Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from March, 2007
Russia: Photos of Grozny
Earlier this week, I linked to LJ user kunstkamera‘s photos from Grozny, Chechnya. (Warning: bandwidth intensive.) Below are some of the comments and kunstkamera‘s own remarks, translated from Russian. gematogen: Was it scary? kunstkamera: It was scary to fly the [YaK-42] plane. […] i_grappa: It's interesting, thank you! In general,...
Kazakhstan: Russian Chill
neweurasia discusses chilliness in relations between Kazakhstan and Russia, but says that the relationship is far from on the rocks.
Ukraine, Belarus: Chernobyl
MoldovAnn attends the opening of a photo exhibition of Belarus-based American photographer Kristina Brendel, held at the Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv; she discovers that the Belarusian government's treatment of the Chernobyl catastrophe differs drastically from that of the Ukrainian government: “…there is total denial by the Belarussian government that there...
Russia: Tolstoy's Diary
De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis notes that Leo Tolstoy's diary turned 160 years old yesterday: “In the complete set of his works the diaries occupy 13 volumes.”
Russia: Lenin, A Collector's Item
“Thus, what is so fascinating about the cult of Lenin is the efforts of an atheist regime to create a kind of religion for political control,” writes Darkness at Noon in a lengthy post about his own very impressive collection of the Soviet busts of Lenin and a recent ordeal...
Ukraine: Online Graffiti Museum
Lyndon of Moscow Graffiti (and of Scraps of Moscow!) links to the online Museum of Ukrainian Graffiti.
Russia: WiFi and All, St. Pete vs Moscow
Lex Libertas compares St. Petersburg's technological development to that of Moscow.
Americans in Moldova; Moldovans in Italy…
Alexandru Culiuc's weblog is one of the best in the Moldovan blogosphere – probably the one I enjoy reading the most, and happily it has an owner and readership that don't seem to mind my mostly English-language comments. Last year, Alex had an interesting post about foreigners’ impressions of Moldova...
Russia: Beggars and More
Darkness at Noon continues with the discussion of the Russian street beggars: La Russophobe guest-blogs around the issue; bloggers discuss the post in the comments.
Estonia: New Coalition Government
Vilhelm Konnander reports on Estonia's new coalition government.
Russia: Nashi Site Blocked
Strangely, no one from outside Russia can access the site of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, reports Sean's Russia Blog.
Russia: Politkovskaya
Sean's Russia Blog reports on no progress in the investigation of Anna Politkovskaya's death. (Also, Sean mentions that Politkovskaya's last – posthumous – book is coming out in May.)
Ukraine: Kherson Success Story
Ukraine Update shares a small business success story from Kherson.
Ukraine: Ostrog
Olechko posts notes and sketches from her last year's trip to Mezhyrich Monastery in Ostrog.
Ukraine: Book on Chernobyl
MoldovAnn reads Piers Paul Read's 1993 book on Chernobyl (Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl) and discovers that she has been to a few Ukrainian towns mentioned in it: “Sometimes I forget what my colleagues lived through, that they themselves are first-hand witnesses to the Chornobyl...
Ukraine: New Foreign Minister
Ukrainiana writes about Ukraine's new 32-year-old minister of foreign affairs.
Ukraine: Yanukovych; Lutsenko
Despite talk of Maidan #2, PM Yanukovych feels pretty comfortable and even publicly admits that he did serve time in prison. This and a report on more troubles for Yuri Lutsenko, at Foreign Notes.
Ukraine: Mad Max
Foreign Notes writes about the killing of mobster Maxim Kurochkin and the investigation into it.
Ukraine, FSU: Stalin
Over at Siberian Light, readers discuss weird first names, such as Stalin, Ninel, and Vladlen. Carpetblogger writes about the Donetsk Heating Company's Stalinist methods to get this East Ukrainian city's population to pay their utility bills.
Global Voices in Moscow
On March 21, Moscow hosted its First International Conference on Blogs, Media and Citizen Journalism. I was happy to represent both Global Voices and neweurasia at the meeting. The conference was organized by the Centre for Internet Policy of Moscow State University for International Relations (MGIMO), Realno.info, a web site...
Kazakhstan: Serbia Defeated
At neweurasia, Leila reports on Kazakhstan's upset win over Serbia in Group A of the Euro 2008 qualifiers. This is Kazakhstan's first victory in a competitive match and second victory overall since joining the Union of European Football Associations in 2002.