TOL Blogs

TOL blogs roundup #16: conflict, riots, squandered democracy and a great moustache

November 14th, 2007 by kb

A rose turned thorny…

TOL Georgia has been reporting at least thrice daily with updates of the social unrest in Tbilisi as well as analysis, photos and what the local papers have been saying.  Has the rose revolution turned ugly?   Make your mind up here.

…And elsewhere in the Caucasus

Steady State is continuing its coverage of the frozen conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia despite the extraordinary situation in Georgia.  Looking further east into the Caucasus, there are also some fascinating posts from Azerbaijan.  If you’ve ever wondered what a country with a 37% growth rate looks like, then the answer is right here.

Armenian Patchwork, a photo-blog from Yerevan, is also reporting on political developments in Armenia.  They may not be as conflictual as in Georgia, but there’s at least one superb moustache involved and other facial hair delights (see left).  The presidential election in February 2008 has sparked interesting cultural initiatives, including interactive theatre performances.

Upcoming elections in Russia

With only a month to go until parliamentary elections in Russia, there’s no time like the present to have a look at our two newest blogs, Elections in Russia and its counterpart in Russian, Выборы в России.  Elections in Russia has articles on where the party of the Kremlin, United Russia, gets its 1.7 million members from; the strategy of “image arsenal”; Russia’s experiment with online voting; and the comforting knowledge that “nanotechnology is also Putin’s plan” and much more.

TOL Belarus continues to be active with insights into life in Belarus.

And in south-eastern Europe…

Two new posts on TOL Romania detail the uneasy political situation in Romania.  Our blogger asks, “What do you think of a country where the government can’t be taken down, even if it commands only about 20% of the votes in Parliament?”.  If votes of no confidence and reticence for direct democracy are your thing, look no further.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: worst political crisis since 1995?

Balkanizer, the TOL blog about all things Balkan, has some new indepth posts, including the statement recently released by the Peace Implementation Council regarding the political situation in BiH, and a piece that unravels just how BiH has become so dangerously mired in political instability: even EUFOR has recently declared that it is ready to respond in case of a new war - small comfort.

And not to forget Central Europe’s own - though much lesser - crock-pot of disturbance, TOL Hungary reports on this year’s surprisingly calm Autumn - no tear gas and rubber bullet dodging for Budapestians this October, on the 51st anniversary of the Hungarian uprising.

And finally, Romantic, TOL’s blog about all things Romani, continues to bring us fascinating insights into Romani culture, including some pictures from a recent exhibition organised to show the “real face of Romani people”.

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