Window On Eurasia: Moscow Hardliners Present Softer Face Abroad, Russian News Agency Finds
|
posted by eagle on June, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 4 – Russian experts who are hard-line “statists” at home often transform themselves into “liberals” or even “Westernizers” when they speak abroad, a pattern that confuses some about their true views or even raises questions among many as to whether they have views independent of what the Kremlin wants at any particular time.
In an article on the Novy Region news portal yesterday, Arina Morokova calls attention to the fact that Russian commentators “known for their sharp criticism against the unfriendly to Russia ‘regimes’ of Yushchenko and Saakashvili miraculously change their views when they leave the borders of the Russian Federation” (www.nr2.ru/moskow/234954.html).
Indeed, she says, this happens so frequently that “today it is possible to speak about ‘rhetoric for export.’” As an example of this, she cites the May 29th appearance of Russian Duma deputy Sergey Markov on the Ukraina channel interview program hosted by Savik Shuster (http://shuster.kanalukraina.tv/video/2067_vzaimootnosheniya_ukrainy_i_rossii._anons/).
Markov, well-known ...
comments (0)
Window On Eurasia: Moscow’s New Dam Plan Triggers Tensions In Middle Volga
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 5 – President Dmitry Medvedev’s order at the end of May for the Russian government to draw up plans for a new hydroelectric dam on the Volga is already drawing fire from ecologists and church leaders and generating anger among members of various ethnic groups, parts of whose historical homelands will be flooded if the dam is built.
But whether that will happen remains to be seen, given the way in which opponents of dams in other parts of the country have mobilized and succeeded in slowing similar projects, the success ecologists have had in recent court cases, and new polls showing rising concerns among many Russians about the difficult ecological situation in their country today.
Russian news agencies reported at the end of May that Medvedev had formed a special government commission, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the heads of the Chuvash Republic, Nizhny Novgorod oblast, and Mari ...
comments (0)
Window On Eurasia: Moscow Distances Itself From Article Blaming Poland For Starting World War II
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 4 – The Russian defense ministry said today that an article which was put on its site a few days ago and which has sparked outrage among some Russian commentators with its suggestion that Poland was to blame for the start of World War II “must not be considered the official point of view of the Ministry of Defense.”
In a statement to journalists, the ministry’s press service said that the article, “Inventions and Falsifications in the Assessment of the Role of the USSR on the Eve and at the Start of World War II” by Col. Sergey Kovalev of the ministry’s Institute of Military History, was only for discussion (www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=63460).
But Kovalev’s article, which was posted at www.mil.ru/files/Vimisli_o_role_SSSR.rtf, appears to have been taken down. At the very least, it is not currently listed in the section where it was posted (http://www.mil.ru/940/25260/index.shtml) nor could it be retrieved ...
comments (0)
Window On Eurasia: ‘Why Are Ethnic Russians Converting To Islam?’
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 3 – The conversion of historically Orthodox Christian ethnic Russians to Islam is one of the most politically sensitive issues in the Russian Federation, with journalists and commentators frequently offering wildly different numbers and explanations for a trend many find a matter of deep concern.
Now, Andrey Ignatyev, a specialist on the sociology of religion at the Russian State Humanitarian University, seeks to answer the question “why do ethnic Russians convert to Islam?” without the exaggerations and apocalyptic language in which such religious shifts are usually cast (www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitor&id=13815).
In a heavily footnoted article posted on the Portal-Credo.ru site yesterday, Ignatyev argues that most earlier discussions of this issue have failed because they have offered a single explanation of what is an enormously complicated social phenomenon. In fact, people have extraordinarily varied reasons for converting. For his part, Ignatyev offers four.
First, the Moscow sociologist says, the largest number of converts are those who ...
comments (0)
Window On Eurasia: Russia Faces A New ‘Scissors’ Crisis, Gontmakher Says
|
posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Vienna, June 3 –Russia today faces a new “scissors” crisis because its economy needs more highly skilled laborers while its educational system is producing a flood of specialists with “pseudo-higher” degrees, a situation that must be addressed not only to overcome the current crisis but also to modernize the country over the longer term, a leading Russian sociologist says.
In an article in today’s “Rossiiskaya gazeta,” Yevgeny Gontmakher of the Moscow Institute of Contemporary Development and one of the most provocative writers on social problems in Russia today argues that it is “premature” to speak about the stabilization of that country’s labor market (www.rg.ru/2009/06/03/gontmaher.html).
That is because, he says, “the difficulties the Russian labor market is experiencing today were programmed into it before the beginning of the [economic] crisis” and must be overcome not only to ensure that Russia will be able to get out of its current difficulties but be able to ...
comments (0)
|
