text:
What Would Caroline Polachek's Pirate Ship Look Like?
Matt Moen
In a year that has been dominated by the Yeehaw Agenda, from the return of assless chaps to record-breaking singles, Caroline Polachek wants to talk about pirates. Ahead of the release of her debut album under her own name, the former half of indie duo Chairlift has returned with a swashbuckling new music video for her single "Ocean of Tears."
The new visual combines the emotional grandeur of Enya's nautical ballad "Orinoco Flow" with the washed out melancholy of a Wes Anderson film with Polachek as the lovelorn pirate captain setting sail on the high seas. From swabbing the deck to hanging out of the crow's nest, Polachek just about ticks all of the boxes on the pirate list but in a way that feels more "Jean-Paul Gaultier editorial" and less "dead-eyed server at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville." It strikes a balance between a necessary amount of camp and the cinematic flair the song's soaring vocal gymnastics call for.
Related | Lil Nas X On a Unicorn Floatie
In a musical climate that is currently in love with the image of a dusty wanton cowboy, the waterlogged pirate is a refreshing change of pace. Both still capture this romantic fantasy of a self-sufficient loner with an affinity for statement headwear, but whereas it feels like there is a glut of singing cowboys flooding the market there is wealth of potential for a pirate revival to win over our hearts with updated sea shanties and plank walking antics. (An "Ahoy Agenda," if you will.)
Our latest glimpse inside the visual world of her forthcoming record, Pang, "Ocean of Tears" stands out as belonging to a distinctively Polachek world: ornate, romantic, lush, and delightfully surreal. We caught up Caroline following the release of the official music video for "Ocean of Tears" to chat about her inspiration, what to expect from her upcoming album, and what her pirate ship would look like.

Is it true that the video for "Ocean of Tears" was inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland?
Yeah. Exactly. I moved to LA a few months ago and I've never been to Disneyland before. I was with Matt Copson, director for the "Ocean of Tears" video, and while we were on the ride, I turned to him and was like: 'How has no rapper done pirates in a video? It seems like the most obvious thing for a rapper to do.' Matt said: 'Well you just have to do it first.' I knew I wanted to make a music video for "Ocean of Tears" at the time. I already had a color palette in mind for it that was inspired by the snow paintings that Monet did which are all really amazing because they take place in these scenes that are supposed to be all white, but they're actually extremely colorful. These kinds of bleached out pastels. "Ocean of Tears" is actually a sad song and quite lonely, probably the hardest track on the record, I liked the idea of setting it in this anemic world. When Matt said I should use the pirate video for myself, it was just a massive lightbulb moment because I was like: 'Right. Obviously, combine those two ideas and that's 'Ocean of Tears.'"
"I felt like the pirate story of taking no prisoners, risking your life for the treasure was a big metaphor. In my case, the treasure is love and not money."
How did it move from there, what was the process like?
It started with looking at what the traditional pirate stories are, anything from walking the plank to the hook hand. We were sifting through all the iconography and clichés and legends, reading about things like Davy Jones' Locker, which is a metaphor for death, and actually weirdly steering clear of the Pirates of the Caribbean films because they really are their own thing. I wanted to go back to what my childhood impression of what pirate lore was like. The song is really about taking a leap, taking a risk to be with someone you love, being so far away from them, and the kind of mania that makes you ask yourself: Am I doing the right thing? Is this good? Does this person even love me? But at that point, you're too far in and you've set out on this voyage of reshaping your life to be with someone. I felt like the pirate story of taking no prisoners, risking your life for the treasure was a big metaphor. In my case, the treasure is love and not money. That's why the treasure chest has a beating heart in it.
What was your first time at Disneyland like?
It was amazing. I forget all the names of the rides, but I did the Jungle Cruise, this log ride that has all these rabbits and bears doing really horrible things to each other; the haunted house ride, which is incredible and so holographic Victorian; the Pooh ride, which is weirdly '90s-'60s themed rave. It's amazing. The level of attention to detail and it's just all the wild human imagination that went into that place. Those things only happened because of people believing in art, stories, imagination, and creativity with every ounce of their being and defying the economic gravitational pull that makes you not do that. It's a miracle that place exists and it gives me a lot of inspiration on a deeper level.
What did you take away on a deeper level with it?
It gave me a renewed commitment to externalizing the pictures that are in my mind. Physically doing everything I can to make it come to life because it's really difficult, especially in the music economy right now, to get things made. That lit a fire under my ass to keep doing it to the best quality that I can.
What were your experiences with pirates like as a child?
I guess reading illustrated kids books for one. Peter Pan is obviously a huge one. Hook, a classic. I wanted to be one of the mermaids. Growing up as a girl, the pirate stuff was always so geared towards the boys. It was a boys' Halloween costume, it was a thing for the boys to be. Approaching it from a more romantic, feminine angle is so much fun. I learned that pirates had their own institutionalized form of gay marriage which was quite revolutionary and ahead of their time.
"Growing up as a girl, the pirate stuff was always so geared towards the boys. Approaching it from a more romantic, feminine angle is so much fun."
Yeah! I was reading about that recently actually, there are some really famous female pirates who were lovers.
Yeah! It's this really amazing utopia. It does show where things sit right now in America in 2019. It's not so much as an escapist impulse as it is an anarchist one to do things on your own terms, totally abandon the rulebook or the way society has structured life.
How do you think that compares to the cowboy renaissance?
I think the whole cowboy trend links very deeply with the politics of Trump's America. I think people are chewing that in a very subconscious way. It's like individualist, it's territorial, it's hypermasculine, it's a return to land, but only land seen through the filter of domination and harming and not actually wilderness. With pirates, there is a more punk anarchy angle. It's finding your own way, it's DIY, it's communal it's removing yourself from a system rather than being the colonial edge of it.
"Pang for me is this very real feeling of your body telling you that you need something."
Can you paint me a picture of what Caroline Polachek's pirate ship would look like?
It's covered in tattered flags that have indiscernible writing that's written in the blood of my enemies on the flags. There is a skull at the head of the ship. The sails probably follow my will, I don't actually have to go up and adjust the sails. I have a telepathic relationship with where I want to go. The ship would probably be called "The Dream Slicer." It would be painted in weathered shades of white and gray and green. My cabin would be a circular room where the entire room is a bed, just a giant circular bed. No one is invited, unfortunately, it's really just a ship for one where I have to deal with my romantic torments.
What should we expect from Pang?
"Ocean of Tears" plays into the core of the album. The three songs out right now paint an accurate picture of where I'm going with it. Pang for me is this very real feeling of your body telling you that you need something. It's not something that you're conscious of. On a very simplistic level, it's when you have not fed yourself and have forgotten that. Your body is telling you: "Hey, you're hungry."
Oh wow, of course.
I came across the title because when I started making this record, I was having really overactive adrenals. I was getting adrenaline rushes for no reason over the course of a few months. It was kind of fun in some ways because you're on a high, but it's also terrible because it's difficult to sleep. Your heart rate just goes racing for no reason, you lose your appetite. I dropped a lot of weight in a really unhealthy way. It expands the capillaries in your lungs so you're receiving more oxygen than you normally would be. You're literally high on oxygen which is part of the fight-or-flight response. It dilates your pupils too so you're receiving more light than you should be receiving. I felt like all of these things, on a very sensory level, was what I wanted out of music. I started thinking about panging and desire and needs and lack and hunger, but also combined with this hyper-sensory high. Seeing more light than you should, getting more oxygen and being high on that.
How did you go about realizing that in the album?
It all kind of merged together in my mind as this feeling that I've always looked for in music. Music that is euphoric but also deals with suffering and need on a very internal level. I really dedicated myself to following through with that concept, but I was also living through it as well. A lot of the collaboration on the album is with Danny L Harle, who became my main studio partner — not over the whole record — but most of it. He and I were coming at this from completely different angles. Me, from more of an organic, melodic place with my band background and him from more of a trance, electronic angle. Dan put it in a really beautiful way as being like "Building landscapes of the mind." I was really rigorous with the poetry and the text to really make it feel honest and as possible.
Pang is out this fall via Columbia Records. You can catch Caroline Polachek on tour this fall in select cities across the US and Europe.
Stills courtesy of Caroline Polachek
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Emerging Markets Euromoney Country Risk
Iran: Crippling sanctions tarnish Rouhani's reform drive
The economic situation in Iran is likely to deteriorate further as the west steps up its sanctions against the regime, say analysts at the Institute of International Finance.
Iran's newly elected president Hassan Rouhani enters office amid deteriorating economic fundamentals, while a new set of sanctions scheduled to take effect in early August might push the economy to the brink.
The Institute of International Finance (IIF) forecasts economic hardship to rise and fundamentals to deteriorate in the event of stalled negations with the US and EU. Sanctions have reduced Iran's trading firepower, fuelled inflation and reduced banking liquidity.
"The new sanctions penalize holders of a 'significant' amount of rials outside the country," states the IIF. "These measures could lead to further depreciation of the parallel market rate. If the next government makes no concessions in the coming months, the economic situation is likely to worsen further in FY2013/14.
"Even in the unlikely event that discussions with the western countries take place and achieve progress, it will be some time before the sanctions begin to lift and the economic hardships begin to ease."
Falling oil production and policy mismanagement have also intensified the economy's abysmal economic performance in the past two years.
The rial's deprecation is tempered by hyperinflation, after the rate of inflation reached 60%, according to the IIF.
"The sanctions have inflicted serious damage on Iran's economy in FY2012/13, ending March," it reports. "Based on incomplete data, we estimate the economy to have contracted by 3.5%, the 12-month CPI inflation surged to above 60%, the fiscal balance moved to a deficit of 2.9% of GDP, and the official reserves dropped by about $17 billion to $84 billion – still adequate at 10 months of import cover."
Source: Institute of International Finance
Iran has the fourth-largest oil resources in the world, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada. However, UN sanctions are estimated to have cut Iranian oil production by more than one million barrels per day of crude oil, amounting to lost revenue of $5 billion per month, according to the Centre for Global Energy Studies.
Source: www.edofcrudeoil.com
With Iran's economy on the brink, the jury is out on whether Rouhani has the political capital to deliver on his pre-election growth promises.
"Rouhani's campaign message of a more flexible approach in foreign policy and improved management of the economy appears to have resonated with the voters, who turned out in record numbers – 70% of the estimated 50 million voters," states the IIF.
"The new president, who will take office in early August, will explore ways to reduce tensions with the US and the EU, and possibly to revive bilateral talks with the US on the nuclear issue, but his first priority may be to make changes in the management of the economy to improve the lives of ordinary Iranians."
Rouhani's first task when he steps into office on August 3 will be to present an economic programme that incorporates comprehensive market reforms, while simultaneously bringing the country's oil production back to fuller capacity.
A new economic reform agenda should look outwards and further away from the policies of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy says the reformist candidate might deliver on his conciliatory foreign policy promises, but it's unclear whether this will be tolerated by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader.
"Iran's supreme leader allowed Rouhani to win the election, recognizing that he had run against current Iranian policies that have isolated the country and invited economically disastrous sanctions," reports the Washington think-tank. "But it isn't clear why Khamenei allowed such an outcome.
"Rouhani's election could provide a safety valve for the great discontent within Iran. A president with a moderate face might be able to seek an open-ended agreement on Iran's nuclear programme that would reduce tensions and ease sanctions now, while leaving Iran room for development of nuclear weapons at some point."
However, Rouhani's reform drive might be in vain when placed at the mercy of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Source: IIF
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Nonischnoscia umbraticostella är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Walsingham 1897. Nonischnoscia umbraticostella ingår i släktet Nonischnoscia och familjen äkta malar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Äkta malar
umbraticostella

