Death of the West and decline of the East

We are used since a century to denounce and comment the so-called decline of the West; the great essay of Spengler, unfit for the public of today, was published during the WW1 and it has been quickly fulfilled, Western Europe becoming an American colony and a bureaucratic disaster, both economically and spiritually. Her ageing population is rapidly disappearing and it will be replaced during the next decennials. Nobody should lament this process since Solzhenitsyn observed that the westerners do not know if there are alive! Modern world is a bad dream, said once French philosopher Deleuze, a left-wing genius completely forgotten nowadays in what is left of France (pardon, Hollande...). Statesmen in Europe hate or fear Mr Putin for he is the last statesman with a brain and a soul. This is why there are each year more youngsters fond of him in Western Europe. We will see where this hope will get us to. Modern civilization is not anymore a civilization: no Shakespeare, no Balzac, no Nabokov; no Mozart, no Wagner, no Shostakovich. Nothing, for culture you have NYT best-selling lists, festivals and multiplex cinemas: post-modernism is about galleries, shopping malls, highways, racial riots, multiculturalism and real estate. The rest is nothing; the rest is about debt, zombie-like existence and tourism. As Nietzsche said in Zarathoustra about the last pope, he doesn't know that God is dead! We should say now that we don't know that the westerner is dead. We just have a completely indebted matrix full of sound and stupidity, and sometimes of fury (at least in Libya and Syria); and definitively signifying nothing. It is not for nothing that we are fascinated nowadays in the West by the vampires and the zombies: the vampire sucks the blood (IE the Goldman Sachs elected central bankers suck the money) and the zombie hangs around in malls and subways without any self-consciousness. Welcome to the hollow man, said once TS Eliot. But that is enough with the West. Now, I would like to talk about the decline of the East, because despite the growth stuff and the propaganda about emerging countries, I definitely observe a decline in the East. It is very easy to despise France or Italy: old and despicable countries that lost their charisma, as quipped once infamous Donald Rumsfeld... but if we assert what is going on in India ? Or in Vietnam? Or in Japan? I wont' mention China, even if it becomes the first world power... When the decline of the West was diagnosed, it was mainly on a spiritual criterion; today it is even economical and demographical. But remember well: in this time it was spiritual. The modern world was materialistic, it was boring, desperate, existentialist, Dadaist, whatever. And where my fellow dissatisfied predecessors would look for an alternative? In the East. The East was the land of the gurus, of the traditions; of the last emperors: the East was the land of Tibet, of the I Ching, of the secret societies; the East was the land of Sufism, of yoga, of the wisdom. The East was the real travel of Hermann Hesse and Siddhartha. All of that, sorry if I exaggerate somewhat, has disappeared. The great wise men of the East have succumbed to business wizards and have submitted to sirens of the degenerate western matrix. Vietnam has forgotten his hydraulic society (read again genius Wittfogel!), and covered his streets wits scooters and bikes and masks because of pollution; everybody has forgotten the heroic war against the Yankees, everybody wants to be rich and to live like a Yankee (well, like a John Wayne type Yankee; because one hundred millions Americans endure today poverty and social diseases); India has sold her soul to the class of the vaishya, to the merchants. Only stock exchange, real estate speculation, destruction of slums, and TV commercials are now the ordinary of the Mahatma's great nation or of heirs of the Maharshi . Think now of broke and impoverished Japan, of his junkies and hippies, of his degenerate way of life, think of the end of samurai and bushido ethics, think of the end of the emperor. There is no last emperor there; there is just an extra emperor who is as dull as a Dutch queen. I was in Tokyo last year; the atmosphere is not human, it is post-human and you have (like I already explained) to be a false cosmonaut -or a cockroach - to survive in such awful conditions. So where is the East we used to dream of? Today's pilgrimages are just business stuff like ours. La Mecca is now a nightmare and a big one, built and rebuilt by Bin Laden clan! Last Sunday Lionel Messi was almost lynched by a mob of football fans in Saudi Arabia. He is the real god of these new humans, not Allah. If we cast aside a minority of old believers, like in the West, mosques and old temples are just business or tourist centres while the churches have been replaced by shopping malls anywhere. One century ago, many had the feeling in Europe, like René Guénon, Schuon or Daniélou that there was something left intact in the entropy of the modern world. It was the East. Guénon prophesised so an eastern victory at the End of Times and he was wrong. The East barely became the fifty-first American state like anyone. And no country has conserved a drop of his fading charisma (except Bhutan may be?). I won't even mention China. Last night I almost wept reviewing my wonderful crouching tiger hidden dragon. Look post-modern China: is that what we were promised to? You just have fumes, smokes, corruption, empty luxury shops, traffic jam and imperialistic bargain with the Americans. Have you been recently in China, once the most beautiful landscape in the world turned into a Las Vegas suburb? Is that the result of the first world economy? Killing her soul as well as her body? Well, may be we were expecting too much of eastern humanity. They were so poor, you know, and civilization was so fascinating, you know... Everybody wants his fridge, his smart phone and his holidays on the beach, I know... Yet I am not resigned. The decline of the east will come too, economically and demographically, like in the West and like in Japan. The human being who betrays his ideals his ancestors and his faith to behave like a Yankee is spiritually and economically doomed. Here will be Obama everywhere, bankrupting a morally deficient and warmonger country! This is why I wait a lot from Eastern Europe, eastern Christianity, after the fall of our cataclysmic currency (euro) and of our alliance with the Americans. As put once Heidegger, the West means what it is the nearer to the origin. There will be a rebirth of the West.

