The Russians say they’ve pulled out of Georgia. George Bush and Nicholas Sarkozy charge they didn’t pull out. All this talk of pulling out sounds like they’re arguing whether Russia knocked up Georgia.
Well something is certainly gestating in Georgia. And the Russia-Georgia love child appears to be occupation. Russia’s gradual pull out has left a string of posts along the border of South Ossetia as part of a plan to leave 2500 peacekeepers inside a security buffer zone. The zone, according to Deputy Commander Anatoly Nogovitsyn, will be 6 to 18 kilometers thick, and will effectively allow Russian troops to occupy Georgia. The Guardian reports that Russian troops were seen digging trenches 7 km. outside of the port city of Poti. Hundreds or thousands of Georgians (it depends on who you listen to) demonstrated against the presence of twenty Russian troops yesterday, shouting at them to go home. You gotta love the protest signs in English. What a publicity stunt.
The Russian security zone and beefed up peacekeeping force will certainly pour gasoline on the theories about how Russia planned all of this from the beginning. The main proponent of the master plan thesis is none other than Pavel Felgengauer. Felgengauer agues, first in Novaya gazeta and then in the Eurasian Daily Monitor, that Russia’s war against Georgia was concocted as far back as April. Why did the Russians “provoke” this war? Why Georgia’s aspirations to join Nato and geopolitical positioning, of course. Felgengauer writes,
It seems the main drive of the Russian invasion was Georgia’s aspiration to join NATO, while the separatist problem was only a pretext. Georgia occupies a key geopolitical position, and Moscow is afraid that if George joins NATO, Russia will be flushed out of Transcaucasia. The NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, last April, where Ukraine and Georgia did not get the so-called Membership Action Plan or MAP to join the Alliance but were promised eventual membership, seems to have prompted a decision to go to war.
According to Felgengauer, the goal of the Russian invasion was to knock out Georgia’s military and maintain a permanent military presence in Georgia. Medvedev and Putin must really love it when a plan comes together. It happens so rarely. Most of them time they can’t get anything right, let alone effectively rule their own country. Now the diarchy are master manipulators of not only the hotheaded Saakashvili, but the world. I can imagine Putin explaining to Medvedev his role in the whole plot like Ed Wood did to Bela Lugosi (played brilliantly by Martin Landau) in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994):
Bela/Medvedev: Eddie/Vanya, what kind of movie is this?
Ed/Putin: Well, It’s about how people have two personalities. The side they show to the world, and then the secret person they hide inside.
Bela/Medvedev: (delighted) Oh, like Jekyll and Hyde! Ah, I’ve always wanted to play Jekyll and Hyde! I’m looking forward to this production.
(Ed/Putin stops typing. He pours Bela/Medvedev a drink.)
Ed/Putin: Ehh, your part’s a little different. You’re like the God that looks down on all the characters, and oversees everything.
Bela/Medvedev: I don’t understand.
Ed/Putin: Well… you control everyone’s fate. You’re like the puppetmaster.
Bela/Medvedev: (getting it) Ah, so I pull the strings!
Ed/Putin: Yeah. You pull the strings — (he suddenly gets a look) “Pull the strings”… hey, that’s pretty good!
(Ed/Putin quickly starts typing again.)
That is the real beauty the Russians. When we need them to be incompetent bunglers who are mired in perpetual backwardness, they’re there to play the part. When we need them as conniving, master plotters with their evil claws ready to “pull the strings,” they play that role too. You gotta love their dramaturgical range.
”Actually am just back from many days in Canarian beaches – a place reknowned for pubs and good looking young women in vast quantities. Speaking French, Spanish, Italian, Russian. But not British. Why so?”
ivanov is only just back in the door and controversial already!
All right, who said Zinka is not a Russian name?
ivanov,
There is no such thing as British language.
Also, for future reference, there is no such thing as American language.
“Discussing” Felgengauer’s BS is like discussing a shape, color and proportions of piece of shit found on the floor of art gallery.
PS. Bush is NOT stupid. But he isn’t right person for the job either.
Зинаида – Зина – Зинка.
It was popular Russian name but no longer now. Nothing strange that “typical” Russian names are used by “non-Russians”. Mixed families, mixed cultures as everything in Russia.
”All right, who said Zinka is not a Russian name?”
Her Indoors, aka ”She Who Must Be Obeyed”, or as Arthur Daly would say ”The Old Trouble and Strife”. She’s a Muscovite, from Leninsky Prospekt. I asked her is Zinaida a Russian name, and she replied no, its ”from Kavkaz”. It is most certainly not common in Moskva either. Neither she or I know either a Zinka or a Zinaida.
I should point out that for example Ultan is an Irish name, but its extremely rare(and would be laughed at), so in fairness Zinaida may be something like that.
Candide.
We are talking about hot women, remember?
