Dedicated Russian thread

[Condottiere]

A Russian businessman has opened the "Stalin Doner" kebab shop in Moscow. The staff wear NKVD uniforms, and you can order a "Beria" kebab if you wish.
Why a Moscow kebab shop has reignited debate over Stalin's legacy

This has not gone over well with some Muscovites, nor with the police who have given the owner a lot of aggravation over the name of his shop.

Stalin is a controversial figure in Russia, and while the name doesn't seem to bother many people, others are upset that he is using the name of the notorious dictator in a way which seems light hearted. They compare it to opening a shop in Berlin and calling it "Hitler Doner" and serving "Goring" kebabs.

The staff have all quit due to the abuse they have been receiving from the public and police, but the owner intends to persevere.

Goring Kebab....... a greasy experience, I’d venture.

 

[Condottiere]

A Russian businessman has opened the "Stalin Doner" kebab shop in Moscow. The staff wear NKVD uniforms, and you can order a "Beria" kebab if you wish.
Why a Moscow kebab shop has reignited debate over Stalin's legacy

This has not gone over well with some Muscovites, nor with the police who have given the owner a lot of aggravation over the name of his shop.

Stalin is a controversial figure in Russia, and while the name doesn't seem to bother many people, others are upset that he is using the name of the notorious dictator in a way which seems light hearted. They compare it to opening a shop in Berlin and calling it "Hitler Doner" and serving "Goring" kebabs.

The staff have all quit due to the abuse they have been receiving from the public and police, but the owner intends to persevere.

They serve meatless chipboard like bread with a small pickled gherkin, unless you have a Party membership card.

 

[terminal]

Do the staff take turns executing the customers and then each other to make it a proper NKVD experience?

I guess that depends on what their food hygiene is like.

 

[SkippedOnce]

Navalny: Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.
Looks like Moscow is a tad miffed their original murder by poisoning plan went awry.

Poisoned Kremlin Critic Navalny Told To Return To Russia Or Face Jail

Russia's Federal Prison Service has told Kremlin critic and anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny to return immediately from Germany -- where he is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning by a Soviet-era nerve agent -- or face jail in Russia.

www.rferl.org

Whether courageous or delusional, he's certainly a glutton for punishment.

'Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny took off on a plane bound for Russia to return home for the first time since he was poisoned in August, despite Russian authorities’ stated desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years.'

Kremlin critic Navalny lands in Russia, faces immediate arrest

Alexey Navalny, who was in Germany for five months after he was poisoned, returns home despite threat of arrest.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Condottiere]

Whether courageous or delusional, he's certainly a glutton for punishment.

'Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny took off on a plane bound for Russia to return home for the first time since he was poisoned in August, despite Russian authorities’ stated desire to arrest him and potentially jail him for years.'

Kremlin critic Navalny lands in Russia, faces immediate arrest

Alexey Navalny, who was in Germany for five months after he was poisoned, returns home despite threat of arrest.

www.aljazeera.com

He’s not letting Putin off the hook that easily and staying relevant by returning. Whether that’s wise from a personal safety point of view is rather questionable, but from a political point of view it’s the best move possible.

 

[Zhopa]

I have no idea who Lisa Nandy is as a politician and am a little afraid to look, but she is right on target on HMG and Russia here:

 

[Condottiere]

I have no idea who Lisa Nandy is as a politician and am a little afraid to look, but she is right on target on HMG and Russia here:

For some reason I can't see the Twitter feed, but it's not like it's a Fig.11 at 400m. More like a barn door at ten!

 

[Zemlyak]

If true, Putin has out Trumped Trump with what to me seems a pastiche of a palace built for him.

Putin’s palace Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation investigates the Russian president’s billion-dollar residence on the Black Sea — Meduza

Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has released a bombshell investigation into a $1.35-billion residence built for Russian President Vladimir Putin near a resort town on the Black Sea. Navalny’s team published the report the day after the opposition figure was put in pre-trial detention...

meduza.io

It looks an over the top gaudy gilt encrusted heap fit for someone with delusions of what good taste is.

 

[Condottiere]

If true, Putin has out Trumped Trump with what to me seems a pastiche of a palace built for him.