New Russian motto: Legalize prostitution - collect taxes

The situation on the Russian market of sex services may soon dramatically change. Prostitutes will not be cheaper, and the moral climate in the society will not get better. Instead of vulnerability before the officials and clients, prostitutes would have "safety certificates" and those enjoying their bodies would have confidence that they are not dealing with a hotbed of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV. A conference to discuss the initiative on the development of a law on legalization of prostitution was held in Moscow under the motto "legalize prostitution - collect taxes". The idea was supported by a State Duma deputy from the party "United Russia" Joseph Kobzon. The initiative on legalization of prostitution and the conference was originated by the fund "Morality Police." The document of the organization, called a draft federal law "On state regulation and control of sexual services" suggested calling prostitutes "individual entrepreneurs engaged in providing sexual services," and their clients - "consumers of sexual services." The authors of the bill proposed to consider underground prostitution only sexual activities meant to obtain "income in the form of money or other material benefits." The bill addresses the relationship between "entrepreneurs" and "consumers" as well as tax and other government agencies Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon supported the idea of ​​the bill with reservations. He noted that the bill was just an excuse to start a great debate, perhaps even a referendum. "As soon as the State Duma starts drafting a law on prostitution, it will immediately raise the question of the need of its approval in the second reading by the government and presidential administration. Once the government feels that this law has a financial component, [...] that there will be a need to allocate money from the budget to combat prostitution, it will be voted down," said Kobzon. According to him, the money will be needed first of all for the maintenance of the new police unit - morality police. Speaking after Kobzon, spokeswoman of the informal union of sex workers "Silver Rose" Oksana Yartseva noted that taxes that are rampant in prostitution "settle in the pockets of corruption." De facto prostitution flourishes in Russia, and the existing laws are obsolete. In the current Russian legislation Article 6.11 in the Code of Administrative Offences provides for a fine for prostitution between 1,500 and 2,000 rubles. There are two articles of the Criminal Code against pimps and keepers of brothels. They are "Involvement in prostitution" (up to a maximum of eight years in prison) and "Organization of prostitution" (ten years). The conference overlooked the fact that talking about prostitutes we normally think of women, and thinking of customers we think of men only, which is not quite true. Everyone knows about the existence of male prostitution - and not just for the gay. Sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya was among the most prominent opponents of legalization of prostitution at the conference. She did not like the fact that "it can be done by any girl who graduated from high school." The opponents of this bill have two main arguments. The law on the legalization of prostitution is contrary to the traditional moral values ​​and would lead to a greater spread of this vicious phenomenon. Ms. Kryshtanovskaya who specializes in the study of elites also mentioned sex tourism: "Would we face a huge influx of migrant sex tourists who will be coming along with their male migrant workers? How will it impact our demographic situation?" In contrast to the arguments of morality and increasing number of prostitutes, the rhetorical question of Olga Kryshtanovskaya is very pertinent. The first oldest profession safely existed from time immemorial and, apparently, in one form or another will exist as long as the human race exists. As for Christianity, according to Jesus, individual prostitutes have a chance to enter the kingdom of heaven before priests and the elders. The spread of prostitution, as noted by Joseph Kobzon, is affected by social problems. As long as Russia stays a poor country, the officials should think hard before legalizing prostitution. Otherwise, Russia can turn into semblance of Thailand that has become the center of world sex tourism. Russia should also look at the experience of Germany. Prostitution in Germany is legal in Protestant lands and prohibited in Catholic Bavaria. However, the ban does not lead to the destruction of brothels but, rather, drives them underground.

