Tag Archives: russia

Whiskey Trickles Into Russia’s Drinking Culture

Posted on February 6, 2012 by AK

Russia has a long and proud drinking culture; according to the chronicle of its founding, the main reason it chose Christianity over Islam was the latter’s prohibition of booze. Vodka has been distilled there since at least the 12th century. … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , , | 37 Comments

Far More People Protested FOR Putin Than Against, But You Wouldn’t Know It From The Western Media

Posted on February 5, 2012 by AK

The above photo, part of a photo report by Ridus, shows the Anti-Orange protest at Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow on February 4th. Does that look like 35,000 people to you, let alone 20,000 or 15,000?Because those were the most commonly cited figures … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 61 Comments

Unofficial Early Voting For The Russian President

Posted on February 2, 2012 by AK
Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

Are Russians As Rich As Czechs?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by AK

In terms of new cars, they now are. According to 2011 statistics, Russians bought 17.6 new automobiles per 1000 people. This indicator is still quite a bit below most of Western Europe, such as Germany’s 38.5, France’s 33.4, Britain’s 31.9, … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

Introducing the Journalism Security Index (JSI)

Posted on January 30, 2012 by AK

The Press Freedom Index issues by Reporters Without Borders is a good starting point for assessing journalistic freedoms in global comparative perspective. However, much like all attempts to measure democracy or Transparency International’s assessment of corruption perception, their methodology relies on tallying … Continue reading →

Posted in Coffee House | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Translation: Sergey Lukyanenko – I Will Vote For Putin

Posted on January 23, 2012 by AK

Courtesy of Evgeny‘s comment at Mark Adomanis’ blog, I found a very interesting piece by Sergey Lukyanenko – the bestselling Russian sci-fi writer best known for his Night Watch series, which was later converted into Russia’s first blockbuster film in … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile, Translations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

New Year Special: 2012 Predictions

Posted on January 3, 2012 by AK

It’s been a great year! To recap, in rough chronological order, 2011 saw: The most popular post (with 562 comments and counting; granted, most of them consisting of Indians and Pakistanis flaming each other); Visualizing the Kremlin Clans (joint project … Continue reading →

Posted in Coffee House, Da Russophile, Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 215 Comments

The Argument For Compulsory Voting In Russia

Posted on December 30, 2011 by AK

One of the central (I would argue, the central) conundrum of all discussions about Russian elections fraud at the macro-scale is that the major pieces of evidence simply don’t fit together. On the one hand, you have pre-elections polls that uniformly … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

List Of Estimates On Fraud In Russia’s 2011 Duma Elections

Posted on December 27, 2011 by AK

Despite Olga Kryshtanovskaya’s disapproval, I thought it would be interesting and useful to compile a comprehensive list of blogger, pundit and “expert” opinions on the extent of fraud in the 2011 Duma elections. Interspersed among these opinions and analyses are results from … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments

Measuring Churov’s Beard: The Mathematics Of Russian Election Fraud

Posted on December 26, 2011 by AK

In the aftermath of the 2011 Duma elections, the Russian blogosphere was abuzz with allegations of electoral fraud. Many of these were anecdotal or purely rhetorical in nature; some were more concrete, but variegated or ambiguous. A prime example of … Continue reading →

Posted in Da Russophile | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments