Month: May 2010

May 18, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – May 18, 2010

TODAY: Journalists face the cost of free speech; Medvedev ousts governors; Stalin’s grandson lawsuit denied; Kremlin angered by Strasbourg ruling; black actor dies after attack.  Medvedev honors famine victims as ties with Ukraine impro...
May 17, 2010

Thai Protestors Ask for Mediators

This quote comes from Weng Tojirakarn comes from The Australian. “I urgently ask the government of Australia to issue a statement to ask Thailand to stop the violence from the government side,” Dr Weng said, adding he had sent a reques...
May 17, 2010

The Semantics of Violence in Thailand

One of the best blogs you should be reading this week about the crisis in Thailand is New Mandala.  Below is a snippet of an interesting post about the language we choose to use in describing political violence (please note that the post is c...
May 17, 2010

Mining Disaster Protests Quashed

Today we are seeing some wildly different reports of the protests in the mining town of Mezhdurechensk, where last weekend’s disastrous methane explosions killed at least 66 people.  According to the Moscow Times, 300 people participate...
May 17, 2010

Russia’s Neighbors Feeling Insecure

Today’s New York Times looks at a new report by the independent research institute the Center for European Reform, which suggests that Central and Eastern Europeans nations feel that NATO pays little heed to their security interests, and tha...
May 17, 2010

Energy Blast – May 17, 2010

According to Bloomberg, Iran has signed an agreement with Brazil and Turkey for a nuclear swap deal that is designed to quell international suspicions about the nature of Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.  The US had apparently expressed some...
May 17, 2010

Today in Russian Business – May 17, 2010

According to the Other Russia, Oleg Deripaska has acknowledged having (involuntary) connections with the Russian mafia during the 1990s, during his five-hour meeting with Spanish law enforcement officials.  The Guardian looks at this yearR...
May 17, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – May 17, 2010

TODAY: Miner protests broken up by OMON officers; senators declare incomes; blue bucket police to be punished; corruption investigation into Luzhkov’s deputy re-opened.  Israel concerned by weapons to Syria; Medvedev in Ukraine, Eastern...
May 17, 2010

The Temporary Thai-ification of This Blog

Given the serious political crisis unraveling in Thailand and the fact that Robert Amsterdam is currently on the ground in Bangkok, we are planning to publish quite a lot of related content on this space in the coming days until a new platform is ...