Russian helicopters will not fly in Afghanistan

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed a hope that U.S. President Barack Obama will not approve the decision of the Senate to cease cooperation with the Russian defense export company Rosoboronexport. The Americans have not been able to break the Afghans of fighting with Soviet (Russian) weapons. They purchase simpler analogues in Eastern Europe, but the Pentagon decided to buy helicopters from Russia. In April 2012, Rosoboronexport unexpectedly won the tender of the command of the U.S. ground troops for the purchase of military transport helicopters for international coalition forces in Afghanistan (ISAF). Five companies (General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical System, Alliant Techsystems Operations LLS, Chemring Ordnance and Military Products, Bulova Technologies Group Inc and Arma Global Corporation) - the partners of the U.S. government - asked the Russian company to become a subcontractor to supply helicopters. The Americans buy and continue to buy Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition, often counterfeit, from Eastern Europe. However, they decided to go to Russia for more complicated hardware. n May of the same year, a contract was signed for the supply of 21 Mi-17V5s choppers in the amount of $367.5 million. In June, the Pentagon announced the purchase of ten more helicopters of the same configuration. The total cost of the contract, including engineering services and spare parts, according to the Pentagon, could amount to $900 million. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that "the strengthening of the combat potential of the army of Hamid Karzai was a subject of tireless care and attention of all security and intelligence components of the United States. The choice in favor of Russian helicopters was dictated by military and economic feasibility, taking into consideration the fact that it is Russian Mi helicopters that are reliable in Afghanistan, just like Kalashnikovs." However, American politicians interfered in the case. It turned out that they did not care much about the combat capability of the Afghan Army after the withdrawal of the troops. The politicians are much more concerned about the toppling of the legitimate government of Bashar al-Assad, who also receives weapons from Russia's Rosoboronexport. On July 19, the U.S. Congress, almost unanimously (407 vs. 5) approved the amendment, which "prohibited all types of transactions and agreements with the Russian arms exporters, including the leasing of arms." On November 30th, the Senate issued similar recommendations following the initiative from Republican John Cornyn, was had been jealously watching Russian military successes. As explained by Senator Cornyn, who recently criticized the Pentagon for the appearance of a Russian submarine in the Gulf of Mexico, "American taxpayers should not indirectly finance the mass murder of Syrian civilians, especially if there are good alternatives for purchasing these weapons through U.S. brokers." The senator is probably not aware of the fact that arms trade in Russia is a monopoly of the state, and that Rosoboronexport represents the interests of the state. Therefore, one can hardly find good alternatives through U.S. brokers. The chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Igor Korotchenko said that US Congressmen and Senators seem not to understand that it is only the Russian military hardware that can operate successfully in Afghanistan. Western helicopters simply can not work under local conditions. It goes about local temperatures and the level of local skills." Cornyn insists on the spirit of the Cold War: "To continue the business with Rosoboronexport means to continue to undermine both the U.S. policy on the Syrian issue and the efforts that the United States takes to support the Syrian people." Does it mean that Senator Cornyn no longer supports the Afghan people? Overfilled with hatred, he does not see that by getting Mi-17s, the Afghan army receives a very important potential, which the country will need after the ISAF mission ends in 2014. Quite on the contrary, NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen is perfectly aware of that. He said on December 3rd, after the NATO-Russia summit, that the parties were discussing a new project about Russia's efforts to train Afghan specialists to repair helicopters. "We have already achieved the general agreement on this," said Rasmussen. For Rosoboronexport, with a turnover of 11 billion dollars in 2011, the failure of a million-worth order is not lethal, taking into consideration the fact that there are many of those who want to buy these helicopters. For Afghanistan, whose army urgently needs the Russian helicopters, time is priceless. Even if Russia and the U.S. try to cooperate - in Afghanistan - the U.S. is unable to suppress the pride and insists on unpromising solutions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the NATO-Russia Council, said that the amendment of the Senate "was not a law but a view that had not been through all necessary instances." Representatives of Rosoboronexport said that they had not received any official information about the termination of the contract: "All will be known when the U.S. president makes a decision." Well, one can only hope for the sanity of Barack Obama. The U.S. government sanctioned Rosoboronexport before - from 2006 to 2010. U.S. officials believed that the company contributed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, selling them to Iran. The sanctions were lifted in 2010 under the Obama administration, after Russia supported UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.

