Corruption in Latvia Cod Dumping
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A quarterly scholarly journal and news magazine. June 2011. Vol IV:2 From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm Holocaust BALTIC and Gulag W O Rbalticworlds.com L D S CORRUPTION IN LATVIA The oligarch as populist C O D DUMPING EU regulations in troubled waters Brezhnev & Poland Mit terrand & Lithuania interview: János Kornai TOLSTOY AND CHECHNYA / TRAVELS TO DISSIDENT RUSSIA / TÕNISSON – eSTONIAN FREEDOM FIGHTER / LINNAHALL short2 takes in this issue With a focus on the Baltic States Since the fall of 2011, this magazine Belarus: Discussion for bringing about change has sought to create a systematic overview of the general elections and On April 26, a number of representa- referendums in the area of interest to tives of the opposition in Belarus par- us — which, in addition to the Baltic ENBAUM Z ticipated in a seminar called “The Way O States, includes all of the old Eastern R A Forward for Belarus”, which was held at Y Europe. No, that is of course not quite LL Jonsered Manor, north of Gothenburg, : I true, for we also cover the new Eastern as part of a collaborative project among Europe as well. This monitoring, with HOTO the University of Gothenburg, the City P attendant analysis and commentary, of Gothenburg, Baltic Worlds (CBEES), can be found at www.balticworlds.com. and the Swedish International Liberal Recent developments covered include Centre. The seminar addressed such the parliamentary elections in Finland, issues as the difficulties experienced by with the significant breakthrough made the opposition in working for democ- by a new national-populist party. racy and human rights in Belarus, and In the current issue of our quarterly, what the outside world can do to sup- Poland and the three Baltic republics are, port their work. The award-winning photograph, [Shushkevich], in the 2008 International in different ways, in focus. Our authors Photography Awards (IPA) competition. It was part of an exhibition to examine processes of emancipation, as “SINCE DECEMBER 19, conditions in mark the 90th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Belarusian National well as corruption. Erkki Tuomioja, the Belarus have become far worse where Republic. former foreign minister of Finland, writes human rights are concerned. The softer about an early Estonian nationalist and image put across before the election statesman, Jaan Tõnisson, and there was merely playing to the gallery; there Stanislau Shushkevich is one of Michalski, director of the is a report depicting how a monument were no real changes. The same struc- the leading figures of the democratic Eastern Department of in Tallinn from the Summer Olympics of ture of control has been in place the opposition. “Lukashenka has had total the Ministry of Foreign 1980 has acquired an entirely new use. entire time. After December 19, the grip power in his hands since the coup Affairs in Poland, wants tightened.” d’état of 1996. As the opposition, we to base Polish efforts on JÁNOS KORNAI, the Hungarian econo- So says Valentin Stefanovich, are reduced to holding small gather- a dual approach: support mist whose name comes up increas- vice president of the civil rights organi- ings, having verbal communication, civil society by helping ingly often in discussions of potential zation Viasna (Spring), which was set up knocking on doors. We have no political the people develop and Nobel Prize laureates, makes a bold in 1996 and publishes regular reports arena, no organization”, Shushkevich survive, and, at the same analogy between the uprisings in the on violations of human rights in Belarus. says emphatically. time, support sanctions former Soviet bloc and today’s popular Valery Karbalevich, an indepen- against the government movements in the Arab world. dent professor of political science, OPPOSITION REPRESENTATIVES are to penalize the powers in The editors are grateful for all sub- has recently published a book about clear about the fact that they need sup- Minsk. ≈ missions. Debate is conducted on the Lukashenka. He believes that Lukash- port from the West in order to succeed Web site. There are also links to quite a enka’s time in power is drawing to in working for democracy and human Read the full report from number of related forums, and all issues an end. However, he does not think rights in Belarus. Today they lack re- the event at http://baltic- of the magazine are now available for that Lukashenka will relinquish power sources and a platform. worlds.com/category/ downloading as PDF files. ≈ voluntarily. What can the outside world do? Artur conference-reports/ THE EDITORS Visiting scholar: Tony Wood In September of this year, Södertörn University and several seminars on contemporary Russia and pres- most recently wrote on Russia and climate change CBEES will be visited by a relatively young, indepen- ent his current project, “The