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The Potemkin Analysis of Russia

December 27, 2005 06:34 AM

Graham Allison, a former assistant secretary of defense who now teaches at the Kennedy School at Harvard, has a piece on Russia in today's Boston Globe that defies parody (and believe me, I tried). You'll just have to read it for yourself. But bear in mind as you do that if the virtue of today's Russia is its "stability," as the author suggests, then this "backsliding on democracy" that he so casually refers to is a pretty serious threat. In Vladimir Putin's Russia there is virtually no press freedom, domestic political opponents are jailed and intimidated, its empire-minded government bullies and menaces independent neighboring states, and the military continues a slow-motion demolition of Chechnya. Sounds a bit like the old, unstable Russia, no?

Yet like an International Relations major exchanging bong-hits in his dormroom over the din of a Grateful Dead bootleg, Allison's analysis ultimately boils down to, Hey, it's complicated, man.

Russia remains a kaleidoscope of contradiction. It is still, in Winston Churchill's oft-quoted line, ''a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." ...[snip]
Most Americans see Russia's glass as half empty rather than half full...there are always enough negatives to support the pessimists.
In my view, Russia is still the land of the Matrushkas and Potemkin's village -- much more subtle and complex than we realize. One peels off one shell only to find another -- each layer embodying elements of truth, competing with contradictory realities both within and beyond. [Emphases mine]

Now pass me the bong....

UPDATE: For more on Russia's "stability," it is worth checking out this editorial in today's Financial Times.

Russia

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Comments

Kofi Annan has stepped down at the U.N. - at least a decade too late. I predict future historians will find it difficult to judge whether this ineffectual dupe was the puppet of genocidal regimes and autocrats or just their indispensable enabler. It is tough to fully enumerate the sins and consequences of this repugnant figure, but this WSJ editorial begins the grim task.

December 17, 2006 05:59 AM · Permalink

I am often asked what it's like living in Ukraine. Well, yesterday afternoon I heard some hammering, and it sounded pretty close, so I went to se what was up. Looking out from a living room window I found two men in a cherry-picker, and they were hacking away at the rim of my balcony with sledge mallets, breaking away the concrete and tearing up the tiles. I figured the owner of my apartment must have forgotten to tell me she was having work done. Today I found out this wasn't the case. Alarmed, she phoned the Zhek - the state agency responsible for, but rarely inclined to undertake, the upkeep of public property. Their response was basically, News to us. We are now facing the prospect that we may never learn who these men were and why they were attacking my balcony, which now needs extensive repairs. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that I have been victimized in an act of serial vandalism by two men with sledges and a cherry-picker. That, my friends, is what it's like to live in Ukraine.

November 15, 2006 04:23 PM · Permalink

Help, I'm on crack!

Oops - I mean, Help, I've been hacked! Not sure how long it was there, but someone managed to place an unauthorized link in Ethanistan. If anyone clicked on it, I apologize for not catching it sooner. Unless it linked to something cool. In which case, I'm glad I could open your mind to new exotic experiences, man.

August 23, 2006 12:05 PM · Permalink

REVEALER, REVEAL THYSELF

Hmmmm. You can read through the entirety of Tony Judt's defense of the Mearsheimer/Walt paper without ever learning that Judt has called for the dissolution of Israel. Yet it's a not-unreasonable assumption that this argument, which was (of course) very controversial when it was aired, was what led the Times to Judt's doorstep in the first place. Bad copy editing?

April 19, 2006 08:29 AM · Permalink

Blair: Contra the "Doctrine of Benign Inactivity"

Britain being home to some of earth's most cynical and repugnant twits -- George Galloway and Harold Pinter, to name just two -- it is easy sometimes to forget the heroic moral fortitude its leaders have demonstrated at critical moments across history. Tony Blair reminds us why he deserves mention alongside Churchill and Thatcher.

March 22, 2006 10:08 AM · Permalink

Greg Gutfeld answers one of the blogosphere's great quandaries: How do you even begin to satirize a Web site that presents Alec Baldwin, Deepak Chopra and other B-list dinner guests as deep thinkers? It's the funniest thing in cyberspace at the moment. Don't miss Greg's "bio" -- and definitely do not miss the comments left below his entries by HuffPosters, confused and angry, who came for the wisdom of Cindy Sheehan and got rabbit-punched by this smartass.

March 1, 2006 10:58 AM · Permalink

A true gentleman of the Blogosphere has learned he must battle more than just Moonbats in the months and years to come. Stop by GM's Corner and give George a shout -- and maybe leave some change in the bowl on the way out.

February 16, 2006 05:29 AM · Permalink

Fight Fascism - Eat a Butter Cookie. Wikipedia provides a handy list of Danish companies here. Hey, if all of us here band together and buy Danish that would be like ... four or five bucks. But it's the principle that counts!

February 9, 2006 08:13 PM · Permalink

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