Straight F'ing Insane

From the boys over at Danger Room. A Russian fighter pilot was paid to eject from an SU-35 jet for a movie. Link and pic below.



http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/picture-this-crazy-ivan-hits-eject/ Sphere: Related Content

Was Ramzan Kadyrov complicit in the murder of Estemirova?

I was doing some reading this weekend and JRL had a good article on the murder of Estemirova last week. I have since learned that Estemirova was Chechen and had been critical of Kadyrov in her writings and publications, much like Anna Politkovskaya had been in Russia of Putin. In fact, they were friends with each other.

Here is the article by Roland Oliphant in the JRL. Oliphant poses a good question in this paragraph...

"Filling in the intervening hours will be the job of the investigators Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promptly ordered to the region. On Medvedev’s instruction Alexander Bastrykinu, the chief of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office, arrived in the region on Thursday, will face some tough questions, and they are likely to lead to uncomfortable territory. How, for example, did the killers cross the border into Ingushetia, through a region where a massive “joint security operation” is meant to be going on to catch the insurgents who attacked Ingush President Yunnus Bek Yevkurov last month? Why were they not caught by President Ramzan Kadyrov’s supposedly all-powerful security forces? What was their motive, and whose orders were they acting on?"

The questions that Oliphant poses really lead the reader to one of two conclusions. The first is that the Border Guards are running a less than competent security program in Ingushetia if something like this occurred. The second conclusion would be that the there was some complicity on the behalf of Moscow in the murder of Estemirova. The Border Guards are a subordinate agency of the FSB, Putin's old agency. One wonders if Kadyrov maybe didn't ask for some help from Moscow in disposing of Estemirova? A somewhat tenious thread, I know, but not too unbelievable given what happens in Russia lately.

Sphere: Related Content

Human Rights Activist Kidnapped and Murdered in Chechnya

This just came across the news on BBC. According to the article Natalia Estemirova, a Russian Human Rights activist was kidnapped and murdered. Estimirova had worked with Anna Politkovskaya in the past on documenting abuses in the Soviet Union, especially in Chechnya. While this could have just been another criminal act by Chechyan thugs, the parralels between Estimirova and Politkovskya are simply to strong to ignore.


If you haven't had the opportunity to read Politkovskaya's book "Putin's Russia", please do take the time to pick it up and read it. Politkovskaya literally paid with her life for her work to expose what was happening in Russia under Putin and how Chechnya was being used as a ruse to distract the Russian public from the stripping away of their rights. Politkovskaya was murdered October 6, 2006 in her apartment complex in Moscow. Ironically, October 6th is also the birthday of Vladimir Putin, target of many of her investigative reports. Her case still remains unresolved.

The murder of Estimirova will be a test case for Medvedev. As a, lawyer he has committed to a Russian government that is transparent and dedicated to the rule of law. If it appears that Russia's security services are indeeed involved with the kidnapping and murder of Estemirova, Medvedev will have to show that his true independence as a president and seek to have these offenders prosecuted, and not be just another Putin crony. Sphere: Related Content

It went well with the borscht...

Ok, easing back into this blogging thing... Apparently Russian fisherman caught a squeaking alien... and then ate it! The horror of it all! I wonder if it was because it was squeaking in Georgian? But hey, its from Pravda, so it's gotta be true, right?



http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/07-02-2007/87167-alien_monster-0 Sphere: Related Content