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May 04, 2024
 

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Andrey Borodaevskiy
For Andrey Borodaevskiy's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2012
Pawns of the neo-Putin era
After the May 7 inauguration of Vladimir Putin, the re-elected Russian president rapidly began taking revenge on those who caused him anxiety from December to March. Of late, he and his henchmen have demonstrated a sharp stance against dissent and opposition in general.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2012
Place names defy tradition, distressing the Russian spirit
In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a countrywide campaign of toponymic change brought back many historic names — first of all in Moscow and in Leningrad (which in due course was returned to its proper name St. Petersburg). Soon after, however, these spontaneous activities abruptly stopped, and the subject was dropped, ostensibly forever.
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2012
The challenge of family life for Russia's working mothers
As with other prevalent trends in most European countries, in Russia an ever- increasing share of mothers prefer to combine household activities with work outside their household.
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2012
Russia needs true family policy
The unprecedented upswing of public interest in Russia's presidential elections opened a window of opportunities — quite unexpected but welcome — to see and discuss many socioeconomic problems in a more realistic manner.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2012
A catastrophic social budget
During the past two years, Vladimir Putin repeatedly stressed his special attention to and personal patronage of the efforts to keep up and somehow improve the pitiful situation concerning the overall social position and living standards of retired and disabled people, such as those receiving pensions of different kind.
COMMENTARY
Apr 13, 2012
Russia's 'shadow market'
We should keep in mind that Russia is a country that has spent 70 years in an inhuman experiment aimed at arranging all sides of socioeconomic life within a giant centrally planned system. Even if this time is over, many features of today's life go on reminding us of this heavy and in many ways onerous heritage.
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2012
Russia's civil society is key
The future of democracy in Russia will depend on the correct relationship between "people" and "power" — the two major elements constituting any society.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2012
Sure winner fails to inspire
Before the scandalous presidential election of 1996, the situation was clear-cut and critical. A victory by Gennady Zyuganov over Boris Yeltsin would have meant an old-style Communists' revenge for their defeat in the August 1991 putsch as well as a strong drive toward renationalization of the economy and eventual attempts to "bring back" under Moscow's control at least some of the former Soviet republics.
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2012
An alternative to Putin's way
A "frosty Saturday" Feb. 4 confirmed the deadlocked nature of the situation that has ripened in Russia for more than a decade of Vladimir Putin's rule (as president and senior partner in the infamous "tandem").
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2012
Russia should back up a bit to find road to the future
I am not going to speak about a time machine and America but about Russia and its urgent need to return to the past in search of a tool to secure a better future.
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2012
Let economic impetus drive a deal in territorial dispute
Judging by the latest events in the seemingly endless territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the "Northern Territories," the Japanese side has decided to confirm its steadfast stance by presenting strong historical and judicial arguments — some traditional, some rather new.
COMMENTARY
Jan 17, 2012
Democracy and growth: Russia's great challenge
At this particular historic moment, the urgency of the economic assimilation of new natural and human resources worldwide is somehow obscured by the global crisis and by the necessity of reforming the global financial system.
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2012
Russia's mental adjustment
Through the centuries, every people — big or small — has been working out its own approaches to various sides of life that, summed up, predestine its mentality and national character.
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2011
Russia's cooperation options for design of a trade scheme
Nowadays the trend toward trade and investment liberalization is developing under restraints of the opposite — protectionist — tendency strengthened by the shaky and unpredictable world situation, which in turn was created by the global financial and economic crisis.
COMMENTARY
Dec 2, 2011
Russian Asia mega-project
Unprejudiced analysis brings us to the conclusion that Russia does not have many choices concerning its immediate economic future. Let us hope that Soviet-style "autarky" is out of the question.
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2011
Historic choices for Russia
Recently the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza stated that the foreign ministers of Poland and Germany — Radoslaw Sikorski and Guido Westerwelle — have worked out a common position concerning an eventual EU policy toward Russia.
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2011
Two days that shook the CIS
On Oct. 18-19, eight of 11 members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) — gathering in St. Petersburg for its annual session — accepted a proposal from Russian Prime Minister and returning President Vladimir Putin to establish a free trade zone, thus taking a decisive step toward a Eurasian economic union.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2011
What is in store for Russian Asia?
When the Soviet Union disintegrated, a large number of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking and Russian-cultured peoples remained outside the borders of the Russian Federation — creating, in the short run, many acute and complicated problems but, in the long run, eventually facilitating a revival of amenity and mutually profitable cooperation between the newborn nation-states in the future.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2011
Integration outlook for ex-Soviets
It is well known that, in the political field, the 20th century brought about a strong and, as it turned out, omnipresent trend toward disintegration of former empires and the formation in their place of nation-states all over the crumbling colonial world.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2011
Integrating the econ outliers
A rule of thumb in the realm of international economic cooperation goes like this: The more developed the partners, the more advanced the toolkit servicing industrial cooperation and the bigger the benefits from integration.
Biden calls ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with rivals China and Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in Syracuse, New York, on April 25.
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
Harajuku strives to reclaim its former glory — and surpass it
Laforet Harajuku, which celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, has been a witness to the district's evolution over the years.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Japan's May 1 intervention may have cost ¥3.66 trillion, BOJ data suggests
An electronic screen displays a graph showing Japanese yen exchange rates surging against the dollar amid signs of intervention by authorities, in Tokyo on Thursday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

Podcast

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[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

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