Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Yuri Yulianovich Shevchuk the 55 year old Russian singer and songwriter who leads the rock band DDT, and is highly critical of the undemocratic society that has developed in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Shevchuk is the subject of an interview in an article published by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Alec Luhn in The Nation magazine titled ‘The Russian Optimist: An Interview With Opposition Rocker Yuri Shevchuk – “What will become of our country and of us?”. Shevchuk states “…The new generation is not exactly politicized. The point is that every generation lives in a given time period, but all people are different. …Everywhere I’ve spent time after concerts talking to young people. Active young people, the ones with a youthful glint in their eye. They are of course more politicized than the generation of the early 2000s and 2010s. That was a very cynical time, and young people were mostly interested in themselves. Now, in the 2010s, I think we’ve reached kind of a breaking point with the charismatic part of the young generation, progressive young people. …In the past two or three years, a lot has changed. Young people have started to ask more profound questions. They don’t want to leave the country. The slogan of the 2000s was “Get rich.” Now this has become secondary and the main question is, “What will become of our country and of us?” Overall in Russia, things are going well, in my view. Because there’s this dialogue going on, this struggle for civil liberties. Russia is emerging as a state. Well, yes, there are reactionary forces, that’s happening, too. You can look at the world through dark glasses, thinking that everything is bad, terrible. But if you do this, you’ll lose everything, the future. These progressive young people are afraid of nothing.”

Inspired by Katrina vanden Heuvel & Alec Luhn, The Nation ow.ly/hLSkD Image source Yuri Shevchuk ow.ly/hLShI

Katrina vanden Heuvel the 52 year old editor and publisher has published an article in The Nation magazine following the commencement of the ‘hooliganism’ charges brought against three imprisoned members of the punk rock/protest group over a fifty-one-second stunt. In an anti-Putin protest the group had seized the stage of the Christ the Savior Cathedral just before the March elections and performing a musical plea to the Virgin Mary. Heuvel states “[in] a truly authoritarian response from the Russian government. Three alleged [female] participants were arrested, threatened with seven years of imprisonment, and placed in a pre-trial detention that’s been extended for months. Now, Pussy Riot is world famous—as is its stunt. The longer they’re in prison, the more attention they get. … More than 400,000 Russians have signed an online petition protesting their arrest and detention. …The righteousness of the Pussy Riot cause is clear-cut: courageous activists up against punitive suppression. As someone who’s worked with the women’s movement in Moscow, and as a longtime student of Russia, it’s horrific to watch the mistreatment of these women, and heartening to see them draw the support they deserve, both outside the country and within it. … It is heartening to see the broad attention being paid to the three women of the Pussy Riot group. But perhaps it’s time for some reporting on the millions of working or unemployed Russians who will bear the brunt of economic policies hatched by the Putin government and supported by many of its opposition critics. Putin’s repression has sparked vibrant pro–Pussy Riot activism.”

Inspired by The Nation ow.ly/cQEeX image source Twitter ow.ly/cQDZo

Could be taken for a nineteenth-century Russian novelist (April 28th 2012)

Gregory Shvedov the 35 year old Russian Human Rights activist and journalist renowned for his efforts in promoting human rights in Russia has been profiled by Katrina vanden Heuvel in an article for The Nation, where she states, “With his full red beard and pale complexion, Gregory Shvedov could be taken for a nineteenth-century Russian novelist. Yet Shvedov is an editor fiercely committed to independent journalism at a time when international media monitors rank Russia as among the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters. …Shvedov founded Caucasian Knot (Kavkazkii Uzel), which since its launch in 2001 has become the leading independent source of news, in Russian and English, about the Caucasus. The site has some fifty local correspondents working in twenty locations in the conflict-ridden region—a patchwork quilt of Russian and independent republics including Chechnya, Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, this vast and complex region has been ravaged by civil war, occupation, violence, torture, kidnappings, terrorism, corruption, rising unemployment and growing Islamic radicalism. After September 11, 2001, by aligning himself with President George W. Bush’s “global war on terror,” President Vladimir Putin was able to largely silence international criticism of Russia’s actions in the Chechen war.”

Inspired by Katrina vanden Heuvel http://ow.ly/anGY7 image source wpfd2011 http://ow.ly/anHpt