The Ultimatum has been delivered to the UN... This conflict, simmering for over ten years is about to erupt. "In strict accordance with international law," unilatteral military action is imminent unless demands are met. Animosity has been mounting steadily for months, and Russia is ready to invade Georgia. "No one can deny today, and for ourselves we are certain, that Georgian territory is sheltering both those who are implicated in the attacks on the United States and a direct operative involved in the attacks on housing units in Russia," Mr. Putin said on Russian television, echoing the logic U.S. President George W. Bush has used to rally international support for a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. The United States said it would not support Mr. Putin if he carried out his threat to attack Chechen rebel bases in Georgia, and slammed him for suggesting he might. "The United States strongly supports Georgia's territorial integrity and would oppose any unilateral military action by Russia inside Georgia," a U.S. State Department spokesman said. This all seems rather hypocritical, business as usual new world order politics: Is the price of getting UN Security Council approval on Iraq going to be public and secret deals, and is this really about the Chechens, or about breakaway republics and Caspian Sea oil? And what about China? Will we rubberstamp their ambitions re: Taiwan, Spratley Islands, Mongolia? And finally, why Georgia? I know they put up a two-bit Olympics and never caught that one terrorist bomber, but really, Georgia?
posted by Mack Twain
on Sep 13, 2002 -
25 comments
In the midst of all the talk of possible terrorist deployments of Weapons of Mass-Destruction,
this seems like a somewhat dramatic, if effective, approach to pre-empting the threat of blackmarket nuclear proliferation. The co-operative approach adopted by the U.S and Russia - and presumably the Yugoslav Government itself - also seems encouraging.
Should this 'surprise-attack' approach now be used to negate the threat posed as nuclear facilities are decommissioned worldwide??
posted by Doozer
on Aug 23, 2002 -
3 comments
The FBI on hacking vs. The Russians That is crazy! 100 hundred years for hacking computers when there are people that actually hurt other people - maliciously...
rapists, murderers, US politicians...
"If Russian hackers can be convicted on evidence obtained by the Americans through hacking, it means the U.S. secret services may use further illegal means of obtaining information in Russia and in other countries," an FSB spokesman told Interfax on Thursday.
Not only that, but the seriously...can this sort of thing just slide by?
posted by Kodel
on Aug 17, 2002 -
2 comments
Finally, a Reason to Watch Court TV? An Olympics skating vote rigging Russian mafia fraud trial--what fun! Hope this happens, and I hope in happens in New York's Federal Southern District, because, well, what fun to bring down a stupid sport (And remove it from television); discredit the French, Russians... I want seats to this one! Or Perhaps E! will provide the coverage?
posted by ParisParamus
on Aug 2, 2002 -
14 comments
Is
"T.A.T.U." the next big thing in music? They're a
Russian teen-pop duo with a twist -- lesbianism. They appear on stage in wet t-shirts and white panties. One of their videos shows them wearing schoolgirl outfits and kissing in the rain, while another shows them building a bomb and getting naked on a carousel.
There are reports that the girls aren't actually lesbians, and that it's all just a gimmick to make their Svengali-like producer rich (surprise, surprise). We all know that controversy can sell records. If T.A.T.U. manages to get the right people upset, could they become stars in the U.S.? MTV and MTV2 started playing the video last week...
posted by Reggie452
on Jul 17, 2002 -
66 comments
Farmland for sale. $80-100 trillion. Russia's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a bill that would allow the sale of Russian farmland for the first time since the days of the czars, but would bar foreigners from buying it.. foreign companies could still purchase Russian land through subsidiaries that are majority Russian-owned.
posted by stbalbach
on Jun 26, 2002 -
3 comments
What Would Vissarion Do? A former Russian traffic cop realizes that he is the reborn Son of God. Several devoted disciples agree, yea and verily. Insert own 'water into vodka' joke here. On second thought, please don't.
posted by Dirjy
on May 24, 2002 -
2 comments
This article in "The Nation" bemoans the fact that the U.S is dissing its new best friend Russia, and that the recent entente cordiale is under threat.
This article at the the Institute for War and Peace Reporting suggests that the U.S could, perhaps, be a little more selective in choosing its friends.
I have often wondered if the west would have stood for Russia or the U.S.S.R using force on a scale to that which we have recently witnessed in Afghanistan or Chechnya. It looks like they have become our sons of bitches.
posted by Fat Buddha
on Mar 29, 2002 -
3 comments
"The PRAVDA Forum" in English.
