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Articles by Boris Kagarlitsky
1 2 3 4 5 ... 14
1 2 3 4 5 ... 14
A Propaganda Breakdown
08 February 12
Propaganda is not as powerful as many think. You might convince Russians that people in Egypt, Italy and Ukraine are paid or otherwise persuaded to join street protests, but you certainly cannot convince them that their own dissatisfaction with the government is the result of a foreign conspiracy.
The Left's Broken Clock
25 January 12
Someone once likened the political positions of the extreme left with a broken clock that never shows the right time. But as everyone knows, a broken clock shows the correct time with astronomical precision twice every 24 hours, something a functioning clock can never do because it is always at least a little bit fast or slow.
The Protesters' Lull Before the Storm
10 January 12
The global political crisis — a natural outcome of the continuing economic crisis — finally made it to Russia in December before getting derailed by the country's traditional hibernation in early January.
Politics Without Choice
20 December 11
The surge in street protests this month was the natural result of widespread discontent that has been building up steam for several years without any outlet. It would have been difficult to predict that the trigger would be the falsified results of the elections for the purely decorative State Duma.
Managed Democracy Fails in a Crisis
07 December 11
The crisis is developing exactly as expected. The inability of the authorities to cope with the rising wave of social problems has naturally spilled into the political sphere.
Why Russians Don't Vote
24 November 11
State Duma elections rarely generate much interest among Russian voters. The Duma has no real authority and is powerless to control the government. When Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov made the scandalous statement that "parliament is no place for discussion," he was only voicing what everybody already knew: There is nothing and nobody to debate in the Duma.
Why Stock Markets Cause Economic Crises
10 November 11
The attempt by young protestors to occupy Wall Street found support not only among the majority of Americans and astonished Russians, but also led many to ask an unexpected question: Why do we even need stock exchanges and banks?
Occupy the Belly of the Beast
27 October 11
When asked where he worked, one of my economist friends from the United States answered, "In the belly of the beast." He meant Wall Street.
Putin Needs to Clean His Pipes
13 October 11
It seems that nobody has learned a thing from the 2008 economic crisis. Now, three years later, government officials are repeating the same lies without realizing that this time nobody believes them and that their attempts to assure investors and the public are only irritating and offending them.
Useless Money
29 September 11
The history of paper money began with a scandal. When Scottish financier John Law proposed in the early 18th century that French Regent Philippe d'Orleans replace gold coins with paper money, everyone was thrilled by the idea.
How Russia Resembles Libya
15 September 11
Russia's leaders have searched for the proper approach to the revolution in Libya like a person who hopes to find a picture of reality in a distorted mirror in a fun house. Instead, they have found only the reflection of their own prejudices and stereotypes.
The Soviet Collapse vs. an EU Collapse
25 August 11
At the same time that Russia is marking the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West is beginning to talk seriously about the possibility of the collapse of the European Union. As with the Soviet collapse, the more politicians try to save the EU, the less viable it becomes.
The World's Largest Pyramid Scheme
11 August 11
The United States managed to avert a default, and that is good news. But the partisan battle in Congress sent the stock market plunging, and the decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade the country's credit rating has made matters far worse.
The Religion of Evil
28 July 11
While the left argues with the right and nationalists argue with pro-Westerners, a new ideology has arisen in society that has the potential to win supremacy over the minds of the masses.
A Swedish Fairy Tale About Gay Giraffes
14 July 11
A kindergarten in Sweden has prohibited teachers to use words that would indicate a child's gender. Since "he" and "she" can't be used, children must be defined by the neutral gender. Completely making a mockery of both grammar and common sense, Sweden has taken political correctness to a new level of absurdity.
Testing Russia's Corruption Level
30 June 11
This year's Unified State Exam for high school students applying for admission to universities has turned into a national scandal. In some regions, teachers and administrators simply handed students the answers on the spot.
Blue Bucket Protests Will Fail
20 June 11
According to blogs and the liberal press, the "blue bucket brigades" are one of the most important activist phenomena in Russia's still young and undeveloped civil society today. The brigades are citizen activists who publicly demonstrate their disapproval of bureaucrats' special driving privileges.
An August 1998 Default on a Global Scale
09 June 11
For now, there is no immediate threat of a U.S. default on its debt, but the government will have to dramatically cut costs or go back to Congress with new proposals. Obama will be forced to reach a compromise with the Republicans in Congress, and the only question now is the price he will have to pay for it.
Privatization Follies
02 June 11
A new wave of privatization is getting under way in Russia. Property that until now had been in the hands of the state is being put up for sale. The list of companies that the government plans to sell in full or in part is impressive.
Russian Capitalism Is More Pure
12 May 11
In Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita," the devil appears as a character named Woland who, when confronted with a man who does not believe in his existence, gives the ironic comment: "Well now, that is interesting. Whatever I ask you about — it doesn't exist!" The attitude of Russia's liberal intelligentsia regarding capitalism follows roughly the same logic.
Europe's Nationalists Waiting in the Dark
28 April 11
Finnish elections don't usually make headlines in Europe. But this spring Finnish voters managed to spoil the mood among Brussels bureaucrats and the liberal public by giving the nationalist True Finns party the third highest number of seats in parliament. The Social Democrats secured second place by a margin of only one-tenth of a percent of the vote.
Prokhorov's Exploitative Emancipation
14 April 11
Ever since Mikhail Prokhorov joined the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, or RSPP, in an official capacity, it has gained unexpected momentum and become the driving force behind the latest wave of economic reforms. If those reforms become a reality, workers throughout Russia will long remember — and curse — his name.
Russia Inspired Arab Protesters
31 March 11
In the same way that Russian populists rejected disputes between pro-Western Russians and Slavophiles as meaningless, today's Arab protesting youth have turned the confrontation between Islamists and supporters of the Western course into an anachronism.
Gorbachev the Traitor
17 March 11
The 80th birthday of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sparked a sudden but understandable surge of nostalgia for perestroika among the liberal intelligentsia. Their praises sounded more like a rationalization from people who share responsibility with Gorbachev for the country's collapse.
Link Between Capitalism And Hunger
03 March 11
About one-sixth of the world's population — 1 billion people — suffers from malnutrition. Stories about global hunger tend to get ignored by the media even though the number of hungry people has been increasing rapidly in recent years. This problem remains acute even as nations report renewed economic growth and as global food production remains stable.
Welcome to Cow Time
17 February 11
Daylight-saving time was invented a century ago to save a few pennies on electricity, but it never justified itself economically.
Now, when society's basic demand for electricity goes far beyond simply lighting our homes and streets, the whole idea of daylight saving has become an anachronism.
Now, when society's basic demand for electricity goes far beyond simply lighting our homes and streets, the whole idea of daylight saving has become an anachronism.
Radical Retirees
03 February 11
Despite age and lifestyle differences, in a social and cultural sense Russian retirees have more in common with Western European university students than do Russian students.
Dreaming of a Great Russia in A Deep Sleep
20 January 11
According to an old Russian proverb, “The less you know, the better you sleep.” Duma deputies apparently want us all to experience a protracted period of slumber and degradation with United Russia's proposed education reform.
The Return of Fascism
23 December 10
There was nothing unexpected about the racially motivated rioting and attacks that took place in Moscow and other cities during the past 10 days.
A Presidential Address to the Children
09 December 10
There was far less anticipation leading up to President Dmitry Medvedev’s third state-of-the-nation address last week than there had been for the previous two. The first address was interesting precisely because it was the first and everyone wanted to know what the president would say.
