So much to learn....

Yesterday two Russian journalists were killed, one in Moscow and one in Makhachkala, the capital of the Republic of Dagestan. Both were from Dagestan, a semi-autonomous republic in southwest Russia, and both were blacklisted from a popular newspaper after apparently protesting or making public the fact that they (among others I'm sure) were being forced to produce negative reports about the government and president of the republic. The investigation is treating the murders as two separate, unconnected cases. CBC ran a small story on the matter, and I find it interesting that, within the first two sentences it is mentioned that Dagestan is a Muslim province; this wasn't mentioned at all on the news here. In any case, there are a lot of issues surrounding media, media restrictions and censorship here, and Russia has come under fire for tightening these freedoms here over the past several years. I don't know much about the issue but a question that immediately came to mind after hearing about fate of these Dagestani journalists was how the relationship between the government and leadership of a semi-autonomous republic and that of Russia works. How autonomous are these republics? How can censorship and media and political freedoms can be monitored, regulated, assessed etc., by both the government of the republic and by the central Russian government? I knew nothing about the administration of Russia so looked into it... and briefly, this is what I learned.

Russia has 21 republics - each nominally autonomous, with their own constitution, president and parliament, and is represented internationally by the central Russian government; these republics are home to ethnic groups and ethnic minorities. There are also 46 provinces, nine territories, one autonomous province (the Jewish Autonomous Province), four autonomous districts and two federal cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Last week Steve's team travelled to Ufa, which is part of the republic of Bashkortostan; before the game two anthems were played - first, that of Bashkortostan, and second, the Russian anthem. He also said that there was a smallish section fans that sang the first anthem more rigorously than the other spectators; they were dressed in what looked like traditional garb - white robes... and had darker skin and Asian features.

All of these republics are populated by several different ethnic groups, all with their own history, customs, language and even government... but are still part of Russia - almost like a country within a country. Russia has been very clear that it will maintain territorial integrity at all costs; after Kosovo's declaration of independence (which Russia has not and will not recognize), there were fears that some of these republics might try to do the same, but nothing to that effect has happened. I'm guessing that memories of the Chechen conflict and the heavy hand that the Russian military dealt rebels and separatists there still send a pretty clear message to dissuade serious separatist movement elsewhere. There was another show on the news the other night though, with presidents of a few republics stating their allegiance to Russia and the desire of their people to remain part of Russia; this connection gives these republics many economic advantages that otherwise they wouldn't enjoy. Theoretically, it seems like a pretty good set up, that ethnic groups can be self-governing in their own republics, preserving their language, culture, history etc. in their own mini-country. But again, what happens when their interests conflict with those of their neighbor? Or those of Russia? And, how autonomous are they really? So many questions!

On a totally unrelated subject, I wanted to say something about the amazing databases that I've been accessing through the University of Manitoba... there are SO many online journals, magazines, newspapers, and databases that can be accessed through the library, it is so cool! I think that many of these mega-collections of information can be accessed through public libraries as well - I know that in Winnipeg I could get at them with my library card number and a pass code; maybe this news just to me but ... maybe not! Anyways, it's almost impossible to stay on track because there are so many neat magazines and articles that lead you to other neat magazines and articles... okay, yup. Point made, the internet is awesome.

There are no games this weekend, and we're not really sure why - I don't think it has anything to do with Easter (Eastern Orthodox Easter isn't celebrated for another month) because there are hockey games, soccer games and basketball games this weekend... so ??? This is a good thing for Steve's team - the setter is still in the hospital, and the nature of his illness is still unknown - we were told that it has something to do with his saliva. Riiiight. After that we were told that it is untranslatable. Okay! So hopefully he's better for Wednesday's game. Hopefully his saliva is better. Ew. Okay... it's sunny today but I imagine that it's cold - it's been very wintery and blustery for the past few days.... spring where are you!?