The Russia Blog
Review by Michael Averko
The thought of a re-ignited Cold War can send a chill down some people’s spines. “The New Cold War” (Carroll & Graf, New York, 2007) is about a different kind of Cold War. It’s primarily about Western lobbying efforts to establish influence in the former Communist bloc and… Read the rest
Just a quick heads up to let you know that there have been a few changes to Russian Visa regulations recently.
Firstly, and probably most significantly, Russian visa applications can usually only be made in the country in which you hold citizenship. The only exceptions to this are if you can present proof that… Read the rest
Update, April 2009: After almost two years, Mosnews has returned from the dead!
Anyone know what’s up with Mosnews recently?
As far as I can tell, they’ve only posted one news story since the beginning of May.
Maria Sharapova’s top ten mixed doubles partners, that is:
10. Orlando Bloom
9. Bono
8. Yao Ming
7. Lebron James
6. Adam Scott
5. Christiano Ronaldo
4. Prince William
3. President Putin
2. James Bond
1. John McEnroe
Alarming… Read the rest
All through this week, BBC Radio 4 are reading a series of excerpts from the latest and best books on Russia. You can either listen live, or the shows will be archived on the BBC website.
The books include:
Ever wondered what the top English language Russia blogs are, by the numbers? Well, wait no more, for La Russophobe has broken the stats down, ranking blogs by:
The stats certainly make interesting reading, and… Read the rest
If you believe the hype, Vladimir Putin’s speech in Munich this weekend was little more than a declaration of a new Cold War. If you look more closely, though, it’s little more than a reminder to the world that Russia’s foreign policy is based on realism – something we’ve known for a long, long time.… Read the rest
The Heritage Foundation have released their 2007 rankings of Economic Freedom, and it will make difficult reading for the Kremlin, as capitalist Russia apparently has a less free economy than communist China.
Out of 157 countries ranked, Russia places a rather dismal 120th, and 9 of the other 12 former Soviet states ranked higher… Read the rest
I was off work sick yesterday, so spent some time catching up on my blog reading. Here is my idiosyncratic pick of the past few days’ blog posts:
Yabloko, one of the few anti-establishment parties in Russia with a national profile, have been barred from participating in the upcoming election for the St Petersburg city legislature. The St Petersburg Times reports:
The nominally independent St. Petersburg Election Commission expelled the party from the race on
Her choices are, of course, subjective, but they don’t make good reading, and should cause some of the most ardent Russophiles to take a good hard look at the direction in which Russia is travelling… Read the rest
In a report that will surprise many, former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar has concluded that he was poisoned by enemies of Russia:
Most likely [...] some obvious or hidden adversaries of the Russian authorities stand behind the scenes of this event, those who are interested in further radical deterioration of relations between
Mosnews reports that an exciting low speed sea chase is underway in the Barents Sea, where the Norwegian Coast Guard is trying to reel in a fugitive Russian trawler. The trawler, accused of fishing illegally, also appears to have also kidnapped two Norwegian inspectors.
The trawler was stopped on Saturday in the Svalbard archipelago
Yes, you read the title right. Kasparov was busy signing chessboards for fans – like you do when you’re a former world chess chamption – when one of them turned around and bashed him on the head. Kasparov’s attacker is thought to have been affiliated with the pro-Putin youth group Nashi.
Fortunately for Kasparov his… Read the rest
Viktor Yanukovich has just been given leave to appeal the Ukrainian Supreme Court’s verdict that he had lost last year’s Presidential Election.
The voluminous appeal lodged on Friday – and delivered in a minivan – urged the court to order a re-vote.
Mr Yushchenko cannot be sworn in until
Remember John A Shaw? He was the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense from the Pentagon who, back in October, claimed that the reason there were no WMDs left in Iraq was because Russian special forces had spirited them out just days before the invasion.
His claims, of course, were complete rubbish.
And now, for his… Read the rest
The Black Widows who killed 90 people when they blew up two Russian airliners in August this year got onto the planes by buying last minute tickets from ticket scalpers.
The Russian government, not to mention the airlines, have vowed to stamp down on the practice but, as Lyndon at Scraps of Moscow… Read the rest
A bus was hijacked in Athens this morning and its 26 passengers held at gunpoint. The identity of the hijackers is uncertain at the moment – the bus driver thinks they are Albanian, but RIA Novosti (via Mosnews) is reporting that they are Russian. One man called Khassan is allegedly demanding they be airlifted… Read the rest
Irkutsk is easily the most excellent city in the whole wide world. It’s commonly known as the Paris of Siberia, because all the Decembrist’s exiled by Tsar Alexander II brought ‘culture’ with them. (French culture was big in Russia at the time). Irkutsk is also next to Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake in the… Read the rest
It seems pretty clear now that Victor Yushchenko was poisoned. Doctors in Vienna have confirmed that his blood contained over 1,000 times the normal amount of dioxin.
Yushchenko himself has laid the blame on the Ukrainian authorities and has called for an investigation to be carried out after the re-run of the Presidential… Read the rest
