It was bound to happen, although I prayed that it wouldn’t. But at least one web site in Azerbaijan has now released the blackmail video involving well-known correspondent Khadija Ismayilova. In response, Khadija has issued a public statement, quoted in an RFE/RL article, saying that she will not be deterred: “If they meant to stop […]
Azerbaijan’s best-known journalist (who also happens to be Azerbaijan’s best journalist, period) alleged yesterday that she is being victimized in a blackmail attempt. Khadija Ismayilova, who writes for a number of publications and hosts the popular “After Work” radio show for RFE/RL’s Baku bureau, made the allegations after receiving a letter containing photographs of a […]
Hardly anyone likes Putin anymore, but he still won the election in a landslide, and is celebrating in style. How is that possible? Of course, it helped to be the only candidate allowed TV airtime, and a hefty (unlimited) government budget for high-stakes propaganda (including some apocalyptic ads depicting Russia descending into WWII style suffering […]
Thousands of protesters took to the streets early today in the northern Azeri city of Quba in what became a scene of violence as police fired tear gas and clubbed demonstrators. Radio Free Europe reports that four people were injured, according to authorities, and I have been told that a videographer from an opposition news agency […]
The following is a guest post by Foreign Policy Association and Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Sarwar Kashmeri. In 1857 the East India Company, a British corporation that had colonized India for a hundred years, introduced the latest version of its service cartridge at the village of Dum Dum outside Calcutta. The cartridge had to be […]
The shooting of two American officers in the Ministry of the Interior in Kabul this last Saturday was a shocking and disturbing event. If however NATO pulls its advisors out of ministries, while understandable, it would be a disappointing precedent and undermine progress and modernization in an evolving Afghanistan. As stability in this country largely […]
The following is a guest post by Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Russia is part of the greater world. We do not wish to and cannot isolate ourselves from it. However, we intend to be consistent in proceeding from our own interests and goals rather than decisions dictated by someone else. Russia will continue […]
Last week, my mom, a doctor working at a local polyclinic, was summoned along with all her colleagues to an unusual kind of staff meeting. The head nurse, a member of the ruling United Russia party, had gathered everyone to remind them of the importance to vote the “correct” way in the upcoming March 4 […]
The closer we get to the presidential election, the more anti-American discourse appears in Russian media. The anti-American rhetoric is not a novelty in a country that lived through decades of the Cold War parity with the United States; it takes a long time for old phobias and fears to be reconsidered. Meanwhile, whatever is […]
As Russia’s March 4th Presidential Election nears, Vladimir Putin is pulling out all the stops. Stinging from his party’s embarrassing showing in last November’s parliamentary elections and beleaguered by growing numbers of increasingly broadly-based protesters (some of whom are holding Moscow trapped in a motorised loop of dissent), he is grasping at every straw he […]
While U.S. voters grumble about Congressional deadlock and lack of presidential alternatives, we often forget how good we have it. A slow thaw from autocracy in former Soviet states since 1991 has uncovered various national specimens, from reformer to recidivist. Observers have watched with increasing pessimism as jailed and beaten opposition candidates, single-party access to […]
The following is a guest post by Russian Federation Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Social policy has many objectives and many dimensions. It entails providing support for the poor and those who are unable to earn a living for valid reasons. It means implementing social mobility and providing a level playing field for every person on […]
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