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Monday, February 09, 2004
Elections elsewhere Well, this isn't good: a Russian presidential candidate, a "harsh critic" of Vladimir Putin, has been reported missing; he hasn't contacted his family or his campaign staff since Thursday. One of his campaign members said "As he is a registered presidential candidate, we hope this will take priority." Yeah, right after the March 14 elections, probably. (The missing man's name, Rybkin, is related to the Russian word for "fish," which, I fear, is who he's sleeping with...) (If your browser handles Unicode, his name is Рыбкин, and "fish" is рыба.) More, 11:50 a.m.: This article in Aftenposten reports that a Norwegian official has accused Putin of "systematic liquidation of the political opposition in Russia," with Rybkin's disappearance the most recent in a string of suspicious, um, ends-of-lives, including presidential candidate Aleksandr Lebed going down in a helicopter crash in 2002, liberal politician Sergej Jusjenkov being shot in the street the day he registered his new "Liberal Russia" party in April 2003, and liberal politician and journalist Jurij Sjekotsjihin being poisoned three months after that. Jeez, "Russian presidential candidate" is turning out to be an even shorter-lived political career than "Kennedy family member." I think one thing the U.S. may have failed to consider in "making the world safe for democracy" is that democracy is not always safe for the world... [ at 11:22 AM • by Abby • permalink • ] |
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