Russia Blog Roundup – 19 August 2010

It’s still hot in Russia, but it seems like the flames are mercifully dying down. I’m not going to cover the fires in detail because Global Voices have done it brilliantly already with their roundup – Anglophone Bloggers Discuss Social and Political Aspects of the Wildfires.

Instead, I’m going to take you on a quick tour around this week’s best blog posts about Russia.  Starting with…

• …one family’s very personal experiences of Russian corruption, which is published over at Russian Truth.
• Dmitry Minaev posts a transcript of a meeting between Josef Stalin, V Molotov, WA Harriman and George Kennan, two days after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped.
• A fascinating post from Global Voices detailing Russian students’ experiences on the Work and Travel USA program.
• Tim Newman lets rip at the stupidity of those in charge of the Russian oil industry – particularly Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.
• Fresh from saving the Amazon and the Gulf, James Cameron (Avatar, Titanic, etc) is off to save Lake Baikal.  He attempted this by celebrating his birthday in a submarine at the bottom of the lake.  Vadim Nitkin wonders if it’s his way of apologising for stealing the plot of Avatar from a Russian SF story.
• Continuing the nautical theme, a Russian ship called Krusenstern has won the tall ships world cup.  I wonder if it was sponsored by Krusenstern the blog?
• For a great roundup of events over the past seven days, check out Patrick Armstrong’s Russian Federation Weekly Sitrep – the latest edition went up today, so it’s hot off the press.
• Poemless’ latest roundup – Notes from the Underground – is also up. (Edit: As Poemless points out – it’s nothing like a roundup.  This is a roundup! But Notes frmo the Underground anyway)
• Robert Amsterdam asks why did Russia lobby to bring Viktor Bout (the arms dealer) home.
• In Moscow’s Shadows has more on the splits, resignations and un-resignations in the Chechen rebel movement.  His analysis? “In short, it looks as if a full internal schism is under way within the already-reeling rebel movement, with both sides reaching out to win over remaining commanders and units, both within and outside Chechnya.”

Finally, today Russia bloggers have all gone a bit gooey-eyed over the 50th anniversary of Belka and Strelka, the first dogs to make it up into space and (unlike poor Laika) back again in one piece.  You can read more at Windows to Russia, From Russia with Love, and Russian Kafe

Did you know that two rats and forty mice also travelled with Belka and Strelka? They got back safely too, but no-one remembers their names…