As the battle for Marjah goes on, NATO is making plans for an even larger campaign in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and a center of the Taliban insurgency.

To help manage that growing effort, the Wall Street Journal reports the U.S. and its allies will create a new U.S.-led command in Southeast Afghanistan.

For more on the challenges that lie ahead, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and former State Department analyst on Afghanistan.

To shed light on the legacy of conflict in Afghanistan, our German partner Deutsche Welle reports on the lessons of Russia’s long war there through the experience of one former soldier.

Back in 1990, when fast food arrived in Moscow, Russians considered the items to be delicacies. Today, Russia boasts the busiest McDonald’s in the world.

Oksana Boyko of Russia Today reports on how McDonald’s offered more than just fast food — it represented Western values.

Watch a 2003 commerical for McDonald’s - the Russian version of “I’m Loving It.”

The Private Sector Development Blog, which is maintained by the World Bank Group’s Rapid Response knowledge service, noted another important aspect of the anniversary.

McDonald’s is celebrating its 20th anniversary in Russia this week. One of the most interesting aspects of McDonald’s’ Russian adventure is the evolution of its supply chain, which has developed remarkably in the past 20 years. Today, McDonald’s sources all of its ingredients from outside purveyors, an 180 degree shift from when the company opened its first outlet in 1990:

The company celebrated a different milestone earlier this year by outsourcing the last product — hamburger buns — it had made at a proprietary factory outside Moscow called McComplex. It was built before the chain opened its first restaurant. Nearly everywhere else, McDonald’s buys ingredients, rather than making its own. But in the Soviet Union, there simply were no private businesses to supply the 300 or so distinct ingredients needed by a McDonald’s outlet.

Everything — from frozen French fries to pie filling — had to be made from scratch at a sprawling factory.

In the 20 years since McDonald’s arrived in Russia, enough private enterprises have sprung up to supply nearly every ingredient needed to operate one of its restaurants.

Today, private businesses in Russia supply 80 percent of the ingredients in a McDonald’s, a reversal from the ratio when it opened in 1990 and 80 percent of ingredients were imported.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for the officials responsible for preparing the Russian Olympic team to resign.

Neave Barker of Al Jazeera English reports from Moscow on anger at Russia’s Olympics performance.

We chose this story because it illustrates how the drive toward what is often called “progress” can threaten a traditional culture. The piece is also about how hunger for oil is jeopardizing this way of life.

Jonah Hull of Al Jazeera English reports on the Khanty people of northern Siberia.

Photo: US Mission Canada

Inuit are the indigenous inhabitants of an Arctic region that crosses Canada, Alaska, Russia and Greenland. In April 2009, Inuit came together from across the Arctic Circle and issued a declaration establishing their rights to self-determination.

In a leap forward for indigenous self-rule, in 1999 the Canadian government created an Inuit majority territory, Nunavut, meaning “our land” in the Inuit language. Covering 1.9 million square kilometers and home to 29,000 residents, most of them Indigenous, its decentralized government allows Inuit to take control of their own affairs.

Worldfocus spoke with Stephen Hendrie, the Director of Communications at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization based in Ottawa, about the issue.

Worldfocus: What has been the impact of the creation of the territory of Nunavut?

Hendrie: The creation of the Nunavut territory — the biggest jurisdiction in the Americas with an aboriginal majority — remains an inspiration.

The territory garnered international headlines when it changed the map of Canada on April 1, 1999 for the first time since 1949. People always look to the Nunavut territory as the place where most Inuit live in Canada. In fact less than 50% of Inuit live in Nunavut. The three other Inuit regions in Canada– Inuvialuit, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut– have either established a regional government (Nunatsiavut), are on the verge of doing so (Nunavik), or continue to work on a form of one (Inuvialuit).

The 53 Inuit communities located in “Inuit Nunangat” (the region Inuit in Canada describe as the Inuit homeland located in the Inuvialuit Region of the NorthWest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik in Northern Quebec and Nunatsiavut in Labrador) enjoy unique forms of power-sharing within Canada through the provisions of comprehensive land claim agreements (modern ‘treaties’). These agreements, which define power-sharing arrangements governing public administration and the ownership, use and management of natural resources, have Constitutional protection.

