Freedom of speech attacked by Putin in Russia

[ewv 0]

Drudge reports a major blow to freedom of speech in Russia. This report is from 3 weeks ago.

Putin media decree arouses press freedom worries

Thu Mar 15 2007 11:37:07 ET

President Vladimir Putin has decreed the creation of a new super-agency to regulate media and the Internet, sparking fears among Russian journalists of a bid to extend tight publishing controls to the relatively free Web.

Putin signed a decree to create one entity that will license broadcasters, newspapers and Web sites and oversee their editorial content.

Raf Shakirov, who was dismissed as editor of the Izvestiya daily after critical coverage of the 2004 Beslan school siege, tells REUTERS how Putin's decree could extend Soviet-style controls to Russia's online media, which have been relatively free to date.

"This is an attempt to put everything under control, not only electronic media, but also personal data about people such as bloggers," he said.

Developing...

I don't know of further developments.

[JJPierce 0]

Drudge reports a major blow to freedom of speech in Russia. This report is from 3 weeks ago.

I don't know of further developments.

No surprise for a gangster state that whacks its critics like the Mafia.

[oldsalt 0]

I've wondered if Putin hasn't been setting things up so that he can attempt to stay in power. He's due to leave soon.

[PhilO 0]

I've wondered if Putin hasn't been setting things up so that he can attempt to stay in power. He's due to leave soon.

I think the only way Putin is leaving is in a box.

[jdperren 0]

I think the only way Putin is leaving is in a box.

Promise? Oh, but then you didn't say "soon," did you. Rats.

[B. Royce 0]

I think the only way Putin is leaving is in a box.

By all means, please Put-in the box. All in-Put welcome.

[dwisehart 0]

There is little doubt that Putin is a monster. The problem is, when he leaves, who takes over? Ivanov, the ex-KGB spy? Kasyanov? They threw him out the Prime Minister's office once for being so terrible. Yavlinsky? If he can get the SPS to back him he might have a chance, but his so-called liberal policies would probably push Russia back to a fully socialist state--which arguably might be better than a dictatorship.

I don't see any hope for a good Russian leader until they have an ideological revolution, which at this point isn't even on the horizon.

[Free Capitalist 0]

Wow, Putin is getting worse and worse. His aspirations become clearer and clearer. There are a few decent men in the Russian Duma, but they're in constant conflict with equal numbers of nuts of all kinds, ultra-nationalists, old communists, etc. If one of the good men had the capacity to overcome all his opponents and state his case in clear and persuasive terms, he would have a chance, but unlikely otherwise.

[alann 0]

I don't see any hope for a good Russian leader until they have an ideological revolution, which at this point isn't even on the horizon.

That is the key. Russia had its anti-Communist revolution after Perestroika, but didn't know what to do with it. They tried "Capitalism" by government edict, loose confederacy, Nationalism, and, now, all of the dictatorial trappings of the USSR without the economic ideology. All of it is contradictory, doomed to failure, and destined to descend, again, inevitably, to the level of dictatorship, which awaited only a well-trained thug on the order of Putin, who has now arrived.

Even shortly after Breshnev took the reins, many interviewees in the streets of Russian cities bemoaned the "chaos" of freedom and longed for the "order" of the old days. Rand was right when she talked of the Mysticism of Russia that just changed in content when Lenin replaced the Czars.

The best thing for the Russians was that, in the more recent past, they've been able to leave to pursue their lives in freer countries.

[Stussy88 0]

I think the only way Putin is leaving is in a box.

Yep, I heard on the radio that an ally of Putin was introducing legislation to do away with presidential term limits

Old KGB habits die hard I guess