As there’s so much to cover, I’m going to break this weeks review up into two themes – Protests and Prokhorov – before wrapping up with all the miscellaneous stuff from those authors who didn’t follow the rest of us sheep and who had the courage to write about something other than elections.

Protests

First up, blogger reaction to the biggest protests seen in Russia since Putin rose to power. While the mainstream Western media seemed to think only of the forthcoming and, in their opinion, inevitable revolution against Putin’s rule, commentary from the blogs was, thankfully, much more nuanced.

• 

  Moscow Protests picture reprinted with permission of ridus.ru.

  John Randolph at Russian History Blog notes that “the party of swindlers and thieves” – the anti United Russia slogan that has been inspiring protestors and was supposedly  coined by blogger Alex Navalny – was actually first used in the pre-election TV debates by… yep, you guessed it, ultra-nationalist-nutjob Vladimir Zhirinovksy.
• Brian Whitmore at the Power Vertical thinks that the Russian people are slowly becoming unafraid of Putin, who has unwittingly created a Power Horizontal. The big question, of course, is will the blog change name if there is a revolution?
• Truth and Beauty (and Russian Finance) thinks it was all a bit of a damp squib – a Facebook Field of Dreams, if you will – and doesn’t see any threat to Russian macro-economic stability.
• Anatoly Karlin publishes Truth and Falsifications in Russia, his first article on Al-Jazeera. He concludes that these elections may well have “laid the foundations for genuinely multi-party politics after the next legislative election in 2017.”
• Sean, of Sean’s Russia Blog, asks “Why are Russians protesting now?”
• Kevin Rothrick at A Good Treaty thinks that the Russian Government will have to react to the protests, but doesn’t think they’ll achieve all that much.
• Tom Barton thinks that Putin will still win the election, but that the protests will maybe force him to win without his “magic tricks”.
• Russia Watchers translates an article from Echo Moskvy’s Leonid Radzikhovsky that “captures the spirit of the day”.
• Ana Viver at Foreign Policy’s Russia blog thinks that we’re seeing an empowered Russian opposition for the first time.
• Protests of a different kind, and perhaps more meaningful – Streetwise Professor notes that while the Russian stock market overall has fallen by 11% since the election, stocks in companies closely linked to Putin have fallen even further.

Prokhorov

Mikhail Prokhorov’s entry into the race to become Russia’s next President has confused analysts – everyone who hates Putin (and doesn’t love one of the alternatives already on offer) wants to see him as a crusader for the liberal future they dream of seeing for Russia. But no-one entirely is convinced that he isn’t just a Putin stooge. Oh, what paranoid times we live in…

• Mark Adomanis runs through a few of the theories about why Prokhorov is running before coming down in favour of it being a mostly free and fair election that Prokhorov won’t win.
• Putin Watcher is convinced that Prokhorov’s candidacy is “part of a ‘liberal variant’ that the Putin regime will use to co-opt growing opposition”.
• Brian Whitmore thinks that this, and other recent developments, are a sign of the Kremlin scrambling to regain the initiative.
• Robert Amsterdam thinks “it seems clear that Putin’s ‘managed’ political opposition is morphing.”

Everything else

Let’s start our final section with a Happy Birthday!

• Russian Defense Blog is two years old, and to celebrate has a little review of what’s been happening. Conclusion = the Russian military is improving and re-arming, but its progress could still be derailed.
• Sarah J Young lists the Top Ten Letters in Russian Literature.
• Mark Adomanis of the Russia Hand rips apart Niall Ferguson’s article about the Russian elections, accusing him of “engaging in increasingly ludicrous historical counterfactuals”
• Robert Amsterdam has a go, too, calling Ferguson’s article “ridiculously flawed”.
• Russian Military Reform writes about the generous new pay structure for the Russian military that was recently approved by the Government. File under: seems dull, but actually very important.
• Rob Macdonald talks about life in the Russian Far North, where it gets very dark and very cold in the winter.
• The Russian Front writes about some new research into The Great Fatherland War.
• Patrick Armstrong’s Russian Federation Weekly Sitrep is out.
• Paul Richardson from Russian Life pops up at the Russian Language Blog to talk about Russians and their Vodka.
• One for the internet marketing geeks among us – Yandex is making increasing use of social media in its search results.

