Post-colonial healthcare worker migration patterns

IWPR has a piece on the impact of labor migration on the healthcare system in Kyrgyzstan. Reading it, I couldn't help but think of the controversy caused by healthcare workers emigrating en masse from Africa to the UK. This was a much-discussed topic in a very interesting course I took last fall on "international migration and development." The reasons for migration from rural regions of Central Asia to urban areas of Kazakhstan and Russia are similar to the reasons for migration from Africa to the UK - money is the main reason, of course, and a common language smooths the path of migration, although there are some interesting wrinkles along the way. For example, according to this article on "Doctors and Soccer Players - African Professionals on the Move," in Ghana, the dearth of native professionals is made up in part by reinforcements from Cuba.

One of the things mentioned in the IWPR story is that Russians are coming down to Kyrgyzstan to recruit healthcare workers. The UK and South Africa apparently reached an agreement to reduce such "poaching" several years ago, but I doubt such agreements will be in the offing between former Soviet republics in the near future. Russia needs the professionals and can pay them, and given relatively low barriers to migration labor will flow to where it gets paid most.

On the validity of comparisons, Russo-British relations, and history

I feel sort of funny using new media to post photos of old media, but this book - bought in the book-buying binge attending the closure of a nearby used bookstore - is too good not to share.

Often in debates over at Sean's Russia Blog, commenters (one in particular) will begin to address criticisms of Russia by criticising other countries and finding that Russia compares favorably or that there is an injustice in criticizing Russia while failing to criticize the other countries mentioned. Sometimes this is relevant - often, it's not. Anyway, this book - Two Commonwealths, by K.E. Holme - published back in 1945 when the Allies were still all friends, shows the extent to which agenda-driven comparisons can be taken. It's also interesting in light of the recent tensions in the Russo-British relationship, although of course it's nothing new that the Allies - US & USSR included - all published "friendly" materials about their soon-to-be Cold-War foes.

Two Commonwealths can be yours on abebooks (see link above) for $30-50, but in the miracle of this going-out-of-business sale I got it for $5 - and my copy included some bookseller's pencil notation on the first page (where the price goes): "A regular Grimm's fairytale." Indeed.

Check out the cool skyline graphics, and the other books in the series (on the back inside flap of the dust jacket) - especially Volume III, which is to be titled How Do You Do, Tovarish? (it was actually published in 1947) and promises to be

A description of daily life, work, and leisure. There are at least two very significant things which the Russian and the British people have in common. They are a warm human sympathy for the oppressed and the unfortunate, and a passionate love of
freedom.

These two photos equate "local government in the Gold Coast" with "local government in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic." The first paragraph of text reads as follows:

Since 1917 Russia has been trying to cram into one generation political changes which have taken three hundred years in Great Britain, and economic changes which have occupied the best part of two centuries.

Translation: they may be backward, but at least they're trying real hard! And the direct comparison of the "two commonwealths'" policies toward their respective subject peoples is relevant to portions of this recent SRB discussion.

Photo captions:

"Indian contingent at the Coronation of H.M. King George VI. The British Commonwealth is united by the allegiance of all its members to the Crown."

"Parade on the twenty-first anniversary of the October Revolution, which ended Russian domination over the formerly subject peoples. Now they all serve in the Red Army."

And the visuals created by the Isotype Institute (credited on the book's front cover above - apparently this institute was a design innovator) are priceless and require no commentary - just click on the images to see them expanded:

Putin ancestor unearthed!

It's true - apparently VVP's ancestor was a "sour-lipped" goddess of weaving:



The untranslated part of the caption (after "Auntie Anya") reads "sour-lipped lady," or something like that (кислогубая баба).

Am I wrong about the family resemblance? I saw this in a book I picked up the other day (Russian Wooden Sculpture by N. Pomerantsev) - R.I.P., Second Story of Bethesda - and couldn't resist posting it. Must be the close-set eyes and, um, expressive (not to say pouty) lips.

An old Cold War is better than two new ones?

Remember that Russian saying about "старый друг лучше новых двух"? For some reason I thought of it when reading this announcement and call for papers (sent around in May on the Central-Eurasia-L email list) amidst all of the talk about a "new cold war":

U.S. Department of State Announces a Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations in the Era of Détente, 1969-1976

Washington, D.C., October 22-23, 2007

The U.S. Department of State will hold a scholarly conference on October 22-23, 2007, on U.S. Relations with the Soviet Union in the Era of Détente, 1969-1976. The conference will be hosted by the Office of the Historian in the Bureau of Public Affairs, and will take place in the new George C. Marshall Conference Center at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. The conference will feature keynote presentations on U.S.-Russian relations by Department of State principals and comments from former diplomats and senior scholars from both the United States and Russia. The conference will also include scholarly sessions that complement the forthcoming release of Soviet-American Relations: The Détente Years, 1969-1972, a joint documentary publication undertaken by the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State and the Historical-Records Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I guess we could all use a bit of détente right about now.

