Quotable notes

"Unable to comprehend Ukraine's Orange Revolution, which began a year ago when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Kiev [sic] to reject a fraudulent presidential election, Russia's ruling coterie invented a conspiracy theory. Western intelligence agencies, they reasoned, had poured money into Ukrainian civil society groups that were then used as fronts to organize the insurrection.

"Only someone like President Vladimir Putin, an isolated former KGB agent with little taste for democracy, could embrace such a preposterous idea. Yet Mr. Putin's paranoia now is set to become the basis for a far-reaching crackdown on civil society in Russia. President [George W.] Bush, who is to meet Mr. Putin tomorrow in South Korea, cannot ignore this assault on freedom.

"Mr. Putin's initiative comes in the form of legislation abruptly introduced last week in Parliament, which he already converted into a rubber stamp. The new law would require all 450,000 non-commercial associations in Russia to re-register with the government; force groups that until now have operated without registration to obtain one; and ban all organizations from using foreign funding for 'political activity.' ..."

- The Washington Post editorial, "Mr. Putin's Counterrevolution," November 17.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 18, 2005, No. 51, Vol. LXXIII

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