Putin apologises for racism
27/09/2005 15:12 - (SA)

Moscow - President Vladimir Putin apologised on Tuesday for racist attacks that have been on the rise in Russia in recent years and promised that law enforcement services would redouble their efforts to stop them.

"I would like to offer my apologies for the incidents that have taken place," Putin said in response to a question on the attacks.

"We are going to intensify law enforcement activities and do everything we can so to make skinheads and fascist elements disappear from the political map of our country," he said.

Racist violence was a source of concern to Russian society at large and to him personally, Putin added.

Racist attacks in Russia, generally targeting people from the Caucasus region and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia as well as foreign students from Africa and Asia, have occurred with increasing frequency in Russian cities in recent years, officials say.

Earlier this month, foreign students protested in the northern city of Saint Petersburg after a Congolese student died as a result of wounds he sustained after being attacked in the street. Authorities said on Monday they had arrested four people in connection with the attack.

Any connection to the end of communism?

Well, looks likeRussians are on the receiving end of America's greatest export.

When I read this thread title..i thought Vladimir Putin was apologizing for the comments he made about Africans a few months back.



on June 13, President Putin, when challenged about his human rights record, stated that Africans had ahistory of “cannibalism.� As Putin put it, “We all know that African countries used to have a tradition of eating their own adversaries. And we don’t have such a tradition or process or culture and I believe the comparison between Africa and Russia is not quite just.

http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/801.html

I hadn't heard that Mr. Putin had made such outrageous comments. Did he ever apologize?

I thought he was referring to the assualt a couple years ago on the South African ambassador's wife, I didn't know about his idiotic statement. I read somewhere that after the end of communism, a lot of far right and neo-nazi groups went to the former soviet block to spread their ideologies. I'm not sure how much of this is due to that, more of the problems I hear are towards Chechens due to the conflict. I've also heard that Russians are just naturally unfriendly to foreigners, obviously unfriendlyness is greatly different from racial attacks. I didn't get any problems when I was in Moscow earlier this year, (maybe I was lucky?) People say it's a lot better then the early 1990's and I must say I felt more uncormfortable in Gravesend recently.

Amerijam,



No, I'm not aware of any apology that he made for those comments. He was trying to sidestep the questions of human rights abuses in Russia when those comments came out his mouth.



I've never been to Russia, but I think most countries in the world may not be as blatantly racist as former slave owning colonies......but prejudice exists everywhere.

Mmmm... wouldn't have had to apologise if he had not been stupid enough to say it in the first place...

DtotheJ wrote: "We (himself, Tony Blair, and the press) all know that African countries used to have a tradition of eating their own adversaries.

"We (as in Russia) don't have such a tradition or process or culture and I believe the comparison between Africa and Russia is not quite just.

How can any man like Putin make unreal to real sentiments without a proper incentive. Hardly anyone works on principle alone in leadrship.

Moscow gets EU visa deal

05.10.2005 - 09:58 CET |

By Lucia Kubosova Moscow has agreed to take back illegal immigrants coming to the EU from or via Russia, in return for relaxed visa obligations for some of its citizens.

The EU and Russia hammered out the mutual agreement at a summit in London on Tuesday (4 October).

"We believe it to be an essential, real, and practical step toward implementation of the plans we agreed upon earlier. We consider these agreements to be a step toward a visa-free regime", Russian president Vladimir Putin told journalists afer the meeting.

Moscow had previously complained about the costs and delays of the current visa system, with the new measures making it easier for Russian diplomats, businessmen and some students to enter the EU.

The deal will not apply to the two countries outside Europe's Schengen free travel zone, UK and Ireland, plus Denmark which has some opt-outs from its provisions.

Mr Putin and British prime minister Tony Blair confirmed they also discussed political issues, such as the conflict in Chechnya.

But British media report the leaders' comments following the meeting stayed exclusively on the economic dimension of their cooperation.

"We want to work to take the relationship between Europe and Russia to a new and more intense and strengthened level", Mr Blair said.

"You know the fact that Russia is a key exporter of energy to the EU is not something that suddenly happened in the last year, it's been happening for many years", he explained, adding "But actually with the right relationship that is a tremendous benefit to the EU".

On Wednesday, the Russian and British leaders are set to discuss common anti-terror measures.

DefyFear,



unfortunately..world leaders, merchants, so called intellectuals,etc.... found out that they can pretty much say anything about Blacks, Africans, descendants of Africans with little or NO repurcussions.

They don't have to watch their tongues so they don't.

offtopic.gif

He even got to visit Cobra, which if anyone has seen the film Dr Strangelove I imagine in just like that, idiotic protocols and all.

"Mr Putin is the first foreign leader to see the high-security Cobra room, where their talks took place."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4310738.stm

The funny thing with russian skinheads si the admiration of Hitler. The russians belong to an etnic group known as slavs. Gitler despised slavs and considered them below aryans, indeed just above jews. Still some how these skinheads admirea man that at best would make them his peoples slaves at worst gas them.Not necessarily in that order, it might indeed be worse to bea slave. Not to mention that it is legal to wear the swaatikaand other racist shit in Russia.

No wonder David Duke went there.



And how the hell can we be cannibals, when dudes like stalin and his comminist bro's killed 50 million+ russians. LOL. Correct me if I wrong but during sometimes I think that some russians (due to bad conditions) ate each other. Conditions were really bad at some points.