TOL is on top of it again

Earlier this year, I was delighted to find that TOL had started a blog about the unresolved post-Soviet conflicts (sometimes called "frozen conflicts"), called Steady State. It's a topic of great interest to me and one that I've considered starting a blog or web-portal about; but they sort of saved me the trouble.

Now TOL has filled another niche which I'd have loved to fill, given infinite time (I even set this up some time ago), with a new blog about Moldova - more precisely, according to them, "about political, economic, and social issues facing Moldova." There's a lot of original content there, including a post about Russia's "wine war" with Moldova (my phrase, not theirs) and it all looks pretty interesting. They still need to add something to their "about" page, but the topics covered so far - a series about the difficulties facing the disabled in Moldova, migration issues (naturally), etc. - look promising. My unsolicited recommendation to blogmaster Ecaterina Sanalatii is to come up with a title for the blog, something more compelling than "TOL Moldova," and my further (still unsolicited) recommendation would be to call it "Moldova Matters" - I guess I like the not-so-subtle double meaning.

Still catching up with the summer's news

One of the events of the summer which has been seamlessly woven into the "new Cold War" narrative was Russia's suspension of its obligations under the CFE treaty. Although a law student should perhaps have something more to say about this, I don't, really, except to mention the obvious - that it's an example of the common phenomenon of "international law" - even treaty law - taking a back seat to political considerations.

The Accidental Russophile covered this story in a much more thorough and timely fashion, but I wanted to chime in with a couple of links and share a few articles which do explore the legal aspects of this brouhaha: a thoroughly footnoted article from the newsletter of the American Society of International Law; and several posts on the excellent international law blog Opinio Juris.

Requiem for the '90s; or, Let us now praise floppy disks

Ten years ago, I was a newly minted college grad, just embarking on a year in which I would hold five different jobs (including, happily, one that had me in Moscow for over a month) before returning to the academy.

During some of that year's quieter moments, while I was in Durham, NC, I thought I would try to translate a book I picked up in Moscow (ah, the optimism of youth!). I didn't get farther than the first few pages, but earlier this year when Yeltsin's passing reminded everyone about the Russia of the '90s I was compelled to find that snippet - or scrap, if you will - of translation and post it in memory of Boris Nikolayevich. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the file for the life of me - that is, until yesterday, when I was transferring the contents of some old floppy disks to my hard drive.

Thanks to an enterprising internet librarian, you can now read the book in Russian online here. My source for the cover image was here. And here's the bit I translated:

Nikolai Modestov
Criminal Moscow:
A Documentary Chronicle of the Lawlessness of the '80's and '90's

In Lieu of an Introduction

The city empties rapidly with the onset of twilight. The odd passers-by, stepping around the heaps of trash left over from the day's "market activity," hurry home quickly. Metro passengers avert their eyes from the muscular young men with close-cropped hair who curse and smoke in right in the traincar. There are more cars on the street than people. This is understandable, nowadays it is safer to travel in an automobile.

Activity is concentrated around the nightclubs, casinos, and brightly-lit supermarkets which are open "day and night." These are the places that the gleaming Lincolns, Mercedes, Jeeps, and the speedy "eights" gather. The guarded parking lots will resemble an auto show until morning. And the deeper the city falls into slumber, the more desperate the partying is in the bars and other establishments. It is the hour of the tough guys of various crews, the reckless women of the shadows, the "merchants of success" and the straight-up criminals, who are ready to spend the whole night being deafened by overplayed hits, staring at the crowd, and inhaling cigarette smoke and the smell of restaurant food—if only to forget the stench of prison filth and gulag cells. Criminal Moscow is on the town...

The current lifestyle of these kings will become a distinctinve symbol for future generations. Just as Chicago of the '30's has become synonymous with the gangster era, Moscow of the '90's will be the standard for lawlessness, a period of impotent authorities and characterized by the dictates of mafia rule.

There is no need to examine figures or turn to the militia's crime reports to understand the uncontrolled increase in crime. No one feels safe in the capital today. Bankers, surrounded by former "alfas" and members of the Spetsnaz, are still not insulated from the bullets of hired assassins or from remotely controlled bombs. The rank-and-file office workers who live from paycheck to paycheck stand to become victims of amateur muggers or catch a fatal blow from the brass knuckles of a small-time hood flexing his muscle. It is not even necessary to mention those who find themselves on the "front lines" of the criminal battles: the "godfathers," racketeers, and other mafiosi. The brotherhood feels the pain of clashes between criminal clans far more than the actions of law enforcement agencies like the militia, prosecutors, and other security forces. What's more, innocent bystanders are, alas, not infrequently the victims of these battles.

