Creative class accounting

It was American economist Richard Florida, who coined the term “creative class”. He described the phenomenon in his “Rise of the Creative Class”. Strategy-2020 by Vladimir Putin has introduced the term to Russian political science and economics. According to authors, it is the creative class that bears the innovative thinking and the entrepreneurship spirit. The hopes for the timely modernization are still pinned to it — deprived of that, Russia is destined to become yet another “third world” country.

RUSSIAN MARCH IN THE MIDDLE OF WARSAW?

Our glorious advance across the planet

Is dazzling, while noticed from afar

And Russian scriptures flaring on a granite

All over lavatory in Paris are

V. Vysotsky

The word and deed of foreign affairs — in the beginning was the Word

Analysis of reasons and circumstances that triggered the geopolitical conflict around Iran inevitably suggested the role of diplomacy in foreign policy. Without doubt, any international relations student is aware that diplomacy is an extension of politics. Alas, modern foreign policy bodies of several countries have apparently forgotten this common truth.

ELIMINATION OF THE EURO-ZONE IS QUITE PROBABLE

Polish Minister of Finance warns of such scenario

Crisis of the euro-zone is the talker today. Careless attitude towards the balance of economic indices brought Greece, Spain and Portugal to the verge of bankruptcy. Their membership in the euro-zone has made the situation dangerous for the entire European Union. The EU donor-states, Germany and France, are willing to accept the burden of aiding their troubled brothers-in-arms, albeit setting forth their own conditions. Is the currency union between such economically various states possible at all and will Europe manage saving the euro and the European Union itself?

RUSSIA, SOUTH OSSETIA, GEORGIA: THREE YEARS AFTER THE FIVE DAYS

The European Union has officially recognized Georgian as a culprit of the armed conflict, having held it responsible for the attack at Tskhinvali. Then, all of a sudden, three years after the U.S. Senate passes on a resolution, accusing Russia of the occupation of Georgia, clearly referring to the sovereign Abkhazian and South Ossetian territories, where Russian troops are stationed in a strict accordance to the bilateral agreements with these countries. Meanwhile, the thought to accuse Americans of occupying Serbia due to the fact of deployment of the largest American military base Kosovo hasn’t occurred even to the most radical critics of the USA yet.

SCO or anti-NATO?

Despite the tremendous financial aid that America renders to Pakistan, recently anti-American sentiments have ripened in this country — Pakistani, who assisted the CIA during the search and discovery of the “terrorist #1” have been arrested for one. The USA are obviously “losing” Pakistan, but the very fact that this country may join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) any moment make the regional situation critical for the United States. Add the scheduled withdrawal of the U.S. and allied troops from Afghanistan (which also drifts towards the SCO) here and the change of regional balance of powers becomes apparent. Simultaneously, the inveterate issue of the Indian-Pakistani stand is being settled — India also has all the chances to become an SCO member.

Georgia is trying to set the Russian Northern Caucasus on fire

On the 20^th of May, this year, Georgian Parliament admitted the genocide of Circassian nation, conducted by the Russian Empire in the 19^th century.

Georgian deputies have unanimously voted for recognition of the genocide. It was decreed to:

“1. Admit mass extermination of Circassians (Adyghe) during the Russo-Caucasian war and their forceful expulsion from the historical motherland as an act of genocide, according to the IV Hague Convention, dated by the 18^th of October 1907 ‘Regarding laws and rules of ground war’ and UN Convention, dated by the 9^th of December, 1948 ‘Regarding prevention of genocide crimes and punishment for it’.

2. Admit the Circassians, who were forcefully expulsed from the country during Russo-Caucasian War and after it refugees according to UN Convention, dated by the 28^th of July, 1951 ‘Regarding refugee status’”.

Weimar Square

Initiative of Polish President Bronisław Komorowski — quite unexpected for most of the experts — to turn the Weimar Triangle into Weimar Square, including Russia may become a Weimar elevator for Poland. In other words, it may bring this ambitious country right to the top of European politics. This is utmost topical, given the upcoming half-year-long Polish chairmanship in the European Union.

Russia arms the Afghani government

Better to see once, than to read a hundred times

Il-76, belonging to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, on the 12th of November at the internationl Kabul airport. It carries the cargo with a consignment of AK-47s and ammunition for the Afghani Ministry of Interior. 

 Afghani Ministry of Interior received 20.000 AK-47 machine guns and 2.500 000 ammo.

 Andrey Avetisyan — Russian ambassador to Afghanistan — greets the crew of Il-76 that brought weapons to Kabul.

