Monthly Archives: September 2007

My newest article on Pajamas Media, “The Short Happy Life of a Russian Anti-Corruption Investigator,” is now up.

Presidential Archive of the Russian Federation, f. 3, op. 3, d. 65, l. 25-26

To: Cde. Stalin Copy to Cde. Kaganovich

On 16 October an employee of the Special Department, Cde. Sentaretskaya, opened the daily mail addressed to Cde. Stalin.

In one of the open packages there seemed to be a letter with a small piece of brown colored mass, which appeared to be excrement. According to Cde. Sentaretskaya and other employees, a strong order emanated from the opening of the package.

Appalled and upset Cde. Sentaretskaya, taking the mass, carried it to the bathroom, where she threw it in the toilet. According to her, Cde. Sentaretskaya got dizzy upon exiting the bathroom. Entering the room, she fell on the floor hitting the back of her head. Coming to after several minutes, she said that she was blind. A doctor was sent for, who looked at Cde. Sentaretskaya and not ..read more

I’ll be appearing on Political Vindication Radio at 6:10 pm PST to talk about Putin and the state of Russia. Political Vindication Radio emphatically portends to be “doing the work blue blood Republicans just won’t do.” I’m not sure what that means but having a stanch lefty like myself as a guest should certainly prove to be interesting radio.

Sergei Mironov, the leader of Just Russia, calls it “Socialism 3.0″.  An interesting choice of words considering that this year marks the 90th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution.  Anniversaries tend to function as both remembrance and rebirth, and the talk of “socialism” at Just Russia’s party congress might certainly be a rebirth of sorts.  Even if the revival of “socialism” in Russia might simply be political verbiage rather than possessing any real material content.

Be that as it may, what is clear is that talk of “socialism” is a way for Just Russia to position themselves politically as Russia’s left wing alternative to the Communist Party.   To see this all one has to do is peek into Mironov’s historical positioning of Just Russia in the “history” of socialism.  In his 30 minute speech to congress delegates he spoke of how the Russian Revolution ushered in Socialism 1.0. This version was something ..read more

Rubashov from Darkness at Noon has been hibernating for the past month or so after returning from research.   He has returned with an great post titled “The Sound of Marching Boots . . .” about DMD and Nashi and their role in the upcoming Duma elections.    He also links the informative Moscow Times article on the  subject.  I strongly urge readers to check out Rubashov’s discussion.

The pawns are moving into place. Kommersant reports that Nashi’s “muscle”, the Voluntary Youth Militia (Dobrovol’naia molodezhnaia druzhina, DMD) has offered its “help” to the Moscow police in maintaining order during the parliamentary elections in December. According to DMD’s leader Oleg Lobkov, Nashi “is worried that extremist organizations such as Red Youth Vanguard, the National Bolsheviks, and their pro-fascist allies will mobilize on the eve of the elections.” “It is our civic duty to resist these organizations and help the police,” adding, “We will work with the police and district militia officers. It is now a difficult time and it will become more difficult, and they have few people.”

With that purpose in mind, Kommersant says, Lobkov met with Viacheslav Kozlov, the deputy head of the Moscow Main Department of Internal Affairs (GUVD) to offer DMD’s support. Kozlov is famous for leading detachments of OMONtsy against ..read more