federalism, used by many multi-ethnic states to preserve national unity, is rejected out of hand by Poroshenko. Moving further from cultural equality for minorities to some form of ethnic democracy would invariably be seen in the west as a step away from European values.

[There's an] implication that Ukrainians who feel a kinship for Russian culture or prefer to speak Russian are disloyal
Finally, there is the unavoidable fact that Russia will continue to have a tremendous cultural impact in Ukrainian society, where nearly everyone speaks Russian. Short of shutting down the internet and isolating itself from the world, there is little that Ukraine can do about this.

This is where Ukrainian elites have a fateful choice to make. They can try to resolve the problem of national unity by adopting nationalistic symbols, rallying people around an “eternal enemy” (Russia) and making the new national identity a litmus test of loyalty. Or, they can forge unity through the incorporation of Russian speakers into a new civic patriotism in which Ukrainian identity is defined by its civic virtues rather than by culture or ethnicity. Simply put, the choice is between nationalism and liberalism.

Both are quintessential European values, but they lead to very different political systems.

Moreover, given Russia’s overwhelming cultural presence in Ukraine, building a national identity at the expense of Russian identity would prove especially difficult, like trying to build Canadian identity around anti-Americanism and a refusal to speak English.

So far Poroshenko seems bent on repeating Yushchenko’s mistakes. But while his nationalistic rhetoric may help the war effort, what happens after the conflict ends? In the long-run integral nationalism runs counter to Ukrainian national unity, stable democracy, and even EU and Nato membership. Ultimately, there is no alternative to a national dialogue that sees Ukraine’s bicultural and bilingual identity as a strength, rather than as a weakness.

And if the west is truly interested in the success of Ukraine, then it should recognise that it too has a vital stake in expanding liberal discourse in Ukraine, and in overcoming the nationalistic rhetoric that can only further divide the nation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-nicolai-petro

[parcifal]

Schitterende april-grap van de EUobserver vandaag, en natuurlijk tuinde de volledige russische propagandamachine erin.

Hilarisch!

https://meduza.io/en/lion/2015/04/01...-news-agencies

Russian news agencies RIA Novosti, Tass, RT, and Interfax published reports today that one of Mistral-class helicopter carriers built in France for Russia would be transferred to the European Union. The source for this information—an April Fools’ Day joke that Russian media mistook for real news—was the online newspaper EU Observer, which claimed to have learned of the transfer from Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

EU Observer claimed the first Mistral ship would take the name Juncker, in honor of European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker. The military vessel would sail to Riga, the newspaper joked, because Latvia currently holds the EU presidency. The Juncker’s crew would supposedly be made up of soldiers from a certain unit based in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

It was said that the Juncker would fly the EU flag, but be registered in Panama, in order to “save money on taxes.” The ship would be tasked with curbing Russian aggression in the Baltic region.

EU Observer joked that the Juncker would sail from Riga to Luxembourg, a landlocked country. This would occur, the prank article explained, when the EU presidency moved to Luxembourg. The second Mistral ship, EU Observer continued, would be named Mogherini, and be based on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Russian media outlets quickly issued corrections, after learning from EU representatives that the story in EU Observer was an April Fools’ Day prank.

[tomm]

Dit is geen grap daarentegen. de raad van Europa veroordeelt het onderzoek naar de schietpartijen in Kiev begaan in februari 2014. Het onderzoek werd van officiële kant tegengewerkt, de verkeerde mensen worden opgepakt en er is zelfs geen schijn van scheiding der machten.


The investigation into the murders of activists during the EuroMaidan revolution was inadequate, biased and, now, possibly even dead in the water. These are some of the conclusions of the Council of Europe’s International Advisory Group that studied the process, which has been led by Ukraine's general prosecutor's office in conjunction with the police.


The group's report, released on March 31, found that the investigation was hampered by numerous “failures”, including a lack of willingness to investigate the violence, an insufficient number of investigators, and a lack of independence and transparency.
The lawyers of the accused have echoed the criticism voiced by the Council of Europe’s advisory panel, describing the investigation as a travesty of justice that threatens to bring shame to the country’s judicial system and saying the entire case against the former Berkut officers is based on flimsy evidence.


