Unraveling The Tandem Switch

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on October 8, 2011 .19 Comments

Now that my initial triumphalism over Putin’s return has faded a bit, it’s time for a more analytical look. One of the main reasons I thought Medvedev would be the more likely person to be United Russia’s Presidential candidate is that Putin was simply unwilling to return. As Daniel Treisman wrote in his book on post-Soviet […]

The Stalinist Drug Warrior: The Real Medvedev, Part 2

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for on July 14, 2011 .18 Comments

Following on from my last post in which I revealed the neoliberal, anti-Russian inclinations of Dmitry Medvedev (pictured left, sporting his new Hitler mustache), let us know consider another question – what to make of his much vaunted liberalism, his humaneness, his consciousness? The Western media as with their liberal Russian running dogs have traditionally presented DAM as […]

DAM, What A President!: The Real Medvedev, Part 1

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on July 8, 2011 .42 Comments

A recent study by Laura Bottazzi et al. at the University of Bologna, Italy confirmed a pretty obvious fact of international business. Far from being the rational agents of standard economics, objectively focusing on those countries offering the best return on their investments, international financiers are in fact heavily influenced by national stereotypes. A Dutch venture […]

Lying Liars and their Lies

This about Politics, tagged , , , , , was written by for on April 6, 2008 .3 Comments

1. The Myth of Russian Corruption In this blog, I have documented how a) corruption in Russia is similar to the average for middle-income countries and b) it has improved slightly under Putin. This is backed by data from the World Bank’s Governance Indicators, Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer and World Bank statistics on problems […]