When you look at the picture overall, Inuit have achieved extraordinary advances within the Canadian political landscape, and that has been done in a peaceful manner over the course of the past 35-40 years.

The push for further advances continues, with key issues being economic development, overcoming a legacy of problems in relation to the core social services of health, education and housing, and the preservation of the Inuit language.

Worldfocus: How much is the traditional Inuit way of life changing in response to modern pressures?

Hendrie: What if this question were turned around? What if “Westerners” were surprised to learn that the Inuit perspective to this question is that the “Western” way of life is being adapted by Inuit in the service of preserving the traditional Inuit way of life? Inuit didn’t stop hunting when ski-doos were introduced. Inuit simply hunted more efficiently. Inuit don’t see an Internet dominated by English as merely a threat. Inuit are using the Internet to preserve language and culture. See isumatv.ca for an example of the internet in use as a tool for the preservation of Inuit language and culture.

Worldfocus: How would you compare the condition of Inuit in Canada with those in Alaska?

Hendrie: Inuit in Canada and Alaska face many similar challenges, such as the need to ensure adequate Inuit control over major non-renewable resource development projects, the need to overcome gaps in basic living conditions, the challenge of preserving language and culture, and combating the efforts by internationally organized animal rights extremists to undermine the livelihoods of hunting peoples everywhere.

Inuit in Canada and Alaska do live in larger societies with different Constitutions and political traditions, and these differences color Inuit realities and priorities in the two countries. For example, Canadian Inuit have access to universal public health insurance and a history of much greater access to public housing; Alaskan Inuit have demonstrated the high level of entrepreneurial initiative characteristic of American society in general.

- Jamie Macfarlane

Along with their proud heritage and striking landscapes, residents struggle with unemployment, poverty and cultural dislocation. Suicide rates among Inuit youth are ten times higher than the national average.

In the tiny Arctic town of Igloolik, where there are barely 1500 inhabitants, around 5 young adults commit suicide every year.

In response to this widespread despair among the young in Igloolik, the village launched several initiatives. A film company, Iglooklik Isuma Productions, went on to win the Camera d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

With the help of a Montreal acrobat, several young people also created a circus troupe called Artcirq that blends modern circus activities with traditional Inuit culture.

Filmmaker Linda Matchan, in association with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, is documenting these efforts in a project called Hope on Ice.

Artcirq has taken its performance all the way to the Olympics, performing in a Vancouver medal ceremony on February 21st.

Linda Matchan blogged this week from Vancouver about the large native presence at the Olympics:

The Aboriginal presence at the Olympics is conspicuous to anyone who watched the opening ceremonies on TV, which were dominated by four massive totem poles representing each of the host First Nations. The work of Aboriginal artists appear in every Olympic venue. The gold, silver and bronze medals feature West Coast aboriginal designs.

Not all Aboriginal people are buying this. As Joseph himself acknowledged, First Nations people experience an unemployment rate that is at least double of other Canadians. The suicide rate in Aboriginal communities is twice the national rate. Two out of three Aboriginal children living on reserves will not graduate from high school.

Members of an Olympic Resistance Movement have argued that the Olympics is merely window dressing. They say the money would have been better spent on remedying the after-effects of colonialism, such as homelessness among Aboriginals, many of whom live in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side known as the poorest postal code in Canada.

Canada’s Arctic Inuit people have many of the same social problems, though they have not been addressed so vocally at the Olympics (It is the source of some pride, though, that the official Olympic logo is an inukshuk, a traditional stone sculpture used by Canada’s Inuit people).

Now you can take one of the great train journeys of the world without leaving the comfort of your own home.

A new joint venture between Google and Russian Railways provides a virtual gateway to the world’s longest continuous railway.

Look out the window and take in the scenery as you travel more than 5,600 miles from Moscow to Vladivostok. Here’s the portal in English and in Russian.

There are more than 150 hours of footage shot from a moving train, as it winds across seven times zones.

You’ll travel over the Volga, the Yenisei and the Ob Rivers; around Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake in the world; into and out of cities like Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest; through the Barguzin mountains; and alongside wooden Siberian villages. The 30-minute-stretch from Petrovsk-Zabailkalsky city is particularly picturesque.

