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May 08, 2024
 

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THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 23, 2004
Putin's bloodless coup d'etat
MOSCOW -- In what amounts to a coup d'etat five years after he came to power in August 1999, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a number of measures annihilating the fragile system of checks and balances constructed during President Boris Yeltsin's tenure in the 1990s.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 11, 2004
Russia's underbelly exposed
MOSCOW -- Date: Sept. 1-3, 2004.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 15, 2004
Life in a Russian namesake
MOSCOW -- To be a namesake of a celebrity is a curse. A person who bears the same name as a baseball star or a TV anchorman invariably finds himself a target of countless unkind comments that demean his intellect, looks and savings account, and even make fun of the car he drives. No matter how hard he tries to distance himself from the famous double, friends and colleagues gleefully keep juxtaposing the two, driving the less prominent twin absolutely nuts.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 29, 2004
The Morlocks are coming!
MOSCOW -- The most common word used by foreigners to describe Soviet Russia was "gray." Be it the cityscape, clothes or official culture, everything looked evenly unpleasant, unexciting, drab. Nowadays, the maddening communist evenness is gone, but Russia has become home to something equally disturbing -- outrageous gaps and contrasts in a society molded by unbridled young capitalism.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 11, 2004
Exile in America inspired a revolution
MOSCOW -- George Balanchine was an exile thrice. The first time came without his consent and even without his prior knowledge, as his family went from its native Georgia in the Caucasus to the capital of Russia, St. Petersburg, before he was born.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 11, 2004
Simple visionary hastened Soviet collapse
MOSCOW -- Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who died last week after a long and dehumanizing struggle with Alzheimer's disease, will be remembered by most as one of the last great figures of the 20th century.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 7, 2004
Putin looks back to the future
MOSCOW -- A new catchphrase is making the rounds in Moscow: "We have already seen that." Summing up the results of the first four-year term of President Vladimir Putin, the expression is a far cry from flattery, as it refers not to the reforms of Peter the Great but to the return of the cult of personality and other phenomena peculiar to the years of stagnation under the rule of Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
May 16, 2004
EU stretching the envelope
MOSCOW -- Nobody truly knows where Europe ends. Geographically, it is supposed to run all the way east to the Ural Mountains, but few would argue that this definition should be taken seriously. What matters is culture and politics and the allegiances resulting from both. With the recent expansion of the European Union, the question of what it takes to become a European has acquired new urgency and now causes much controversy throughout the Continent.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Apr 18, 2004
Revisiting an evil stereotype
MOSCOW -- Each country has a reputation. For France, it is wine and food; for Italy, wine, food and the pope; for Holland, canals; for Austria, skiing; for Russia vodka, snow and bears.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 20, 2004
Back to the future in Russia
MOSCOW -- The outcome of Russia's presidential elections was known long before the polls opened March 14. President Vladimir Putin had successfully marginalized the opposition by placing mass media under state control and exiling tycoons who were supplying opposition groups with donations.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 6, 2004
Sun sets on Russian democrac
MOSCOW -- Relapses are always regrettable, particularly when the gains lost had been won at such a high cost.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 15, 2004
Don't tease the Russian bear
MOSCOW -- In this election year for both Russia and the United States, a major conflict is under way in Russo-American relations: the debate over the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Created to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War, NATO had to redesign itself following the demise of the Red Empire.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jan 25, 2004
Surprise guests inspire unholy thoughts
MOSCOW -- It started with a rectangular jellyfish floating toward the lower right-hand corner of my computer screen. The jellyfish carried a logo, Kodak Easy Share, and was of a nauseating white-yellow-red design. The jellyfish had been there for quite a while, distracting me from students' papers and my own precariously delayed book manuscript, yet I could live with it. It was not particularly obtrusive and, having bobbed for a minute or so, disappeared in a hole it had dug for itself in the bowels of the screen.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jan 7, 2004
