“Only faith, work, love, and medication can conquer the terrible disease of homosexualism.” (Illustration: Vasya Lozhkin.)

A man was tortured and murdered in the Russian city of Volgograd, apparently because he was gay, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The battered body of the unidentified victim was found in the morning of May 10. Two men have been arrested in connection with the attack.

The 23-year-old victim had been drinking with the two men to celebrate Victory Day on May 9 when he told them he was gay. The two men then allegedly beat him, sodomised him with a beer bottle, and smashed in his skull with a stone. The local news portal, V1.ru, reported:

The man arrested confessed when questioned. Together with the victim and two friends, he had been drinking beer on a bench in the courtyard playground. During their discussion, it transpired that their 23-year-old friend was homosexual, which enraged the others.

The man arrested, along with his 21-year-old friend, who had also previously been convicted of a crime, began to beat up their homosexual friend, tackled him to the ground, and kicked him repeatedly, causing multiple rib fractures.

They stripped the victim naked and began shoving beer bottles into the victim’s anus. Two bottles went in completely, but the third only partially. By then, the victim had lost consciousness. His torturers placed the body on a cardboard and set it on fire, and then left.

On the way they realised that if their friend regained consciousness, he would go to the police. Therefore, they turned back and decided to kill the victim. One of them took a rock weighing about 20 kg and struck the victim eight times on the head.

http://v1.ru/text/newsline/652465.html

68 vuotta sitten isoisämme ja isoisoisämme murskasivat saksalaiset miehittäjät, jotka halusivat orjuuttaa Venäjän. [...] Tänään Venäjällä ovat vallassa samat miehittäjät. He vain eivät ole saksalaisia, vaan kotitekoisia “kremlutkia”. Putin onnistui siinä, missä Hitler ei: Venäjästä on tullut käytännössä siirtomaavalta. Kansalta on viety kaikki oikeudet ja se on peloteltu kuuliaiseksi laumaksi.

http://grani.ru/Politics/Russia/activism/m.214539.html#may9

Photo: Oleg Galushko with his family.

A Russian businessman, Oleg Galushko (Galouchko), was detained in Finland in February 2013 on an Interpol extradition request from Russia. Mr Galushko’s Russian lawyer contended that the charges against his client were fabricated and feared what would happen to him were Finland to extradite him to Russia. Mr Galushko has dual Russian and Canadian citizenship.

Mr Galushko acquired the Ryazan-based aluminium factory, Okamet, in 2001. He invested USD 5 million in the plant’s modernisation. In 2003-2004, an affiliate to Russia’s largest aluminium producer, RUSAL, offered to buy Okamet for a fraction of the plant’s real worth. When Mr Galushko refused to sell, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) began to blackmail him.

In March 2005, the FSB initiated a criminal case against MetSlav, which exported Okamet’s products, for alleged smuggling and tax evasion. In August 2006, similar charges were brought against Mr Galushko. Due to constant harassment by the FSB, Okamet and MetSlav were forced into bankruptcy. Okamet’s assets were transferred to a company affiliated with RUSAL.

In 2008, Mr Galushko was tipped off that his stubborn refusal to sell off his company would lead to his arrest, and that his incarceration would be used to “convince” him to agree to RUSAL’s offer. Faced with possible arrest and fearing for his life, Mr Galushko fled Russia. He had incurred financial losses amounting to USD 20-25 million due to the case.

Mr Galushko began building a legal case against the Russian state. The FSB responded by issuing an Interpol arrest warrant on him in 2010. None of the countries Mr Galushko visited in the EU and elsewhere reacted to the arrest warrant. In February 2013, however, Mr Galushko was taken from a plane and arrested at Helsinki Airport. He has been held in Vantaa Prison since.

Charges on three other people in the case against Okamet and MetSlav were dropped as the statute of limitations expired in 2011. Russia’s arrest warrant on Mr Galushko expired on 18 April 2013, but since Interpol was not informed about this, the Interpol arrest warrant remained in force. Russia sent a formal extradition request to Finland in early March 2013.

