Russia

December 14, 2008

Review of Jonathan Simon’s “Governing through Crime”

There are few books that so reflect an author’s mastery of a subject as much as the latest contribution from Jonathan Simon, the Associate Dean of Jurisprudence and Social Policy at the University of California Berkeley.  Simon’s ...
December 13, 2008

Russian Opposition Forms New Movement

From the Associated Press: Former chess champion Garry Kasparov and other prominent liberals launched a new anti-Kremlin movement in Russia on Saturday. The organization, called Solidarity after the victorious Polish anti-communist movement, aims ...
December 12, 2008

A Glossary of Russia’s Economic Euphemisms

“Newspeak” in Russian is “novoyaz.” This handy glossary of politically correct journalistic vocabulary in times of crisis comes to us courtesy of the “Open Electronic Newspaper” Forum.msk.ru, whose slogan is ...
December 12, 2008

Grigory Pasko: An Unbearable Sense of Shame

I am not ashamed that the president of my country – is the smallest president in the world – barely 160 cm [5’3”] tall. Not by height is the greatness of a person determined. I was, of course, ashamed for those journalists ...
December 12, 2008

The Recession Taboo

It used to be all about not saying the C-word, but now, you can get in big trouble if you dare to utter the R-word. This one comes from Reuters: Russia’s chief macroeconomic planner ran into trouble with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Frid...
December 12, 2008

Yavlinsky on the Crisis

A conference on the theme “Ecology and politics” took place at the end of November of this year in the Institute named after N.Vavilov in Mosco. There weren’t many speakers: chairman of the committee for ecology of the Public Cha...
December 12, 2008

No More Juries in Russia

The Associated Press press reports that trials by jury are on the way out in Russia, which is obviously very bad for rule of law. The lower house of Russia’s parliament approved a bill Friday that would end jury trials on charges of terroris...
December 12, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Dec 12th, 2008

TODAY: Putin names mountain after KGB; crisis sparks worries of unrest; 90th anniversary of Solzhenitsyn’s birth; Poland modernizing its military; Russian troops leave Perevi.An imagined scenario of what might happen as a result of the finan...
December 11, 2008

A True Russian Patriot

At risk of succumbing to the sentimental, I wanted to take a few moments to write about my experience this week traveling alongside the admirable Mrs. Marina Khodorkovskaya, the mother of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.  Marina and I spent a considerab...
December 11, 2008

Latvia Pleads for Annexation by Sweden

…Because it’s much more palatable than the alternative to returning to Moscow’s rule.  This exclusive translation comes from forum.msk.ru, and state propaganda news channel RussiaToday is also having fun with the news. Latvi...