And, finally, for the chefs among us, Windows to Russia has posted an article with links to all of its many Russian recipes.

Moscow Protests picture, reprinted with permission of ridus.ru.

This Week in Russia Blogs #3 is a post from: Siberian Light

To my mind, the most intriguing story of the week has been that of the chaos surrounding the annulment of South Ossetia’s Presidential election. And that’s where my top blog post of the week comes from (actually two blog posts). Journalist Alan Tskhurbayev, a supporter of Alla Dzhioyeva – the victorious candidate who has been stripped of her victory – has been live-blogging from the central square in Tskhinvali. His blog from the first day is here and his blog from the second day is here. I imagine that there will be more daily updates from Alan and other local bloggers as the situation develops, which you can find on Kavkaz Uzel’s main blog page.

(All the links above are in Russian, but you can easily translate them with Google Translate.)

Other blog posts that have caught my eye this week include:

• MMA Fighter Jeff Monson’s unflattering portrait of a Russian hospital. Monson, you’ll recall, was the fighter who lost the fight that made news because Putin was booed.
• Some interesting non-hysterical thoughts on Putin, Russian nationalism and ethnicity in Russia from Mark Adomanis.
• The Ivanov Report has moved. Update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc.
• Passion for Russian reports on attending a Lezginka dance. (By the way – there’s a competition running at Passion for Russian. It closes today, so act quick!)
• Gazprom goes Green – because it’s in its own financial interests, reports the slightly cynical Streetwise Professor.
• Robert Amsterdam reports on United Russia’s well-oiled get out the vote machine.
• I’m fascinated by roofs. Not fascinated enough, though, to take up Roofing, the latest crazy Russian craze.
• The Russian Front presents a fascinating insight into how the Russian military relied on the Russian Red Cross to treat its injured soldiers in the First World War.
• Andrew Jenks at Russian History Blog reports on a film interview with Stalin’s daughter Lana Peters, who died earlier this month.
• Dmitry Gorenburg presents parts one and two of a brilliant three part series on Indian-Russian military co-operation. First, the Navy, then the air force. Part three, on joint military projects, is due next week.
• The Russian Defense Policy blog asks: Will increased spending on the Russian military boost the economy or depress it?

That’s it for this week. I’ll leave you with a picture from Tsar Nicholas II’s very plush royal train, courtesy of English Russia.

If only my office was so plush. And mobile.

This Week in Russia Blogs #2 is a post from: Siberian Light

So, without further ado, I present you This Week in Russia Blogs (TWiRB!) #1…

My two favourite posts from this week both come from Mark Adomanis over at the Russia Hand blog. He counters those who argue that Russian Foreign Policy is motivated by an authoritarian regime’s hatred of Western democracy by pointing out that Russian foreign policy over the past decade has been consistently based on “a persistent and robust defense of Russia’s interests”. Mark talks mostly about Russia’s relations with Israel and Tajikistan, but it’s something that applies to pretty much every Russian foreign policy – take Russia’s policy towards Syria as another recent example.

In a later post, Mark also goes on to note that current US policy towards Russia isn’t really a threat at all to the current Russian regime, and that Russia’s assertive foreign policy pronouncements over the past week or so are actually more aimed at the Russian domestic audience than the United States.

A few related posts that are worth reading come from:

• Brian Whitmore at The Power Vertical who notes in horror (not really) that Medvedev was caught telling the truth about the real reason for Russia’s war with Georgia
• from Putinania, who links Medvedev’s recent statements to United Russia’s falling poll numbers and
• from Vadim Nikitin at Foreign Policy Blog who explains how Putin is pandering to Russian nationalists.