Phantom’ Gas Deal Embarrasses Ukraine Government

KIEV, Ukraine -- It was hailed as the historic deal that would finally end Ukraine’s reliance on Russian gas imports and ensure its energy independence forever. But then Ukraine’s announcement it had signed an agreement with Spanish firm Gas Natural Fenosa as the first foreign investor in a planned LNG terminal off Odessa hit a snag. The Spanish company denied ever having signed any contract. A Spaniard with a Catalan name signed the deal on November 26, apparently on behalf of Gas Natural. But quite who he was acting for and the circumstances of the situation remain a mystery. “The documents were signed. A representative of the Spanish company initialled them. Now questions are being asked about whether he was authorised to do so,” said Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Boiko after doubts were first raised. The Ukrainian government initially said the documents were going to be signed by Jordi Garcia Tabernero, the external relations chief for the firm. But then it emerged the Spanish signatory was Jordi Sarda Bonvehi, who Ukraine now says is a professional go-between who works in the interests of Spanish companies but is not a direct employee of Gas Natural. Gas Natural denied it has signed any contracts and was “sending a formal notice to the person who, according to media reports, seems to have claimed to represent the company at an event that took place in Kiev last Monday.” “This person does not represent the company,” it said in an emailed statement. Scandal The confusion is a huge embarrassment not just for the head of the Ukrainian investment agency, Vladislav Kaskiv, who signed the deal, but the entire government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and Boiko were present at the signing ceremony in Kiev. Kaskiv boasted at the time that “November 26 can be called the Day of Ukraine’s energy independence.” “It’s a scandal that is both outrageous and tragi-comic,” said Ukraine’s leading online daily Ukrainska Pravda. The state investment authority said in a statement Friday that Gas Natural has now notified Kiev that Bonvehi was not their representative and had exceeded his authorities in signing the agreement. It noted — with a degree of apparent relief — that there were “no financial or legal” obligations in the agreement that was signed. But the agency also lashed out at “third parties” for whom the “misunderstanding” was a tool to undermine Ukraine’s bid to find energy independence. According to the head of the LNG project Vitaliy Demyanyuk, Bonvehi had organised a visit of representatives of Gas Natural to attend the ceremony in Kiev. But when they did not in the end come to the Ukrainian capital he decided “he could sign the agreement himself and sort out the question of authority later. But this then infuriated Gas Natural.” Farcical Situation Ukrainian media quoted Bonvehi as saying: “I thought that I could sign it and then clear it with the company.” Despite the farcical situation, the €846 million ($1.1 billion) project is of huge importance for Ukraine. When completed it aims to allow the import of 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year which would arrive in the Black Sea by ship as LNG (Liquified Natural Gas). Above all it would help the country loosen its dependency on gas imports from Russia, which Kiev complains are too costly and give Moscow an unwelcome political lever in the country. Pro-Kremlin former Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Viktor Medvedchuk could not hide his glee over the misfortunes, asking on his blog how “such people [as Kaskiv] are allowed on a state level” to be involved in such projects. Medvedchuk, an implacable foe of the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution, is seen by many commentators as a champion of Russian interests in Kiev and a friend of President Vladimir Putin. Another mystery is whether Russia played any role in the whole farce — Ukraine gaining energy independence would undermine its political influence and deprive state gas giant Gazprom of billions of dollars in energy receipts.

