INTERVIEW: Activist: Putin as president would be "Russia's ruin"

INTERVIEW: Activist: Putin as president would be "Russia's ruin"

Moscow - The re-election of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the presidency would be 'Russia's ruin,' prominent civil rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina has told the German Press Agency dpa.

'Putin has not one ounce of respect for the population,' the 69- year-old head of refugee organization Civil Help said. 'He's a person who doesn't understand - perhaps really doesn't understand - what democracy is.'

Gannushkina, a mathematician by training, has been regarded for years as a likely candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on human rights. She is also a member of President Dmitry Medvedev's human rights committee.

The current situation in Russia is 'catastrophic' because all the structures of a democratic administration had been destroyed, she said.

She hopes that Medvedev, will be re-elected, despite 'his mistakes.'

'Despite everything, Medvedev seems to be a person for whom a scale of good and bad still exists,' she added.

Putin, on the other hand, has no such understanding.

'Having a person in power who has so many personal weaknesses is very dangerous,' she said, saying that for example, Putin could not forgive people and would always seek revenge.

Medvedev and Putin have repeatedly said that they will work out between themselves which of them will become a candidate for 2012 presidential elections.

Medvedev had allowed those who believe in democracy to hope that he wouldn't just talk about reform, but may also follow up his words with actions, Gannushkina said.

But Medvedev, a qualified lawyer, had not yet fulfilled his promise to create an independent judiciary, she said. 'He doesn't understand that we need courts with juries.'

Russian judges are either bribable or constantly find themselves in a conflict of interest, Gannushkina said.

'Our judges lost the ability to make judgements based on their inner convictions long ago,' she said.

The activist was also concerned about extreme nationalistic tendencies among Russians, in particular against migrants from Central Asia, and about the ongoing conflict between Russian-backed forces and Islamist separatists in the North Caucasus.

Gannushkina has done a lot of work with refugees from the North Caucasus region, which includes the Russian republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=16178884

22.04.2011, 11.03

MOSCOW, April 22 (Itar-Tass) - Over 40 wildfires covering the area of almost 1,000 hectares are registered across Russia, a source from the information department of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations reported on Friday.

“A total of 134 wildfire centres covering the area of over 2,000 hectares have been registered in Russia’s regions over the past 24 hours,” the source said. “Ninety-one of them have been put out and 43 wildfires covering the area of 959.8 hectares were registered as of 6 am, Moscow time on Thursday,” the source added.

He said 14 fires have been localized. “There are no major wildfires,” ministry sources stressed.

Over 1,000 people assisted by 238 units of hardware are combating the fires.

Duma Security Committee’s deputy chairman: corruption to break Russia into pieces in 2 years

http://abc.az/eng/news_22_04_2011_53393.html

22.04.2011 10:48

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Russia faces the threat of disintegration into "principalities" to interact with each other forcedly.

Yesterday on the air of RBC TV Gennady Gudkov, deputy chairman of Russian State Duma Committee on Security, said that monthly corruption costs for each citizen of Russia from the frail elders to babies in 5,500 rubles (about $180), reaching a volume of $300 bn a year.

"Either we are now beginning to change the situation or there will not be Russia, but some parts of the former Russian state to interact with each other somehow. If Russia does not adapt to modern conditions, which preclude the widespread corruption as a way of economy running, we will collapse maximum in a year or two years. We have not more time for fight,” Gudkov said.

In his view, the only salvation for Russia can be assistance of the West, if the latter decides to check-out the origin of wealth of all the major Russian men of property, as corrupt officials do not associate their future with Russia and fear only that they will be denied entry to the west, where they have business, accounts, and property.

Russia itself, in Gudkov’s opinion, for a start should at least ratify Article 20 of the UN Convention against Corruption, which obliges to add the issue of illegal enrichment to the Criminal Code, put revenues and expenses under control, introduce absolute transparency in work of the authorities.

Gudkov finds it impossible to apply Georgia’s method of dealing with corruption when 85% of police personnel was sacked in Russia, as the latter would have to fire 90% of the state, regional and municipal apparatus. Russia will simply hardly be able to ensure such a large number of new officials.