Last week in Lake Seliger, Russia, 10,000 Russian youth gathered for a two-week summer camp that involved volleyball sessions, morning exercise, sailing, and in-depth ideological instruction on President Vladimir Putin’s policies. As Russia’s government relations with Europe and particularly Britain are entering a new hostile stage, a pro-Putin youth movement called Nashi is playing a uniquely visible role in the Kremlin’s campaign against its opponents. Nashi, or “our guys” in Russian, claims 100,000 members across Russia. The movement emerged in 2005 following the youth-led protests in Georgia and Ukraine in 2004, when the Russian government took a series of measures [...]
Whether the new British Labour Party government headed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown will seek to distance itself from the policies of U.S. President George Bush remains uncertain. So far, however, Brown seems to be resisting calls for significant change to Britain’s core foreign policies, despite a political atmosphere that is conducive to such a break. Many British people disapprove of recent U.S. policies regarding Iraq, climate change, and other issues. Moving away from Washington also would allow Brown to differentiate himself from his predecessor, Tony Blair, underscoring his authority and credentials. Several recent statements by newly appointed members of [...]
ISTANBUL, Turkey — They have lived for almost a thousand years around the remains of Istanbul’s Byzantine walls, but when the time came to remove them, the Gypsies of Sulukule claim that they only found out about their intended future from the journalists flocking to their shantytowns to cover the story. “We heard from the media that the neighborhood would be destroyed to make way for residential developments,” said Mehmet Asim Hallaq, 55, a spokesman for the ongoing campaign opposing the removal. “This is a kind of aesthetic assimilation they’re trying to impose on us.” Istanbul’s Gypsies have lived in [...]
