After the Revolution

In a flurry of acronyms, the U.S. and the U.K. supported Georgia at the U.N. this week in the Abkhazia dispute.
Russia withdrew trade sanctions against the breakaway republic last week.
The United States and Britain criticized the move, saying it opened up the possibility of weapons trade.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will discuss the issue with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon […]

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It seems Vladimir Putin was right. Then again, as illustrated by Russia’s recent presidential election, he’s not averse to stacking the cards to prove his point.
Yesterday the parliament of Abkhazia, one of Georgia’s two breakaway republics, declared its independence to the international community.
The day before, Russia had announced it would lift trade restrictions to the province.
Wouldn’t you know it, […]

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Throw that blanket back off; the second round of the Russia-Ukraine gas fights ended today.
But there is so much more to this than just a spat over a utility bill.
According to an article in the Financial Times:
[T]he Russians do not regard Ukraine as a serious independent country and the Ukrainians do not regard the Russians as trustworthy […]

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I love it. The BBC posted a 357-word guide to pronouncing two words: Dmitry Medvedev.
It’s a name that’s been tripping some high-power lips, as Medvedev just took Vladimir Putin’s place (in name, at least) as Russian president.
Not sure how to say it? See Hillary Clinton give it a try here.
The BBC’s recommendation:
DMEET-ri muhd-VYED-uhff; -uh as in the; -vy as […]

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Toss on another blanket; the gas fights are back.
State-owned Russian gas company Gazprom has cut gas supplies to Ukraine in half over the past two days.
Gazprom says Ukraine has not paid $1.5 billion in gas bills.
Ukraine’s gas company, Naftogaz, says Ukraine has made most of the payments but can’t complete the rest because Russia and Ukraine’s intermediary gas trading company has yet […]

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Call it giving up — or just plain practical.
Labor officials in Kyrgyzstan are encouraging vocational schools to teach students the skills they need to do manual labor abroad, according to an article from the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.
Despite the recent spate of hate crimes in Russia against these kinds of migrant workers [see previous post], the Kyrgyz […]

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Spend any amount of time in towns and villages in countries that were once part of the Soviet Union, and you will begin to wonder something.
Where are all the young people?
I’m not talking about the children. The children are there.
But many of them live with grandparents or a neighbor. Some live alone. It is fairly […]

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Let me take you on a bit of a side trip to the Republic of Moldova.
From 2004-2006, I taught English in the town of Calarasi, just an hour outside the capital, Chisinau.
There were three secondary schools in my town: two for Romanian speakers and one for Russian speakers. I taught at a Romanian school.
Many of my students told me […]

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Finally, I found an article that mentions what the governments of breakaway provinces in former Soviet republics think of Kosovan independence.
In this article from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, the leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are quoted as saying that they will make appeals for independence to the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
They […]

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All that waving of American flags, and the best George Bush can give Kosovo is an adjective.
Today Bush called Kosovo’s people “independent” but stopped short of officially recognizing Kosovo as an independent state.
This doesn’t mean that Bush refuses to recognize Kosovo officially, but it might have something to do with the European Union’s failure to take an official position on […]

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