“There is no direct evidence whatsoever that these men caused the protesters’ deaths,” said Alexander Goroshinsky, one of the lawyers for Abroskin, at a press conference on March 30.
Yet, even more than a year later, there is still no clearer picture today of who was really behind the shootings, and the endless unanswered questions about the killings have now been amplified by new questions about the investigation itself.
While the upcoming trial focuses on the killings of 39 protesters between Feb. 18-20, the Council of Europe’s International Advisory Group on Ukraine noted that the authorities’ failure to open any sort of probe into earlier violence during the protests had seriously hindered any further investigation.

Bratza also noted that the panel had “strong grounds to believe that the Interior Ministry’s attitude (in investigating the crimes on Maidan) was obstructive.”

He spoke of “intimidation tactics” used by members of the Interior Ministry during questioning of Berkut officers, saying there had been instances in which those being questioned were led into a building surrounded by fellow officers – a fact which may have prevented them from speaking openly about what they witnessed during the protests.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv...gs-384957.html

[tomm]

Nu is de vraag, waarom zou het regime het onderzoek naar de moordpartijen die hen aan de macht brachten saboteren?
BBC brengt getuigenissen van mannen die gerecruteerd werden door Andriy Parubiy, nu vice-voorzitter van het Oekraïense parlement en Maidan-leider, om te schieten op de Berkut-politieeenheden. Hij ontkent dat er wapens waren waar hij zich bevond op het moment van de schietpartij, maar foto's tonen aan dat dat een leugen is.

Meer dan waarschijnlijk is dit het echte verhaal achter Maidan.
Gewapende Maidan-eenheden beschoten de ordediensten vanuit de massa, waarop deze zich verdedigden. Dit regime is dus gebaseerd op leugens vanaf dag 1. De BBC heeft geen enkele reden om daarover te liegen, en de getuigen zijn allemaal Maidan-activisten. Dit kan niemand dus afdoen als Russische propaganda.

A day of bloodshed on Kiev's main square, nearly a year ago, marked the end of a winter of protest against the government of president Viktor Yanukovych, who soon afterwards fled the country. More than 50 protesters and three policemen died. But how did the shooting begin? Protest organisers have always denied any involvement - but one man told the BBC a different story.

It's early in the morning, 20 February, 2014. Kiev's Maidan square is divided - on one side the riot police, the protesters on the other.

This has been going on for more than two months now. But events are about to come to a head. By the end of the day, more than 50 people will be dead, many of them gunned down in the street by security forces.

The violence will lead to the downfall of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. Moscow will call 20 February an armed coup, and use it to justify the annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

The protest leaders, some of whom now hold positions of power in the new Ukraine, insist full responsibility for the shootings lies with the security forces, acting on behalf of the previous government.

But one year on, some witnesses are beginning to paint a different picture.

Sergei says he had been a regular protester on the Maidan for more than a month, and that his shots at police on the square and on the roof of an underground shopping mall, caused them to retreat.

There had been shooting two days earlier, on 18 February. The 19th, a Wednesday, had been quieter, but in the evening, Sergei says, he was put in contact with a man who offered him two guns: one a 12-gauge shotgun, the other a hunting rifle, a Saiga that fired high-velocity rounds.

He chose the latter, he says, and stashed it in the Post Office building, a few yards from the Conservatory. Both buildings were under the control of the protesters.

His account is partially corroborated by other witnesses. That morning, Andriy Shevchenko, then an opposition MP and part of the Maidan movement, had received a phone call from the head of the riot police on the square.

"He calls me and says, 'Andriy, somebody is shooting at my guys.' And he said that the shooting was from the Conservatory."

Shevchenko contacted the man in charge of security for the protesters, Andriy Parubiy, known as the Commandant of the Maidan.

"I sent a group of my best men to go through the entire Conservatory building and determine whether there were any firing positions," Parubiy says.

Meanwhile the MP, Andriy Shevchenko, was getting increasingly panicked phone calls.

"I kept getting calls from the police officer, who said: 'I have three people wounded, I have five people wounded, I have one person dead.' And at some point he says, 'I am pulling out.' And he says, 'Andriy I do not know what will be next.' But I clearly felt that something really bad was about to happen."

Andriy Parubiy, now deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, says his men found no gunmen in the Conservatory building.

But a photographer who gained access to the Conservatory later in the morning - shortly after 08:00 - took pictures there of men with guns, although he did not see them fire.

