Over the weekend, Gary Kasparov was arrested at a Moscow protest, exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky called for violent revolution (which was later toned down), Moscow calls (again) for Berezovsky’s e……

Much like those selected to spin at joints like Russia Profile.

This relates to my view that anti-Russian bigotry gets sugar coated unlike Russian bigotry. The way the Captive Nations Committee or Captive Nations Week is treated at venues like Johnson’s Russia List is a prime example.

Actually, I recall a NYT Sunday Magazine article noting Putin being pro-Jewish.

There’s a certain crackpot by the name of Stephen Schwartz who ridiculously wrote about Putin’s iner circle being anti-Jewish without any substantiation.

Regarding Putin et al not fathoming how the UK can’t just kick BAB out, I think it is also that there is no history of long and deep political finesse, especially in a world where PR rules.

The Kremlin administration is still learning the ropes.

OTOH, any bets as to whether BAB will be ‘quietly pressured’ to leave (much more the UK style, by way of a ‘chat’ down the pub or in a gentleman’s club)? And where would he go, the US???

On the jewish question, I distinctly remember having a very strong feeling that the NYT (mostly) tried to imply that Putin and co. were secretly anti-semitic, though the innuendo’s petered out (considering some of his big cheeses are at least partly of the faith)….

From the pictures, I take it that the crack-down was very massive, but I am surprised you got that close. Your pictures make it look a lot more disciplined and quiet than your run-of-the-mill anti-globalization march.

I am also surprised that the people around the metro had not bolnaz flags, and i was rather disappointed that there were bolnaz further down…. too bad the opposition cannot manage to keep their distance from those people.

No sympathy with Kasparov, by the way, I think the guy is a nutter.

Another name I recalled later was Rem Vyakhirev – another one-time oligarch (arguably) now out to pasture. It’s funny, just now I was reading something offline that mentioned Primakov – a review of his recent book – and his turn at the PM wheel in ’98, and I remembered that I hadn’t mentioned him. But I think he also makes the point. Sure, he has a(nother) book of memoirs out and he drops a quotable soundbite every now and then, but he is too old to be a major player at this point. Anyway, it was kind of a fun trip down memory lane.

The journalists and the ossified opposition (Zyuganov & Zhirik) are the only people who remain from that era…

http://chicherin.blogspot.com/