Recent Posts
Recent Posts Tagged With 'russian society'
Lukhkov the Weather Warlock
I think I finally understand why the Kremlin was so hell bent on securing Yuri Lukhkov’s continued domination over Moscow politics: the weather. Yuri Mikhailovich can control the weather. Or so he promises. According to Time, For just a ...
“Good people live in bathtubs.”
Vedomosti has a great article on the history of Russia’s housing crisis. Housing, as Maksim Trudoliubov notes, is a chronic historical problem in Russia, one which the Soviets tried to attenuate, but made little headway until the 1960s. ̶...
Exploring the Russian Religious Fringe
RIA Novosti is featuring a six-part series on the history of Russia’s religious sects, their leaders, and particularly, asks why “Russia has proved such fertile ground for the growth of new and bizarre beliefs.” It is estimated th...
Russian Cinema’s “Congress of Victors”
The politics of culture is perhaps more contentious in Russia than in other countries. Since the 1930s, there has been a close relationship between the state and artistic creative unions. The best historical example of this was when Socialist Reali...
Leeching onto Success
If Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin’s warning last week that Russia’s recent economic bump will most likely be short lived got you down, don’t fret there are some economic spheres besides McDonald’s that are going strong...
Happy International Women’s Day!
Thinking Privatization Allowed
Laurie Taylor briefly interviews the authors of the controversial Lancet article on BBC-4’s article on BBC-4’s Thinking Allowed. His discussion with Megan Comfort that follows on women who have boyfriends and husbands in prison is worth a listen ...
Economic Shock Therapy
The New Year has brought little economic cheer to Russia. The estimated number of unemployed has hit 6 million. Industrial output has fallen by 10.3 percent. Car imports in the Far East have dropped by 95 percent in response to new tariffs. The rubl...
The Private Killer
The British medical journal Lancet is no stranger to controversy. Many will remember how in 2004 and 2006 the journal published studies on Iraqi casualties resulting from the American invasion. Its estimate of 654,965 excess deaths related to the war...
Let the Russians Eat (and Serve) Big Macs!
Russia’s “oil-fired economic miracle is unraveling,” the protests over the car tax is being hailed as a sign of “broad discontent,” unemployment grows by 400,000 in November with an extra 70,000 this past week alone, Rus...
Russia’s Protest Armageddon Averted
The barrage of mass protest fired in Russia’s far east ten days ago echoed with a whimper as opponents of the import car tax hike staged actions across Russia. Today’s protests lacked the manpower of the previous ones, and in Vladivostok,...
Russia’s Far East says: “No New Taxes!”
In Russia, December 14 is remembered as the day of the Decembrist Uprising of 1825, but today’s dissenters are marking it as a annual day of protest. While most international reporting has focused on the arrests of some 90 demonstrators at th...
No Jury, No Problem
Last Friday the State Duma passed the first reading of a law that would alter how Russian courts prosecute terrorism cases. The law, “On the making changes to individual legislative acts of the Russian Federation on the question of combating ...
Touched by the Hand of Putin
Prime Minister Putin continued his annual Q&A with the Russian people on Thursday. A full English transcript is now available on Putin’s website. Russia watchers have already began combing through his words, interpreting their significanc...
Orthodox Church Denies Creating Militias
When Kommersant reported a few days ago that the Russian Orthodox Church was planning on creating Orthodox militias to patrol Russia’s streets, the story was immediately seized by the Russian media, including this blog. Now according to RIA Nov...
Russia’s Average Joe No Longer Spared
Oil drops below $50 a barrel. The global auto industry slashes jobs in France, Thailand, Japan, and the United States. The world’s investors look for a safe haven to run to but none is to be found. Perhaps it’s time to stop referring to...
Kill’em All
Rotting Russia
Misha 2% Speaks to the LA Times
Russia Marches On . . .
Russia tries to keep up the momentum as it looks to face Spain on Thursday. Ger Clancy, our ever loving Irishman, breaks down Russia’s run and their chances for the cup. After more than 16 years in the doldrums, Russian football is finally go...
Russia Wins, Moscow Explodes
“The President is the symbol of power, and the Prime Minister is only a manager.”
Kommersant has an interview with Elena Shestopal, the deputy chair of the Political Psychology Department at MGU, on how Russian society views the inevitable election of Dmitri Medvedev. I think the title of the interview, “Thus far Medvedev&#...
