Culture
A Lesson for Law Enforcement
A new book, which tries to help law enforcement officers understand human rights, has been released in Moscow.
Dec 25, 2007 | Continued
Art Blocked On Its Way To France
Paris won’t get the chance to see two policemen kissing. The opening of a Paris exhibition titled “Soc-Art: Political Art in Russia since 1972,” on loan from the Tretyakov Gallery, will with all likelihood open as expected on October 20th. As Kommersant reported on October 9th, the art-laden trucks have already passed customs, and left […]
Oct 16, 2007 | Continued
The Kremlin Gets Religion
The ominous rise of nationalism and xenophobia promoted by the Kremlin is gaining a religious aspect, a strictly Russian Orthodox one. The latest step comes when, in districts around the country, the next school year will include religious instruction even for elementary school students. This article at a Canadian site is one of the few […]
Jul 27, 2007 | Continued
Putin’s History Books
The Washington Post has a depressing account of how the Putin administration is bringing his cult of personality and campaign of misinformation to Russia’s children. The old joke about the USSR, that it was a “country with an uncertain past” can now be revived. We believe in a strong Russia, but not an isolated, xenophobic, […]
Jul 20, 2007 | Continued
More on Nashi
Close on the heels of a similarly-themed item in its sister paper, the IHT, today the NY Times has a piece by Steven Lee Myers on the Nashi Putin youth cult. The western media is finally taking an interest in peeling back the iron veil of the Putin regime. When our Dissenters’ Marches began last […]
Jul 7, 2007 | Continued
Inside the Putin Youth Cult
Michael Hammerschlag has an insightful item called “Putin’s Children” on the Kremlin-funded Nashi youth group in the International Herald Tribune. The 120,000-odd Putin Youth members are perhaps the most creepy demonstration of Putin’s “Back to the Future” cult of personality – youth groups created, supported, and used by the Kremlin to harass, bully and intimidate […]
Jul 6, 2007 | Continued
Dissent in Art
The excellent web magazine Slate has a compendium of political cartoons from around the world, regularly updated. As the saying goes, a picture is often worth a thousand press releases. These below and many others on Putin are found in the Europe index at Slate. The first two are by Yuri Cherepanov, whose cartoons for […]
Jul 3, 2007 | Continued