Reforging of Russia: Col- (“Frozenology”, LRB Sept. 9, 2010) and the journalist dent researcher from the UK: Tony Wood. He will give lapse as Crucible”, which deals with the shifts in the Anna Politkovskaya: “I dream of him some day sitting social structure of Russia since the 1980s. Previously in the dock” (LRB, June 24, 2010). he has presented his research at Berkeley, Stanford, Tony Wood has an education in modern and me- Columbia, the New School for Social Research, and dieval languages from Cambridge University, where other academic institutions outside Europe. he wrote a BA thesis on “Time as Space: The Fourth Tony Wood is a contemporary scholar, and not Dimension in Bely’s Petersburg and Malevich’s Su- a conventional academic. Over the last ten years, prematism”. He also earned an MA from the School Wood has written a fair number of articles on culture, of Slavonic and East European Studies (London economics, and politics in Russia, including pieces University) with a thesis on “The City in Soviet Film on Eisenstein, Andrei Platonov, and Cold War design. 1924—1941”. Besides English and Russian, he is He is the author of a highly acclaimed book on the fluent in French and Spanish, and has most recently second civil war in the Caucasus, Chechnya: The translated Mario Vargas Llosa into English (2009). Case for Independence (2007), and has since fol- Since 2007 he has been the deputy editor of the lowed developments in Russia, and the Caucasus in New Left Review. ≈ particular, for the London Review of Books, where he BALTIC editorial 3 W O R L Dbalticworlds.com S Sponsored by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies The struggle for latitude contents uring the Cold War, to the scope of political repression and “Finlandization” to ownership structures, in particular interview was a pejorative in within agriculture. There was latitude, SUNVISSON the Western (anti- albeit limited. 4 János Kornai on naive Soviet) world. In But even in freer systems, like the KARIN : Hungarians and politics Finland itself, the EU, the latitude of individual states is term was used to de- being gradually constrained. Europe essays value the sacrifices is undergoing “Europeanization”, but Editor-in-chief the country had the process is far from smooth. And it is illustration Anders Björnsson 8 Mitterrand and Lithuania’s made in its struggle meeting resistance. Editor struggle for liberation for independence. Not even EU-Europe marched in step Ninna Mörner Finland was the only country that had fought on towards the war against Libya, and the Publisher 15 Soviet efforts to keep Hitler’s side in World War II and that was neither oc- Eastern European governments (like Anu Mai Kõll Poland down cupied by a victorious power (the Soviet Union) nor the Finnish!) were clearly opposed to Editorial advisory board forced (by Moscow) to accept a tributary government. the military action. It became the war of Thomas Lundén, Chair, 45 Muslim narrative tradition But it was a long time before pundits in Washington “Old Europe”, while the “New Europe”, CBEES, Sari Autio- & Russian literature and London stopped regarding Finland as an Eastern those among the “coalition of the will- Sarasmo, Aleksanteri European country or simply part of the Soviet bloc ing” in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, now Institute, Helsinki, Lars stories — and this despite the fact that Finland, unlike other chose to show restraint. Obviously, they Johannsen, University Northern European countries, had never had a so- felt that they had been duped by Wash- of Aarhus, Ann-Cathrine 22 The Estonian founding cialist majority in its parliament since winning sover- ington into a war that was neither justi- Jungar, CBEES, father: Jaan Tõnisson eignty from the Russian realm in 1917 and becoming a fied nor supported by international law. Anu Mai Kõll, CBEES democratic state with the same rights as other democ- Even though three quarters of its own (Director), Jens E. 49 On the road in the Soviet racies, or states in transition to democracy. people opposed the invasion according Olesen, University of Union that Stalin attempted to opinion polls in March 2003, the Pol- Greifswald, Barbara to silence FROM AN “EASTERN EUROPEAN” perspective, on the ish elite chose to join the coalition. Pres- Törnquist–Plewa, Lund other hand, Finlandization could be understood as ident Kwa´sniewski said at the time that University reports the lesser of two evils during the Cold War. It pointed he had “complete trust” in George W. Editorial staff to a path away from giving and taking orders towards Bush. Polish Prime Minister Tusk (Reu- Arne Bengtsson, 33 Jan T. Gross and Polish negotiating — on an unequal basis to be sure, but none- ters, April 9) is now opposed to war and Thomas Borchert, memories of the Holocaust theless with elements of reciprocity. During the long speaks of the “hypocrisy of the Western Roskilde, Brian Manning era of President Uhro K.