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
HSAs Appeal to Variety of Workers, But More So When the Employer Contributes
Just as employers that match employees' 401(k) plan contributions see higher employee participation in the plan, employers that contribute to employees' health savings accounts (HSAs) are more likely to see eligible employees open an HSA. An examination by UnitedHealthcare of HSA-eligible participants found that when an employer made an HSA contribution on its employees' behalf, 86% of eligible employees chose to open an account, compared with 27% who opened an account when the employer did not provide "seed money." Account adoption was highest among employees who earned less than $25,000 annually, with 64% of employees at this income level having an account. The percentage of employees who opened an account then steadily dropped as income level rose: 56% of those in the $25,000-$49,999 earnings range, 52% of those in the $50,000-$99,999 earnings range and 50% of those earning $100,000 or more. However, as might be expected, the average employee HSA contribution rose as income level rose: $1,166 for employee ...
Consumer Involvement Critical for Health Care Cost, Quality Control
Fewer than half of U.S. adults have the confidence, knowledge and skills to proactively manage their health care, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). This type of consumer engagement is critical to efforts to control the cost and quality of health care. Data for the report came from the HSC 2007 Health Tracking Household Survey, which sampled more than 15,500 adults. Individuals contacted were asked 13 questions to determine their Patient Activation Measure (PAM), an assessment of an individual's knowledge, skills and confidence in managing their health. Based on answers to these questions, the surveyed individuals were assigned to one of four levels of patient activation: 1–passive/not confident enough to play an active role in their own health; 2–lack basic knowledge and confidence in the ability to manage their own health; 3–taking some action to manage their health, but still lack some confidence/skills; and 4–have many of the behav ...
Check out our New ACA Corner!
We have recently added an ACA Corner to our Home page: http://www.cbhealthins.com/ We started off with some of the basics and common questions we get asked on a regular basis, such as "What are the penalties if I don't have insurance?" and "Who does this apply to?". We have information for both individuals and small Employer Groups (Currently 2-50 employees, but set to go up to 99 employees under the law.) We will be adding to this page over time, so please check back and see what's new. Right now, you can view the following reports: Individual Mandate and Penalties: http://www.cbhealthins.com/insurance-quotes/personal-insurance/health-insurance/aca-individual-mandate Employer Mandate 50+ and 100+: http://www.cbhealthins.com/insurance-quotes/personal-insurance/health-insurance/employer-mandate-50-and-100 Top 10 things Individuals need to know: http://www.cbhealthins.com/insurance-quotes/personal-insurance/health-insurance/employer-mandate-50-and-100 Top ...
Separate Fact from Fiction in Promoting Consumer-Directed Health Plans to Employees
Though participation in consumer-directed health plans is growing, only a small percentage of employees join these plans, and even fewer set up health savings accounts (HSAs). According to a survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, in 2008, 3% of the insured population, or 4.2 million individuals, were enrolled in a consumer-directed health plan, defined as an HSA paired with a high deductible health plan (HDHP). More—11%, or 13.4 million individuals—were enrolled in an HDHP, and of these, 42% were eligible to contribute to an HSA, but chose not to do so. Misunderstanding the mechanics of HSAs and ignorance of their potential advantages keep many people who are eligible for an HSA from seriously considering opening an account. Similarly, employees who have a consumer-directed health plan option might see the high deductible feature as offsetting, and not consider other advantages of the plan. If your company offers employees the opportunity to participate in a consumer-directed h ...
ACA - will the Supreme Court strike down the subsidies to Federal Exchanges?
There has been much discussion in the news and in the courts about this controversial challenge to the ACA law (known now as the Affordable Care Act). The law states that subsidies will be available through STATE Exchanges. The law further stated that if a state chooses not to set up a state exchange, the Federal government will set one up on their behalf. About 30 or more states let the Federal government set up the Exchange for them, and a handful option to a Partnership Exchange - a joint agreement that the state and federal gov't will work together to initially establish the Exchange. (The State of Illinois has a Partnership arrangement.) There are only about 18 true State-run exchanges. The challenge here is one of semantics. The law SAYS State Exchanges, but most would agree that the IMPLIED interpretation is that this applies to ALL Exchanges, regardless of how they are set up - state, federal, or partnership. For this reason, I personally do not belie ...
What Goes into Determining the Cost of a Prescription Drug?
Prescription drug costs continue to be one of the fastest growing components of total health care costs. According to a 2008 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, spending in the United States for prescription drugs in 2006 was $216.7 billion, more than five times what it was in 1990. Though spending for prescription drugs was one-third of that for hospitals and half of that for doctors' services, the annual rate of increase for spending on prescription drugs has exceeded that for these other services in all but one of the last 11 years. Nearly half (44%) of spending for prescription drugs is paid for by private insurance, and since employers are the principal source of health insurance coverage in the United States, they fund a major portion of the spending for prescription drugs. Therefore, it's worthwhile for employers to understand the factors that go into the ultimate cost of the prescription drugs that are paid for, in part, by employee benefit plans. When a new drug is first brought t ...
HHS changes Dates for next Open Enrollment (in response to many complaints/concerns)
The ACA law specifically states that the Open Enrollment period for the Marketplace (that is all individuals under 65) will coincide with Medicare Open Enrollment and take place from October 15 through December 7th. The law did allow for an extended 6-month open enrollment period the first year the market opened (Oct 1, 2013 - March 31, 2014). For the 2015 enrollment, the dates were scheduled to go back to the Medicare Open enrollment, as indicated in the law. However, HHS modified the 2nd open enrollment period to 11/15/14 - 2/15/15. For 2016 enrollment it has now been changed to Nov 1, 2015 - Jan 31, 2016. Read more: http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/nahuw/issues/2015-02-20/index.html NAHU (National Association of Health Underwriters) was very vocal on behalf of health insurance agents to explain the problems with the limited Open Enrollment time-frame of less than 2 months. Most agents who sell Individual Health Plans to people under age 65 also sell Medicare Su ...
Full Replacement Consumer-Directed Plans Yield Greatest Savings
Consumer-directed health care plans can lead to savings for employers, according to two recent studies. Savings are greater for full replacement plans, or when the consumer-directed plan offered as an option is implemented in conjunction with strategies that foster engaged consumerism, education and wellness initiatives. One of the studies, from Aetna, reviewed health care claims and utilization data from 2.6 million plan members, 410,000 of whom were enrolled in a consumer-directed plan that included a health savings account (HSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). Cost savings were reported as follows: • For full replacement plans, employers saved $21 million per 10,000 members over a five-year period. • Employers that offered the consumer-directed plan as an option to a traditional health care plan saw $7 million in savings per 10,000 members over a five-year period. • Employers that offered the consumer-directed plan as an option, but additionally implemented certain identified ...
Employees' Health Risks Linked to Lower Productivity, Financial Cost
While logic tells us that healthier workers are likely to be more productive than those with health risks, a recent study confirms this, finding that individuals with a number of health risks have seven times more lost productivity than those with no identified health risks. Health risks most strongly associated with on-the-job productivity loss were back pain, mental well-being (depression) and stress. Also, the chances of productivity loss rose as the number of health risks increased. The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and conducted by StayWell Health Management researchers and John Riedel, a health and productivity expert, included data from 106 companies in five industry sectors, representing responses from nearly a quarter of a million individual employees. Questions on health and work performance were incorporated into the companies' health risk assessments to collect the data. Employees considered to be at low risk were classified as a NIF (Normal Impa ...