Ukraine Facing Economic And Financial Instability

KIEV, Ukraine -- Political instability in post-election Ukraine may soon be be compounded by economic and financial instability that has the potential for social unrest. The World Bank calculates that Ukraine has the second lowest per-capita income in Europe followed by Moldova. Ukraine, which was the second largest constituent republic economy within the Soviet Union, has already been surpassed by Kazakhstan. Belarus’s GDP per capita of $5,800 is also higher than Ukraine’s at $3,600. In the last decade, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan recovered and overtook their Soviet GDP levels. Ukraine’s GDP is only three quarters of that of Soviet Ukraine (without the 2008 crisis it would be 90 percent). Ukraine went into economic recession in the third quarter of this year because of declining industrial, metallurgical and construction sector output. Ihor Burakovsky, director of The Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, told Jamestown that Ukraine’s growth this year would be around 0.7 percent. This is worse than the forecast of 2.3 percent but not of the magnitude of 2009 when GDP collapsed by 15 percent. The 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial crisis support program for Ukraine was partially implemented but has since expired. It is unclear if the United States and the European Union will support the IMF negotiating a new agreement or whether Washington and Brussels will demand further tough political demands. Speaking prior to the October 28 election, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tihipko said Ukraine would not fulfill existing IMF criteria. Further exacerbating the situation, the Ukrainian parliament increased the state’s budget deficit by $1 billion to subsidize regional heating prices, thus violating IMF demands to reduce household utility subsidies. After the elections, the Ministry of Regional Development and Housing asserted that an increase in household utility prices is inevitable and will require increases of 40–50 percent. Government ministries are discussing a transition to full payment of all tariffs and services by the population. Ukraine’s growing international isolation has also negatively impacted foreign investment. Since early 2012, President Viktor Yanukovych has become a persona non grata in the US and the EU; of the ten foreign visits he made this year, only one was to a Western country (Cyprus). In 2010–2011, 24 of his 25 foreign visits were to the West. Foreign investments in the first nine months of 2012 totaled $4.32 billion, down nine percent from the same period in 2011. The largest foreign investor was Cyprus—a favorite offshore money destination for Ukrainian oligarchs—meaning most of this “foreign investment” is Ukrainian capital returning home. The European Business Association’s Investment Attractiveness Index gave Ukraine a score of 2.4 out of 5, the lowest since 2008. “A number of foreign investors say that the investment climate in the country is deteriorating for everyone except Ukrainian oligarchs”. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of massive Euro 2012 spending and corruption (Ukraine’s stadiums are the most expensive in Europe), populist social welfare promises made ahead of the elections, and poor tax collection, Ukraine is facing a financial squeeze and possible devaluation of the hryvnya. Five-year credit default spreads—a rough measure of a country’s perceived risk—have fallen to a 13-month low. Since the beginning of the year, the National Bank of Ukraine’s (NBU) reserves decreased by 15.7 percent from $32 billion to $26.8 billion—barely sufficient to cover three months of imports, the minimum reserves the NBU should have. Foreign currency reserves have been dwindling in recent months after they were used to cover balance-of-payments deficits and to stabilize the hryvnya exchange rate. Devaluation pressures stem from a large current account deficit and residents’ demand for foreign cash. The hryvnya could collapse by 50 percent before the end of the year, a similar drop to the hryvnya’s devaluation of 60 percent in 2008. Experts have long argued Ukraine needs a more flexible exchange rate that would boost exports and cut the current account deficit. The government is proposing new schemes to squeeze money from different sources to improve the budget. A 15-percent tax on the sale of foreign currency and a one-percent allocation to the Pension Fund have been condemned by the opposition as a “tax by the Family” that would not be felt by oligarchs who allegedly possess $72 billion in offshore accounts. The Tax Justice Network non-governmental organization calculates that $167 billion has been sent from Ukraine to offshore accounts. In addition, passports have to now be shown when exchanging money. This month, a new law gave the National Bank the right to demand obligatory sales of earnings in foreign currency by exporters. Also, a 7.8-percent ten-year Eurobond was released this month to raise $1.25 billion for the Ukrainian treasury after a July Eurobond for $2 billion. President Yanukovych’s November 8 visit to Cyprus promises to ameliorate Ukraine’s poor financial situation somewhat. In Cyprus the Ukrainian president signed a convention on the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of income tax evasion. The new agreement permits Ukraine to collect taxes from Ukrainian companies registered in Cyprus. The Soviet-era treaty, which heretofore regulated bilateral financial relations, lost Ukraine $3 billion a year in taxes, or 10 percent of the budget. Russia’s previous elimination of the Soviet-Cypriote treaty raised Moscow’s revenues by $7.5 billion. Yet, without significant systemic reforms, none of these measures will be enough, as Kiev will still require access to IMF loans to prevent a financial meltdown. With the presidential election campaign set to dominate 2014, however, the window to undertake necessary IMF-mandated economic reforms will close after the first half of 2013. Ukraine’s economic and financial crisis could, therefore, force the authorities to finally act quickly—as previous crises over the last two decades had done before.