Mr Galushko’s lawyer considered extradition to Russia highly likely because of the close relations between Russia and Finland. Mr Galushko’s family said he would face lethal danger to his health in pre-trial detention were he to be extradited. The family pointed out that there were profound concerns regarding Mr Galushko’s right to a fair trial.

Mr Galushko’s family noted that the case against him had nothing to do with justice, but was another example of corporate raiding by Russia’s “law enforcement agencies.” The case was fabricated by the FSB for the specific purpose of seizing Mr Galushko’s business and assets, the family said, pointing to parallels with the Magnitsky case. How will Finland react?

The District Court of Vantaa will hold a third hearing on Mr Galushko’s continued detention on 26 April 2013 at 9 am. Mr Galushko has requested to be released on a travel ban. All his previous requests have been denied, however.

A surprising phenomenon is increasingly apparent in Western Europe: Far-right parties are moving away from their traditional anti-communist and anti-Russia ideologies, with many expressing admiration – and even outright support – for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Given Putinism’s uncertain ideological roots, this turn toward Russia might seem puzzling. After all, Putinism is characterized less by what it endorses than by what it opposes – the West and Western-style democracy, liberalism, communism, and individualism.

Putinism presents a model of authoritarianism within modern Europe’s sociopolitical constraints – one that Western Europe’s extreme right seems keen to emulate. Let us hope that these forces do not make common cause with Europe’s more unscrupulous mainstream political leaders.

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/putinism-as-a-model-for-western-e…

Finnish police registered Russian President Vladimir Putin on its top secret black list. Putin was not suspected of any criminal wrongdoing in Finland, but his name had been recently entered into the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) list of suspected criminals, sources told MTV3. The case got Finnish officials jumping with alarm.

Finland’s National Police Board said Putin’s name ended up on the list “by mistake.” Police high command asked NBI to remove the entry, which was done immediately. Putin’s name was on the list because of his contacts to a Russian biker gang, the Night Wolves. Putin was thus suspected of contributing to the activities of a criminal organisation.

Finland’s National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero said he was shocked to learn about the fact that Putin was on NBI’s list of suspected criminals. “I would have thought that something like this was impossible,” Mr Paatero told MTV3. Asked what message he would like to send to Putin, the Police Commissioner said he was “really sorry.”

Finnish Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen was equally apologetic about the incident. “I wish to express my sincere apologies to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the mistake,” Ms Räsänen said in a press release. The minister assured that the case would be investigated thoroughly. She pointed out that leaking such confidential information was of great concern.

Markku Kangaspuro, deputy director of Helsinki University’s Aleksanteri Institute, told Finnish tabloid Iltalehti that the incident was a “huge blunder.” He said the case should be investigated thoroughly and as openly as possible. “An innocent head of state has ended up on the list. [...] This is quite an insult to any nation or head of state,” Mr Kangaspuro said.

Kerkko Paananen, Chairman of the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (FINROSFORUM), regards the apologies to Putin as farcical. “Putin is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in North Caucasus and in neighbouring Georgia. Under his rule, Russia has seen unprecedented levels of corruption and embezzlement of budget funds,” Mr Paananen noted.

“Several political dissidents, human rights defenders, and businessmen have been jailed and assassinated in recent years in Russia. Harassment of civil society organisations and political opposition is increasing by the day throughout the country. These are crimes that should be of interest to Finnish authorities as well,” Mr Paananen stated.

Mikael Storsjö, member of FINROSFORUM’s board, pointed out that war crimes and crimes against humanity constituted crimes under Finnish law irrespective of where the crimes had been committed. “Entering Putin into NBI’s blacklist was thus fully justified,” Mr Storsjö said. “The law cannot be different for Putin and Francois Bazaramba; selective justice is a foreign concept in Finland,” he stated.

In December 2011, tens of thousands of Russians went to the streets of Moscow and other cities to protest fraud at recent parliamentary elections. This was a shock to the regime as well as the opposition even though both had long been preparing for mass demonstrations.

The protests, though truly spontaneous and surprising, were by no means random. Instead, they were a result of gradual but radical changes in the Russian society due in no small part to contained but persistent political, social, and cultural activism and autonomous civic organizing of previous years.

