I thought I’d share some of my favourite blog posts about Russia from the last few weeks.

Easily my favourite post of the month has to be Tim’s account of his trip to Moscow - mainly because of this gem:

McDonalds is so highly thought of in Sakhalin that a few people we know there asked us to bring back a few McDonalds meals for them. At first I thought they were joking, but it turned out they genuinely wanted us to stick a load of McDonalds in the overhead locker for nine hours so they could reheat it and eat it on arrival. Madness.

Lyndon reports on Putin as Russia’s Chief Teddy Bear:

Speechlessness - or a brief, shocked (resigned?) obscenity - has been the response of many Russians and Russia-watchers to the latest brick in the pro-Kremlin wall.

The good news? “Restless Bears Have Found a Job for Putin,” reports Moskovsky Komsomolets. The bad - or at least profoundly questionable - news? Those “bears” are children aged 8 to 15, who will now have the chance to be involved in a nationwide movement called “Teddy Bears” (”Mishki”). The new organization has been rolled out in the midst of a circus-like frenzy of pro-Putin demonstrations in Moscow.

Mark MacKinnon uses a tale of two Prime Ministers to compare and contrast democracy in Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine comes out on top:

It’s fitting that Yulia Tymoshenko should finally become prime minister of Ukraine one day after Vladimir Putin declared he would be Russia’s prime minister under a President Dmitry Medvedev.

For all Ukraine’s instability, Tymoshenko’s dramatic return to power - establishing herself as a third power centre beyond both President Yushchenko and his rival Viktor Yanukovich - shows how vibrant and pluralistic Ukraine’s political scene now is. Yes, all of the main parties are tinged with corruption and are too close to big business, but Tymoshenko’s election victory two months ago stands as proof that no politician can rule Ukraine without the consent of the people.

None of the above can be said about Russia.

Mike Averko talks Russian ice-hockey:

At present, the Russian Super League (RSL) is considered by many to be the second best ice hockey league after the NHL. The improved Russian economy has allowed RSL teams to acquire NHL caliber players. Non-Russians are among the stars in the RSL. Russia’s second best ice hockey league is known as the High League (it has also been referred to as the Premier League). It includes teams from Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Finally, head over to the Accidental Russophile, where you too can learn how to make a paper cut out Putin figure, to adorn your desk…

Bonus - the link I found just after I published this post: Head over to MMD blog, for the MMD consultancy’s Russia in 2007, Outlook for 2008 - “a 360-degree overview of Russia as it closes the end of year 2007 and is about to enter year 2008.” It’s a hundred pages long, so bound to keep you busy over the Christmas period.

Another last minute bonus: Sean traces the history of Putinism.

What can be made of this journey of Putinism from a mantra for a strong Russian, anti-corruption state, to a inherent contradiction of the free flow of capital, to a symbol of an anti-democratic, nationalist, and imperialistic system run by a cabal of chekisty, to finally end up nothing more than a postmodernized Stalinism?

Interestingly, the only time the word ‘Putinism’ appears on Siberian Light is during an interview with Sean…