Kirill Oreshkin likes taking photographs. Selfies, landscapes, the usual stuff—except his shots are captured atop some of the world's tallest buildings.
http://davesrussiapagephotos.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/formerly-council-for-mutual-economic.html
https://youtu.be/b26RjS9Dxhk
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Friday, 11 December 2015
Wednesday, 8 April 2015
NATO-Russia: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. An Expert Opinion
"A quarter century ago (1991), the bipolar system (which brought NATO into being) ceased to exist. However, the alliance, as is evident from last year’s events, still regards Russia, the legal successor to the USSR, as a force to be combated."
08/04/2015
NATO-Russia: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. An Expert Opinion
FENENKO, Alexei
NATO is strengthening its force in East Europe, where the US is redeploying additional contingents. It is also holding large-scale military exercises near Russian borders and is planning to double the strength of its rapid response.
Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
First General Richards, now Paddy Pantsdown
What's going on? First we have General Richards, former UK army chief, calling for a rapprochement with Russia and expressing pro-Russian views, now Paddy Pantsdown is at it! Sorry Lord Ashdown, but you will be forever known by your classic Sun-headline-based moniker (well, by me, at least).
Former marine, Lord Ashdown, states in the Times today, Tuesday 30th September 2014, that "Russia is an essential ally in the fight against jihadism. The alternative is a global religious war". He acknowledges that "Sunni jihadism is roaring away in the Russian Islamic republics of Dagestan and Chechnya, almost as much as in Iraq and Syria. We in Europe may be concerned about jihadis returning from the battlefield. But Russia is one of the battlefields."
Putin has been saying this for years - since the first war in Chechnya in 1994 - and long before 9/11. It's about time the west, especially Obama and the US administration, acknowledged this and stopped with their ridiculous policy of sanctions and ostracism against Russia.
Former marine, Lord Ashdown, states in the Times today, Tuesday 30th September 2014, that "Russia is an essential ally in the fight against jihadism. The alternative is a global religious war". He acknowledges that "Sunni jihadism is roaring away in the Russian Islamic republics of Dagestan and Chechnya, almost as much as in Iraq and Syria. We in Europe may be concerned about jihadis returning from the battlefield. But Russia is one of the battlefields."
Putin has been saying this for years - since the first war in Chechnya in 1994 - and long before 9/11. It's about time the west, especially Obama and the US administration, acknowledged this and stopped with their ridiculous policy of sanctions and ostracism against Russia.
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Ukraine - a country on the edge
.. literally - at the western edge / border of the Russian Empire - y Krayinye - borderlands. But its present problems are caused, in no small part, by the continued legacy of Stalin's "poison pill" nationalities policy - a term used by Paul Goble of the Azerbaijjan Diplomatic Academy in Baku in his 2008 article
The Ukraine has strong historical links to Russia, and is considered perhaps the birthplace of Russia itself, with Kiev being the capital of the Medieval Kievan Rus empire. After the collapse of the Kievan Rus empire, the area was divided, occupied, fought over, by a variety of invaders: Poles, Lithuanians, Cossacks, Russians, Turks. This happened over many centuries until it was eventually subsumed by the Russian Empire, by and large, by the 18th century - but its territory was by no means fixed by that point.
Under the Russian Empire, a policy of assimilation and Russification occurred in Ukraine as it did throughout the empire. National identities were discouraged and even suppressed. With the advent of the 1917 revolution, the Communists vowed to correct the age-old oppression of the 100+ minority nationalities that existed within the Russian borders. They officially recognised equality and sovereignty of all the peoples of Russia; their right for self-determination, including secession or independence; freedom of religion; and free development of national minorities and ethnic groups on the territory of Russia. The first line of the Soviet National anthem celebrated this "unbreakable union of free-born republics"
However, as with everything else in the Soviet Union, such nominally positive policies were negated / upturned by the exigencies of power and the effecting (or effectuation if there is such a word) of communist dictatorship. Stalin subverted the nationalities policy by drawing up internal borders designed to create tensions between ethnic groups, ensuring there was always a local minority that would do Moscow's bidding in return for being protected by the Soviet centre.
