Comments on: Monday Morning Standings – Olympics are Done

By: chucker

chucker — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:29:46 +0000

Steve-O: I actually think the opposite. I bet they feel that democracy hurt them, and they want a return to when they were 1a or 1b on the world stage.Putin keeps taking power, and they keep giving it to him because its felt that he is restoring that greatness to Russia.

Kind of what I was going at. They want the "image" of a progressive democracy/open economy but the old dictatorship is firmly entrenched. The control of the media there is astounding. Lots of reporters routinely get threatened, and lots have been killed. I agree. They are tightening their grip for sure. What's old is new again.

By: Steve-O

Steve-O — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:52:57 +0000

chucker: They want to have the veil of democracy

I actually think the opposite. I bet they feel that democracy hurt them, and they want a return to when they were 1a or 1b on the world stage. Putin keeps taking power, and they keep giving it to him because its felt that he is restoring that greatness to Russia.

By: chucker

chucker — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:06:25 +0000

Yeah, good old Trotsky. Pravda “Truth” was indeed a propoganda/state controlled “media” source. The Russians have tried to perpetuate it as an independent entity, but as we’ve seen, everything that was old in the USSR is now new again in Russia, especially the state paranoia and need for chest thumping.

We learned all about Soviet politics in high school and I also did in my University studies. I took a few political sciences classes and also had an economics proff from Russia. He was hillarious.

I find Russia a puzzling political creature. They want to have the veil of democracy, when nothing is further from the truth, it’s basically exactly the same as it was in the USSR except with an open economy now and they want to move forward and be recognized as an world leader, yet they cannot move past all the same pitfalls of the old systems.

I expect Sochi will be very interesting. Russia wants to wow the world, but Sochi is in the middle of the largest arms and drugs smuggling and sales corridors in the world. Should be interesting. Not to mention a few near by neighbors who like to terrorize them…

By: NorwegianOiler

NorwegianOiler — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:33:17 +0000

It was the Bolshevik speakerphone for over 80 years, and it’s name (Pravda) literally means ‘truth’, which is kind of the media equivalent to totalitarian states with ‘democratic republic’ in their name

From what I know now, it’s ‘independent’ from the state, but what that actually means for its credibility is unknown to me

By: Racki

Racki — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:29:56 +0000

I asked one of the ladies that works here (she’s originally from Russia). Unfortunately she’s too out of touch with the motherland, but said that it used to be the national paper. Figured it’s probably slipped a bit but thought it would still be akin to the Journal here. But also admitted its been 4 years since she’s read it, so anything could have changed. Also said that she just has been hearing everyone making excuses for the team there, and also bagging on the team as well.