Other top Russia blog posts that caught my eye this week are:

• Actually, not quite Russia, but a great post nonetheless at Registan.net from a volunteer who has to leave Kazakhstan because the Peace Corps is closing its operation there. (Scroll down to read the 117 comments on the story)
• A Good Treaty asks whether the hope vested in Russian internet activists is a Runet delusion
• Neeka takes a trip down memory lane and posts some 2004 pictures from Keiv’s Maidan Square
• The Kremlin Stooge is grumpy because people are over-hyping emigration from Russia.
• In Far From Moscow’s music corner we have Pathetic Records – Apparently the Worst Label in the World
• A complete guide to saying thankyou in Russian. Be polite – go on, you know it makes sense.
• Russian cabbage pie! For those cold, winter nights.

And, finally, lets finish off with a nice animated video that tells the tale of the Valdai Bells, courtesy of Russian History Blog.

Well, that’s your lot for this week. If you think I’ve missed any really good blog posts about Russia let me know in the comments below.

This Week in Russia Blogs #1 is a post from: Siberian Light

Reaction from Russia bloggers was swift, with many posting the news before international news organisations had really got started.  Global Voices, for example, had a post up summarising and translating Russian tweets about the bombing within hours.  Other Russia bloggers were quick to provide comments, and I’ve rounded up a few below:

• Before events were properly clear, Wired’s Danger Room blog asked if the bombers had managed somehow to circumvent security checks.
• Streetwise Professor wonders how authorities managed to link the Domodedovo bombing to a failed bombing attempt from 31st December so quickly.
• Russia Blog plays up the religion angle in its choice of URL – http://www.russiablog.org/2011/01/muslims_strike_again_at_moscow.php
• Yelena picks some Russian words for the day to express grief and shock.

In a final word on the bombing, Natalia Antonova posts on her blog about her friend Anna Yablonskaya, a Russian playwright who was killed.  Natalia has also written another article on the Guardian’s website.  (On a happier note – Natalia got married this weekend – wonderful news!)

Other posts of note this week include:

• My favourite article of the week is a collaboration between Sublime Oblivion and A Good Treaty – they’ve developed a brilliant infographic to explain who’s who in the Kremlin Clans.
• It was a close run thing though.  In recent weeks I’ve really been enjoying Yelena’s fun and interesting approach to learning Russian, and this week she’s posted articles about learning Russian through board games and through Russian horoscopes. Truly, something for everyone.
• Also really worth reading is this epic article at A Fistful of Euros about how Estonia is faring in the current economic crisis, and how favourably its recovery compares with Spain’s.
• Julia Ioffe has noticed that election season has begun in Russia – which of course “means lots of meaningless bullshit from all parties involved.”
• Some of the meaningless bullshit involves a survey about whether Lenin should finally be buried.  Absolutely not, says Vadim Nitkin – it would be a folly to bury Lenin.
• De Rebus uncovers a blog by Grigory Grigorov’s grand-daughter, and writes about Grigorev’s memoirs.
• Timothy Post reports on how Russia’s innovative Qiwi payment system looks set to expand to the US.
• In another Russian business success – Yandex’s share in the Russian search engine market is still going up, bucking the global trend where Google is squashing smaller search engines.  Revenues are up quite a bit too.
• Patrick Armstrong’s weekly Russian Sitrep is up.
• Russia Blog writes about the number of pedestrians being killed by Russian government cars, driving dangerously under the official blue light.
• A Good Treaty writes about the growing love affair between Channel 1 and Channel 5 (complete with cupid’s arrow graphic).
• Why is the Russian government so worried about its employees using Skype?, wonders Ashley Cleek.

Well, that’s it.  But, before you go – have a quick listen to a Russian police choir singing Let My People Go.

Weekly Russia Blog Roundup, 25 January 2011 is a post from: Siberian Light

The big news of the last couple of days, of course, has been the BP-Rosneft deal which has seen BP take a hefty 9% stake in Rosneft and Rosneft, in turn, take a 5%stake in BP. As you can imagine, early reaction from Russia bloggers has been pretty mixed, although almost everyone is agreed that this deal is a pretty big gamble for BP.