text:
package mealplaner.commons.gui.inputfields;

import static java.util.Optional.empty;
import static java.util.Optional.of;

import java.util.Optional;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JTextField;

import mealplaner.commons.gui.GuiPanel;

public class NonEmptyTextInputField implements InputField<Optional<String>> {
  private final String label;
  private final String name;
  private JTextField nonEmptyTextField;
  private final int orderNumber;

  public NonEmptyTextInputField(String label, String name, int orderNumber) {
    this.label = label;
    this.name = name;
    this.orderNumber = orderNumber;
  }

  @Override
  public void addToPanel(GuiPanel panel) {
    nonEmptyTextField = new JTextField();
    nonEmptyTextField.setName("InputFieldNonemptyText" + name);
    panel.getComponent().add(new JLabel(label));
    panel.getComponent().add(nonEmptyTextField);
  }

  @Override
  public Optional<String> getUserInput() {
    String trimmedUserInput = nonEmptyTextField.getText().trim();
    return trimmedUserInput.isEmpty() ? empty() : of(trimmedUserInput);
  }

  @Override
  public void resetField() {
    nonEmptyTextField.setText("");
  }

  @Override
  public int getOrdering() {
    return orderNumber;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Putley on Lugovoi
A Little Accusation is a Dangerous Thing
by Jeremy Putley
Original to La Russophobe
It can be a dangerous thing to say that a man is guilty of a murder before he has been tried and found guilty of that crime by a jury in a court of law – as Mr Wopsle found to his cost, in Dickens's Great Expectations. If you have read that novel you will remember that Mr Wopsle was holding forth in the Three Jolly Bargemen about the guilt of the accused in a recent murder case. Listening to Mr Wopsle's words was the great London lawyer, Mr Jaggers. In an overwhelming demolition of the unfortunate Wopsle, Jaggers pronounces one of the supreme principles of English jurisprudence. "The law of England supposes every man to be innocent until he is proved – proved – to be guilty."
That is probably why no British newspapers have pointed out that the first, obvious conclusion to be drawn from President Putin's refusal to extradite former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi to the United Kingdom to face trial on a charge of murder is that it amounts to a tacit admission of guilt. Newspapers do not publish what they deem to be defamatory statements even if they are true.
But if the accused will never face a court of law to answer to the charges, what then? Must there be perpetual silence on the question of guilt? That would be to compound the wrong that has been done. It would not be right to the victims. It would not be right to Russia, nor to the people in London poisoned by polonium-210.
Andrei Lugovoi was employed (with others) to assassinate a Russian dissident, naturalized as a British citizen and living peaceably in London. President Putin is well aware of that. He also knows that a finding of guilty against the accused in a British court of law will involve a simultaneous finding in the court of world opinion that the murder of Alexander Litvinenko was ordered by the Russian leadership. This much is only too clear.
Possibly, during court proceedings in the UK, if Lugovoi could ever be brought to trial, his testimony would provide confirmation of one theory of why the murder was committed and at whose instigation, in relation to which a number of facts are already in the public domain. It is now known, from BBC TV, that an 8-page "due diligence" dossier prepared by Alexander Litvinenko was about Victor Ivanov, currently chairman of Aeroflot. It follows, from the hypothesis advanced in a BBC Radio Four programme by Yuri Shvets, that Victor Ivanov is the Mr X described as the "powerful, dangerous and vindictive" individual, "closely associated with President Putin", who may have ordered the murder of Litvinenko. According to the BBC radio programme, when Litvinenko gave the dossier to Lugovoi, in early October 2006, and Lugovoi delivered it (or reported its contents) soon afterwards to Mr X (Ivanov), the decision to assassinate its author was made, in revenge for the termination of a contract worth "dozens of millions of dollars". Perhaps Mr Lugovoi's evidence would shed light on the truth of this collection of allegations.
It would also be interesting if Titon International, the firm which allegedly employed Litvinenko to carry out the due diligence on Victor Ivanov, would publicly disclose the identity of the British company which commissioned the due diligence report, and subsequently pulled out of the deal.
But this is only one view of why Litvinenko was murdered. There were previous murder victims connected with the 1999 apartment building explosions, about which Litvinenko wrote in his (recently re-issued) 2002 book co-authored with Yuri Felshtinsky, "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within". These include two State Duma deputies: the prominent liberal politician, Sergei Yushenkov, murdered by shooting in April 2003, and Yuri Shchekochikhin, a veteran investigative journalist, poisoned in July 2003, possibly with thallium. The assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, who was hated by the Russian hierarchy as a "traitor" to the organisation formerly known as the KGB, now the FSB, confirms the truth of what he wrote. The testimony of Andrei Lugovoi, supposing he could be persuaded to give it truthfully, would disclose that the FSB under its present head, General Nikolai Patrushev, is a corrupt, totally compromised, criminal organisation, so far beyond a possibility of being cleansed and reformed that it must be considered fit only to be disbanded.
There are only two commonly-held views of the 1999 apartment building explosions which killed more than 300 sleeping Russian citizens, and served as Putin's pretext for starting the second war in Chechnya: that they were carried out by the Rusian FSB at the behest of the Russian power structures; and that of the Russian authorities, that they were the work of unidentified others for no known motive. The refusal of President Putin to allow Lugovoi to come to the UK to be tried for murder stands as implicit confirmation of the FSB's guilt, in that it shows the government of the Russian Federation believes that his testimony would incriminate the guilty. And they are nervous.
When Tony Blair had a "frank discussion" with Vladimir Putin about the British government's demand for Lugovoi's extradition, earlier this month, Blair may, at last, have begun to understand the truth of the unsavoury character of his enigmatic interlocutor. (To Putin, by contrast, Blair's lack of understanding of the truth seemed merely obtuse – hence, perhaps, Putin's comment that British insistence on extradition is "stupid".) A lawyer himself, Blair may now, as he leaves office, finally and too late have learned, from the refusal to surrender a criminal to justice, one reality of today's Russia: that it is run by people who are not averse to the commission of crimes when they seem expedient, or convenient, or financially rewarding to members of the siloviki.
Thanks for reading La Russophobe !
Posted in litvinenko, putley, russia
On Putin's Constitutional Gambit
Posted on June 28, 2007 | 1 comment
The Associated Press reports on the fine points of "President" Putin's neo-Soviet gambit to have his cake and eat it too:
Two top Kremlin officials have shown up on state-controlled television regularly for months, appearing decisive and statesmanlike, inspiring speculation that they are competing for the job of President Vladimir Putin. And so they may be. But at least one prominent analyst predicts the two men will split the current presidential powers when Putin leaves office next year, with one serving in a weakened presidency and the other becoming a stronger prime minister.
Many who follow Russian politics assume Putin, barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term, plans to endorse either the stern Sergei Ivanov, 54, or the boyish Dmitry Medvedev, 41, in the March presidential contest. Both are first deputy prime ministers. Other experts suggest that late this year Putin will throw the weight of the Kremlin behind a surprise candidate, who might step down in a year or two and clear a path for Putin to run again.
Putin's popularity is so high that whomever he endorses is almost certain to win. Dmitry Trenin, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Center, regards the matchup between Ivanov and Medvedev as a dress rehearsal by two leading men rather than a competition between rivals. Trenin says Putin is likely to endorse Ivanov, but he also predicts Putin will install Medvedev as prime minister and expand that position's powers. One way to do that, Trenin said, would be to name a Cabinet loyal to Medvedev — and Putin — before Ivanov took power. "Without changing one iota of the constitution, we'll have a new constitution in Russia," Trenin told The Associated Press. "All power in the Russian Federation is now vested in the president of the Russian Federation. That will be modified." Trenin and other analysts say Putin hopes to retain influence, perhaps even continue to run Russia, in retirement." I think he will find the kind of formula in which he would step down, but stay on," Sergei Stepashin the head of the Russian Audit Chamber, was quoted as saying by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. "He is going to leave in order to stay," said Nina Khrushcheva, an analyst at the World Policy Institute of New York City's New School." President Putin himself will be on the chessboard. We don't know in what capacity, but it's very clear that he will be in a powerful position," Trenin said.
[LR: Like the mindless, gutless sheep they are, ] Russian voters are prepared to ratify Putin's choice of the new leadership, Trenin said, adding that they have reconciled themselves to a certain level of corruption among top officials as long as they feel they are being competently led. "Russia is an autocracy or an authoritarian state today with the consent of the governed," he said. On television news programs, both Ivanov and Medvedev have been shown touring factories and meeting with professional groups, scolding lower-ranking officials and announcing ambitious social, military or economic programs — the kind of coverage that has helped to build Putin's prestige and popularity. But there is a division of labor between these aspiring Russian leaders. Ivanov, previously the defense minister and head of foreign intelligence, has focused on security issues and foreign affairs. Medvedev, chairman of the state natural gas monopoly Gazprom, has been handing out money for social programs and has focused on economic reforms. Transferring some presidential power to the prime minister could serve several practical aims, such as reducing the president's workload. It could also help Putin maintain political influence once he leaves the Kremlin. If he endorses a single successor with commensurate powers, that person can't be counted on to remain loyal, Trenin argues.
There is another potential reason for splitting power between Ivanov and Medvedev, in this view: Each may appeal to separate Kremlin factions — Medvedev to the technocrats, dedicated to executing orders efficiently; Ivanov, to the "siloviki" ("powerful ones"), which includes many current and former intelligence and military officials. The siloviki are by far the larger and more important faction. They generally favor a more assertive foreign policy and expanded government control of Russia's energy wealth and other key industries. Ivanov is not considered a leader of the siloviki and may — like Putin — remain aloof from factional Kremlin politics. But his comments indicate he shares many of the siloviki's views. He advocates, for example, state control of strategic industries, including energy producers and defense manufacturers. Part of his current duties include supervising the consolidation of state-owned aviation, shipbuilding, shipping, space and atomic energy companies into a series of huge corporations. When it comes to foreign policy, Ivanov may be more of a hawk than Putin. And he has said repeatedly he does not think Russia needs to follow the model of what he calls "Anglo-Saxon" democracy.
In a June speech to youth group leaders, Ivanov defined a democracy as a nation with the military strength to remain independent, so its people can "choose their own future themselves," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. "Truly democratic nations are few," he said, and cited China and Russia — as well as the United States, the European Union nations and India — as among the world's leading democracies. Russia has to remain strong culturally, economically and politically, he was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass. "Otherwise, the `Brzezinski plan' may prove a reality," he said. The "Brzezinski plan" is a term used by Russian political figures since at least the mid-1980s to describe alleged Western plots to destabilize the Soviet Union and later Russia. Despite these comments, Ivanov described himself as "fairly liberal person" in a recent interview with The Financial Times newspaper. Trenin said Putin may not have much faith in Russian voters, but he is a patriot who cares about Russia and the nation's continued political stability. "People may call him an autocrat, but I would consider him a responsible autocrat," Trenin said. "He clearly wants out of the Kremlin, but he doesn't want the system to crumble the minute he leaves." [LR: Really? Do "responsible" autocrats change the constitution without changing it? What a profoundly Russian notion. Then again, Mr. Trenin may fear what would happen if he didn't admit "President" Putin was "responsible" — remembering Anna Politkovskaya, for example]
Kasparov Speaks Again
MacLean's publishes a lengthy sit-down with opposition leader Garry Kasparov (pictured, showing his solidarity with jailed business leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky):
Garry Kasparov was the greatest chess player the world has ever known. The Azerbaijan-born grandmaster, known as "The Beast of Baku" for his aggressive style of play, dominated the game for 20 years, earning headlines for his memorable battles against both human and computer opponents. Kasparov retired from the game in 2005 to concentrate on writing and politics. A fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he formed the United Civil Front, an organization devoted to promoting democracy and electoral freedom in Russia. He is also a principal organizer of The Other Russia, a coalition that unites opponents of the Putin regime – a regime of which he says, "The system is not corrupt – corruption is the system." His transition from Soviet grandmaster to Russian dissident has seen him arrested for protesting in the streets of Moscow, detained for trying to get his message out in the press and criticized as a naive attention seeker. While his profile remains high outside Russia, inside his home country – where over a dozen journalists have allegedly been killed in the last two years for criticizing the government – he contends with threats to his personal safety, political apathy and a state-controlled media that he claims stifles any dissent against the Kremlin. Kasparov made his first political appearance in Canada on Tuesday, giving a speech to the Empire Club of Canada at Toronto's Royal York Hotel. He criticized Putin, implored Western leaders to stop providing the Russian president with "democratic credentials" and explained why he feels Russia is ready for change. After delivering his remarks, Kasparov sat down with Macleans.ca for an interview. Macleans.ca: You've spoken extensively about the concessions you've had to make as a political dissident in your country. What's the most difficult adjustment you've had to make?
Garry Kasparov: I have no life. It's terrible, it affects my family. Daria [Kasparov's wife] is from St. Petersburg and if she goes there for a few days, I have to send bodyguards. In Russia we're always under this stress. We know that bodyguards won't save you from state assault, but there's so many provocations, we have to be vigilant all the time. That's why we decided that [having Daria] give birth in Moscow might not be a good idea. I can't put a bodyguard in the hospital.
