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Kevin O'Flynn, Moscow |
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THE TERRIBLE C-WORD |
08 December 2008
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The cri… no the word will not be uttered. Now that President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin have finally allowed themselves to belatedly use the word, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to spit it out of these lips. It’s c-this and c-that. If there was C-Span in Russia then it would be c-ing all day and all night long.
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LOOKING FOR A RUSSIAN OBAMA |
05 November 2008
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When were you last excited about an election in Russia? Any election? I've seen four presidential elections in Russia and the only one that had any excitement was in 1996 when many feared a Communist victory would swing the country back to its Soviet past.
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I'M GONNA PARTY LIKE IT'S 1998 |
15 October 2008
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Take a drive around Moscow’s Garden Ring. Leave from the Railway ministry near Krasniye Vorota and go anticlockwise toward Tsvetnoi Bulvar. Time will stand still if you are sitting in a traffic jam but if you have a free road, look upwards at the clocks on buildings and you can go back in time.
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A CREDIT TO THEMSELVES |
30 September 2008
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You can't trust anyone these days. You go on holiday for a couple of weeks and when you come back the world is teetering on the edge of a financial abyss. Banks are imploding, insurance companies are collapsing. Still, I'm glad that I got my five credit cards when I could.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOSCOW |
05 September 2008
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I once lived off Tverskaya in a house that had a spacious courtyard which would see a steady trickle of men celebrating City Day who were drawn like a teenager to a can of gin and tonic to relieve themselves of a bladder full of Baltika's finest. Now, that is not really the kind of thing that sends me into a fury.
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HOW TO GET AHEAD IN GOVERNMENT |
22 August 2008
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I read the story in the New York Times this week, "West Baffled by 2 Heads for Russian Government," and it gave me quite a turn. This article talks of how "there is a sense of bewilderment in Washington about how to deal with what is now a two-headed government in Moscow."
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ICE KING OF THE CASTLE |
08 August 2008
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There was a game we played when I was a child where you would run to the top of the nearest hill, sand dune or rampaging Tyrannosaurus Rex (kids had more imagination in those days) and shout “I'm the King of the Castle and you're the dirty rascal.” These last words were said whilst pointing at the poor unfortunates who had failed to get to the top in time.
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THIS IS AN OFFICE NOW |
25 July 2008
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The good people of Vladivostok recently had the chance to see my mug on their televisions. Or the chance not to watch it. Anyone further west however was denied that chance after NTV pulled reporter Andrei Loshak's documentary from the schedule even though it had already been shown in the Far East.
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Our authors
Geopolitical influence is an expensive thing. The Soviet Union realized that well supporting the Communist regimes and movements all over the world including Cuba and North Korea. The current Russian authorities also understood that when they agreed that Ukraine would not pay Russia $40 billion for the gas in return for extension of the lease allowing Russia's Black Sea Fleet to be stationed in the Crimea.
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The case of Kurmanbek Bakiyev is consistent with the logic of the Belarusian authorities’ actions towards the plane crash near Smolensk. The decisions not to demonstrate the “Katyn” film and not to announce the mourning were made emotionally, to spite Moscow and Warsaw, without thinking about their consequences and about reaction of the society and the neighbouring countries.
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Explosions take place in Russia again. The last week of March started with terrorist acts at the Moscow metro stations which were followed by blasts in the Dagestani city of Kizlar. The horror spread from the metro to the whole city.
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Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych symbolically selected Brussels as his first foreign visit upon taking the oath of office in what can only be seen as an exercise in public relations. The new government of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov headed straight for Moscow shortly thereafter with the sole intention of cutting a deal.
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The protest actions, which the Russian extraparliamentary opposition had scheduled for March 20, were held as planned, they surprised or frightened nobody. Just as it had been expected, the activists of many organizations supporting the Wrath Day took to the streets… but saw there only the policemen, journalists and each other.
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As I write, angry demonstrations continue in Tehran and elsewhere in the Islamic Republic of Iran, over what the young demonstrators perceive as the blatant rigging of the presidential election to keep Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power for another five years. Reports suggest at least eight protestors have been killed by police.
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The cri… no the word will not be uttered. Now that President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin have finally allowed themselves to belatedly use the word, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to spit it out of these lips. It’s c-this and c-that. If there was C-Span in Russia then it would be c-ing all day and all night long.
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