Translation: Muscovites Aren’t Hot for Navalny

Moskovsky Komsomolets’ Dmitry Katorzhnov takes a walk around Moscow to ask people what they feel about Navalny. The impressions he gets don’t promise anything good for his campaign. MK’s Poll: Most Muscovites don’t Want to Vote for Navalny Half of the respondents do not intend to go to the polls anyhow. On Wednesday, July 10 Alexey […]

Translation: Police – Foreigners Commit 47% of Crimes in Moscow

As Russia develops a Migration Code to deal with recent influxes, one police official testifies that 47% of crimes in Moscow are committed by foreigners. Interior Ministry: 47% of Crimes in Moscow are Committed by Foreigners 47% of crimes in Moscow are carried out by foreigners, according to the latest statistics. This was announced by […]

Russia’s Gastronomic Revolution?

Following the precedent I set with Alex Mercouris – why should I write a post on something myself, when one of the commentators has already done something better? – I present this article on Russia’s recent gastronomic revolution by Ivan Golov: I can assure you that Russia has been going through a mass gastronomic and […]

Moscow Isn’t Another Country

There is a certain Russian expression: “Москва — не Россия” (i.e. Moscow, isn’t Russia), to denote the idea that while the capital may be rich, at least by Russian standards, the rest of the country languishes in grinding poverty. This is a trope is frequently taken up by the Western media, which at times presents […]

The Provincialization Of Russian Electoral Fraud

Analysis of the election data is now trickling in, so I feel I can now make some real preliminary estimates of the degree of fraud (eventually, I will compile a list of estimates as I did for the 2011 elections). My assessment is that in these elections it was on the order of 3%-4%, which […]

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

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 […]

Russia Updates: Luzhkov, Rearmament, GDP

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 […]