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Articles by Victor Davidoff
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There's Just One Nationality — Mathematician
27 May 12
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
Moscow Looking More Like Cairo
13 May 12
Historians have long noted a characteristic feature of Russian history: Sometimes development seems to freeze for many years and almost comes to a standstill, only to suddenly surge ahead at a gallop. Events during the first weeks of May were a striking illustration of this.
Putin Pregnant With Gossip
24 April 12
On Thursday, Fognews.ru, an obscure news portal, published a report that would ordinarily make headlines all over the world. "Lyudmila Putin Is Pregnant," Fognews.ru announced, citing an interview with Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko that she allegedly gave to the radio station Silver Rain.
Watching Patriarch Kirill Discredit Himself
09 April 12
Since being enthroned as head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill has never gotten much attention from the world press — until last week. Unfortunately, the reason for this attention will give his future biographers a hard time. The patriarch was caught lying.
U.S. Protects Russians With Jackson-Vanik
26 March 12
Is the Cold War over? Textbooks say yes and even cite the date that hostilities ended: Dec. 3, 1989, during the Malta Summit of Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush. But some doubts still remain — or have reappeared.
Putin Faces Only 3 Scenarios Going Forward
12 March 12
Billionaire Alexander Lebedev encapsulated the difference between Russia's sovereign democracy and the plain old democracy put into practice since the days of Aristotle by writing these words on his blog after Vladimir Putin declared victory in the presidential election: "We know the results of the election, but we have no idea about Russia's future after the election."
The Kremlin's Swingers Club
27 February 12
The latest joke about the presidential election campaign in Russia comes from comic Mikhail Zadornov. "The recent electoral debates remind me of a swingers club. Everyone knows how the evening will end, but beforehand you have to introduce yourself and make small talk."
Kremlin's Youth Agency Resembles Cosa Nostra
13 February 12
In the Internet age, the famous aphorism of the 19th-century military theorist Karl von Clausewitz, "War is the continuation of policy by other means," may no longer be applicable.
British Spy Story Tailor-Made for an Election Year
30 January 12
In 2006, an exposé about British "spy stones" in a film by pro-Kremlin television journalist Arkady Mamontov set off a media storm. The story was so advantageous for the Kremlin that many commentators suspected that the device was not real and that the whole story was a fabrication created to justify a government attack on nongovernmental organizations that were active in Russia.
Between Change and Status Quo
16 January 12
Although presidential campaigns in Russia are peculiar — the winner is known long before election day — they do have some normal features, like billboards, photoshopped cartoons of candidates and jokes.
Not Impressed by Putin's Condoms and Promises
19 December 11
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held his 10th annual live televised call-in show on Thursday. This one broke his previous record for length and lasted more than 4 1/2 hours.
Shooting the Messenger
05 December 11
For 10 years, Golos has been educating voters, analyzing electoral legislation, and monitoring elections at various levels, but only a few experts and journalists had ever heard of the organization.
United Russia's Ratings Bubble
21 November 11
The Novgorod region has beautiful churches, but otherwise it's nothing to write home about. It's a very typical Russian region, and that's why Novgorod is so important politically. Analysts discovered that the election results in Novgorod come very close to the results of the national vote. Novgorod is in this sense the Russian New Hampshire. If you know the voters' preferences in Novgorod, you can predict the results of the national elections.
The NavalnyLeaks Smear Campaign
07 November 11
Alexei Navalny is one of the most popular writers on the Russian Internet. His blog is regularly among the top 10 most-read sites. Last year in a virtual election of the mayor of Moscow, Navalny came in first place, way ahead of the political heavyweights.
MGU Is No Place for Discussion
24 October 11
On Thursday, President Dmitry Medvedev met with students and representatives of youth organization at the journalism department of Moscow State University. The choice of venue and conditions of the meeting were a vivid indicator of the current status of freedom of speech in the country at present and what it is likely to be under a continuation of the ruling tandem.