When I stopped playing chess I said, "Maybe I will be flying less." I was dead wrong. I'm flying three times more now. And you know in chess it was, I flew somewhere and I stayed there for two weeks. It was a long tournament. Now it's boom-boom-boom. In some ways, I wish for the quiet years to return.
I hope that this summer, we'll actually spend time together. We'll go back to Croatia – that's where I had all my training sessions when I played chess, for many, many years – and we'll have some sort of family reunion. But it's really difficult.
M: You've written a book called How Life Imitates Chess. Are there parallels between the style of chess game you played and the style of politics you practice?
GK: Any chess style reflects character. Some people are mistaken thinking that in chess we have rules, so that experience relates only to 64 squares. In fact, you have to recognize your strengths and weaknesses, read your position and not rush into the attack if you are on the weak side.
And you always try to create an environment where your strengths are playing a dominant role, while your opponent's strengths are being pushed away. If you are on the battlefield and you have cavalry, you obviously want to fight in the valley. If you fight against cavalry, try to look for the hills. It very much has a universal application; I was quite good in chess at identifying those parameters of the battlefield lying ahead of me.
M: And you're bringing that experience to your political role as organizer of The Other Russia?
GK: I recognized from day one that we were in a very weak position. The opposition was in disarray and we needed just to survive. Survival is the best strategy.
If you analyze our performance over the last two years, I think we are doing quite well because we survived. A.) That's important – it's difficult to survive under this pressure. B.) We are noticeable. Not that we are now on the winning side – we're still much weaker than the Kremlin – but we are there, they can't ignore us anymore. That's tremendous progress.
The trend is quite positive because although they still have a big advantage, the advantage is less significant than two years ago, even a year ago. Now people are talking about possible outcomes of March 2008, of it not being elementary, or an orderly power transition.
M: You feel that the country is on the verge of a tipping point democratically, that The Other Russia is on the verge of some success?
GK: The Other Russia cannot win itself, because The Other Russia is a very broad and very fragile coalition which, facing a strong opponent, might collapse.
But The Other Russia created the notion of the opposition, a real opposition. What we had before in Russia, whether it was liberal or left-wing or nationalist, tried to play by the Kremlin rules. Even in Yeltsin's years there was some sort of consensus. "We in the Kremlin let you run your campaigns, you get part of the parliament." There was plenty of political freedom, freedom of the press, but there was one big exception: You cannot participate in deciding the issue of supreme power, the presidency. The presidency was something that would be decided behind closed doors.
Now, The Other Russia unites all different groups based on our recognition of the shortcomings of such a position. We know that we cannot be the same group in a normal democratic environment, because we have liberals and left-wingers and nationalists, but we know that there are certain political musts that unite us. And when it's accomplished, then obviously we will go on our own business.
M: The coalition that The Other Russia encompasses is so broad and its members have so many competing interests that it must be difficult to manage…
GK: Yes, absolutely. But as in Chile at the end of the '80s, there's a dominant goal: to build a normal democratic process. So what Putin actually accomplished – accomplished against his will – he convinced different political groups, different schools of thought in Russia, that liberal democracy is the only successful foundation for a modern state.
Through the '90s, we still had debates with die-hard Communists or nationalists that, "Oh, democracy, maybe it's wrong for Russia." Now, nobody argues about it. The political division in Russia today is not between right and left or democrats and Communists. It's about those who believe that this regime is threatening the integrity and in fact survival of our country and those who are trying to belittle the regime. You can find liberals and Communists and nationalists on both sides of the spectrum.
The Other Russia states that what we need is to make sure that we have free and fair elections, no censorship and we have to reform the political system that created this all-powerful presidency. That's the core of our program. And we know that if it's done, then we could fight each other in free and fair elections.
We believe that the Kremlin will inevitably split, because the issue of a successor will create not only frictions but open fights within the Kremlin's rank and file.
M: You don't think Putin is strong enough to have his handpicked successor succeed him without that kind of fight?
GK: Putin has two options: one he stays, one he goes. Staying is still an option. I'm sure he can force change in the constitution and there are a lot of groups in Russia that would like him to stay – but in general, he potentially puts in jeopardy the multibillion dollar fortunes of the Russian bureaucracy [located] outside of Russia, because Putin turning into another [Belarussian dictator Alexander] Lukashenko, that might not be an attractive partner for [Western] leaders.
Now, if we look at Putin's replacement, we are dealing with a paradox. For Putin to receive personal guarantees, he needs a weak successor. For his system to survive, he needs a strong successor. But a strong successor might also be quite dangerous.
When Putin succeeded Yeltsin there was unity among the rank and file of Russian bureaucracy. They knew that things were getting better. Oil prices were going up. Russian people were tired of Yeltsin's years, they expected something from Putin, there was a big war in Chechnya… Everything worked in favour of the new president.
In 2008, things will be very different. Infrastructure is falling apart. The Russian people are disillusioned. They didn't see any benefits from these high oil prices. Oil is not going to jump up, it may only go down. There's no new influx of money. The general system that was created under Yeltsin and Putin is worn out.
If there is a handpicked successor, a strong successor, he's facing immediate crisis. Now tell me, what will be his first step, based on Russian tradition? Who will be his scapegoat? Yeltsin is dead. Just having a successor is no guarantee of full immunity.
Putin spent all his eight years building a system of checks and balances. It's working now. But if you take away the core of the system, the balances are no longer there. So [when Putin leaves] you have to adjust the system. The only way to adjust the system is for the winner to eliminate the competition within the inner circle. So for any group the appointment of a potential successor might be a deadly threat.
We are eight and a half months before the elections. There is no single [Kremlin] candidate who has announced his candidacy. I think Putin doesn't have an answer.
M: You're expecting fractures within the Kremlin, but weren't you also optimistic that in March 2008 there would be only one presidential candidate opposing the Kremlin candidate? And that's not happening…
GK: Well, I think it will happen.
M: But many candidates have declared – Grigory Yablinsky of the Yabloko Party declared his candidacy the other day. You think don't think that all of these people are going to actually be on the ballot?
GK: The funny thing also is – and again, it proves that politics in Russia is no longer divided by left and right – all these three ideological groups, the right wing Union of Right Forces, the social democrats, Yabloko, and the Communists, they all are having the same problem: the largest organization in each party is openly sympathizing or siding with The Other Russia. The Communists have problems with their Moscow branch, Union of Right Forces with their Moscow branch, Yabloko with their St. Petersburg branch. They're trying to curb these protests, so that's why they're trying to present themselves as candidates, to buy more favours from the Kremlin and maybe to get a chance to have enough clout at the parliamentary elections.
I think that we have a good chance. It's complicated, because we have an ex-prime minister, we have an ex-head of the Central Bank, and we may have a few more [potential candidates]. My strong preference today would be [former Central Bank chief] Viktor Geraschenko who has, in my view, very good credentials among different groups. We need somebody who can be accepted by the left, nationalists and liberals, and from the perspective of my organization he would be the best choice.
M: And you won't be a candidate?
GK: Look, I cannot win today, by my estimation. I would do well, I think I would create a lot of problems for Kremlin, but I believe we have to try to win. And if I enter the battle, it means I will have to start breaking up some relations. And I'm the only one who communicates to all of them, you know, as the old Soviet champion – so I talk to nationalists, to Communists, to liberals, to social democrats. The moment I'm the candidate, the uniqueness of my position is jeopardized, and I think that would be deadly for the coalition. M: What kind of a man is Vladimir Putin? He's your opponent…
GK: He's not my opponent. I'm opposing the system. But Putin…he and his people, if you look at their biography, they're failures. They're the failures of the Soviet Union.
Look at his career. I mean, Putin at age 35, 36 was moved back to St. Petersburg from a very low position in East Germany and in St. Petersburg. He was what? Recruiting students as a KGB spy. That's the end of the career.
When [former St. Petersburg mayor and Putin mentor Anatoly] Sobchak lost the elections in 1996 in St. Petersburg, Putin was unemployed. Four years before he was appointed president he was unemployed.
And the people that are surrounding him, they all were failures. Only thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union where new opportunities emerged, they actually made their careers. Look at Zyuganov, look at [Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir] Zhirinovsky. They all owed their success to the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were nobodies.
They never fought for power as Gorbachev did, as Yeltsin did. They just came to power. For them it was not even a gift, you know, it's a grimace of fortune. They discovered themselves in the middle of enormous wealth and everything was working like King Midas. They touched things – gold. And they're getting scared that one day, it's over. They're getting paranoid. The whole system is paranoid because there's so much wealth and they don't know if it will go on forever and they've been thrown into the middle of this all-powerful, unchecked system and given total impunity. They're freaking, because March 2008 is there.
M: That paranoia is so characteristic of Putin's regime, and some have questioned whether the siege mentality that he cultivates is a political strategy. "The West is against Russia, they want to put Russia in their place, everybody's against Russia…" Do you think he actually believes that?
GK: I think that it's a little more complicated, but the answer is yes. They believe in this conspiracy against them because they believe in the absolute power of money. Money buys everything. Now if money doesn't buy something, it means conspiracy is involved. I think that's the core of their mentality.
When Putin made this big offer to Angela Merkel last October, about having this separate deal, you know, this Stalin-Hitler pact but on gas – "We are producers, you are distributors, let's forget about the rest" – Merkel turned it down. And for Putin, that was a really big shock. By the way, after this failure, the Kremlin propaganda stopped the promotion of Putin's favourite terms: gas and oil empire, energy empire. Because he suddenly recognized that he's selling, but the buyers, they have something to say as well and they are united against him. So this failure actually contributed to his paranoia.
His speech in Munich [in February, wherein he accused the United States of attempting to create a "uni-polar world"], was after this failure. Now he was looking for conspiracy, he was threatening, he was raising stakes. He talks about the Cold War, but it's nonsense. The Cold War was based on ideas. You can accept or reject Soviet ideas, but they were ideas and these ideas swayed hundreds of millions of people around the world. Putin's only idea is, "Let's steal together."
M: So how would you like Western leaders to deal with Vladimir Putin? What would you like to see them do?
GK: Nothing. No, we don't need any action. We know it's unrealistic to expect any action, because the best the West could do if they wanted to – if they're serious about preventing Russia from selling nuclear technology to Iran or missiles to Hezbollah and Hamas via Syria – is to hit them where they're weak, where they'll feel it most: money.
The entire game played by Putin, it's about money. It's about profits. So the number one item on their agenda is supporting the high oil prices. That's why tension in the Middle East is good. So selling weapons to Syria and nuclear technology to Iran is good because it makes money and it raises the tensions.
So unless the West is ready to confront them, nothing is going to happen. But that's more the Western problem.
Our immediate problem is: Stop treating Putin as a democrat, because that's what hurts us inside the country. That's what Kremlin propaganda shows every day on television. "Why are they talking about Putin? Why are they criticizing his democratic record? He is part of this group! Look, Schroeder calls him a crystal-clear democrat, Bush is hugging him. They are all receiving him as equal. You don't like what's happening in Russia? But that's democracy!"
So they are compromising the notion of democracy. So please, send a message to Mr. Putin: You cannot act as Lukashenko and Mugabe or Chavez and be treated as a democratic leader.
M: Is it more in the West's interests to engage with the Putin regime as opposed to isolating it? Might not an isolated Russia be more of a threat to Western interests?
GK: Let's not mix Russia and Putin. Nobody talks about isolating Russia. You're talking about not treating Putin as a democrat, giving him this face value. Doing business with China doesn't include appraising Chinese leaders as great democrats. Doing business with Russia should not include extra dividends for Putin's democratic credentials. The West has been promoting the policy of engagement for seven years. And while they've been doing it, Putin has been steadily destroying democratic institutions in Russia.
There's a mistaken assumption that by criticizing Putin, the West might help Putin's domestic popularity because he will be seen as someone who's opposing the West. Not true. The bureaucrats know their money and their future is in Europe, in North America. That's why any change in tune might create a little coup there. You know, in 1981, Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an Evil Empire. Don't tell me that in 1981 the Soviet Union was less of a menace than Russia is today.
M: You mentioned in your speech here today that you'd learned some members of the local business community were absent today because their attendance would be controversial and might jeopardize their business interests…
GK: I know that my activities and my speeches to foreign audiences are making many businessmen, not only in Canada, very upset. They're doing business with Russia and they're not happy to hear open criticism of Vladimir Putin because it puts them in a complicated situation. They can't ignore that they're doing business with a police state and sometimes they're very shadowy deals that might be questioned if attention is brought.
I even had some problems getting a Canadian visa. First time in my life. Four weeks, they couldn't issue a visa in Moscow. I don't know why. It's definitely a question mark. I received my visa at the last second in Mexico City. If not for Canadian embassy in Mexico, I wouldn't be here. It's not only a Canadian problem, though it's my first appearance of this magnitude in Canada, so that probably caused some concerns.
