Jun

30

Surkov’s "Sovereign" and "Managed" Democracy

June 30, 2006 | 3 Comments

The deputy head of Putin’s administration, Vladislav Surkov gave a rare press conference this week. His comments touched on energy geopolitics and Russian democracy. The latter topic has generated the most press as critics have tried to ascertain the meaning of Surkov’s use of “sovereign democracy” versus “managed democracy”. For the latter […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

30

Chechnya as Potemkin Village

June 30, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Anne Neistat, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, has written a must read in the new issue of the London Review of Books on her recent visit to Grozny. She notes that amazement was her first impression of the capital’s main drag, Prospekt Pobedy (Victory Avenue). The streets were clean. Buildings were […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

29

G-8 Round One: Condi Rice vs. Sergei Lavrov

June 29, 2006 | 1 Comment

U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov give a press conference. The Moscow Times is already reporting on the meeting. Reuters reports a testy exchange over Iraq. The G-8 looks like its going to be fun.
Popularity: 1% [?]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

26

Moscow’s Rise Not Without Costs

June 26, 2006 | 4 Comments

Today’s news is buzzing with reports of Moscow becoming the most expensive city in the world. According to a survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Moscow has topped Tokyo as the world’s costliest city. Many news reports have noted the obvious irony that the former capital of Communism is now the capital of […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Jun

26

NY Rep Calls for Criminal Charges against the NY Times

June 26, 2006 | 5 Comments

Perhaps I should change the focus of this blog to “Did we Americans learn anything from the Soviet Union?” since the actions of State and Congressional representatives keep pulling me away from Russia. Today’s outrage is a call by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) for the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute the NY Times […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

25

Russian Diplomats Executed in Iraq

June 25, 2006 | 2 Comments

This came over the Reuters newswire about an hour ago:

Video shows Russian hostages killed
Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:28 PM BST

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iraqi al Qaeda-led group said on Sunday it had killed four Russian embassy staff it had taken hostage, according to a statement posted on the Internet.

The statement said the posting included footage […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

23

Study Finds Moscow Metro Rife with Racial Profiling

June 23, 2006 | 1 Comment

Here’s a surprise. Moscow militsa stop non-Slavs 22 times more often than Slavic looking people. I would have never known! So says a new study reported by Fred Weir of the Christian Science Monitor.

The study, in which monitors observed more than 1,500 police document checks at 15 Metro stations […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

23

Cohen on the New Cold War

June 23, 2006 | 3 Comments

Discussion of the (re)emergence of a cold war between the United States and Russia has heated up over the last year. The initial warm relationship between Bush and Putin has soured. There are no more weekends at the Crawford Ranch or in Putin’s po Moskvy residence. Diverging visions of a post-Cold War […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

18

The Russian Diaspora in Israel

June 18, 2006 | 6 Comments

According to my unscientific survey, the Russian diaspora in Israel is an under reported topic in blogs on Russia. I present excerpts from two articles from Haaretz in hopes of beginning a discussion. The first tells of Russian anti-Semitism toward Orthodox Jews in the form of neo-Nazis, while the second reports on the […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jun

17

Revisiting Florida’s Ban on "Revisionism"

June 17, 2006 | 2 Comments

Note to Readers: I’m veering away from Russia for a bit to revisit Florida’s Education Omnibus Bill.
For the last few days I’ve been looking for more media coverage of Florida’s Education Omnibus Bill (House 7087) which, among many things, provides standards for teaching history in Florida public schools. I first addressed the issue a […]

Popularity: 1% [?]

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