Tag Archives: corruption

Tales From The Beijing Embassy

Four cables from Cathay, courtesy of this excellent Cable Search tool. The first cable (Cable 1) is one of the last dispatches of Ambassador to the PRC Clark T. Randt, a long, analytical piece from January 2009. But it’s also … Continue reading

Posted in Coffee House, Sublime Oblivion, The Sublime Cables | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Chechnya, A Once And Future War?

Truly, if Willian Burns were to issue an anthology of his Moscow cables during his 2005-2008 ambassadorship, I’d seriously consider buying it. Just consider this cable from May 2006, on Chechnya’s “Once and Future War”, a nuanced US view of … Continue reading

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Russia Arming The Rest, And US Views On This

Another Wikileaks cable – a secret one, not merely confidential – from our Caucasus ethnologist and bestest bud at the State Department, William Burns. Dated October 2007, it describes America’s perception of Russia’s global arms trade and emphasizes its concerns that … Continue reading

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Wikileaks As A Mirror On The West

EDIT: This article has been translated into Russian at Inosmi.Ru (Wikileaks как зеркальное отображение Запада); almost as if to prove my point here! A foreign “subversive” journalist, driven by fevered idealism, publishes reams of leaked internal documents from an Authority … Continue reading

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A Response To Vadim Nikitin’s Arguments For The “Liberation” Of Khodorkovsky And The Kuriles

Over at his Foreign Policy Russia blog, and (provocatively?) a few days before Russia’s Unity Day, Vadim Nikitin penned the post Khodorkovsky = Kurils in which he argued for their mutual liberation from the Russian state. Whereas in their time both … Continue reading

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Exiled Russian Dissident Yury Luzhkov Condemns Putin’s Corrupt, Stalinist Regime

EDIT: This article has been translated into Russian at Inosmi.Ru (Находящийся в изгнании российский диссидент Юрий Лужков осуждает коррумпированный сталинистский режим Путина). This is a headline in a Western newspaper you might be reading in the not-too-distant future. Back in … Continue reading

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Introducing the Karlin Corruption Index (KCI)

EDIT: This article has been translated into Russian at Inosmi.Ru (Представляю Индекс коррупции Карлина). Following on the ground-breaking and globally acknowledged Karlin Freedom Index (which is of course by far the most objective, accurate, comprehensive and plain awesome democracy measuring tool … Continue reading

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Russophobe Hack Exposed, or: The Misadventures of Dorothée Olliéric of France-2

So you know how the Western commentariat carries on about how Russia Today fawns over the Kremlin and propagates anti-Western propaganda, while shamelessly peddling itself as a paragon of universal truth and uncompromising objectivity? Welcome to the next installment in the never-ending … Continue reading

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Interview with Peter Lavelle (Russia Today)

The next installment of our Watching the Russia Watchers series at S/O features an interview with Peter Lavelle, the main political analyst at the Russia Today TV network, host of its CrossTalk debate show and Untimely Thoughts blogger. (He also … Continue reading

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Russia Burning: not Apocalypse, but its Prelude

This post is a meta-commentary on media coverage of Russia’s drought and wildfires. Now make no mistake, I admire the yeoman work of some journalists in covering Russia burning: no doubt a few will even make their way into the … Continue reading

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