This is for all the illiterate idiots (hello, Glenn Beck) who invoke the names Stalin, Hitler, Kim, and Mao when discussing Obama. Pick up a goddamn history book for once and realize what you are actually saying. From “A Trip to Chon Tash”:

The crimes of the old regime were on exhibition to those swearing an oath to uphold the new order. In the museum at the site the possessions of many of the victims were displayed with some biographical details. Documents from the archives of the NKVD/KGB showed the trappings of legal formalism that accompanied the brutal deeds, every murder judicially authorized with a sentence stamped and sealed. The execution of the sentence was scrupulously documented. And on one wall was a simple display that spoke powerfully: a portrait of Stalin, and below it a skull, resting on stones taken from the pit.

In America today, the name and image of Stalin are invoked heavily by fringe critics of Barack Obama. The critics disagree with his policies on health care and see in it the basis for increasing power of the state. The role the state will play in the healthcare system is a legitimate political issue on which well-informed citizens can have different views. But the comparison to Stalin makes clear that these critics really have no inkling of who Joseph Stalin was, what he did, and why his name lives in special infamy at hallowed spots like the pit at Chon Tash. This frivolous use of his name and image cheapens our nation’s political dialogue, and it is also a mark of disrespect to his victims. And it points to the fundamental crisis of which Aitmatov wrote so powerfully: the failure to know the past, to be informed by it, and to distill guidance from it. The age of the mankurt, alas, has not passed.

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Definitely the greatest corporate anthem I have ever heard. Go Gazprom!

Don’t bother trying, you’ll never ever find
A surer friend than Gazprom
We’re giving people warmth and light
For office and for home
We should always keep in mind
From dawn till sun down,
That our work is always needed
Working day or holiday

Let’s drink to you, let’s drink to us
Let’s drink to all the Russian gas
For those extracting the new sun
From down beneath the ground

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s latest vacation photos are now online. Sure beats going to Martha’s Vineyard…

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In an effort to improve my Russian (aka no longer sound like an illiterate peasant) I have signed up for yet another Russian class. The last time I took a formal Russian class was in 2005 while at the LSE. Since then, I have basically forgotten everything, except how to order borscht and tell the taxi driver to take you to the military museum (but really, what else do you need to know?)

Anyways, I can’t wait to start conjugating verbs again and participating in those fun role play scenarios (”No, officer, there is no contraband in my luggage. May I pay you a ‘fine’?”). Good times.

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Dudes, I’ve got a serious case of wanderlust right now. As such, I’ve spent way too much time researching possible travel destinations. I’d love to go to Turkmenistan…maybe in 2010. According to the WSJ, Turkmenistan is becoming more “tourist friendly”:

Since Mr. Niyazov died in 2006, the country has tentatively begun to open up. Regular visitors say it used to take two hours, and wads of dollars in bribes, to get out of the arrivals lounge of Ashgabat airport. Now passengers are waved through in minutes.

Tourist visas are a bit easier to come by — though you still require a letter of invitation that can take up to three weeks to arrive — and Turkmenistan is now a fixture for specialist tour operators geared to Central Asia. Ashgabat-based Ayan Travel says it handled 2,200 tourists in 2008, up from 1,500 in 2007. “People’s perception of Turkmenistan is changing — it’s seen as safer and more accessible,” says Ayan sales manager Dovran Orazgeldiev.

Certainly access isn’t a problem for the capital’s sights. The city comes across as a kind of Soviet Disneyland, with Mr. Niyazov taking the place of Mickey Mouse. The manicured parks and squares are full of golden statues of the portly president, who called himself Turkmenbashi, or Leader of the Turkmens. (He named one month of the calendar after himself, another after his mother.)

Must. Go. Soon.

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One of their pilots is drunk and the passengers demand that he be removed before the plane leaves Moscow for New York. Aeroflot’s response?

At the same time, an Aeroflot representative sought to assure them that “it’s not such a big deal if the pilot is drunk.”

“Really, all he has to do is press a button and the plane flies itself,” the representative said. “The worst that could happen is he’ll trip over something in the cockpit.”

The Boeing 767 – so easy to fly, even a drunk could do it!

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I really wish Gazprom would post videos of their press conferences, because it would be rather hilarious to see Sergey Kupriyanov and Alexey Miller shouting their statements to reporters:

As of January 7, when Gazprom was forced to cease gas supplies, the transit pipelines in Ukraine were filled with Russian gas. Therefore, the pipeline pressure is supposed to be sufficient for ensuring synchronous gas flow at the entry and exit points of the Ukrainian gas transmission system. Once we feed gas to the entry point, it is to appear at the exit point!

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Especially when they use exclamation marks!

Providing gas for technological needs is the sole responsibility of transiting party!

Indeed!

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Zookeepers at the Kaliningrad Zoo showed up for work one morning and were shocked to discover that their hippo had turned pink overnight.

One onlooker told the Austrian Times: “He looks very pretty but that colour might not help him much when he gets around to breeding. He doesn’t look very manly.”

Indeed.

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I never thought this day would come. The CPC Consortium has finally agreed to expand the pipeline’s capacity, which will carry some 1.4 million bpd of Kazakh crude by 2013.

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