To accompany your voyage, you can choose to listen to the hypnotic, natural sound of wheels churning along the tracks. Or, you can select to have Russian radio or traditional balalaika music piping through the “train.”

Riders aren’t able to listen to literary classics like Tolstoi’s War and Peace and Gogol’s Dead Souls, but you can, provided you understand Russian.

If you’re feeling antsy and don’t think you’ll last cooped up on the train for the full six-to-seven days of the voyage, you can stop, jump off and explore fourteen cities en route (a luxury that a Moscow-to-Vladivostok ticket won’t allow).

Through Google maps, you can view video, look at photographs, and read facts and descriptions of historic sites, museums and markets.

Take, for instance, the city of Ulan-Ude — the capital of Russia’s Buryat Republic and major center of Tibetan Buddhism — about three-quarters of the way to the journey’s end.

On a short side trip, you can take a video excursion down Gagarin Street, view photos of the city’s panorama, and read about the Ivolginsky Datsan, where the body of Khambo Lama Itigelov, leader of Russian Buddhists from 1911-1918, is preserved.

View the full Ulan Ude map on Google

While you may not be able to feel the wind on your face, talk to your fellow passengers, or taste the fresh berries and homemade pirozhki sold along route, this virtual train ride will give you a sense of the vastness of the landscape of the world’s largest country.

My weekend plans? I’m finally jumping aboard the Trans-Siberian.

- Christine Kiernan

See more of the Obama and the World series.

Russian vigil. Photo credit flickr user squigglycircle

Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in Moscow’s Butyrka prison on November 16, after being held for 11 months on charges of tax-evasion tied to his work with the London-based investment fund Hermitage Capital Management. (The Fund’s President William Browder was blacklisted from Russia in 2005 and the firm’s Moscow office subject to “corporate raiding.” You can read more about the case here.)

Magnitsky’s numerous appeals for medical care had gone unanswered, and the 37-year-old died from pancreatitis he developed while in custody.

The case received widespread attention, internationally, with Gordon Brown calling for an investigation, and also inside Russia. This past Monday, the Moscow Public Oversight Commission, an independent NGO mandated to monitor human rights in Moscow detention facilities, issued a 20-page report on Magnitsky’s case. Among the report’s findings: the lawyer was held at times in “tortuous conditions” and was subject to “physical and psychological pressure.”

The report also accuses Interior Ministry officials, prison staff and the legal community of negligence. You can find a summary of the report’s conclusions in English here.

The official reaction to the case: President Medvedev earlier this month fired some 20 senior corrections officials. Today he removed the deputy director general of the Federal Penitentiary Service, Aleksandr Piskunov, and signed a bill that bans the jailing of  people suspected of tax crimes.

Medvedev is also pushing for a reform of the Interior Ministry, largely in response to a series of recent sandals involving Russian police. Last week he ordered the Interior Ministry to cut its 1.4 million strong staff (including police, interior ministry troops and civilian officials) by 20 percent by January 1, 2012.

Will these moves be enough to increase government accountability? Vladimir Milov, politician and former deputy ministrer of energy, commented on the Echo Moscow radio station website: “only the most naive would consider the ‘cleansing’ of the Federal Penitentiary Service as a positive move by the President in response to the death of Sergei Magnitsky.

In reality, the death of Magnitsky was clearly used as a reason to try to strengthen the cadres of the FPS with people loyal to the President.”

Time will tell. That the critical report was released and widely publicized is a positive sign. But issues that Magnitsky’s case touches on — human rights violations, squalid prison conditions, corruption and lack of accountability — run deep and will not be easily rectified.

For more:

• An interview with a former inmate at Butyrka on conditions in the prison
• Hermitage Capital Management head William Browder comments on his colleague’s death in Foreign Policy
• This site has a wealth of information about Magnitsky’s case, including a bio, copies of his appeals and court decisions, and publicity.

