Monthly Archives: May 2007

Russophile brought my attention to the following news from the Financial Times. Arch Putin enemy oligarch Boris Berezovsky admitted in an interview with FT reporter Jimmy Burns that he is indeed funding Other Russia. Don’t believe it? Listen to the audio file yourself. Russophile is right, Borya just doesn’t get it. He also is just plain stupid. If he wants to throw money into an opposition, he should at least find one that is politically relevant. Now no one should be surprised when OMON unleashes its “Other Russia be good” sticks. BAB just confirmed what the Nashisty et. al. have been claiming all along.

Tags: Russia|Berezovsky|Putin|Other Russia|Kasparov|Russian oligarchs

How peaceful is your country? Now thanks to the Global Peace Index you can find out. An organization called the Vision of Humanity, which believes that “unless we can achieve a world which is basically peaceful, then the major challenges facing humanity will not be solved,” has released its index of 121 countries according to their “relative peacefulness.”

Here are how some countries ranked:

As for why Russia is ranked near the bottom, here is the breakdown. Here is the rankings for some notable countries: China is ranked 60th, the U.S. 96th, and Iran 97th. There are some countries that are glaringly omitted. Most of West and Central Africa is missing. So is Afghanistan. I would imagine that they would be listed somewhere between Iraq and Sudan.

Tags: Russia|Global ..read more

Andrei Lugovoi promised a “sensation for public opinion in Britain” and delivered. Lugovoi said in a Moscow news conference, “Today I would like to make an announcement, which should shed some light on this dark political story, where the main roles were played by the British secret service and their agents Berezovsky and the late Litvinenko.” He then went on to add that MI6 attempted “to openly recruit me as a British intelligence service agent. The Britons in fact suggested that I collect any information that could compromise President Putin and members of his family.” He then made a litany of accusations. He claimed that he could prove that British intelligence was behind Litvinenko’s murder, that Litvinenko and Berezovsky were British agents, and that Litvinenko had ties to Chechen terrorists, who he met in Istanbul. He offered three theories to Litvinenko’s murder: MI6, the Russian ..read more

A Google News search for the phrase “resurgent Russia” brings up some rather interesting results. The phrase is used in numerous articles, many of which have titles like “Putin Thumbs Nose at West,” “US ready to ‘push back’ against Russia: official,” and “Why Tensions With Russia Endure”. Not to mention the number of “special issues,” “in-depths,” and “events” that make “resurgent Russia” an organizing theme. True, Russia is indeed “resurgent” both economically and geopolitically. And there is no doubt that this “resurgence” has inspired many journalists and analysts to speak about a new Cold War between Russia and the West (I especially like how the “West” is deployed as a corporate entity as if independent Western states don’t have their own interests when it comes to Russia. But that is another discussion.) And though American, European and Russian diplomats continually deny that a new Cold ..read more

The eXile’s Alexander Zaitchik gives his account of OMON’s May 10th showcase to the media. Here’s a taste:

If you saw any of the next-day press accounts of the OMON event, you know it was no normal press conference. It was a well-choreographed martial arts and machine gun extravaganza that left ears ringing and minds reeling. In the Guardian‘s laconic words, it was “at the odder end of the spectrum.”

Or as we say in America, “at the pretty fucking awesome end of the spectrum.” Upon arrival we were taken to a five-story building with its windows blown out. It was obviously a stage for practicing Beslan-style hostage scenarios, and judging from the results of Beslan, OMON could use the practice. Atop the roof was a unit of masked OMON, looking a lot like those iconic images of unofficial Palestinian Olympiads at Munich. They stared down at the ..read more