John Edwards op-ed in NYT: Moscow's Empty Red Square

WHEN we visited Moscow earlier this fall, almost everyone we talked to agreed that Russia is becoming steadily less democratic. Yet Russia's society and economy are in many ways freer than ever. Our visit convinced us of the vitality and potential of Russian civic groups and nongovernmental organizations, much like the ones Western Europeans and Americans know in their own countries. Unfortunately this sector - human rights monitors, environmental groups, policy research institutions, even public health advocates - is now at risk.

The latest challenge to civil society comes from legislation introduced by members of President Vladimir Putin's party and other factions in the Duma, the lower house of Parliament. This legislation would, among other things, keep foreign nonprofit organizations from having offices in Russia and deny foreign funds to Russian organizations that are suspected of engaging in undefined "political" activities. Even the limited grants permitted under the new law would be taxed as though they were corporate profits, at rates exceeding 40 percent. Virtually all nonprofit groups would be affected.

The Duma has passed this bill by an overwhelming margin of 370 to 18. Two further votes are required before it comes into force; the next is scheduled for December 16.

If this measure becomes law, it will roll back pluralism in Russia and curtail contact between our societies. It will flagrantly breach the commitment that President Putin has made to numerous Western leaders to strengthen such ties.

Its passage also raises the bizarre prospect that the president of Russia will play host to next summer's Group of 8 summit meeting even as his country's laws choke off contacts with global society. If this happens, the contrast with last summer's meeting at Gleneagles, Scotland - at which nongovernmental organizations from around the world led the effort to "make poverty history" - could not be starker. It will unfortunately bolster the arguments of those who say that Russia has no place in the G-8 at all...

In truth, the aim of the proposed legislation is much broader. Senior Russian officials have described nongovernmental organizations as a "fifth column" in Russian society and even as fronts for foreign intelligence services. If this proposal comes into force, the government will have in its hands the authority to close down nonprofit groups simply because it finds their views and activities inconvenient.

The Kremlin's initiative reflects the unwillingness of those who wield the power of the Russian state to accept the idea that civil society is not theirs to control. For Europeans and Americans, this principle is fundamental. You can't claim to be a modern country without it.

Full editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/opinion/07edwards.html?pagewanted=print

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I just want to rant about the fact that where is America's leadership in the world? Be it global warming, the genocide in Sudan, poverty in Africa, the de-democratization of Russia, and what not... we seem to have left the world (for it's good or bad, I guess) and our voice is almost inaudible. As the world becomes more integrated or "flat" in friedman's words... and as idealogies from across the world find a greater scope for a dialogue... where are we in this dialogue? We are no where. We don't want to talk to or work with the Europeans; we don't want to help the Africans; we don't want to understand the middle-easterners; and we don't find the Asians important enough other than to outsource our work. How long are we going to survive like this?

Leaving aside all partisanship, I think any sane person should be able to realize what a great opportunity the age of globalization (of ideas) had provided us at the start of this century to engage with the rest of the world on issues of common importance like global warming, extreme poverty, AIDS crisis, nuclear proliferation... instead, we have chosen to bully the world... but for how long? I don't know if our reputation and say in the world will be beyond repair or still within the bounds of resurrection in 09. But it'll be too late anyway.

As for russia, if Bush truly believed in a just democracy where the populace has a strong and equal voice, he would've looked into his soulmate's eyes (Putin) and made this bill an issue. Yet, Bush is for democracy in countries where America can find some selfish interests. But in Russia, where all that is at stake is human rights (and not oil), it is deemed OK to ignore the developments in that part of the world. We, the democrats, need to take back our moral high ground as those who stand up for democracy and freedom and human rights... we just don't impose it on others, esp. by means of war.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/12/01/putins_power_grab/

Putin's power grab
December 1, 2005

A HARSH law on nongovernmental organizations that Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin coterie are pushing through a docile Duma shows Putin's true colors. This is the move of an antidemocratic ruler acting on the paranoid belief of his security services that foreign human rights, educational, and medical organizations are disguised tools of Western intelligence agencies plotting to orchestrate a popular uprising in Russia like those that toppled corrupt regimes in Georgia and Ukraine.
Russian liberals are opposing Putin's crackdown on the NGOs.

Former US senators Jack Kemp and John Edwards, co-chairmen of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on Russia, signed a cogent letter to President Bush last month warning that Putin's proposed legislation ''would roll back pluralism in Russia and curtail contact between our societies," enabling the Kremlin ''to close down public organizations simply because it finds their views and activities inconvenient."

If the Kremlin is to be deflected from its effort to take control over the last remaining spheres of freedom for Russian civil society, Bush and other leaders of democratic nations will have to tell Putin that he cannot assume the chairmanship of the Group of Eight developed democracies in January while at the same time asphyxiating independent NGOs.

that Capitolism is NOT = Democracy. Follow the money to see the power.