Official Russia

Russia Blog Roundup - 3 June

Posted on June 03, 2009 by Official Russia

You know, when I sat down to write this week’s roundup, I thought to myself - “it’s been a quiet week, there won’t be all that much to cover.”

I was wrong.

A Khodorkovsy Retrospective, by Robert Amsterdam. Long but rewarding reading.
Bloggers memories of Soviet Maternity hospitals - a roundup from Global Voices.
«да нет» Possibly the most infuriating expression in Russian, finally explained by Josefina.
The Kremlin School of Bloggers, by Evgeny Morozov. “Liberty.ru was meant to become something like Russia’s DailyKos or Talking Points Memo.”
Remember that school textbook that everyone got wound up about a while back? The one that said Stalin’s murders were entirely rational? Anatoly Karlin sets the record straight, and provides the first English translation of the offending chapter.
Last week, Streetwise Professor bemoaned Russia’s 19th century diplomacy. This week, he writes about how ‘realists’ are ruining America’s foreign policy towards Russia. (By the way, background on the realist theory of international politics is here).
Russia Blog weighs in on the Eurovision / Gays in Russia debate, arguing that Eurovision is the World’s Biggest Gay Parade, and speaks to a gay couple who are strongly critical of those who decided to hold a pro-gay protest in Moscow on the same day: “Each time Europeans try to stir up the trouble, skinheads, angry babushkas, and dozens of police take over our hang-out places, and we have nowhere to go for days and, sometimes, weeks. Europeans, delighted with their silly achievement, go back to their cities, and we get stuck cleaning up after them.”
Some slices of life, from Neeka.
Sport Tourism, the Russian sport you’ve never heard of before. Apparently Sport Tourism “includes not only a sports component, but also a spiritual component, and is a way of life for lovers of wandering.”
Kremlin Deams Sometimes Come True - Sublime Oblivion’s riposte to a Moscow Times article that “questioned Russia’s stated intention of becoming an advanced industrial nation by 2020.”
Kyle gets his tooth fixed by a Russian dentist. To the surprise of no-one, they do a good job.
An open letter to the esteemed Barack Husseinovich.
The editors of Putin’s wikipedia page are paralyzed with indecision. Which photo makes Putin look the least demonic? Eternal Remont has the scoop.
Once more, Russia says “no” to Western Perversion. I’ve read this a couple of times now, and still can’t tell if the author of Mat Rodina is serious, or if this is a piss-take. Answers on a postcard, please.
China stealing Russian military designs? Lawyers, Guns and Money observes: “I’m sure that the Chinese just arrived independently at the idea of having a folding-wing version of the Su-27.”
What if Chuck Norris were replaced by Putin? “There is no theory of evolution, just a list of animals Putin allows to live.”