I watched "Wizard of the Kremlin" and I have thoughts: open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
The Wizard of the Kremlin
I have THOUGHTS
open.substack.com
Tom Adshead
@tomadshead.bsky.social
Director of Research at Macro-Advisory Ltd. Eurasian economics and politics
In which I speculate about why Melnichenko spoke out in The Economist, and why now: open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
Melnichenko's gambit
Why might an oligarch put his head above the parapet?
open.substack.com
In which I speculate about the messaging and the meta-messaging of an article about Dmitrii Kozak in VChK-OGPU: open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
Kozak case study
The rise and fall of a trusted executive offers a glimpse behind the curtain
open.substack.com
A Brit in the semis of Wimbledon, England still in the World Cup and Nigel Farage spending the summer arguing with a bin. Oh this happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea
Did a quick overview in Substack of the current economic situation in Russia, and the effect of the refinery strikes, plus speculation about peace: open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
State Of Play With Ukraine
No pressure to end, but no successes either
open.substack.com
Lots of eyes on #Uzbekistan today as it plays #Portugal in the #WorldCup - if you want to learn more about this fascinating country, read my book Silk Mirage! Order here www.bloomsbury.com/uk/silk-mira...
Silk Mirage
Silk Mirage is a compelling portrait of Uzbekistan, a country at the heart of the ancient Silk Road and now the centre of a power struggle between reformers and…
bloomsbury.com
My neighbor told me a cat keeps eating his british prime minister so I asked how many PMs he has and he said he just goes to the commons and gets a new PM afterwards so I said it sounds like he's just feeding PMs to a cat and then his daughter started crying.
Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social · last mo."I hear you're sending me a seventh prime minister"
This is an embarrassing image for the UK. A self-respecting British fox should be dragging Binface's contents out over the stage
There is increasing traffic about the "Party of Adjutants", so expect foreign commentators to pick up on this in 6 months or so: open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
Guarding against the guards
More about the "Party of Adjutants"
open.substack.com
In which I take a break from musing about the show Pluribus and write a book review of "Red Plenty" by Francis Spufford, which is tangentially related, I promise. open.substack.com/pub/tomadshe...
"Red Plenty" book review
Novelising the un-Novelisable
open.substack.com
My latest substack posts tries to pull together the various ongoing political scandals in Russia, and it all boils down to a new version of the age-old "conservatives" versus "liberals" (insert your own labels) struggle. open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
Signals and meta-Signals
Are there really "cracks in the regime"?
open.substack.com
This looks to me like the NSC went after him after he said bad things about Trump and Israel, and they found something to pin on him - the Trump administration is nothing if not petty
alina@ramshackle78.bsky.social · 3mo ago
Will the GCC shed OPEC, like the EU needs to shed NATO, like a caterpillar shedding its cocoon?
Katie Martin@katie0martin.ft.com · 3mo agoby the UAE ambassador to the US: as.ft.com/r/fff4d71f-f...
In which the author ruminates about whether the fantasy world of Pluribus is necessary and sufficient to get central planning to work
Red Plenty in Pluribus?
Does a world of perfect information finally allow you to build a centrally planned economic utopia?
open.substack.com
open.substack.com/pub/newkreml... Some subscribers asked me to explain what Kremlinology was like in the late Soviet period, so I dredged up some sludge from the dark depths of my unreliable memory
What is (or was) Kremlinology?
What it's all about
open.substack.com
More statistical analysis of Presidential meetings open.substack.com/pub/newkreml... Wherein I try to make sense of the fluctuations of public meetings on the Presidential website, while learning more than I wanted to about its technical workings.
More statistical analysis of Presidential meetings
What the numbers do and don't show
open.substack.com
In which the author shows the results of his vibe coding of a crawler for the Kremlin website, and discusses how much it costs to get a meeting with Putin open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
Statistical Analysis of Putin's meetings
And a call for requests....
open.substack.com
Really thorough piece of analysis
Jens Siegert@siegert.bsky.social · 4mo agoThrough the Telegram posts of Ilja Remeslo, a Z-blogger who has suddenly turned critical of Putin, @fa_burkhardt sheds more light on the workings of the Putin system than many analyses of Kremlin affairs. A must-read! ridl.io/from-z-blogg...
The prophet speaks for God, and God is always on the side of the powerless, the suffering, the oppressed. Richard Rohr
Maxut Shadayev, the Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media announced that Deputy Minister Andrey Zarenin will volunteer to go to the front. "Kommersant" say this is the first known case of an official of such a high level volunteering. 1/5 www.kommersant.ru/doc/8554125
Замминистра записался добровольцем
Андрей Заренин отправится в зону СВО
kommersant.ru
Rocky. Loved and remembered always. Everyone who knew him adored him. If you didn’t know him I’m able to share a free to read article in his honour. Here are memories from his family and friends to celebrate what made him one of a kind. ❤️ www.nytimes.com/athletic/248...
David Rocastle: The phenomenal person behind Arsenal’s perfect player (Gift Article)
Twenty years after David's death, his family and friends recall what made him such a special man and how it helped shape him as a player
nytimes.com
When Robert Harbison suggested that the endpoint of the history of development of human narrative was the prison memoir, I'm pretty sure this is NOT what he had in mind
James Ingram@ingyingram.bsky.social · 4mo agoUtterly obsessed with Nicolas Sarkozy's prison writings. Trop émotif
The Remeslo case is a sign of strains inside the elite, but only in the bit that deals with social media. It gets disproportionate attention because it's so visible in the West, but it is important. The scandal could represent a challenge to Alexei Gromov who runs media inside the Kremlin.
More thoughts about Remeslo
The battlefields for Russia’s social policy are segmented.
open.substack.com
This is an interesting reframing of a question that vexeds me. Why does autocracy always prevail in Russia? I don't believe the "lack of a land border" answer for similar reasons to @birblib.bsky.social . I think path dependency/contingency is a good answer, too. History is one thing after another.
Birb_at_Arms@birblib.bsky.social · 5mo agoOne of my struggles with Russian history is trying to separate the origins of the Russian state and the associated path dependency from the actions and agency of the many generations of humans who lived there and governed it.
Weighing in on the Remeslo case - this is my Russia-specific substack. I think Remeslo's anti-Putin post is a response to Viktoriya Bonya and intended to force other bloggers to declare their loyalty: open.substack.com/pub/newkreml...
The Remeslo Case
You can lead a stalking horse to water....
open.substack.com