Stories about Russia from March, 2006
Ukraine: New Customs Rules For Transnistria
Dan McMinn of Orange Ukraine writes about Ukraine's relationship with Transnistria: cracking down “on smuggled goods out of a country whose economy is based on smuggling” – and the reactions this new policy is getting.
Russia: Reckless Driving in Moscow
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile links to a video featuring a number of car crashes that allegedly took place in Moscow's newly-constructed Lefortovo Tunnel. Pretty wild.
Russia: FedEx Alternative
Yuri Mamchur of Russia Blog writes about a cheaper Russian alternative to FedEx, UPS and other such services – and a faster and more secure alternative to the local post service: passenger trains.
Russia: Reuters and Wall Street Journal Coverage
Charlie Ganske of Russia Blog criticizes Reuters’ coverage of Russia's Middle East policies and responds to Richard Pipes’ Wall Street Journal piece (“emblematic of a deeper problem in how the West views Russia”) with shallow remarks summarizing earlier arguments presented on the blog.
Russia: Photo Collections
Sergey Belyakov at RUBLog links to two online photo collections: the Russian Photography Collection, 1917-1945, and Albert Hajrullin's Moscow and St. Petersburg pictures.
Estonia: Language Issue and Russian Media
Giustino at Itching for Eestimaa comments on how some Russian media are detached from reality when it comes to the language issue: “If you live in a country where the overwhelming majority of the people speak one language, you are going to need to know that language to work a...
Russia: Bribery and Urban Development
Lyndon Allin of Scraps of Moscow links to an amazing story of two Russian cities and the role a 19th-century bribe played in their development.
Central & Eastern Europe: International Women's Day
March 8 has been an official day off in Russia and Ukraine, and here are some bloggers’ reactions to the holiday – in Russia and Ukraine, as well as elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe. Scott W. Clark of Foreign Notes, a Kyiv-based blog, is not happy about the universality...
Russia: Svetlana Gannushkina's Declaration of Guilt
David McDuff of A Step At A Time has translated an open letter to the Russian Federal Security Service written by Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Civic Assistance Committee, in which she mockingly confesses to “have undertaken activities which may be considered by the addressees of this statement as espionage.”...
Russia: “Cancer Ward”
Raffi Aftandelian of maaskva: nashimi glazami writes about a Chechen friend who had to share a hospital room with a biased Russian woman. (The post is both in English and Russian.)
Russia: Short Story For The First Carnival of Blog Translation
Tatyana Epstein has translated a Russian-language short story by Leah Lubomirsky into English – for the first Carnival of Blog Translation hosted by ALTAlk Blog. The second Carnival of Blog Translation will take place on March 28 at Em duas línguas.
Russia: “Unrealized Moscow”
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile explores the Moscow State Museum of Architecture website and writes about what Moscow might have become.
Asian History Carnival
Frog in a Well presents the 3rd Asian History Carnival, including discussions of Memoirs of a Geisha (Media and Popular Culture), an entire pre-modern Japanese history seminar blogging their reading, martial Buddhas and possible links to the samurai tradition, an Korean insect extermination ritual, the Soviets in Manchuria, the French...
Russia: Newspaper Reports Russian Books Destroyed in Maryland
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile investigates the story behind a catchy Russian headline: “Gaithersburg Authorities Destroy Hundreds of Thousands Russian Books.”
Russia: Berezovsky's Latest Criticism of Russia's Regime
Vilhelm Konnander writes about Boris Berezovsky's latest criticism of Russia's current regime and how this may cause Britain to repeal his political asylum.
Russia: Gorbachev's 75th Anniversary Interview
Sean Guillory translates parts of an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev that appeared in the Russian-language Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Gorbachev turned 75 yesterday.
Russia: American Adoption of Children From Russia
W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile writes about American foreign adoptions and the excessive coverage of the 12 tragic deaths of Russian children at the hands of their American adopted parents (0.03% of approximately 40,000 children adopted since 1996) in the Russian media.
Russia: Past and Present of Mosselprom
Snowsquare.com writes about the past and present of Mosselprom – the Moscow Association of Establishments for Processing Products of the Agricultural Industry: “[It] became famous for extraordinary advertising, with graphic design by the avant-garde artist, Alexander Rodchenko, combined […] with the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who came up with the slogans...
Russia: More On Dedovshchina
Sean Guillory writes about dedovshchina and cites an article in the Moscow Times that not just condemns conscript abuse in the Russian army, but offers ways of fighting it.
Russia: Matryoshka
Konstantin Dlutskiy of Russian Marketing Blog writes about Russia's very recognizable symbol, matryoshka, and its amusing rendering for a Russian opera festival poster.
Russia: Moscow Registration and Bureaucracy
Lex Libertas writes about what it takes to get through the Russian bureaucracy and obtain the obligatory Moscow registration stamp, and how it feels “to live and work illegally in a foreign country.”
