The BBC Reports that the Russian Culture Ministry has refused to grant a distribution license as the film "could potentially humiliate different ethnic groups and religions."
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is a mockumentary about a Kazakh journalist’s travels in America. The character, created and played by Sacha Cohen is terribly offensive, being racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and VERY VERY funny. But the Russian (and Kazakh) Government is not amused. A Russian Culture Ministry official did say that the refusal to grant the license may be appealed.
For more information, check out the wikipedia article. Of course, according to the socialists the private sector are the worst polluters. They obviously forgot Chernobyl and Lake Karachay.
With an Iron Fist, We Will Lead Humanity to Happiness!
- sign above the entrance to a Stalin-era Soviet labor camp
Props: Ivan (Source: Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum)
Nearly all of the countries that signed on to the Kyoto protocol are going to fall short of their kyoto targets. Of the 15 EU member states, 13 are on track to miss their targets. Canada, the tireless champion of Kyoto is nowhere near meeting it's targets. All of these countries have overlooked the most obvious answer to making the Kyoto Protocol work. Fortunately, Russia has provided us with the answer: economic collapse. The disastrous transition towards a (not so) free market economy after the fall of the Soviet Union sent emmission levels plummeting as the economy fell apart. Surely if citizens of the western world would just "take a step down" like our Russian comrades did, we could easily make the Kyoto protocol work. Enough with the "western greed" already. Jobs, sanitary housing conditions, money to raise our families. Who needs all of that. In fact, if America would take enough of a step down, maybe it could claim to be a developing country and sign on to the kyoto protocol without any targets to meet. Then Americans could feel really good about themselves. Forget Russia, let's be really ambitious. Let's be more like North Korea!
More news out of Russia today, Russian non-governmental organizations are expressing concern that spying allegations against British diplomats are being used to shut them up.
Moscow is particularly cautious about the unchecked growth of civil society after the events in Ukraine and Georgia. President Putin has created a Public Chamber filled with mostly loyal dignitaries to oversee press and social freedoms in Russia. This year's NGO law, giving the authorities rules under which they could choose to shut down such groups, was met with fierce criticism from the US and EU but quietly signed into law by Mr Putin.
Heaven forbid anybody should disagree with the president. Perhaps they should be more cautious about giving reason for events like in the Ukraine and Georgia. The Ukraine and Georgia both have pro-western governments BECAUSE of Moscow's policies.
Gas supplies were cut off to Georgia and Armenia yesterday as explosions destroyed the pipelines. The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has claimed that the explosions were acts of Russian sabotage.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Saakashvili said the gas pipeline was blown up in "an area fully under Russian control … with a heavy presence of Russian border guards", where there were no local insurgents.
The Russian foreign ministry is claiming that the attacks were the work of local extremist groups.
Russia almost doubled the price of natural gas exports to Georgia in January and cut off supplies to Ukraine after it refused to pay a similar rise.
Considering President Putin's former occupation, I wouldn't put it past him. The Washington Post also has an interesting read about our government's lack of reaction to Russia's move to totalitarianism.
Russia is using it's state owned natural gas monopoly to place pressure on the Ukrainian President, after he won a contested election against a Kremlin backed rival a year ago. Russian Gazprom wants to force Ukraine to pay more than 4 times the current price being paid, of $50 per 1,000 cubic meters. read more »
Bloomberg has the story of the Russian economic policy advisor Andrei Illarionov who has quit his position, saying Russia is "no longer free". read more »
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, recently requested one of our “Enjoy Capitalism” t-shirts, which he wore to the G8 conference.
