Word: russian
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...outskirts of Moscow stands a giant television tower, the tallest structure in Europe. It is a tragic monument—once a symbol of Soviet power over Russian journalists but now, as new antennae make it 130 feet taller, a cosmetic triumph for the increasingly controlled Russian media. But despite the strength of this symbol, serious threats challenge the freedom of the Russian press. Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, has just voted to extend new restrictions on a press that is already the subject to random raids and blackouts...
...devices used during government raids would also become illegal. Though many of the provisions are just restatements of existing law, the bill’s passage by a margin of more than two to one is worrying. This is another weakly-resisted step towards the curtailment of the Russian press, a long-term trend that has recently gained vitality with 15-hour television blackouts, raids on newspapers on orders of dubious legality from the Russian Press Ministry. Russian authorities, infamous for selective enforcement of certain laws, will undoubtedly find a broad interpretation of these new provisions useful in regular government...
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who has shown little regard for the free press in the past, will reject the Duma’s proposal. In addition, little diplomatic pressure from the United States can be expected, as President George W. Bush continues to woo Putin away from the Axis of Evil. Tragically, as the height of Moscow’s TV tower rises, the soul of the Russian media will continue to be chained...
...Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov called for restoring the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, which is currently lying in a park next to other Communist-era sculptures, to its former place in the city’s Lubyanka Square. This immediately set off a wave of protests from outraged citizens, the Russian Orthodox Church, various human rights organizations and members of Russia’s parliament. Dzerzhinsky, you see, was to Soviet mass violence what Goering and Heinrich Himmler were to the Nazi Holocaust. After the “October Revolution” of 1917, he founded the Cheka?...
...Wellstone's contrarian act. No other member of the Senate was on the losing side of so many 99-to-1 or 98-to-2 votes, and none voted more consistently against the Bush Administration, according to the Congressional Quarterly. But Wellstone was not merely obstreperous. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants, he was encouraged by his father, a frustrated playwright and essayist who spoke 10 languages and worked for the U.S. Information Agency under Edward R. Murrow, to live a life that merged intellectual pursuits with community service. At 19, Wellstone married his high school sweetheart, Sheila Ison, the daughter...