Life Under Tyranny
April 19th, 2008There are two stories I would like to note from the non-democratic world. First is this article, from England on Russia:
A NEWSPAPER that defied the Kremlin by reporting that President Vladimir Putin was planning to marry an Olympic gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast half his age was shut down yesterday. The closure of Moskovski Korrespondent, whose editor Grigori Nekhoroshev was forced to resign, was a sharp reminder of the perils of invoking Kremlin displeasure. Rumours of a romance between Putin, 55, and Alina Kabaeva, 24, who is also an MP in his party, have been circulating in Moscow for months, but until last week no one had dared to print them.
The paper admitted there was no factual basis for its claim that Putin had already divorced Ludmilla, 50, his wife of 24 years, and would marry Kabaeva in June, shortly after standing down as president and becoming prime minister. It cited information from a party planner who claimed to be bidding to organise the lavish reception. Both Putin and Kabaeva denied the report, which was followed up by European newspapers but ignored by Russia’s media, which do not delve into the private lives of politicians.
“I thought we should run the story to help break the taboo,” said Nekhoroshev. He paid a swift penalty for his daring: the paper, owned by Alexander Lebedev, the billionaire tycoon, ceased publication immediately. Its parent firm blamed “costs” and “conceptual disagreements with the newsroom” but insisted in a statement that “this has nothing to do with politics and is solely a business decision”.
I recently had a conversation with an anti-war “radical” who knows little, by her own admission, about “old white men’s history” about a declaration she’d made on her angst over authoritarianism in America. I told her that she didn’t have a clue what it means to live under tyranny, and it is stories like these that I would point to to further the point. The other article I would like to discuss, briefly, is this one. No excerpt is necessary: the Chinese government has been caught shipping arms to Zimbabwe, even now, even as they desperately seek international approval and recognition for their Olympics and the Zimbabwean government works overtime to steal the election. What a shame.