• First off the mark was Robert Amsterdam who, while not being surprised at the deal, went on to call it as a big (existential even) gamble for BP that could have an equally big (transformational) payoff. He then went on to note that, as with all gambles, the house always wins in the end…
• The Streetwise Professor also goes with the gambling theme – “The company reminds me of a gambler who has lost several big hands in a row, and figures that his luck just has to change.”
• Vadim Niktin sees this deal as a big win for Russia – because BP is reeling, Russia hold all the cards in this relationship.
• Windows to Russia is perhaps the only blogger so far to see this as a win not just for Russia, but for BP too – because BP gains Russian protection from America.
• And finally, Tim Newman, who has the benefit of actually having worked in the Russian oil industry looks at the potential benefits for both sides before concluding that the real loser in this deal is America, who lose a “reliable, politically safe energy provider”.

Moving on to other blog posts that caught my eye this week:

• Anatoly Karlin develops his own list of the world’s ten most powerful countries. Russia comes home in third, some way behind the USA and China.
• A brilliant info graphic from Russian Sphinx on the state of Russian LinkedIn.
• The Devushka Diaries takes a trip to see Comrade Lenin.
• An intriguing two part analysis of Georgia’s new strategy in the Caucasus.
• Mission to Moscow reports on an unexpected demonstration of human concern by Moscow’s traffic police ( you’ll need to scroll down towards the end for the good stuff).
• Russian Language and Culture analyzes Stress.
• Natale has a detailed commentary of Eugene Ivanov’s recent article about Khodorkovsky.
• A Good Treaty translates an interview with “Maskim Kononenko, an insanely active Russian LJ blogger, journalist, and creator of the wildly funny vladimir.vladimirovich.ru short stories saga.”
• David McDuff of A Step At A Time considers the Mistral arms deal between France and Russia, and it’s implications for Swedish (and Baltic) security.
• Remember the houses that Putin insisted were rush built for the victims of this summer’s fires? Well, they’re not fit to live in say the new residents and Other Russia. Streetwise Professor weighs in, noting that the shambolic rush job reminds him of an episode of Arrested Development in which a house wrapped in a ribbon collapses as soon as the ribbon is cut.
• After the Wikileaks revelation that many in the US government consider Russian loans to countries like Iceland to be little more than Russian “vanity projects”, Robert Amsterdam argues that the US might have to get used to many more of these as Russia’s oil based economy goes from strength to strength.
• Putin’s announcement that 20,000 jobs will be created in Russia’s monogorods does nothing but reinforce failure, argues The Streetwise Professor.
• And finally, I’ll leave you with the news that WTF should be translated into Russian as “what’s happening”. Who knew?

Well that’s it for another week. In case you’re wondering, the iPad experiment went fairly well. I’ve just gone past Carlisle as I type this, and the post is complete with the exception of editing in the links. Although I found it really easy to copy across the links from Reeder (my RSS feed reader of choice), creating hyperlinks in the WordPress app has proved such a royal pain that I’ve just added them in as plain text for now, ready to be edited into the post when I get back home to London.

Weekly Blog Roundup, Monday 17 January 2011 is a post from: Siberian Light

• Best of the bunch was Vadim Nitkin’s Russia Report Card for 2010.  Head over for his subject by subject breakdown of Russia’s academic year (final verdict – “great potential but could do miles better”)
• Anatoly’s decision to cover not just Russia but the whole world meant he couldn’t fit everything from his New Year Special into one post – so here’s his 2010 review, and here’s his 2011 predictions.
• Gordon Hahn sums up the year for the thaw and the tandem.
• Also popular with wordpress.com hosted bloggers were an auto-generated post reviewing their blog’s stats for the past year.  If you’re a nosy stat geek (like me), then click through to see how Eagle and the Bear and In Moscow’s Shadows did last year.  It’s nice to see Siberian Light was one of the biggest referring sites for each – hopefully as a result of these weekly roundup posts.

