It's been a lively couple of months for Russia's opposition. After last December's parliamentary elections, the country was hit by the largest demonstrations since the 1990s. Defying freezing temperatures, tens of thousands gathered in Moscow alone to protest against election irregularities and the victorious United Russia party of Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev. The huge rise in turnout, compared with any demonstration in recent memory, surprised everyone, especially the opposition.
Russia
The global political crisis 鈥 a natural outcome of the continuing economic crisis 鈥 finally made it to Russia last month before getting derailed by the country's traditional hibernation in early January.
If you are not at least a little bit scared about the Russian heatwave or the huge floods in Pakistan, then you really should be. Extreme and dangerous weather events will be far more common in a warmer world.
These devastating fires and floods are a taste of our future climate 鈥 unless we can force a political breakthrough on climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions sharply.
The disasters of the past few weeks sound an unmistakable warning: we鈥檝e emitted so many greenhouse gases already that we are losing a safe climate.
In Russia, a seven-week-long heatwave has caused giant firestorms to break out across more than 114,000 hectares of the country. At least 48 people have died and more than 400 new fires broke out on August 4 alone, the Kyiv Post said that day.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said on July 30 that 鈥減ractically everything is burning鈥 in 14 regions of the country, Time said on August 2.
In the past, Medvedev has not seemed too concerned about climate change. At last year鈥檚 Copenhagen climate conference he bluntly announced that Russia would increase its emissions.
ANZACS in Arkhangel: The Untold Story of Australia and the Invasion of Russia 1918-19
By Michael Challinger
Hardie Grant Books, 2010, 285 pages, $35 (pb)
鈥淭he remedy for Bolshevism is bullets鈥, was the blunt message of the editorial in Britain鈥檚 establishment newspaper, The Times, in 1919 as military forces from 16 capitalist countries invaded Russia after the 1917 revolution. Among the invaders were about 150 Australian soldiers, as recounted in Michael Challinger鈥檚 history of the Australian role in the invasion.
LaborStart.org reports that on June 7 Mikhail Chesalin, chairperson of the local Dockers Union of Russia in Kaliningrad, was savagely stabbed and beaten outside the union office. He was stabbed numerous times in the spine and severely beaten about the head. His assailants left him lying face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood. Chesalin鈥檚 colleagues believe that the attack was orchestrated by Vladimir Kalinichenko, the general director of Kaliningrad Sea Commercial Port, where the dockworkers鈥 union is currently running an organising campaign. Kalinichenko has tried to break up union events by sending his personal 鈥渟ecurity鈥 forces, together with local thugs, to spy on and intimidate workers. Visit for more information.
Men in Contemporary Russia: The Fallen Heroes of Post-Soviet Change?
by Rebecca Kay
Ashgate, 2006
236 pages, $121.50
by Rebecca Kay
Ashgate, 2006
236 pages, $121.50
Following the April 23 death of Boris Yeltsin, various polling organisations conducted surveys on how Russians regarded his actions. Asked what they saw as Yeltsin鈥檚 main achievement, 33% of respondents answered: 鈥淗e left office voluntarily in December 1999.鈥 All his other achievements were within the statistical margin of error. The majority of those surveyed did not consider that Russia鈥檚 first president had any achievements at all.
A few months ago I was simply a political analyst. However, since March, I have stepped back into a role I had almost forgotten 鈥 that of coordinator of an informal political movement, in this case to organise a boycott of the Russian presidential election.
Since supporters of President Boris Yeltsin were routed in parliamentary elections in December, Russians have been faced with the prospect that their next president may be Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF).
Roy Medvedev was the leading dissident Soviet historian during the Brezhnev years. He was expelled from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1969. In 1971, following the publication in the West of his monumental study on Stalin, Left History Judge,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin appears to have blocked local authority elections called by the Russian parliament for December 8.
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