Perhaps Prime Minister Putin is more attuned to Western criticism than he lets on. For example, two years ago the British motoring show Top Gear rather harshly called the Lada Kalina – the newest model from Russia’s much maligned firm – a poor copy of a mid 90s Fiat, made out of turnips. Yet when […]
The big news from Russia has been yet another series of arrests at an opposition rally. Nemtsov and Limonov were predictably hauled off while astute bloggers dissected Putin’s latest macho threat that unauthorised protesters would be hit upside the head with a truncheon. Yet behind these political theatrics, another much less boisterous yet much more […]
In the past two years there have been many (one is too many) reported cases of Afghan girls mysteriously falling ill at school. It was widely speculated that members of the Taliban were purposefully poisoning these girls in order to punish/intimidate them from getting an education. Sadly, recent tests have shown that in ten of […]
I have struggled to try to understand what happened in Kyrgyzstan this summer, specifically the “interethnic” clashes in June. My graduate studies focus on Central Asia in the 19th century, and frankly, much has changed. I am sometimes ill-equipped to fully explain whats happening now with my knowledge of the 19th century. This upcoming semester […]
Most people would find it hard to upstage a meeting between the head of a giant nuclear power and one of the world’s most high profile rock stars. But most people are not Putin (thank God!?). By single-handedly harpooning a whale while shouting “Living in general is dangerous!”, the Prime Minister not only made Medvedev’s […]
This Wall Street Journal story by Siobhan Gorman details the influential position of a CIA chief inside of the Karzai administration in Kabul. The piece is worthwhile reading for its insight into the Obama administration’s Afghan teams layout and method for working with the at times, volatile, President Karzai. President Obama’s administration’s relationship with Karzai has seen […]
With all the hub-bub about the Wikileaks, tragic death of the humanitarian workers, President Karzai’s anti anti-corruption crusade, etc. an important seachange in the Obama administration’s Afghan strategy has appeared; The administration is discreetly walking back its July 2011 drawdown date. Here is Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week [my emphasis]: “I think we need […]
To freshen up after saving the Amazon from the construction of the world’s largest dam and then helping beat the Gulf oil spill, Avatar director James Cameron decided to relax in an unusual setting today: by celebrating his birthday in a submarine at the bottom of Lake Baikal. While Cameron’s connection to Baikal so far […]
The recent news of the young couple stoned to death in Kunduz Province in Northern Afghanistan suggests that the Taliban are returning to power, town by town spot by spot through an assertive campaign based on long-accepted conservative social practices. Belief and adherence to Shar’iah has long been a lodestar to the principally conservative Pashtun majority […]
By now nearly every media outlet has written up comments about General David Petraeus’s interview with David Gregory on Meet the Press. Indeed, I have as well, in my other role as way-ward political artist. For now, though I’d like comment on General Petraeus’ deeply analytical understanding of the current situation in Afghanistan. Mr. Gregory […]
The latest Gallup poll measuring the American public’s approval/disapproval of President Obama on a series of issues came out today and the Afghan numbers are downright depressing. A strong majority, 57% disapprove of the President’s handling of the situation in Afghanistan, with only 36% approving. These numbers rival the President’s low ratings for health care and […]
Luzhkov, an avid beekeeper, had ordered his prize-winning hives to be evacuated away from the smog. All the while, he has refused to declare a state of emergency for Moscow’s human inhabitants. This is just one stark example of government callousness and incompetence in the face of the fires that led Simon Schuster to ask, […]
General David Petraeus is asking for more time on the ground in Afghanistan to work out his counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy, the one that he used to immense acclaim in Iraq. This is good news, though how excited one might be by this news depends on what exactly one thinks General Petraeus actually did in Afghanistan. […]
Surprise! Russia’s leaders are surviving the wildfires much more comfortably than their beleaguered constituents, up to 700 of whom are dying per day in Moscow alone. Indeed, as the flames threaten to kill up to 15000, cost $15 billion worth of GDP and even turn radioactive (!!!), some things they don’t seem to threaten are […]
The recent murders of the innocent and brave medical aid workers are heinous crimes against humanity. In a troubling turn, this news heralds a new problem in Afghanistan: the murders were committed in Northern Afghanistan, long thought Northern Alliance territory where the Taliban owned no ground. The murders offer proof that the insurgency throughout Afghanistan […]