Archive for September, 2006

Memories of Bakunin

By Sean at 24 September, 2006, 8:55 am

Just when you though anarchist studies was a dead subject, Mark Leier, the director of the Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University in Canada has published a new biography of the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin. You can read Walter Moss’ review of the book in the Moscow Times. It sounds like [...]

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Dilemmas of the Russian Diaspora

By Sean at 23 September, 2006, 3:41 pm

According to current estimates there are 20 to 30 million Russians speaking peoples living outside of Russia. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union an estimated 30 million lived in CIS and Baltic nations. Currently the largest Russian community lives in Ukraine, with 8.3 million identifying themselves as Russian, while another 14.3 [...]

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The Geopolitical Shuffle

By Sean at 20 September, 2006, 6:56 pm

Lots of important Russia news has come and gone since I was forced to turn my attention to preparing for my trip. Immediate concerns prevented me from commenting on the fall out from the race riot in Kondopoga, the assassination of Central Bank deputy chairman Andrei Kozlov, the continuing debate about the meaning and [...]

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Going to Russia

By Sean at 12 September, 2006, 11:11 pm

I haven’t written anything for the last several days because I’ve been preparing for my London-Moscow-Washington DC trip. I leave for London tomorrow to attend the conference “The Relaunch of the Soviet Project, 1954-64” at organized by the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at University College London. Next I go on [...]

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Kommersant Swallowed Whole

By Sean at 2 September, 2006, 8:21 am

Another domino falls. Another symbol, if not the representative of Russian independent media, has been scooped up by a Kremlin ally. The business daily, Kommsersant was sold this week for $300 million to Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov is the owner of Owner of Oskol Steel Mill, the Ural Steel industrial complex, the Lebedinsky Iron [...]

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