NPR on Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

NPR's Ivan Watson had a story on today's (June 6, 2008) All Things Considered entitled "Experts: Lessons of Soviets in Afghanistan Ignored," in which some interviewees argue that America is now making many of the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made in their invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet attack lasted ten years; the American's is just seven years old, so far.

We are facing so many relics of the Cold War. Iraq was the American proxy against the Soviet proxy of Iran. Iran had been our plaything for a while, too. Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq still dominate the headlines today.

Zelenograd, the Soviet Union's Silicon Valley wanna-be

The Register: How a pair of American spies created the Soviet Silicon Valley

"Few stories in computing history come close to matching the tale of Zelenograd – the Soviet Union's attempt at creating something along the lines of Silicon Valley."

This ties together two of my life's passions, computers and Soviet Russia.

Part 1 • Part 2

Tanks and troops and ICBMs, oh my!

It seems just like old times! The Guardian has a very good take on the renewed display of military might in Red Square. The BBC also has a spot on this. Most amusing in that article was a quote from V. Putin, who "said earlier that the display of heavy weapons in this year's Victory Day parade was 'not sabre-rattling', but 'a demonstration of our growing defence capability'."

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Previously undiscussed here: Georgia accuses Russia of shooting down drone.

Questions from this: How did Georgia have or get a drone? Who sold it to them, or did they make it themselves?

Second, the shoot-down happened on 21 April, and occurred over the separatist region of Abkhazia. It seems likely that Russia would not want Abkhazia to break off from Georgia — we don't want to give the Chechens any ideas, eh?

Russia "expels US embassy staff"

This just got interesting.

BBC:

Russia has ordered the expulsion of two military attaches from the American embassy in Moscow, US officials say.

The US state department said it would comply with the order although it objected to it.

Two Russians have been expelled from Washington in recent months, one in November and the second on 22 April.

Apparently this is unrelated to the sit-in by National Bolshevik activists at the Russian embassy in Kiev. (Is it?)

The Independent: Power struggle as Medvedev takes office

Should be interesting... more on Medvedev later.

Georgia, Russia, and Abkhazia

The pressure to have Georgia become part of NATO may be having an adverse effect upon the state of Abkhazia. While ostensibly part of Georgia, Abkhazia's population is largely non-Georgian, but pro-Russian.

Under the Soviet Union, Abkhazia had the status of an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. This status was recognized within Chapter 10, Article 85 of the Soviet constitution of 1977.

The office of NATO Secretary General Scheffer has released a brief statement expressing concern over Russia's attempts to establish legal links with the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The BBC article "
Russia warned over Georgia move" has a map of the region showing the areas in question.

In my recollection, NATO was formed to counter the evident iron bloc that formed around the Soviet Union after World War II. Some questions to ask: What is the role of NATO after the Cold War? (The first one, anyway.) Do we still need NATO? What is the significance of having eastern European states join NATO?

Puzzling.

We know about androids. But what about robots?

The book "What Do Robots Think About?" by French author Jean-Pierre Petit was translated into Russian in 1987, and a scanned copy is now available online, complete with commentary and translation. That's good for us that ни говорят по-русски.

It's over here. (Hat tip to Boing Boing.)