Trump at the UN as the anti-Lincoln: With charity towards none and malice for all.

Destruction in Paradise: Kyrgyzstan’s Ala-Archa National Park Under Siege thediplomat.com/2025/06/dest...

One of many legacies of the Soviet era: a premier natural park on the outskirts of the Kyrgyzstani capital controlled by the presidency's dept. of administrative affairs (upravdelami).

Extraordinary that it’s been less than six months since this cover appeared on The Economist. The price of using a wrecking ball as your policy tool of choice.

When I posted this quote on Facebook, I was suspended for three days for promoting hate speech against totalitarians. In Zuckerberg's view, that's something horrible.

Good news for NED! www.ned.org/ned-welcomes...

Here's a Russian military expert practically gloating about how the denial of US intel to Ukraine will make it easier for Russia to achieve a breakthrough in a potential spring/summer offensive.

Trump policy is giving Russia no reason to stop the war.

www.mk.ru/politics/202...

Trump painted himself into a corner in the campaign saying he'd solve the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Now he has found a way to lift this burden by blowing up at Zelensky and claiming Ukraine isn't ready for peace. A convenient escape, which Vance at least facilitated and possibly designed.

My op-ed below outlines the dangers of dismantling #SoftPower power organizations like USAID and RFE/RL. This form of unilateral disarmament shows that Trump 2.0 is destructive, not disruptive. @RFERL #DOGE #Musk
www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/02/20/c...

For Russian speakers: remarkable to see videos that criticize the country's military leadership in the harshest terms. They reveal the longstanding tensions between the security services and the armed forces. Without information and protection from former, no such videos. youtu.be/vjYNeLXmcAA?...

How to explain the paradoxical tendency of Romanian voters abroad, most of whom would be working in EU countries, to give so many votes to an anti-EU candidate?Is it a strange expression of dissatisfaction with their lives abroad or a desire to disrupt an unpopular elite at home?

Dmitrii Talantov was one of the most decent and honorable advocates I met during decades of research on the Russian Bar. We met in his city of Izhevsk in 2003 and he graciously allowed me to observe an oral Bar exam. Among Russia's finest, his arrest and imprisonment come as devastating news.

He was the kind of populist we needed. How far Oklahoma has come from prairie populism.

I’m reminded of the Russian expression “You can’t understand Russia by reason (alone)” умом Россию не понять. I’m afraid the same can now be said about the US.

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Must read for those interested in Central Asia and Russia’s regional image. Kyrgyzstani respondents far more likely to lay blame for the war at the feet of Ukrainians rather than Russians and among Kyrgyzstanis attitudes vary by ethnolinguistic background, media use, and dependence on remittances.

Putin Pulls From Stalin’s Playbook in Sending North Koreans Disguised as Buryats to Ukraine www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/11/14/p...

My story on the impending threat of radioactive disaster looming over Mailuu-Suu - a formerly closed Soviet uranium mining town in southern Kyrgyzstan

www.economist.com/1843/2024/11...