As if any more evidence were needed that Putin will return to the presidency, Britain’s David Cameron has raced to Moscow to mend fences. Of course, this being Cameron, his limp supplicating came with an extra dose of hypocritical moralising. The UK has not been talking to Moscow because of Russia’s refusal to extradite suspected […]
Vladimir Putin was at a ceremony a few days ago at which he pressed the button that began the process of delivering natural gas to Germany through the Nord Stream pipeline. According to Gazprom, Nord Stream is the first direct link between Russia and the European gas transmission system. It runs under the Baltic Sea, […]
What is it about transition societies? No matter how far away they are from each other or how different their culture and history, they have much the same problems: inequality, crime, corruption, a single dominant party, health crises, poor education systems and pervasive nostalgia for the old regimes. Russia’s transition from Communism and South Africa’s […]
“An irreparable loss for ice hockey”. That’s how Vyacheslav Fetisov, head of KHL, the Russian equivalent of the NHL, called today’s horrific plane crash that wiped out the Locomotiv ice-hockey team en route to Belarus, killing 43. Only two people survived the crash as their 18 year old Russian Yak-42 jet failed to gain altitude, […]
As Russia desperately struggles to make amends with Libya’s rebel government, a fantastic new article uncovers some amazing parallels between Libya’s revolution and Russia’s transition from Communism. Writing in the Exiled, the web-only successor of the defunct Russian gonzo paper, “War Nerd” Gary Brechter observes that Gaddhafi’s Libya and Brezhnev’s Russia were very similar: Libya […]
On the occasion of Eid, the celebration at the end of the month of Ramadan, Mullah Omar declared the Taliban are willing to deal politically with the U.S and President Karzai’s government Kabul. The Taliban leader let it be known that even though he is now principally interested in a workable prisoner swap, in the […]
Azerbaijani courts have convicted and sentenced seven defendants in cases relating to protests in April of this year and the parliamentary elections last November. Six defendants (Babek Hasanov, Zulfugar Eyvazov, Elshan Hasanov, Arif Alishli, Elnur Israfilov and Sahib Karimov) in Baku were convicted of charges of “organizing actions resulting in the violation of public order […]
Was the August Coup the blueprint for the Arab Spring? Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky says no. “The only thing the Arab Spring and the end of the USSR have in common is that they happened to involve large crowds. It’s like comparing a political rally with a football match, or the French Revolution with a rock […]
First the bad news: Russia is officially the Unhappiest Nation in Europe. Only 37% of Russians are happy despite the economic downturn, according to a German study publicized in the Moscow Times. This compares to a whopping 80% of Greeks, who are happy despite not even having an economy. (Denmark, with 96%, came out tops). […]
Badri Bitsadze, the husband of opposition leader Nino Burjanadze, was sentenced by a Tbilisi court on Friday to five years and six months in prison on charges stemming from violent demonstrations in late May. Bitsadze—whose whereabouts have been unknown for months—was sentenced in absentia by the court. Rumors have persisted since early June that he […]
The report of the deadly twinned attack against the British Council in Kabul this morning serve to confirm the hypothesis that militants associated with the Taliban are ramping up their strategy to target civilians as well as military assets. The Taliban have claimed direct responsibility for the attack in which at least 8 people, nearly […]
We Russians love a good conspiracy theory, so here’s one: the failed August coup against Gorbachev by KGB and Communist party hardliners was actually organized by his rival Boris Yeltsin. Think about it: 1. The plotters arrested Gorbachev all the way in the Crimea, but did nothing to prevent Yeltsin, second on their hit list […]
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