Ukraine PM Resigns Amid Economic Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine is facing political uncertainty after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his Cabinet Monday. The president has asked the prime minister to stay on as interim leader as the country prepares for talks with international lenders on multi-billion-dollar financial assistance to help overcome its economic crisis. The office of Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovych, said Azarov, who is 64, resigned because he wanted to take his parliamentary seat rather than stay on as prime minister. He made the decision after spending two-and-a-half years trying to revive the debt-ridden economy. Despite these efforts, the economy shrank in part because demand declined for Ukraine's main export products, such as steel. The national currency, the hryvna, has also weakened. In a statement, the presidency said Azarov's resignation means the end of the current government. Under Ukrainian law, if the prime minister steps down, the entire Cabinet must do so along with the government chief. Opposition leader Arsenij Jatzenjuk said he is pleased with Prime Minister Azarov's resignation - but added that the president should leave as well. He says President Yanukovych started to fulfill the opposition program because he sent away the government, but he forgot to write a declaration about his own resignation. The opposition leader claims that these are just "cosmetic changes,” and warns it will not solve, in his words, the difficult economic situation that Ukraine currently faces because of this government and president. Jatzenjuk says Ukraine is “on the edge of losing its gold reserves.” The Cabinet's collapse comes shortly after the October 28 elections that were overshadowed by reports of vote-rigging and the imprisonment of key opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, on controversial charges of abuse of power. Critics claim Yanukovych seeks a new prime minister within the "family," the word used to describe close acquaintances of the president, such as the first deputy prime minister or the national bank chief. Yet, the ruling Party of Regions parliamentary chief Olexander Efremov says it is too early to draw conclusions. He says there are several candidates for the job of prime minister, adding that he “does not exclude” the possibility that Azarov will become prime minister again. Ukraine's president has asked Azarov and his government to stay on in an interim capacity ahead of crucial talks with the International Monetary Fund on securing a new bailout loan. The previous aid program was frozen due to what IMF delegates said was "the government's refusal" to implement unpopular austerity reforms. Among IMF demands are calls to raise natural gas and heating prices for households to cut the growing budget deficit. Ukraine says it hopes to use fresh IMF loans to repay $6.4 billion of its debt to the international financial body next year. The country is also involved in tough negotiations with Russia, Ukraine's main energy provider, to try to bring down the cost of imported natural gas, which Kiev claims is above market prices and a huge drain on the already troubled economy.

