(no subject)

Just noticed that when I read emails from certain people I hear their voices in my head and sometimes even see their faces. This is particularly true for people with strange accents, but doesn't apply to short messages. Weird.

The Guardian reviews Browder's new book

Luke Harding reviews Red Notice, a memoir by Bill Browder. One of the major topics is how Browder locked horns with Russian authorities over Renaissance Capital and the Magnitsky case:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/26/red-notice-how-i-became-putin-no-1-enemy-bill-browder-review

Magnitsky’s case was to become the most notorious and best-documented example of human rights abuse in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. That this happened was down to one man: Bill Browder, a US-born financier and the CEO of a successful asset management company. Once a Putin fan, Browder found himself in trouble in 2005 when he was deported from Russia. He hired a team, including Magnitsky. When the Kremlin got nasty, most of the lawyers fled. Magnitsky – a family man with two small boys, who liked Beethoven – refused to leave. He believed the law would protect him, that Russia had said farewell to its Soviet ghosts. It was a tragic misjudgment.

... [he talks about the Magnitsky law passed by the US Congress; the law imposed sanctions on a number of Russian officials directly involved in Magnitsky's death in a Russian jail.]

The Magnitsky law drew an apoplectic, asymmetric response from Putin. He ended the adoption of Russian babies by childless American couples. And, in a twist that might have been written by Gogol, the Kremlin put Magnitsky on trial. That he was already dead was apparently not a problem. In summer 2013 a judge convicted him of tax evasion, announcing a surreal verdict to an empty barred cage.

I think in the next few years we'll see damning conclusions of several high-profile cases against Putin's Russia. The UKOS $50B verdict is already in the books. The Litvinenko trial will reach a verdict some time mid-year. Then, there will be MH17 trials and some preliminary evidence against Russia is already quite strong.
Importantly, after all Putin's lies about the annexation of Crimea and war in Ukraine, Russia has no international credibility left whatsoever.

Как отличить земляную белку от древесной?

Оба типа белок серые и все время копаются в земле. Но при этом земляные белки жутко грязные, а древесные - чистые. Потому что, если живешь в норе, то грязь к тебе липнет постоянно.

Watch on YouTube

Demographics: US vs Russia

К рассуждениям kireev о консервации власти в России. Похоже, власть перейдет от поколения "Путин и друзья" к поколению их детей.