Crazy Americans

This Bloomberg piece is intriguing for its careful avoidance of any real journalism.

McCain Would Evict Medvedev From G-8, Push Russia on Democracy

McCain, 71, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, favors expelling Russia from the Group of Eight club of industrial powers. He calls for forging a ``League of Democracies'' to confront Putin and hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, who takes over tomorrow, on Russian threats against former Soviet republics and rollbacks of domestic freedoms.

[...]

Challenging Russia

McFarlane said a McCain administration will be dominated at first by ``neocon redux'' advisers who favor challenging Russia at every turn. He predicts such a policy will founder on the reefs of Russia's rising economic power.

``For the first year you're going to see, very likely, disagreement, public sniping'' between McCain and Russian leaders, McFarlane said at an April 28 forum at Simes's center. ``If there's good news, it is that in the second year all those youngsters will get fired and maybe we'll settle down to a more really realistic presidency.''

The candidate's chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, said McCain means what he said -- and that he is the true realist. Challenging Russian leaders' misconduct is the only practical way to change their behavior, Scheunemann said in an interview.

``The Russians have made a very cold calculation of what their interests are,'' said Scheunemann. ``They will pursue those interests until they understand that there will be some cost to them.''

A relevant question here might be... what, exactly, are their interests? What, exactly, are McCain's grounds for claiming that Russia is not a democracy?

No one in his right mind would claim that the Russian Federation is a democracy in the very narrow, late-twentieth-century idea of a democracy -- there aren't really viable opposition parties in Russia (though the Communists pulled 18% of the presidential vote), the dominant power party controls completely the television networks, and Putin in all but a strictly legal sense appointed his successor.

However, there is a real and vibrant press in Russia, and easy access to foreign news sources. People turned out to vote; it's just that they voted overwhelmingly (70%) for Medvedev. This scenario isn't so different, though, from, say, Mexico during much of the post-WWII period. We clearly have a functioning democracy and fairly elected legislative and executive powers.

And, anyway, Russia has never had its president appointed by a special ruling of the Supreme Court, so I don't know that McCain has much ground to stand upon.

I know all this nonsense by Clinton (`He was a KGB agent,'' she said on Jan. 7. ``By definition, he doesn't have a soul') and McCain is just pure pre-election jingoism, but the uncritical report by Bloomberg is disappointing.

Obama apparently hasn't said boo about Russia. Smart, since we need them on our team.

Russian Alaska Still Resonates in Sitka

South Florida’s own, Sunny Isles Beach is known for it’s Russian population and cultural influence. In this city, branded “Little Moscow,” nearly 8% of people claim Russian as their first language. Not long ago, a number of Russians called a much colder, less temperate place home.

Russians were the first non-natives to explore and colonize Alaska.Russian Alaska existed from about 1784 to 1867. Sitka, Alaska has the oldest history of Russian influence out of any city in the United States. Old world businessman and Russian seafarer, Grigory Shelikhov established Alaska’s first colony in 1784. In 1799, he set up the Russian-American Company, a fur trading monopoly, in the area now known as Sitka.

In 1848, Sitka became the home of the first Russian Orthodox Church in the new world, The Cathedral of St. Michael. It still stands today despite the fact that Russian attempts to Christianize Alaska Natives fell into the hands of Protestants when Alaska was purchased by America in 1867.


Cathedral of St. Michael in Sitka

Over hunting and corrupt industry killed one of Russia’s most lucrative ventures in Alaska, the trade of sea otter pelts through the Russian-American Company. As a result, Russia became desperate to pass off Alaska to America. The land was sold for 2 cents an acre, totaling $7,200,000. This amounts to about $95,672,993 in today’s terms (adjusted for inflation in 2006 dollars...thanks to Wikipedia).

Americans forced most Russians out of Sitka right after this transaction, however; Russian culture is still leaving its mark. Eastern Orthodoxy is still practiced by about 10,000 Alaskans and Russian influence can be found in many restaurants and shops throughout Sitka. I traveled there in 2006 and whilst perusing typical tourist Meccas and tacky T-shirt shops I noticed the abundance of Matryoshka dolls and knock-off Faberge eggs. Incidentally, this was the inspiration for my lengthy, boring, blog submission. Lastly, if you ever have the need for a shirt that says Coca-Cola in Cyrillic, go to Sitka.

