Medvedev
Medvedev Creating Own Party?
By Sean at 10 March, 2010, 9:21 pm
Time for everyone to put on their Kremlinologist thinking cap again! Get ready to roll those chicken bones and peer deeply into the tea leaves. The boys in the Kremlin are up to their tricks again. According to Trud, Medvedev is creating a new political party. The move would inevitably pit he and Putin in the gentlemanly game of Russian electoral politics. Is it truth or fantasy?
Read More >>Their Modernization and Ours
By Sean at 28 February, 2010, 2:45 am
In Russia, the time of great campaigns has returned. In Soviet times, we broke new ground and planted corn. Then we fought against drunkenness and concerned ourselves with economic acceleration. We were not always successful, but certainly in the real world. Today’s Russia proclaims the slogan of modernization. But so far this modernization is only in cyberspace.
Read More >>“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 >>Medvedev to Meet with United Russia Youth
By Sean at 21 July, 2009, 1:25 pm
увеличить фото …
Dimitri Medvedev’s effort to court youth into politics continues on Thursday when he meets with young members of United Russia. According to Kommersant, the meeting will be attended by party leaders Mintemer Shaimiev and Yuri Luzhkov, General Council secretary Vyacheslav Volodin and young United Russia representatives from the provinces.
The meeting appears to have [...]
Medvedev’s Generation
By Sean at 20 July, 2009, 11:30 am
If history is any indication, a gerontocracy can kill a political system. The Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc states suffered from it. It currently plagues China. And the recent protests in Iran certainly point to some kind of generational conflict is coming to a boil. The failure to ensure the mobility of young people [...]
Read More >>Presidential Piggy Bank
By Sean at 6 April, 2009, 2:54 pm
A few weeks ago, Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia’s top officials would reveal their incomes as part of an anti-corruption campaign. When I heard this I wondered whether that disclosure would include any of the money they’ve most likely picked up over the last eight years. After all, Medvedev was the chair of Gazprom’s board [...]
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