Sergei's account also differs from Parubiy's.

"I was just reloading," he told me. "They ran up to me and one put his foot on top of me, and said, 'They want a word with you, everything is OK, but stop doing what you're doing.'"

Sergei says he is convinced the men who dragged him away were from Parubiy's security unit, though he didn't recognise their faces. He was escorted out of the Conservatory building, taken out of Kiev by car, and left to make his own way home.

By that time three policemen had been fatally wounded and the mass killings of protesters had begun.

Kiev's official investigation has focused on what happened afterwards - after the riot police began to retreat from the square. In video footage, they are clearly seen firing towards protesters as they pull back.

Only three people have been arrested, all of them members of a special unit of riot police. And of these three, only two - the lower-ranking officers - remain in custody. The unit's commanding officer, Dmitry Sadovnik, was granted bail and has now disappeared.

The three policemen are accused of causing 39 deaths. But at least a further dozen protestors were killed - and the three policemen who died of their wounds.

Some of the dead were almost certainly shot by snipers, who seemed to be shooting from some of the taller buildings surrounding the square.

Lawyers for the victims and sources in the general prosecutor's office have told the BBC that when it comes to investigating deaths that could not have been caused by the riot police, they have found their efforts blocked by the courts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31359021

[tomm]

Ook dit is geen grap:

Hennadiy Moskal, the head of the Luhansk regional administration, has called on the Defense Ministry to rein in members of the Aidar Battalion who have been wreaking havoc in the region after stealing ambulances and taking over a local business.
“Aidar fighters conduct themselves not like representatives of the armed forces who are subordinate to the Defense Ministry, but like hell-raisers, outlaws and robbers armed with automatic weapons. They have essentially opened a second front in peaceful territory, where a war is under way,” Moskal wrote.
Human rights activists and local officials have repeatedly warned that the lawlessness of the battalion threatens to destabilize the region, and Moskal said that is precisely what is happening after the group seized control of the region’s main bread factory, UkrVeresk.
Aidar fighters have also pocketed Hr 280,000 in cash from the factory and begun tearing up equipment to sell as scrap metal, he said.
On March 16, three members of Aidar drunkenly broke into a resident’s home and beat up the owner in front of his wife and child, Moskal told the Ukrainian media. They then looted the place before orchestrating a shoot-out in the street.

Last September, Amnesty International called on Ukrainian authorities to keep members of the Aidar Battalion in check after it found evidence of abductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion, and possible executions by the group.

An Amnesty International researcher cited an Aidar member issuing a frightening warning while the report was being prepared: “If I choose to, I can have you arrested right now, put a bag over your head and lock you up in a cellar for 30 days on suspicion of aiding separatists.”

The report concluded that “members of the Aidar battalion act with virtually no oversight or control, and local police are either unwilling or unable to address the abuses.”

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv...on-385054.html

[tomm]

Ondertussen wordt de repressie tegen tegenstanders van het regime opgevoerd

Ukrainian Communist Party Chief Summoned For Questioning

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine.../26933524.html

[tomm]

Eerste minister Yatseniuk (populariteit volgens laatste peiling 5%) wordt beschuldigd van massale corruptie door het voormalige hoofd van de financiële inspectie.

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_...d#.VRzdUPmsVa6

[tomm]

Zoals ik al dacht, als de voorstanders van het regime met keiharde feiten geconfronteerd worden, verdwijnen ze van de radar, om weer terug te komen "met iets over Putin".

[parcifal]

Oh, ik kan ook beginnnen blind copy/pasten uit The Moscow Times of Kiev Post, dat kan elke kleuter.

Het gaat om de analyse uiteraard en -voor mij- om de transformatie van oekraiene naar een burgermaatschappij.
Jouw positie is duidelijk : afbreken afbreken afbreken terwijl dit over een proces gaat dat vele jaren zal duren, de fouten zijn iedereen duidelijk, het gaat om de stappen tot verbetering die worden genomen.

De De-oligarchisering is in feite begonnen met het ontslag van Kolomoysky, maar daar heb ik je natuurlijk niet over gehoord.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door parcifal

Oh, ik kan ook beginnnen blind copy/pasten uit The Moscow Times of Kiev Post, dat kan elke kleuter.

