Russian Journalist Protests Jail Sentence

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        The inside pages of The New York Times are a gold mine of information about the re-Stalinization of Russia under the regime of Vladimir ("the Practicing Christian") Putin. While the neo-Catholic establishment slumbers in its delusion that Russia has undergone a "miraculous transformation" since the "consecration" of 1984, the Times provides (in spite of its own liberal leanings) an almost daily dose of reality about the true situation in that country.

        Consider, for example, a Times story on January 24, 2003 concerning the release from prison of Grigory Pasko, a Russian journalist sentenced to four years imprisonment for documenting the Russian Navy’s mishandling of nuclear waste. As the Times reports, Pasko’s release on parole is "the latest chapter in a case that human rights groups called a throw-back to Soviet-era repressions." The Times further notes that human rights groups have protested that the Pasko case "is not unlike those of political prisoners in Soviet times."

        And Pasko is hardly the lone example. As the Times observes, his prosecution "coincided with a spate of other arrests of academics and foreigners, which at the time raised fears about a re-emergence of Russia’s security services."

        Pasko has been imprisoned before - in 1997, for 20 months, because he dared to take notes during a meeting of Navy officers and pass the information along to a Japanese television network. And even now he is still not free. As the Times points out, "an appeal by military prosecutors could put him back in jail." Said Pasko: "It’s too early to celebrate. This has happened before." And despite his parole, Pasko has been informed by the K.G.B., which now calls itself the F.S.B., that he will not be given back his passport, "thus barring him from travel outside the Soviet Union."

        And this, the neo-Catholic establishment would have us believe, represents the "miraculous transformation" of Russia since 1984. But those who have to live in Russia as it really is see things differently. "How can you talk of freedom of living in Russia?," asked Pasko. How indeed? And if the Fatima revisionists cannot even point to a political "conversion" of Russia, then what exactly is it they have been peddling as Russia’s "conversion" for the past 19 years? Quite simply, they’ve been peddling a Big Lie worthy of Stalin himself.