Russia

Sen. Ben Cardin is Maryland's joke on the USA. Instead of working for the interests of his state he finds it necessary to meddle into the internal affairs of Russia, which I certain is quaking in its boots over Mr. Cardin's human rights measure ("Senate approves Cardin human rights bill," Dec. 6). Get serious, Mr. Cardin, and put some effort into the huge problems facing the country. F. Cordell, Lutherville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland recently met with the family of Sergei Magnitsky. The reasons for the meeting: In 2009, Mr. Magnitsky was jailed in Russia for exposing governmental corruption. While in prison, he died after allegedly being tortured. In December, with the energetic legislative support of Senator Cardin, Congress passed a statute, the Magnitsky Act, forbidding those accused of human rights abuses in Russia from traveling to the U.S. This month, the Magnitsky family came to Washington to thank Senator Cardin for his efforts.

WHEN ARE ELECTIONS bad for democracy? When they're held the way Russia just held its nationwide vote for a new parliament. Candidates who opposed the Kremlin's puppet party, United Russia, were tossed off the ballot. Campaign literature was confiscated. Television and the press relentlessly favored United Russia, and ignored the other parties. On Sunday, the day of the vote, there were local pockets of outright fraud. With turnout fairly low, United Russia and allied parties emerged as big winners.

The Sun observed in a recent editorial that President Barack Obama's call to reduce the threat of nuclear war "could not have been more timely" ("Avoiding Armageddon," Feb. 18). It would be impossible to agree more with that sentiment. Since the Cold War, the proliferation or threat of proliferation of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist organizations has been a continuous specter in international relations. With Iranian talks next week and a North Korean nuclear test last week, the threat of nuclear-armed rogue nations has never been higher.

In his 18 years as a reclusive writer in Cavendish, Vt., Alexander Solzhenitsyn created an ideal Russia. It existed in his mind, within the walls of his household and in the forests of birch trees, which had the same sun and blue sky that on good days can be seen in Russia.He saw few visitors besides his family, had virtually no contact with the outside world. Instead, he applied the grueling self-discipline he adopted during his years in Stalin's gulags.He got up at 6 every morning and spent the rest of the day writing, completing "The Red Wheel," his four-volume history of events leading to the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Washington -- REMEMBER Russia? Recall when dealings between Washington and Moscow regularly took center stage? Recollect the days when we worried about the Cold War?At times it seems as if the Bosnian crisis and other foreign problems have eclipsed those bad old days. Many days go by now without Russia making it onto the main news agenda.While from a news standpoint, Russia remains on the back burner, it seemed to make sense to listen to Grigory Yavlinsky, a Russian politician who, insiders say, stands a good chance of succeeding President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin next year.

PARIS -- Russia has a colonial problem. It continues to deal with that problem in ignorance or indifference to the modern history of colonial problems -- including its own, in Afghanistan.Afghanistan was indirectly a colony after the Communist coup in that country in 1978, and the Soviet military intervention which followed a year later. The Soviet army's subsequent unsuccessful war with nationalist and religious Afghan insurgents contributed -- perhaps decisively -- to the collapse of the Soviet system.

Here is an excerpt of an editorial from the Los Angeles Times, which was published Sunday.THE DATE to watch in Russia is Dec. 18. That's when voters will choose the 450 members of the Duma, the lower house of parliament, a choice that could do much to shape their country's future, including its relations with the West.With Boris N. Yeltsin's presidency a shambles and the Duma dominated by the naysaying Communist Party and its allies, Russians growing ever more desperate for better lives appear ready for change.

"Layers," opening tomorrow at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, is an exhibit of contemporary collage by six artists from St. Petersburg, Russia. Alla Efimova, who curated the show, explains that in post-communist Russia, history is constantly being revised and discredited, and mental disturbance is widespread. Collage, in which images are formed from bits and pieces gathered from many places, is an appropriate art form for artists living in a society currently so fragmented. On Saturday beginning at 10 a.m., there will be a free public symposium in conjunction with the exhibit called "Collage and Post-Communist Madness."

Though Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin made a big publicity splash a few days ago with his first visit to the Group of Seven meeting, it lacked the substantive importance of a meeting that took place last month between Vice President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin. The two men announced that a consortium of American investors led by Marathon Oil Company had signed a $10 billion deal to develop petroleum reserves in the Sakhalin Islands off the Pacific coast. It was, said Mr. Gore, "the biggest single U.S. investment in Russia."

