Spooky business Aug 30th 2007 | MOSCOW From The Economist print edition Intriguing arrests, but few answers WHEN Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead at the entrance to her Moscow flat last October, President Vladimir Putin quickly tried to dispel any notion that pro-Kremlin forces were behind the murder of an outspoken journalist who had exposed abuses in Chechnya and the suppression of dissent at home. Instead, he blamed the killing on enemies abroad (read: Boris Berezovsky, the ex-oligarch exiled in London) who, he said, were trying to discredit him and “create a wave of anti-Russian feeling”. After months of investigation, Russian prosecutors have, surprise, reached the same conclusion. On August 27th Yuri Chaika, Russia's prosecutor-general, hailed the arrest of ten suspects. He declared that the masterminds were “people outside the Russian Federation” and argued that the murder was “in the interest of those who want to destabilise the situation in the country, change the constitutional order, and return to the system when money and oligarchs decided everything”. Such political spin apart, the investigation appears to reveal disturbing links between the security services and the criminal underworld. Several of those arrested are former or serving officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the police. It seems that a criminal Chechen gang, which specialised in contract killings, hired an FSB officer and his counterparts from the interior ministry to watch Ms Politkovskaya's movements. “It was strictly business, nothing personal,” says Sergei Sokolov, a senior editor at Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper Ms Politkovskaya worked for. Mr Sokolov and his colleagues praise the work of ordinary investigators. They say the names of those arrested cropped up in the newspaper's own inquiries. What the journalists find disturbing is that confidential information was leaked and that the prosecutor-general has adopted a sweeping political interpretation before the end of the investigation. Ms Politkovskaya's colleagues say the idea that oligarchs ordered the killing is just “one version”. Nevertheless, says Mr Sokolov, “we think those who ordered the murder are inside the Russian Federation.”
Sherylin posted:Erk posted: Sorry, but you're not your own race. Why, of course, not. I am nothing but a forum troll.
Erk posted: Sorry, but you're not your own race.
DarthBoba posted: lol what
Lowbacca_1977 posted: Would you consider it unfriendly to tell a German that there WAS a holocaust, to tell a Turk that there was an Armenian Genocide, to tell an American that nukes were dropped on Japan and there was slavery?
Sherylin posted:No, of course not. did I suggest this? I was merely saying that I don't want to post in this topic any more, for the reasons you obviously understand already. It's that I would rather discuss Heroes of Might and Magic part 5 in the appropriate thread of the appropriate forum (sorry, I don't play Tetris any more, and Heroes 5 is the newest russian fantasy-strategy, some of my friends abroad really love it, and if someone tells you it belongs to Ubisoft, remember that they only bought the copyright, and if you check the authors there are only russian names in it ) No offense.
Sherylin posted:Did you actually play Heroes 5? Did you play any of the previous parts? The difference is huge, and I can't say if I like it more or less... Yet, the Heroes of Might and Magic series are my all-time favorite, that's why I played it from beginning to end, and now I'm waiting for another expansion (I have finished the "Hammers of Fate" expansion pack this weekend).
Kimball_Kinnison posted: Would you call a movie that was written in the US, Produced by a French company, and filmed in Russia to be a Russian movie?
Sherylin posted:Kimball_Kinnison posted: Would you call a movie that was written in the US, Produced by a French company, and filmed in Russia to be a Russian movie? If all the actors in the movie are Russian, and it is filmed in Russia, I think I would call it a Russian movie, or at least a "joint production" film, even if the script (scenario) was written in US, and France paid the money for production.
Kimball_Kinnison posted: The film analogy for the programmers would be if the film crew (cameramen, grips, etc) and many extras were Russian, but the director, producer, and the writer were not. The programmers simply implement the design specifications that they were given. That's how pretty much every software development project works. Kimball Kinnison
