The initial signs are that for all the promises of "sharp and serious" changes, the only real outcome of Russia's proposed police reforms is likely to be more centralization.
Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji says the Green Movement has achieved much in seven months, including reflecting broad dissatisfaction and bringing Iranians together.
Russia was only recently predicting a bright future for Gazprom. But demand from Europe is declining, the Russian economy has contracted, and even Gazprom's ability to provide future gas is under question.
Paul Goble says few can doubt that recent Russian claims that Georgia is providing support for Islamist and nationalist militants in the North Caucasus are absurd provocations. But he also says even fewer in Tbilisil seem to recognize that far more is riding on their responses.
An extensive study has revealed how little information Ukraine’s largest banks are willing to share about their finances and their management.
When the adolescent spirit reflects on questions of the world and humanity’s place in it, it is impossible to ignore the ubiquitous paradoxes of being.
We are enjoying our freedom of speech. We have the ability to express ourselves on particular topics and to do so in open public spaces and the mass media. But we must nonetheless express our beliefs within the limits and the terms of language itself. If language forms our thoughts (and vice versa), then totalitarianism has marked us in a fundamental way.
This essay was a runner-up in a contest of student essays sponsored by the Vaclav Havel Library to mark the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.
For teenagers like me in the 1960s, Ashura was a time of sorrow and grief, yes, but the schools were closed for a few days. Now it is grief and politics, a lot of politics. Hate and a lot of slogans. "Down with..." or "Death to..." for political opponents -- even those who are Shi'ite clerics -- and moderates, and everybody and anybody who is not fully behind the current rulers of Iran.
Conditions in Pakistan have been ripening for another military coup d'etat. This time, the soldiers may not have to use guns and tanks. They can bide their time until the elected government descends into chaos, then march in as national saviors.
When I first met Yegor Gaidar in early 1990, he was an editor at "Pravda" and I was looking for a job. He was explaining what his department was doing, what was allowed and what wasn't. "I'm outta here," I decided, just as he concluded: "You don't want to work here."
In the short term, an even harsher crackdown is foreseeable if the opposition presses ahead with the planned demonstrations for the month of Muharram -- and many bet they will.
Load more