The borders of these "independent" republics and "autonomous" regions did not often make sense in terms of their ethnic make-up, historic nationhood or cultural integrity. The leaders of the Soviet republics or autonomous regions were often a representative of the ethnic majority of that area, but their deputy would be an ethnic Russian and a higher ranking member of the communist party - to ensure the local leader did Moscow's bidding. The state apparatus and the hierarchy of the Communist Party were very closely linked. You couldn't rise through the ranks of the state bureaucracy unless you were a member of the Communist Party.
Paul Gole claims that this system worked only so long as there was coercion. He describes the structure as a "poison pill" - a description of business arrangements that make it difficult, if not dangerous, for anyone to try to takeover or even change the basic arrangements of another firm. In terms of the Soviet union, Gole contends, Stalin's system "ensured that anyone who sought to dismantle his totalitarianism would have to cope with ethnic anger and borders that guaranteed it would likely get worse".
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Soviet republics became independent nations - preserving their the Soviet-defined borders and ethnic composition. As we have seen with Georgia and now with Ukraine, where a sizeable ethnic minorities exist, tensions have risen (and been exploited) through ethnic divisions leading to fault lines in the territorial integrity of these nations.
The Ukraine has strong historical links to Russia, and is considered perhaps the birthplace of Russia itself, with Kiev being the capital of the Medieval Kievan Rus empire. After the collapse of the Kievan Rus empire, the area was divided, occupied, fought over, by a variety of invaders: Poles, Lithuanians, Cossacks, Russians, Turks. This happened over many centuries until it was eventually subsumed by the Russian Empire, by and large, by the 18th century - but its territory was by no means fixed by that point.
Under the Russian Empire, a policy of assimilation and Russification occurred in Ukraine as it did throughout the empire. National identities were discouraged and even suppressed. With the advent of the 1917 revolution, the Communists vowed to correct the age-old oppression of the 100+ minority nationalities that existed within the Russian borders. They officially recognised equality and sovereignty of all the peoples of Russia; their right for self-determination, including secession or independence; freedom of religion; and free development of national minorities and ethnic groups on the territory of Russia. The first line of the Soviet National anthem celebrated this "unbreakable union of free-born republics"
However, as with everything else in the Soviet Union, such nominally positive policies were negated / upturned by the exigencies of power and the effecting (or effectuation if there is such a word) of communist dictatorship. Stalin subverted the nationalities policy by drawing up internal borders designed to create tensions between ethnic groups, ensuring there was always a local minority that would do Moscow's bidding in return for being protected by the Soviet centre.
The borders of these "independent" republics and "autonomous" regions did not often make sense in terms of their ethnic make-up, historic nationhood or cultural integrity. The leaders of the Soviet republics or autonomous regions were often a representative of the ethnic majority of that area, but their deputy would be an ethnic Russian and a higher ranking member of the communist party - to ensure the local leader did Moscow's bidding. The state apparatus and the hierarchy of the Communist Party were very closely linked. You couldn't rise through the ranks of the state bureaucracy unless you were a member of the Communist Party.
Paul Gole claims that this system worked only so long as there was coercion. He describes the structure as a "poison pill" - a description of business arrangements that make it difficult, if not dangerous, for anyone to try to takeover or even change the basic arrangements of another firm. In terms of the Soviet union, Gole contends, Stalin's system "ensured that anyone who sought to dismantle his totalitarianism would have to cope with ethnic anger and borders that guaranteed it would likely get worse".
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Soviet republics became independent nations - preserving their the Soviet-defined borders and ethnic composition. As we have seen with Georgia and now with Ukraine, where a sizeable ethnic minorities exist, tensions have risen (and been exploited) through ethnic divisions leading to fault lines in the territorial integrity of these nations.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Ukraine - send in the clowns
John Kerry - verbose and incoherent tit at the best of times, off to Kiev to save the day; President Barack
Obama states that "no country has a right to send in troops to another
country unprovoked." - kettle, pot; a Downing Street aide unintentionally reveals the approach of the UK Government to the Russian action in Ukraine by leaving his notes visible to the long lenses of press photographers - apparently we're not going to do anything but talk tough in "generic" terms. With this shower, is it any wonder that Putin thinks he can act with impunity.
 |
| Morten Morland cartoon for 03.03.14 for The Times |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)