Posted by Sean on December 13, 2005
After a five month trial, the Moscow courts finally made a ruling in the case of the 39 National Bolshevik activists who took over a government building on December 14, 2004. 31 activists received suspended sentences of 18 months to 3 ? years and were freed on Friday. Eight others are looking at 18 months to 3 ? prison sentences. Most of the eight are regional leaders. Nine of the 39 were under the age of 18 when arrested. One, aged 15 was released after spending two months in custody.
Prison forges revolutionaries as much as it does criminals. One need only look at the prison experience of many Russian revolutionaries in the 19th century. Many Bolsheviks looked back on their time in Tsarist prisons as a mark of distinction. Many went in ideologically committed many more came out willing to sacrifice ..read more
Posted by Sean on December 13, 2005
English language blogs on Russia and the CIS suffered a major setback last week. After almost two years of providing news and commentary on all things Russia, Andy from siberianlight.net has called it quits. This is a loss for us all. There was some indication that this might happen when Andy took a short leave of absence to recharge. It was nice to see him return albeit briefly.
I only recently discovered siberianlight.net a few months ago while searching for blogs to link to this site. To my delight I found Andy’s site. It became an instant source of information and inspiration. For those who don’t know (and I doubt many reading this blog are unfamiliar with siberialight.net), Andy’s site provides probably the most comprehensive collection of links to Russian and English language blogs. Andy says that he will keep the site ..read more
