Russia Cracks Down On Journalists, Activists Exposing Corruption Ahead Of Sochi Olympics

[William769]

Source: Think Progress

Russian authorities have cracked down on journalists and activists who are bringing to light corruption and overspending, as well as other issues, around the nation’s hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics, which open in Sochi in little more than six months, according to Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch has cataloged “government efforts to intimated several organizations and individuals who have investigated or spoken out against the abuse of migrant workers, the impact of the construction of Olympics venues and infrastructure on the environment and health of residents, and unfair compensation for people forcibly evicted from their homes,” the group said in a release this week. It has also documented harassment and criminal charges filed against journalists in apparent “retaliation for their legitimate reporting.” The release details multiple Sochi-based journalists and news organizations who have faced intimidation or have been discouraged from covering corruption and spending issues around the Games.

At a cost of $50 billion, the Sochi Olympics will be the most expensive Olympic Games, summer or winter, ever held. While Olympic costs typically have overruns below 200 percent, Sochi’s costs are now 500 percent more than originally forecast, according to one estimate. Workers are making less than $500 a week working on construction projects, and according to Human Rights Watch, they often aren’t paid on time. Most don’t receive safety training or health insurance. And according to activists in Russia, the construction projects are rife with corruption.

The economic benefits of hosting mega-events like the Olympics and the World Cup, which comes to Russia in 2018, rarely if ever match the costs. Overspending and corruption has played a role in the massive protests that blanketed Brazil, the host of the 2014 World Cup, this summer. But unlike Russia, Brazil’s government was more tolerant of the protests there. Even if the demonstrations were, at times, accompanied by police brutality, they were embraced at least rhetorically by some of Brazil’s political leaders, and a widespread crackdown on media coverage didn’t occur. But FIFA, international soccer’s governing body, shied away from accepting its role in what caused the protests and even told Brazilians to pipe down, saying Brazil’s problems shouldn’t be about soccer and shouldn’t affect the World Cup, lest its choice to host the event be deemed a mistake.


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2013/08/09/2444281/russia-cracks-down-on-journalists-activists-exposing-corruption-ahead-of-sochi-olympics/

[Peacetrain]

1. Putin loves Bush..

Can't stand Obama..

Hes a real peach.. someone I would rather not cozy up too.. He (Putin) has such issues with anyone not exactly like him..

Its a potential minefield.

No point in even trying to interact with that person.. leave it up to the ministers and Kerry.. to keep things going till a new President of Russia is elected.

Such a different relationship than the one the President had with Dmitry Medvedev.. so much progress made with our two countries, right out the window when the KGB officers gets back into the Presidency.

[another_liberal]

10. In all fairness.

George W. Bush laughed in Putin's face when, at the opening of the Beijing Olympics, Putin learned that Georgian troops had just invaded Russian territory. Those were Georgian troops trained, equipped and financed by the Cheney/Bush administration's military aid to that former Soviet Republic. There are those who claim American special forces officers even led some of the Georgian units.

I think it would be more accurate to say that President Putin tried to stay close to Bush because he feared what the Cheney/Bush White House might try to do if he acted aloof. In the Summer of 2008, he learned that didn't really work either.

[dipsydoodle]

2. abuse of migrant workers

HRW is US based - pot say hello to kettle.

[William769]

3. Please enlighten us as to how the U.S. is the same as Russia with migrant workers.

I think thats "dressed herring" in you pot, or would that be a red herring?

[dipsydoodle]

5. The reference was to their pay.

Chances are that most migrant workers are from adjacent states and you find the figure mentioned is higher than their home rates. The rate of pay is also above Russia's own minimum wage level.

[William769]

6. So then in reality the U.S. is not like Russia then.

BTW that swipe at Human rights watch was uncalled for considering all the good they do. If you don't think they do good I would like to know why.

[dipsydoodle]

7. HRW is selective.

Over the past thirty years, Human Rights Watch has become one of the most recognized non-governmental organizations in the world due to its global promotion of human rights. But despite its claims to be an advocate of international human rights law, the reports issued by Human Rights Watch over the past decade have increasingly exhibited a bias towards certain rights over others. More precisely, Human Rights Watch repeatedly focuses on political and civil rights while ignoring social and economic rights. As a result, it routinely judges nations throughout the world in a manner that furthers capitalist values and discredits governments seeking socialist alternatives. It is this bias that lies at the root of Human Rights Watch’s scathing attacks on the government of Venezuela its recently deceased president Hugo Chávez. This bias was also evident in comments made in 2012 by Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, when he declared that Venezuela is “the most abusive” nation in Latin America.

According to Human Rights Watch’s mission statement, “Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world” and in order to achieve that objective “We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law.” The international human rights law referred to by Human Rights Watch is rooted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1948. The Declaration encompasses political, civil, social, economic and cultural rights.