What Russian newspapers say on the topic:

• “Medvedev Fires the Deputy Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service: Did General Lieutenant Aleksandr-Piskunov suffer from the ‘Magnitsky Affair‘?”
• “The system of rendering medical aid to prisoners in Russia needs to be reformed…”
• “The Public Oversight Commission names those guilty in the death of Magnitsky”

And, Neve Barker of Al Jazeera English reports on prison conditions in Russia.

Kostroma Market. Photo: Flickr user Michael Clark

One of the architects of the so-called “shock therapy” economic reforms that dismantled post-Soviet Russia’s state-controlled economy died last week.

Yegor Gaidar, who served as deputy prime minister in charge of economic reform and later as finance minister and acting prime minister, passed away outside of Moscow at 53.

Gaidar presided over one of the most transformative periods in Russian history, ushering in the basic elements of a market economy: free prices and free trade. In the aftermath of his decree allowing free trade, people rushed to sell their goods.

With the abolishment of price controls, prices skyrocketed and hyperinflation swept the country, wiping out the life savings of millions of Russians. This, along with the subsequent mass privatization of state industry, did not make Gaidar a popular man.

Whether he “saved the country from hunger, civil war and collapse,” as his compatriot Antaly Chubais noted, or brought Russia to the brink of ruin, remains a matter of debate.

Worldfocus researcher Christine Kiernan spoke with Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international relations at the New School in New York City, about Gaidar’s legacy.

Worldfocus: You say you’re not really a fan of Yegor Gaidar’s. Why not?

Krushcheva: Well how many fans do you know? I think his intentions were good, as Yeltsin’s were at the time. I’m just not sure he knew what he was doing. Russia has never been a democracy. And Russia certainly was not a truly capitalist country. Pre-socialism it was to a certain extent a feudal economy still.

Gaidar went into this in the most ideological way possible, probably with good intentions in mind. Everything and anything he knew about capitalism and how it worked came from American books. But Russia is a big country, and from Gaidar’s standpoint it was a lab. From Yeltsin’s standpoint, they needed to do it all fast. That ended up being a serious problem, a serious disaster. Although his intentions were good, he had no way of knowing what capitalism is. He’d never tested it. He had a completely crazy belief in the markets.

Moscow shopping area. Photo: Flickr user Melvin T. Schlubman

Worldfocus: In an interview, speaking about the time, Gaidar said, “It was clear that if nothing were done, and everyone was afraid to act, that there would be a catastrophe.”

Krushcheva: Gaidar’s argument was that we couldn’t do it slower, in an evolutionary way, that it needed to be done in a revolutionary way. But we know from Russian history that revolutions never work… I can’t dismiss the possibility that it was partly because of this all or nothing approach that Putin came in. Perhaps if it had been a slower process people wouldn’t have gotten so disillusioned or wanted a great Russia back at any cost.

Worldfocus: What kind of legacy does he leave behind?

Krushcheva: He and Anatoly Chubais [another member of Yeltsin's team who oversaw the privatization effort] are blamed. There was an expression in the 1990’s: “Gaidar i Chubaitsy” – a plural and hyphenated name to describe those who brought that completely unruly, irresponsible capitalism to Russia. Their legacy was very tainted.

He was certainly very bright. No question about it. And very privileged. He was the grandson of a very prominent Soviet writer of children’s literature. Yet he made his own name, which was difficult. That is what I respect him for.

Gaidar was one of those 1990s tragedies – those people didn’t fit into the country and the country didn’t fit into them. He presided over a historical period where, as his successor [Prime Minister Victor] Chermordyn put it really well, “we wanted to make it better but it turned out to be like always.”

That’s a formula for Russian life.

