Window On Eurasia: Russian Fascists, North Caucasus Separatists Feed Off One Another, Arutyunov Says
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posted by eagle on February, 2011 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Window on Eurasia: Russian Fascists, North Caucasus Separatists Feed Off One Another, Arutyunov SaysPaul Goble
Vienna, February 2 – .Russia’s senior academic specialist on the North Caucasus says that the interests of "the pseudo-Islamic separatists” and of "the Russian fascists” intersect: "If one of them did not exist,” Sergey Arutyunov argues, "the other would lose the ground under its feet.”
Among other things, the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences who heads the Caucasus department of the Moscow Institute of Ethnology and Antrhopology, says, that means that each has a tendency to exaggerate about the other, a tendency that should induce skepticism all around (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/180465/).
Arutyunov’s comment was one of a series of expert reactions surveyed by Kavkaz-Uzel concerning claims by some Russian officials and Moscow media outlets that a shadowy but supposedly militant and powerful separatist "Nogay battalion” had played a role in the Domodedovo airport attack.
Arutyunov said that in his view, "the Nogays have the fewest of all possibilities for a separatist ...
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Window On Eurasia: Experts Discuss Why Russians Aren’t In Revolt
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Window on Eurasia: Experts Discuss Why Russians aren’t in RevoltPaul Goble
Vienna, February 2 – The spread of political protests in the Middle East and increasing problems inside Russia including corruption, income differentiation and official arbitrariness have prompted ever more Russian analysts to ask why is it that Russians are not going into the streets more often and revolting against the powers that be.
Such queries were given a new focus recently when Lev Gudkov, the head of the Levada Analytic Center, told the Moscow media that "85 percent of the population of Russia considers that they are not in a position to influence anything in the country” and thus do not try to change things by engaging in public protests (forum-msk.org/material/politic/5409735.html).
But Gudkov insisted, Russians should not be blamed for this apparent social apathy. The figure he cited, the Levada head said, "means not that people do not sympathize with the victims [of this or that disaster or policy] but rather that they are ...
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Window On Eurasia: Recent Converts, Returnees To Islam In Russia Joining Radical Sects, Experts Say
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Window on Eurasia: Recent Converts, Returnees to Islam in Russia Joining Radical Sects, Experts SayPaul Goble
Vienna, February 2 – Because of the continuing impact of Soviet anti-religious policies, many of those converting to Islam or returning to the faith of their fathers are joining radical sects which use religion as a cover for political goals or terrorism rather than becoming followers of "traditional Islam,” according to an advisor to the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR).
In a comment broadcast on the Russian News Service, Vyacheslav Polosin says that most of those converting to Islam or returning to it lack "elementary knowledge about their religion,” as a result of "70 years of state atheism) and thus have their heads turned by those who deal in superficial slogans (www.interfax-religion.ru/islam/?act=news&div=39337).
These people are thus ready to be "lead by the hand into dark basements” where their new instructors tell them that "the most radical things” are the essence of Islam, the kind of assertion that their ...
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Independent: Bloc Party: New Russian Cash Creates Eastern Gold Rush
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Bloc Party: New Russian cash creates eastern gold rush
The former Soviet republics are awash with money and it is being thrown at football clubs – the vanity projects of tycoons or politicians By Shaun Walker Saturday, 5 February 2011 
GETTY IMAGES The unexpected appointment of Gullit as Terek manager last month is testament both to the extraordinary rebuilding of Grozny under the ruthless rule of President Ramzan Kadyrov
When Ruud Gullit was leading Chelsea to the FA Cup in 1997, Terek Grozny, Chechnya's leading football club, had been temporarily disbanded, thanks to the not so minor issue that their home city had just been reduced to rubble by the Russian Army. The unexpected appointment of Gullit as Terek manager last month is testament both to the extraordinary rebuilding of Grozny under the ruthless rule of President Ramzan Kadyrov in the past few years and to the lengths some football people will go for a hefty pay cheque. But it also speaks volumes for the growing financial clout of the Russian Premier League, with ... >> full
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Poten & Partners: After WikiLeaks: Our Favourite Diplomats: Who Were The Most Interesting, Passionate, Funny...
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
After WikiLeaks: Our favourite diplomats: Who were the most interesting, passionate, funny and infuriated US diplomats? Here's our pick of the best
Feb, 05, 2011 12:01 AM - Guardian (UK)
William Burns Former US ambassador to Russia: The US diplomat William Burns (below) could have been a prizewinning New York Times writer or novelist. Everyone likes Burns's vivid and impressionistic dispatch from a wedding in Dagestan, but more astonishing still is his 7,500-word cable on the war in Chechnya: a brilliant and passionate piece of analysis on one of the world's darkest conflicts. Russia is a land of rumour, misinformation, and outright lies. But with Burns - who was ambassador there from 2005 to 2008 - you feel you get the truth, or at least as close as we will ever get to it, written in sharp, crystalline prose. This career diplomat, who served briefly as acting US secretary of state before Hillary Clinton was sworn in, is now the highest-ranking diplomat in the US foreign service and the under-secretary ...
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