The first ever International Women’s Day was 100 years ago, at which time its popularity was most pronounced in Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet bloc.  Was it the symbolic ‘early ties to socialism and the Russian Revolution that made it deeply unpopular in the United States‘?  Chechnyan leader Ramzan Kadyrov denies that the forced wearing of headscarves for women in his republic contributes to an atmosphere of intimidation: ‘no hair style, no color could make such beauty‘.  Despite increased rhetoric from Britain, France and the US on a no-fly zone over Libya, Russia continues to oppose foreign military intervention.  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insists that Libya needs political solutions to deal with current violence and unrest, rather than intervention, and that Russia’s stance is to support the providing of humanitarian aid.