Stories about Russian from July, 2008
Russia: Medvedev to Fight Corruption
LJ user yangel reports (RUS) that president Medvedev has confirmed his plan to fight corruption, which signifies the start of a campaign to rid Russia of this malaise.
Russia: USAID Russian Style
LJ user epopov ru comments on (RUS) an article in today's Kommersant, claiming that Russia is to set up its own foreign aid agency, modelled on American USAID.
Russia: Change in Migration Policies
LJ user Kontury comments on (RUS) a government initiative to liberalise labour immigration by increasing quotas from CIS countries.
Russia: Level of Patriotism Among Pro-Putin Youth
LJ user makov_mak recounts (RUS) an improvised survey on the level of patriotism among pro-Putin youth, with some peculiar twists to it.
Belarus: Relations with Russia and the Union State
Glavred user ringo analyses (RUS) relations between Belarus and Russia and the situation with the issue of the Union State of Belarus and Russia.
Russia: Reaction to Captive Nations Speech
Former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar comments on the negative Russian reactions to US president's George Bush parallel between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in a recent speech celebrating...
Russia: Nashi at Seliger
Oleg Klimov posts photos – here and here – from Nashi‘s Seliger summer camp. (Text in Russian.)
Latvia: European Court Goes Against Riga
Who has the right to pass judgment on what a man does in the service of his country during wartime and what should the legal grounds for such a verdict be? These are some of the key issues surrounding a legal process on WWII war crimes against a soviet veteran, Vasily Kononov, that has been dragged through the Latvian legal system since 1998. However, earlier this week, the European Court of Human Rights found that Latvia lacked legal grounds for prosecuting Kononov. Following the verdict, the Russian blogosphere has generally reacted with joy and relief, although there have also been some opposing voices.
Serbia: Anglophone Bloggers Continue Discussion of Karadžić's Arrest
From one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, Radovan Karadžić - aka Dr. Dragan David Dabić - has turned into one of the world's most talked about detainees. Below are snippets of some of the discussions that have taken place in Anglophone blogs in the past few days.
Russia: Statistics – True or False?
LJ community Politika v Rossii (RUS) discusses results from a set of Russian opinion polls, quite alarming for the government, and asks whether the figures are true or false.
Russia: Military Bases in Venezuela?
LJ community Politika v Rossii (RUS) conducts a survey on whether Russia should pick up on an offer by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to build military bases in Venezuela. So...
Abkhazia, Georgia: “Home”
As everyone seems to be talking about an impending war over Abkhazia, here is a translation of a post by LiveJournal blogger cyxymu, a Georgian who spent his childhood in Abkhazia but now lives in Tbilisi, having become an "internally displaced person" during the hostilities in the early 1990s.
The Balkans, Russia: Radovan Karadžić
According to reports, former Bosnian Serb leader and one of the world’s most wanted war criminals Radovan Karadžić has been arrested in Serbia on Monday night. Below are some of the initial reactions from bloggers.
Israel, Lebanon: Russophone Bloggers Discuss Prisoner Exchange Deal
While some bloggers from the former Soviet Union take interest in the Middle Eastern affairs out of idle (or not so idle) curiosity, for others Israel is home, and so it's not surprising that the July 16 exchange of prisoners between Israel and Lebanon did not go unnoticed in the Russian-language blogosphere.
Kazakhstan: Astana Anniversary
Bloggers discuss how the celebrations of the anniversary of Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan, went. They were so widely advertised and loads of public finance was spent on the tenth anniversary of the capital, that most of the citizens - and bloggers - sighed with relieve when the whole fuss was over.
Kazakhstan: Olympics Blogwatch
On the eve of the Beijing Olympiad, the Kazakhstani bloggers discuss what chances their country has to performs decently in summer sports.
Russia: LJ Basic Accounts Back?
Svetlana Gladkova of Profy.com reports that LiveJournal may, after all, bring Basic Accounts back.
Russia: “The New Elite”
Lyndon Allin translates part of a discussion on how to get a job - and an education - in Russia today.
Transnistria: Voices of Tiraspol
In recent years, it seems like a solution to Moldova's long-unresolved secessionist conflict is always being forecast but never quite materializes. Meanwhile, the people who live in the unrecognized Transnistria just try to get by. At least a couple of the territory's netizens, however, seem unhappy with some of the initiatives of their de facto government. Lyndon Allin translates their posts.
Russia: One Year Sentence for Blog Comment
On July 7, Savva Terentyev, 22, a Russian blogger and musician, received a one-year suspended jail sentence for a comment he posted on Feb. 15, 2007, on the blog of a local journalist Boris Suranov. Below are rough translations of the comment and a small passage from the verdict, as well as an opinion poll on the impact of Terentyev's case on the freedom of expression in the Russian blogosphere.
Russia: Surkov on Joan Miró
IZO highlights an essay on Joan Miró, written for the Russian Pioneer magazine by Kremlin chief ideologist Vladislav Surkov – and re-published (RUS) by LJ user v_orlov. One reader asks...
