In the New York Times Ellen Barry writes about the outcry among academics St Peterbsurg University (alma mater of Putin and Medvedev) who are concerned about new legislation that may require their work to be submitted to the authorities before it can be published overseas.  Whilst defenders of the order, such as the university's rector, Putin-Medvedev friendly Nikolai M. Kropachev, say it is a standard move to defend intellectual property, detractors claim that the project recalls the Soviet-era censorship program and suggest that those interested in controversial topics, such as human rights, will be the first to suffer from its restrictions.In an interesting footnote, under the rector's leadership, the University has, says Barry, strengthened in the league tables, ...

Kafkaesque. The former Russian oil tycoon, who stood up to Putin, is back before his judges. Here is the story. [The following is a translation of an article published in the French publication Le Point.]

Le Point, October 15, 2009

Accused Khodorkovsky, Stand Up!

From our special envoy Marc Nexon

He stands up, opens his spiral notebook and pulls out 3 sheets of paper he has scribbled with his fine handwriting. He pats the microphone installed in his glass cage. "Can you hear me?" he asks, addressing the judge. Then he starts with a clear voice: "I know that in his eyes I embody absolute evil, but I would like to ask quietly a few questions to the witness of the prosecution..."

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TODAY: 1998 Starovoitova murder case to be reopened; Moscow city Duma election opposition candidates outraged; Nashi vs Nemtsov thrown out of court.  Lavrov positive on reset; new police chief; Moscow mayor to fight weather.According to Bloomberg, Russia has reopened the investigation into the 1998 murder of lawmaker and human rights activist Galina Starovoitova as new evidence has appeared.  The assassinated activist's assistant, Ruslan Linkov, who was also injured in the attack which killed her, has suggested that the reopening may be to do with an appeal sent by himself and Starovoitova's sister to President Medvedev in July.  An independent election-monitoring group has criticized election officials for preventing all but one opposition candidate to stand in next ...

Powerful article over at www.smallgovtimes.com by Gary North. A snippet: Why Bernanke is in panic mode August 1, 2009 by Gary North Usually, when Ben Bernanke is interviewed, he has the demeanor of a college professor in the presence of freshman students. Of course, as a full professor, he did not have to teach freshmen. That is for untenured assistant professors to do. Stammering and stuttering are therefore a real departure for him. There is a reason for this.

China turns it up another notch… now “concerned about the security” of U.S. investments… Chris Mayer tells the “story of today’s economy”… Mainstream celebrates latest home price index… our perceptive on the housing “recovery”… Three market sectors currently detached from reality… The truth emerges… why Ben Bernanke really bailed out Wall Street…

Here it comes, slowly but surely: “We sincerely hope the U.S. fiscal deficit will be reduced, year after year,” China’s Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said overnight after talks with Treasury Secretary Geithner. Could he lay it out any more clearly than this? “The Chinese government is a responsible government, and first and foremost our responsibility is the Chinese people, so of course we are concerned about the security of the Chinese assets.”

The Chinese now own over $801 billion in U.S. debt, nearly double their holdings at the start of 2007 and by far the world’s largest

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Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would

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Today La Russophobe published an editorial about the legal plight of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, pointing out "It is not Mikhail Khdorokovsky who is in prison, but the Russian people themselves -- and they are their own jailer."

During the trial, it seems the prosecutor began reading from a document.  The defense attorney objected, arguing that the contents were secret attorney-client communications.  The judge asked the prosecutor whether she was simply quoting or including her own comments.  The assistant prosecutor told the prosecutor to ignore the judge and keep reading.  The furious judge asked the assistant how she dared suggest ignoring his question, and the assistant answered that it was because people in the audience were laughing.  The judge then responded:  "Well let 'em laugh! If the convoy [Khodorkovsky's guards--Trans.] deems it necessary, it will stop them."

So not only do the prosecutors brazenly flout the judge's authority, but the judge himself admits that the

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Recent stories about Russian passports being distributed in Crimea, Ukraine have raised quite a ruckus. But that doesn't seem to be the only place in the Ukraine with some ethnic nationalism issues, and a new report we've translated from Izvestiya after the jump tells the story of Moscow's possible assistance to the Ruthenians - an ethnic group located in Transcarpathia, the western-most Oblast of the country, near the Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian, and Romanian borders. For centuries, the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and known as Subcarpathia. (Everything depends on where you’re looking from: if your vantage point is Vienna or Budapest, the region is in the foothills “below” the Carpathian mountains, hence “Subcarpathia”. But if you’re looking from Moscow or Kiev, it’s on the “other side” of ...