Z Nightly Commentaries
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Recent Z Nightly Commentaries
Kagarlitsky: Russia's Olympic Failure
Mar 28, 2010
The authorities are looking for scapegoats for failure of the Russian team at the Olympics, but what is going on in sports is only an example of what is going on in other spheres of life - neoliberalism yields the same results no matter where it is applied.
Kagarlitsky: New Opiate of the Masses
Mar 13, 2010
If the new law recently passed by the State Duma goes into force, it will deliver a big blow to the Russian culture, education and public health.
Kagarlitsky: "Freedom"
Feb 08, 2010
If freedom is defined by a state’s non-participation in economic processes, as the Heritage Foundation suggests, then Haiti today would win first prize, as after the earthquake, it has no government at all.
Kelly: Speaking Truth to Power
Jan 10, 2010
There's a phrase originating with the peace activism of the American Quaker movement: "Speak Truth to Power." One can hardly speak more directly to power than addressing the Presidential Administration of the United States. This past October, students at Islamabad's Islamic International University had a message for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One student summed up many of her colleagues' frustration. "We don't need America," she said. "Things were better before they came here."
Kagarlitsky: Default in Europe
Dec 29, 2009
When the Arab emirate Dubai was on the verge of bankruptcy, the international financial speculators became worried. The rating agencies simultaneously came to correct their assessments. The bankers started to check if their debtors were solvent. Another financial crisis is in the air.
Kagarlitsky: Flu for All Seasons
Nov 23, 2009
Swine flu is quite handy to politicians, who can use it to postpone elections, or justify a state of emergency, if needed.
Kagarlitsky: AvtoVAZ
Oct 28, 2009
For those who believe that privatisation automatically increases efficiency, just take a look at today’s AvtoVAZ, once considered a flagship of Soviet industry.
Kolko: Escalation is Futile
Sep 24, 2009
The US scarcely knew what a complex disaster it was confronting when it went to war in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. It will eventually - perhaps years from now - suffer the same fate as Alexander the Great, the British and the Soviet Union: defeat.
Kagarlitsky: Personnel Shortage
Sep 07, 2009
While the world leaders are slightly optimistic about the economic recovery in the Western countries, Eastern Europe prepares for the next wave of the crisis.
Kagarlitsky: Confessions of Cassandra
Jul 24, 2009
A hero of one American movie often exclaimed how he was tired of turning out right constantly. I can’t even retell the plot of that movie, but I remember the key-note: the hero predicted some kind of troubles, but he fated never to be believed, while they were coming true with the same regularity.
Kagarlitsky: Mentality
Jul 08, 2009
Over the past twenty years the liberal social and political essays have written that under capitalism the economy must have nothing to do with the activities of the state that can damage the economic development by interfering in the economy. One can come to the conclusion that the Russian government is not responsible for the crisis at all, in particular since the crisis is global.
Kagarlitsky: Bottom-Up Democracy
Jun 28, 2009
It had to happen sooner or later. The first bill on nationalization has been submitted to the State Duma. That such a bill would appear in Russia only after similar legislation was introduced in Britain and the United States might seem paradoxical, at least at first glance. After all, Moscow officials would rather die than be accused of an attempt to revive communism. This is especially true of senior government officials in the "economic bloc" whose job is to please investors. In recent years, the less liberal Moscow's political regime has become, the more effort officials have had to make to demonstrate Russia's supposed adherence to economic liberalism.
Kagarlitsky: Illusion of Stabilization
May 31, 2009
There has been a distinct deficit of good news lately. News influences financial markets, and that is why leaders try to organize, distribute and manipulate the news in such a way as to convert today's headlines into tomorrow's quick profits.
Kagarlitsky: Leviathan
May 19, 2009
The case of police Major Denis Yevsyukov shooting at people in a supermarket draws attention to the level of state violence in Russia.
Kagarlitsky: Bureaucrats Afraid
May 03, 2009
When looking round the Russian city of Izhevsk a participant in the last week Ural Social Forum said: "Now I came to realize why the Kalashnikov assault rifle had been invented here".
Kagarlitsky: The Unknown War
Apr 18, 2009
While economists debate whether the economic crisis has bottomed out yet and celebrities throw gaudy evening bashes and ordinary citizens count their shrinking incomes, there is a quiet but grim war taking place on the streets. Bands of fascists and anti-fascists are pitched in a brutal struggle that is rarely mentioned in public or in the mass media.
Kagarlitsky: Credibility Crisis
Mar 24, 2009
The Russian government has developed a new anti-crisis plan. Although nobody has seen it yet, we can be 100 percent certain that it is a good one and that it will enable Russia to fulfill its strategy for development through 2020, offer solutions to new problems and provide for overall stability. The upper limit of the currency corridor will be observed, there will be no further devaluation of the ruble and the Russian people will be able to sleep easily at night.
Kagarlitsky: Devaluation
Feb 18, 2009
I must confess the term used by me in the title of the article is not mine. It is young economist Vasily Koltashov who invented it. But we work together at the same Institute and have similar ideas.
Kagarlitsky: Victims of the Crisis
Nov 20, 2008
Today the list of victims of the economic crisis in Russia is not long but is extremely revealing. It starts with “Moskovsky Korrespondent” weekly that appeared at the end of September and was closed in October.
Mar 31, 2010
If the U.S. public looked long and hard into a mirror reflecting the civilian atrocities that have occurred in Afghanistan, over the past ten months, we would see ourselves as people who have collaborated with and paid for war crimes committed against innocent civilians who meant us no harm.