Posted by Sean on March 22, 2007
For the past few weeks academic email lists devoted to Russian studies have been receiving a petition from a group of Sociology students from Moscow State University. A MGU student group named OD-Group, which is distributing the petition, claims that
In recent years, lectures at the department have become ever more insipid and formal exercises. The administration has cut the number of seminars and practical classes. We are allowed to take ever fewer course units in neighboring disciplines. We are hardly ever given the opportunity to attend talks by outside lecturers. Exam questions are limited to the contents of a textbook authored by the dean. The dean’s office has distributed a brochure to all students which approvingly quotes the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” blames Freemasons and Zionists for the world wars, and claims that they control US and British policy and the global financial system.
Studying conditions at ..read more
Posted by Sean on March 22, 2007
A few weeks ago Forbes released its World’s Billionaire List. Most commentators have noted the increase in Chinese, Indian, and Russian presence on the list. This is not surprising. The three countries are some of the most economically robust countries in the world. China serves as the global center of cheap labor. India an increasing center of high tech and service. Russia the world’s oil and gas supplier. Taken together the three nations provide the pillars of a global economy—labor, communications, and fuel.
It is no wonder then that the global ruling class is reflecting these nations. Russia has 53 billionaires (two shy of Germany), of which 19 are new to the list. China has 20 (41 if you include Hong Kong), 13 of which are new. India has 36 with 14 newcomers. Billionaires are ..read more
Posted by Sean on March 22, 2007
The character of the Russian elite is a topic of constant speculation. Is it one man rule? Is it an oligarchy? Is it a mafia structure? What is the real relationship between Putin’s administration and the security organs? Between the state and the emerging Russian middle class? What will happen in 2008?
Olga Kryshtanovskaya, head of the Elite Studies Center at the Sociology Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, and author of Anatomiia rossiiskoi elita (2004) says that the Russian elite has been split between Westernizers and Slavophiles for the last 200 years. “In fact, these have been the only two “parties” in Russia ever since,” she says in an interview with Kommersant Vlast’. “No others have emerged, no matter how many parties Russia has seen over the decades. The Westernizers argue for freedom of the individual, private enterprise, separation of powers, ..read more