For more on how Yegor Gaidar and his reforms will be remembered:

• A commentary by economist Anders Asland, expert on economic transition who served as advisor to the Russian government
• A New York Times opinion piece on Gaidar’s mixed legacy
• An editorial in Russia’s The New Times in which he is characterized as a “great politician, because he made the only decision necessary for the country”
• Yegor Gaidar shares his reflections on Russia’s economic and political changes in the PBS series Commanding Heights

- Christine Kiernan

From entrepreneurship in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war to reverse brain drain in China and Baha’is in modern Iran, listen to the most popular shows from 2009:

	ETHIOPIA Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia	The Ethiopian government is trying to strengthen local businesses and attract foreign direct investment. Martin Savidge hosts Ermyas Amelga and Phillip LeBel to discuss how easy it is to do business in Ethiopia and who’s investing.
	CHINA Uighur Unrest in China	Ethnic clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese turned deadly when riots erupted in early July. Martin Savidge hosts Enze Han, Andrew James Nathan and Alim Seytoff to discuss Uighur political aspirations and Han Chinese migration.
	IRAN Baha’i Faith and Modern Iran	Iranian leaders view the banned Baha’i faith as heresy, and its followers have been arrested, imprisoned or executed. Martin Savidge hosts Dwight Bashir, Kit Bigelow and Trita Parsi to discuss the religion’s history of persecution in Iran.
	RUSSIA Russia’s Population in Peril	Facing dual threats of low birth rate and soaring mortality rate, the ethnic Russian population is aging and dying. Martin Savidge hosts Paul Goble, Vladimir Lenskiy and Louisa Vinton to discuss pro-natalist campaigns and national debates on abortion.
	PHILIPPINES The Forgotten Terrorist Front	Since 9/11, the U.S. has stationed 500 to 600 troops in the Philippines to root out terrorists from the lawless jungles of the heavily Muslim south. Martin Savidge hosts Eliseo Mercado and Zachary Abuza to discuss Filipino counter-insurgency.
	CANADA Canada in Afghanistan	Canadian troops have served alongside Americans in Afghanistan, with 2,700 currently posted — primarily in Kandahar. Martin Savidge hosts Amb. Ron Hoffman, Nipa Banerjee and Terry Glavin to discuss Canada’s role and Afghan public opinion.
	CHINA & INDIA Reverse Brain Drain	Does the U.S. risk falling behind as skilled immigrants return to their home countries? Martin Savidge hosts Vivek Wadhwa and Michele Wucker to discuss emerging opportunities for highly-skilled immigrants and U.S. immigration restrictions.
	SRI LANKA Sri Lanka’s Bloody Civil War	As the Sri Lankan military waged its final bloody battle against the rebel Tamil Tigers, civilians were caught in the crossfire. Martin Savidge hosts Rohan Gunaratna, Amb. Jeffrey Lunstead and Ahilan Kadirgamar to discuss war and peace in Sri Lanka.
	IRAQ The Business of Iraq	Small enterprises — “mom and pop” shops — represent about 90 percent of the Iraq’s businesses. Martin Savidge hosts Ali Alnaemi, Eric Davis and Robert Looney to discuss Iraq’s high unemployment and ability to rebuild itself.
	ISRAEL Jerusalem United or Divided?	East and West Jerusalem are divided along ethnic and religious lines — in addition to the separation fence that Israel built to secure the city. Martin Savidge hosts Mustafa Barghouti and Gershon Baskin to analyze the shared city.

‘The Stans’ are the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics — Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — with similar historical, political and cultural roots.

These nations are asserting their cultural identity by proposing ethnic language policies — potentially banning the use of the Russian language.

In Kyrgyzstan, there’s a proposal to make Kyrgyz the dominant governmental language, and in Tajikistan, there’s another to ban the use of Russian in public institutions and official documents.

This week, Chinese President Hu Jintao opened a new gas pipeline that extends from Turkmenistan to north-west China — the first without Russia’s Gazprom.

Martin Savidge hosts William Fierman, a professor of Central Asian studies at Indiana University, and Nikolay Petrov, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Ethnic map of Central Asia. View a larger version by Pmx

They discuss:

• Common political, cultural and historical roots but not a homogeneous entity
• Post-Soviet relationships between ‘The Stans’ and Russia — how ethnic tensions and discrimination continue
• Economic crisis, drug trafficking, oil and migration
• How Russia, China and the United States are vying for ‘The Stans’
• Political instability and poor economic well-being raise concerns about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism
• Could Central Asia become the next conflict zone — even the next Afghanistan?

GUESTS:
Nikolay Petrov is a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He has served in the Supreme Soviet and Russian Presidential Administration. Nikolay writes a regular column for The Moscow Times.

