True: we made mistakes. We tried too hard to pander to Russia in the Yeltsin era, ignoring the growth of corruption, authoritarianism and revanchism. We overlooked Russians’ resentment as their country drifted from the European mainstream and our vulnerability to the steps they could take in response. We neglected Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and the countries of the Caucasus. The Blair government was bewitched by the Putin regime’s offer of cooperation against Islamist terrorism in 2001. We have been frequently dazzled by the spurious commercial prospects offered by Russia – in particular BP’s decision to form an alliance with Rosneft, the main Russian oil company, was a shameful example of greed and short-sightedness.
very good paper by Edward Lucas
#edward-lucas #russia #putin #oil #gas #caucasus #blair #ukraine #moldova #belarus #rosneft #russian #bp #vulnerability #authoritarianism #corruption #revanchism #europe #politics #world #war #peace #regime #challenge #soviet #ussr #empire #imperialism #freedom
Russia is a revisionist power
Russia wants to rewrite the rules in three ways. First, it does not believe that its neighbours should make their own decisions about their geopolitical future. Russia’s security, in short, depends on these countries’ insecurity. Russia particularly begrudges the former captive nations of the Soviet empire their freedom, their prosperity, and their independence. These pose an existential challenge to the stagnant and autocratic model of government pioneered by the Putin regime.
very good paper by Edward Lucas
#edward-lucas #russia #putin #europe #politics #world #war #peace #regime #challenge #soviet #ussr #empire #imperialism #freedom
http://gyrovague.com/2012/04/30/why-e-books-will-soon-be-obsolete-and-no-its-not-just-because-of-drm
#ebook #drm #e-book #epub #kindle #apple
Does this sound ridiculous, a perverse #fantasy of some balkanized #Web of the #dystopian #future? Nope: it’s all true, except that my #laptop is actually an #iPad and my #browser is #iTunes / #iBooks.
On the Web, the very idea that the right to read a website would vary from country to country seems patently absurd. #Cyberspace is flat, after all, just computers talking to computers. You, the reader, do not need to concern yourself with where these electrons on your screen are coming from, and neither do I, their publisher, need to care where they are going. And when somebody attempts to artificially block those #electrons — say, #China and its #Great-Firewall — it’s the kind of the thing that the #US #Congress and the #World Trade Organization get worked up about
How #Algorithms Rule The #World http://www.fastcompany.com/3000830/how-algorithms-rule-world