Gulam Ali Wahdat — Afghani Minister of  Interior Deputy — awards the Il-76 crew and representatives of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

He also presents them these lazurite handicraft.

Georgia begins to miss Russia

   

                   Mikhail Saakashvili is being interviewed by "Le Figaro"

     

On the 22^nd of November „Le Figaro” published an interview with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili with a title “Georgia stretches its hand to Russia”. The next day Saakashvili held a speech at Euro-Parliament, having reported his readiness to start the negotiations with Russia “at any given place and time, on any level and without any preconditions whatsoever”.  

New security architecture, born at the safe haven of Lisbon.

In antique Phoenician language “Lisbon” meant the “safe haven”.  This beautiful city has already been a cradle of one historical agreement — the Lisbon Treaty, which revived the European Union. Now we may say that Lisbon also became a place of birth for the new European security configuration. New Strategic Concept of the Northern Atlantic Alliance — accompanied by the new configuration of partnership with Russia — has without doubt become a main achievement of the NATO summit, which took place this weekend. From now on, NATO and Russia are the strategic partners.

Homework for the Summit in Lisbon

Meeting in Baku

Today’s NATO summit in Lisbon is so important for its participants that each side — having expected certain results — didn’t hesitate to do its part of the homework in order to demonstrate their true intentions to their partners. American President publicly given his Russian colleague to understand that he remembers all of their preliminary oral arrangements. He gathered some sort of an Advisory Council and — in the presence of his aides, including Henry Kissinger (creator of the „shuttle diplomacy” term) — held a speech regarding the START treaty. Railroading the latter through the Congress after his failure at the mid-term elections wouldn’t be a piece of cake this time.

Georgia puts up…Russian WTO membership for an auction

Mr. Lawrence Summers

Negotiations over the Russian entry into World Trade Organization have been dragging on  since 1995, which seems to be record term for that. Not a single country in the world had struggled for the membership in this international club longer than Russia. Discussion among Russian economists on whether Russia needs WTO or not is still on and will seemingly last forever. It seems, though that those who oppose it are actually right. Mutual cancellation of customs tariffs will lead to the increase of margin on traditional Russian export goods, i.e. mostly raw natural resources (oil, gas, metals and fertilizers) but due to the traditional Russian export-trade model, these profits would still never leave various „tax havens” and would never get back into country

Temptation of Europe. Part II

Russian concept of the European security

During the last ten years Russia has dramatically changed its public image and now it doesn’t look like a “poor cousin” that humbly awaits his turn in the European reception room anymore.

The “upgrading” model of the state progress, proclaimed by Dmitry Medvedev, inevitably leads to the increasing role of Russia in a new global society.

Temptation of Europe

Deauville summit and Dmitry Medvedev’s promise to take part in the NATO summit in Lisbon makes us take a seriously different view of his initiative to create a new European security system

Security system that emerged after the Second World War was based on confrontation of two competing military-political alliances: NATO and the Warsaw Treaty — these agreements were personifying the bipolar system of the Cold War period. After the collapse of the USSR and, consequently, the Warsaw Treaty, there was a short period of the mono-polar U.S. dominion.

Kaczyński' casus

Part IV

 

Who are you, pan Kaczyński?

 

                                 

           That’s how brothers looked like in 1962 (scene from the “The Two Who Stole The Moon[1]” motion picture) and 

how they look 45 years after that

 

 

Jarosław Kaczyński, having stepped over the borders of not only Polish but the European political culture as well, created a new model of political behavior, based not on the politically correct depersonalized attitude to the political struggle — as it is common for the countries with firm democratic traditions — but rather on a passionate, deeply personal attitude to the politics (frankly speaking, a lot more characteristic of the Latin America[2] rather than Europe). In order to understand the incentives and algorithms — according to which Kaczyński acts — we have to have a closer look at his person. That is the only way to understand the transformation of a Democrat, fighting against totalitarian communist regime, into the furious populist, fiercely defying the very same democratic values he once used to fight for.

Can START turn into FINISH?

Keith Payne, Ph.D. from the Heritage Foundation believes that signing of new START treaty with Russia will put an end to the U.S. security and the entire Western civilization. We’d try to analyze this opinion. But even without any further analysis we may confidently state that failure to sign the START treaty would obviously turn the reset of Russo-American relationship into FINISH — and we may have every reason to throw out the red button, which Hillary Clinton was hilariously swinging in front of her Russian colleague, Sergey Lavrov. One needn’t be a Philosophy Doctor to make such a conclusion.