William Fierman is a professor of Central Asian studies at Indiana University. His research focuses on the politics of Central Asia, especially policies affecting language, Islam and state identities. He’s currently researching language politics and problems in Kazakhstan.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Christine Kiernan, Lisa Biagiotti and Ben Piven
Researcher: Michael Ramirez

A young Russian man named Pyotr Tyushkevich recently became the world champion.

Russia Today’s Robert Vardanian shows us what eye-catching kitesurfing and its new star are all about.

Moscow dissenters’ march. Photo: flickr user mosdave

Worldfocus researcher Christine Kiernan wrote last month about several recent detentions of Russian activists in Moscow.  For more about the issue, she talks to Allison Gill, director of the Russia office of Human Rights Watch, about freedom of assembly in Russia.

Worldfocus: Police detained protesters last month in front of the detention center where opposition activist Eduard Limonov was being held. Has he been released?

Allison Gill: Yes, he was only held for ten days. It was an administrative detention.

What’s interesting to me is the real vitriol, vigor, with which minor protests are handled by authorities. Ten days of administration arrest for nonviolently turning out on the streets to tell the government something seems disproportionate.

Worldfocus: The right to freedom of assembly is enshrined in article 31 of the Russian Constitution.  What is the state of this right in practice?

Allison Gill: I can mostly speak to Moscow because I’m here. It plays out a bit differently in different places. The trend is one to restrict assembly, and when we’re talking about assembly let’s assume as our baseline peaceful nonviolent gatherings. Under international standards governments have the right to regulate assembly but don’t have the right in peacetime to cut off the ability for citizens to peacefully assemble.

[In Russia] the language of regulation is one of informing and agreeing. You need to inform the government about the place for assembly and then come to an agreement on a time and place. It’s really clever. It makes it easy for the government to say we don’t restrict ability of people to assemble.

In reality, Moscow authorities tend to be quite restrictive. They’ll say that you can do it in some completely irrelevant place on the outskirts of the city, or deep in a park where no one will see you. They restrict big assemblies from the more central places. They’ll assign the protesters to a place where people assembling don’t want to be, or they’ll say that the place they want is booked already. There are lots of easily mobilizable pro-Kremlin groups. They can snap their fingers and you’ll get Nashi [a pro-Kremlin youth group] out with their flags.

There are different regulations for marches, for movements of people. For these, permits are almost never granted.

Worldfocus: Why is the Russian government so opposed to letting people assemble?

Allison Gill: In a way it defies all logic. You’re talking about relatively small gatherings in a city of 10 to 15 million. This is a huge, bustling, busy metropolis. I understand why authorities would take measures to prohibit, to prevent, traffic interruption. Traffic in Moscow is a nightmare. Why they go to such lengths to restrict relatively small groups from gathering on sidewalks defies logic. The tactics are so disproportionate, the police response so large, it ends up drawing more attention than they would otherwise.

For example, take the Dissenters March in 2007. It was a big deal. The Presidential elections were coming up in May. It was obvious Putin’s candidate would get elected. I was there. There were 200 marchers, maybe 300 if you want to be generous. There were thousands of police. They had flown in special forces, special operations, from all over the country. It was a multi-thousand dollar policing operation. Thousands of police for 200 marchers. It’s completely crazy.

Worldfocus: Does the government see the protesters as a genuine threat?

Allison Gill: They pay a lot of attention to things that could potentially mobilize public dissent. It’s almost like a real allergy to any kind of public criticism, or public display that the government is weak or doesn’t enjoy full support, any calls for accountability.

Worldfocus: Who are the protesters?

Allison Gill: The group Solidarnost that Limonov is part of is a motley crew of unlikely bedfellows: Kasparov [Gary Kasporov, Russia chess grandmaster and Chairman of the United Civil Front], Lyudmila Alekseevna, chair of the Moscow Helsinki group, and the National Bolshevik Party. It’s a weird mix. These are not people who would ordinarily share a platform. But they share a larger sense of dissatisfaction, of being disenfranchised, of not having effective opportunities to speak out and shape policy. Who joins protests varies depending on issue. There’s a contingent of people that are unhappy, former Soviet dissidents who risked their lives, families, and health to protest a form of government they found unconscionable. To see the fruit of their sacrifice wasted is very painful.

