Archivo etiqueta «Ex Repúblicas Soviéticas»
By Anne Applebaum (THE WASHINGTON POST, 13/11/07):
The French Revolution had its Jacobins; the Russian Revolution erupted in Red Terror. The peaceful revolutions of more recent years weren’t supposed to produce violent counterrevolutions. But now one of them has.
Indeed, in a single week, the president of Georgia — Mikheil Saakashvili, or “Misha” to his friends — probably did more damage to American “democracy promotion” than a dozen Pervez Musharrafs ever could have done. After all, no one expected much in the way of democracy from Pakistan. But a surprising amount was expected of Georgia — a small, … Seguir leyendo
Por Imanol Villa (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 07/11/07):
El regreso a Lenin -escribió Mijaíl Gorbachov en 1989- ha estimulado enormemente al partido y a la sociedad soviética en su búsqueda de explicaciones y respuestas a los problemas que tenemos planteados». No cabía ninguna duda. Para el padre de la ‘perestroika’, la salvación de la Unión Soviética pasaba por la recuperación de los objetivos, aún inconclusos, de la Revolución de Octubre de 1917. Más de setenta años después, un líder soviético reconocía la esclerosis de un sistema incapacitado para gestionar las necesidades, y sobre todo las básicas, de sus ciudadanos. El análisis … Seguir leyendo
By Anne Applebaum (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/10/07):
From outside, the offices of Skype– the company best known for its free Internet phone service — don’t look very different from the other Soviet and post-Soviet buildings that make up the nondescript suburbs of the Estonian capital. But inside, the aesthetic influence of Northern California is undeniable. The high-tech, open-plan offices; the “playroom,” complete with pool table and sauna; the young, bearded employees; the Dadaesque plastic crocodile hanging from the ceiling; the bluejean-clad spokesman who has been “too busy” to contemplate the fact that eBay, which bought Skype for $2.6 … Seguir leyendo
Por Beata Wojna (REAL INSTITUTO ELCANO, 12/04/07):
En los últimos años crece el interés de España por el espacio ex soviético. Por una parte, se realizan esfuerzos por profundizar en las relaciones con Rusia, algo lógico, por razones económicas, políticas y de seguridad energética. Por otra, poco a poco aumentan los contactos políticos y económicos con los demás países de esta región. No obstante, en ambos casos el balance sigue siendo pobre y aún queda mucho por hacer para potenciar la presencia española en esta región vecina de la UE. La presidencia de la OSCE asumida por España a principios … Seguir leyendo
Por Mijail Gorbachov, ex presidente de la URSS y Premio Nobel de la Paz en 1980. Distribuido por New York Times Syndicate. Traducción: Toni Tobella (EL PERIÓDICO, 09/04/07):
Una pregunta formulada con sinceridad merece una respuesta sincera. Indirectamente, la pregunta constituye una crítica hacia la perestroika (reestructuración) y hacia todo lo que hicimos en nuestro país, y en todo el mundo, durante aquella etapa. No estoy de acuerdo con dicha crítica.
Empecé a promover la perestroika a mediados de los 80 como una política de reestructuración y reforma de los sistemas económicos, políticos y sociales de la URSS. Era … Seguir leyendo
By Tom Stoppard (THE TIMES, 02/04/07):
What does this remind you of? “X was charged under Article 339, part 2, with hooliganism, and with the organisation of group activities (Article 342, part 1), and was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment.”
The clue is the combination of the oddly unlegalistic “hooliganism” and the catch-all unmeaning of “group activities” punctiliously proscribed under article-this and article-that.
Remember it now? This was the language of Soviet-style justice in the USSR and wherever ran the Kremlin’s writ in Eastern Europe. It was where George Orwell met Lewis Carroll (“ ‘When I use … Seguir leyendo
By Jackson Diehl (THE WASHINGTON POST, 11/12/06):
Some people suppose that President Bush’s freedom agenda was buried last Wednesday by the report of the Iraq Study Group. In fact, history will show that the administration largely smothered its own baby, even before Iraq’s descent into civil war propelled the resurrection of James Baker and other “realist” friends of Middle Eastern dictators.
