Foreign newspapers responded to the murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, which took place on Friday evening in Moscow. "Murder of Nemtsov is another black mark for Russia," the US newspaper the Washington Post reports in an editorial. "Boris Nemtsov was a brave Russian politician, who never gave up the dream that his country could make the transition from dictatorship to liberal democracy. As a former elected governor and deputy prime minister in the government of Boris Yeltsin, he stubbornly continued to perform and organize activities against the regime of Vladimir Putin after other opponents fled the country or were silenced. Most recently, he called on Russians to take part in a protest march on Sunday in Moscow. On Friday night he was shot in a gangster spirit - on a bridge near the Kremlin. This is a terrible blow to the struggle for human rights and another dark presage of where Russia is going, " the article reads.The British newspaper the Financial Times lists victims of murders in recent Russian history in an article entitled "Murder in the shadow of the Kremlin". The victims are Sergei Yushenkov (2003), Yuri Schekochikhin (2003), Anna Politkovskaya (2005), Stanislav Markelov (2009), Anastasia Baburova (2009) and Natalia Estemirova (2009). Now, to this sad and shameful list of politicians, journalists and human rights activists who were assassinated in Russia during the rule of Vladimir Putin, one needs to add the name of Boris Nemtsov. "Like those people whose names are listed, Nemtsov was a stubborn defender of democratic values and human rights. His murder marks a further terrible downward bias in the culture of political violence in Russia. His murder, committed two days before the Sunday march, the purpose of which was to protest against the war in the Ukraine, makes a breach in the opposition movement in Russia. On one of the flowers left on the bridge, where Nemtsov was killed, is written: "Without you the spring will not come," the newspaper reports.The Washington Post also published an article for a blog entitled "The audiences of Russian and Ukrainian television live on different planets." The crash of the Malaysian Airlines airliner over Eastern Ukraine was a terrible crime, the article informs. "Existing and indirect evidence reinforce the theory that the plane was shot down by anti-aircraft missile fired from a complex Buk-M-1," from the rebel-controlled territory of Ukraine." But the Ukrainian audience was not offered the same version of who is to blame for the death of the liner as the Russian audience. "The Ukrainian government and private TV channels of President Poroshenko stated from the outset that the blame for the destruction of the plane lies with Russian "terrorism''. On the other hand, Russian TV channels, on the contrary, drew parallels between tragedy and the Kiev campaign against the rebel forces, implying that the Kiev "anti-terrorist operation" is to blame.Western politicians and experts should be more careful with forecasts: claims about the death of the Russian economy may be premature, writes the Bloomberg View in an article entitled 'No, Barack Obama, the Russian economy is not torn into shreds'. In January, President Obama said that the Russian economy is "torn into shreds". Last Wednesday, an expert Anders Aslund predicted in his article that Russia's GDP this year will fall by 10%. He wrote that "the situation with the Russian foreign exchange reserves is nearing a critical point." The Bloomberg View objects: Russia's foreign debt is reduced along with the reserves, because the money goes to pay off the debts of state companies. And a significant proportion of the remaining external debts of the companies is in fact an element of tax evasion. The price reduction in the oil sphere is also not so dangerous: after the weakening if the ruble the oil revenues grew, if we count them in rubles. Economic sanctions affect Russia much less than many in the West would like to believe, continues the author.
Foreign newspapers responded to the murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, which took place on Friday evening in Moscow. "Murder of Nemtsov is another black mark for Russia," the US newspaper the Washington Post reports in an editorial. "Boris Nemtsov was a brave Russian politician, who never gave up the dream that his country could make the transition from dictatorship to liberal democracy. As a former elected governor and deputy prime minister in the government of Boris Yeltsin, he stubbornly continued to perform and organize activities against the regime of Vladimir Putin after other opponents fled the country or were silenced. Most recently, he called on Russians to take part in a protest march on Sunday in Moscow. On Friday night he was shot in a gangster spirit - on a bridge near the Kremlin. This is a terrible blow to the struggle for human rights and another dark presage of where Russia is going, " the article reads.
The British newspaper the Financial Times lists victims of murders in recent Russian history in an article entitled "Murder in the shadow of the Kremlin". The victims are Sergei Yushenkov (2003), Yuri Schekochikhin (2003), Anna Politkovskaya (2005), Stanislav Markelov (2009), Anastasia Baburova (2009) and Natalia Estemirova (2009). Now, to this sad and shameful list of politicians, journalists and human rights activists who were assassinated in Russia during the rule of Vladimir Putin, one needs to add the name of Boris Nemtsov. "Like those people whose names are listed, Nemtsov was a stubborn defender of democratic values and human rights. His murder marks a further terrible downward bias in the culture of political violence in Russia. His murder, committed two days before the Sunday march, the purpose of which was to protest against the war in the Ukraine, makes a breach in the opposition movement in Russia. On one of the flowers left on the bridge, where Nemtsov was killed, is written: "Without you the spring will not come," the newspaper reports.
The Washington Post also published an article for a blog entitled "The audiences of Russian and Ukrainian television live on different planets." The crash of the Malaysian Airlines airliner over Eastern Ukraine was a terrible crime, the article informs. "Existing and indirect evidence reinforce the theory that the plane was shot down by anti-aircraft missile fired from a complex Buk-M-1," from the rebel-controlled territory of Ukraine." But the Ukrainian audience was not offered the same version of who is to blame for the death of the liner as the Russian audience. "The Ukrainian government and private TV channels of President Poroshenko stated from the outset that the blame for the destruction of the plane lies with Russian "terrorism''. On the other hand, Russian TV channels, on the contrary, drew parallels between tragedy and the Kiev campaign against the rebel forces, implying that the Kiev "anti-terrorist operation" is to blame.
Western politicians and experts should be more careful with forecasts: claims about the death of the Russian economy may be premature, writes the Bloomberg View in an article entitled 'No, Barack Obama, the Russian economy is not torn into shreds'. In January, President Obama said that the Russian economy is "torn into shreds". Last Wednesday, an expert Anders Aslund predicted in his article that Russia's GDP this year will fall by 10%. He wrote that "the situation with the Russian foreign exchange reserves is nearing a critical point." The Bloomberg View objects: Russia's foreign debt is reduced along with the reserves, because the money goes to pay off the debts of state companies. And a significant proportion of the remaining external debts of the companies is in fact an element of tax evasion. The price reduction in the oil sphere is also not so dangerous: after the weakening if the ruble the oil revenues grew, if we count them in rubles. Economic sanctions affect Russia much less than many in the West would like to believe, continues the author.