An Abduction Shines Light On Ukraine Asylum Policy And On Kremlin Methods

KIEV, Ukraine — For two and a half days in October, Leonid Razvozzhayev, a little-known leader of the Russian political opposition, moved furtively from one part of Kiev to another, meeting with political allies and human rights experts about seeking asylum in the West. 
At times, he was sure he was being followed. He was right.

On a Friday afternoon in clear daylight, masked men grabbed Mr. Razvozzhayev and shoved him into a black van outside the office of a lawyer who was preparing his asylum application on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The van sped away. Mr. Razvozzhayev’s personal belongings were left behind.

More than the prosecution of the punk band Pussy Riot or the criminal inquiries into numerous opposition figures, the abduction of Mr. Razvozzhayev has showcased the Kremlin’s willingness to employ aggressive — even illegal — measures to suppress the political critics of President Vladimir V. Putin.

It also fits a pattern of recent cases in which people seeking protection in Ukraine were instead returned to the countries they fled, in violation of Ukrainian law as well as international laws and treaties that protect asylum seekers.

Ukrainian officials have refused to investigate Mr. Razvozzhayev’s disappearance, saying he is not a missing person.

“We see a problem of disrespect for international law on the part of Ukraine,” said Maksim Butkevych, a rights advocate with Social Action Center in Kiev.

Russian officials have also refused to open a criminal inquiry into Mr. Razvozzhayev’s complaints.

But this week they said they planned to charge him with illegally crossing the border into Ukraine by using his brother’s passport to buy a train ticket.

Other rights advocates say the actions of both Ukraine and Russia should be examined, and Mr. Razvozzhayev’s lawyers say they expect the European Court of Human Rights to intervene.

“If any government was complicit in the abduction of Leonid Razvozzhayev, that government committed a grave violation of Mr. Razvozzhayev’s right under the 1951 Refugee Convention to be protected from involuntary return,” said Mark Hetfield, the interim president of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a nonprofit group whose lawyers in Ukraine were preparing Mr. Razvozzhayev’s asylum application.

After Mr. Razvozzhayev resurfaced two days later outside a Moscow courthouse in Russian custody, Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia’s top federal investigator, insisted that he had “turned himself in” — an assertion flatly contradicted by interviews with Mr. Razvozzhayev’s wife, lawyers and associates who saw him in Kiev.

While Russia could have requested his extradition legally, international rights monitors say Ukraine routinely flouts normal procedures.

In 2011, a Palestinian engineer, Dirar Abu Sisi, who had applied for Ukrainian citizenship, was pulled off a train traveling between Kharkiv and Kiev.

Weeks later, the Israeli authorities confirmed that Mr. Abu Sisi, whose wife is Ukrainian, was in jail in Israel, charged with helping Hamas develop weapons, including Qassam rockets.

In December 2009, Khamidullo Turhunov, a refugee from Uzbekistan, disappeared in Kiev, and though there has been no official acknowledgment of his whereabouts, his family says that he is imprisoned in Uzbekistan.

In a 2010 report on human rights abuses in Ukraine, Amnesty International wrote, “There is no adequate and fair asylum procedure in Ukraine, and its asylum system fails to comply with international law.”

