Neo-Soviet Spite Knows no Bounds
The Guardian reports:
Russia has renewed its campaign of harassment against the British Council by demanding that the cultural organisation move out of one of its offices in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Three years ago police raided the British Council's Moscow headquarters. Russian officials accused it of not paying tax but the raid was part of a broader attempt by the Kremlin to intimidate non-governmental organisations, whom Vladimir Putin has accused of spying and meddling in Russia's internal affairs. Tension between Moscow and London has been exacerbated by the Kremlin's refusal to hand over Andrei Lugovoi - charged with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko - and by Tony Blair's recent remarks that western investors could be put off doing business in Russia. In March Russian officials demanded the latest tax records of the British Council in Moscow and 11 other Russian cities. The foreign ministry now says the organisation has to move out of its Yekaterinburg office because it is not a "cultural department of the British embassy". British Council staff are exasperated by the decision and say they have been trying to resolve the council's tax and legal status for the past three years. James Kennedy, the director of the British Council in Russia, told the Guardian yesterday: "We have been working very hard for three years. We hope a new cultural agreement will soon be signed to continue all the work we are doing with our Russian partners. It's disappointing we can't sort these things out." Yesterday Russian officials said the British Council office in Yekaterinburg currently enjoyed diplomatic immunity, to which it was not entitled.
LR: Britain could do the same thing to the Russian counterpart in Britain, except for the small problem that there isn't one, just like there's noRussian counterpart to McDonalds in the USA. Russia has woefully failed to make its culture palatable to outsiders, and hence only made its image problem that much worse.
Labels:
cold war II,
iron curtain,
russia
4 comments:
LR: Britain could do the same thing to the Russian counterpart in Britain, except for the small problem that there isn't one, just like there's no Russian counterpart to McDonalds in the USA. Russia has woefully failed to make its culture palatable to outsiders, and hence only made its image problem that much worse.
I've always wondered why Russia has never really exported any culture or anything. It's a like a big waste of a society. That's sad. But keep up the good work and a loyal reader thanks you!
Also is Vitas a fake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2J52Dy3qM&v3
His voice can't go that high. Well appreciate the work.
Peter.
There is a "Pushkin Institute" for teaching Russian to citizens of foreign countries...
http://www.pushkin.edu.ru/english/exams.html
Quote:
"Exams are held in the Institute Training and examination center, and also in examination centers (Budapest, Warsaw, Varna, Gdansk, Keltz, Krakov, Leipzig, Madrid, Poznan, Prague, Sofia)"
I think there is one also in Barcelona, but I'm not sure.
I don't know if there are centers in UK. But, please, look for info before posting.
Thanks.
Peter you stupid twit, the point was about a Russian presence in AMERICA and BRITAIN. Please look into it before posting a comment, you imperious moron.
"Russia has woefully failed to make its culture palatable to outsiders, and hence only made its image problem that much worse."
You said "outsiders" not "Britons and Amreicans". Are you arguing that "Britons and Americans" the only outsiders to the Russian Federation? If not, Peter just underlined that Russian HAS NOT "woufully failed to make its culture palatable to outsiders". Also because in London you can find at least 10, if not more (just google it, or come to London), Russian-products shops, for instance.
By the way, no instance of the US was mentioned in the main article, but only in your comment. So was really the point ALSO about the US? Yet you started "moroning" people, that it was, even if no mention of the US is made in the article.
If you consider McDonald's as a sign of US culture(what else do these sentences mean:"just like there's noRussian counterpart to McDonalds in the USA. Russia has woefully failed to make its culture palatable to outsiders"), then your fellow citizens should send you to a mental asylum.
Finally, you just can't refrain from showing your hate against Russian culture, can you?
What the Russian government's debatable moves have to do with Russian culture anyway?
You are just trying (and failing) to diguise your deep hate for everything and everyone is Russian, by saying "bla bla I want Russians to stand up against the government, I want to help them to take their fate into their hands bla bla". In the meanwhile, you totally condemn vitually anything is Russian. Don't you see a HUGE contradiction here?
Just say you would like the 1 milion figure to rise to 150 milion, at least you would be honest with yourself and your readers!
A person who hates or criticises a country's government, doesn't hate the same country's people or culture. Culture and traditions would be still the same, if the government changed.
Therefore, if you hate culture and traditions now, why would you stop hating them, even if Garry Kasparov became Russia's next president? You wouldn't because you just hate those "Rooskies", right? Of course!
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