Archive

November 27, 2007

Remnick as Russia Pundit

New Yorker editor David Remnick, who once worked at the Washington Post bureau in Moscow and has written a book and many articles on the country, made a special appearance on NBC Nightly News, with even more content made available online. Blogging...
November 27, 2007

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Nov. 27, 2007

President Vladimir Putin, seen here in St Petersburg, accused the United States of trying to “discredit” Russia’s parliamentary elections by pressuring foreign observers to abandon their monitoring mission. (AFP/Natalia Kolesniko...
November 27, 2007

Applebaum: Putin Does it Because He Can

This one is over at Slate.com: The New Dissidents Why does Putin bother to arrest the “Other Russia” protesters? Because he can. By Anne Applebaum In the photographs of his arrest, Garry Kasparov—former world chess champion, current Ru...
November 27, 2007

Kasparov’s Forced Hunger Strike

Were it not such a serious situation, the jailing of opposition leader and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov by the Putin regime would be richly ironic. For in what other nation are dissidents forced to go on hunger strikes while the price of bread...
November 26, 2007

Oppression in Chess City

Sally Feldman of the New Humanist writes about a peculiar project in far-flung Republic of Kalymykia: “the carnival atmosphere in Kufa was a celebration of chess as a joyous assertion of freedom, it can also be a tool of oppression. In the t...
November 26, 2007

Video: Press Freedom Group Awards Muratov of Novaya Gazeta

I caught this one over at the Nation blog of editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel, who helped present the Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award to Dmitri Muratov of Novaya Gazeta, one of Anna Politkovskaya’s closest coll...
November 26, 2007

TOL on United Russia’s Identity Crisis

Transitions Online has been putting out some great material on the Russian elections lately, including today’s article by Ilya Tarasov and Peter Rutland about United Russia: “But the party now faces an identity crisis of sorts. It was ...
November 26, 2007

Grigory Pasko: Eye on Sochi, Part III

[Also see Part I and Part II of this series] Part III: Special Operation «Olympiad» By Grigory Pasko, journalist The Olympic Chekists The creation of the state corporation «Olympstroy» was implemented in strict compliance with the standard chekist...
November 26, 2007

The Enduring Enigma of Grigory Yavlinsky

Well, it’s about that time of year when everybody pays a little attention to great Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, who is making yet another tireless run at the presidency. It has become almost painful to see a talented politician like Yav...