Choosing the future at one hundred mph

I only have the barest knowledge of political systems in general, and even less for the particulars of any one country.. but, that said, I am (superficially) drawn to all news stories out of Russia, especially when they deal with the consolidation of power in the Kremlin (by the manliest world leader, Владимир Владимирович Путин).

Yeah, this week's parliamentary elections only solidified their position; Mr. Putin's party, United Russia, has enough seats now to amend the Constitution if they so desire. Interesting times, indeed.

But a report from the NYTimes over the weekend really caught my eye. Beyond tightening their grip on general media outlets, like newspapers and television stations (standard stuff, of course), it seems that they're now going as far as censoring contemporary art in various forms. For example, the Russian culture minister censored a state-sponsored show of Russian contemporary art in Paris a few weeks ago (as part of France's A Year of Russia); 17 of the works were deemed to be a "shame on Russia" and removed from the collection. Read the details, and find more examples, at the NYTimes:

Putin’s Last Realm to Conquer: Russian Culture
by Michael Kimmelman
Published: December 1, 2007

Still, there seems to be *some* backlash by the art community. In fact, the Tretyakov Gallery - the ones who put the show together, including the ultimately-censored works - filed a lawsuit against Culture and Press Minister Alexander Sokolov on November 20th, 2007. The court system in Russia - again, something I really don't know that much about - has a reputation for bending to the will of the executive administration, so we'll see where that goes.

If any of you come across any follow-up news for this story, let me know. And I'll do the same. By the way, I'd recommend checking out the "Multimedia" part of the article above; it's a little tangential to the main story, but it gives some context for the high life in Moscow. Russia is "choosing the future, it seems, at a hundred miles per hour." And we'd be best to pay attention. ;)