Worldfocus: Limonov and his supporters hold protests bimonthly at Triumphalnaya Square to exercise their right to assemble. How many people do the gatherings draw?

Allison Gill: At most I’d say 100. They want regularly to establish a tradition of meeting, to make it not something out of the ordinary but a tradition that people gather and speak their mind.

Worldfocus: Looking at Russian history, is this tradition out of the ordinary?

Allison Gill:It is and it isn’t. In the current context it’s the last resort for people who feel they have no other avenues… There’s a tradition in Russia of people appealing directly to the tsar. I don’t know if this comes from that at all. So often it’s just about getting noticed.

The dissenters marchers don’t enjoy a lot of popular support, partly because they don’t have normal channels of reaching constituents to develop policy platforms. It’s all about trying to get heard.

Worldfocus: Is there an opposition in Russia?

Allison Gill: The party system is incredibly weak. Votes aren’t won based on whether or not you appeal to the electorate. Politicians are pretty indifferent… The opposition has been so squarely sidelined. In the case of Limonov and Kasparov, so much goes into logistics – how they get heard, how they have meetings, how they arrange a party congress. They pay more attention to that rather than what they say when they get a forum… The opposition is pretty weak.

Worldfocus: What is the importance of the right to assemble?

Allison Gill: It’s a basic, fundamental right and key to a functioning democracy.

- Christine Kiernan

Moscow’s Triumph Square. Photo: argenberg

November has not been a good month for Russia’s political opposition.

A number of activists have been detained in recent days, including the outspoken writer and activist Eduard Limonov, who was picked up for participating in an “unsanctioned rally” in Moscow on October 31. Limonov is now serving 10 days of administrative arrest.

On Nov. 16, police detained eight other activists who were demonstrating in support of Limonov.

Their arrests may not have been accidental. Activists from the opposition Solidarity movement say they have uncovered a high-level police memo ordering officers to disrupt the protests. The memo, photographed with a cell phone, is posted on the blog of activist Ilya Yashin.

Signed by an officer in the police force, the memo is directed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Center to Prevent Extremism. It informs the Center about plans by Solidarity activists to carry out a series of individual pickets near the detention facility where Limonov is being held, and the police force’s intent to take measures against the “unsanctioned” meetings.

At the center of the controversy: the right to freedom of assembly, as provided by article 31 of the Russian Federation’s Constitution, which states “Citizens of the Russian Federation shall have the right to gather peacefully, without weapons, and to hold meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets.”

In practice, however, the right to freedom of assembly in Russia has been severely curtailed in recent years. To reassert the public’s right to gather freely, Limonov and his followers have been organizing protests on the 31^st of every month at 6 pm in front of Moscow’s Triumph Square.

What’s interesting about the protests against Limonov’s detention on the 16th is that they were planned as individual actions – pickets by one person alone do not need official approval to proceed.

However, when Boris Nemtsov, former Deputy Prime Minister turned opposition figure, went out on the street to picket, he reportedly was joined by two men in hooded jackets – which brought the number of protesters to three, making it an “unsanctioned” protest. Nemtsov was subsequently detained by police.

But the same two men reportedly then joined activist Vladimir Milov, whom police also detained. The hooded men walked away free, and went on to disrupt two other protesters, Aleksandr Ryklin and Sergei Zhavoronkov. RFERL has posted a slide show of the pickets and arrests.

Meanwhile, the Communist party has taken up Limonov’s cause in Parliament and 34 Russian writers and publicists have published an open letter on his behalf, arguing that “Eduard Limonov…should not have to undergo arrest in order to realize his constitutional right to the freedom of assembly.”

If the police are in fact fabricating protests in order to have a pretext to arrest activists, it’s a sorry state of affairs indeed.

- Christine Kiernan

Over the past decade, their struggle has continued, drawing in Islamist fighters from across the region. Russia has been accused of a heavy-handed response to the insurgency.

Neave Barker of Al Jazeera English reports on the low-level rebellion from Dagestan.

