Disturbing

The recent public opinion research showed that 75% of Russian residents support death penalty and only 4% support it's complete abolition (the other support the present moratorium on it). I find this very disturbing though not surprising. I also find disturbing that some people are against the death penalty only because they think of it as being too easy of a punishment. :-'(
Some other issues that piss me off have to do with the vice-head of the president's administration Vladislav Surkov. He said that the United Russia party should maintain their position as a party in power for at least 10-15 years. I also found another rather old (summer of 2005) article about what this guy said at the gatherings of the pro-Putin youth organization Nashi (Ours) that summer. He said that it is necessary to protect our youth from western influence and also said the following: "come soon[to us, into power] and we will hand you Russia" - so they don't even hide that their goal is to raise new political elite out of the people they tame. :-(

Russian Echo Of The Danish Cartoon Scandal.

The Volgograd officials (Volgograd is a city in Russia)ordered to close down the newspaper "Gorodskiye Vesti" (City News) because of it's publishing a cartoon with Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and Moses. Now guess who is initiator of this close down. Religious people? Not at all. Even some muslim religious officials commented that the decision was too harsh. The initiators were the local department of the United Russia party (the pro-Putin party in power that's becoming more and more like the CP in the Soviet Union) and some other political organizations. The cartoon itself is completely inoffensive and has a peacefull message.

A newspaper in another Russian city Vologda "Nash Region"(Our Region) was closed down by the owner of the media corporation it was a part of because of its reprinting the Danish cartoons. He said he did that to avoid the impending scandal and accusations and will form another periodical with the same staff. The editor in chief of the paper Anna Smirnova is being prosecuted according to the clause 282 of the Russian criminal code for promoting religiuos hatred/animosity. Actually the newspaper published the cartoons as an illustration to the article that presented various opinions of journalists, scientists, religious leaders and so on about the Danish scandal so I think printing of the caricatures was even necessary in that context and clearly there was no intention of offending anyone. Even if this intention existed I think such measures are totally unacceptable and anti-freedom of speech though I personally would disapprove the intention. As an acceptable measure for preventing scandals like this one I see having a disclaimer on the first page that would inform the reader of contained controversial material indicating its location and also to try locating the material so that it would be easy to avoid it for those who want it. Of course this won't stop religious fanatics but I would like to hope that more moderate people will appreciate it.

I Wish That Game Really Existed :)

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