Pet Hoarding is Universal

This woman has managed to pack over 130 cats in a two room Moscow flat. Insane! She's nursed many of these cats back to health. Apparently they each get personal attention and even their own name. I think it's a pretty sweet deal if you're a stray in Siberia. I love it when she opens the door to feed them and they start their own kitty mosh-pit....



Here's what the translation on YouTube says:

30 cats in a single apartment. Such noisy company is what one resident of Novosibirsk has chosen. In her two room apartment is where she keeps each of these homeless animals. She found them all outside. Some were sick, others were emaciated from not eating, but she made them well again and fed them well.

So that the neighbors don't complain about particular smells emanating from the apartment, she covered the walls and floors with ceramic tiles that she constantly washes. Nina insists that her cats do not quarrel amongst themselves and adore their hostess. Every cat has its own name and their names she remember by rote and she never gets them confused.

"When I ran out of cat names, I started giving them Russian people names. When I ran out of those, I started giving them first names of people whose names I heard on television shows or concerts, like Sherlok, Watson, Eden..."

Or, you can watch the report in English. =)



All I can think about while watching videos on this lady is that Animal Cop show on Animal Planet, which got me thinking.... Does Russia have an SPCA equivalent? After scouring the internet I found that apparently there is one, but it "has been little studied and is not well known, especially outside the community of Russian speakers." (B. Bonhomme) Some sites say it's called the Imperial Russian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, others say it's Russian Society for the Protection of Animals, or the Russian Society for Animal Protection. It was modeled after the British Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Either way, I'm sure they're familiar with Nina Kostsovo. No one can have THAT many cats and not get a visit from the animal police.....just as a check up. Or maybe they don't really hang out in Sibera? Goodness knows I wouldn't.

Lolcats

Ok, so, although this could hardly be considered intellectually stimulating, I'm going to post it because it made me laugh...

I'm writing a 20-30 page paper for my Honors class (you know, the kind of paper that makes you hate life and seriously consider dropping out of university or killing yourself), and I wanted to give my brain a break.  So I went to Lolcats.  (Don't judge me- you all secretly think it can be funny sometimes...)

Anyway, I saw this:

Come on, it's at least mildly amusing, yeah?

No?  Must just be me.

Posters!

I came across this site full of old Russian posters. They've got everything from movie posters to propaganda. Take a look:

http://eng.plakaty.ru/posters

Чуковский, Телефон

For your final oral exam...
Here's the link to a very good, clear reading of the poem. (You're reciting the first half of the poem.)

Or you can watch the delightful cartoons, though the sound quality is poor:

О́сип Эми́льевич Мандельшта́м and his Midnight Birds

"Midnight Birds" isn't the title of the poem, but I like the image they conjure up so that's the title of my post.  Deal with it.

This poem is by Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938), a brilliant Russian poet who, like all the other truly brilliant Russian poets, had a fairly miserable sounding life.  Rule of thumb seems to be that if they've at least attempted suicide at some point, their poetry is good stuff (must be part of the whole dark, brooding/romantic, human-existence-is-some-kind-of-beautiful-suffering, soulful thing).

Anyway, to give you an abbreviated life story, he was born a wealthy Jew, had some fabulous literary-based education, and then in 1933 wrote "a sixteen line death sentence" (aka, The Stalin Epigram) which was very anti-establishment and led to his arrest (what a surprise...the Soviet Union was so widely renowned for it's freedom of speech).  Amazingly enough he was not killed outright, but was spared in order to wind up writing a bunch of life-saving works that glorified Stalin, including the aptly named Ode to Stalin.  However, this reprieve didn't last too long, as he was eventually charged with "anti-Soviet views" and "counter -revolutionary activities", sentenced to hard labor and died of an unspecified illness.

Osip was from the Acmeist school of poetry (look it up, very interesting...puts me in mind of a poetry-based Illuminati or something).  Basically, this just means he was pretty bloody brilliant.  Dr Denner went over this particular poem of his with us in class yesterday, and I liked it a lot, so I thought I'd post it here with a photo I found online (thank you Flickr!)

This image doesn't really accurately illustrate the poem, (if that's even possible given that poetry, especially this style, is so open to interpretation)...for one thing, there's only one bird, which is not exactly a choir of them)...but for me it captures at least some of the feeling of it.

