The Jackals already circling Putin

The Putin Parody Andrei Piontkovsky The history of authoritarian rule in Russia displays a certain depressing regularity. Such regimes rarely perish from external shocks or position pressure. As a rule, they die unexpectedly from some internal disease – from irresistible existential disgust at themselves, from their own exhaustion. Czarist rule withstood many harsh tests during…

HOPE FOR HAITI

Brazil’s Lula visits Haiti troops Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, has arrived in Haiti to see for himself the damage last month’s earthquake caused. He will meet Rene Preval, his Haitian counterpart, and visit Brazilian troops at the UN’s new logistical base there. Even before the earthquake, Brazil had a “special relationship” with…