After reporting that the Uzbek/Kyrgyz border was tense, Radio Liberty reported on June 11 that Uzbek border guards killed an ethnic Uzbek who was a Kyrgyz citizen. The guards said that he was crossing the border illegally and did not stop when they told him to. Another Kyrgyz citizen, villagers reported, has been missing for […]
Note to Russian war reporters returning to Moscow after dodging bullets in Chechnya: keep those flak jackets on! According to the latest report by The International Union of Journalists, “Moscow is the most dangerous place for journalists in Russia, even more than in relatively unsafe regions like Chechnya”. And with 312 journalist deaths since 1991, […]
Below is a movie review of the Afghan film ‘Osama’ by FPA’s Global Film Review blogger Sean Patrick Murphy. If you have seen the film please let us know what you thought about it in the comments. Enjoy… “Osama” is the story of a 12 year-old girl living in Afghanistan during the rule of the […]
Who is Artyom Loskutov, and why should we kiss his babushka? While the industrial victory in Pikalevo (however Pyrrhic it may yet prove) hogs the headlines, the fate of this 22 year old performance artist from Novosibirsk has shown the stark limits to people-power in today’s Russia. Largely ignored in the mainstream media, Loskutov’s summary […]
In the last few weeks, there have been numerous problems with Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley neighbors. While incidents have been provoked in the past, there has been a confluence of strife recently, likely due to the anniversary of the Andijon shootings of May 2005. In Tajikistan, the Uzbeks have erected a checkpoint along some disputed point […]
Reports are slipping out from the US military’s official investigation into the accidental bombing of civilians in Afghanistan’s Farah Province last month and it looks like the US is admitting some mistakes. The investigation, according to the LA and NY Times, acknowledges that all rules of engagement were not followed during the incident, including reports […]
I apologize for my absence as we have been having good ol’fashioned technical difficulties. There are many Afghan-related in the past week and I hope to catch up and comment on at least a few of them (McChrystal’s testimony, airstrikes and civilian casualties, poppies, etc.), but for now let’s discuss what President Obama said in […]
More than two months ago, your humble Russia Blog predicted a bloody end to an industrial protest in a small town called Pikalevo. After all, here was a rag tag band of laid off workers up against not only the state but also one of its richest and most loyal oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska, who owns […]
Why is “the man regarded by some as the patriarch of the dissident movement…almost forgotten at home”? So asks a recent AP profile of the legendary Soviet dissident Sergei Kovalyov. After all, wouldn’t the very people who campaigned hardest to end Communism have benefited most from its downfall? Predictably, the author blames the Putin regime: […]
Now that the shock of General Motors’ bankruptcy has passed, it may be a good time to examine the role played by several governments — including Russia’s — in shaping the outcome. As befits a multinational industrial corporation, General Motors impacted the economies (as well as the consumers) of nations around the world. When GM […]
Rashid, a highly touted Pakistani journalist, begins the final chapter of his 2000 ‘Taliban’ by calling the country one of world’s ‘orphaned conflict’s’. The country would quickly change from being orphaned to a month after 9/11 being the center of global politics, as the United States uprooted the Taliban government and sent them packing, unfortunately […]
Yesterday, a Moscow court slapped the wrists of ultranationalist leader Alexander Belov with an 18 month suspended sentence for hate speech at a rally of his Movement Against Illegal Immigration. Belov, whose name fittingly means ‘White’, agitates to cleanse the country of non-Slavs under the slogan of ‘Russia for Russians’ (his movement’s logo, a black […]
The magazine business new europe (bne) has recently issued a special report on Kazakhstan. The journal covers eastern, southeastern and central European markets. The special report on Kazakhstan is especially interesting right now as the country is closely tied to world markets and is therefore struggling. KazakhGold, the state gold company, listed on the London […]
US Defense (or is it War) Secretary Robert Gates spoke candidly about the war in Afghanistan to group of reporters yesterday aboard an Air Force plane. Gates, who has gone from a seemingly short, holdover type term to one filled with significance, warned that unless “a perceptible shift in momentum” occurs with the Obama administration’s […]
The Heads of State of Afghanistan (Karzai), Pakistan (Zardari), and Iran (Ahmadinejad) met in Tehran on Sunday for the first trilateral meeting between the neighboring states in years. Extremism, terrorism, and drug trafficking were the main issues on the agenda, but the most important accomplishment was setting a tone of cooperation for future dealings. The […]