Personality Cash Cow

February 28, 2008 | 8 Comments

T-minus three days and counting.  Russians will go to the polls on Sunday to cast their votes for a new President.  But one shouldn’t get to carried away with the casting votes part.  Yes, Russians will vote, but no one has any doubt who the victor will be. Dmitri Medvedev will be the third President […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Monetary Middle Class

February 28, 2008 | 7 Comments

The Russian “middle class” remains an elusive and rather unclear category. It’s an entity that is recognized, but what exactly are its contours is rarely clearly defined. Kommersant has fitted one piece into the Russian middle class puzzle. The Russian middle class, at least as defined by Kommersant, is purely monetary. I’ve […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

The 3 March issue of the Nation has two reviews of four recent books on Soviet history. The first review, “The Ice Forge,” written by Jochen Hellbeck, examines Lynne Viola’s Unknown Gulag and Orlando Figes’ The Whisperers. Viola’s book chronicles the deportation of Soviet “kulaks” during collectivization. About it Hellbeck writes, “The […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Kommersant has an interview with Elena Shestopal, the deputy chair of the Political Psychology Department at MGU, on how Russian society views the inevitable election of Dmitri Medvedev. I think the title of the interview, “Thus far Medvedev’s character remains unclear in the consciousness of the masses” says it all. Here is an […]

Popularity: 4% [?]

Those Nashi kids really, really want to go to Estonia.  So bad that they’re protests are beginning to sound more and more deranged.  Leave it Nashi to push a campaign to the brink of absurdity.  Is Estonia bashing all they have left?  I guess they “10=5″ campaign just doesn’t provide that populist umph.  If this […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Boris Kagarlistky’s new article “Labor Movement and Civil Society” is a must read. I especially liked these two excerpts:

The significant outcome of the events at the “Ford” plant lies in the fact that the labor movement has attracted public attention. They started to talk and write about it, they started to look at it […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Dima Bangs his Head

February 18, 2008 | 3 Comments

Smoke on the fuckin’ water. If you think soon to be Russian prez Dmitiri Medvedev is a square, think again. Forget the Russian pretension for opera and ballet. Dima is a metalist, a head bangin’, shout at the devil, Rock afficionado.
One of Medvedev’s dreams came true. Last week, Deep Purple, one […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

If you can’t beat them in the streets, try the courts.  That’s what Garry Kasparov looks to be doing with his 30 million ruble lawsuit against Nashi.  According to Kasparov’s camp the lawsuit is in defense of his “honor, dignity, business reputation and compensation for moral injury” inflicted by Nashi.  At the center are Nashi’s […]

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Russian financial magazine Finans has published more proof that capitalism under Putin is doing just fine. Fine for the Russia elite that is. Over the last year, Finans reports in its yearly tally of Russian super rich, the number of Russian billionaires has shot from 61 to 101. Their combined wealth […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

Dmitri Medvedev’s speech to the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum might be an indication of what he has in store for Russia. Before a crowd of Russian businessmen, Medvedev laid out his vision in a forty minute speech; a vision that when boiled down doesn’t look to rock the boat too much.
One of Medvedev’s themes […]

Popularity: 3% [?]

keep looking »