For ‘Russia Watchers’ familiar with Twitter, KermlinRussia is a man who needs no introduction. He’ll soon have over 44,000 followers, and he regularly posts acerbic, ironic tweets mocking news stories about Russia’s leaders, often rewording the language of tweets by the official presidential Twitter account (inaugurated with much fanfare during Medvedev’s visit to Silicon Valley), …
Continue reading ‘AGT Exclusive: Interview with @KermlinRussia’ »
Two days ago this week, the Kremlin announced that Dmitri Medvedev will be appointing Nikolai Tsukanov to fill the soon-to-be-vacant governor’s seat in Kaliningrad. I wrote about the ousting of Georgy Boos last week, but I thought it worthwhile to translate an analysis by Oleg Kashin, a seasoned Kaliningrad politics expert and native of the …
Continue reading ‘Full Translation: Oleg Kashin’s “A Translation from Prussian”’ »
The following is my translation of Oleg Kashin’s firsthand account and private ruminations on the May 31, 2010, opposition rally in Triumfal’naia Square in Moscow. This article was published two days ago in Kommersant’s ‘Vlast’ edition on June 6, 2010. Kashin does an excellent job dissecting the pageantry on all sides of the ‘Strategy-31′ Movement, sparing …
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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 …
A scandal has been brewing in Russia for months now, and it’s recently jumped back into the headlines thanks to a Gazeta.ru interview with Sergei Mironov a few days ago. This story has drama: stern words and harsh personal attacks volleyed between the ruling party, United Russia, and a sometimes-misbehaving, official-opposition party, Just Russia. This …
Continue reading ‘The Amazing Story of 'Clean Water' (i.e., Boris Gryzlov Loses His Mind.)’ »