M: What's your message to the people who skipped this event today?
GK: Look – investing in KGB Inc., it's a dangerous business. You make a lot of money now, but March 2008, there will be a new government in Russia. Whether it's a democratic government or a new mafia boss, many deals will be reopened. And you know, you are placing your bets on very shaky ground. You expect huge benefits, but it comes with huge risk.
So take your chance, but don't pretend that you are on the right side of the picture.
Posted in kasparov, russia
Annals of Tregubova
The Guardian has more on exiled dissident Kommersant journalist Yelena Tregubova (pictured):
Since Russia enshrined freedom of speech as a constitutional right in 1993, a total of 152 journalists have been murdered there. A database set up this month by two media monitoring organisations, the Glasnost Defense Foundation and the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, sets out the details of each case. Yelena Tregubova is trying hard not to be the 153rd.
"I am not going to keep silent, because if I do, they will kill me silently," Tregubova declares. "I am in a privileged position because I can speak freely. Many of the colleagues I left behind in Moscow think as I do about what is happening, but they can't speak up. I don't have nuclear weapons, I don't have an organisation like the KGB behind me. Journalism is my only weapon."
Tregubova is privileged, if you can call it that, by virtue of the fact that she is under police protection, applying for political asylum in Britain. The story of how she came to be here tells you some unpalatable truths about what is happening in Russia.
She was once a Kremlin pool reporter for one of Russia's brightest newspapers, Kommersant, a daily that glorified Russia's leap into brash capitalism in the 1990s. She got close to the oligarchs and stooges populating the inner court of the country's previous president, Boris Yeltsin; sometimes too close. Based on her experiences, Tregubova published a book adopting the narrative of a kiss-and-tell account. Called Tales of a Kremlin Digger, its contents became an instant talking point in Russia. Among those who featured in her tales of the power elite at the time was Vladimir Putin, whose roles included heading the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1998-99. He took a shine to her, or tried to recruit her (she says it was never clear to her which). She writes in the book that he invited her to an expensive sushi restaurant, a rarity in Moscow in those days, and hinted that he would rather like to spend New Year's Eve alone with her.
But beyond the personal, the book chronicled how Putin seized control of vital state assets – how, for instance, he destroyed the Yukos oil empire of the jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom he saw as a political threat, and how he used the state energy monopoly Gazprom as an instrument of Kremlin control not only over Russia but also its neighbours. With a cover picture of a famous Soviet propaganda image of a woman fighter pilot in the Great Patriotic War, the book was an instant sell-out.
But Tregubova soon felt the earth tremors emanating from the Kremlin. An interview she gave to the weekly news programme Namedi on state-controlled NTV was pulled and, she says, the Russian press minister Mikhail Lesin told her editor: "Does Tregubova realise she will never get work again?"
That was October 2003. In Febuary 2004, she says, she got a call from a man, identifying himself as an employee of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, saying that a parcel had arrived and asking for her home address. She did not supply her address and asked the man what number he was calling from. He hung up. A few days later a bomb exploded outside the door of her apartment in Moscow, as she was about to leave to meet a friend. She had a narrow escape. Police classified the incident as an "act of hooliganism".
Tregubova continued to write, but this time it was for an updated edition of her book that was coming out in Germany, with the even more lurid title, Mutants of the Kremlin. Then came the day last year that all journalists in Russia can remember, the Saturday when Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who repeatedly exposed and campaigned against human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead in the entrance to her Moscow flat. It was 10 minutes' walk from where Tregubova lived. There were frantic calls as the news spread around Moscow and one friend wanted to take her straight to the airport.
"Who do you think you are, Joan of Arc?" she recalls the friend saying. "Forget Yeltsin, those times have gone. They already tried to get you once. Remember they tried to get Politkovskaya on a flight to Beslan." (A drug was slipped into Politkovskaya's cabin tea as she and a number of other journalists were flying to southern Russia to report on the Septemer 2004 school siege in the town of Beslan.) "Who," asked the friend, "would benefit if you were the next?"
Protest meetings over Politkovskaya's death were held in Pushkin Square, the traditional rallying ground of democrats in Moscow, but television continued to ignore the killing. It took Putin three days to react to the murder of Russia's most famous investigative journalist by saying that "her death has brought more harm to Russia than her stories".
"It was like spitting in the face not only of her family, but of the whole journalistic community," Tregubova has written. With silence reigning at home, Tregubova got an open letter to Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, published in Die Zeit. She urged Merkel, who was meeting Putin that day, to demand an end to political murders, and to stop gross human rights infringements and the destruction of freedom of speech and the press in Russia.
Soon after it was printed, two men appeared in the stairway of her Moscow flat. "Who could I go to complain to? Where could I go for protection? To the police? The same guys who investigated the last attempt on my life in 2004?"
In desperation, she picked up the phone to Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch exiled in London. Berezovsky had been the owner of Kommersant, her former paper, and a kingmaker in the Yeltsin era, including being a patron of Putin. But soon after Putin was elected president in 2000, Berezovsky sought political asylum in Britain. Tregubova had been as rough on him in her book as she had been on Putin, calling Berezovsky the "evil genius" of Russian politics. Even so, she says, Berezovsky loved the book and said he would provide her with protection in Moscow. On November 1, the day Scotland Yard alleges that polonium was used to poison a former Russian spy living in London – Alexander Litvinenko, a Berezovsky associate – Tregubova says she got a call from the man Berezovsky had asked to guard her safety.
It was, she says, none other than Andrei Lugovoi – who, at that stage, as far as Berezovsky and everybody else knew, was simply a witness in the poisoning episode. Only several weeks later did he emerge as Scotland Yard's main suspect in the polonium poisoning. A former KGB bodyguard, Lugovoi had become a millionaire running a number of private security firms. One of his companies' many clients was the exiled Berezovsky, whose daughter he had arranged protection for in St Petersburg. Lugovoi denies killing Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23 last year, and has suggested that the murder was ordered either by MI6 or by Berezovsky himself after a falling-out with Litvinenko.
But Lugovoi has confirmed receiving a request to protect Tregubova, telling Komsomolskaya Pravda last week: "He [Berezovsky] wanted to know if it was possible to keep journalist Yelena Tregubova safe. He wanted to know how much it would cost and the name of the company the bodyguards would be from. I asked him why Tregubova wanted bodyguards. He replied that Politkovskaya had criticised the regime and look what happened to her, and Tregubova was another critic."
By her account, Tregubova got two days of protection from Lugovoi's men, paid for by Berezovsky. When she met Berezovsky in London in mid-December last year, she still did not know what to believe about who was behind the Litvinenko killing, and Lugovoi's role.At their meeting, she and Berezovsky spoke of the murder, she says. "Why was it Sasha [the Russian diminutive of Litvinenko's forename, Alexander], instead of me?" Berezovsky asked her. "Lugovoi was in my office. We were drinking champagne. They could have killed me. Why didn't they do it?" Tregubova says she replied: "Don't worry, Boris, I am convinced that they are saving your assassination attempt for the next elections."
Seeing she was hungry, Berezovsky ordered a plate of soup for Tregubova. It was then she had to make up her mind. If it was Berezovsky who ordered the killing of Litvinenko, why had the FSB produced no evidence? "I picked up the spoon and ate the soup. It was my instinctive reply to the question." When the men from the Russian prosecutor-general's office came to Britain and interviewed Berezovsky this year as part of their Litvinenko murder investigation, they asked for Tregubova's London address. "It was their way of telling me: we are still watching you."
Tregubova continues to write and publish. "Putin's plan is to tell the west that if he needs to prevent a velvet revolution taking place in Russia by spilling blood, he will do so. To those of us outside Russia, he is saying: "if you think you are free to criticise Russia from the safety of western Europe, you are not. We can strike you wherever you are, and in a way that you will be able to do nothing about"
Posted in journalists, neo-soviet crackdown, russia
Russia in Nutshell
Russians remain insecure about their status in the world. Russia's explosive "revisionist" behaviour on the eve of the recent G8 summit is an indication of the Kremlin's "unsatisfied" nature. Because they know they are less potent, particularly in demographic and economic terms, Russians feel they have to do "more." For them, to say "Russia is back" means that the humiliating Yeltsin years are over, and that they now must be treated as equals, particularly by the United States. That claim is not necessarily supported by reality. Unlike the Chinese, the Russians do not create economic wealth, but merely exploit their energy and mineral resources. Moreover, unlike the Chinese, they have not always been confident of their position in the world. Torn between Europe and Asia in cultural and political terms, victimised by a dark, narcissistic instinct that pervades their reading of their past and their visions of the future, it should surprise no one that Russia is now behaving like a "revisionist" power. Less than 20 years ago, the Czech Republic and Poland were part of their sphere of influence, so Russians cannot accept the US unilaterally implanting its security system there.
— Dominique Moisi, writing in The Guardian's Comment is Free section
Posted in economics, russia
June 27, 2007 — Contents
WEDNESDAY JUNE 27 CONTENTS
(1) Putley on Belsan
(2) Brave Putin will Save Poor Stalin from Evil West
(3) Moscow on Fire
(4) Communism by any Other Name Would Still Stink
(5) Annals of Russian Bedlam
NOTE: The Russians have developed a robotic policeman and placed him on patrol in Siberia. He can be promoted like a regular cop, but they swear they won't let him make general. One advantage is that it make take a while before he figures out how to take bribes (via an onboard ATM?) and learn how to be racist and crudely violent as well as xenophobic (perfecting artificial intelligence is challenging when you haven't got actual intelligence mastered yet). There's a few small problems, however: (1) If it rains on him, he breaks; (2) He won't work at all in winter; (3) He's been made by Russians. However, on the plus side, he's about as neo-Soviet as it's possible to get.
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A complicated web of human interactions and emotions has never sounded so fun and playful as it does with Thao with The Get Down Stay Down. Thao's music is indie rock at it's finest, with elements of chamber pop and alternative folk mixed in for good measure. It's catchy, quirky, and everything you'd expect from a band that sounds like they could be your best friends. Thao's voice and lyrics are laced with an innocent sexiness that enhances the fun and fresh melodies of the band and the music strikes a balance between being both relatable and danceable.
The band's latest album, Know Better Learn Faster, boasts songs like When We Swam, which instantly make an audience want to sing along. The title track is another standout and highlights their ability to produce an escalating progression of sound and emotion. The music portrays a kind of human quality that lets us know that this is a band that has lived their lives like the rest of us: just trying to figure it out as they go along and doing their best to enjoy the ride, even through the pain.
Thao was gracious enough to take some time out during the band's current US tour to answer a few questions for The Rock and Roll Report.
Q: At what point in your life did you know that you wanted to be a musician?
A: I think I knew very young, around 13, that I wanted to be a musician. I didn't fully commit to the idea until the end of college when I intentionally left myself no other option. By this I mean I refused to even consider going to grad school and did not have any other kind of job lined up.
Q: Along your journey, have you always felt supported and confident that you were on the right path? Or have you met roadblocks along the way?
A:: I think in this realm I have walked a very charmed path and am incredibly grateful for how things have seemed to fall in place without much grief.
Q: Your music has a very playful sound, will you tell me a little about your writing process?
A: Well, first I like to have incredibly complicated interactions with humans, and then I like to make questionable decisions, and then it helps if they do too, and then I cry, and then I write a song.
Q: Very cleverly put. That being said, I've always heard that being in a band is like having many relationships at once – what is the group dynamic like with your band?
A: Adam and Willis are dear friends of mine and we are very familiar with each other's living habits. It's like living with your co-workers in a van on a weird extended business trip. We are a tight-knit bunch when we are together, which is very frequently, for what seems like unnatural amounts of time in closed spaces.
Off tour we try our best to tend to our regular lives. We've known each other for a few years now, but in touring time that's about seventeen years. We are a goofy bunch with very tame tendencies, like watching the Food Network in hotel rooms after shows. And the Discovery Channel. We love Man vs. Wild.
Q: It sounds like you have a lot of fun on the road, do you have any really great/funny stories that stand out?
Q: That is definitely memorable, but maybe not in the best way! … What can we expect at a typical show?
A: You can expect a lot of dancing around and hair and me almost falling over too much, because of the moving around and the cables and not because I'm drunk, and Willis wearing this necklace full of tiny plastic and rubber animal toys that he made himself, and Adam wearing this necklace with just one rubber horse head from the same place, and us succintly recapping events of the day/week. For instance, on the drive to San Diego I was very concerned that an SUV ahead of us had a part of itself dragging on the ground, but we got closer and it was just a black pair of those plastic balls hanging from the hitch. You know what i'm talking about? The ball-sac ornaments? I think they are called truck nutz or some such. Terrible. Those things are terrible.
Q: I don't think I'm familiar with those, I'll consider myself lucky. So what's coming up in the near future?
A: Well, we are all flying to Tokyo tomorrow because our new record is being released over there. Then we are going to Europe in January for tour, and then we are going on a West Coast tour with the Thermals in February. And then we are going to sleep.
Happy Holidays To All From The Rock and Roll Report!


