· August, 2005

Stories about Russia from August, 2005

Chechnya: Election monitoring

  29 August 2005

Chechnya War reports that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is planning to send election monitors to Chechnya for the parliamentary elections in late November.

Russia and the former Soviet states

25 August 2005

Registan has an analysis of Russian foreign policy towards the former Soviet states, and the battle for influence in Central Asia.

Russia: Photo blog

24 August 2005

Veronica at Neeka's Backlog has posted a gallery of photos of Moscow street scenes, the Moscow State University and river.

Russia: No more cut-rate oil

24 August 2005

On a more serious note, Andy (Siberian Light) wonders if reported Russian government plans to stop selling oil at cheap rates to former Soviet states will backfire on the Kremlin.

Russia: How big is your soul?

24 August 2005

Andy at Siberian Light took the challenge to see if the size of his soul measured up to that of the Russians. It didn't.

Russia: Kim Jong-il's visit

23 August 2005

The Russian Dilettante's four-year-old daughter is spooked by the forthcoming visit of the North Korea's Dear Leader to Russia.

Russia: Suicide in the military

18 August 2005

Every month, around 20 people in the Russian armed forces commit suicide, according to a Russian newspaper article translated by Scraps of Moscow.

Russia: “The Flight of the Putin”

17 August 2005

Scraps of Moscow comments on local media coverage of Russian president Vladimir Putin's flight in a strategic bomber aircraft during military exercises, saying they can no longer tell the difference between a PR exercise and hard news.

Russia: The lost universal language

17 August 2005

Russian language student Misha Tch at Joy de Vivre considers the possibility that the world's languages are mistaken forms of an original human language.

Russia: Press on Putin

17 August 2005

Moscow-based Lyndon Allin has translated Russian-language media reports on whether President Vladimir Putin will, or should, seek a third term in office.

Russia: Shamil Basayev ABC interview – video

  4 August 2005

SiberianLight points to video of the controversial Shamil Basayev interview. Basayev is a Chechen warlord who was interviewed by a freelancer for the American TV network ABC; in response to ABC's airing of the interview, Moscow revoked the journalist credentials of ABC's employees in Russia. In related news, SiberianLight also...

Russia: Way to Go, Russia!

3 August 2005

The Russian blog Joy de Vivre applauds the Kremlin's decision to withdraw the accreditation of ABC journalists following the broadcast of an interview with Chechen leader Shamil Basayev.