We have already wrote about the imprisonment of Russian oligarch Mikhael Khodorkovsky here. Khodorkovsky who was once the wealthiest man in Russia, & was controlling YUKOS - a non state owned oil company. He was put in jail later for what many believe his political ambitions of trying to create opposition to Putin. Well, he is serving his long sentence in Siberian prison now. Vasiliy Aleksanyan who once was a vice-president of YUKOS is still going through his trial. Aleksanyan is almost blind, HIV-positive and recently had been diagnosed with cancer yet he is still being kept in a Russian prison. Khodorvosky even went on a hunger strike so his friend would get proper medical care. Meanwhile in court on February 1st, 2008 all requests by Aleksanyan’s lawyer to suspend the trial and move Aleksanyan to a hospital were denied by a judge so he will be kept in jail till the end of his trial/life, as you can see a number of supporters (with no Russian media in sight) had gathered to voice their outrage and support this man…
pictures via © AP/Михаил Метцель/Scanpix & drugoi
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 am
>a story Russian media won’t talk about…
That is a lie. This story and even those exact pictures are on the news.
What *foreign* media wan’t talk about is this: sometimes random people are paid to attend those meetings.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 am
- Russian TV outlets like ORT, NTV, & Rossiya?
- Perhaps some people were paid who knows, even if only 2 people showed up still a sad story.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
I don’t have an access to Russian TV. But it’s on mayor internet media, see, for example, lenta.ru.
So someone would pay the people to protest against they don’t care what? And the same “sponsors” would call foreign media to take pictures of people protesting against the bloody regime? Does not smell right to me.
It’s not good to keep a sick person imprisoned. But, if you think of that, *many* imprisoned in Russia have AIDS and tuberculosis. Many of them can’t even afford the treatment and probably die in pain. I agree, that should be changed.
But if as a result of this “public” demonstrations the rich butt gets helped and the other people are not even remembered - this is not a “democracy” and not a “humanism”, this is a freaking segregation I think is very wrong.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Well i get all of the controlled Russian media on my tv, the only thing you can find there lately is Putin + Medvedev hugging babies where ever they go)) Some online news papers like “nezavisemaya gazeta” which if i’m not mistaken is owned by Berezovsky (might be wrong on that) and some online news sources did cover it yes. Not the main Russian TV channels.
Well i’m sure there are people in even worse condition than Aleksayan who are kept in jail and no one will ever hear about them…
What can we do? Its the way public works, thousands die each day in car accidents, yet we talk about one celebrity death for weeks…
I at least think it’s important to bring awareness to this issue, because believe me a lot of people never even heard of Aleksayan and Yukos till now…
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
By helping a rich butt you won’t bring any awareness to the social problem. The way to go is to bring a story of an ordinary poor person (like that soldier with his legs removed or the school teacher caught on pirate software). I doubt they don’t understand this.
BTW, if 1st channel is what you called “controlled”, it is controlled by the government. If “Independent” gazeta is controlled by Berezovsky, it’s not independent.
And it’s not better, than controlled by the government. It’s much, much worse.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Well when you hear feel good stories about everything that happens in the country, and the only bad things that happen are some criminals caught in the country, or the idea of bribery only comes up when it’s some local town maier who was caught stealing… This is government news outlets for you. Did you happen to watch this movie (all of it?) http://russianfun.net/interesting-galleries/documentary-that-wont-be-shown-on-russian-tv-screens/
After that i’d rather stick to Berezovsky each and every time, government should be criticized that’s what makes it work better and the process more open. I have ORT and they never talk about something not being achieved or some bad politicians never, i want real news not a ferry tale.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Unfortunately, I have to go, but I’ll check out your videos.
If you want to be “Russian Fun”, why putting this sad and not-necessarily-truthful stories? Why not put Шнур singing about elections?
And as for Berezovsky, the most I know about him is from this book: http://lib.aldebaran.ru/author/hlebnikov_pavel/hlebnikov_pavel_kryostnyi_otec_kremlya_boris_berezovskii_ili_istoriya_razgrableniya_rossii/ . It’s, if you want, the view from the other side, I recommend it as a second opinion.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Well the category “Russian BUT not FUN” is coming up;)