[A-List] Fw: Russians' Anger Moving From Hostile Words To Aggressive Action

["Christopher Black" <bar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "RicK Rozoff" <rwrozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <r_rozoff@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 2:48 AM
Subject: Iraq: Russians' Anger Moving From Hostile Words To Aggressive
Action


> http://www.russiajournal.ru/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=36709
>
> The Russia Journal
> April 8, 2003
>
> Russian anger growing
>
>
> Increasing numbers of Russians are moving from hostile
> rhetoric to aggressive action in expressing their
> opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
>
> Mass demonstrations like those seen in other capitals
> around the world have yet to happen in Moscow, but
> feeling is growing against America and its allies as
> the battle to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
> intensifies.
>
> A survey for NTV's Basic Instinct program found 36
> percent of Russians are thinking of boycotting U.S.
> products, while a poll by the Public Opinion
> Foundation found 73 percent of people now feel strong
> dislike for U.S. President George W. Bush.
>
> The Kremlin added to the growing feeling, observers
> say, when it revealed it had received 6,000 letters
> from Russia and abroad expressing firm support for its
> anti-war stance.
>
> Security officials at embassies of countries in the
> so-called coalition against Saddam said they did not
> yet fear violent demonstrations of the kind seen
> during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, although
> all said they had beefed-up precautions.
>
> But Russia's army reservists, businesspeople, students
> and workers are becoming more vocal in their protests.
>
>
> Maria Ivanova, a 40-year-old sociology professor at a
> Moscow university, said at an anti-war rally in Moscow
> on Saturday that she regretted taking flowers to the
> U.S. Embassy after the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
> "It's utterly despicable to launch such a meaningless
> war in the 21st century," she said. "It is even more
> unpalatable that the warmongers this time are not the
> traditional politically unstable rogue states in the
> Third World, but the United States and Britain - which
> were seen as bastions of modern democracy, the rule of
> law, justice and observance of international norms."
>
> Echoing the views of many other Russians at the rally,
> Pyotr, a history student and member of the ATTACK
> anti-globalization movement, said that in invading
> Iraq the United States had simply looked for an excuse
> to gain access to Iraqi oil.
>
> "The Iraqis do not need democracy at any cost," he
> said. "At least not the type brought by Tomahawk bombs
> and Apache helicopters. Saying they were doing this
> because they needed the oil would have been much
> fairer to the international community and the Iraqi
> people."
>
> Peaceful rhetoric is fast giving way to more
> aggressive words in some places. One group of students
> gathered outside a supermarket in Vladivostok
> recently, telling shoppers they were accomplices to
> war crimes if they bought U.S. products. At a rally in
> central Russia, students tore up dollar bills as they
> told passers by to boycott Coca-Cola.
>
> In a development that some observers see as more
> worrying, major television channels have featured
> young men and women from military backgrounds vowing
> to travel to Iraq to help oust coalition forces.
>
> Dr. Abbas Khalaf, Iraqi ambassador to Russia, has
> claimed Russians are making formal visa applications.
> He said more than 2,500 applications are being
> processed at the embassy in Moscow, with more coming
> in every day.
>
> Some have already taken direct action, targeting U.S.
> and British citizens directly. One restaurant in
> Rostov Oblast, about 1,300 km south of Moscow, struck
> off all dishes associated with the United States and
> only dropped a ban on serving American and British
> customers after media attention. The establishment now
> says it will only refuse to serve Bush, British Prime
> Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald
> Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza
> Rice.
>
> It's not only ordinary Russians who are angry at the
> war, however. Entrepreneur Vladimir Semago has filed a
> legal suit against Bush in a Moscow court, claiming
> $19 million for damages to his company's contract with
> an Iraqi business.
>
> Semago is one of several Russian businesspeople in the
> private sector - with total interests of between $8
> billion and $10 billion - to claim they would lose out
> from a change of regime in Iraq. The government itself
> is worried about the $8 billion in Soviet-era debt
> that Iraq still owes Moscow.
>
> Semago told reporters in March that his contract was
> signed in accordance with UN and other international
> requirements on doing business in Iraq. "In my
> opinion, President Bush bears the sole responsibility
> for the negative trends, and it's my aim to seek
> justice anywhere, starting from Russian courts," he
> said.
>
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