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SEA Games football: Myanmar get $68,000 for beating Singapore
Myanmar's players being presented with an envelope bearing the US$30,000 figure and the KBZ Bank's name after they defeated Singapore. Their total bonus was reportedly US$50,000. PHOTO: FACEBOOK/THAIFUTBOL
Sports Correspondent
The Myanmar Under-22 football team have been rewarded handsomely for their 2-0 victory over Singapore on Monday.
It is understood that the team received a US$50,000 (S$68,250) bonus after winning their SEA Games opener.
Facebook page Thai Futbol carried a picture of the team being handed a brown envelope supposedly containing US$30,000.
According to sources, the US$30,000 came from KBZ Bank, while Myanmar Football Federation president U Zaw Zaw and former Yangon United chairman U Tay Za contributed US$10,000 each.
Former Singapore national coach P N Sivaji, who is now technical director of Myanmar National League side Hanthawaddy United, told The New Paper that such gestures are not uncommon.
He said: "There are quite a few patrons and well-wishers who have shown great willingness to support and reward the team."
M'sian FA fined $40,000 after 'dog chant' by fans at SEA Games
Singapore set for SEA Games gold after Malaysian diver fails dope test
Marathoner Soh's peeve is with the SA secretariat, not chief Ho
Ng Ser Miang: Representing Singapore a privilege, not birth right
While Myanmar Under-22 coach Gerd Zeise has set an initial target of reaching the semi-finals, expectations are high as they have eight players who featured in the 2015 Under-20 World Cup and also won a silver medal at the last SEA Games.
They got off to a good start in Kuala Lumpur as Aung Thu's goals either side of half-time were enough to seal three points in a group that also comprises hosts Malaysia, Laos and Brunei.
TNP understands that the Young Lions were offered $2,000 each to beat Myanmar on Monday, and that figure could increase for tonight's do-or-die game against Malaysia in which they have to get at least a point to keep their semi-final hopes alive.
Elsewhere, the Sultan of Johor gave RM4million (S$1.27m) to the Football Association of Malaysia after their Under-22 side qualified for the AFC U-23 Championship for the first time last month.
The players were initially promised RM6,000 each for their efforts but can now look forward to a bigger payday.
SEA GamesMyanmarYoung Lions
davidlee@sph.com.sg
Read articles by David Lee


