Putin's Circus Lions Are Hungry -- and Angry

Putin's Circus Lions Are Hungry -- and Angry
02 March 2009
Putin's Circus Lions Are Hungry -- and Angry

(Source Moscow Times, by Dmitry Oreshkin)
For most countries of the world, the global crisis is strictly economic. But Russia is experiencing two crises simultaneously -- economic and political.
Economic downturns, including the current one, come and go, but Russia's political crisis will never go away. This is because Russia's political model has always been deeply grounded in the myth of monism: one monolithic state, one party, one ideology, one national leader and one people. Those who lived during the Soviet period remember the ubiquitous overblown slogans of "the unity of all Soviet nationalities" or "the unified Soviet nation."
Russia under Vladimir Putin's leadership is doomed by historical inertia and tradition to continue the Soviet monistic model. United Russia is Putin's modern version of the Soviet Union's "United U.S.S.R." -- that is, the Communist Party. Nonetheless, United Russia is not as unified as Putin would like. There is the United Russia faction loyal to State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, and there is the one loyal to Mayor Yury Luzhkov. Luzhkov rigidly controls the party's membership in Moscow and won't let any federal functionaries get within a mile of holding power.
Of course, you don't have to look very hard to see how empty the concept of a "unified people" really is. A large percentage of the Russian population don't hide their opposition to being "unified" or placed on the same level as the people from the Caucasus. This leads to the country's social schizophrenia. On one hand, Russians passionately supported the Russia-Georgia war to protect their "fellow citizens" in South Ossetia, in accordance with myths of a unified, monolithic superpower. But on the other hand, if they happen to meet one of their repatriated fellow citizens at any one of Moscow's street markets, they are quick to complain that the capital is being invaded by the "dark-skinned scum" from the Caucasus. Read Article...
The article Part I and II is also on the well informed blog 'La Russophobe', http://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/part-i-putins-russia-is-collapsing/

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1016/42/374919.htm

Bingo comes to Bolivia, by way of Russia

Bingo comes to Bolivia, by way of Russia

(Source: Special to The Miami Herald - BY ANNIE MURPHY)
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- As Washington watches its influence wane in Latin America, Russia is picking up the slack, with military exercises and arms deals in Venezuela, billion-dollar gas pipelines across the continent, and now, casinos in Bolivia.
But Bolivian authorities are worried that foreign-run gambling is far from a boon for the country. Russian-owned Ritzio Entertainment Group is a key player, also operating Bolivia's Bingo Bahiti clubs, best known for both electronic and live bingo, the same game played across the United States.
While bingo in the United States is generally associated with grandparents and retirees, in Bolivia it's catching on with young people.
Ritzio is the largest of the Russian-owned casinos that have turned up in Bolivia over the past five years, as former president and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cracked down on gambling.

LAWS TIGHTEN
Three years ago, a law passed in Russia declared that gambling would be barred from cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg by 2009, and restricted to four remote regions: Kalingrad, Primorye, Altai and Rostov-Krasnodar.
Two years ago, Ritzio earned about $1.6 billion in revenue from its gambling operations and began expanding abroad. In Latin America, it now operates clubs in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru.
According to Bingo Bahiti, the chain earns about $2.5 million a year in Bolivia; the government office that regulates casinos declined to discuss revenue or earnings.