Re: Woo - hoo..

In article <1132651440.701158.135390@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"=?windows-1257?q?P=E7teris_Cedri=F2=F0_(Peteris_Cedrins)?="
<cedrins@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> You neglected to mention that this happens whilst the Kremlin
> restricting NGOs in Russia -- in other words, this is the most
> hypocritical step Moscow could possibly have taken, and it was taken at
> the direct order of Lt. Col. Putin (who said that foreign funding in
> Russian politics is not permissible).

I'm not so sure that I would completely disagree with him.

Let me remind you of what happened in the US when China was found to be
trying to use large amounts of money to influence elections:

Source: http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/zehr.html

<quote>
THE CHINA-GATE CANDIDATE
Did Clinton Sell National Security For Campaign Contributions?

By Edward Zehr

The hunt began when U.S. intelligence authorities learned through a series
of clandestine telephone intercepts that Beijing had covert plans to
influence the American elections in 1996. A Senate committee headed by
Sen. Fred Thompson tried unsuccessfully last year to track down illegal
campaign contributions from the Chinese, but was successfully stonewalled
by the Clinton administration, ably assisted by the minority Democrats on
the committee and their propagandist friends in the mainstream press, who
mocked Thompson for his inability to deliver on his earlier intimations of
foreign interference in an American election.

With the publication last Friday of the first in a series of New York
Times articles written by Jeff Gerth, based on reporting done by himself,
David Johnston and Don Van Natta, Thompson would appear to have been
vindicated in a major way. What the Gerth article offered was no less than
a smoking gun in the form of an admission by Democratic fund-raiser Johnny
Chung to Justice Department investigators that he had given the Democrats
nearly $100,000 that came from the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The
money had been passed to him by Lt. Col. Liu Chao-ying of the PLA, whose
father, General Liu Huaqing, was at the time the top military leader in
China and a leading figure in the Chinese Communist Party.

According to Chung, $80,000 of the money went directly to the Democratic
National Committee. He also said that Col. Liu, an executive in the
Chinese aerospace industry, told him the source of the money. Jim Kennedy,
special advisor to the White House counsel, commented, "We had no
knowledge about the source of Chung's money or the background of his
guest. In hindsight it was clearly not appropriate for Chung to bring her
to see the President." He was apparently referring to a fund-raiser to
which Chung had brought Col. Liu. Both had been photographed there with
President Clinton.

<deletions>
</quote>

In a free society it will be impossible to prevent lobbyists of all
stripes, including those representing the interests of foreign
governments, from influencing elections. I remain to be convinced that
this is a healthy phenomenon if it involves large amounts of foreign
funding.

With regard to Russia, the country will only create the form of democracy
suitable to it through its own trials and errors. Trying to manipulate it
into a specific direction is likely to be counterproductive. NGOs such as
the Soros Foundation can influence societal development in Russia and
other former Eastern Block countries in ways more subtle than bankrolling
political candidates.

Regards,
Eugene Holman
.

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