Here are some videos for Saturday viewing that give a sense of the recent tragic history of Chechnya and of Russian policy toward it today. Also for print sources, see this brief history of Daghestan and Chechnya from the Smithsonian Magazine. A reader sent in this insightful comment yesterday, which I’m moving up here: ” […]
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Eastern Europe
Fathers and Sons and Chechnya
The anger and embarrassment visible in the interviews given on Friday by the uncle and the aunt of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, are entirely understandable. But I see clues here to family dynamics that may be important in understanding what happened. In Ivan Turgenev’s 1862, novel, “Fathers and Sons,” the […]
War of Logistics in N. Syria as Rebel Forces Close in on Aleppo Airport
The rebel strategy of taking Syrian government bases and airports in north Syria to prevent the regime from resupplying its forces in the north has made strides this week. The LAT reports that the revolutionaries are fighting for Aleppo International Airport, having taking Jarrah military airport a couple of days ago. The regime cannot easily […]
Russia slams Israeli bombing of Syria as Violation of UN Charter
The USG Open Source Center translates the statement at the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sharply condemning Israel: Text of “Russian Foreign Ministry statement in connection to reports about air strikes by the Israeli Air Force on targets on Syrian territory” published on the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website on 31 […]
Putin, Pussy Riot, Hooliganism and the Syrian Bloodbath
The sentencing of members of the Russian punk rock band, Pussy Riot, to two years in prison for a protest song they sang in an Eastern Orthodox cathedral against Vladimir Putin, now president of the Russian Federation, has blackened the name of the second Russian republic abroad in a way its support for the murderous […]