A dispute over taste and tasting

 
It's all predictable, yet not quite

No doubt, tomorrow's parliamentary election is not going to be fair or free. But the interesting thing about it that United Russia, the "party of power," is seriously afraid it may not get the majority it wants. (I'm not sure if it is 50% or 75% or some other number between 50% and 100%.) They're sure to fix it anyway, but it may not be the neat job they were hoping for.
posted by Alex(ei) at 1:14 PM. Permalink 6 BlogSpot comment(s)

 
Happy July 4th to all my American readers!
posted by Alex(ei) at 12:12 PM. Permalink 3 BlogSpot comment(s)

 
Als alle Vögel sangen, or, The spring is over (though not astronomically so)

In the second half of May, birds seemed to be singing all over Moscow. Even in the garden between the Leninsky Prospekt and one of those columnar "Research Institute" buildings, over the traffic noise, I heard... perhaps a nightingale. I am still unsure if I can make out birds' voices but I'd like to think it was nightingales that I heard at night outside my window for a whole week in May.
posted by Alex(ei) at 7:10 AM. Permalink 1 BlogSpot comment(s)

 
Victor Davis Hanson on WWI ...

discussed (that is, ripped to shreds) on Daniel Larison's Eunomia.
posted by Alex(ei) at 5:52 AM. Permalink 0 BlogSpot comment(s)

 
Recommended: Neeka on the "riots" in Tallinn

The Estonian government has every right to do what it sees fit with any monument and any grave on Estonian land. There is little doubt that the Soviet regime, back in 1940-1941 and 1944-1953, did its best to virtually decapitate the Estonian nation -- namely, to exterminate or exile the educated, the enterprising, the socially active, the rich, the successful, the militarily adroit. That is, Estonia went through the same sort of nationwide lobotomy as Russia did in the 1920s (and, generally speaking, 1917-1953).

It is no wonder that the PM of Estonia, Andrus Ansip, was a Communist apparatchik under Soviet rule. In the Bronze Soldier affair, the ex-Communist PM made every effort to provoke the anger of the Russo-Estonian community. It is worth noting that in the 16 years of Estonian independence, the ethnic Russian community has reacted quite sheepishly to the numerous petty humiliations and provocations by various Estonian nationalists of Communist extraction. Ansip's remarks that the Soviet soldiers buried at the Bronze Soldiers' feet were marauders and drunks must have become the last straw, whether he was technically right or not. In fact, we can only congratulate the Russo-Estonian community for behaving so civilly for such a long time; but sooner or later, the pent-up anger had to show. (I also suspect that the "riots" wouldn't have happened without Moscow's instigation, which is no wonder, Putin being the same Soviet type as Ansip. No doubt Moscow causes more harm than good to the Russians in Estonia with its yells of "fascism", "boycott," and "discrimination.")

As I've said, Ansip is a Soviet-style provocateur, a sterling product of Soviet Estonia; the same can be said of the police who have shown remarkable brutality in the suppression of the so-called riots -- which means, in arresting, beating up, and variously abusing peaceable protesters and passers-by. In fact, we have seen the same OMON in action in Tallinn as in Moscow. I have looked at the faces of the unfortunate people lying on the ground in handcuffs (some spent hours cuffed behind their back) -- those people look like regular Northern or Central Europeans, not the bloated Russian drunks Estonian papers seldom neglect to mention. Perhaps it is far-fetched, but I'm beginning to get the impression that, as far as inter-ethnic economic competition exists in Estonia, the Russians are not going to yield, and that prospect frightens some Estonians so much that they would do anything to portray Estonia's Russians in the same light as France's Muslims.
posted by Alex(ei) at 3:00 AM. Permalink 6 BlogSpot comment(s)

 
Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin, 1931--2007

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux pepetua luceat ei.
Requiescat in pace.
Amen.
posted by Alex(ei) at 12:29 AM. Permalink 1 BlogSpot comment(s)

 
Weather update

Winter is back in Moscow. "Christmas is approaching," as intracorporate spam goes.

Labels: Russia, weather

posted by Alex(ei) at 11:47 PM. Permalink 2 BlogSpot comment(s)