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Nina L. Khrushcheva
For Nina L. Khrushcheva's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2008
Triumph of the totalitarian will in Beijing
MOSCOW — When the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games begins this week, viewers will be presented with a minutely choreographed spectacle swathed in nationalist kitsch. Of course, images that recall German leader Adolf Hitler's goose-stepping storm troopers are the last thing that China's leaders have in mind for their Olympics; after all, official Chinese nationalism proclaims the country's "peaceful rise" within an idyll of "harmonious development." But, both aesthetically and politically, the parallel is hardly far-fetched.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2008
Putin's unwilling executioner?
NEW YORK — The question that has dominated Russian politics, and world discussion of Russian politics — will he (Vladimir Putin) or won't he stay in power? — has now been settled. He will and he won't.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2007
Once again, musical chairs at the Kremlin
VIENNA — It's that time again: Russia's pre-election season when prime ministers are changed as in a game of musical chairs. The last one seated, it is supposed, will become Russia's next president. As the end of his rule approached, Boris Yeltsin went through at least a half-dozen prime ministers, looking for the one who would ensure the security not only of Russia's new democracy and market economy, but also of his "family" and the wealth that it had accumulated during his rule. The last man seated then was, of course, Vladimir Putin.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2007
Yeltsin: a hero of his time
NEW YORK -- Boris Yeltsin was utterly unique. Russia's first democratically elected leader, he was also the first Russian leader to give up power voluntarily, and constitutionally, to a successor. But he was also profoundly characteristic of Russian leaders. Using various mixtures of charisma, statecraft and terror, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander II, Peter Stolypin (the last czar's prime minister), Lenin and Stalin all sought to make Russia not only a great military power, but also an economic and cultural equal of the West.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
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