Blogs & Ecology

Photo reports from inside Moscow's “VIP Taxi” - at Two-Zero's Diary, here and here.

Edward Lucas re-posts The Economist's obits of Mieczyslaw Rakowski, a Polish Communist journalist and politician, who died on Nov. 8, and of Boris Fyodorov, a Russian economic reformer, who died on Nov. 20. Borut Peterlin notes the death of Vilko Filač, the “cameraman of Emir Kusturica’s best movies.”

Some background and a translation of an Izvestiya piece on Ukraine's Ruthenians - at Robert Amsterdam's blog.

Taras Kuzio analyzes “the achievements and failures and unfulfilled expectations of the last four years” in Ukraine - here and here, and also writes that president Yushchenko “had over-focused on the issue [of Holodomor] to the detriment of contemporary political and economic concerns.”

The Ivanov Report writes about last week's 10th Congress of the ruling United Russia party: “The victors have suddenly realized that as the ‘leading political force of the country', it's their job to deal with the crisis and face its inevitably negative political and social consequences.” Taras Kuzio reports that president Victor Yushchenko has been elected head of Our Ukraine party: “This is like deciding to jump from dry land on to the sinking Titanic.”

Robert Coalson of RFE/RL's The Power Vertical writes about “the open-again, closed-again, open-again trial of three men allegedly involved in the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya” and the role that former juror Yevgeny Kolesov has played in it.

Window on Eurasia writes: “Kyiv’s efforts to call attention to Stalin’s terror famine on the 75th anniversary of that tragedy and especially its moves to gain international recognition of it as a genocide against the Ukrainian people has generated much criticism by Russian officials from President Dmitry Medvedev on down as well as from numerous Moscow commentators.

Robert Amsterdam writes about “the uses and expediency” of Beslan in 2004 and the current financial crisis for Russia's leaders: “[…] an opportunity to pass measures to further consolidate authority.”

Free Speech Emergency in Latvia wrote on Nov. 22: “A university lecturer was arrested for two days for making comments at a public discussion of the economy, while a musician was questioned for joking about taking money out of a bank during a concert.” More coverage of the situation - at All About Latvia. (From a Nov. 24 post: “It is as if the government has taken a page straight of the Kremlin rulebook.”)

A definition of a derogatory Russian word for “Americans” - at Eternal Remont; a usage context example - at Russian Navy Blog.

At Robert Amsterdam's blog, Grigory Pasko writes about the attack on Mikhail Beketov.

Paul Goble of WindowonEurasia brings attention to demands of a Circassian youth group to found a Circassian Republic in the North Caucasus, thus increasing the risks of further ethnic tension in the region.

LJ user romanemo comments on [RUS] Russia's plans to turn Moscow into an international financial centre.

LJ user Zhurnal Cheloveka reports on [RUS] the murder of Vitaly Karaev, mayor of the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz.

Streetwise Professor discusses how the Russian economy is coping with its challenges in the wake of the global financial crisis.