Tuesday, November 21, 2006
With the death of former East German espionage chief Markus Wolf and the nomination of ex-Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates to be the next Secretary of Defense, the news has been full of stories about the tense and secretive atmosphere of the Cold War. Several of those articles claimed that this golden era of [...]
Thursday, August 18, 2005
An essay on three issues (corruption, democracy, and identity) in today's Russia.
It has been almost a year since the fatal hostage situation in Beslan (see posts here and here). Only one of the hostage-takers, a young man named Nurpashi Kulayev, survived the storming of the school by Russian security forces. Both Slate and The Guardian are reporting on a suprisingly amount of sympathy given to him [...]
Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, a member of the Chechen government led by Alu Alkhanov, claims that human rights violations were committed by Russian soldiers during the two conflicts in the region:
Many of the accusations levelled against the Russian authorities by human rights groups - namely the deliberate targeting of civilians by the Russian military - have angered [...]
BBC: Chechen leader Maskhadov killed.
Upon doing a search, I have discovered that I have never really written about Aslan Maskhadov on this blog, and that I have rarely mentioned Chechnya. This makes summing all of my feelings up very difficult.
Friday, September 3, 2004
Russian special forces stormed the building after two explosions came from the school, one of which collasped part of its roof. This Associated Press article has more information. There are supposedly still three militants with hostages in the school's basement, while others may have escaped in the confusion of the battle.
The violence began after militants [...]
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Thursday, September 2, 2004
Despite the obvious immorality in taking a school full of children hostage, the Chechen militants ensconced in the school have put the Russian government in a delicate situation. While it is in their best interests to solve the standoff as soon as possible, I doubt the Russian public would allow them to use the same [...]
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I was originally going to make this two different posts on two different issues. The first part is from a post on The Volokh Conspiracy entitled "The UN and Anti-Semitism." I respect Eugene Volokh, and I believe that he is an intelligent man. After I read the speech that the post points to, however, I [...]
The BBC reports on conflict between the Dutch government and Médecins Sans Frontières (or Doctors Without Borders for non-Francophones) over the release of Arjan Erkel, who was kidnapped in Dagestan (which is next to Chechnya). After spending more than a year as a hostage, Erkel was released in April. I almost posted about him when [...]
If you have read some of the previous entries on the blog, you'll see that I regard Pravda as a reliable, if slightly biased news source. I have tried to excuse various strange things I have read as the results of differences in Russian culture and bad translations. But, nothing can excuse these [...]
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From the older sister comes an article from the Telegraph about giant crabs which are creating environmental havoc off the coasts of Norway. Transplanted to the Barents Sea from the Pacific in the time of Stalin, the crabs began to expand in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union. Concidence? [...]
Friday, February 13, 2004
Military medals are supposed to honor those who have been especially courageous. Most of their descriptions include reference to "valourous service benefiting our wondrous nation of X," or somesuch. This idea of national benefit is the end-all of medals; courage is the most important component.
Reading in the New York Times about an explosion in the Moscow subway, I headed over to my favorite Russian online newspaper to see if there was any news about it. Alas, the precious space was used for articles on contraceptives, Japanese moustaches, bestiality, and our favorite lesbians (with the exception of the [...]
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Wednesday, February 4, 2004
This article from Chechenpress.info (which claims to be the "State News Agency" of Chechnya) sums up to me all that is wrong with reling on faith in legal matters.
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
I love this line in this press release on the Russian Ministry of the Interior's website:
The Head of the MOI of Russia Main Office in Northern West Federal District, Militia Colonel A. Novikov congratulated the guests on their professional holiday and thanked them for the true to life, objective and responsive publications as well as [...]
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Tuesday, January 13, 2004
This article from Pravda is interesting; there is constant discussion about how important it is to spread the values of democracy and freedom around the world, yet more than three-quarters of Russian citizens believe censorship is important.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2004
Both Le Monde (for the Francophones) and Pravda are reported that tATu (wtf is up with that capitalization? Who do they think they are, KaZaA?), the world's favorite lesbian pop group, wants to run for president of Russia. I am not sure whether the idea that they can avoid the age limitation (35 [...]
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
This BBC News article about a group in Northern Nigeria perked my interest. Not only do they call themselves the Taliban (or Taleban, as the BBC spells it) and are led by a man called Mullah Omar, but they have raised an Afghani flag.
It *might* be the translation from Russian, but this Pravda article makes it clear that the distinction between Chechens and terrorism is none too sharp in the Russian mind. This quote is especially damning:
We traditionally call terrorists Chechens, but we should keep in mind that criminality has no nationality. Special services must work [...]
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