Guests: Pavel Baev on the fallout of the Nemtsov murder; Pietro Shakarian on Armenia.
This week’s Russia! Magazine column, “Tsarnaev Conspiracy Theory Simulacrum“: The bombings in Boston carried out by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brought the United States and
I don’t have much to add about the biographies of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. I certainly won’t presume the cause or intent of their bombings
This post was also published at Warscapes. Sunday, October 7, marks six years since Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in her apartment elevator. The assailant shot
May 30, 2006 P 300927Z MAY 06 FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF
Will the real Ramzan Kadyrov please stand up? Or at least provide an official passport? As some may already know, the great pacifier of Chechnya,
But for some the news is the news itself. As I suggested on Monday, it was only a matter a time, like seconds, that much of the Western media would be blaming Russia–which really is a metonym for Putin, Putinism or what have you–for the attacks. I won’t spend so much time on identifying the metanarrative or metacommentary on all of this. Others have been this already: Mark Adomanis, A Good Treaty, and Peter Lavelle. I don’t agree with every bit of the metacommentary, but I do support the general thrust of their arguments.
One comment I will make is the controversy over what, how
Doku Umarov claims responsibility for Monday’s twin metro bombings in Moscow saying, according to Kavkaz Center, that “the attack had been a retaliation and a retribution for the massacre by Russian invaders of the poorest residents of Chechnya and Ingushetia, who were picking wild garlic in the Arshty village on February 11, 2010, to feed their families.”
What follows is basically an incomplete rundown of some of the commentary coming out of Russia. It’s mostly based on the Russian language media since, frankly, much of the English language media is worthless with some notable exceptions. Topics include: Russian liberal narcissism, the question of blame, the tandem’s temperament, alleged racist retaliation, alleged cabbie extortion, paranoia and fear, outrage at Russia’s federal television channels, Moscovites’ public expressions mourning and loss.