Exiledonline's intrepid Yasha Levine writes about an unusual protest by an anarchist group called ‘War’: On the night of November 7, a group of them set up a laser on top of a building across the river from the Russian White House ‚ that's the place where the prime minister carries out daily his business […]
Russia Blogs on Alltop Billed as a "digital magazine rack" of the Internet, Alltop “helps you explore your passions by collecting stories from ‘all the top’ sites on the web”. FPA Russia Blog now enters the rarefied salon of Russia watchers, joining the likes of Sean's Russia Blog, Timothy Post, English Russia, Siberian Light and […]
About a month ago, a 4,000 large contingent of American, Canadian, British, Danish, Australian, and Afghan soldiers made a heroic (yes, I’m watching and Saving Private Ryan right now, and these troops are just as valiant) effort in delivering a huge turbine to south Afghanistan's Kajaki Dam. Here is an update on those efforts which […]
What were all those funnily dressed, heavily armed chaps doing in Red Square today? Depends who you ask. Left wingers and old people were celebrating the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, while Kremlin supporters were celebrating….a day in 1941 celebrating the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Granted, November 7th was always a confusing day to […]
Good morning everyone. Hey, has anyone of you been writing academic reports analyzing another nation's society and political system, while at the same time taking money from that country's government to do so? If you said yes, you may be Johns Hopkins University's Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, which is directed by the much respected S. Frederick […]
“Americans Chose Perestroika” was the headline splashed across Russia's leading tabloid, the Komsomolskaya Pravda, on November 5th. Indeed, the scenes of solidarity, jubilation and catharsis that I witnessed in downtown Washington DC around 11pm on November 4 could have come from a documentary about the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the immediate aftermath […]
Two days ago, a French aid worker was the latest to be targeted by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. In this case the aid worker, who was reportedly an education specialist from an unknown NGO, was kidnapped by a small group of Taliban members, who in the process killed a young Afghan civilian. Reportedly 19 humanitarian […]
In honor of Election Day here in America, how about we remind the two presidential candidates of a tremendously volatile and challenging issue they will all of a sudden be responsible for; Afghanistan/Pakistan democracy and stability. President-elect Obama or McCain will face quite the number of tests, and defeating the Taliban and Al Qaeda, bringing […]
Just last Thursday, Kazakhstan's thriving capitol, Astana, hosted the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's Heads of Government Council meeting. I could not find many reports about what was accomplished at the meeting besides the official statement from the group's website, which was drier than a drought in the Sahara's. The official statement reported that the group's members […]
Who says Russia has no soft power? Well, Robert Amsterdam, for one. He has argued that the Russian invasion of Georgia illustrated its woeful loss of any sort of diplomatic legitimacy. Outside of polite society, it has been a point beaten to death by such brownshirted bloggers as la Russophobe: “Russia's need to rely on […]
In all the violent incidents that have plagued the people of Afghanistan in its recent history, many have died, but even more have been permanently maimed and disabled. Below is a remarkable video about some of the Afghani disabled and their struggle for rights and services: Because the New York Times, who produced this video, […]
Yesterday, I made a statement that it appeared that the Pakistani government was implicitly alright with the use of US drone predator missile attacks in their territory, as long they avoided civilian casualties. While according to statements by Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and several members of the country's ruling coalition, this is not completely true. The […]
But is it too late to change the established narrative? The BBC reports that “that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region of South Ossetia in August”. Yet the old line about one-sided Russian aggression persists in strength, and spreads to Eastern Europe.
Yet another casualty of the credit crisis: prices for Western European politicians have plummeted. What is the world coming to when a nouveau riche Russian aluminium baron can be suspected of buying an old-schooler-than-thou UK shadow chancellor, member of Oxford's elite Bullingdon club and heir to the third Osborne Baronetcy, all for a bargain $80000? […]
Today I would like to go over recent developments in the conflict spanning the Afghan-Pakistan border as the conflict's many sides (NATO, Afghans, Taliban, Pakistan military, Al Qaeda, and local tribes) have all recently been in the news for various reasons: The Bush administration has authorized even greater use of missile/drone attacks inside of Pakistan, […]