The escalating war between Putin and House Speaker Sergei Mironov, who is being pressured to resign for daring to criticise the budget and the Prime Minister by name on national TV, may be just the opposite of what it seems. “Do not try to bend the spoon. Try to realize the truth: there is no […]
In his report to the President this summer, Gen. McChrystal stated that he thought the war in Afghanistan was winnable, but if things did not change quickly, it would be lost. McChrystal has now been handed nearly 100,000 American troops, along with thousands more NATO and Afghan partners, and given about a year to show […]
My original plan for today’s post was to be on how the US may be over-relying on drone attacks against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but then I read this Michael Phillips’ piece. But first the drones. The drone attacks have indeed proved effective in eliminating several high level Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders. These […]
When Tolstoy remarked that “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”, he might have been describing the recent anti-government protests in Russia. On Sunday, I wrote about two ‘riots’: a civil disobedience action against the demolition of homes, and a political rally in defence of the right to organise, organised by the liberal […]
I apologize for my absence as I’ve been in the middle of an apartment move that made me wish I was literally in a ‘graveyard of empires’. But now I’m nearly settled, the internet now is internetting effectively, and we can get back to all things Afghanistan shortly. During the past week of moving mayhem, […]
“Bailiffs and riot police had been ordered to evict scores of people and tear down their homes, all apparently unannounced”, reports Al Jazeera, describing a scene familiar to anyone who has followed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The bulldozers continued their work,”, continues the BBC, “tearing through the walls and windows of homes, turning them into piles […]
“If Putin says he’s against ‘Ukrainianization,’ you can translate that as meaning he opposes media freedom and real elections,” says Boris Nemtsov, a liberal politician. He was reacting to Putin’s recent statement that ‘We must continuously think about improving our political system… but we must act with extreme caution [and] not allow our political culture […]
Danish journalist Michael Andersen argues yes. His new documentary, available via youtube, here: Documentary His interview can be found on ferghana.ru’s website, http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2604 Radio Liberty comments here on official Islam. Overall, I agree with Andersen. He can be reached at [email protected]
Recently, I was shocked to hear an American friend name one of the virtues of her new house: “there are many police in the neighbourhood”. You would never hear such a thing come from the mouth of a Russian person, and for good reason. Calling the cops in Russia risks inviting the sort of treatment […]
Yesterday’s attack in Kabul by a team of 7 Taliban members once again highlights the fragility of the Afghan government and state. Though only 5 non-insurgents were killed, 3 Afghan soldiers and 2 civilians, the militants were able to disrupt hundreds of Kabul citizens’ lives and threaten the safety of President Karzai and members of […]
At the end of December, leaders of Russia and Turkmenistan met to discuss the future of their relationship. First, on December 22, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov met in Ashgabat and signed an agreement to expand bilateral “strategic” energy cooperation. Then the heads of Gazprom and Turkmengaz signed an agreement […]
FPA has a new China blogger that I highly recommend checking out. His name is Henry Hoyle and he wrote this great piece on the numerous implications of China’s Aynak investment in Afghanistan. Here it is in full below: China’s Afghan Investment: Brilliant Strategy or Expensive Gamble? The December 31st NYT had a great in-depth […]
An epic sci-fi tale set in the 22nd century on fictional planet Pandora and its alien Navi civilisation wins the hearts of millions of fans. Then, 40 years later, James Cameron makes Avatar. That’s right, this week Russian newspapers were rife with allegations that Cameron stole the idea for his blockbuster film from a series […]
Radio Liberty, apparently. Yesterday, the first of their three part series exploring the middle class across the former Soviet bloc was dedicated specifically to ‘what it means to be middle class’. Yet without ever defining the slippery concept of middle class itself, Charles Recknagel concludes that, unlike their supposedly heroically liberal and democratic Western counterparts, […]
On December 14th, in Samandepe in eastern Turkmenistan, the starting point of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline, the President of China opened the valve that will send natural gas from Turkmenistan through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China. This is the first major gas pipeline that will be an alternative to Russian pipelines. 40 billion cubic […]