***Ok, so what was going to be a fabulous post is ruined by the fact that I for some reason cannot copy and paste the poem into it....Why does blogspot hate me?  Urgh.

To read the poem, go to this link.  Then admire this picture.  :-)

One billion dollars is chump change...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - One billion dollars is no longer enough to gain entry to Russia's rich list.

Ten billionaires failed to make Forbes magazine's annual list of the 100 richest Russians that is led by those who built their fortunes on the country's metals resources.

Oleg Deripaska, who controls aluminum producer United Company RUSAL among a host of infrastructure, energy and financial assets, tops the latest Forbes list with a fortune of $28.6 billion -- $11.8 billion more than he was worth last year.

Deripaska replaces Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, who drops to third. The two are split by Alexei Mordashov, majority owner of Severstal , Russia's largest steel maker.

"After the bankruptcy of YUKOS and the strengthening of the state's position in the energy sector, you can count on one hand the number of oil and gas billionaires," Maxim Kashulinsky, editor of Forbes' Russian edition, said in a statement to accompany the launch of the May edition.

"The main fortunes are concentrated now in metallurgy, finance and property."

Who Is Dmirty Medvedev?

And now the video to answer the question...


Interesting fact pulled from video: He loves the rock band Deep Purple and got to take this dorky photo with them:
Rock On Medvedev

Putin: Prime Minister and Leader of United Russia

MOSCOW (AFP) — President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday agreed to head Russia's ruling party in a significant shift of the political landscape three weeks before he hands power to successor Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin, who leaves the Kremlin after two terms on May 7, also confirmed he would become prime minister under Medvedev.

"With gratitude I accept the proposal of the party members and their leadership.... I am ready to take on the additional responsibility and head United Russia," he told a party congress in Moscow after being urged to take the post.

The 55-year-old ex-KGB officer's announcement, carried live on state-run television, signalled a reordering of Russia's political mix on the eve of Medvedev's presidential debut.

During his eight years in the Kremlin, Putin has steadily centralised power, with United Russia his tool for ensuring loyalty of an increasingly emasculated parliament.

Becoming head of the party, which won a constitutional majority with 63 percent of the vote in controversial December elections, will now hugely strengthen Putin's status as prime minister.

But the development added to questions raised in Moscow and foreign capitals over who will really be in charge from next month -- the untested Medvedev or powerful ex-president, turned prime minister and parliament leader Putin.

"Analysts and those in the media are still trying to figure out whose portrait will end up hanging in government offices across the country," commentator Konstantin Sonin wrote in Tuesday's Moscow Times daily.

Andrei Ryabov, an analyst at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, told AFP that Putin's position had been bolstered for now, but that Medvedev might not always tolerate the competition.

"As a result of fights between interest groups, pressures and conflicts, the system could again become based on one person. Who will that be? The chances are equal. You'd have to be an astrologer to say," Ryabov commented.

Recruiting Putin was the logical next step for United Russia, a party that has always been seen as a Kremlin creation tasked with turning the once combative parliament of the 1990s into a rubber stamp.

Late Monday the party voted changes to its charter that would allow Putin to become chairman without actually holding membership. Delegates also decided to split the leadership, with Putin taking the chairmanship and Gryzlov the more technical ruling council.

Gryzlov, whose pleading that Putin take his job is only the latest expression of loyalty, explained Monday just how close the outgoing president and dominant party were to each other.

"The eight presidential annual addresses delivered by Vladimir Putin are what define the 'Putin course' -- the course toward becoming a great power, a great Russia. And this is the programme of our party," he said.

The head of the central elections commission, Vladimir Churov, told Interfax news agency that Putin's embracing of United Russia was "another step on the development of democracy, a wholly natural step for many states where party leaders become heads of government."

But Mark Urnov, an analyst at the Expertise think tank, told AFP that the manoeuvre was "the victory of part of the political elite that did not want, or feared to see the departure of Putin."

"All of Putin's entourage will remain in the key posts.... There will be no separation of the state from the economy, no real fight against corruption," he said. "Stagnation lies ahead."

Natalia Leschenko at the London-based Global Insight group said United Russia now bore comparison with the Soviet Communist Party in that it pretended to defend "democratic interests" but in fact was "a vehicle of party leadership and elite instead."