Russia

January 26, 2009

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Jan 26th, 2009

TODAY: Putin blames Ukraine again; Rogozin to meet NATO ambassadors today; Russia ready to cooperate on Afghanistan supply routes, get involved in Darfur; Orthodox Church voting for new head; Stanislav Markelov: rights activists condemn Medvedev&#...
January 26, 2009

Mourning Markelov: The Fault, Dear Brutus, is Not in Our Stars

As last week came to its prolonged close, punctuated by the singularly disheartening farewell to slain human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, one can’t help but be struck by the feeling that Russia had hit a new low point, and the even grea...
January 25, 2009

Obstacles to Brainwashing

This is from a comment piece by Dmitri Sidorov in Forbes on the murders of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasi Baburova: The double murder of Markelov and Baburina comes as yet another dreadful confirmation that to be a human rights advocate, or an in...
January 24, 2009

Russia’s Ambitions in Latin America

The following is from an interview with Charles A. Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations, republished in the New York Times.  Kupchan suggests that despite low oil prices, political unrest may lead the Kremlin to further adventures in L...
January 24, 2009

Eurasian Values

From a book review of Jeffrey Tayler’s Murderers in Masoleums published in the Washington Post. Despite enormous variations in their traditions and beliefs, all the Eurasians he encounters seem uniformly disgusted with their governments. At ...
January 23, 2009

Death by Economic Shock

The Economist is running an article that evaluates a recent study, published in the British journal Lancet, of the sudden drop in the life expectancy of Russian male from 1991 to 1994.  Amazingly, the study blames ‘shock therapy’ ...
January 23, 2009

Translating Obama

Russians may have a bit of a different understanding of what Barack Obama said during his inaugural speech.  From the Moscow Times: One problem for translators was the list of American values Obama called upon Americans to return to — &...
January 23, 2009

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Jan 23rd, 2009

TODAY: The popular Mr Putin; Medvedev trying to sway Uzbeks; Russia could broker Afghan deal with NATO; Human Rights Watch says both sides of the Georgia-Russia war violated the law, accusations continue to fly.A new poll by the Levada Center says...
January 22, 2009

The Choosy Goddess of Justice

From Irina Filatova on the Guardian’s Comment is Free: Many in Russia compare Budanov’s case with that of Svetlana Bakhmina, a legal executive in the firm of the former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and mother of three children. She also...
January 22, 2009

Vladimir Varfolomeyev: Callous People

Below is a translation of a blog post by Vladimir Varfolomeyev, a reporter who works at Echo Moskvy.  Hat tip to Veronica Khokhlova at Global Voices for bringing it to our attention. Callous people 21 Jan, 2009 at 7:41 PM The “Live jour...