The regime responded with charges of propaganda and repression, which might have slowed down the resistance but did not suppress it. Facing a stalemate, the Russian protest movement now has to find new methods and tactics, increase its internal mobilization and outreach to other segments of the society and stay united.

More from Oleg Kozlovsky:

Oleg Kozlovsky outlines seven challenges facing the Russian protest movement in 2013, including balancing moderates and radicals, reducing the influence of extremists and broadening its appeal outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2462

The Finnish tabloid, Iltalehti, has gone after an acting minister in a way that is reminiscent of the Danish political TV series, Borgen. The newspaper’s Friday edition ran a story on the scandal involving a repair job at the home of the Finnish Minister for International Development, Heidi Hautala. The story was very confusing and a hotchpotch of wild claims and insinuations. Persons linked to the scandal were labelled everything from “right-hand man” of Russian oligarchs to supporters of Chechen separatists. On Tuesday, the tabloid falsely claimed that Ms Hautala had “arranged payments” for the renovation of her male partner’s villa. The (toilet) paper’s stories read almost exactly like the online hallucinations of the pro-Putin agent provocateur, Johan Bäckman, who has made it his life’s work to smear Heidi Hautala.

It is not difficult to find out who the “repairman” and “cleaning woman” behind Iltalehti’s claims against Ms Hautala are. The “cleaning woman” is a Chechen woman called Azman Amagova, and the “repairman” is a shady local entrepreneur, Keijo Käiväräinen. When Iltalehti asked about Mr Käiväräinen’s role in the renovation of the Finnish villa of Ms Hautala’s current male partner, Andrei Nekrasov, Mr Käiväräinen refused to answer. Mr Nekrasov tried long to reach an agreement with Mr Käiväräinen on their dispute regarding the renovation, but when this proved impossible, Mr Nekrasov took the case to court. The renovation works that Mr Nekrasov had commissioned from Mr Käiväräinen had serious shortcomings, and the court ordered Mr Käiväräinen to pay hefty compensation to Mr Nekrasov. Ms Amagova was Mr Käiväräinen’s witness in court.

Ms Hautala had done a lot to help Ms Amagova over many years, including trying to get her a job as a shop assistant at a nearby grocery store in 2009. Ms Hautala had even gone so far as to arrange for a meeting between Ms Amagova and the store owner, but Ms Amagova never showed up. Apparently, Ms Amagova was not interested in honest labour even then. Ms Amagova did one cleaning job at Ms Hautala’s city apartment in Helsinki. Ms Hautala has admitted that she made a mistake for not paying pension dues amounting to a whopping 30 euros for that job. Ms Hautala did another mistake: She trusted Ms Amagova, who — for all the help that she had received from Ms Hautala — stabbed her in the back.

Iltalehti based its stories on the assertions of two persons who were, most likely, motivated by revenge for a lost court battle and for the money they had lost as a result. It is worth noting that Mr Käiväräinen and Ms Amagova were partners not only in the project to renovate Mr Nekrasov’s villa: Suomen Kuvalehti revealed that the two had operated joint businesses since 2009. Mr Käiväräinen is managing director and member of the board of a company providing cleaning services, Pesunex, while Ms Amagova is the company’s deputy member of the board. Ms Amagova thus has a direct economic interest in her dealings with Mr Käiväräinen. We have strong reason to believe that this was the case in connection with the renovation of Mr Nekrasov’s villa as well.

The former Lutheran pastor, Juha Molari, has, alongside Mr Bäckman, been most active in smearing Ms Hautala and her work in defence of human rights, including those of the Chechen people. On his blog, Mr Molari revealed that as early as in January 2010, he received a phone call from “a person of foreign background” who told him information about the details of the door repair job and the cleaning job at Ms Hautala’s city apartment. It is obvious that no one apart from those involved in the door repair job had knowledge of the details of the project. It is therefore very likely that the “person of foreign background” who called Mr Molari was none other than Ms Amagova.

