"I’m like a shabby, threadbare coat, worn out not because of exposure to the elements or hard work but because for twelve years a light has been burning inside me, unable to find an outlet and doing nothing but illuminating the walls of its own prison and, finding no opening to the outside world, has just been snuffed out for lack of oxygen".
Oblomov, Goncharev.
No reason for posting this, just like the quote.
Thursday 26 September 2013
Friday 20 September 2013
Krasnodarsky chai - tea
Enough of the political posts, let's have a picture of a tea caddy - after all, it's the 25th anniversary of its appearance in my kitchen. I still use it. The Krasnodarsky tea is long gone, but I regularly refill it with Chinese "Gunpowder" green tea.
Wednesday 18 September 2013
Pushkov is an arsehole
The words disingenuous or specious are words that usually spring to mind whenever I watch this guy spout crap on the TV, dissembling with the same ease as Soviet-era politicians and spokespersons did. But his latest ejaculation - on Twitter - is just crass.
Alexei Pushkov, Head of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, has mocked the deadly shooting in Washington on Monday. Thirteen people were killed and eight were injured in a mass shooting at the Navy Yard, a secure military complex in in the U.S. capital. While most politicians expressed their condolences, Pushkov called the attack an example of "American exceptionalism."
He Tweeted: "A new shootout at Navy headquarters in Washington — a lone gunman and 7 corpses. Nobody's even surprised anymore. A clear confirmation of American exceptionalism,..." "The U.S.A. should part with the notion of American exceptionalism. It contradicts the principles of equal rights and smells of political racism."
What an insensitive tit!
The term "American exceptionalism" was a term used by Putin in an open letter to the American people published in the New York Times last week. Pushkov's use of the term smacks of toadyism - he is obviously trying to curry favour with Putin.
But, I believe his crass and insensitive comments essentially detract from what has widely regarded as Putin's deft diplomatic out-maneouvering of USA over unilaterla military strikes against Syria, and undermines the credibility of Putin's critique of American-centric viewpoint on world affairs. In fact, I think it betrays a certain Russian exceptionalism - a sense of being a special nation - which often motivates Russia's attempt to restore its national pride, power and influence in the world (following the collpase of the USSR).
Alexei Pushkov, Head of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, has mocked the deadly shooting in Washington on Monday. Thirteen people were killed and eight were injured in a mass shooting at the Navy Yard, a secure military complex in in the U.S. capital. While most politicians expressed their condolences, Pushkov called the attack an example of "American exceptionalism."
He Tweeted: "A new shootout at Navy headquarters in Washington — a lone gunman and 7 corpses. Nobody's even surprised anymore. A clear confirmation of American exceptionalism,..." "The U.S.A. should part with the notion of American exceptionalism. It contradicts the principles of equal rights and smells of political racism."
What an insensitive tit!
The term "American exceptionalism" was a term used by Putin in an open letter to the American people published in the New York Times last week. Pushkov's use of the term smacks of toadyism - he is obviously trying to curry favour with Putin.
But, I believe his crass and insensitive comments essentially detract from what has widely regarded as Putin's deft diplomatic out-maneouvering of USA over unilaterla military strikes against Syria, and undermines the credibility of Putin's critique of American-centric viewpoint on world affairs. In fact, I think it betrays a certain Russian exceptionalism - a sense of being a special nation - which often motivates Russia's attempt to restore its national pride, power and influence in the world (following the collpase of the USSR).
Monday 16 September 2013
Putin is a tosser
...allegedly; at least according to Conservative MP Henry Smith, the Tory MP for Crawley, on Twitter (in response to Putin calling the UK a little island) - and I don't think he was referring to Putin's judo skills; meanwhile President Obama has likened him to a 'bored schoolboy in the back of the classroom’. Both of these comments have been made recently in reaction to events at the G20 summit in St Petersburg. Tosser or petulant schoolboy, or even jackass (as some internet spoof news sites have claimed Obama said of him) - none of these descriptions correspond to any of the characters and storylines in the Seventies UK children's cartoon: Mr Benn, as far as I can recall. This cartoon was a favourite of mine, and I have mentioned it in an earlier post regarding my purchase of a gingham shirt like the one worn by Sean Connery in the Russia House (http://blog.therussiahouse.net/2013/02/a-large-unmade-bed.html). In the cartoon, Mr Benn – dressed in a suit and bowler hat - passes a costume shop, which he enters, chooses a costume, puts it on in the dressing room, and leaves the dressing room through another door to have an adventure relating to the identity or role of the costume.
Listening to a Russia special on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week programme earlier this year, I was fascinated to hear Putin being described as a Mr Benn type character by one of the guests on the programme: Fiona Hill. Fiona is director of the Center on the United States and Europe, and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution (one of the Washington’s oldest think tanks, which conducts independent research into social sciences; primarily in economics, governance and foreign policy), and she has written a number of books and articles about Russia.
Her most recent book, co-authored with Clfford Gaddy, is “Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin”, which describes how Vladimir Putin’s public relations team has orchestrated PR stunts to appeal to the Russian populace; these have ranged from a fire-fighting airplane pilot, the shirtless big-game hunter, the scuba diver, the easy-rider biker, even night club crooner – Hill thinks is reminiscent of the British cartoon character Mr. Benn. These staged PR stunts do cause much amusement in the West and perhaps for the urban middle classes in Russia, but they are popular with the wider Russian population outside of the capital, specifically with the target audience to which the various stunts are intended to appeal.
