RFE/RL: In Ethnically Diverse Russia, 2010 Census Presents Logistical, Political Headaches
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posted by eagle on October, 2010 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
In Ethnically Diverse Russia, 2010 Census Presents Logistical, Political HeadachesA Russian census taker fills in a census form while talking to a local resident in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. October 14, 2010 By Daisy Sindelar As Russia kicks off its first nationwide census in eight years, a quick conversation with Shamkhaldibir Isayev is all it takes to demonstrate the logistical challenges ahead. Isayev, a law professor at Daghestan State University in Makhachkala, is Chamalal -- a small ethnic group native to the North Caucasus republic's southwestern highlands. Chamalals are considered a subgroup of Avars, one of the largest of Daghestan's major ethnic groups. There are believed to be just 5,000 ethnic Chamalals, but even so, the group's indigenous language is further broken down into two distinct dialects -- Gigatl and Gakvari -- depending on geographic location. So Isayev, to be absolutely precise about it, is an urbanized Chamalal who speaks the Gigatl dialect -- although not necessarily with the village twang that makes it strongly suggestive of ...
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SD: Tilting At Governments
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
| MONDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2010 | Tibor Krausz
The Jerusalem Post
Robert Amsterdam
International lawyer Robert Amsterdam doesn’t shy away from using verbal heavy artillery in his battles on behalf of prominent clients.
He's been called "A dirty Yid,” a "shyster” and – this needles him most – "a PR hack.” For Robert Amsterdam, derogatory epithets dished out at him in state-controlled media from Russia to Venezuela to Thailand come with the territory.
Embroiled in high-profile legal tussles on behalf of prominent clients like jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister of Thailand, Amsterdam wages unrelenting wars of words through the media with the governments of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and incumbent Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva.
"Sure I go to the press,” Amsterdam tells The Jerusalem Report, seething with indignation at the charge leveled at him by detractors that he’s an unscrupulous media-savvy apologist for clients with questionable reputations. "What are you supposed to do in countries with no rule of law, knowing you’re ... |
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Washington Post: Anna Chapman Resurfaces. Blast off!
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Anna Chapman resurfaces. Blast off!
By Kathy Lally
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 8, 2010; 4:15 PM
MOSCOW- Anna Chapman, the come-hither Russian spy, threw off her cloak, stowed the dagger and stepped out of the shadows Friday. She returned to public view at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where she watched two Russians and one American astronaut rocket away to the international space station. Chapman - one of the 10 sleeper spies arrested in the United States in June, then sent home in a spy swap in July - has kept pretty much under cover here ever since. But there she was Friday, wearing an eye-catching, bright red coat (hidden identities are so 2009). Chapman attended the event, according to various accounts, as part of her new duties as an assistant to the head of a bank that works with aerospace industries. When reporters recognized her and crowded around, she said, provocatively, "I have just arrived." Then a burly man whisked her away. Since returning to her homeland, Chapman has had one brush ... >> full
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Washington Post: Recalling A Journalist And An Era
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Recalling a journalist and an era
By Kathy Lally
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 8, 2010; A8
MOSCOW - Perhaps 200 people, more elderly than not, gathered Thursday in the late afternoon sunlight near a busy Moscow metro station to challenge the authorities and to remember a dead journalist. The authorities were watching. They had dispatched three busloads of young men - and a few young women - special police in black leather jackets and black berets. An ambulance stood by. Four years ago Thursday, at 4:03 p.m., Anna Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old reporter, was fatally shot in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. She is one of 52 journalists killed in Russia since 1992. Her death has not been solved, though the investigation continues. Her reporting about the war in Chechnya had angered the authorities as she traveled fearlessly in the war zone, investigating Chechen complaints of abuse at the hands of Russian soldiers and describing widespread destruction. She was critical of authority as other journalists grew silent, and was admired by the ... >> full
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Washington Post: Slain Russian Journalist's Unsolved Death Speaks So Kremlin's Enduring Grip
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Slain Russian journalist's unsolved death speaks to Kremlin's enduring grip
By Kathy Lally
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 7, 2010; 5:39 PM
MOSCOW - Perhaps 200 people, more elderly than not, gathered Thursday in the late afternoon sunlight near a busy Moscow metro station to challenge the authorities and to remember a dead journalist. The authorities were watching. They had dispatched three bus loads of young men - and a few young women, too - special police in black leather jackets and black berets. An ambulance stood by. Four years ago Thursday, at 4:03 p.m., Anna Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old reporter, was fatally shot in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. She is one of 52 journalists killed in Russia since 1992. The cause of her death has not been solved, though the investigation continues. Her reporting about the war in Chechnya had angered the authorities as she traveled fearlessly in the war zone, investigating Chechen complaints of abuse at the hands of Russian soldiers and describing widespread destruction. She was critical of authority as other ... >> full
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