Putin’s palace Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation investigates the Russian president’s billion-dollar residence on the Black Sea — Meduza

Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has released a bombshell investigation into a $1.35-billion residence built for Russian President Vladimir Putin near a resort town on the Black Sea. Navalny’s team published the report the day after the opposition figure was put in pre-trial detention...

meduza.io

It looks an over the top gaudy gilt encrusted heap fit for someone with delusions of what good taste is.

The Tsar has his privileges.
Plus ça change.........

The Muscovite Mindset is still in the ascendant.

 

[Gabion Groyne]

If true, Putin has out Trumped Trump with what to me seems a pastiche of a palace built for him.

Putin’s palace Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation investigates the Russian president’s billion-dollar residence on the Black Sea — Meduza

Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has released a bombshell investigation into a $1.35-billion residence built for Russian President Vladimir Putin near a resort town on the Black Sea. Navalny’s team published the report the day after the opposition figure was put in pre-trial detention...

meduza.io

It looks an over the top gaudy gilt encrusted heap fit for someone with delusions of what good taste is.

De gustibus non est disputandum. Lawrence Lawrencovich Llewellyn-Bowenski did him proud.

 

[terminal]

If true, Putin has out Trumped Trump with what to me seems a pastiche of a palace built for him.

Putin’s palace Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation investigates the Russian president’s billion-dollar residence on the Black Sea — Meduza

Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has released a bombshell investigation into a $1.35-billion residence built for Russian President Vladimir Putin near a resort town on the Black Sea. Navalny’s team published the report the day after the opposition figure was put in pre-trial detention...

meduza.io

It looks an over the top gaudy gilt encrusted heap fit for someone with delusions of what good taste is.

Actually it looks rather sedate by Russian standards. Quite likely an architect designed it all and patterned it after European country estates.

Trump would sneer at it as lacking in enough gold and marble. There's a reason that Trump's properties are described as "the sort of thing that would appeal to a Russian oligarch".

Here's a 2012 BBC story on it, which has more detail than the story that you linked. According to this report the place was designed by Italian architects.

Putin's palace? A mystery Black Sea mansion fit for a tsar

One of Vladimir Putin's former business associates gives more detail than ever before about the palace he says was built to the leader's specifications for his personal use.

www.bbc.com

 

[Condottiere]

The question of taste is like quibbling over the icing covering a maggot infested cake of corruption.

 

[Condottiere]

Ah, good. Now that Trump is no longer POTUS, whatever hold Putin had over him is much less significant and US government policy can investigate certain matters which have been stifled in the past few years:

This today from Foreign Policy:

Biden Takes First Steps on Russia Policy

As Joe Biden begins to settle into the Oval Office, the contours of his Russia policy are beginning to come into view.


On Thursday, Biden directed his intelligence chief Avril Haines to conduct a full review of a host of alleged Russian transgressions in recent months. According to the Washington Post, Haines will be charged with opening investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2020 election, the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, rumored Russian bounties placed on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and the hacking of government service provider SolarWinds.


There’s been some room for cooperation, too. The same Post report indicated that Biden would seek to continue the current pact with Russia that limits nuclear weapons, known as New START. The agreement is due to expire on Feb. 5, and Biden wants to extend the deal by 5 more years.


2016, forever. How Biden treats Russia over the next four years could provide an insight into how much Democratic party politics influences his foreign policymaking. Wariness of Russia has only increased since allegations of interference surfaced in the 2016 presidential election: a Pew survey taken in 2019 found that 65 percent of Democrats said Russia was a major threat, compared with just 35 percent of Republicans.


It’s not just grassroots activists that have Russia on their mind. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob a “gift to Putin” from Donald Trump. Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has speculated that Putin may have had a hand in the assault, asking in a recent podcast whether Trump had been on the phone with Putin before he addressed supporters on Jan. 6.


Radio silence. Perhaps preempting a Biden backlash, Moscow has already made moves to disrupt some U.S. operations in Russia. The New York Times reports that U.S. government-backed broadcaster RFE/RL may be kicked out of the country as the Kremlin takes a more aggressive stance against “foreign agents.”


Biden’s challenge. Writing in Foreign Policy, David J. Kramer laid out the steps Biden should take in confronting Putin’s Russia. “Essentially,” Kramer writes, “the Biden administration should develop a policy of containment.”

About bloody time too!

