My favorite Russian blogger (the one who is 89 years old) wrote that Putin is a second-hand Stalin from a flea market.
My own Russian husband has realized that, these days, the phrase to start and end the day is, “Putin is an asshole.” And also, “Crimea is Ukraine.”
Clarissa's Blog 
Have you linked to her before?
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She’s at http://tareeva.livejournal.com/
An amazing person.
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Thank you! I loved her blog and would love to find more similar blogs, if you know any. Began reading her archives since loved it so much. 🙂
Btw, from one of links at her blog, I found this review by Russian Национал-Демократического Альянса (НДА) person, who loved Israel:
http://nazdem.info/texts/256
Big good parts of what he says are true, but I still got a feeling of being damned with praise, probably since Israel was viewed in such a political light and as a way to reflect on Russia.
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I don’t share Tareeva’s political views, but she is such a phenomenal writer, so talented. And who wouldn’t want to be as active and engaged at her age, especially in a country where 89 is like American 109.
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Now looked at his review again and remembered the problem – demonization of Israeli Left and anybody who isn’t very-very right. The following was funny:
Вообще, я бы сказал, что Израиль – это страна казачьего духа, если подразумевать под этим трудовой и воинский дух. Недаром одной из первых сионистских эмблем были скрещенные серп и меч.
The next is true:
Израильская армия – действительно народная армия, это часть народного государства, и, соответственно, общество и государство всецело доверяют солдату.. Принципиально другая картина, скажем, в России, где государство явно боится народа и армии, а солдат-срочник представляет собой нечто среднее между военнослужащим и заключенным (кстати, в ЦАХАЛе нет дедовщины).
Food for thought:
Построив Израиль, евреи, по сути, воздвигли великолепный памятник национализму как таковому – национализму конструктивному, созидательному, «археофутуристическому». […]
я еще раз вспомнил слова Рами Суриса, сказанные им при расставании, в аэропорту: «Националисты, не будучи одной расой и одним народом по крови, составляют особую расу по духу…».
So, can (even antisemitic) Right wing from Israel have more in common with his “brother” in Russia or Austria than with a Left-leaning Israeli Jew, who may also be very patriotic but in a different way? 🙂
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Are there anti-Semites in Israel?
I’m not sure what right and left wing mean in Israel. They mean the opposite in Russia than in the US, for instance.
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I have endless debates with my colleagues in the US about “But how come you support right-wingers in Russia??”
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Don’t know what your schedule is like, but I’m going to be in St. Louis for a conference in the next few days. Would you be interested in getting coffee? Thursday or Saturday might work. Let me know! You can email me at fieuponthisquietlife at gmail. 🙂
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That’s really cool! I just sent you an email.
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Putin may only be a second hand Stalin, but the armaments he has access to don’t come from any flea-market I’ve ever seen! That makes him the scariest man on the planet right now.
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On another topic:
Foreign Ministry ‘concerned’ over Austria elections
Ministry spokesman: “We are very concerned over the rise to power of people who promote hatred of foreigners and Holocaust denial, and befriend Neo-Nazis. We see it as a disturbing development and are following the matter very closely,”
The extreme right-wing party has swept up 29% of the vote this year, a significant increase from the 15% they managed to retain in 2006.
Here is the interpretation of Professor Moshe Zimmerman, the head of the German Studies department at the Hebrew University:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3603591,00.html
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Tony Judt discusses how Austria hid from discussing its Nazi past. And I think that is very relevant to the issue of the rebirth if Austrian nazism. I’m at the doctor’s now but I will post quotes later.
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// Are there anti-Semites in Israel?
I meant anti-semitic person from another country who comes to visit.
// I’m not sure what right and left wing mean in Israel. They mean the opposite in Russia than in the US, for instance.
Could you explain? That in Russia Left are more communistic vs. capitalistic Right, and, in America, Right protects big business, while Left are for more capitalism in practice?
In Israel, Left is more social, for stronger social net, and also for “peace”, whatever that means. There is very Left organization called “peace now” iirc.
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In Russia, the Left is the bad guys. The far far Left, for instance, is Limonov, the unhinged neo-Nazi of the worst caliber. All of the good guys (pro-democracy, anti-invading everybody in the world) are on the Right. Taking into account history, it makes sense.
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This is very confusing! Here in the UK, anybody who is neo-nazi is as far to the RIGHT as you can get – we definitely remember that we fought against the nazis sixty years go and will not dignify them with a capital letter! Today’s Germans are not nazis, most are capitalists and some are liberals. Any remaining communists are far left, socialists are less left but not right, liberals are neo-conservative and the present UK government is right-wing conservative and strongly capitalist – this means that Americans are all right-wing, the Chinese are mostly communist and Russians are generally confused but used to be communist. Jewish people in the UK come in all political hues but many of us know people and family members who perished under hitler – who was a racist and didn’t really care about capitalism but hated Jews and Russians. I do apologise, but we don’t really know much about Ukrainians, apart from those few of us who read your wonderful blog, Clarissa! We do know about the Poles and respect their enthusiasm and hard working attitude – and many of them fought with us against hitler… Does any of this make any sense across the Atlantic?
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