Putinism
“We Await You, Merry Gnome!”
By Sean at 18 February, 2010, 11:53 pm
Russian chinovniki are known for a lot of things–graft, ineptitude, oblomovism, and when necessary, zealous obsequiousness. Sometimes, the latter leads the chinovnik to take preemptive action in hopes to satisfy the leader even if the latter is not looking to be satisfied. Take for example, the recent hilarious incident in Omsk where a preemptive measure to make President Medvedev “comfortable” led to the removal of a poster reading “We Await You, Merry Gnome.”
Read More >>The Kirov Law at 75
By Sean at 2 December, 2009, 2:07 am
Yesterday, December 1, was 75 years since the assassination of Sergei Kirov, the first secretary of the Leningrad Party Organization, and Stalin ally. It was on the night of December 1, 1934 that a certain Leonid Nikolaev, a disgruntled party worker, shot Kirov in the secretary’s third floor office. Nikolaev was immediately caught and interrogated [...]
Read More >>“The leading fighting brigade of our political system.”
By Sean at 5 October, 2009, 10:49 pm
It looks like Nashi might have crossed a line in their campaign against Alexander Podrabinek. According to Vremya, the Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation made an official appeal calling for an investigation of Nashi’s “illegal and amoral” campaign to hunt down the journalist. The appeal reads:
The [...]
Sochi’s Electoral Magic Show
By Sean at 27 April, 2009, 6:00 am
The results of the mayoral election in Sochi were as expected. United Russia’s candidate Anatoly Pakhomov won. No repeat of the Murmansk mayoral contest allowed. The losers, Solidarity’s Boris Nemtsov and the Communist Party candidate Yuri Dzaganiya, have already charged massive fraud, dirty campaign tricks, and use of a variety “administrative resources” to hoist Pakhomov [...]
Read More >>Barak Turns to Putin’s Playbook
By Sean at 28 January, 2009, 9:06 am
With Labor set to go down in flames in next month’s parliamentary elections in Israel, what is a beleaguered Ehud Brarak to do to pump up his tough image among crucial Russian voters? Why, “Putinize” himself, of course. As Lily Galili reports in Haaretz:
In a bid to gain the vote of the Russian immigrants in [...]
Russia’s Salic Deficiency
By Sean at 12 January, 2009, 10:41 pm
The last two weeks, the Russian news may have been focused on the now yearly gas war. It’s over now and I will leave it to more competent minds sort out the winners and losers. Besides haggling over the price of 1,000 cubic meters of gas, the new year means a new round of speculation [...]
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