Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from July, 2005
Azerbaijan: Election Monitor
Here's a great new blog that'll be covering the upcoming elections in Azerbaijan. It apears to be affiliated with a new on-line effort to cover Central Asia called Thinking East. (via oneworld)
Hungary: Choose your 3rd child's sex by SMS
Central Budapest finds the cabinet's decision to poll the public via SMS on whether or not Hungarians should be allowed to choose their child's gender to be a bit disturbing.
Afghanistan: 23 Girls Graduate After 11 years
Afghan Warrior celebrates the fact that, after 11 years, 23 girls have graduated from high school in Kandahar City.
Uzbekistan: The Americans will not leave. Don't even ask
The Uzbek blog T-Moor translates an Kazakh newspaper article about the US presence in Central Asia. It's an interesting look into how Central Asian countries view US motives and intentions.
Voices from the Wiki
Part of the human and technical magic that allows Global Voices to function is a lively wiki, where users around the world are able to tell us about blogs and websites we should be paying attention to, and where we're able to jointly edit documents like the Guide to Anonymous...
The tide is high, higher….
Central Budapest notes that heavy summer rains means that the Danube is expected to flood, and Budapest is preparing for the high water.
Ukraine Visa Update
Blog de Connard tries to sort through whether or not US citizens need visas to visit Ukraine. See, some government sources say that they do, and some government sources say that they don't…
avari/nameh: muslim+democracy=kyrgyzstan
The blog avari/nameh has an insightful post about the democratic example that Kyrgyzstan is setting for the Islamic world. Link via Registan.net.
Neeka's Backlog
Neeka's Backlog is passing on the news that Ukraine's Interior Ministry has dispached troops to a region of the Crimea where a group of Tatars have seized land that was declared a nature preserve.
New Mongols: China: the 800lb Gorilla
New Mongols comments on an interesting article from Transitions Online about Mongolia's “path forward”; one key point is that the Sino-Mongolian relationship will play a huge role in the country's future.
Blog de Connard: Who needs that hotel anyway?
Blog de Connard reports that engineers tearing down an old Moscow hotel discovered a huge cache of explosives in the foundation of the building. The metric tonne of explosives were to be used to blow up the building if Hitler's army had taken Moscow.
Registan.net » Election Photos
Registan.net points to some great photos of the Kyrgyzstan election.
Democracy in Central Asia :: Alan’s Electoral Observation Report :: July :: 2005
Alan Cordova went and observed Kyrgyzstan's recent elections; apparently, they do some things a little bit differently there–including playing “Living la Vida Loca” at the polling places.
Blogrel » Redistricting in Armenia
Blogrel reports on parliamentary redistricting in Armenia. It is, apparently a somewhat less than perfect system…
Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia Friday Blog Roundup
Registan.net passes on the news that the Taliban is denying responsibility for the attacks in London, though they're not exactly sorry that they happened either. The Russian Dilettante points out how opinion polls get deliberately misinterpreted in the Russian press.
Eastern Europe, Russian, NIS & Central Asia Thursday Blog Roundup
Blog de Connard reports that the Ukrainian parliament has, after some arm-twisting, passed legislation designed to ease Ukraine's entry into the WTO. Three malls in Budapest were evacuated after copycat bomb threats were called in, reports Pesticide. The Daily Czech notes that Mikulas Dzurinda, the Slovak Prime Minister barely survived...
Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia Daily Blog Roundup
The Russian Dilettante points out that the roots of the Solidarity movement in Poland were profoundly nationalistic and that if it were to rise again, the Western press would probably dismiss it as “right-wing”. An updated travel warning for Uzbekistan was issued over the weekend, notes Registan. They believe that...
Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia Daily Blog Roundup
Ben Paarmann is adventuring through the Kazakh immigration bureaucracy, in search of the elusive multi-entry visa. Alan Cordova points out that, as it transitions from a Soviet state to an independent nation, Kazakhstan isn't just trying to decide between a common law system or a civil law system; they're struggling...
Monday: Eastern Europe, Russia, NIS & Central Asia
Afghan Lord has been receiving threats, and discovers they're coming from an IP address associated with the BBC. (More on this in a separate post coming soon.) Onnik Krikorian at Oneworld Multimedia reports on Vardavar, an ancient Armenian festival in which people douse each other with water. Sounds a bit...