1 Jun 2010
As expected, figures in the Russian liberal community reacted harshly to Vladimir Putin’s comments in an exchange with Yuri Shevchuk last Saturday. Also unsurprising, journalists unfriendly to the opposition responded as they do by defending the actions of the authorities and questioning the motives of the liberals. All in all, it was another day in [...]
30 May 2010
Yesterday, Vladimir Putin met with the participants and organizers of charity event for sick children. The event included various famous members of the Russian artist and intellectual community. The most animated guest at the table was Yuri Shevchuk, lead singer of the rock band DDT and well-known liberal activist. Just a few months ago, Shevchuk [...]
24 May 2010
Late last week, the media reported two instances of what are being called American “concessions” and “appeasement” to Russia over the Iran issue. The media has a reasonable case. Here’s what the Obama administration did: Ended sanctions against four Russian arms dealers involved in weapons trade with Iran and Syria: Rosoboronexport (the state arms exporter), [...]
21 May 2010
Mikhail Khodorkovsky — Russia’s “most famous political prisoner,” the “billionaire dissident,” and the target of a “political fatwah from the top of the Russian state” — has been making quite a few headlines in the last week. This comes as no surprise, given that the man employs fourteen full-time lawyers (plus an unknown number of [...]
17 May 2010
It’s been more than a week now since Russia celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. I caught a little bit of the parade and the fireworks on Россия 24, and it was basically what you’d expect: a bunch of happy people standing around outside, watching things proudly march by [...]
17 May 2010
David Kramer, the current Eurasian affairs talking head at the German Marshall Fund and a former member of the team that concocted the Bush administration’s glorious Russia policy, has an op-ed out in the Washington Post. He attacks Barack Obama for pursuing a “Russia only” approach to Eastern Europe, “neglecting and even abandoning other countries [...]
13 May 2010
Two days ago, the first moral damages lawsuit was announced against the Russian federal government for the terrorist attacks on the Moscow metro last March. The mother of nine-year-old Artem Rumiantsev is seeking a monthly pension to care for her “orphaned” son and a one-time payment of five million rubles. Her alimony-paying ex-husband, Georgy Budnikov, [...]
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