Why would Ms Amagova, whom Iltalehti called a “Chechen civic activist,” have called Mr Molari of all people? Finland’s Chechen community has complained about Mr Molari’s activities to the Ombudsman for Minorities and demonstrated against him outside his former place of employment, the Lutheran church in the parish of Pohja. Moreover, Mr Molari disturbed a demonstration to commemorate the anniversary of the 1944 genocide of the Chechen and Ingush peoples by playing the Soviet national anthem and a song of Russian paratroopers in front of the participants at the event. Why would Ms Amagova allow such a person to spread lies about Ms Hautala, who had helped her personally and whom the entire Chechen community in Finland highly respects? What does this say about Ms Amagova’s character and the veracity of her claims?

Oksana Chelysheva, Kerkko Paananen

* The authors are personal friends of Heidi Hautala and board members of the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (FINROSFORUM). The organisation was established in January 2007 at the initiative of Ms Hautala. The Finnish original of this article is available on Kerkko Paananen’s blog.

Oksana Tšelyševa oli yliopiston lehtori. Tšetšenian sotarintamalta alkoi kuitenkin kuulua yhä hälyttävämpiä uutisia. Raitiovaunussa sattui välikohtaus, johon liittyi vallasta päihtynyt, asetta heilutteleva FSB:n upseeri. Tšelyševa ryhtyi itsekin toimeen. Oksanan kirja He seurasivat minua kadulla (Into Kustannus, 2013) kertoo joukkomielenosoituksista Neuvostoliiton hajoamisen aikoihin, Tšetšenian sodan julmista vaiheista, Beslanin joukkomurhasta, toimittajien Anna Politkovskajan ja Natalia Estemirovan salamurhista ja muista hiuksia nostattavista tapauksista. Näitä tarinoita emme haluaisi kuulla, mutta enää meillä ei ole varaa teeskennellä tietämätöntä.

http://www.intokustannus.fi/kirja/he_seurasivat_minua_kadulla/

Рэп-молебен

Это рэп-молебен в поддержку веры
Сохраняя стабильность и чувство меры
Обломов, Парфенов и Ксения Собчак
Пресвятой Богородице посылают знак

Дорогая Богородица, обратите внимание,
Какие у нас происходят страдания
Всю зиму страна боролась с внешним врагом
Было несколько митингов протеста и потом

Группа особо опасных девушек в храме
Что-то кричала и топала ногами
Требовала срочно кого-то прогнать
Нам всем это нужно, святая мать?

А как ополчились люди на партиарха?
Из-за часов! Из-за какого-то подарка!
Его Святейшество часов не наблюдает
Есть они или нет он толком не знает

Злые блоггеры призывают топить лодку
Вместе с патриархом, табаком и водкой
Вместе с нанопылью и его квартирой
С проживающей там то ли Леной, то ли Ирой

С водителями Гелендвагена и BMW -
Служителями церкви – виновниками ДТП
Вместе с президентом и премьер-министром
Раскачивают медленно чтоб потопить быстро

Вместе с полпредом с УралВагонЗавода
Не дожидаясь 2018-го года
Богородица, милая, пожалуйста разрули
Счета у спонсоров протеста заодно обнули

Оскорблены чувства верующих охранников
Байкеры с флагами ездят вокруг памятников
Патриарх мудро и долго хранил молчание
Но грешники не додумаются до покаяния

Ведь не придет им в голову, что российский суд
Судит нас за грехи наши, и даже тех кто глуп,
Обязательно наставит на путь исправления
Путем православного тюремного заключения

Единым целым для нас является православие
Чекизм, народность и самодержавие
Занимается кощунством Эхо Москвы
Сеет разлад в умах граждан страны

Но Священное стояние за православную веру
Укрепило дух народа и судебную систему
И осветило уголовное дело 6 мая
Разгоны студентов с Оккупай Абая

И породило в депутатах добрые мотивы
Принять закон имени Яковлева Димы
И помогло к концу года потерять места
Всем тем кто против и оставить тех кто за

И одарен был на жилплощадью московский омон
Бастрыкин извинился и был прощен
Благодарим за ангельское Ваше терпение,
Не обращайте внимания на общественное мнение

Вы же точно знаете, что нужно нашей стране
Кто должен быть в думе, а кто в кремле
Живет по справедливости святая матушка Русь
Суды беспристрастно решат судьбу Пуссь

Благодарим за поддержку, и с нами все россияне
Богородица, не прогоняй никого! Оставайся с нами!