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Supermarket Buying Guide
Contagious disease
Over-the-counter products
Image by Istock user ENES EVREN
The Least Active States in America
by Wellness Letter
We often hear that Americans don't do enough physical activity—but how many people are doing no leisure-time exercise at all? The percentage ranges by state from 17 percent (Colorado) to 33 percent (Mississippi), the CDC reported in January 2020.
The agency combined four years (2015-2018) of self-reported data from its annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance telephone survey to create state maps of overall inactivity and inactivity by race and ethnicity. Inactivity was defined as not doing any leisure-time physical activity, such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise, in the past month. (The survey did not look at physical activity done as part of work.)
Seven states—Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee—as well as the territories Guam and Puerto Rico had at least 30 percent of residents say they were totally inactive. (In Puerto Rico, the prevalence of inactivity was nearly 48 percent, the highest of any state or territory surveyed.) Inactivity contributes to one in 10 deaths in the U.S., the CDC says.
Also see Which States Have the Most Obesity?
A Walking Workout
What to Eat Before a Workout
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There is a big difference between the most efficient solar panel you can buy and the most efficient solar panel you should buy. Before we get into whether you really want the most efficient panel, let's define efficiency in the technical sense and the practical sense.
The technical efficiency of a solar module is simply how much power it can produce in a given area. Panels are rated based on DC power at standard test conditions, also known as DC-STC. This rating takes the individual solar cell output and divides it by the solar radiation input at test conditions (which assumes 1000 watts per square meter of sunlight at 25ºC.
The practical efficiency takes into account factors like panel rating, module size, and installed cost to get the most value from a solar energy system purchase decision.
What most people really want to know is how they can get the most value from their solar panels. In that case, we are talking about practical solar panel efficiency, because what you really care about is how much are you going to spend relative to how much electricity is produced over time.
To better explain technical solar panel efficiency, see below. This shows two popular solar panels specifications. They are very close in total size, but the efficiency of these panels differs greatly.
The cell efficiency of panels only tells you part of the story. The panel on the right claims cells that are over 25% more efficient than the panel on the left. When you look at the actual physical dimensions of the frame, the panel on the right is about 23% more efficient. So in the same area, the panel on the right is capable of 345W output, which is 23% more than the panel on the left.
That sounds wonderful, right? You definitely want the panel on the right, don't you?
Not so fast… you need to look at what the different panels cost. What if I told you that the panels on the right cost twice as much as the panels on the left? Unless you had limited space and a mission critical need for maximum power in a given space, you would be crazy to invest in the more efficient panel!
The total installed price differences in reality are much less. A complete solar energy system using the panel on the right, installed, goes for about a 30% premium. That's more than the 23% greater rated power, so all else being equal you would not want to invest in the higher rated panel. There are other nuances and features that come into play, including lifetime power output, warranty, inverter technology options, monitoring systems, and others. The decision on which solar panel to select ultimately has more factors involved that are not related to efficiency.
Looking at two identically rated systems below, you can see that it takes about 23% more space to accommodate the same system rating with the panel on the left. You would need 69 panels rated at 280W to get the same system rating as 56 panels rated at 345W. Note that the watts per square foot is a bit less than above because there is space between each solar panel.
Another way to look at it is how much more power you can get in a given area. Below we see that in the same amount of space, we can get 23% more power rating in the same amount of space with the panels on the right.
Your takeaway here should be that the physical size and output of a solar photovoltaic panel is only part of the efficiency puzzle. What is most important for the average buyer is the practical efficiency of solar panels or put another way, the cost efficiency. Looking at the manufacturer's claimed "panel efficiency" or "cell efficiency" is very misleading for practical purposes. If we are sending solar panels into space or have an otherwise very limited area available for solar panels, then by all means we should consider the technical efficiency of the panel, and consider other factors like weight. However, for most people, panel efficiency ratings are overblown.
You should rely on your trusted solar dealer to seek out the best value for you. Good dealers will look at the overall factors involved in making a purchase decision and steer you into a brand that they can offer for a good price. Depending on the distribution network, you may find that one dealer offers panels with slightly different panel ratings or efficiency. That is often because their dealer cost on a particular solar panel may be more competitive based on their distribution network, freight costs, volume, and other factors. That doesn't mean that one brand or dealer is better than the other — it just means that each dealer has found the "sweet spot" for a good balance between efficiency, power rating, and price. Since panel ratings and offerings are changing very frequently, the best bang for your buck is a moving target. Dealers with regular supply and installations will be able to navigate this challenge for you and help you select the most efficient solar panel you should buy.