Evidence of that conclusion could be found in Washington on the same day Baker delivered his report, as administration officials, members of Congress and business executives gathered for a glittering dinner in honor of Mehriban Aliyeva, the visiting first … Seguir leyendo
Por Jesús López-Medel, diputado del PP por Madrid, vocal de la Comisión de Asuntos Exteriores del Congreso y relator de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Ayuda Humanitaria de la OSCE (EL MUNDO, 26/08/06):
«He llegado a un país, después de mi regreso de Crimea, que ya no es el mismo» Mijail Gorbachov, 23 de agosto de 1991
En estos días hace 15 años, tras 10 meses en el espacio, el astronauta Sergei Krikalev, miembro de una potencia espacial como la soviética, no sabía cómo iba a regresar, pues el país que le lanzó ya no existía. En su viaje astral … Seguir leyendo
Por Monika Zgustova, escritora. Su última novela es La mujer silenciosa (EL PAÍS, 19/08/06):
Hace poco me llamaron la atención unas estadísticas de las Naciones Unidas que mostraban que, en los países ex comunistas de la Europa Central y del Este, el porcentaje de mujeres que participan en la actividad económica es superior al de los países occidentales. Según la ONU, un 43% de españolas y un 49% de alemanas forman parte de la actividad económica de sus países, mientras que las mujeres del Este las superan con un 51%, en el de las checas, y un 59%, en … Seguir leyendo
By Fred Hiatt (THE WASHINGTON POST, 10/07/06):
When communism collapsed in 1991, no one expected democracy to triumph everywhere and instantly. But no one expected the other side to fight back, either. After all, what was “the other side”?
Yet when President Vladimir Putin hosts the first summit of Group of Eight leaders in Russia this week, the most notable thing won’t be that his country has failed to become the consolidated democracy that the G-7 countries expected when they invited Russia to join a decade ago. What will be remarkable — but has been little remarked on — is … Seguir leyendo
Por Carlos Taibo, profesor de Ciencia Política de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (EL PERIÓDICO, 17/06/06):
Sabido es que Georgia, Ucrania y Kirguistán, tres repúblicas que formaron parte de la Unión Soviética, protagonizaron entre noviembre del 2003 y marzo del 2005 lo que llamamos revoluciones naranja. Resulta llamativo que el interés que los procesos en cuestión suscitaron en sus manifestaciones iniciales no se haya visto acompañado de un seguimiento puntilloso de lo ocurrido después. Semejante carencia se ha convertido en explicación principal de por qué entre nosotros se ha instalado una percepción de los hechos que idealiza visiblemente a … Seguir leyendo
By Jackson Diehl (THE WASHINGTON POST, 24/04/06):
President Bush’s retreat from the ambitious goals of his second term will proceed one small but fateful step further this Friday. That’s when, after more than two years of stalling, the president will deliver a warm White House welcome to Ilham Aliyev, the autocratic and corrupt but friendly ruler of one of the world’s emerging energy powers, Azerbaijan.
Here’s why this is a tipping point: At the heart of Bush’s democracy doctrine was the principle that the United States would abandon its Cold War-era practice of propping up dictators — especially in the … Seguir leyendo
By Dr Alyaksei Mazhukhou, the ambassador of the Republic of Belarus. Response to ‘To criticise capitalism don’t try to defend the dregs of Soviet socialism’ (THE GUARDIAN, 14/04/06):
Timothy Garton Ash says it is the right thing to give people “the chance to choose their own government” (To criticise capitalism don’t try to defend the dregs of Soviet socialism, April 6). Of course this wins my support.Clearly, the presidential election in Belarus was of key importance for our nation and of huge interest for many others. However, long before the polling day, the western media seemed to … Seguir leyendo
By Timothy Garton Ash (THE GUARDIAN, 06/04/06):
In the last century, we used to have two big arguments: one about socialism and Russia, the other about capitalism and America. This century, we’re mainly left with the argument about capitalism and America, as well as some big new ones. But now and then the old ideological wrangles about Russia and socialism make a shadowy reappearance, as they have recently on these pages. Some writers have suggested that the Ukrainian and Belarussian election results spell a turning of the tide against nefarious CIA-supported “colour revolutions”, inhumane free-market neoliberalism, US propaganda, western hypocrisy … Seguir leyendo
By James Harkin (THE GUARDIAN, 01/04/06):
If you feel too confused about current political events in Ukraine or Belarus even to offer a dinner-party opinion, don’t fret. According to Andrew Wilson, an academic at London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, we are perfectly right to be a little perplexed, because nothing is as it seems. In his book Virtual Politics, Wilson argues that much of what passes for democratic participation in most of the countries of the former Soviet Union is entirely fake, a carefully choreographed performance designed to maintain the political status quo.
A decade ago, most … Seguir leyendo