Putin's plan takes aim at democracy
MOSCOW -- 2004 is a leap year. Merely an astronomical convenience in most countries, in Russia a leap year has been traditionally regarded as a bad year, potentially charged with calamities. Ironically enough, none of the country's worst years was a leap year: neither 1917, when the Communists took power, nor 1937, when Josef Stalin's great terror struck, nor 1941, when Germany attacked.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 11, 2003
A step back for democracy
MOSCOW -- Last Sunday's parliamentary elections in Russia have resulted in a sweeping defeat of democracy and a new start for the Russian nationalists.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 29, 2003
Coup ushers in uncertain era
MOSCOW -- A former Soviet republic, Georgia, is in the limelight again. Outraged by an allegedly fraudulent parliamentary election, protesters toppled the government of President Eduard A. Shevardnadze and installed an interim administration led by a number of opposition leaders.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2003
Navigating the deep Internet
MOSCOW -- There could hardly be a tougher opponent for a struggling college professor than the Internet. You ask your students to write an essay about Moscow, and you end up with the papers based on sources like www.moscow-taxi.ripoff.com and www.moscow-hotels.dump.ru. When, fuming with rage, you inform the students that Moscow was not founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin and that Princess Diana was not Ivan the Terrible's fifth wife, they sound mildly apologetic, but by the tired look in their honest eyes you know that they will plunge into the same disastrous online search when they do readings for the next essay, too.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 2, 2003
Slippery prop for democrac
MOSCOW -- The arrest last weekend of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the richest man in Russia and the owner of the oil giant Yukos, shocked the international business community, enraged domestic opposition groups and sent Russian currency and bonds into a frightful free fall.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Oct 12, 2003
Keeping score on first ladies
MOSCOW -- Throughout the past 60 years or so, the problem-ridden relations between the White House and the Kremlin have been burdened with one more factor: the rivalry of the first ladies.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 28, 2003
Welcome to 'Mother Sofa'
MOSCOW -- Moscow seems to have the biggest concentration of furniture stores per square kilometer in the world. Downtown is a cramped place, with barely enough space for designer clothing and jewelry boutiques. Yet, in the peripheral neighborhoods, furniture stores thrive.
Tokuryū, a new crime menace in Japan, emerges from the shadows
The National Police Agency coined the term "tokuryū" to classify individuals involved in dark part time jobs and quasi-gangsters, using the words "tokumei" (anonymous) and "ryūdo" (fluid) to reflect their characteristics.
Is Modi’s party heading for a stunning election loss?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign tactics have escalated, including anti-Muslim rhetoric and fearmongering, reflecting his ruling party's desperation.
Japan's labor crunch persists despite slight improvement
Over 300 companies went out of business in fiscal 2023 due to labor shortages, according to Teikoku Databank.
Excitement returns to tourist spots in Japan one year on
On May 2, the streets of Arashiyama, a well-known tourist destination in Kyoto, were filled with tourists, including many from abroad, ahead of the four-day weekend.
Many banks in Japan raise deposit rates after BOJ action
Major banks as well as regional banks have raised their ordinary deposit rates to 0.02% per annum from 0.001%.
How a Japanese scientist is turning the climate crisis into music
A screencap of a performance of Hiroto Nagai's “String Quartet No. 1 ‘Polar Energy Budget’” by the PRT Quartet
Japan’s tween skateboarders get head start on preparations for 2028 Olympics
Ibuki Matsumoto competes at an event in Osaka on April 21.
Pentagon reveals drone types for Replicator program to counter China
A U.S. Naval Special Warfare Operator fires a Switchblade 300 loitering munition during training exercises in Fallon, Nevada, last July. The U.S. Defense Department plans to use small drones — known in the Pentagon as “all-domain attritable autonomous systems” — to help counter Chinese military systems and tactics.
As visitors surge, Japan seeks ways to make tourism eco-friendly
Much like other hot spots across Okinawa, Onna has diligently strived to captivate both domestic and international tourists, while at the same time grappling with the environmental strain induced by the influx of visitors.
Kishida talks up bolstered Latin American ties as China cements position
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida holds a news conference in Sao Paulo on Saturday.

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