Good, long post by Joshua Foust on how Russia can get away with throwing its weight around
Good, long post by Joshua Foust on how Russia can get away with throwing its weight around
Russian journalist defenestrated?
The Pentagon worries about Chinese naval buildup. But why are they concerned about Taiwan, rather than about China's projection of naval force into the Arabian Sea, to dominate the Middle East and Central Asia?
Latest Seymour Hersh piece on Iran. Not one of his greats, but still interesting.
Central Asian Voices: new project from Carnegia and Martha Brill Olcott
ICG report on Pakistan and the Taliban
Abstract2001 picks up something Anna Politkovskaia was working on - mysterious illnesses of children in Chechen schools. Marina doesn't seem to know what to make of it, and neither do I.
Soviet nostalgia: prewar Sukhumi (YouTube)
Little things irritate me the most - like the US conveniently deciding that religious freedom is OK in Vietnam the day before George Bush visits.
Chinese propaganda posters (with translations of the text)
Neweurasia and Registan are following the protests in Bishkek. Baisalov would be too, but livejournal is dead right now.
protests can
Another Georgian blog - only intermittently updated, but linked to a website that has had some care taken over it.
Here's a rumour I hadn't heard: is kompromat,kz controlled by Rakhat Aliyev?
Kompromat.kz
Georgia protests to the UN about Russia's treatment of ethnic georgians. This is only of value in terms of rounding up Western support for Georgia - the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights isn't much against Russia's position within the UN, but he might give people round these parts some nice lines to quote.
Brad Fitzpatrick, creator of livejournal, is in Russia at the moment, and being interviewed on "Moscow Echo" radio this afternoon. Should be interesting...
Possible triggers for future escalation of the spying dispute: independence referendum in South Ossetia on 12 November, military exercises in Akbhazia on October 23-26. Also, any move on Kosovo.
RFE/RL agrees that the "unusually sharp" EU statement on Georgia-Russia is mostly worthless, says its main use is in guiding future statements by EU officials.
The EU isn't sure how strongly to criticise Russia over Georgia, reports Mosnews. France wants to be soft on Russia, Finland and Central Europe want to be tough. I'm wondering how big a difference it will make, in the end.
Moscow flash mob on Sunday - pity the report is all 'ooh, pretty girls' :(
The Georgian opposition New Rights Party is pressuring the government to unilaterally leave the CIS.
Crime coverage in the Russian media is biased against Georgians, according the Union of Russian journalists, to the extent that "one gets an impression that almost all the crimes perpetrated in Moscow are committed by people with Georgian surnames"(Novie Izvestia, via Media.ge)
Georgia blocks talks on Russian entry into the WTO. How much power does Georgia have to make it difficult for Russia to join? This feels like a massive bargaining chip.
Support Georgia: campaign and petition (in English). Looks like it predates the current kerfuffle
Registan: "Astana is trying to set itself up as the primary Hindu portal for the entire FSU"
Sean translates documents showing that Russian police really have been making lists of Georgian schoolchildren.
A CIS summit due to take place on Friday has been postponed at the request of Russia. Is Putin worried that a hot-headed Saakashvili might try to break away from the CIS? Or does he think other states will take Georgia's side?
This morning's Today programme coverage of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya was mostly worthless, but one decent line from Lord Judd (?): "Russia set out to isolate Chechnya, and they have largely succeeded"
Similarly, here is a list of party-affiliated Russian LJ-users, by party.
Who's who in the Russophone livejournal world? Wikipedia has a list of links to 'notable' livejournals, and their sources list includes several Russian 'who's who' posts.
Putin turned 54 today. Zee News (India) snarkily describes him as "Russia's most popular head of state after Josef Stalin"
Tis explanation of a recent rise in gas prices charged by Turkmenistan is a decent insight into just how political energy is - the past situation makes not the slightest sense in economic terms, but political considerations outweigh all that.
Gas dispute between Russia and Turkmenistan
Registan does that whole 'stepping outside the echo chamber' thing, and argues that the SCO may not be all that important after all. I feel suitably chastened.
Andul Khalim Saidullayev (a Chechen separatist leader) has been killed by the Russian military. So, this one lasted just over a year - what brave fool wants to take his place?
What is it with offensive cartoons at the moment? Now a racist cartoon in an Iranian newspaper has triggered demonstrations of thousands of ethnic Azeris, in which the police shot five people dead.
Protests in Mongolia: good summary, not something I'd even noticed before