As many frequent readers of the Russian media would attest, retrieving accurate data pertaining to any sensitive topic can prove difficult.  It is thus reassuring to see that Russia has agreed to hold its census next year, at a cost of 10.5 billion rubles, after initial hesitation due to apparent lack of funds.  Indeed, this commentator suggests that whilst the census may go ahead, it will be 'less comprehensive and less accurate' than many would wish.  Murray Feshbach at RFE/RL argues that a census would allow the country to seriously tackle the issues of demographic decline, its manifest HIV and TB problems, and form policies on how to accommodate its ethnic and religious minorities.  Feshbach suggests census-phobia is ...

Poor Joseph Stalin.  Sure, he personally signed orders to kill hundreds of thousands, but why can't the media leave the poor guy alone?  Efforts in Russia to rejuvenate his image have been creative...  We had the RussiaToday advertisements talking about his poetry writing, they made a special cell phone theme bearing his likeness, his family members are even suing newspapers.As the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact approaches, the Stalin defenders have gone overboard.  It now appears that his arrangement with the Germans - that little piece of history which makes Poland so angry - was A-OK.From Voice of America:On August 17, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service issued a statement saying it had declassified documents showing that the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the Soviet Union's "only available means of self-defense." ...

For weeks now the liberal world media dutifully has been repeating dire threats against so-called “tax havens” from the big spending, high taxing, anti-tax competition likes of Germany’s Merkel and France’s Sarkosy.

Even President Obama allowed his less than impressive Secretary of the Treasury to make some noise against tax havens.

The orchestrated battle of words hurled at offshore financial centers got so heated that British PM Gordon Brown felt obliged to demand for “the end of tax havens.”

This belated anti-tax haven baloney comes from Her Majesty’s first minister whose government is in charge (and has been for a decade) of the United Kingdom’s many tax havens in its overseas territories (Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, the Turks & Caicos) and its Crown Dependencies (the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey and the Isle of Man), plus Gibraltar.

Does the Rt. Hon. Gordon believe that the

...

Last year, I wrote that if Uncle Sam gets his way, we’d all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave - or re-enter - the United States. That day has now arrived, but in addition to obtaining Big Brother’s permission to travel internationally, a final rule pursuant to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s “Secure Flight” initiative says we must now get it to travel from state-to-state.”

At some point in the future, you’ll need to reveal your name, gender, and date of birth when you make a domestic airline reservation. The airline will contact TSA to determine if you’re cleared to board. If you’re on any of TSA’s watchlists (which include such deceased “terrorists” as Saddam Hussein, along with live ones such as Sen. Edward Kennedy), you’ll need to provide an official document acceptable for federal identification purposes in order to travel.

Examples of acceptable

...

Rossiyskaya gazeta is the official organ of the government of the Russian Federation, so you can safely assume that anything printed in it represents the official party line. Below we offer our exclusive translation of a recent opinion piece, in which a retired senior Russian Supreme Court judge discusses the social ramifications of the fact that one quarter of Russian males have been through the prison system, and offers solutions that sound suspiciously liberal, although he quickly backtracks and insists that they are actually quite the opposite. Our translator has intentionally tried to preserve the heavy-handed Soviet linguistic style of the original. Of particular interest is the introduction, which may very well have been added recently, after the rest of the article was written, since it reeks so heavily of the current party line. What are the most important reasons why a large number ...