I call it somebody complaining to the local authorities about the eXile, the local authorities making an audit to determine if there is anything to it, and the investors running away. Exactly what it looks like, what the local authorities said it was, and what Ames said it was. (What exactly are Soviet-style suits?)
The thing is, Russia has a thing called hate speech laws, and Limonov engages in what could be interpreted as hate speech. When you and I read the eXile, we know they're joking. When a bureaucrat reads it, he doesn't. The eXile was probably complained about not because of its politics, but because it is highly offensive and features Eduard "women liked to be raped" Limonov, who most Russians think is a Nazi, even though really he isn't.
--- On Sat, 8/30/08, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Russia confiscates papers that have a "political look"
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Saturday, August 30, 2008, 4:51 PM
> On Aug 30, 2008, at 2:25 PM, Chris Doss wrote:
>
> > I'm refering to his accounts at the time and
> elsewhere, which were
> > that the paper became economically unviable after
> investors pulled
> > out after the paper had a visit from the inspectorate,
> which
> > supposedly scared off the investors. That's why
> they had a
> > fundraiser. If he says something different now, I
> suppose something
> > must have changed. I don't see what your
> disagreement is. They were
> > investigated, but they weren't actually shut down.
> The shutting down
> > was because of no money.
>
> Ok. The gov didn't shut them down directly, but the
> visit from the
> guys in Soviet-style suits caused all the money people to
> run away,
> bankrupting the paper. Which means that the gov shut down
> the paper
> indirectly because they didn't like its contents. What
> do you call that?
>
> Doug
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