Slashdot Mirror

ossetia is considered georgian territory by many valid measurements. it also contains people who do not want to be a part of georgia. similiar to east timor, or kosovo

so ok, let the ossetians be free

as if these were the only considerations

other considerations:

1. these ossetian considerations equally match chechnya, whose fight for freedom russia has crushed. do you support chechnya as a free and independent state form russia, on the principles of your support for osssetian independence from georgia? by your rationale, russia should give up chechnya. do you agree with that?

2. furthermore, in the case of kosovo, and east timor, separation was achieved by broad spectrum international support, and a peaceful vote. in the case of ossetia, russia did a sneak attack, on a region it has been involved imperialistically for centuries. do you think the comparison is still valid

3. and finally. what exactly is russia's motivations again?:

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/370554.htm

study your history in the caucasus. anyone who thinks what is going on here is anything more than an old-style imperialistic landgrab that should be universally denounced by anyone interested in progress in this world is an utter fool

oh, UN will just talk, then donate some money to whoever is left in charge at the end ...

Found this piece that says it all and better than I can:

"all those little Napoleons -- whether they are named Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, former Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia or Saakashvili -- who instead of freeing their citizens from the Stalinist Soviet Union have created mini-empires within illogically imposed borders and played out their delusions of grandeur using the blood of their own people."

from http://www.moscowtimes.ru/articles/detail.php?ID=369737

What a shame. Heck, let's have supreme lea...errr, strong president then.

More info:

• http://www.edinros.ru/news.html?id=125194 (in Russian)
• http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/11/08/011.html
• http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/032b8382-8d6f-11dc-a398-0000779fd2ac.html

The Moscow Times presents a far better article. It's more likely related to shady business practices than his spamming practices.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/07/26/003.h tml

You can go with the old Soviet Russia anecdote (its not valid as slashdot 'soviet russia' thing, since is a good old valid anecdote... from soviet russia...) So, Vasiliy Ivanovich tells Pet'ka: - Americans have landed on the moon! The politburo is sending you on a mission to the sun. Pet'ka replies: - Vasiliy Ivanovich, are they nuts? I'll burn there! - Ne dreyf'(don't fear) Pet'ka! They aren't stupid. You'll fly during the night! (This article in Moscow times explains a lot of old soviet russian humour. Good reference).

The old Eastern Bloc happens to be an excellent example of what happens when governments are not strong enough to enforce the rule of law and make everybody play fair.

You cannot have a free market and foreign investment without a certain degree of government intervention. Otherwise you see the situation prevalent in the more-backwards parts of the world where businessmen find it cheaper and more convenient to use unethical means to dispose of the competition than follow the rules.

Russia is an excellent example. Quite a few people have been rubbed out by their business competitors because the government is either unable or unwilling to impose a sufficent level of rule-of-law. I believe that just the other day, a regional governer got shot in the back of the head in broad daylight, apparently an organised hit by disgruntled businessmen. Check out the photo.

Here is the original article in the Moscow Times where the quote came from.

you do indeed have access to their newspapers. there's this thing called the world wide web, perhaps you've heard of it.

stories from the moscow times:

1. Russian Arrested After U.S. Hacker Convention
2. Adobe Seeks Release of Programmer
3. Jailed 'E-Pirate' a Cause Celebre

so there ya go.

you do indeed have access to their newspapers. there's this thing called the world wide web, perhaps you've heard of it.

stories from the moscow times:

1. Russian Arrested After U.S. Hacker Convention
2. Adobe Seeks Release of Programmer
3. Jailed 'E-Pirate' a Cause Celebre

so there ya go.

you do indeed have access to their newspapers. there's this thing called the world wide web, perhaps you've heard of it.

stories from the moscow times:

1. Russian Arrested After U.S. Hacker Convention
2. Adobe Seeks Release of Programmer
3. Jailed 'E-Pirate' a Cause Celebre

so there ya go.

you do indeed have access to their newspapers. there's this thing called the world wide web, perhaps you've heard of it.

stories from the moscow times:

1. Russian Arrested After U.S. Hacker Convention
2. Adobe Seeks Release of Programmer
3. Jailed 'E-Pirate' a Cause Celebre

so there ya go.

Themoscowtimes.com doesn't work for me. However this should be the same article.

--Ryan

Actually, a bit of further research reveals the the Moscow Times is owned by something called Independent Media. From their site:

Independent Media, a privately owned limited liability Dutch company, is one of the strongest publishing houses on the Russian mass media scene today. ... and is the leader in the English-language newspaper market with its flagship, The Moscow Times.

Guess that explains it.

I am not making this up...

Saturday, June 24, 2000

Company Claims Patent on the Bottle

By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer

A company has managed to take out patents on all glass, plastic and metal containers and is demanding that breweries throughout the country pay it 0.5 percent royalties on every bottle or can they sell.

Intellect, a company specializing in legal advice on industrial property rights, secured the patents from state patent agency Rospatent and has sent letters to breweries offering a license so brewers can continue to use bottles and cans.

Interfax reported Vladimir Shishin, head of the Brewers Association, as saying Friday that Intellect's demands could cost beer makers 200 million rubles ($7 million) a year.

[...]

The Encyclopedia Britannica says the Egyptians were producing glass bottles before 1500 B.C. But that didn't stop Rospatent from issuing the patent Oct. 20. It is now in the middle of an internal investigation into whether it should have done so.

[...]

Critics say the patent application was written in complicated language and pertained to a feature inherent in all bottles.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru /24-Jun-2000/stories/story2.html

Jamie McCarthy