With it being Russian Christmas on Friday, we also saw quite a few posts about Christmas:

• Natasha of the Devushka Diaries went out for dinner, and narrowly avoided a Christmas romance with a 14 year old Leon Trotsky.
• I wonder if the NORAD Santa tracker also tracks Grandfather Frost? Mind you, if Grandpa’s dressed in yellow and roaring around Rostov-on-Don on a massive motorbike, he’s going to be pretty hard to miss…
• Yelena at Russian Blog explains all the Russian Christmas words you’ll ever need and Sveta explains all about Russian Christmas.

But there’s been other stuff too. For example…

• Resisting the temptation to over-simplify things, The Ivanov Report reflects on the latest Khodorkovsky trial verdict.  The over-simplified takeaway: “Khodorkovsky is a thief and will remain one for the rest of his life, regardless of whether he’s in jail or not.  But Russia doesn’t have to look like a jail to the rest of the world. “
• Anne Applebaum’s latest article caused controversy.  Her suggestion that when oil prices are low Russia plays nice and when oil prices are high Russia plays nasty was met with disdain from the Kremlin Stooge (Selling Krazy By the Kilo) but was praised by the Streetwise Professor (Cocaine Blues, Redux).
• Mama Won’t Stand For It – Sean digs up a nugget from the Komsomol archives.
• Vadim Nitkin notes that not all former KGB agents turned politicians are authoritarian baddies.
• Moving slightly away from Russia for a moment, Natalie presents part 2 of her History of Kiev.
• Devushka Diaries visits the Graveyard of Fallen Heroes, “a really cool, eerie, and moody sculpture park that is right across the street from Gorky Park”.
• Russian Life blog reviews ‘Russian Lessons’, an “emotional rather than analytical” documentary about the war in Georgia.
• Robert Amsterdam interview’s Belarus expert Andrew Wilson and posts some of his own analysis.
• Mark Galeotti, the man lurking In Moscow’s Shadows, has a new book chapter about post-Soviet crime.
• The Copydude is now living in Berlin, and has a new blog venue for his Ostalgia.

And now, I shall depart.  Toodle-pip.

Weekly Blog Roundup, Sunday 9 January is a post from: Siberian Light

Anyway, on to the good stuff.

• The simple ideas are always the best – Russian Sphinx compares the TweetClouds of Presidents Medvedev and Obama.
• The Kremlin Stooge writes about the West’s Hate Hate relationship with Skolkovo (in case you’ve been hiding under a fake rock, that’s Medvedev’s pet techno-city)
• US shilly-shallying over START inspires editorials from Russia Blog and La Russophobe.
• If you’re a Nashi activist who lacks inspiration, for God’s sake plagiarise someone other than Goebbels!
• Putin got a Puppy!  Cue the Return of Vovomania!
• Eugene Ivanov wonders if the Republicans success signals a midterm correction or a reset of America’s relations with Russia.
• Two updates from Vaviblog about the precarious position of the Pavlosk Experiment Station – Pavlosk’s Cherries and Pavlovsk Awaits Change in Law
• Robert Amsterdam on Sergei Magnitsky and Russia’s Opportunity Cost.
• Two for the geeks from Russian Marketer – РФ (RF) domain names are available, and Google has released a Cyrillic font collection
• Korolev, Russia – where Kyle and Sveta, of Windows to Russia fame, live.
• Tim writes more in his series on doing business in Russia -Part 3 covers Russian bureaucracy (there’s quite a bit apparently) and Part 4 covers the challenge of buying stuff legally.
• Streetwise Professor wonders why Transneft wants to never be privatised, and concludes its because crooked vampires don’t like to see the sun.
• If you’re looking for a slightly less bloggy roundup of the past week, may I refer you to the always excellent Russian Federation Weekly Sitrep?
• News about journalists in Russia being assaulted is on the wane. Perhaps they’re all pondering asylum in Finland.  Historians, on the other hand, aren’t faring so well.
• Over at Sublime Oblivion, the “indefatigable” Sergey Slobodyan guest posts about the dying art of reporting demographics (did you see what I did there? Ho, ho ho.)
• Which leads me on to – Grandfather Frost’s Birthday – it was this week – hope you sent him a card. (I never spent Christmas in Russia. Does he say ‘ho, ho ho!’? Probably not.)
• “What’s the difference between spray-painting a gigantic penis on a St Petersburg drawbridge and overturning a couple of police cars?”, asks Vadim Nikitin.  About five years, if you’re protesting about corruption.

