Monthly Archives: February 2009

On Tuesday, Nashi pulled off its best prank yet on the hapless Russian opposition.  In the words of Nezavisimaya gazeta, the stunt “will undoubtedly go down in the history of Russian youth politics as the greatest failure in the last ten years.”  Nashi is known for its acts of political trickery and harassment.  Over the last few years they’ve hounded British Ambassadors, distributed toilet paper editions of Kommersant, and sent Christmas presents to foreign leaders.  But their latest salvo was priceless.

It went down as follows.  About a week ago, Mikhail Volkhonsky, a Nashi activist from Yaroslavl contacted Ilya Yashin saying he was willing to give testimony about Nashi’s spy operation against the opposition. Volkhonsky claimed to have been spying on the Yaroslavl chapter of Kasparov’s outfit, United Civil Front, as well as gathered information on the opposition in neighboring cities.  According to Yashin, Volkhonsky claimed that he had a video ..read more

[podcast]http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/worldservice/docarchive/docarchive_20090213-0830a.mp3[/podcast]

The BBC World Service has an interesting documentary on Beatlemania in the Soviet Union. When the Fab Four hit the international scene in 1964, youth in the Soviet Union were no exception in succumbing to their tunes.  But unlike fans in the West, the Beatles’ aficionados had to record songs off the Western radio, smuggle their records and then copy them  ton x-ray machines (the new hit movie Stilyagi opens with how this was done.), and pass the copies hand to hand or peddle them in underground markets. To be a Beatles fan in 1960s Russia meant you had to be in the know, have connections with those “above,” or just have plain luck.  The Beatles were more than just a past-time; it was a way of life.

The Beatles’ penetration into the Soviet Bloc was more than just a symbol of Soviet youth’s hunger for the imagined West.  ..read more

Feeling the pains of economic crisis? Can’t find a suitable place for expanding market share?  Don’t fret.  There is one sure fire way to keep those exports up.  Sell more weapons.  President Medvedev seems to agree, according to comments he made on Tuesday.  Russia sold 10 percent more weapons in 2008–a record $8.35 billion worth.  The Russian President hopes that 2009 will be another bumper year despite the economic crisis. “We must treat markets more attentively, look in different directions, diversify our supplies, reach markets where we haven’t been present.”  Or to quote Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross, “A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing.” That means closing those sales to returning customers like China and India and increasing market share in Venezuela, Algeria, and Iran. It is this kind of success that makes Russia’s second to the US in the death market.

Second? Indeed, both AP and ..read more

Laurie Taylor briefly interviews the authors of the controversial Lancet article on Post-Soviet privatization on his Thinking Allowed. His discussion with Megan Comfort that follows on women who have boyfriends and husbands in prison is worth a listen too.

I’m normally not a big fan of the Guardian‘s Luke Harding, but I think he deserves kudos for his latest article, “Putin’s Worst Nightmare.” Harding opens with the chilling and brutal murder of Karen Abramian, who was stabbed 56 times by two skinheads named Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, both 17, as he returned from visiting his parents.

Abramian’s murder was one in the string of 20 murders committed by the racist duo in a nine month period in 2006-2007.  They also racked up about 16 attacks in their stabbing spree. Most importantly, as Harding stresses, the two youths “were proud” of their killings.  After all, they are part of a “holy war” to rid Russia of racial others. “As they saw it,” Harding writes, “Abramian’s violent death was part of a national liberation movement – an ambitious, quasi-mystical struggle to get rid of Russia’s foreigners, in which they played the ..read more

Perhaps Nashi has found a purpose in Medvedev’s Russia: functioning as an army of provocateurs and spies.  This week, Anna Bukovskaya, a former Nashist, blew the whistle on Nashi’s undercover operation to infiltrate and surveillance opposition youth organizations. In a statement published on Ilya Yashin’s blog, Bukovskaya stated:

I, Anna Aleksandrovna Bukovskaya, was the federal deputy leader of a hidden state project called the “President’s Messenger” (as it was called initially,  as of December 2007 its name hadn’t changed), which practiced the infiltration of people into oppositional organizations in cities of the Russian Federation.  The project has existed officially since 10 September 2007.  Initially the project began in three cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl. The high priority organizations were the NBP (National Bolshevik Party), OGF (United Civil Front), Oborona, and MSYa (Yabloko Youth).

Bukovskaya goes on to explain her duties as a spy.

The main concern seemed to be in the impending ..read more