Daljit Dhaliwal talks about AIDS prevention policy in Russia with Rowena Johnston of amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. While Russia has made progress in blocking HIV transmission between mothers and babies, Johnston says Russia draws too much on ideology — rather than science — for prevention strategies.

SOUTH KOREA: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates maintained a tough stand Wednesday against North Korea, calling its nuclear threat more lethal than ever. He said, “We do not today - nor will we ever - accept a North Korea with nuclear weapons.”

CHINA: The admiral in charge of the U.S. Pacific Command said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence estimates have underestimated China’s military abilities annually over the past decade. “They’ve grown at an unprecedented rate,” he said.

A UN investigator presented a report to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday outlining some of the worst prisons in the world. It included the West African nations of Nigeria and Togo, cited for gross human rights violations.

SOMALIA: The Somali militant group Al-Shabaab has silenced two independent radio stations in the town of Baidoa. There was no reason given for the decision.

Kazan Kremlin Mosque. Photo: Flickr user pirateparrot

Clinton swung by the predominantly Muslim autonomous republic at the end of her three-day trip to Russia this week. After visiting the Kazan Kremlin, the Blagoveshchensk Orthodox Cathedral, and the newly built Kol Sharif Mosque, one of the largest in Europe and Russia, Clinton praised the republic as a “model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians.”

Tatarstan is one of more than 20 ethnic republics in the Russian Federation. Located between the Volga and Kama Rivers some 500 miles east of Moscow, it is home to two million Turkic-speaking Tatars — the largest non-Slavic minority group in Russia. Chuvash, Udmurt, and Mordvin are among the other ethnic groups, alongside ethnic Russians, that make up the rest of the population. Slightly more than half of residents are Muslim.

Tatars are proud of their heritage, and their independent roots run deep. In the 15^th century, they had their own medieval state—the Kazan Khanate, which ruled for more than a century, until Ivan the Terrible brought the khanate under Moscow’s dominion in 1552.

The Sunday before Clinton’s visit, more than 400 people demonstrated in the capital city Kazan to mark the anniversary of this very conquest. Demonstrators took the opportunity to protest Moscow’s policy of “Russification”—targeting a new education law passed this year that advances the use of Russian—and call for the national independence of the Tatars.

Claims to Tatar independence are not new. During the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990-91, Tatarstan was one of many ethnic minority republics within Russia demanding full-fledged sovereignty. Chechnya’s attempts to break away resulted in two wars, and violence continues to flare there periodically.

Blagoveshensky Cathedral, Kazan. Photo: Flickr user LostBob

Tatarstan was luckier. While its attempts to gain independence failed, no blood was shed. Due in part to President Mintimir Shaimiev’s savvy negotiating, Tatartstan walked away with more autonomy than any other republic in the Federation, including a significant degree of control over its economic resources.

Today, Tatarstan is, as the official website boats, one of the most economically developed parts of Russia. Rich in oil, it is also a manufacturing hub. Some of the biggest and most successful Russian companies are based there: the KamAZ truckmaker, for one. Shaimiev’s been successful in creating special economic zones and attracting foreign investment. Both Iran and Turkey, two big investors, have consulate generals in Kazan.

After Moscow and St. Petersburg, Tatarstan is said to be the most prosperous region of Russia. And, despite the prevalence of numerous ethnic groups and religions, and occasional pan-Tatar strivings for independence, actual strife is rare.

While the Tatar President’s claims to educate Secretary Clinton on foreign policy issues may be a bit far-fetched, it’s not that surprising the US State Department selected the region to showcase.

Or perhaps it was the republic’s unofficial motto that served as the decided factor: “We Can!”

Sound familiar, Obama?

- Christine Kiernan

Clinton swung by the predominantly Muslim autonomous republic at the end of her three-day trip to Russia this week. After visiting the Kazan Kremlin, the Blagoveshchensk Orthodox Cathedral, and the newly built Kol Sharif Mosque, Clinton praised the republic as a “model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians,” writes Christine Kiernan. http://worldfocus.org/files/2009/10/th_russia_kazan.jpg ]]> http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/10/16/what-hillary-clinton-could-learn-from-tatarstan/7825/feed/