And, finally!  What better way to leave you than with a hello!

Weekly Russia Blog Roundup, 20 November 2010 is a post from: Siberian Light

But, before I get to either, I’ll direct you to this excellent explanation of the Collapse of the USSR by the Kremlin Stooge.  In his own words,

“this is a bit like taking the degree program in about a half-hour. It would probably be a bit of an exaggeration to say that it negates the advantage of a college degree; however, it’s a priceless insight into the initial stumbles that brought down a juggernaut.”

I’m sitting here re-reading his post with a fine whisky in hand. It might sound pretentious, but I highly recommend you do the same. Quality stuff.

Back to Kashin. Everyone has an opinion on his brutal assault, but none are better expressed than this from Poemless.

“Ok, so I read on facebook or twitter about the attack that night. My first reaction was, “That Kashin? Why would anyone wanna kill Kashin?! Vladimir Putin, you are a horrible person! Sick!” Then, “maybe he owed someone money…” Then, “god, I feel terrible about hating him for spamming -I mean, really spamming- my twitter feed. After all, he has great taste in music; he must be a decent fellow, with just a whole lot of time on his hands, but how is that even possible? He’s prolific, everywhere. Maybe he had a twitter bot. I’m going to check his feed… OMG! Silence! … omg. he’s really been attacked. a real live human being. fuck. fuckfuckfuckfuck…” “

Other comments on the Kashin beating include:

• “And punished Kashin was” is Sean’s take on the affair, and it earned him a good yelling from Poemless.  He then went on to describe Kashin as a martyr for all seasons.
• Julia Ioffe gives two roundups of events.  The first containing the CCTV video of the beating, and the second which notes that “the story arc — at first full of an uncharacteristic empathy and unity, even on the part of the authorities — has plumb-lined straight into the ground.”
• Other articles worth a read include: Natalia Antonova at Global Comment who says its a reminder of a twisted norm and Mikhail Zakharov at Open Democracy who thinks assaults like this come about when “some high-ranking official says ‘I’ve had enough of that (insert appropriate surname here)’, and some rather dimwitted agent or subordinate takes this as an order from on high to act.”

The Russian spies arrested in the US story (more commonly known as the Anna Chapman affair) received a boost this week after it was revealed that the spies had been turned in by Colonel Shcherbakov, a double agent from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, and a Kremlin official hinted that an assassin had been sent after him.

• The Power Vertical, Robert Amsterdam and In Moscow’s Shadows wonder if the whole affair will be used by the FSB as an excuse to swallow up the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service)
• In response to the allegation that Shcherbakov had relatives in the US, making him suspect, Russian Front points out that pretty much everyone with any kind of status in Russia has relatives abroad somewhere.
• And finally, Russia Blog, who have been posting much more regularly recently, come up with what is possibly the daftest statement of the obvious I’ve read in quite a while – “Sorry, but the Kremlin is not allowed to have people in the US killed. That would change this whole spy farce into something much more consequential.”
• Anna Chapman also did her best to keep the story in the public eye by posing in the Russian Maxim magazine wearing some very skimpy underwear as “Agent 60-90-60″.  Russia Blog were disappointed in Anna.

