Archives for October 2010

Exiled Russian Dissident Yury Luzhkov Condemns Putin’s Corrupt, Stalinist Regime

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on October 25, 2010 .19 Comments

This is a headline in a Western newspaper you might be reading in the not-too-distant future. Back in October 8th, ten days after Luzhkov’s dismissal from the Moscow mayoralty by Medvedev, I predicted that “within the next 3 months Luzhkov is going to get hit with corruption charges and will either go on trial or […]

Why Russia And China Won’t Fight

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , , was written by for on October 17, 2010 .50 Comments

Every so often there appear claims, not only in the Western press but the Russian one, that (rising but overpopulated) China is destined to fight an (ailing and creaking) Russia for possession of its resources in the Far East*. For reasons that should be obvious, this is almost completely implausible for the next few decades. But […]

Introducing the Karlin Corruption Index (KCI)

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for on October 10, 2010 .28 Comments

Following on the ground-breaking and globally acknowledged Karlin Freedom Index (which is of course by far the most objective, accurate, comprehensive and plain awesome democracy measuring tool available to political scientists today), I’m now revealing the Karlin Corruption Index (KCI) which rates transparency based on my own readings, personal impressions and bigoted prejudices. As with the […]

Russia Updates: Luzhkov, Rearmament, GDP

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on October 2, 2010 .13 Comments

As you may have noticed, posting has slowed down in the past few days, mostly thanks to a combination of (1) Kindle, (2) 中文 and (3) the natural periods of apathy that afflict most non-pro bloggers. I don’t really see that changing until the end of the year… 1. Sayonara, Luzhkov. Props to Jesse Heath for […]