29 Sep 2010
Yesterday in Foreign Policy, the latest article by Julia Ioffe appeared on the subject of Yuri Luzhkov’s ouster. The piece, “Happy Birthday, You’re Fired,” makes for a good read, but I disagree with much of its content, and so I offer the following response. Ms. Ioffe’s central thesis is that firing Luzhkov does nothing to [...]
28 Sep 2010
President Medvedev apparently informed Viacheslav Volodin, a top United Russia party official, at least a week ago that he intended to rid Moscow of Yuri Luzhkov. Volodin told Gazeta.ru, “The President’s decision wasn’t discussed. It was fulfilled.” At 8AM this morning, it was indeed. (See Presidential order here.) I certainly called this one wrong. On [...]
5 May 2010
With the death of Vera V. Trifonova, the world has again turned its attention to the Motherland’s legal system. For the most part, the current frenzy has focused on the fatal shortcomings of Russia’s pre-trial detention practices in white-collar criminal cases. Without going into the details of the stories surrounding Trifonova, Sergey Magnitsky, or Bill [...]
9 Mar 2010
Much has been said about the City of Moscow’s plan to include Stalin in the 65th-anniversary celebrations of Victory Day. The idea, though, seems to have extremely weak public support. So why would Mayor Luzhkov sponsor a project with only limited appeal that was sure to raise a controversy? Answers to this question have been [...]
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