New Year Special, Part 1: 2010 in Review

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for on January 3, 2011 .25 Comments

Happy new year to all Sublime Oblivion readers! This blog wouldn’t be what it is without you. In fact, I’d have probably abandoned it after a month or two after a couple of posts as I did with my first blog in 2006. So please keep on reading and commenting. BTW, the image above is […]

My Interview on Middle East Geopolitics, Afghanistan and Iran & the Bomb with Marat Kunaev

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , , , was written by for , on August 22, 2010 .38 Comments

I was recently interviewed on Middle East geopolitics and the Iran Question by Marat Kunaev, a blogger and translator at InoForum. I would like to thank him for the opportunity to express my views on the topic and providing a possible gateway into the geopolitical commentary on Runet. I’m reprinting the interview from here, with a few very […]

Interview with Peter Lavelle (Russia Today)

This about Politics, tagged , , , , , , was written by for on August 9, 2010 .15 Comments

The next installment of our Watching the Russia Watchers series at S/O features an interview with Peter Lavelle, the main political analyst at the Russia Today TV network, host of its CrossTalk debate show and Untimely Thoughts blogger. (He also has a Wikipedia page!) Peter is opposed to Western media hegemony, considering it neither fair […]

Interview with Kevin Rothrock (A Good Treaty)

This about Politics, tagged , , , , was written by for on July 28, 2010 .33 Comments

Kicking off the Watching the Russia Watchers interview series at S/O is the promising new blogger A Good Treaty. He is a DC-based foreign policy analyst who prefers a “good treaty with Russia” to only treating with a good Russia: as a foreign policy realist, he is averse to neocon (and neoliberal / liberal interventionist) tropes alike. […]

The Endgame Begins

This about Economy, tagged , , , , was written by for on February 13, 2010 .22 Comments

A year ago I predicted that there will be a “decoupling from the unwinding“, as “emerging markets” by and large ride out the temporary shocks of declining Western demand for their exports (China) and the interruption of Western credit intermediation (Russia) before resuming growth. This is one aspect of the trends leading to the imminent demise […]

New Year Special: Year in Review and 2010 Predictions

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for on January 4, 2010 .6 Comments

I would like to wish all Sublime Oblivion readers a very happy and successful New Year. One of my major motivations for writing is getting comments and feedback, so please continue – the more you inflate my ego, the more time I will feel compelled to spend on the blog. 😉 Year in Review: 2009 […]

10 Myths about Russia’s Demography

This , about Demographics, tagged , , , , , was written by for on December 7, 2009 .36 Comments

This post tries to debunk some popular, but misguided, views on demographic trends in today’s Russia. These consist of the perception that Russia is in a demographic “death spiral” that dooms it to national decline (Biden, Eberstadt, NIC, CIA, Stratfor, etc). Some extreme pessimists even predict that ethnic Russians – ravaged by AIDS, infertility and alcoholism […]

Book Review: Vaclav Smil – Global Catastrophes and Trends

This about Futurism, tagged , , , , , was written by for , on September 28, 2009 .3 Comments

Smil, Vaclav – Global Catastrophes and Trends (2008) Category: futurism, climate change, geopolitics, catastrophes; Rating: 5/5 Summary: Google Books Vaclav Smil, an energy theorist and language connoisseur, brings his talents to bear on this idiosyncratic, incisive and balanced book on the global future. From the outset, he outlines his skepticism in universal theories of history […]

Russia’s Demographic Resilience

This about Demographics, tagged , , , , was written by for on May 22, 2009 .18 Comments

In this post I look at the (surprisingly good) Russian demographic data for Jan-Mar 2009 and argue in more depth that the economic crisis is unlikely to have a very major negative impact on short-term fertility, or any but a very minor impact on long-term demographic trends. I make some falsifiable predictions, estimating a birth […]

Rite of Spring: Russia Fertility Trends

This about Demographics, tagged , , , , was written by for on April 26, 2009 .5 Comments

After its long pre-modern stint as Europe’s most populated nation, France started transitioning to lower birth rates from the Napoleonic era, about a century in advance of the rest of Europe. On the eve of the First World War, its stagnant population made a stark contrast to German youth and virility. Considering the disparity in […]

Book Review: George Friedman – The Next 100 Years

This about Futurism, tagged , , , was written by for , on February 23, 2009 .7 Comments

The Next 100 Years by George Friedman, published in 2010. Rating: 3/5 George Friedman at Stratfor is one of my favorite analysts on world geopolitics. This is because he tries to look at the world as it is, without the pointless moralizing, neoliberal ideologizing and end-of-history triumphalism that clouds too much American geopolitical thinking. Hence whenever I come […]

New Year Special: Year in Review and 2009 Predictions

This about Futurism, tagged , , was written by for on January 2, 2009 .2 Comments

Year in Review: 2008 Again, a very happy and successful New Year to Sublime Oblivion readers. It has certainly been a successful year for this blog, founded as Da Russophile on Jan 9th 2008. The original site at blogger has nearly 16,000 visitors, while Sublime Oblivion has been graced by nearly 2000 from the date […]