In other blog posts

• “A new leader comes to the Kremlin in a time of chaos, replacing a bumbling and erratic predecessor. He loves to hunt and drive fast cars. He ushers in an era of stability and relative prosperity, thanks largely to high oil prices. People see the first decade or so of his rule as a golden age.” Who are the Power Vertical talking about? Why, Leonid Brezhnev, of course.
• A Good Treaty considers the PR thinking behind Medvedev’s decision to veto legislation this week that would have made protesting more difficult.  I was mainly amused by how it threw the Russian opposition into a spin – I mean, if you’re a protester who believes the President is trying to suppress free speech, just how do you react to a President who seems to protect the right to protest?
• Gordon M Hahn argues that Medvedev and Putin see the decision to appoint a new Moscow mayor as an opportunity “to begin opening up the public sphere and reduce tensions with the democratic opposition.”
• The Kremlin Stooge must’ve been really bored this week – he’s spent a whole post ripping into La Russophobe.  “Will the Real Russian Foreign Policy Please Stand Up?”, he asks.  At the time of writing there were 70 follow up comments to read, if you dare.
• Dividing My Time celebrates its first birthday along with the news that November 10th was Russian Policemen Day.  Not to mention that this Friday was Sberbank Workers Day!  Hurrah!
• Robert Amsterdam considers the argument that Brazil’s “President Lula is seeking to emulate the Russian model of circumvention around term limits by installing a puppet“. Wouldn’t be the first time that Russia has exported a political system, I suppose…
• Which leads me nicely onto this post from Russia Blog, which wonders if Ukraine’s President Yanukovich is adopting the Putin model of governance.
• A couple of news snippets from Russian Marketer – the mail.ru IPO went spectacularly well, raising almost a billion dollars for a 30% stake, and the first companies are being fined for using English words in their Russian adverts.
• Mat Rodina explains why Russia should Just Say No to the WTO!
• After Russian State TV broadcasts a parody of the Ukrainian President on the same day as Ukraine’s local elections, Jamestown Blog writes about whether it’s a Kremlin conspiracy.
• If you’re after a straight roundup of the news, check out Patrick Armstrong’s always reliable Russian Federation Weekly Sitrep.
• Yelena explains the Russian Days of the Week.

Well, that’s it.  My glass of whisky has run dry, so I’ll leave you with this video, found courtesy of Birdbrain which chronicles 10 centuries of European history in five minutes.  As she says, “Notice the size of Russia throughout. I love how it’s always been so… huge.”

Weekly Russia Blog Roundup, 13 November 2010 is a post from: Siberian Light

Seriously – this is an epic edition.  You might want to go grab a cup of coffee before you start reading!

Let’s kick off with an in-depth exchange between Vadim Nitkin of Foreign Policy’s Russia Blog and Anatoly Karlin of Sublime Oblivion, who are doing their best to raise the standard of Russia blogging by engaging in honest to goodness in depth debate.  Over the Kuriles and Khodorkovsky no less.

• First, Vadim provided his take on events in Khodorkovsky = Kurils, arguing that Russia’s stubborn refusal to do the sensible thing is, in each case, holding it back.
• Then Anatoly weighed in with his rebuttal – essentially (I think, and I’m probably grossly oversimplifying) arguing that it’s lunacy to give something away for nothing.
• Vadim bounced back with his brilliantly titled Kurilous Case of Khodorkovsky (although I suspect I may not be alone in being disappointed that Case was not spelled with a ‘K’…)
• Anatoly has (so far) the final word with an updated to his rebuttal post – scroll to the end of his post to read the update

If that’s not enough on the Kuriles, check out Streetwise Professor’s take – like Vadim he’s wondering just what on earth Russia is doing tweaking Japan’s nose like this.

“It wasn’t as if Medvedev just dropped by on his way to the store, or something. The efforts needed to make the visit truly were extraordinary.  The weather over the islands is usually appalling, and bad weather forced Medvedev to abort an earlier trip.  As it was, he had to fly to Sakhalin, change to smaller plane (no airport in the Kuriles being capable of handling his normal aircraft) and risk getting marooned there for an extended period by a bad turn of weather–which almost happened, in the event.  In other words, he had to work very, very hard to deliver this facial to the Japanese.”