I haven’t seen hot British over there in any visible quantities
PS. It’s very easy to hear British or American english.
side note – this is good example of words “За МКАДом жизни нет”
МКАД – Moscow Ring Road.
PS. Vysotskiy has very funny song about Zinka…
Владимир Высоцкий
Диалог у телевизора
– Ой, Вань! Смотри, какие клоуны!
Рот – хоть завязочки пришей…
Ой! До чего, Вань, размалеваны,
И голос, как у алкашей!
А тот похож – нет, правда, Вань,
На шурина – такая ж пьянь!
Ну нет, – ты глянь, нет-нет, – ты глянь,
Я правда, Вань!
– Послушай, Зин, не трогай шурина:
Какой ни есть, а он – родня!
Сама намазана, прокурена,
Гляди, дождешься у меня!
А чем болтать, взяла бы, Зин,
В антракт сгоняла в магаЗин.
Что, не пойдешь? Ну – я один.
Подвинься, Зин!
– Ой, Вань! Смотри, какие карлики!
В джерси одеты, не в шевьёт…
На нашей пятой швейной фабрике
Такое вряд ли кто пошьет.
А у тебя, ей-богу, Вань,
Ну все друзья – такая рвань,
И пьют всегда в такую рань
Такую дрянь!
– Мои друзья хоть не в Болонии,
Зато не тащат из семьи,
А гадость пьют из экономии,
Хоть поутру, да на свои!
А у тебя самой-то, Зин,
Приятель был с завода шин,
Так тот – вообще хлебал бенЗин,
Ты вспомни, Зин!
– Ой, Вань, гляди-кось, попугайчики!
Нет, я, ей-богу, закричу!..
А это кто – в короткой маечке?
Я, Вань, такую же хочу!
В конце квартала, правда, Вань,
Ты мне такую же сваргань.
Ну, что «отстань», опять «отстань»?
Обидно, Вань!
– Уж ты бы лучше помолчала бы!
Накрылась премия в квартал…
Кто мне писал на службу жалобы?
Не ты?! Да я же их читал!!!
К тому же, эту майку, Зин,
Тебе напяль – позор один,
Тебе ж шитья пойдет аршин, –
Где деньги, Зин?..
– Ой, Вань! Умру от акробатиков!
Смотри, как вертится, нахал!
Завцехом наш, товарищ Сатюков,
Недавно в клубе так скакал!
А ты придешь домой, Иван,
Поешь – и сразу на диван,
Или кричишь, когда не пьян.
Ты что, Иван?
– Ты, Зин, на грубость нарываешься!
Все, Зин, обидеть норовишь!
Тут за день так накувыркаешься,
Придешь домой – там ты сидишь!
Ну, и меня, конечно, Зин,
Все время тянет в магаЗин.
А там друзья, ведь я же, Зин,
Не пью один!
1971
So there we have it, Vanya and Zina, as archetypal Soviet Russians.
well…talking about vast quantities of top-end totty in the thread about war just after one day in Galway seems for me to be more controversial. I just keeping up with discussion
ps. I was reading you but didn’t answer cause busy with analysis of top-end totty manufacturing by countries
Right. There were no Ossetians in the USSR, and so Vanya could not have been talking to an Ossetian.
“Also, for future reference, there is no such thing as American language.”
Yes, there is an American language, of which the inhabitants of a quaint little island off the coast of Europe speak an amusing and archaic dialect.
“The strangest name I heard in Moscow was Zaira, a friend of a friend.”
I met a woman named Stalina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenaida
Zenaida (Spanish, Portuguese), Zénaïde (French), or Zinaida (Russian: Зинаида, also transliterated Zenaida) is a personal name used for women, from the Greek: Ζηναις, Zenais, “of Zeus”[1]
Zenaida (saint), a traditional 1st century Christian saint.
Zenaida Beveraggi of pop music duet Zeny & Zory
Zenaida Moya, mayor of Belize City, Belize
Zenaida Yanowsky, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, London
Zenaida Nikolaievna Yusupova, Russian noblewoman at the end of the Romanov dynasty
Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, wife and cousin of ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Zénaïde Rossi, stage name Irene Reni, Italian-French actress and singer
Zinaida Amosova, former Soviet cross-country skier
Zinaida Gippius, Russian poet
Zinaida Portnova, seventh-grade Soviet partisan and Hero of the Soviet Union
Zinaida Serebriakova, first notable female Russian painter
Zinaida Turchyna, former Soviet handball player.
Zinaida Volkova, daughter of Leon Trotsky
There you have it — the Russians try to take credit for everything Ossetians accomplish. Bastards!!!!
“Zenaida (Spanish, Portuguese), Zénaïde (French), or Zinaida (Russian: Зинаида, also transliterated Zenaida)”
OK. How many Frenchwomen are named “Zénaïde” these days?
Although I can see how Zinaida doesn’t sound like a cool name for the uncultured modern troglodytes…
Au contraire, it is a very cool name. Not as cool as Courtappointedrussiafriendlius, but cool nonetheless.