We adopted two Russian children, a 7-month-old girl in 1998 and three years later a 10-month-old boy. In addition, we have an older biological daughter. We chose Russia because we wanted to adopt an infant who shared our European heritage. The adoption process was long and challenging, and there were many times where it was difficult to maintain the commitment needed to work through all the paperwork, background checks, visits with social workers, medical evaluations and inspections of our home.

Neil Simon's commentary, "Cardin stands for rights" (Dec. 13), correctly depicts U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin's steadfast pursuit to hold accountable violators of human rights in Russia with the killing of attorney Sergei Magnitsky. Our concern is that the U.S. Department of State will find excuses to avoid imposing sanctions or simply not acknowledge or respond to violations in Russia or elsewhere. This they have done often. For example, the British have just released a report admitting their security forces murdered attorney Patrick Finucane in Northern Ireland.

Neil Simon's column on the new U.S.-Russia trade law could not be further from the truth when it states that Sen. Benjamin Cardin has "catapulted human rights atop the international agenda ("Cardin stands up for rights," Dec. 12). Senator Cardin talks about freedom and democracy for everyone except the Palestinians, who have been suffering under a brutal Israeli occupation for 45 years. They have been victims of land and water theft, home demolitions, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, torture and a blockade of Gaza that is strangling the civilian population.

Abram, his wife, Bessie, and his teenage brother Sam came first, traveling by train from their Russian village to a German port a thousand miles away in 1912. Then they boarded the ship that would bring them to their new home - Baltimore. The brothers, tailors by trade, mailed packages back to their densely wooded village - coats with bills sewn into the linings, shoes with coins hammered into the soles - to help their siblings and parents pay for the voyage. After 14 years, all eight siblings and their parents - Chaim and Suhra - were reunited in Baltimore.

Sen. Ben Cardin is Maryland's joke on the USA. Instead of working for the interests of his state he finds it necessary to meddle into the internal affairs of Russia, which I certain is quaking in its boots over Mr. Cardin's human rights measure ("Senate approves Cardin human rights bill," Dec. 6). Get serious, Mr. Cardin, and put some effort into the huge problems facing the country. F. Cordell, Lutherville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

- Legislation by Sen. Ben Cardin to pressure Russia on human rights abuses is expected to win approval in Congress Thursday despite concerns that it will hurt already tenuous U.S. relations with the Kremlin. The proposal - which requires the State Department to maintain a public list of human rights abusers in Russia and freeze their assets - has received bipartisan support in the House and Senate even though the Obama administration has largely resisted the effort. Because the language is tucked into a trade bill that is a priority for Russia and U.S. businesses, President Obama is expected to sign the measure if sent to his desk.

MOSCOW -- A series of conversations with Russian intellectuals, concerned to discuss their own country's past as well as its future, has left this writer convinced that the inner landscape of Russia today, in the aftermath of Communism's collapse and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, is more fearful than the outer landscape of economics, politics, elections and geopolitics.There is very deep pessimism, but also there seems to be apathy, or resignation, in anticipation of still more catastrophic events as consequence -- but also eventual resolution -- of Russia's crisis.

This week on "The Amazing Race," Moscow will kill all of your dreams. You will find sadness and despair. You won't get engaged, you won't get invited to go clubbing, you won't be able to wear a bow tie in a swimming pool, it's just dreary. Cold and gray, like Seattle, but it's Moscow, people. The capital of hopelessness. Don't forget your passport. Before we dive into all that, though, remember last week when the Twins picked up Rock On's money and kept it? Phil Keoghan was getting all sorts of flak on Twitter for not mentioning it during their Pit Stop interview.

Lest anyone had any doubt what a year Michael Phelps has had, behold this: GQ's Russian version just named him International Man of the Year. Phelps made the cover of Russian GQ's current issue, looking, well, rather sexy in low slung sweats, and a leather jacket over an unzipped hoodie. One pretty much notices the abs first. Ryan Lochte is no doubt seething. And girlfriend Megan Rossee must be proud, proud, proud. Wish we knew, however, what the headline says about Phelps.