On a related theme, Robert Amsterdam diverts himself from the Khodorkovsky trial to talk about this week’s Alexander Lebedev raids:

“It’s the new legal nihilism:  it looks like reform, it smells like modernization, and it’s nothing but good news for all the smiles, handshakes, and champagne from Washington to Paris and Berlin.  Who, at this point, is the one acting like a nihilist?”

Also this week:

• Global Voices roundup Russian bloggers’ reactions to the horrific attack on Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin and Korean bloggers’ reactions to the news that Putin’s daughter was to wed a Korean man, and the subsequent damage the story has done to his life.
• An exclusive interview over at A Good Treaty with KermlinRussia, who has built a massive following on Twitter by mocking the Russian leadership.
• Oleg Kozlovsky’s explores Peaceful and Violent Protest Trends in Russia.
• More data mining from Russian Sphinx results in an interactive map of Russian real estate prices.
• The 20th edition of Pravda on the Potomac is out.
• Yelena explains the linguistic challenges of catching a cold in Russia.
• How greed, corruption and incompetence is destroying Samara’s historical architecture.
• Russia might have lost a trillion roubles to corruption this year, but Medvedev’s looking on the bright side of life.
• A Russian Secret Police report on the moral and political state of Russia, from 150 years ago
• Windows to Russia gives us some thoughts on the problems with ratifying START as well as an Oladushki recipe (its a type of Russian pancake).
• Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces blog reports on the successful launch of the third Meridian communications satellite.
• Are Slavs Stupid?  No, says the Kremlin Stooge – and he’s counted the Nobel Prizes to prove it.
• Austere Insomniac extensively dissects the work of Taras Kuzio.
• Five steps that Russia needs to take to build a decent tech industry.
• Award for post title (and topic) of the week goes to Paul Goble’s “Can translating Erotica save a Finno-Urgic Nation in the Middle Volga?”

Well, that’s it for this week.  I’ll leave you with the news that Birdbrain has a new look.  She’s wearing a variant on the delightfully styled 2010 Weaver theme, also on display here on SL, and over at Sublime Oblivion.  It seems that Anatoly is a becoming bit of a blog style guru…

Weekly Russia Blog Roundup 6 November 2010 is a post from: Siberian Light

Here at Siberian Light, we love a bit of navel gazing (hypnotised by the blue fluff, probably), so here’s this week’s list of top posts from around the Russia blogs. Which one’s your favourite?

• The really big question on everyone’s lips this week was – who gave Putin a black eye? Miriam Elder notes that Putin’s daughter allegedly announced her engagement this week (to the son of a Korean admiral, no less), and wondered if the upcoming marriage caused a brawl of some kind.
• Anatoly posts a humorous, and very likely to come true, prediction – Exiled Russian Dissident Yury Luzhkov Condemns Putin’s Corrupt, Stalinist Regime
• A great interactive map of the Quality of Life in Russian regions, by Russian Sphinx
• In a very brief post, Otto wonders if one of the main reasons for the deportations of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union was that the Soviet government had difficulty asserting economic control over them.
• Eugene Ivanov wonders if a Republican victory in the mid-term election will chill US-Russian relations.
• Aleksei Popogrebsky’s How I Ended This Summer has won the best film prize at this year’s London Film Festival.
• Some Russian online activism success stories over at Global Voices.
• Mark has an attack of Russian Conspiracy-Theorism while discussing Semyon Mogilevich
• Patrick Armstrong’s Rusian Federation Weekly Sitrep remains as good a read as ever.
• Robert Amsterdam posts a video of Alexander Lebedev (the Russian newspaper magnate taking on the UK media market) pontificating on Russian values.
• Pavel Podvig, at the Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces blog, writes about NATO and the future of missile defense in Europe

And finally, on this holiday weekend, a guide to Halloween in Russia.

Weekly Russia Blog Roundup 30 October 2010 is a post from: Siberian Light