• Lyndon writes to let us know that the ??????????? ??????? over at Scraps of Moscow continues.
• Two great posts from Rob Meyer, at Publius Pundit on how (and whether) the US and EU should draw Turkmenistan and Belarus into their evil embraces…
• Konstantin takes me to task for not noticing that the reason China figures higher than Russia in the Economic Freedom rankings is because it figures higher in the alphabet. And draws some interesting parallels between the economies of Russia and Kazakhstan.
  
• The latest Economist Big Mac Index is out. Turkish Invasion has details.
• NewEurasia.net interviews Martha Brill Olcott about her new venture - Cental Asian Voices, which met with some initial scepticism from bloggers covering the region.
• Sean Roberts asks whether Kazazkhstan’s reaction to Borat is a perfect example of sloppy but successful nation branding.  Bonus: Sean has dug out his paintbrush to provide readers with a beautifully doctored picture of Homer Simpson.
• La Russophobe is holding a poll to see who should replace Vladimir Putin as President.  Oddly enough, Garry Kasparov, the average Western liberal’s wet dream of a candidate, is way out front with 41% of the vote.

Quick links is a post from: Siberian Light