In Putin's Russia Corruption is the New Communism

Peacekeeping - The Communist Curse That Continues To Kill

As Colombian troops and police continue to push back leftist rebels and their cocaine gang allies the government finds itself with more landmines to clear. The rebels and gangs have a lot of landmines and civilians are most often the victims. In the last two decades, since the Colombian rebels and drug gangs adopted land mines on a large scale, these weapons have killed or wounded over 10,000 Colombians. Some 36 percent of those losses were civilians, and nearly ten percent of the victims were children.

 

The army and police move around a lot more now that they are chasing the rebels and drug gangs out of rural areas and use a lot of foot patrols moving cross country in unpredictable ways. Against that threat, the leftist rebels have had some success with landmines. These devices are simply planted in all possible routes the soldiers might use to approach a camp or drug operation. When a mine goes off it slows down the troops, and gives the rebels a warning. Thus the rebels need a lot of landmines. 

There are a lot of new Chinese and old Russian landmines on the black market, and manufacturing landmines is easy enough that local artisans sometimes do it for special orders from leftist rebels or drug gangs. There are a lot of dirt roads in the rural areas where the drug gangs and rebels operate, and larger anti-vehicle mines are a danger to government forces and civilians, or even bad guys who didn't get the memo on where they were planted. Civilians are the most frequent victims of landmines. Over three million people have been displaced by the war with the leftist rebels during the quarter century, often fleeing areas made uninhabitable by rebel mines.  Most of the displacements have occurred in the last ten years. 

 

Landmines were outlawed by an international treaty 14 years ago, but this mainly applies to nations that don't have landmines or don't have any reason to use them. Colombian rebels and cocaine gangs have not signed the international agreement and find the mines a cheap way to control civilian populations and slow down the army advance. It takes more time, money, and effort to remove these mines than to place them. Colombia is seeking to speed up mine clearing by training local volunteers to be part of the part-time mine clearing teams. The government provides training, pay (pretty good by local standards), health and life insurance. When a new bunch of mines are found (usually by an animal coming across them), the team gets to work.

 

Despite efforts like this in Colombia, it has not been a promising time for those seeking to enforce the ban on the use of landmines. In the last few years Israel, Libya, Syria, North Korea, Iran, and Myanmar (Burma) planted new mines. In addition, there are three countries still manufacturing landmines (India, Myanmar, and Pakistan). Arms dealers will still provide large quantities of Russian and Chinese landmines, many of them Cold War surplus. China, Russia, and other communist nations were major producers of landmines during the Cold War. The mines were produced not just for use against potential enemies but to aid in keeping the borders closed and preventing citizens from leaving these unpleasant dictatorships. 

 

There has been a growing list of outlaw organizations that are ignoring the 1999 Ottawa Convention to ban landmines. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are manufacturing landmines in primitive workshops and using them against Pakistani, Afghan, and foreign soldiers, as well as Afghan civilians who refuse to support the Islamic terrorist group.

 

Despite the 1999 treaty, landmines are still causing over 5,000 casualties a year worldwide. About twenty percent of the victims are killed and 90 percent of them are males. This is largely because men are more likely to be out in the bush or working farmlands that still contain mines. A third of the casualties are security personnel (police and soldiers). This is because in many countries rebels and criminals are still using landmines, either factory made ones from countries that did not sign the Ottawa Convention or locally made models.

 

Landmines are simple to make and workshops are easily set up to do it. There's no shortage of mines out there, despite the fact that in the first few years after the 1999 Ottawa Convention was signed over 25 million landmines, in the arsenals of over fifty nations, were destroyed. But these nations were not users and rarely sold them either. For those who want landmines, they find a way to obtain and use them. The Taliban are the latest group to demonstrate this. Leftist rebels in Colombia have been making their own mines for years now, as have Islamic and communist rebels in the Philippines. There are believed to be over 100 million mines still in the ground and at least as many in military warehouses for future use. 

 

The 1999 Ottawa Convention was supposed to have reduced land mine casualties among civilians. It hasn't worked because the owners of the largest landmine stockpiles, Russia and China, refused to sign. Chinese land mines are still available on the international arms black market. China is believed to have the largest stockpile, mostly of anti-personnel mines. The old ones are often sold before they become worthless. But even these mines, which go for $5-10 each, are too expensive for many of the criminal organizations that buy them. Land mines, competitive with the factory built ones from China, can be built for less than three dollars each. You can find all the technical data you need on the Internet.

 

Anti-vehicle mines are increasingly popular and are particularly common in poor countries where there are still a lot of dirt roads traveled by buses and trucks, carrying dozens of passengers each. While these mines are usually intended for military vehicles, mines can't tell the difference. As a result, in this year or next, Colombia or Afghanistan will have the largest number of annual mine casualties in the world.

Putin signs new anti-rally bill

The Illegal and Communist Russian President Adolf Putin has signed the much disputed set of amendments to the administrative code that increase the fines for illegal rallies 150-fold and introduces more regulations over street protest.

Putin announced that he had signed the bill as he spoke at the conference dedicated to the development of the Russian court system. The head of the Russian state told the justice officials that they “should apply the new law in such a way that it does not limit the citizens’ right for expression over any issue of internal or external politics, including street marches, events and rallies”. At the same time, Putin stressed that the protests “must be organized in such way that they inflict no damages to other citizens, who do not take part in them”.

Putin reminded the audience about last year’s events in Great Britain “when it all came to mass riots, torched cars and robbed stores”. “As the society guarantees the right to express their opinion, including by street events, to some of the citizens, it must protect other citizens and the society as a whole from radicalism,” he said.

The President asked the justice officials to study the law and submit suggested changes if they are needed. “Nothing we have is frozen solid. If we find out the MPs have missed something, that something must be laid out in a different way, you are welcome, we can approach the State Duma deputies, look at how the law is applied and ask them to make some corrections. If there is such a necessity,” Putin noted.

The new law raises the maximum fine for ordinary citizens found guilty of participating in illegal street protest to 300,000 roubles (about $9,000) from the current 2,000 roubles (under $70). Meanwhile, the fine for officials will increase from the current 50,000 to 600,000 roubles ($1300 – $20,000).The bill allows individuals the option of performing up to 200 hours of community service instead of paying the fine, which may prove exorbitant for some protesters.

However, the maximum fines are applied only in cases when the protesters cause damage to health or property of other citizens. Ordinary violations are punished by much smaller fines – from 10,000 to 20,000 roubles ($300 – $600) or an administrative arrest of up to 15 days.

Furthermore, the new law makes it illegal for protesters to conceal their faces at rallies, as well as some other adaptations to the law that aims to make the life of illegal protesters more difficult.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev called Putin’s decision to sign the bill “a mistake”.

He did not rule out that it would have to be corrected.

Senior member of Liberal-Democratic party (LDPR), Igor Lebedev said such a decision was “absolutely expected.” “I don’t think that protests will increase,” he told Interfax. The LDPR voted against the controversial law.

According to Sergey Mitrokhin, the leader of liberal Yabloko party, the law is “in fact a ban on holding rallies and political actions.” He added that now everyone comes under fire – organizers of such events and activists.

However, Yalboko is not planning any protests against the law in the near future.

“Now anyone can be punished with slave labor or a crazy fine. I can’t gather people for a rally knowing that they might be sent straight to the galleys from there,” Mitrokhin stated.

The head of the Presidential Human Rights Council, Mikhail Fedotov said the consequences of the adoption of the document might be grave. Everything will depend on the way the law is enforced, he said, adding that he hopes the usage would be “moderate.” The Council Chairman stressed the law needs to be seriously improved. Earlier, the body issued a statement saying that the draft law violated the Russian constitution and other laws and said that they would ask the President to veto the bill.

Meanwhile, the head of the State Duma Security and Anti-Corruption Committee Irina Yarovaya stressed that the law on illegal rallies is aimed at providing public safety as well as protecting the lives and health of Russian citizens.

“The protection of public security and national interests of the country is the political mission of the President,” she stressed. The deputy added that Russian democracy and opposition are still very “young” compared to those of European countries. “We are only beginning to have the experience that other countries have been accumulating for decades and centuries.”

After being signed by the President, the law has to be officially published. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it published in the government daily “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” on Saturday and the majority of its clauses will come into force immediately after that.

PUTIN’S POLICE STATE - COMMUNISM IS BACK IN

HR body to seek Putin's veto as Upper House approves anti-rally bill

Despite protests from the Presidential Human Rights council, the Upper House approved a bill that would dramatically increase fines for those accused of participating in illegal rallies.

The Federation Council approved the bill with 132 votes for and just one against with one abstention.

The discussion on the bill in the Upper House was relatively short compared to the tense standoff that occurred in the Duma the previous day. Then, the parliamentary opposition, composed of Fair Russia and the Communists, attempted to prevent majority party United Russia from moving forward on the bill by submitting excessive amount of additional amendments, each of which had to be read aloud and voted for.

The opposition hoped this filibustering tactic would buy them some time for those who plan protest action on June 12, which is the ‘Day of Russia’ holiday.

United Russia, however, replied by rejecting the amendments categorically. Nevertheless, the session continued until almost midnight, with the bill eventually passing the Lower House.

Russia’s political opposition launched a protest near the Upper House as the bill was being considered, claiming that the new regulations opened way to “a fascist society.” The demonstration ended calmly, unlike the previous day when the protests resulted in brief detentions.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Council for Human Rights has come out against increasing fines for illegal protests. Mikhail Fedotov, the council head, sent a written request to the speaker of the Upper House, Valentina Matvienko, to reject the bill (the press service of the Upper House has said it has not received any such letter). Fedotov said that the council would study the draft law as it made its way through parliament, promising to ask President Putin to veto the document if the HR activists disapproved of it.

The head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, veteran Human Rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva, also told reporters that she would ask Putin to veto the bill.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, has said that the president can veto the bill, but only if it differs from similar laws in various foreign countries.

“Putin will object to the bill only in one case – if this bill is in contradiction to the generally accepted practices that are being performed in other countries in order to ensure the rights of the citizens,” he said.

However, the press secretary added that the president would study the bill only after he receives it for signing.

“He will study the bill because many amendments were included during the hearings and they must be thoroughly evaluated,” Peskov noted. “The bill must be studied in its final version, the way it was approved.”