Het gaat om de analyse uiteraard en -voor mij- om de transformatie van oekraiene naar een burgermaatschappij.
Jouw positie is duidelijk : afbreken afbreken afbreken terwijl dit over een proces gaat dat vele jaren zal duren, de fouten zijn iedereen duidelijk, het gaat om de stappen tot verbetering die worden genomen.

De De-oligarchisering is in feite begonnen met het ontslag van Kolomoysky, maar daar heb ik je natuurlijk niet over gehoord.

Dit regime kwam aan de macht door een leugen (zie boven), is net zo corrupt als z'n voorganger, vervolgt dissidenten op een ongeziene manier, de economie is er verschrikkelijk aan toe, en het regime heeft talloze doden op het geweten in Donbas terwijl de pro-Kiev milities de bevolking terroriseren. Het mannetje van Kholomoisky is nog steeds de baas van het bedrijfhttp://www.kyivpost.com/content/business/kolomoiskys-man-stays-in-charge-of-state-oil-company-385254.html, en Kholomoisky is dan wel afgetreden, hij blijft oppermachtig en wordt niet vervolgd. Poroshenko en Yatseniuk doen ondertussen niets anders dan hun familie en vrienden op de meest lucratieve posten plaatsen (zie kyivpost), op dat vlak geen verandering met Yanukovich.
Ik noem dat geen verbetering maar een verslechtering... en de Oekraïeners zien het ook zo, dit regime is geweldig onpopulair geworden (zie boven) en kan zich alleen in stand houden door repressie.

De ratten beginnen al het zinkend schip te verlaten, het Westen gelooft er niet meer echt in, enkel die-hard anti-Russen als Saakashvili doen nog mee. Het regime zal net als dat van Saakashvili ten val komen, niet door Rusland maar door de onvrede die leeft bij de eigen bevolking.

[tomm]

Het regime begint nu echt gestoord te worden

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill on April 2 that bans the broadcast of Russian films on television.

http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukra...ia-385214.html

Je moet weten dat in Oekraïne Russische films veel populairder zijn dan westerse films.

[Reverberation]

Roses have thorns, deel 1 tot 15, meer dan 10u aan beeld en nieuws.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU7...h-hmxmQ/videos

[Adam Smith]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door tomm

(...)

De ratten beginnen al het zinkend schip te verlaten, het Westen gelooft er niet meer echt in, enkel die-hard anti-Russen als Saakashvili doen nog mee. Het regime zal net als dat van Saakashvili ten val komen, niet door Rusland maar door de onvrede die leeft bij de eigen bevolking.

Niet door Rusland? Haha, Rusland heeft achter de schermen net zoveel gedaan als het westen, sterker meer. Eerlijk gezegd moeten (niet slechts zouden) Europese NAVO-landen gewoon meer in defensie moeten investeren als ze internationaal mee willen tellen; onze voorouders draaien zich om in hun graf....

[parcifal]

De laatste 2 minuten van kanaal ATR van de tataren in Crimea voor het op 1 April werd verboden door de russische bezetter :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh43Mgd0f0U

“Crimean Tatars have been through worse. Our people survived Stalin. Surely we will be able to live through the current problems. We will and we will survive. And we will continue to build our home on our land”, says Lilia Budzhurova, ATR channel journalist and deputy director of informational policy at the channel.

ATR, the only TV channel on the peninsula that broadcasts in Crimean Tatar, ceased its broadcast on March, 31. The Russian authorities in annexed Crimea refused to give ATR a broadcasting licence despite numerous requests. Human Rights Watch states that the situation around ATR is “part of a broader pattern of gradually pushing Ukrainian media from Crimea’s air waves and stifling all pro-Ukraine media. Authorities raided offices of several media outlets, sometimes confiscating or damaging their equipment. Numerous journalists and bloggers critical of the authorities have been detained, harassed, or attacked”.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door parcifal

De laatste 2 minuten van kanaal ATR van de tataren in Crimea voor het op 1 April werd verboden door de russische bezetter :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh43Mgd0f0U

Een zender waar nauwelijks mensen naar keken, en gefinancierd door westerse "NGO's". Een zender die niets anders deed dat een constante diarree van anti-Russische propaganda uitpoepen. Wel grappig is dat de zender uitzendt in het Russisch. Dit is immers de taal die de meeste Krim-Tataren als eerste taal spreken. Veel Krim-Tataren verstaan geen Tataars...

