Badri Bitsadze, the husband of opposition leader Nino Burjanadze, was sentenced by a Tbilisi court on Friday to five years and six months in prison on charges stemming from violent demonstrations in late May. Bitsadze—whose whereabouts have been unknown for months—was sentenced in absentia by the court. Rumors have persisted since early June that he […]
The report of the deadly twinned attack against the British Council in Kabul this morning serve to confirm the hypothesis that militants associated with the Taliban are ramping up their strategy to target civilians as well as military assets. The Taliban have claimed direct responsibility for the attack in which at least 8 people, nearly […]
We Russians love a good conspiracy theory, so here’s one: the failed August coup against Gorbachev by KGB and Communist party hardliners was actually organized by his rival Boris Yeltsin. Think about it: 1. The plotters arrested Gorbachev all the way in the Crimea, but did nothing to prevent Yeltsin, second on their hit list […]
Whenever someone launches “a war on X”, it usually means two things. 1: that there are compelling reasons for X to exist and 2: that the powers that be are unwilling to confront those reasons. It is also likely to fail miserably. Just look at the War on Drugs. Or the War on Terror. So […]
One of the jobs of Sasha, the werewolf FSB officer In Victor Pelevin’s postmodern fantasy novel, involved communicating with the Earth and persuade it to keep providing oil for the Russian elite. To do this, he utters the following prayer: (Quote courtesy of Serguei Oushakine) In real life, it looks like the elite is getting […]
They may no longer be on the opposites side of the Cold War, but Russians and Americans still see the world in opposite ways. While even most blue collar Americans believe they are middle class, 45% of Russians consider themselves to be poor, according to Svetlana Kononova’s piece in Russia Profile, which relies on new […]
“Today in the Senate, I met with Senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk”, announced Russia’s ambassador to Nato Dmitry Rogozin. “I…was transported in a time machine back several decades, and in front of me sat two monsters of the Cold War, who looked at me not through pupils, but targeting sights.” “The meeting is very […]
Afghanistan seems to be sinking- that is, whatever there is left to sink. Earlier this month, the King of Kandahar, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was assassinated and predictable political exchange immediately ground to a halt. The powerful thorn on the side of Afghan pols, General David Petraeus, left to take up his new role as CIA […]
The mediasphere is abuzz with talk of a pro-Putin video starring young-sexy-busty Russian women (isn’t that what all women in Russia are like anyway?) I was struck by déjà vu. The video brings past mammaries I mean memories to the fore. Remember the “happy birthday Mr. President” calendar from the scantily clad students of Moscow […]
Last year, Russian people stuck it to the Man by painting a giant penis on a St Petersburg drawbridge. The Kremlin’s revenge sends that message right back. It’s much less funny, much more obscene, but also involves a bridge: a $1.3 billion bridge to a remote island as part of an overall $24 billion bill […]
When a hundred people are suddenly killed in Norway, it’s an unprecedented national catastrophe. But in Russia, it’s more like an average summer. Today, the final victims of the sunken Bulgaria were freed from the ship’s wreckage, bringing the toll to 122. Earlier, a helicopter crash, a bus collision, and a spike in various fatal […]
Amnesty International has put up a petition addressed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, appealing for the release of Jabbar Savalan, the young pro-democracy activist who was charged with drug possession and convicted in May. As noted on this blog earlier, Savalan was arrested “after calling for protest actions on Facebook and attending a youth conference in […]
At least 13 people have been killed and 86 injured in a 6.2-magnitude earthquake in the Fergana Valley region on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck at 1:35 am (1935 GMT Tuesday) with the epicenter just inside Kyrgyzstan, but 42 km (25 miles) southwest of Fergana, Uzbekistan. The quake […]
Dear Comrade Readers, FPA Russia Blog will be back shortly, once its author returns/recovers from his Wedding! (Who said unpaid blogging about Kremlin machinations and Western hypocrisy isn’t the surest way to a girl’s heart?) If Mr Nikitin manages to successfully avoid detention at various border posts, he will return on the week of the […]
One way to spot a dictatorship is by its leader’s personality cult. Central Asia is a region of more than 4 million square kilometers and a population of 62 million inhabitants rife with authoritarianism, despotism, and the cult of personality reminiscent of the Soviet times. Not too long ago, I wrote about Central Asian dictators, […]