Blogging the democratic revolution
David McDuff has posted part eleven of his series Going Back.
David McDuff has posted part ten of his series Going Back, describing his experiences and life in the Soviet Union. And a reader in Moscow emails him some comments.
Andy, who recently won first place for Best CIS Blog in the First European Weblog Awards, has his weekly Russia news roundup posted. Also, make sure to check out this other article about how millionaires in the opposition helped bring down the billionaires of the former Ukrainian regime. And how a similar event might be brewing in Russia.
David McDuff has posted his 8th installment of Going Back.
Andy posts an interesting article relating how revolutions that pull through usually have the help of the capital’s mayor. After observing that the Orange Revolution in Ukraine may never have happened without the support of Kiev’s mayor they go on to argue that, if Putin wants to keep his job, he really needs to keep Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow, on his side. True. And I’d venture to say, however, that in a totalitarian state as big as Russia, just about everyone Putin thinks he has under his thumb will bail on him when the going gets too rough.
Already, David McDuff has posted Part 7 of his Going Back series.
David McDuff has posted the next installment of his Going Back series, part six.
Andy has also posted his weekly Russia news update. I love things like this. But I find it interesting how authoritarian governments handle welfare. He is giving out 20% pay increases to troops and adding to pensions because of the recent protests. How is this even economically feasible for Russia? I guess he’s just delaying his own gravedigging.
Andy just posted some really good commentary about the European Union’s desire to promote stability in Russia over democracy. Here is part of it: The EU fears this day because, unlike revolutions in Ukraine or Georgia, the instability that comes with any regime transition may not be so easily contained in Russia. Russia is simply too large. The EU also knows that those currently in the Kremlin have no powerful outsiders to back them up in a crisis. Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing Ukrainian President, at least has the security of knowing that his powerful protectors in Russia will (probably) not…
David McDuff has an awesome series of posts called Going Back: 1, 2, 3, 4. It is incredibly interesting… he details his family’s experience, and his own, with the Soviet Union. It’s like reading a good book, check it out.
The school hijack that took place this past September in Beslan was helped out by government officials! Alexander Torshin, the head of the commission investigating the fatal hostage taking, told Russian media that two accomplices already have been detained, three are being sought and authorities are preparing the legal work to detain two more. Torshin said the suspects included officials ranking “higher than major.” Another Senator who is a member of the commission, Vladimir Kulakov, added that the people who aided the terrorists are not only in Beslan but “at the federal level” and “these people are still at their…
Andy from Siberian Light is discussing the recent legal proposals in Russia to outlaw Jewish groups as “extremist.”
Scott Clark has several articles up at the moment about how Russia’s hostile business environment is further crippling the country. Judging from the articles, I don’t think Putin cares. He just wants to hit the big companies for as much as he can in taxes. The government taking and redistributing a la communism, however, is simply not economically sustainable. He is finding himself in a bigger mess the more he attacks business and the more allies he loses to the west of him. And what is the answer? Free markets and civil liberties? No, couldn’t be!
Blog de Connard has a rather… strange picture of some Russian pension protesters dancing in the metrograd.
David McDuff has more news about the pension protests going on in Russia. But what I found even more interesting was his reflective thoughts on his Russian studies and his own thoughts on totalitarianism while the Soviets were in power. Since for someone from a Western democracy it’s almost impossible to understand cognitively the reality of the fabric of life in a totalitarian state, a Westerner????????s memories of contact with that fabric are almost always bound to be selective, personal and subjective to an extent that may make them irrelevant in terms of historical truth. Yet I believe that since…
David McDuff has recently posted a long article of exchanges in which “Serbian World Bank economist Branko Milanovic asked the question: “why are the American media, both liberal and conservative, so unanimously anti-Russian?” He posts a list, and I’ll repost the first out of six: 1) For seventy years, commentators have been anti-Soviet and since obviously some of Russia’s foreign policy stances will coincide with those of the USSR, their knee-jerk reaction to argue against these positions in the past carried over to the present day. He is responded to by “Yevgenia Albats, political journalist and Professor of economics at…
Siberian Light has a rather impressive news roundup for this week in Russia. I count thirty items, ranging from domestic, business, foriegn relations, the CIS, and a little something extra that includes call girls and Putin all in the same sentence.
The other day, Condoleeza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee about her concerns with Russia… “(The Russian government) is quite constructive in many areas … but that doesn’t excuse what is happening inside Russia, where the concentration of power in the Kremlin to the detriment of other institutions is a real problem,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which must vote on her nomination. No kidding. If the power in Russia goes anymore to the top — and by that, I mean to Putin’s head — he’s going to topple over. And not just figuratively speaking, as pretty…
Neeka’s Backlog has the calculations done already. And here’s a recent news article. There are some interesting points to note here, however. Opinion polls recently published show that some 60% of this group believe that the state’s task is to provide for its citizens. … Far from welcoming social security reform, the polls suggest that a third of Russians want a return to state planning, and only 10% think free enterprise should be a national priority. What can I say? These people are stupid and have become reliant on the system, and I have no doubt that the former is…
David McDuff over at A Step At A Time came out with some great content today that I found very unique. He posted a translation of a post on a message board by a Russian man describing how he feels about the pensioner protests. Very, very profound. He also posts his translation of an interview done for a Russian newspaper with Vil Mirzayanov, who gives his expert opinion into the dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko. But again, McDuff is an expert in his own right, having done translations of many Russian works, making a very unique addition to the blogosphere with…
I have been rather reluctant to cover this, given that it is being organized by the Communist Party. The real reason I’m more interested now, however, is because Veronica Khokhlova from Neeka’s Backlog is right in the middle of St. Pete with her digital camera. She spent some time at the rally and has written up a report from what she saw. Did I mention she took 55 photos? First, all those Nazi/Soviet/Communist/Che Guevarish trash – it’s repulsive, and dangerous, and if bringing down Putin means giving power to these people, I’d rather stay with Putin. Really, I don’t understand…
Scott Clark updates his lengthy post about the differences between Russia and Ukraine that will hinder possible progress toward its own revolution. I’m not sure what color it’d be anyhow. On that note, Russian politicians are at least really starting to worry. Once they react and start to close the iron fist, they’ll just be setting themselves up for an ousting eventually. Siberian Light has got a weekly Russia news roundup. I’ll have to drop by more often! Russia is now barring people who talk smack about them from entering the country. I wonder what would happen if they would…