Vergelijk dat met de sluiting van de belangrijkste Oekraïense zender, waar tientallen miljoenen mensen naar keken, door het regime, wegens, hou U vast, het uitzenden van (apolitieke) Russische muziek en films...

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Adam Smith

Niet door Rusland? Haha, Rusland heeft achter de schermen net zoveel gedaan als het westen, sterker meer. Eerlijk gezegd moeten (niet slechts zouden) Europese NAVO-landen gewoon meer in defensie moeten investeren als ze internationaal mee willen tellen; onze voorouders draaien zich om in hun graf....

Rusland heeft geen enkele ambitie om Europa aan te vallen, maar van de ex-sovjet-Unie blijven ze met hun vieze poten af.
Oekraïne dat ingaat tegen Rusland, net als Georgië, is niet natuurlijk. Het zijn landen met een gemeenschappelijke cultuur, geschiedenis, economie, etc. Het Westen moet stoppen met deze landen tegen Rusland op te zetten, als het Westen een nieuwe koude oorlog wil vermijden.

[parcifal]

Mooi voorbeeld van hoe de russische media te werk gaat ivm Oekraiene :
ze wakkeren de haat en tegenstelling zoveel mogelijk aan, op aansturen van de spindoctors in Moskou uiteraard. Niet moeilijk dat je zo onnozelheden bij de bevolking kan in hun hersenpan aanbrengen als 'junta, fascisten' etc.

De BBC legt 1 geval bloot, maar uiteraard is dit dagelijkse kost.
Rusland speelt een zeer zeer vuil spel.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32137302

Reports of 10-year-old killed in Ukraine 'made up'

Information war has been a huge part of the Ukraine conflict, with both sides accusing the other of manipulating the media.

With Ukrainian channels off air in the rebel-held Donetsk region, the population there relies entirely on Russian media.

Russian television stations recently report claims that a 10-year-old girl had been killed by shelling.

The BBC News team of Natalia Antelava and Abdujalil Abdurasulov tried to find out what happened to the girl, and discovered that all was not as it seemed.

[parcifal]

Ilya Ponomarev, de enige in de Duma die TEGEN de annexatie van Crimea heeft gestemd vorig jaar, is momenteel een mikpunt van vervolging op tal van vlakken

Niet alleen werden zijn bankrekeningen geblokkeerd, hij mag rusland niet meer binnen (hij is momenteel in de VS) en het russisch parlement heeft vandaag beslist om zijn parlementaire onschendbaarheid op te heffen zodat hij kan veroordeeld worden en zijn eigendommen in beslag genomen.

Nu nog deportatie naar siberie van zijn familie en vrienden en de cirkel is rond.
Stalin deed het niet veel anders.


http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-...ker-1428428155

http://uk.businessinsider.com/ilya-p...ew-2015-3?r=US

BI: Has anyone else you know been fined, kidnapped, or murdered?

IP: We have a lot of people — journalists — that were murdered in Russia. But my own situation is pretty unique. I haven't seen my wife for half a year. She lives now in Bulgaria and couldn't get her here because of Visa [problems].

[Editor's note: Since 1992, 56 journalists have been killed in Russia.]

IP: Russia can fall apart. It's not because of the oil prices ... It's because what sticks a country together is a common interest of people. It has to be economically and socially profitable — beneficial — for people to be together. They should understand how they benefit from a large country. And if they start to feel like a large country is a source of problem, then the country collapses as the Soviet Union collapsed. And right now, I see a lot of alarming trends inside Russia, especially in Siberia, which I represent in the parliament. People start to ask questions: If we mine all the natural resources — if we have all the oil, all the gas, all the coal, all the gold, all the diamonds — why the hell do we need central Russia? They are just eating at our resources. Without Moscow having a response for this, it would face very nasty questions such as one that was asked during my recent reelection campaign — it actually became a slogan of my campaign — "Stop feeding Moscow."

Over Putin :

We need to convince him that if he makes the decision to go, that we are ready to trade his personal security for peaceful resignation. That's very important because we're all afraid that he will stick to power to his deathbed and just kill a lot of people along the way. If he is willing to go, we shall buy him an island in the Caribbean or in the Pacific Ocean with nice girls — like a separate country for him.