The MIT World Policy Journal is celebrating its 25th anniversary by making access to its Fall 2008 journal for free until the end of November. The 25th anniversary issue looks ahead to the next 25 years and, in Russia’s Rotting Empire, Nina L Khrushcheva (yes – before you ask – she’s Nikita Kruschev’s great-granddaughter) has [...]
Putin – I am the world’s only “pure democrat”
Is it just me, or does Vladimir Putin’s latest public statement make it seem like he’s completely off his rocker? Am I a pure democrat? Of course I am, absolutely. But do you know what the problem is? Not even a problem but a real tragedy? The problem is that Im all alone, the only [...]
Almost half of Russians think election will be fixed
Almost half of Russian voters think that this year’s parliamentary elections will be marred by fraud, and will not reflect the will of the people, is the key finding of a suvey by the Levada Centre. Some key stats: 45% think that the election result will not reflect the will of the people 39% think [...]
Regional elections – guess who won?
Well, the preliminary results are in from the Regional elections that took place across Russia last weekend. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that pro-Putin party United Russia came first in 13 of the 14 regions, with around 46% of the vote. Nor will it surprise you to hear that newly formed pro-Putin party [...]
Is Democracy the answer to Russia’s problems?
Ruminations on Russia has taken La Russophobe’s recent interview, and run with it, in “an attempt to lift the La Russophobe debate out of the mire.” And he’s picked a pretty controversial topic – democracy in Russia. He manages to cover a wide spread of issues in just one post including – most impressively – [...]
Government reshuffle may indicate Putin’s successor
Sergei Ivanov, one of the two leading contenders to replace Vladimir Putin as President in 2008, has been promoted to First Deputy Prime Minister. The move puts Ivanov on a par with Dmitri Medvedev, the other leading candidate who, until this morning, held a nominally higher government office than Ivanov. Promotion also means that Ivanov [...]
Demonstrations in Moscow
This weekend saw three major demonstrations in Moscow. An anti-Putin dissenters march, which drew about 2,000 demonstrators, including Garry Kasparov. The were outnumbered four to one by 8,000 police, who earned their money by arresting around 50 of the protestors. A demonstration to remember killed Russian journalists, which drew about 250 demonstrators, and hundreds of [...]
Two post-Soviet elections
It’s been a busy weekend for post-Soviet election watchers with not one, but two elections taking place – a referendum on a new constitution in Nagorno-Karabakh, and a Presidential election in Transdniester. Nagorno Karabah In Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of (mostly) Armenians stuck in the middle of Azerbaijan, they’ve been voting in a referendum on their [...]
Ukraine, two years on
The quite excellent Europhobia has also had a re-launch of sorts in the past few weeks. He’s shifted his focus back to broader European issues, resulting in posts like this second-and-a-bit anniversary of the Orange Revolution post. It’s not all doom and gloom, he concludes, but nonetheless: There are moves afoot in the former Soviet [...]
Chechen elections
I’ve held back from commenting on yesterday’s Chechen parliamentary elections, mainly because I’m pretty sure they’ll be… how can I put this?… unrepresentative. For anyone who hasn’t already worked out the lie of the land – pro-Kremlin party United Russia currently leads the way with a (clearly representative) 60% of the vote, from a 66% [...]