News Roundup

At the World Economic Forum, where Putin gave the opening address, there was much blame placed on the United States for the current financial crisis. While Putin wasn't as "harsh" as he has been in the past few months, he commented on how "investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exsist." Also in economic related news, Romania is in talks with the EU for a 6 billion Euro "rescue loan" to help the country buffer itself from the economic downturn and Siberia's currancy has lost a quarter of it's value in 4 months. 

In a follow-up from the last news roundup, about a week ago, Russia started to pump gas through Ukraine again, and the New York Times has a good piece about Putin's understanding of the use of energy as a political tool. While only slightly related, the Eurasian Daily Moniter has some good commentary about border disputes and Russia, focusing on Ukraine. 

In the Caucasus we have a Russian soldier who either deserted or was captured by Georgia, depending on who you ask. This piece on Azerbaijan's position between Russia and the West is also interesting, and the reports that Russia has given free arms to Armenia (denied by both countries) shows what a power Russia continues to be in the region. 

On the BBC: Polish WWII hero was not murdered, and the sad reality of selling babies in Tajikistan.

Weekly CEERES news roundup

The European Union just released it's annual report on applicant countries, in which Croatia was given a timeline to put them on track to become a member state in 2011. The report also discussed Turkey and Macedonia, encouraging them to boost reform efforts. You can read the actual reports on the European Commission website.

And, it's been all over the news, so you've probably heard, but could it be possible that Putin will soon be president again? After current President's Medvedev's state of the union speech, in which he introduced reforms to change the presidential term from 4 to 6 years, rumors have run rampant.

Following up from last week, here's an article on the reaction of Armenian and Azerbaijanis on the recently signed agreement on Nagorno-Karabagh. Armenia is also in the news, due to the recent concession of President Sarkisyan to form a committee to conduct an impartial investigation on the events which took place during the Feburary election.

Food culture, here and there

I listened to the 11/1/08 podcast of NPR's The Splendid Table, and was happy to hear some direct reporting on food culture from the CEERES region. The link to this particular episode is here.

Two segments of the show caught my ear, and made my stomach growl just a little. The show opens with a report from a couple, Jane and Michael Stern (their site is roadfood.com), that travels around the U.S., reviewing the local food stops along the way. In this episode of the Splendid Table, they visit West, Texas (an actual town, not the region) where there happens to be a significant Czech-emigre population. Czech bakeries touting their traditional kolache abound. The couple gives a great discussion of the how the food tastes and why it's there. It's not solid reporting on the lives of immigrants by any means, but hearing about the food will make your mouth water.

Even more fascinating, and much more rigorous in its scholarship is a segment later in the episode. Unfortunately, you have to download the podcast and fast forward to get to this segment. At 25.45 minutes into the show is an audio documentary recorded in the field by Carla Seidl in Azerbaijan on Azeri food culture, including discussion of the food, social roles in preparing and serving, and interviews. I was pleasantly surprised to find this, and I think some of you might fing it interesting for your teaching, research, or just plain entertainment.

Weekly CEERES news roundup

Big in the news this week was the meeting in Moscow between Armenia's President Sarkisyan and Azerbaijan's President Aliyev during which they signed a joint declaration regarding the sepratist region of Nagorno-Karabagh (BBC, Wikipedia). Reactions are mixed, as reported on EurasiaNet and the Euraisa Daily Moniter (which also includes a run-down of the declaration). From a completely different angle, on October 16th, apparently over 700 couples got married in Karabagh, in an attempt to help boost the region's small birth rate (IWPR).

Apparently Saakashvili is having a grand old time firing people. (BBC)

While not directly related to the region, the US presidential election was big news everywhere. Some pre-election feelings from the region can be found on EurasiaNet and TOL, and articles on reactions from Macedonia and Kosovo are highlighted on the homepage of BalkenInsight. 

In brief, we also have the EU's effort to increase it's presence in Tajikistan, teaching diversity in Romania via some new textbooks, and Ukraine's recent dropping of Russian channels from cable.

And because I love the BBC, I'd like to point out this interesting article discussing the Ossetians' love of the movie "Braveheart." 

Weekly CEERES news roundup!

The New York Times did an excellent piece on Moscow's mayor Luzhkov and his propensity for creating foreign policy. They followed it up by translating many of the comments the post received on their Russian language blog and picked out some specifically to write a follow-up article talking about how Russians feel about Luzhkov.

Georgia's President Saakashvili announced he would be replacing the Prime Minister. (BBC)

Monday, the IMF said it would offer loans to both Ukraine and Hungary as the two Eastern European countries have both been hit hard by the global credit crisis. (BBC)

While not completely current, two weeks ago Azerbaijan's president Aliyev was re-elected with 89% of the vote. Many of the opposition parties boycotted this election, which caused many international observers to remark on the lack of real competition. (BBC, EurasiaNet)

This piece that the BBC did on Albania's "sworn virgins" is very interesting and offers an interesting look at a phenomenon that's dying out.