It’s hard to live there if your “enclave” gone, Sean
Georgian villages were under Tbilisi “peacekeeping” control giving ground for Tbilisi guys stay in S. Ossetia.
So the only way to “clean the ground” is to wipe-off “enclaves”…
That’s the price people have to pay for “freedom and democracy” (US version).
PS. I wonder if there ANY politician in Europe left who is not lunatics?
Ivanov, what was that old Soviet name (Stakhanovite-era, I guess) that means something like “blast furnace”?
Well, I knew an older Russian woman whose first name was Zinaida (Zina). Perhaps it’s much less common now. And, btw, I had a girlfriend (long long ago) named Zaida. She was Venezuelan, though.
something like “blast furnace”?
Hmm…there were many “funny” names by that time. But sorry, nothing comes to mind at the moment that sounds like furnace…(still preoccupied with totty)
two Moscow mayor’s deputies are
Ordzhenikidze, Georgian and Tzoy, Korean. And both are Russians by western standards
Ps. more then a million of Georgians living in Russia but I’ve never heard they were going “back home to defend rodina”…
“Hmm…there were many “funny” names by that time.”
What was the Marx-Engels-Lenin one? Merlin, right?
Chris, I also knew a very cheerful and open-hearted middle-age Muscovite whose first name was Stalina. By the time I met her (in 1992) she was a hardcore anticommunist who despised Lenin and Stalin. She died a few years ago.
Yes, there is an American language, of which the inhabitants of a quaint little island off the coast of Europe speak an amusing and archaic dialect.
You’ve not been to Great Britain, have you?
two Moscow mayor’s deputies are
Ordzhenikidze, Georgian and Tzoy, Korean
Tsoy is not a Korean name either. Russian Koreans mangled a Korean name which sounds like “ch-hueh”.
What was the Marx-Engels-Lenin one? Merlin, right?
Mengele?
“You’ve not been to Great Britain, have you?”
That’s the name of the depot around Heathrow Airport, isn’t it?
”side note – this is good example of words “За МКАДом жизни нет””
yes, there is certainly that effect I would agree. Tyoplii Stan is an exotic metro station for her, a kind of place one goes to on a kind of Moscow-Indiana Jones adventure.
She gets nosebleeds when she goes to Noviye Cheryomishkii meat market. Funnily eough Moscovites abroad never introduce themselves as being Russian – they say ”I am from Moscow”, like its the centre of the universe.
”Although I can see how Zinaida doesn’t sound like a cool name for the uncultured modern troglodytes…”
Well, join the club Candide – after all you had to pull examples of the use of the name off wikipedia, so it doesnt sound like you’re all that familiar with it either. Unless wikipedia has now become high-end culture?
”well…talking about vast quantities of top-end totty in the thread about war just after one day in Galway seems for me to be more controversial. I just keeping up with discussion”
mmmm totty mmmm! Galway is just one enormous pub with a university and institute of technology attached, and thus attracts vast quantities of our brightest young hopes, many of them female and quite attractive. The actor Martin Sheen is up there doing an undergrad degree in English.
What was the Marx-Engels-Lenin one? Merlin, right?
That may have been one of them, but the one I always remember is Melor – Marx-Engels-Lenin-October-Revolution. And of course Ninel.
Zina(ida), by the way, is a perfectly typical old-school Russian name, which should hardly prevent members of other ethnic groups from using it (I know a Moldovan named Zina, for example).
It’s interesting that Orthodox would use a name derived from Zeus. (I’ve been spending the last few days after work and on the metro translating Greek in my fumbling way, so this is on my mind.) I hereby pull the theory out of my ass that this derives from 1) the habit in Greco-Roman philosophy of using “Zeus” to refer not to the head guy on top of Mt. Olympus but simply to to “the supreme being” and later Christian appropriations of that tradition.
“It’s interesting that Orthodox would use a name derived from Zeus.”
My guess (never having thought about it before) is that Christian names that can be traced back to Greek/Roman/Barbarian Gods are not too uncommon. If a person with such name was martyred because of his or her Christianity, or became a saint by some other means, the previously “pagan” name became a Christian one (e.g., Diana.)
“My guess (never having thought about it before) is that Christian names that can be traced back to Greek/Roman/Barbarian Gods are not too uncommon.”
Except for Diana, I can’t think of any offhand — at least regarding the Greco-Roman deities. The Germanic days of the week OTOH (including the English ones) are derived from the German and Roman pantheons though.
Wait yes I can — Monica, the name of the mother of St. Augustine, is derived from the name of a Canaanite deity. (Not a Greek or Roman one, but the principle is the same.)
“It’s interesting that Orthodox would use a name derived from Zeus.”
Yes, particularly Greek orthodox.
On a related note, it’s extremely puzzling that Russian Christians would still use Pagan names (Vladimir, Vyacheslav etc.), don’t you think?