Mr. Butkevych said that kidnappings were rare but that asylum seekers were routinely deported or extradited from Ukraine in violation of their rights.
“In general terms, Ukraine is not a safe country,” Mr. Butkevych said.

“For some people, especially those people who are actually wanted by their countries of origin, it can be dangerous.”

That certainly proved true for Mr. Razvozzhayev, a former amateur boxer and native of Siberia who has long been a close associate of Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front, a radical socialist group that is at the core of the Russian political opposition.

Mr. Razvozzhayev’s lawyers say that after he was abducted, he was driven across the Russian border, held for nearly two days in the basement of a house, denied food and subjected to what has been described as psychological torture, including death threats against his family.

They said he was also forced to write and sign a 10-page confession, admitting to allegations first raised in early October in a documentary on NTV, a government-controlled television channel.

The film showed Mr. Udaltsov, Mr. Razvozzhayev and others, in what was said to be a meeting in Minsk, in Belarus, appealing for financial assistance from a political operative from Georgia, the former Soviet republic.

While they have admitted meeting with the Georgian, Givi Targamadze, Mr. Udaltsov and Mr. Razvozzhayev say much of the documentary was fabricated In recent weeks, the Russian authorities have opened yet another criminal case against Mr. Razvozzhayev, charging him with an armed robbery that occurred in December 1997 in his hometown, Angarsk, in eastern Siberia.

Supporters of Mr. Razvozzhayev said the added charges were an attempt to pressure him into confessing in the original case and testifying against others.

In October, when the political opposition held elections to choose a leadership council, both Mr. Udaltsov and Mr. Razvozzhayev were on the ballot.
But with pressure over the documentary intensifying, Mr. Razvozzhayev decided not to wait around for the results.

He filled a small plastic bag with personal belongings and left the apartment on the western outskirts of Moscow where he lived with his wife and their two children, heading for Kiev.

On VKontakte, a Russian social media site, he posted a note denying the allegations made in the NTV documentary and announcing that he was going into hiding.

“If in the near future I am arrested or if something bad happens to me, do not believe anything,” he wrote, “no matter what bad things they say about me.”

It is clear that he was afraid of being followed and also that he had no intention of returning to Russia.

Instead of taking one of the many direct trains to Kiev from Moscow or an even quicker direct flight, he took a circuitous route, first to Belarus, where Russians can travel without a visa, then from Belarus into Ukraine.

Arriving in Kiev on a Tuesday afternoon, he called Sergei Kirichyk, an old friend and the leader of Borotba, a Marxist group.

They met, along with other associates, at a kitschy, Soviet-style restaurant near the railroad station, a place with tasseled lampshades, carafes of vodka on the tables and old front pages of Pravda papering the ceiling, where Mr. Razvozzhayev contemplated an escape to the Czech Republic or Sweden.

That night he slept on a mattress in the Borotba office, an apartment overlooking Kiev’s opera house.
The next morning, Russian authorities officially declared him a fugitive and special-services police searched his Moscow apartment, as well as the home of Mr. Udaltsov, who was questioned and barred from traveling outside Russia.

In Kiev, Mr. Razvozzhayev stepped up his efforts to apply for political asylum.

On Wednesday night he went for a walk with a friend, Dmitry Galkin, a newspaper writer.

They met at a subway station near the headquarters of the Ukrainian central election commission.

“I didn’t know he was in direct danger,” Mr. Galkin said.

“He told me that he wanted to become a political refugee.”

As they walked along the darkened streets, they were sure they were being followed.

Mr. Razvozzhayev shut off his cellphone and ran away through a dark courtyard.  

The next day he called the Kiev office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where officials arranged for him to meet with a lawyer at 10 the following morning.

Anxious to get his application done, Mr. Razvozzhayev skipped breakfast.

So about 1:30 p.m., when his lawyer said he needed to make some calls, Mr. Razvozzhayev stepped out for a bite.

He did not come back.