The Last Autumn in Putin's Russia
10 October 11
For Russia's liberals, 2011 has become the Year of Dashed Hopes. These mostly young professionals grew up after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and are avid Internet users. They also understood very well that "freedom is better than no freedom" long before President Dmitry Medvedev told them so.
Medvedev in Electoral Pickle
26 September 11
United Russia's pre-election convention finally put an end to the main political intrigue of the year. Russia's next president will be Vladimir Putin. Of course, about five months remain before the vote, but few harbor any doubt that Putin is guaranteed victory at the polls next March.
Lackluster Yaroslavl Speech May Serve as Omen
12 September 11
Based on Dmitry Medvedev's previous speeches, few people expected any cogent policy statements from the president during his address on Thursday to the third annual Global Policy Forum in Yaroslavl. Medvedev did not disappoint these expectations — or rather, the lack of them. His speech, like his previous ones, largely consisted of generalities.
Prokhorov's Odd Manifesto
29 August 11
Russian tabloid journalists adore scandal-prone billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorov. Once he began to head the Right Cause party, it was also drawn into a series of highly publicized scandals, proving, perhaps, that the party apple does not fall far from Prokhorov's tree.
Putin's Dive for IKEA Jugs
15 August 11
With four months to go before Russians cast their votes in parliamentary elections, the first signs of an emerging electoral campaign have finally appeared. In a democratic country, there would be rallies, campaign posters and public debates of the candidates. But not so in Russia.
Web Will Win in Cyber War
01 August 11
Last week from Monday through Friday, the Russian-language segment of the popular blog server LiveJournal once again was subject to a series of DDoS attacks. This is the third attack in the last six months. It wouldn't be news if it weren't for the massive scale and peculiarity of this attack.
A Sinking Ship
18 July 11
There may not be a scientific explanation for it, but every Russian knows that August is a month of catastrophe. The sinking of the submarine Kursk, the forest and peat bog fires last year — not to mention the 1991 coup attempt against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev — all took place in August.
A Front of Blondes, Farmers
04 July 11
What do Russia's Union of Pensioners, the Association of Music Producers, the Union of Georgians in Russia and the Cheerleaders' Union all have in common? Three months ago, it would have been hard to answer that question. But today it's easy.
How Putin Pads Numbers
20 June 11
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first floated the idea of creating the All-Russia People's Front on May 6. A week later, the front's founding document was published. Since then — a little over a month — Putin has arguably become the most popular politician in history.
The Kremlin's New Yo-Party
06 June 11
Mikhail Prokhorov recently made headlines again, but this time in the politics sections of newspapers: He announced that he wanted to lead the Right Cause party.
Medvedev Is a Talk Show Host and Diplomat
23 May 11
Ultimately, the real highlight of Medvedev's news conference was a joke that began to circulate on the Internet while he was still speaking: "It's clear that now there are two new political camps in Russia — Putin's party and Medvedev's party. Unfortunately, it's not yet clear which party Medvedev belongs to."
A Stalin Slip and Putin Trick
10 May 11
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's May 6 speech in Volgograd finally put an end to the questions that have been asked for the last three years: Who is ruling Russia, and who will rule Russia after 2012?
Bulldog Fight Under the Rug
25 April 11
Presidential races are like wrestling matches. They begin when each wrestler enters the ring and shows off his muscles. Then the fight starts as everyone watches. In Russia, the wrestling ring is covered with a thick rug. One by one the wrestlers slip under the rug, and the public can only speculate about the fight when they catch a glimpse of a toe or finger.
State Finds New Way to Jam
11 April 11
The Soviet Union is now history, and radio has long been supplanted by the Internet. But history repeats itself from time to time. Since March, the Russian Internet has been plagued by a series of denial-of-service attacks — the modern version of Soviet radio jamming.
Clarity on Who Rules Russia
28 March 11
On March 21, Ekho Moskvy radio polled its audience with a rather provocative question: "How would you react if Russia got the same treatment that Libya is getting?" The results were bizarre, no matter how you looked at them.