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They ask in the book “Who is Mr Putin?”; because, it has proven very difficult, if not impossible, to get any concrete facts on Vladimir Putin’s past: “Observers have variously said, he has no face, no substance, no soul; he is 'the man from nowhere' - a nobody, yet a man who can appear to be anybody. Of course, Putin is not a 'nobody'; he only wants the world to see him that way, and he has gone to extraordinary lengths throughout his life to conceal who he really is."
Much has been made, in the Western press, about Putin’s past as a KGB operative – suggesting secretive nature, shadowy past, brutal operating methods, communist – but this is too simplistic an observation to explain his improbable rise to power.
Whatever we may think of the role of the KGB in persecuting dissidents, killing defectors, crushing dissent, its core function, as a security service, was to protect the state. It has been said that the KGB, with all the vast intelligence resources at its disposal, was perhaps the most “progressive” organisation in the Soviet Union – in the sense that they were able to assess accurately the relative fortunes of western and communist economies – and identify that the centrally planned model was failing (not that they were able to do much about it, although it has been suggested that the KGB were influential in hastening Gorbachev’s rise to power).
Putin’s background as a KGB operative was probably more important in the development of his “people” skills – in the book Hill and Gaddy describe how Putin let slip that he was a specialist in communicating with people: “Working with people has a dual meaning in KGB jargon. It also means working on people”. They have indentified Putin’s multiple identities, of which, six are most prominent: Statist, History Man, Survivalist, Outsider, Free Marketeer, and Case Officer. It is the combination of all his identities that made Putin an effective behind-the-scenes operator in Russian politics and helped propel him into the Kremlin.
It’s fascinating stuff (from what I’ve read from various internet extracts and transcripts of talks that Fiona Hill has made) so much so, I have ordered the book today from Amazon.
Incidentally, my wife bought me a new winter coat last week which has a big furry hood. When I saw it, I thought “my god, it’s a Putin coat!”. So I tried it on and thought “I know, I shall go for a Mr Benn-like adventure - as President Putin”. Now, who is the tosser?
Listening to a Russia special on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week programme earlier this year, I was fascinated to hear Putin being described as a Mr Benn type character by one of the guests on the programme: Fiona Hill. Fiona is director of the Center on the United States and Europe, and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution (one of the Washington’s oldest think tanks, which conducts independent research into social sciences; primarily in economics, governance and foreign policy), and she has written a number of books and articles about Russia.
Her most recent book, co-authored with Clfford Gaddy, is “Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin”, which describes how Vladimir Putin’s public relations team has orchestrated PR stunts to appeal to the Russian populace; these have ranged from a fire-fighting airplane pilot, the shirtless big-game hunter, the scuba diver, the easy-rider biker, even night club crooner – Hill thinks is reminiscent of the British cartoon character Mr. Benn. These staged PR stunts do cause much amusement in the West and perhaps for the urban middle classes in Russia, but they are popular with the wider Russian population outside of the capital, specifically with the target audience to which the various stunts are intended to appeal.
They ask in the book “Who is Mr Putin?”; because, it has proven very difficult, if not impossible, to get any concrete facts on Vladimir Putin’s past: “Observers have variously said, he has no face, no substance, no soul; he is 'the man from nowhere' - a nobody, yet a man who can appear to be anybody. Of course, Putin is not a 'nobody'; he only wants the world to see him that way, and he has gone to extraordinary lengths throughout his life to conceal who he really is."
Much has been made, in the Western press, about Putin’s past as a KGB operative – suggesting secretive nature, shadowy past, brutal operating methods, communist – but this is too simplistic an observation to explain his improbable rise to power.
Whatever we may think of the role of the KGB in persecuting dissidents, killing defectors, crushing dissent, its core function, as a security service, was to protect the state. It has been said that the KGB, with all the vast intelligence resources at its disposal, was perhaps the most “progressive” organisation in the Soviet Union – in the sense that they were able to assess accurately the relative fortunes of western and communist economies – and identify that the centrally planned model was failing (not that they were able to do much about it, although it has been suggested that the KGB were influential in hastening Gorbachev’s rise to power).
Putin’s background as a KGB operative was probably more important in the development of his “people” skills – in the book Hill and Gaddy describe how Putin let slip that he was a specialist in communicating with people: “Working with people has a dual meaning in KGB jargon. It also means working on people”. They have indentified Putin’s multiple identities, of which, six are most prominent: Statist, History Man, Survivalist, Outsider, Free Marketeer, and Case Officer. It is the combination of all his identities that made Putin an effective behind-the-scenes operator in Russian politics and helped propel him into the Kremlin.
It’s fascinating stuff (from what I’ve read from various internet extracts and transcripts of talks that Fiona Hill has made) so much so, I have ordered the book today from Amazon.
Incidentally, my wife bought me a new winter coat last week which has a big furry hood. When I saw it, I thought “my god, it’s a Putin coat!”. So I tried it on and thought “I know, I shall go for a Mr Benn-like adventure - as President Putin”. Now, who is the tosser?
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