Daily Archives: October 27, 2006

Matt Taibbi’s new article in Rolling Stone, “The Worst Congress Ever,” is only tangentially connected to Russia. Many of you will remember as the co-founder of the Moscow expat weekly, the Exile. I always felt that Taibbi was too smart for its sophomoric antics. But I think cutting his journalistic teeth on reporting on Russia in the late 1990s prepared him for when he turned his talents to American politics.

Nothing says this more than “The Worst Congress Ever.” Unlike many of his craft, he cuts through the bullshit and reveals Congressional Republicans for what they really are: incompetent, lazy, and corrupt assholes that have driven American democracy into the ground. It is difficult to even provide a sample from the article because there are just too many gems to choose from. I’ll just pick the few times he uses his experience ..read more

Aleksandr Potkin, 30, changed his name a few years ago. The name change had a double effect. It was at once an gesture to distance himself from his past and an act of rebirth for the future. You see, until 2002, Potkin was a member of a little known nationalist group in Moscow named Pamyat (Memory). Its roots date back to the 1970s but was founded in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a time where Russian nationalism was emerging from the ideological blanket of Communism. Pamyat, however, collapsed in the late 1990s after several of its leaders were jailed for anti-Semitic activities. Not wasting much time on finding another group to devote his nationalist energies to, Potkin decided to establish his own.

Most now know Alexandr Potkin as Alexandr Belov. His new name, which means “white” is well suited. It is unknown ..read more