AndyTime for the second edition of our resurrected roundup of what’s been happening in Russia blogs over the past seven days.
To my mind, the most intriguing story of the week has been that of the chaos surrounding the annulment of South Ossetia’s Presidential election. And that’s where my top blog post of the week comes from (actually two blog posts). Journalist Alan Tskhurbayev, a supporter of Alla Dzhioyeva – the victorious candidate who has been stripped of her victory – has been live-blogging from the central square in Tskhinvali. His blog from the first day is here and his blog from the second day is here. I imagine that there will be more daily updates from Alan and other local bloggers as the situation develops, which you can find on Kavkaz Uzel’s main blog page.
(All the links above are in Russian, but you can easily translate them with Google Translate.)
Other blog posts that have caught my eye this week include:
- MMA Fighter Jeff Monson’s unflattering portrait of a Russian hospital. Monson, you’ll recall, was the fighter who lost the fight that made news because Putin was booed.
- Some interesting non-hysterical thoughts on Putin, Russian nationalism and ethnicity in Russia from Mark Adomanis.
- The Ivanov Report has moved. Update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc.
- Passion for Russian reports on attending a Lezginka dance. (By the way – there’s a competition running at Passion for Russian. It closes today, so act quick!)
- Gazprom goes Green – because it’s in its own financial interests, reports the slightly cynical Streetwise Professor.
- Robert Amsterdam reports on United Russia’s well-oiled get out the vote machine.
- I’m fascinated by roofs. Not fascinated enough, though, to take up Roofing, the latest crazy Russian craze.
- The Russian Front presents a fascinating insight into how the Russian military relied on the Russian Red Cross to treat its injured soldiers in the First World War.
- Andrew Jenks at Russian History Blog reports on a film interview with Stalin’s daughter Lana Peters, who died earlier this month.
- Dmitry Gorenburg presents parts one and two of a brilliant three part series on Indian-Russian military co-operation. First, the Navy, then the air force. Part three, on joint military projects, is due next week.
- The Russian Defense Policy blog asks: Will increased spending on the Russian military boost the economy or depress it?
That’s it for this week. I’ll leave you with a picture from Tsar Nicholas II’s very plush royal train, courtesy of English Russia.
If only my office was so plush. And mobile.
