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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 19 2017, @02:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the maybe-they're-on-kindle dept.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-library-idUSKBN16M0PW

First, armed police seized some of its books. Next, its director was put on trial accused of stirring up ethnic hatred. And now, quietly, its shelves have been emptied and its volumes packed up, ready to be merged into another library's collection. A year and a half after Russia's only state-run Ukrainian language library, Moscow's Library of Ukrainian Literature, was dragged into a political dispute between the two countries, Reuters has learnt that authorities are quietly winding it down.

Officially, what is happening to the library -- its 52,000 books are being transferred to Russia's main foreign language library -- is "a change of address" not a closure. But the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, some of the library's employees, and members of Russia's large Ukrainian diaspora say it is a closure in all but name.

Tatyana Muntyan, a library employee, said that even before the transfer its director had reduced opening hours, stopped home lending, halted acquisitions, and made readers show passports to gain entry. The library's director declined to comment. The saga, along with other measures, suggests political differences between Moscow and Kiev are driving a wedge between two peoples whose cultures have been interwoven for centuries. It is likely to stoke Ukrainian fears that their culture, as well as their territorial integrity, is under siege.


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @08:02PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @08:02PM (#481244)

    They have had some really smart folks in North Dakota.
    They have a publicly-owned state bank, [google.com] established in 1913[1] which has weathered both Hoover's Great Depression and the Dubya/O'Bummer/Trump Depression much better than the other 47/49 states and their private banking systems.

    [1] Interestingly, the same year that the "Federal"[2] Reserve was established.
    [2] Actually a cartel of PRIVATE bankers.

    .
    North Dakota is also the only state with same-day voter registration; IOW, no voter registration. [google.com]
    You show up, show them something with your name and address on it (a utility bill will do IIUC), sign the roll, and they hand you a ballot.

    It seems to work just fine--unless your goal is voter suppression.
    Compare this to states where an ID issued by a state-run university is not "proper ID" for voting but a gun license is.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    Starting Score:    0  points
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @10:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 19 2017, @10:08PM (#481270)

    That's quite the way to put it. Yes indeed, some people are not supposed to vote, and thus need to be suppressed.

    Keeping me from walking into the Capitol Building and self-identifying as a senator is also voting suppression.

    Locking your car is driver suppression. There might be people who want to drive your car! Another form of driver suppression is requiring a license.

    Making me supply a card before withdrawing money from an ATM is banking suppression. They should just trust that I have an account.

    Requiring a "yes" is sex suppression and even fatherhood suppression. This is a denial of my right to sex and my right to fatherhood!