January 2009
26 posts
Taking a Break
The murder of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova has taken away my desire to report on Russia’s absurdities here. Watching events in the US has also diverted my attention. And it’s just really busy in Moscow these days.
So on hiatus til further notice.
Meanwhile, here’s a site that brings together a bunch of different Russia blogs, I’m sure you can find...
Only in Russia . . .
The below was sent out to a media mailing list earlier today:
Коллеги, добрый день! Я готовлю материал о том, как себя вести, если в вашем офисе проводится обыск. Нет ли у вас знакомых, которые пережили маски-шоу на работе? Если они готовы поделиться со мной своими впечатлениями, я буду весьма признательна их контактам. Спасибо, Respectfully, Elena Rykova, RB.ru/editor
“People are freaked by red,” Fairey says. Perhaps flashing on socialist...”
– - Shepard Fairey, the artist who designed the iconic Obama “Hope” poster, explains his technique and color choices.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/style/features/2008/obama-poster-051808/graphic.html?sid=ST2008051602005
Impressive Driving →
rdlf:
More of the Absurd
So the Russian media tonight have gone a bit mad reporting that Saakashvili won’t be attending Obama’s inauguration. Last week, I heard stories about Russians furiously discussing among themselves whether Putin or Medvedev would go. I don’t know what’s wrong with this place. No foreign leaders, as is standard practice, are invited to the inauguration. Why must conspiracy be...
On a winter's night a traveler ...
Yesterday evening upon exiting my apartment building, I was stopped by Vassily, a man in his late 40s who was washing his car in the -16C weather. Hearing me speaking English with my companion, he stopped me and asked if I could help him as a translator. He was looking for people to cure of cancer and heart problems — Hollywood stars, preferably. A little Internet search is all it would...
Out of Gas - Modest Mouse
Sleep and Heat, or the Lack Thereof
The people at Gazprom have a joke they like to tell on New Year’s Eve: “Come ‘round our offices tomorrow morning, we’ll serve champagne. Ukrainian-style — no gas (bubbles).”
The gas cutoff has entered its 7th day. It’s Orthodox Christmas here today, and you’d think they’d give it a rest. But there is no rest in Moscow, no sleep in Moscow, and...
Krizis @ ЖЖ →
The krizis hits LiveJournal, Russia’s preferred blogging platform. Click the headline for the story (in English).
Russia + Germany →
Edward Lucas, former Moscow bureau chief for The Economist and author of The New Cold War, rips apart a new book on Russia by Michael Stuermer, a German journalist. Lucas’ own arguments are flawed — taking the view of one author to argue that Germany has a whistful colonialist relationship towards Russia, for one — but Stuermer’s sound even worse.
(Thanks to Madame...
The Embrace of Stalinism →
This article by Memorial’s Arseny Roginsky talks about the authorities’ encouragement of a stance accepting, even promoting, Stalin; the problems of collective memory in post-Soviet Russia; and what can be done to challenge this.
WatchMedvedev’s New Year’s address, an annual tradition.
December 2008
50 posts
The Strange Case of Pushkin and Nabokov →
Went to a really cool staging of Evgeny Onegin at the Taganka Theatre last night. Reading up on different translations of the lyric tale into English, came upon this article where Edmund Wilson rips apart Nabokov’s translation (thus also ripping up their close friendship). It’s from 1965, it seems critics were so much cooler back then.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion... →
Thought Qadaffi was meant to be a “good guy” now? In this op-ed, written after a recent trip to Moscow, he accuses NATO of basically seeking to invade Russia, warns of a new nuclear arms race as a result, and calls on the U.S. to adopt a policy of total non-intervention.
Kommersant Rating of Popular Russian Elite →
Kommersant released its annual rating of Russia’s most popular elite today. Top of the list? No surprise, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. President Medvedev overtook aging popstar Alla Pugachyova to get the number two spot (her ex-husband, Filip Kirkorov, is number 11). You’ll find Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov at number 8, just behind Nikita Mikhailkov, the amazingly talented filmmaker who...
Drudge Poll Update
Putin is beating Obama in Drudge Report’s Topless Poll, by 66% to 34%, and it’s starting to make the Russian news: http://www.newsru.com/world/24dec2008/torses.html
Vote!!
More Spy Stories →
Both the UK and US have warned that Russia’s spying is on the upswing, and Russia itself has given the profession increased acknowledgement (witness Putin’s recent bizarre move to name a mountain in North Ossetia’s Caucasus range The Peak of Russian CounterIntelligence Agents). Click the headline above for a new story in The Atlantic about a DC-based journalist approached to spy...
Putin vs Obama (Topless) →
Um, Matt Drudge (www.drudgereport.com) has a poll up, called Drudge Poll: Shirtless, with side by side photos of the recently released pictures of Obama on holiday in Hawaii and the infamous shot of Putin fishing shirtless. Putin is winning the poll so far, 65% to 35% (over 53,000 votes to nearly 28,500 votes) as of 1:30am Moscow time. GO VOTE!
The Scandal of 2007 →
Click the headline above to read, from the horse’s mouth, the scandal of the year around this time last year. One day, Steve disappeared without a trace, and the few who knew what happened weren’t talking. No one had a clue what was going on — was he sick? In trouble? Get a girl in trouble? Then the spy stuff slowly started to emerge, and it just got more confusing from there. He...
WatchHow political discussions (d)evolve in Russia.
This is the clip I was looking for a few days ago, when I got distracted by Putin’s Q&A. Zhirinovsky on a TV show with a member of the new party, Pravoye Delo.
It goes like this. Shout shout shout smirk shout yell smirk insult yell yell until Zhirinovsky calls his bodyguard and orders him to kick the guy off the set. The goon dutifully...
http://gawker.com/5115432/russian-vogue-editors-tra... →
Scandal at Russian Vogue! Death! Theft! The fact that she dated John Helmer! All very exciting.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122989967527124913.... →
Deripaska is tired and desperate. In his first interview since the financial crisis struck here, he talks about his frantic hunt for investors, the role of the state and what it’s like to lose billions. The story touches upon a major concern — the collateral firms have to put up in return for state bailout money, and whether this is yet another sneaky way for the state to grab assets...
This is Russia
I woke up to no electricity.
Last week, a sign appeared outside the door to my building, saying electricity would be cut to the entire building on Dec 17 from 9am-5pm. This, of course, did not happen. And they apparently, without telling anyone, moved it to today. This is considered normal.
Yesterday, I thought I’d buy a senseless fashion/gossip magazine to reward myself for being...
“It tells you something about the nation when its natives cannot even spell the...”
– The wise observer VK comments on the photo of the protest sign in Vladivostok below. (Говно vs Гавно.)
“He had no other choice. He was surrounded by enemies, and domestically it was...”
– From the most disturbing interview I’ve conducted so far. Alexander Lyubimov was a hero of perestroika, an anti-establishment television presenter who now works for state-owned VGTRK. Above he is commenting on Stalin. During the interview he said once that while he doesn’t justify...
