The Turkmen people now, apparently, have no means of acquiring or reading Russian newspapers and magazines. Even those who set up subscriptions for the second half of this year, and paid large sums of money in Turkmen manats or US dollars, will not receive their newspapers. The fact is that back in June the great leader and life-long ruler, Saparmurat Turkmenbashi, banned the import of dangerous Russian publications into the country, in order to prevent the dissemination among his people of unwholesome and libellous fabrications about himself and the reforms which he carries out almost every day of his life.
This isn't really terrorism related, but I had to throw it in. It's hard to remember, but it was only ten years ago that the Soviet Union went toes up with a lily in its pocket. It's a measure of how far the world has come that today Russian newspapers can be considered a threat to somebody's iron-fisted dictatorship. |