Dmitry Solovyov's article on the Russian military's conscription program in the Moscow Times is beyond words, especially the detail about Anton Kuznetsov.  Anyone who can find more info on that story, just let us know ... I only see the state media attempting to discredit Kuznetsov as a traitor gone AWOL."I hate to say this, but in fact such a conscription with numerous violations calls this reform into question, if not spells the death of it," said Sergei Krivenko, coordinator of the public movement Citizen and the Army. Human rights bodies say even young men with criminal records were drafted this year. Official data show 471 Russians died while serving last year, 29 more than in 2007. More than half of all deaths last year were suicides, often caused by the deep-rooted tradition of hazing, when older soldiers bully and humiliate younger ones....

Today a former KGB spy, living in Canada since 1997, has taken refuge inside a church in Vancouver in a desperate move to avoid deportation of himself and his family.  The Canadian authorities are seeking to send Mikhail Lennikov, his wife Irina, and 17-year-old son Dmitri, back to Russia for having engaged in acts of espionage and subversion against democratic governments under the Soviet Union (though Lennikov insists that he was a low level translator).  To wit, a Federal Court rejected pleas from Lennikov's lawyers to suspend this deportation.Lennikov has rallied a staggering amount of political support, which may not be surprising for Canada given the country's traditionally forgiving stance toward refugees.  Over the past six months, the Lennikov case has become a media ...

There were few surprises this weekend over how the Russian police handled a sizable protest by gay rights activists in Moscow, who sought to take advantage of the televised Eurovision event to bring attention to their persecuted status.  As human rights groups cry foul over the state's response, the Moscow Times reports that Peter Tatchell and Edvard Murzin, a heterosexual human rights activist, unfurled banners and shouted slogans including, "No compromises! Equal rights! Homophobia is a national disgrace!" (...) "Russian people don't have freedom."  Fred Weir at CSM has gently called this crackdown "a sign of a less harmonious Russia," while the Economist notes that the coincidence of the Eurovision Song Contest and the Victory Day parade of Russian military might show Vladimir Putin's concentration on the "external political effect" of the event. Embedded video ...

Twenty more go to Davy Jones’s Locker Yet another accident on a Russian naval atomic submarine Grigory Pasko, journalist On 8 November at 20:30 local time in the Sea of Japan on an atomic submarine of the Pacific Ocean Fleet, which had come out of the base of the closed territorial-administrative formation (ZATO) «Bolshoy Kamen», there took place an unsanctioned activation of the fire-extinguishing system with the emission of freon. As a result, 6 military service personnel and 14 civilian persons died, another 22 persons are hospitalized with various injuries. In total, 20 dead. According to the data of the Russian military, on board the boat at the moment of the accident were found 208 persons, of whom a mere 81 were military service personnel. Immediately, of course, there arises the question: just what were civilian people doing on an atomic boat in the first place? ...

Today Sean-Paul Kelley at the Agonist writes about the Russian hijinks in Georgia and Kaliningrad, which he argues is like a "dead cat bounce" - a slight, fitful resurgence in an otherwise long, steep decline: But, in the long run Russia has deep, systemic problems as a nation, what with a demographic collapse ongoing. Russia loses 800,000 people a year, net. That alone, when factored out twenty or thirty years into the future is catastrophic for Russia. Second, it's armed forces need dire reform. While officers in the Russian military do not outnumber enlisted members, the number isn't too far off. The army is too top heavy and even with oil in over $100 a barrel the Russians are having a hard time just maintaining what equipment they have. There are no new weapon systems coming on line. (If I recall correctly they were delivered one new fighter in ...

Ed Lucas proposes a not-completely-implausible scenario of Russia and Estonia going to war as an illustration of Europe's many misconceptions of security relations with Moscow. Consider this scenario. Imagine that Estonian extremists start intimidating local Russians (who amount to around a third of the Estonian population). Russia can easily stoke this covertly, while demanding publicly that Estonia crack down. Then imagine that Russian activists (again, backed, discreetly, by Moscow) set up "self-defence units" which start patrols, and set up checkpoints. When the Estonian authorities try to stop this, the Kremlin complains; Russian military "volunteers" start mustering across the border, proclaiming their intention to defend compatriots from "fascism". The Russian media report this with wild enthusiasm; the Russian authorities say they cannot indefinitely restrain the spontaneous patriotic sentiments of their citizens. Suppose Estonia requests support under Article IV of the Nato charter. At this point, Russia's cultivation of assets in the West ...

TODAY: French police conclude Moskalenko poisoning was ‘an accident’; Russia criticizes US over Syrian attack, offers Cuba support; Saakashvili dismisses PM; British MP admits it was a ‘mistake’ to meet Deripaska; youth groups, internet firewalls. French investigators have reportedly concluded that mercury found in the car of Karinna Moskalenko, former lawyer to Anna Politkovskaya and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was the result of an accidental spillage. Russia is up in arms over the allegation that US helicopters attacked a Syrian farm near the Iraqi border. Will the IMF’s newly agreed loan to Ukraine protect the latter from ‘cash-rich’ Russia, wonders The Economist. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, dismissing his prime minister, said that he needed a new team to help him face the Russian threat. The Russian military is to offer defense expertise to Cuba this ...

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 ...

From EurasiaNet: RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher put this question to Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, the former president of the American Society of International Law, and a member of the National War Powers Commission. RFE/RL: You’ve read the reports of what’s happening in Georgia at the hands of the Russian military. Is this a violation of international law? Anne-Marie Slaughter: It depends on how you see what [the Russian military] is doing. To the extent that it has moved beyond South Ossetia and Abkhazia into Georgia proper, and that it is staying there -- if the reports of its attacks on parts of Georgia that have nothing to do with those enclaves are true -- then at some point this crosses into simple aggression against another country, which is a violation of the UN Charter. It is using force against ...