Stories about Russia from August, 2007
Russia: Subethnic Divisions
Window on Eurasia writes on how subethnic divisions among Russians influence (or not) Russia's relations with its neighbors.
Russia: Muslims the Majority in 2050
Window on Eurasia writes that, according to a Kremlin adviser, more than half of the population of the Russia will be Muslim in 2050.
Russia: Tešanović on Politkovskaya
On Boing Boing, Jasmina Tešanović writes about Anna Politkovskaya, who was her friend.
Russia: “Mama, We're In Hell!”
A young Russian woman traveling from Helsinki to Moscow found herself in a railway traffic jam caused by the train derailment last week. She was so horrified by the sight of the Russian countryside that she called her mother on her cell phone and told her they were stuck "in hell." The blogger who posted this story has received 469 comments from his readers.
Russia: Communist Youth League and Just Russia
Sean's Russia Blog writes about the current political preferences of Russia's Communist Youth League.
Former Soviet Union: A 1945 Book
Scraps of Moscow feels “sort of funny using new media to post photos of old media” and writes about a 1945 book on the still-friendly Allies – or, the “soon-to-be Cold-War foes.”
Russia: Baseball
The Accidental Russophile writes about baseball in Russia: “Let's not pretend that baseball (or even it's ancient cousin, lapta) is very popular in Russia. It isn't.”
Russia: Blogger on Trial for Writing Fiction
Blogger Dmitry Shirinkin faces trial for having written on his blog that he had purchased a gun and was going to kill a few dozen people in one of the city’s colleges. According to Shirinkin, the text - posted on April 21, but made private on April 22 - was a work of fiction, "inspired" by the Virginia Tech shooting. According to the prosecutor's office, however, Shirinkin has violated Article 207 of the Russian Criminal Code by "distributing false information on a planned terrorist act." The trial is likely to take place in September; if convicted, the Russian blogger may receive a three-year prison sentence.
Russia: Intermarriages
Of the more than 60,000 marriages in Moscow in the first half of 2007, a quarter were between native Muscovites – “typically an ethnic Russian woman – and a citizen of a neighboring country – more often than not a man from Azerbaijan or Central Asia.” Window on Eurasia attempts...
Russia: August 1991
Window on Eurasia writes about the missed opportunities of the August 1991 coup, which out an end to the Soviet Union.
Russia: Nashi, BBC, and the Upcoming Elections
Mark MacKinnon writes about the recent BBC ban and the Nashi movement's summer camps: “Both the Kremlin's bolstering of “patriotic” youth movements and its crackdown on non-state media outlets are moves directed at heading off any kind of Orange Revolution-inspired uprising in Russia around December's Duma elections and/or next year's...
Estonia: Russia
Yet another blog battle is raging in the comments section of Edward Lucas’ post on the Russo-Estonian relations.
Ukraine: Bukovyna's New Romanians
Edward Lucas writes about Bukovyna's demographic trends: “A Ukrainian TV channel reports that 50,000 people in the western region of Chernovtsy now hold Romanian passports.”
Russia: Xenophobia and Violence
There are 48 comments so far to a post on xenophobia and violence in Russia, over at Sean's Russia Blog. One commenter writes: “It seems to me that the Kremlin gave a green light to the ‘ultra-nationlist’ tendencies of some ethnic Russians by the way it dealt with Georgia and...
Russia: Photos From St. Pete and Vyborg
Megan Case posts more pictures of St. Petersburg, and of Vyborg, and writes this about her trip to this formerly Finnish town: “…while St. Petersburg has been getting cleaner and shinier and better by leaps and bounds, Vyborg still looks dirty and run-down. I can’t really understand it, since that...
Russia: Speaking Russian Properly
Megan Case writes about a somewhat annoying initiative to get everyone to speak Russian “properly.”
Russia: Betting on the Next President
The British are betting on who's going to be the next Russian president, Eternal Remont reports.
Russia: BBC Radio Off Russian FM
As the parliamentary and presidential elections draw near, the BBC's Russian-language broadcasts have been chased out of Russian FM radio. Vilhelm Konnander has more on it.
Russia: Down's Syndrome Association
Maaskva: Nashimi Glazami translates the first part of an interview with Marina Tsarkova, one of the co-founders of Russia's Down's Syndrome Association.
Serbia, Russia: Parliamentary Football
Anegdote writes about a football game that the team of Serbian parliament members lost to the team of Russian Duma deputies.
Russia: Neo-Nazi Execution Video
One of the most discussed topics in the Russian blogosphere last week was a graphic video of what appeared to be the execution of two ethnically non-Russian men by masked figures claiming to be members of a Russian neo-Nazi group. Anton Nossik, a representative of the company that oversees LiveJournal's Russian segment, blogs about the Russian authorities' irrational reaction to the video.