Capitalist nations, particularly the United States, have never been comfortable with the articles of the UN Declaration that require governments to guarantee the social and economic rights of their citizens. Among the social and economic rights that contravene capitalist values are the right to “food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services” (Article 25) as well as the right “to share in scientific advancement and its benefits” (Article 27). In a capitalist society, responsibility for obtaining food, clothing, housing and medical care rests with the individual not the state. Likewise, it is not the state’s responsibility to ensure that all citizens share equally in the benefits of scientific advancements developed by, for example, pharmaceutical corporations.

The United States does support those articles in the Declaration that promote civil and political rights. These rights ensure that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law” (Article 7) “Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others” (Article 17); “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” (Article 18); and “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression” (Article 19). Basically, these are the individual rights that are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and that lie at the root of the liberal democratic concept of the “rule of law.” And while Human Rights Watch professes to defend the human rights enshrined in the UN Declaration, in reality, its work focuses exclusively on the civil and political rights recognized by the U.S. government.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/14/the-bias-of-human-rights-watch/

[John2]

11. I think people

need to look at the information on both sides and come to their own conclusions. The author has no more than made the same conclusions that I have been saying about these Human Rights Groups. You can tell when they have a bias agenda. I feel any Human Rights Group push for a military intervention is really not a Human Rights Group if they are bias. Like the notion, Assad is killing 100,000 of his people is propaganda. There are two sides killing people and according to the Syrian Observatory, their side has killed more of the regime soldiers and loyalists. According to their stats, Assad's troops has killed all the civilians while the rebels have killed no civilians.

[another_liberal]

9. Actually . . .

This report actually makes Russia sound a lot like the States of Texas and Arizona.

[dbackjon]

20. You have no clue, do you?

Or you do, but your hatred of gays and America drives your complete and utter propaganda

[another_liberal]

22. You are so predictable.

It is genuinely sad when people can't even see who their friends are. Just plain sad.

[dbackjon]

24. I do know who my friends are

[another_liberal]

27. Good for you.

Be sure to keep them close.

[ronnie624]

14. WIKILEAKS: U.S. Fought To Lower Minimum Wage In Haiti So Hanes And Levis Would Stay Cheap

http://www.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-haiti-minimum-wage-the-nation-2011-6

[Hydra]

4. Why does the world at the superpower level all start to look the same now?

Corruption, silencing of dissent, money flowing to the wrong people, worker exploitation...

It's like they all use the same playbook or something.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. "It's like they all use the same playbook or something."

.
.
.

They do.

CC

[Californeeway]

15. well they all party together on the Russian River

birds of a feather, stick together.

[Democracyinkind]

17. Ha. A Bohemian Grove reference. nt

[Californeeway]

19. thanks for noticing

It's hard to have a good grasp of politics if you are ignoring the secret societies lurking behind the scenes.

[dbackjon]

21. If you think Russia is the same as the US

You are not really paying attention.

[Hydra]

23. Of course it isn't the same

In Russia, Putin rules in the open. Here, Clapper and Alexander rule from the shadows.

The amount of daylight between our policies and those of other nations we used to try to be better than is becoming ridiculously thin.

[dbackjon]

25. Sigh - if you really think that, you really, really

Aren't paying attention to what happens in Russia

[Hydra]

26. Ok, I'll play ball

Like I said in my first post: I don't like what's happening here, and I don't like what happens in Russia either. They seems to have the same goals and the same ways of doing business with Putin having less window dressing.

Am I stepping on something factual by observing this (unwanted) parallel?

[another_liberal]

28. Perhaps they all work for the same masters?

As in the people we sometimes call: "The One Percent."

[Scurrilous]

8. K & R

[davidpdx]

13. How about those Russian human rights?

Combined with the pit of corruption they won't even break even on the cost.

[Katashi_itto]

16. Putin is one of those few people that could have been a James Bond Supervillian. He just happened

to decide politics was more profitable.

[jakeXT]

18. Remember the Aslan Usoyan headshot ?

Aslan Usoyan, 75, better known by his mob name "Ded (Grandpa) Hasan", had survived at least two previous attempts on his life.

Media images of police swarming in the courtyard of a faded pre-revolutionary mansion and rumours of conflict between rival underworld gangs revived memories of the violent and chaotic Moscow that President Vladimir Putin has worked hard to present as long gone.

Usoyan, an ethnic Kurdish Yezidi originally from neighbouring Georgia, had built a vast criminal empire stretching across the former Soviet Union. He is believed to have been in a conflict for years with fellow crime boss Tariel Oniani, known as Taro, as the two battled for territory.

The war has been bloody. Many of those killed were Usoyan lieutenants working in Sochi, home to highly lucrative construction projects as the resort prepares to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. The most high-profile victim was Vyacheslav Ivankov, better known as "Yaponchik (Little Japanese)", who was killed by a sniper rifle in Moscow in 2009. The FBI suspected him of being a leading Russian crime boss in the United States following the fall of the Soviet Union.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/16/russian-crime-boss-aslan-usoyan-shot