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This gives Huckabee's ad just the slightest spin as a volley in the "Christmas wars" but not enough for him to be fairly tagged as trying to politicize Christmas. Rather, that charge will be aimed at anyone who complains about the ad.
Like, say, the majority of NRO writers?
Me: I don't know, has anyone around here complained about the ad? So far it's been huzzahs and three cheers for the ad's brilliance. But if the complaint is that we're being too political in our reading of the ad, all I can say is, yo ho ho and and put down the rum. If you don't think there's a political intent behind an ad aimed at Iowa caucus goers and that religion isn't part of the mix, your complaint should be aimed at your pharmacist for giving you the wrong medication. This is first and foremost a political opinion blog at a political opinion website that is part of a political opinion magazine that has made dealing with the intersection of conservatism and politics for half a century. Is it really so absurd to look at this ad from that perspective? Really?
Correction: I stand corrected, Kathryn did indeed complain.


Find a Company Dealing with Car Donation in the Bay Area - Car Donation Services, Inc.
Donating your car is a way to get rid of your old car and support your favorite Bay Area charity at the same time. With the help of car donation Bay Area companies, people can donate their old cars to various nonprofit organizations. There are several benefits to donating cars.
If you have car, which does not provide proper service and has become an eyesore for you, then contact a company handling car donations in Bay Area. Your old car also occupies space that can be utilized for other purposes. So, one thing you can do is to donate the car to a charity of your choice. The best thing about these services is that you do not have to worry about the related documentation and registration processes. When it comes to car donation, Bay Area services will handle everything from beginning to the end; making the whole process far easier for you.
According to the IRS, if you donate a car, then you may be eligible for a deduction of $500, or more, on taxes. Also, if the charity you support sells your car for more than $500, they need to send to you a 1098-C and file one with IRS. People who are emotionally attached to their cars sometimes wish to know what happens to it after they have donated it can be happy knowing they are helping others.
What an organization will do with a donated car will depend on the specific needs of that organization. Some of them send cars for repair and then put them up for sale on the market. If you are planning on car donation, the Bay Area has several companies engaged in this work. By donating your car, you can help out less fortunate individuals as well as get tax benefits. What can be more rewarding than knowing you are helping others?


A short disclaimer. I am not a dermatologist or any kind of skincare expert. I have built my routines on research, reviews that I've read and of course some good ol' trial and error. This is also NOT a sponsored post. These are genuinely all products that I have bought, used and live by.
Living in a super busy and often congested city like Toronto can be really tough on your skin. I don't drive in the city and walk pretty much everywhere. I'm constantly dealing with different temperatures, air quality and not to mention the dust and debris that floats around from construction and cars.
I do have to say that I'm lucky (knock on wood) that I don't suffer from problem skin. My biggest issues are dryness, sensitivity, a little bit of hyper pigmentation (freckles and some dark spots) and the occasional breakout. And of course, the older I get I'm starting to battle the fine lines and wrinkles too. I like to keep my routine pretty simple focusing on ensuring my skin is getting the love and care it needs to keep it healthy. I spend more time in the evening on my routine making sure I get every speck of make-up off. I focus on infusing my skin with as many good things I can get my hands on to take advantage of the rejuvenation that happens during sleep.
You start aging at 20. Collagen starts to deplete as we age and low levels of collagen is what contributes to wrinkles and sagging skin. This can be combated with the use of Vitamin C which delays the rate at which collagen is depleted.
Your face shrinks as you age. This is because we lose bone mass. To take care of your bone mass, you can take calcium and magnesium supplements and other minerals. They support your facial structure and prevent the skin from hanging off the face.
What you put on the inside will show on the outside. Your diet will greatly affect the way your skin looks. Fruits and vegetables are important since they contain a lot of vitamins. Drinking plenty of water will also keep your skin hydrated.
In terms of the actual products I use, I focus on those that are "hydrating" since my skin does run dry. During the warmer months I do prefer lighter, fast absorbing products so I don't feel heavy throughout the day.
I try not to do TOO much in the morning and focus more on prepping my skin for the day. If there is one thing I never forget during the summer it's SPF SPF SPF. Although you really should be wearing it year round.
Every few days when I have time, before I wash my face I take a lemon wedge and lightly apply it to my entire face. I leave the juice on for about 5-10 minutes and then follow the above routine. The lemon does an AMAZING job of brightening and even very slightly lightening my complexion. I would recommend testing it out on your wrist or neck first to make sure you aren't sensitive to the lemon juice before applying it to your entire face.
Here's where it gets more complex. I want to make sure I have removed every spec of dirt and make-up from my face and then I alternate with certain treatments like exfoliating and face masks.
Every 2nd or 3rd day I use an exfoliating scrub or my Conair Exfoliating Facial Brush to remove dead skin cells and brighten and once a week I do a face mask. Some of my favourites are the Sephora Sheet Masks and the Fresh Rose Face Mask.
I do wear make-up regularly so I try to have make-up free days as much as possible or just try to wear less when I can.
There are hundreds and hundreds of products that are out there and new ones coming out every day. I have often found that breaking down all the information to the simplest things is actually the best for yourself and for your skin.
Would love to hear about some of your go-to products and any advice that you have for keeping your skin healthy and fresh.


Weatherproof provides a building and roofing service to both Edinburgh and Lothian consumers. From new specifications to refurbishment, to general maintenance of all types of wall and roof coverings.
Let our advanced city and guilds qualified tradesman implement a scope of works on your behalf to provide a lasting outcome for your property.
From dry dash to scratch back render, Weatherproof - an Edinburgh company - specialize in all trowel trades. We offer the highest quality building and extending services - from harling / roughcasting to scratch back render.
From slate and tile work to lead and felt roofs, choose Weatherproof – an Edinburgh company you can trust to do the right job at first time. We are roofing specialists with over 30 years' experience with great references from local customers.
When it comes to maintaining your property, our stone work expertise is second to none. From cleaning to lime pointing and roughcasting, when you choose Weatherproof you're guaranteed a great result.
Why choose the Weatherproof Group?
Weatherproof Group – an Edinburgh company - is a qualified, responsible and competent contractor serving Edinburgh and the Lothians.
At Weatherproof, we know that quality workmanship and trust are two of the most important factors in who you choose to work on your home. We work to all British standards and in compliance with all health and safety regulations. We aim to work within cost, time and risk tolerances. We ensure that all our work is signed off by our Quality assurance team.
As an Edinburgh company – we are aware of our duty of care to our local customers, employees and the public.
We're extremely proud of our excellent reputation with our Edinburgh and Lothian's customers. When you employ Weatherproof to undertake work on your property, you can be assured that you'll be using a building and roofing company that you can trust.
We know how it is. Unfortunately, not every contractor puts quality workmanship and trust at the forefront of what they do. When Weatherproof workers are on your property you can be sure that our qualified tradespeople will undertake work in an efficient and courteous manner.
That means turning up when we say we will, always being polite and respectful to our customers, always leaving the property tidy and, most importantly, always keeping you informed of how your project is progressing.
No matter how many construction experts we have engaged in your work, you will have a designated project manager. That means one point of contact for you.
We are regulated by Which? Consumer Group and have been vetted by ConstructionLine, a UK Government certification service.
Would you like to hear what some of our past customers think of us?
You can find us on RatedPeople.com. We're proud of our excellent reputation in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Click here to view our latest reviews.
Check your roof regularly to spot the danger signs of any potential problems.
A damaged chimney can be dangerous. Don't wait until it's too late.
We love working on the alterations and reconfiguration of properties.


text:
namespace solar {

	extern float bytes_to_mb(unsigned int bytes);
	extern unsigned int mb_to_bytes(float mb);

	extern unsigned int bytes_to_bits(unsigned int bytes);
	extern unsigned int bits_to_bytes(unsigned int bits);

	extern float deg_to_rad(float deg);
	extern float rad_to_deg(float rad);

}


AuroraX is a gorgeous, creative, aesthetically & technically proficient portfolio WordPress theme. Built with Grid and Page Builder (King Composer), this theme puts the power to mould & shape your website in your hands. It includes portfolios, galleries, showcases, blogs for designers to create a unique website. You can literally build portfolio site of any niche with this stunning theme. The theme is not limited to just designers and could easily be adapted to suit a wide range of applications such as photographers, creative agencies, weddings, fashion sites, art blogs.
The Theme allows creating as many new page layouts as you wish. AuroraX comes with 2 Homepages, 2 Portfolio types, 1 Detail Portfolio types with post layout building, 3 Blog types, Single Page, 404 pages to choose from and with our one-click demo importer you will be up and running in no time – with no coding required!
AuroraX is fully responsive and designed with the high end for Design and designers in mind so naturally, it is an ideal theme for mobile-friendly websites and applications, every single feature and page element will look amazing on the screens of tablets and mobile phones. It includes amazing page templates and professionally designed layouts created specifically to be the most responsive visual environment on the market today.
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text:
Galina Marinova (; born 20 April 1985) is a retired Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast. She competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in the group event and finished seventh.

References

1985 births
Living people
Gymnasts at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Olympic gymnasts of Bulgaria
Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts