Opposition in Russia - like playing blank piano keys

Russian opposition politician Wladimir Kara-Musra, who last year survived an assassination attempt by poison, is interviewed in today's Süddeutsche Zeitung about what motivates him to continue campaigning ahead of Sunday's elections. While state-controlled TV broadcasts ridiculous items smearing his reputation and his party, Open Russia, he tours around the country holding meetings and listening to people.

The keys to opposition

At the end of the interview, Kara-Mursa - a close friend of the tragically murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov - talks about Rudolf Kehrer, the child of a Swabian piano-maker who emigrated to Russia during World War Two. He'd already been awarded a place at the Moscow Conservatory when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Kehrer then spent 13 years in a camp, unable to play the piano.

"And so he painted the keys on a block of wood and practiced in silence," says Kara-Mursa. "When he was released after Stalin's death, he continued his studies and became a celebrated pianist, playing concerts everywhere.

"What we're doing with Open Russia, is exactly that: practicing on a block of wood with painted-on keys. At some point the day will come when we can take the stage."

Fifa - the cuckoo 'foreign agent' that Russia won't expel

Demanding guest - the parasitic cuckoo Fifa
 hijacks a new nest every four years.

Once again, this blog apologises to a now possibly distracted readership for its negligence. With qualifying games for the 2018 World Cup in Russia already under way in several parts of the world, it's time to recommence monitoring why all football fans should boycott the next two World Cups, including all qualifiers, due to the dire state of basic human rights and the absence of numerous civil liberties in both Russia and Qatar.

Last week the Russian Ministry of Justice updated groups which it claims are funded by "foreign agents", which is its less than subtle way of smearing non-governmental organisations (NGO)s that might be critical of the state. It has now branded 104 such groups with the moniker 'foreign agent' to imply they are CIA-funded attempts to undermine Moscow and all its decent, stalwart patriots working merely for the good of Mother Russia. Since a 'Foreign Agents' list was published in 2014, "at least" 21 NGOs have closed down, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), while 12 groups have had the tag removed by ceasing to accept foreign funds.

"Because in Russia 'foreign agent' can be interpreted only as 'spy' or 'traitor,' there is little doubt that the law aims to demonize and marginalize independent advocacy groups," states HRW. The group includes any NGO deemed to be involved in "political activity", a term subject to extremely liberal interpretation by the otherwise illiberal Ministry of Justice. Many of the NGOs are campaigning for human rights, gender equality, and against various forms of discrimination.

One 'foreign agent' is not included on the Ministry of Justice's list - Fifa. Yet it's been very much present in Russia ever since the country was awarded the 2018 World Cup by the fair and democratic process that did not in any way involve bribery, coercion, deal-making and vote-fixing. As always when it settles like an avaricious, self-entitled cuckoo into a newly hijacked nest, Fifa's not just a foreign agent, but a foreign dictator. It tells any given country how many stadiums it has to build, at its own cost, while paying no taxes and creaming off a vast profit through sponsorship, the sale of broadcast rights, and ticket revenue.

"We should never forget: all World Cup income goes to Fifa, not to the host," says Russian-Uzbek football dissenter Alisher Aminov in the latest edition of the German magazine Kicker (Issue 62, 2016). "But it's the host that is stuck with paying for the stadiums and the infrastructure. That's why Fifa and Uefa should both examine the economic circumstances of any applicant host countries before they award hosting rights to a tournament.

"Because that doesn't happen," he adds, "Fifa especially has developed in a very negative fashion. And that's why people in Brazil went out on to the streets to protest." Aminov, who was a friend of the Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, assassinated in February 2015 on a Moscow street within sight of the Kremlin, says that the Russian bid for the 2018 World Cup was the decision of only two men - President Vladimir Putin and the Minister for Sport (and the man behind the mass state-sanctioned doping of Russian Olympic competitors) Vitaly Mutko, also a member of Fifa's Executive Committee.

"It was not a democratic decision," says Aminov. "We should have held a referendum. Football's a beautiful thing, but normal people are angry because of the enormous costs, and because cash is being sucked out of state coffers."

He also called for an "honest inquiry" into the awarding of the 2018 competition to Russia. Yeah, about that. When Fifa appointed US lawyer Michael Garcia to look into the shenanigans behind the simultaneous awarding of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, Russian wouldn't let him into the country, and in any case claimed that all its files relating to the bid were on leased computers that had since been destroyed. Sorry, Mike. The Garcia Report remains unpublished by Fifa. Maybe the cuckoo shat all over it and rendered it unreadable.

Quote of the Week - Nemtsov Calls For Sanctions Against Russian Leaders

London knows best, little man...

“I have an idea for you [the West] how to help democracy in Russia. Let you implement sanctions against people who break [the] Russian constitution [and]… agreements on human rights and democracy, like you did with [Belarussian President Alexander] Lukashenko.” Former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, a liberal opposition leader who last month spent two weeks in jail for participating in a political demonstration, talking to Stephen Sackur of BBC’s HARDTalk.

The programme should be re-christened RUDETalk judging by Sackur’s attitude in this interview. He has perfected the BBC’s plummy-voiced sneer that is apparently required nowadays to show what a tough, uncompromising journalist you are, although in reality he ends up just sounding like a supercilious prick when he asks Nemtsov, “And you think that’s a serious proposition?”

“I’m talking about sanctions not against the state, but against persons who break and who destroy peoples’ rights in this country,” Nemtsov clarifies for the hard-talking hack. He continues by asking, “What’s the difference between Putin and Lukashenko?” The snippet ends there, so we don’t get to hear Sackur’s doubtless erudite and cogent riposte. Remind us again why the BBC’s respected around the world for its high standards of journalism?

Meanwhile, The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Luke Harding has been refused re-entry to Russia, and was told by a airport security, “For you, Russia is closed.” If you’re wondering why, one of Harding’s apparent offenses has been to report on the contents of the WikiLeaks US embassy cables. One of his pieces from late last year opened with the line:

“Russia is a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centred on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create a “virtual mafia state”, according to leaked secret diplomatic cables that provide a damning American assessment of its erstwhile rival superpower.”

Apparently that kind of analysis doesn't go down very well with the Kremlin. And if it's diplomatically unfeasible to expel US embassy staff, target the messenger instead.