3 July 2012. Time to Lighten Up and Smile…

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Not everything in life is serious… pass the jug and smile… the Good Lord’s given you THIS life.

BMD

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Verkhovna Rada Passes Russian Language Bill

We Stand for Sevastopol!

Vasili Nesterenko

2005

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THIS is why the people of Sevastopol refuse to speak Ukrainian… they’re Russian. They’ve fought for it before, they’re fighting for it now, and they’ll continue to fight as long as Russians live in Crimea. Sevastopol isn’t a Hero City for nought…

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On Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada approved the final reading a bill significantly enhancing the status of the Russian language in the Ukraine. The bill carried, gaining 248 votes (it needed 226 out of 450 votes to pass). If Ukrainian President Yanukovich signs it into law, Russian will acquire the status of a regional language in regions where it’s the native tongue for at least 10 percent of the population, that is, in 13 out of 27 administrative-territorial entities in the Ukraine, including the cities of Kiev and Sevastopol. Under the bill, Ukrainian would actually remain the only state language, but would lift restrictions on the use of other languages spoken in the country, including Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Magyar, granting them official regional status.

During his election campaign, President Yanukovich pledged to make Russian, a native tongue for many Ukrainians, a second state language. Many still speak Russian is in much of the Ukraine, especially in the East, Crimea, and the capital Kiev, and there’s a strong movement to protect the rights of Russian speakers. The bill allows the parliament, government, and other legislative and executive bodies to publish their decisions in the regional language, and enables TV companies to broadcast in that language. The authors of the bill maintain that it preserves the status of Ukrainian as the only state language. However, the opposition regards it as a ploy by the ruling party, ahead of parliamentary elections, due in October, to deepen divisions between the country’s Ukrainian and Russian speakers.

On Tuesday night, seven lawmakers from the Our Ukraine -People’s Self-Defence {a Radical Right bunch of nutters equivalent to American libertarians… they’re fanatical Orangies: editor} opposition faction started a hunger strike in protest against the bill. Vyacheslav Kirilenko, a deputy of the Our Ukraine bloc, said, “Currently, seven members have declared a hunger strike, but I’m sure that other colleagues and ordinary citizens will join it”. He added that the hunger strike would continue until the cancellation of the Russian language bill. Arseny Yatseniuk, an Our Ukraine deputy, said, “Of course we’ll bring the case to court. However, I can you tell you beforehand that other lawsuits over violations of pension reform were all rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court, which is fully controlled by Yanukovich”. Deputy Speaker Nikolai Tomenko, who is also a member of the opposition, said he’d file a case with the Prokuratura. The opposition has already said that the vote on the bill was invalid because it neither was on the agenda nor considered with amendments in a second reading, and, therefore, the session on Tuesday didn’t have the right to approve it.

3 July 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20120703/174384304.html

Russia might Blacklist Magnitsky Act’s Sponsor

THIS is what Magnitsky was… a shyster lawyer working for a Langley front… he’s NO hero; he’s a traitor.

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On Monday, Izvestiya reported that Russia might deny entry to US Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), the sponsor of the contentious Magnitsky Act. The newspaper said that the Gosduma is considering doing likewise to a large group of individuals, including US Consul General in Vladivostok Douglas Kent, as well as Drug Enforcement Agency officers Scott Hacker and Derek Odney, who are involved in the case of Russian businessman Viktor Bout. The government would deny them entry under the draft law “On Measures against Individuals Involved in Violation of Russian Citizens’ Rights Abroad”, discussion on which would soon resume in the Gosduma. The Gosduma received the first draft in June 2011 and it may adopt it if the USA passes the Magnitsky Act. Some deputies don’t consider it an appropriate response to Washington. Deputy Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Leonid Kalashnikov thinks that a more radical step is required.

Last week, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously approved a bill that would impose sanctions on Russian officials allegedly linked to Hermitage Capital consultant Sergei Magnitsky‘s death in 2009. The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act seeks to impose visa bans and freeze assets of Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of the 37-year-old Russian lawyer, as well as in other serious human rights abuses in Russia. Magnitsky faced charges of involvement in large-scale corporate tax evasion. He died in a Moscow pretrial detention centre on 16 November 2009, after spending nearly a year behind bars. According to investigators, Magnitsky and his accomplices stole hundreds of millions of roubles from the state by manipulating tax returns between September and October 2007. Hermitage Capital maintained that it had paid 5.4 billion roubles (186.5 million USD) in taxes, but the money was stolen, abetted by law enforcement officials. Magnitsky’s prosecution was attributed to this theft. Russia warned that it’d respond to the adoption of the bill in kind, imposing restrictions on US officials.

2 July 2012

RAPSI: Russian Legal Information Agency

http://www.rapsinews.com/news/20120702/263647667.html

Pussy Riot Supporters Break into “Faith No More” Gig in Moscow

Faith No More frontman Mike Patton (1968- )

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Faith No More We Care a Lot official video

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Late Monday, to protest the arrest of band members, supporters of imprisoned members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot rushed on the stage of a Moscow night club during a concert of the American band “Faith No More”. Several girls in woven eye-slit masks ascended the stage of the Stadium Live club in Moscow as the musicians of Faith No More band completed the first set of their performance. For several minutes, the girls shouted anti-government slogans and called for the release of the imprisoned Pussy Riot members, unfurling a banner that called for people to gather at the Tagansky Court of Moscow on 4 July, for the trial of the jailed feminists. The audience at the concert expressed a mixed reaction to the action with some of the people applauding the girls on the stage, whilst others booed, urging them to leave the stage. There were no incidents and the club’s security didn’t intervene.

“Faith No More” resumed its concert afterwards, performing their song We Care a Lot. Mike Patton, frontman, and Roddy Bottum, keyboards, wore woven eye-slit masks as they performed the song. In February, five members of Pussy Riot  chanted a song entitled Holy Shit targeted against then-premier Vladimir Putin. The song, which they sang in Moscow’s downtown Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, also contained words insulting the MP First Hierarch, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev. Pending trial, some of the Pussy Riot members have been in gaol since March. They performed their song on the bema, which is off-limits to all but clergy. The group said the performance was a response to Patriarch Kirill’s support for Putin in the run-up to his 4 March election victory. Believers and Church sources widely condemned their actions, but some opposition activists and public figures support them.

3 July 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20120703/174369712.html