Vlad Putin's homeboys serve up
Colombian FARC manifestos, and grin- "Let's roll!" They invite you to mix it up with black blockers, American
hawks, meglomaniac spymaster wannabes, Osama fans, Nazis and ethnic cleansers, irate Israelis, Pakstanis, Indians, hardcore feminists, peaceniks, dolphinsavers, conspiracy theorists, and the
Chinese. Free speech in wartime, Russian Communist style. (Warning: Offensive content guaranteed.)
posted by sheauga
on Feb 23, 2002 -
8 comments
Russians going home? Apparently, Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev said
there was a 24-hour window to address the situation, and that if Russia left Salt Lake City it probably would not compete in Athens in the next Summer Games.
posted by mr_crash_davis
on Feb 21, 2002 -
34 comments
Cosmos Patrol: Star Trek for Communists In the late 60s, the Soviets copied the TV show
Star Trek and used it as propaganda and entertainment. Set in the 23rd Century, the 400 galaxy-exploring crewmembers are led by a handsome Commander with a coldly logical First Officer. Ensign Chekhov assists as they encounter alien life forms and embrace them as brothers.
posted by stevis
on Jan 12, 2002 -
25 comments
Russia is gunning to arm the world. "Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov highlighted Russia's eagerness to crank out weapons on a recent whirlwind tour of Latin America in a trip that showed the country is aggressively expanding its focus from longtime buyers such as China and India to whole continents like South America and Africa."
I know all countries, my own included, deal arms but the upbeat tone of this article gives me the creeps...
posted by johnboy
on Dec 19, 2001 -
5 comments
Secrets of the Cold War in Space. Deep Cold is an website with detailed renderings, quicktime movies and information about the ideas and concepts being developed for both U.S. and Soviet presences in space during the cold war.
posted by moz
on Dec 7, 2001 -
4 comments
According to this editorial, the Russians have outmaneuvered the US oil interests by encouraging the Northern Alliance to take Kabul. "The alliance is now Afghanistan's dominant force and, heedless of multi-party
political talks in Germany going on this week, styles itself as the new "lawful"
government, a claim fully backed by Moscow."
posted by electro
on Nov 28, 2001 -
14 comments
Russia not willing to help? Meanwhile, Nikolai Kovalyov, the former head of the Russian FSB security service, warned the US that an attack on Afghanistan would fail to capture Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the atrocities, and would backfire on the US. "In Afghanistan's mountainous terrain it takes a trainload of explosives to destroy three militants," he said. "The chance of hitting bin Laden is zero."
posted by rushmc
on Sep 15, 2001 -
17 comments
Overview of CIA Support of bin Laden during Russia-Afghan War “[T]he CIA, concerned about the factionalism of Afghanistan ... found that Arab zealots who flocked to aid the Afghans were easier to ‘read’ than the rivalry-ridden natives. While the Arab volunteers might well prove troublesome later, the agency reasoned, they at least were one-dimensionally anti-Soviet for now. So bin Laden, [and other] Islamic militants ... became the ‘reliable’ partners of the CIA in its war against Moscow.”
Senator Orrin Hatch: “It was worth it ... Those were very important, pivotal matters that played an important role in the downfall of the Soviet Union.”
Dated: Aug. 24, 1998
posted by raaka
on Sep 11, 2001 -
15 comments
Farewell, eXile Russia's caustic English-language bi-weekly,
The eXile, has been sold to a Dutch media company and its expat editors have been forced to resign. The magazine, which has pulled nary a punch in its quest to both inform and disgust, will apparently become just another inoffensive local guide to sports and entertainment in Moscow.
posted by tpoh.org
on Sep 1, 2001 -
4 comments
Wandering Camera doesn't strike you with quality of the pictures, but with sheer volume and coverage. I've only been to SPb once, and didn't see nearly as much as what's covered in the albums. Rather than to capture the best visuals of a site, it puts you into its atmosphere.
posted by azazello
on Aug 25, 2001 -
3 comments
Remember the Kursk? It was discussed in length here last year. Now the Russians are going to haul it up, because they don't want US salvage divers to see what their best technology looks like. But the people involved in the rescue attempt last year charge that the haste is risky, and could lead to serious consequences if those reactors were to rupture.
posted by Ezrael
on Jul 17, 2001 -
15 comments
President Bush, on his European tour, tries to calm Russia's concerns of Western expansion by saying they they shouldn't "fear freedom-loving peoples' expansion to their borders." Is he intimating that Russia's people are not "freedom-loving?
Funny, I heard Bush say those words in an NPR report this morning but when I went to CNN to get the quote, freedom-loving was missing from the quote.
posted by Taken Outtacontext
on Jun 15, 2001 -
4 comments
No women on Mars. "Women are likely to be barred from any Russian mission to Mars because they would increase the "probability of conflicts" among the crew, says a Russian space official." We've come a long way, haven't we?
posted by judith
on Jun 6, 2001 -
23 comments
Early (around 1910) amazing COLOR photographs from Russia by Prokudin-Gorskii, photographer for the Czar. He essentially had three cameras, each with a separate Red, Green, or Blue filter, and snapped the same shot at the same time. So all the "reds" were recorded, in B&W, on one photographic plate, and likewise down the line. Then he could use the filters to recreate the scene and project it onto a screen in color. (more inside) (props to slashdot for the link)
posted by jwells
on May 7, 2001 -
58 comments
Russia suspends dismantling weapons: “IF THE NMD (national missile defense) is deployed in the United States, we will have to forget about reductions of strategic offensive weapons,” said Yuri Kapralov, director of Russian Security and Disarmament.
posted by owillis
on Mar 12, 2001 -
16 comments
