Archives for March 2008

News 30 March: The Paradoxes of Russophobia

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , , , was written by on March 30, 2008 . 5 Comments

Medvedev gives his first foreign media interview (to the Financial Times), in which he charts the bedrock of his presidency. Will continue to pursue primarily Russia’s, not the West’s, interests. Will work in tandem with Putin, to whom he is neither puppet nor rebel. Will strive to root out “legal nihilism” / proizvol in Russia […]

Russophile Core Articles

This in about Politics, and tagged , , was written by on March 29, 2008 . 2 Comments

This is a (continuously expanding) list of the articles that any serious Russia-watcher has to read if they wish to become acquainted with the Russophile worldview. I have hi-lighted the most important ones. But first, the sources of reality-based, high quality information about Russia. Sublime Oblivion, by yours truly. And now, in no particular order… […]

Top 10 Russophobe Myths

This in about Politics, and tagged , , was written by on March 25, 2008 . 47 Comments

EDIT: Check out the updated Top 50 Russophobe Myths. According to this blog’s philosophy, every thesis needs an antithesis. Hence I present the Top 10 Russophobe Myths, in opposition to La Russophobe’s Top 10 Russophile Myths. (As well as to celebrate our 2000th visit). 10 MYTH: The barbarous state of Muscovy arose in the sixteenth […]

I Appear on Al-Jazeera

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , was written by on March 21, 2008 . 5 Comments

Here‘s the video. My section begins at 8:02. Why was my speech not exactly on-topic?

The People Speak: Poll #1 Results, US Presidential Candidates

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , was written by on March 19, 2008 . 4 Comments

These are the results of our first poll (running from January 11 to March 19). I am pleased to see that the number of people thinking it’s brilliant decisively outnumber those who think it should be deleted. (So I’ll remain on the blogosphere.) Otherwise, don’t bother with digressions, aesthetics or more features, but concentrate more […]

News 19 Mar: It Takes 2 (or 3) to Tango in Human Rights

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , was written by on March 19, 2008 . 2 Comments

The US State Department has released its latest human rights report – as usual, a veritable list of America’s bugbears (North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan are the ‘top ten’). It is true that the majority of the above are pretty odious regimes, with the partial exception of Belarus […]

Education as the Elixir of Growth

This in about Human Biodiversity, and tagged , , , , , was written by on March 10, 2008 . 13 Comments

What are the reasons behind the wealth and poverty of nations? Since this question has exercised the minds of thinkers from Adam Smith to David Landes, Jared Diamond and Richard Lynn, I decided to take a look at it myself. I came to the conclusion that while geography, macroeconomic policies, resource windfalls and the microeconomic […]

Flotsam and Jetsam: Election Entertainment

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , was written by on March 6, 2008 . 1 Comment

Some 47% of Russians watched the pre-election debates between Zyuganov (Communists), Zhirinovsky (Liberal Democrats, i.e. nationalists) and Bogdanov (Democratic). (Medvedev decided against participating). Here’s a scene from when they thought they were off-camera, in which the ever colorful Zhirinovsky shows us how to debate properly.

Annals of Media Madness – The Trouble with the Economist

This in about Economy, and tagged , , , , , was written by on March 4, 2008 . 11 Comments

This is how the Economist celebrates Russia’s presidential election – the Trouble with Russia’s Economy, represented by a bear gorging itself on oil (i.e. invoking the Myth of the Russian Oil Curse, which we have debunked far too many times to count on this blog). Guess we’ll have to do it again. Never mind that […]

News 2 Mar

This in about Politics, and tagged , , , was written by on March 2, 2008 . Leave a Comment

The most important development has been Medvedev’s election to the Presidency with 70.2% of the vote. While it has not been squeaky clean (and as such, no different from any other Russian election under either Yeltsin or Putin), the more hystryonic claims of voter intimidation are to be treated with a pinch of salt – […]