Throughout this semester, I’ve been watching the news and seeing nothing but disconcerting news about my homeland. Though some are optimistic about Russia’s prospects as an economically viable and stable nation, what I have seen in the past six months has, despite my intense love of Russia, turned me pessimistic about Russia’s prospects for democracy and stability. Having made the decision to visit Moscow during winter break to see family, catch up on my borscht and blini consumption, and shiver in the bitter cold of the Moscow winter, I have bitterly accepted the deterioration of the place I’m about to visit.

What I’m going to discuss is going to read a bit like a laundry list, because in essence it is. It’s a laundry list because in the course of our semester in college, Russia has been unendingly foraying into corrupt, prejudiced and dangerous territory.

On October 20th, the Kremlin revoked the rights of over 80 human rights and other organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to practice or conduct business in Russia. This was on the heels of Russia’s tension with Georgia and Putin’s decision to request a list of all children with Georgian last names from schools in an effort to retaliate against Georgia’s holding of Russian soldiers. Russia aimed to deport as many Georgians as possible from Moscow and outlying areas. About 130 people were deported, and notable Georgian authors, actors, performers and public figures began to be audited and investigated.

One of the reasons I began to doubt my decision to go home is that my mother is from Georgia, and the last name on my Russian passport is archetypically Georgian; I didn’t want to go through Russian customs with such a telltale indicator of my ethnicity.

Meanwhile, Anna Politovskaya, a journalist and one of the most vocal critics of the Putin regime, was brutally murdered in early October. My father attended her funeral in Moscow, and news agencies reported what he told me as well: no ranking government officials attended her funeral, though otherwise thousands of people came to see her one last time before her burial.

Simultaneously, Russia’s ambitions for international recognition have propelled it into discussions over Iran’s nuclear and military capability. Last week, Russia began delivery of Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran in spite of widespread criticism from both Europe and the U.S. Russia, in particular its president Vladimir Putin, continues to fuel the flame of Russian isolation, not only through its support of the possibly dangerous Iran, but also through bans on imports from other post-Soviet nations that are based not on real claims to health or economic benefit, but rather spiteful political maneuvering. In this way imports have been banned ranging from wine and water from Georgia to foods and wines from Moldova to bans on the importing of all foreign meats.

This week, topping off a string of delightful Russian news leads, former Russian Intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko died of poisoning in London. As a vocal critic of the Kremlin who accused the Russian government of murdering Anna Politovskaya, Litvinenko’s life in Russia was supported by an exiled Russian oligarch also living in England, Boris Berezovsky, who was one of Putin’s most formidable enemies at the beginning of his presidency. It is widely speculated, or should be, that the Russian government may have been involved in the killing of Litvinenko.

There is not much to say about what is to be done in Russia other than perhaps to look forward to Putin’s departure from office after the March 2008 elections. Though he could probably get away with staying an extra (illegal) term in office, Putin has publicly announced that he will not run for reelection, though he is quick to point out that his influence will remain noticeable. Ultimately, don’t expect to see the end of the Putin era – wrought with more laundry lists like the one I’ve just provided – with the end of his presidency.