The worst thing is that even though this story received a lot of attention in Russian media and people are well aware and furious about it, there is nothing that will be done about it. Neither the president nor the prime minister nor the parliament nor the government nor anyone else with any power in this country have done or are going to do anything about it. As if it's normal.
They Killed My Lawyer
41–50 of 72 posts
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#42The worst thing is that even though this story received a lot of attention in Russian media and people are well aware and furious about it, there is nothing that will be done about it. Neither the president nor the prime minister nor the parliament nor the government nor anyone else with any power in this country have done or are going to do anything about it. As if it's normal.
The corruption allegations were ignored, but Medvedev did fire some prison officials. :/ http://lawandorderinrussia.org/2009/russia-fires-prison-offi...
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#43>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…
ach, I clicked the wrong button and upvoted by accident.
Anyway; I think your latching on to one phrase for your own aims. "Belittle the holocaust"; well if that isn't a sentence to garner a sympathetic audience I don't know what is....
I read the sentence not as an assertion that Russia suffers the same atrocities as those of the Stalinist era - but rather as a statement about how people in power still have not learned all of the lessons and still commit acts of crime and violence against others.
The conditions described (if accurate) are certainly pretty severe and the level of corruption (again, if accurate) awful - only one section of Government seems to have replied seriously to any of the accusations.
So, no, it is not Stalinism and not the Gulag; but the strong similarities are there. And the obvious connection must be drawn.
I have travelled in Russia both personally and on business and some of the areas of government I have seen are extremely corrupt and brutal. The association to Stalinism would seem justified in my limited experience.
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#44>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…
Of course nothing can be compared to the Holocaust. Nobody else made a religion and an industry from their own Nation tragedy.
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
So are you condoning what happened?
Why does it matter? He seems to be alleging that the author of this piece is potentially responsible for as much misery and destruction as the people who killed the lawyer in the story, and that this undermines the moral legitimacy of the article. Whether osipov himself condones what happened is completely irrelevant.
Aren't you confusing messenger and message? The fact the messenger is partially responsible (and that is debatable) for some misery has no influence on the legality of the acts described in the article.
I would also add the corruption of the 90's benefited some of the same government officials that ate being accused here.
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#46>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…
Give me a break. This is utter crap. You're obviously using the hyperbole at the start of the article to score points. You go on to impugn the character of the author, while not directly addressing the thesis at any point in your responses. You're relying on people to yield so as not to offend you -- but that's crap, they really shouldn't care. "hurtful" indeed... What they can argue is that because of a bit of hyper…
Can you explain how my following argument impugns the character of the author? The article claims to be "about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today". My counterclaim is that the article sets up a false moral equivalence from the start measuring a death of a lawyer to events at scale of Holocaust or Stalinist repressions. If you read my comment, it is obvious that it attacks the editors of Foreign Policy -- NOT the author. The author is entitled to his opinion but Foreign Policy should have reconsidered publishing the article that makes such outlandish claims.
Further, why are you so being so defensive that you feel the need to call my opinion crap? If I feel offended by how the author belittles most horrific events of the 20th century I will let people know about it. It is up to the readers to form their opinion about my reaction to the article.
While my claim doesn't attack the character of the article, you are explicitly defending him by interpreting his intentions to label the leading statement a hyperbole. How do you know that the author wanted to set up a hyperbole?
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Morality of killing human lives should not be counted in orders of magnitude -- there is a qualitative difference between killing a man, a family, an ethnicity or a race. Saying that "Stalinism and the gulags are alive today" establishes a false moral equivalence.
A genocide begins with the killing of one man..." -- Kofi Annan
...not for what he has done, but because of who he is" -- you should have posted the entire quote otherwise the meaning is out of context.
Are you using Kofi Annan's point to claim that Russia government has a policy of genocide against lawyers?
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
A genocide begins with the killing of one man..." -- Kofi Annan
...not for what he has done, but because of who he is" -- you should have posted the entire quote otherwise the meaning is out of context. Are you using Kofi Annan's point to claim that Russia government has a policy of genocide against lawyers?
"Russia government has a policy of genocide against lawyers"
Stop giving them ideas ;-)
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#49>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…
"I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust", you bring this up but it's a red herring as I don't see any mention of the Holocaust anywhere in the article. In other words you seem to be trying to conflate some of the issues. A guy who tried to expose corruption was imprisoned and died from abuse and lack of medical care and the real culprits walk free and your first response is to call for the resignation of the editors of the publication exposing this because an admitted non-journalist compared the substantial corruption of Russia today (which directly descends from KGB et al) to Stalinist treatment of political opponents (i.e. putting opponents in dreadful prisons). That's your first response, really?
Re: They Killed My Lawyer
#50>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…
Digging deeper into the story, it appears that the author (Bill Browder) is someone who profited from the criminal pillaging of Russian economy in 1990s: "[Bill Browder's] business was very successful, profiting from the wave of privatizations occurring in the Russia at that time" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder . May I remind you of a Hacker's News thread that talked about Russia's corrupt oligarchs of 199…
In early 1990s, Putin was pillaging his part of Russian economy in those years, being in charge of metal utilization (huge para-criminal business in Russia until 2000s) under St. Petersburg oligarch and mayor Sobtchak. Somehow this part of his career is always overlooked by his proponents.
This of course is just as irrelevant to what has happened with the laywer as your attack on Browder.