 

[SkippedOnce]

So now Putin gets to say 'told you so' about the danger posed by Navalny to the stability and prosperity of the Rodina.

'Russian police are arresting supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as they take to the streets of more than 60 Russian cities Saturday to demand the Kremlin critic’s immediate release, defying the measures taken by police to break up the protests, which they have declared illegal.

'The protests started in the Far East and Siberia, including Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Chita, with thousands of participants, according to Navalny supporters.

'In Khabarovsk, a Russian city on the border with China, about 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow, pro-Navalny protesters clashed with police trying to prevent the gathering.

'Navalny's associates in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia have already been detained in anticipation of the rallies.

'Police have warned opposition supporters against protesting and independent journalists against covering them.

'Russian universities have told students not to attend the pro-Navalny rallies, some threatening them with disciplinary action, including expulsion.'

Pro-Navalny Rallies in More Than 60 Russian Cities

Russian police are arresting supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as they take to the streets of more than 60 Russian cities Saturday to demand the Kremlin critic’s immediate release, defying the measures taken by police to break up the protests, which they have declared...

www.voanews.com

 

[SkippedOnce]

And possibly getting ugly ...

'Police in Moscow on Saturday began detaining supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he called for demonstrations across the country against President Vladimir Putin's rule.

'Navalny, 44, put out the call for nationwide protests after he was detained last week on arrival to Russia from Germany where he had been recuperating from a near-fatal attack with the Soviet-designed nerve agent Novichok.

'In the centre of the capital, police detained several Navalny supporters ahead of the 2:00 pm (1100 GMT) official start of the rally, when protesters are expected to march towards the Kremlin, AFP reporters said.

'OVD-Info, a group that monitors political detentions, said more than 200 anti-Kremlin protesters had been swept up by law enforcement in around 30 cities across Russia.

'Russian authorities ramped up pressure on Navalny's aides on the eve of the protests, handing short jail terms and fines to his close associates for violating protest legislation and urging people to take to the streets.'

Moscow police detain Alexei Navalny supporters at rally

Police in Moscow on Saturday began detaining supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after he called for demonstrations across the country against President Vladimir Putin's rule.Navalny, 44, put out the call for nationwide protests after he was detained last week on arrival to Russia...

www.rawstory.com

 

[UKRaider]

Oh dear.....

 

[UKRaider]

Things have changed so much......... not!

 

[SkippedOnce]

The regime change in Washington may not have been the one to watch! Is this finally the straw that will break the Kremlin camel's back, either exposing to all the true nature of Putin's totalitarian regime, or bringing a new revolution to Russia?

'Russian police arrested more than 2,600 people Saturday in nationwide protests demanding the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin's most prominent foe, according to a group that counts political detentions.

'The protests in scores of cities in temperatures as low as minus-50 C (minus-58 F) highlighted how Navalny has built influence far beyond the political and cultural centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

'In Moscow, an estimated 15,000 demonstrators gathered in and around Pushkin Square in the city center, where clashes with police broke out and demonstrators were roughly dragged off by helmeted riot officers to police buses and detention trucks. Some were beaten with batons.

'Navalny's wife Yulia was among those arrested.

'Police eventually pushed demonstrators out of the square. Thousands then regrouped along a wide boulevard about a kilometer (half-mile) away, many of them throwing snowballs at the police before dispersing.

'Some later went to protest near the jail where Navalny is held. Police made an undetermined number of arrests there.

'The protests stretched across Russia's vast territory, from the island city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk north of Japan and the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk, where temperatures plunged to minus-50 Celsius, to Russia's more populous European cities. Navalny and his anti-corruption campaign have built an extensive network of support despite official government repression and being routinely ignored by state media.

"The situation is getting worse and worse, it's total lawlessness," said Andrei Gorkyov, a protester in Moscow. "And if we stay silent, it will go on forever."

2,600 arrested at Russian protests demanding release of Putin critic Navalny

Navalny, who is President Vladimir Putin's most prominent and durable foe, was arrested on Jan. 17 when he returned to Moscow.

abc7news.com

 

[Condottiere]

Unfortunately, I think the tolerance level of the average "Muzhik" conditioned under the "Muscovite Mindset" is a lot greater than the current level.

 

[Graculus]

Worth a view, by Navalny English subs...