The murder count in the Moscow region exceeds three thousand per year. However, even this figure does not fully reflect the real situation. To make things look better, police station employees resort to tricks of the trade. Everyone knows that the higher-ups judge their subordinates on the reports they receive from their secretaries, and no one wants to stand before a general and get a dressing-down.

The Moscow of this era was quite successfully recreated in the TV series "Brigada." To quote Lou Reed, those were different times. Just how different was explored, albeit briefly, in the NYT's article-sized romp around the city, "36 Hours in Moscow," which was published a couple of months ago:

OLD-TIMERS always marvel about how much Moscow has changed since the stultifying days of the Soviet Union. That's ancient history. What's really worth marveling about is how much the city has changed in the last year or two. Few places in the world have undergone such a rapid, dizzying and cacophonic transformation as Moscow, and it shows no sign of abating. The gangster Moscow of the 1990s has given way to something tamer, more metropolitan, perhaps, but it is still brash and flashy. The city, like Russia itself, seems to be in search of its identity — embracing the past, though often ironically, while plunging full-speed ahead. What the future holds is uncertain, but meantime, Muscovites are indulging in what an energy-fueled boom has bestowed on them.

Abkhazia goes for the gold?

A couple of weeks ago, I translated an article from Nezavisimaia Gazeta which is rather speculative but looked to be about some elements in the Russian government trying to use the award of the 2014 Winter Games to Sochi as an excuse to launder money in Abkhazia, raise the value of their investments there, or perhaps simply help out the separatists' cause. It ran in JRL, but I'm posting it here in lieu of more original content. The transition back to DC and impending parenthood are keeping me from spending my usual excessive amount of time online, which may be a good thing.

When word emerged that Sochi would be hosting the Games, I thought immediately about the repercussions for the conflict in Abkhazia, which is within spitting distance of Sochi. TOL's Steady State speculated that Sochi's hosting the 2014 Games might postpone resolution of the conflict until 2018, because there would be incentives to paper over differences and avoid potential flare-ups until the Games were over, and while I'd hope the opposite would be true and we could perhaps expect an accelerated, more focused approach to conflict resolution, their pessimistic guess is probably better than mine.

Anyway, here's the translation:

Svetlana Gamova
Abkhazia's Olympic Triumph
Nezavisimaia Gazeta, July 26, 2007

Russia to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the unrecognized republic

Sochi's victory in the contest to host the 2014 Winter Olympics has opened previously unheard of prospects for neighboring Abkhazia. Russia is planning to place in the unrecognized republic key elements of the construction complex that will guarantee the erection of the Olympic infrastructure. The amounts of investment currently under discussion are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Abkhazia's undeniable triumph could turn out to be quite costly for Russia itself – it complicates the already difficult relationship with Georgia and could lead to new problems with [Russia's] WTO accession.

As Abkhazia's Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told NG yesterday, in order to supply the needs of the Olympic construction complex, new facilities will be built in Abkhazia to produce cement and bricks and to mine gravel. However, he had a hard time naming the total cost of Abkhazia's "Olympic" program, saying that this issue is currently being discussed within the governments of Moscow and the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to information on the Abkhazian government's website, the construction of a cement factory in Tkvarcheli, which is proposed under the program, will alone cost investors $170 million. And that's just one factory. According to Sergei Shamba, there are also plans to establish a gravel production facility in the Gudauta region and a brick factory in the Gul'ripshskii region of the republic.

The Abkhazian Minister [Shamba] summed up Sukhumi's plans as follows: "In short, Abhkazia has been included in the Olympic zone, and the Russian investments are linked to our hopes for the development of our economy."

According to Shamba, the investment proposals were prepared in Sukhumi and given to the Russian government some time ago, but "Moscow paid attention to them only once it became clear that Sochi would host the Olympics." He also stated that possible investments in Abkhazia's resort zone, adjacent to Sochi, are under discussion within the Russian government. "It's clear that the Olympics will attract a large number of visitors who can also be housed on our territory [u nas]." Overall, though, added Shamba, Abkhazia's participation in Russia's preparation for the Olympics is founded on simple calculations which show that it is cheaper to transport building materials to Sochi from various regions of Abkhazia than from, say, Novorossiisk.

The administration of the Federal Development Program for Sochi [Federal'naia tselevaia programma po razvitiiu Sochi] did not confirm to NG that Abkhazia had been officially included in the Russian Olympic zone. FDP press-secretary Dmitrii Nezdorovin noted that "the Federal Development Program does not provide for sites located on the territory of another country." However, the FDP is only one of the sources of funding for construction related to the Olympics. The placement of construction industry facilities in neighboring Abkhazia is being discussed at the highest levels in Russia. For example, last Thursday, Vice-Premier Aleksandr Zhukov openly stated that Abkhazia would become one of the suppliers for construction materials for Sochi. According to him, cement factories might be built in Abkhazia that would supply material for the construction of the Olympic Village.

Tbilisi has not yet responded officially to this happy news for Sukhumi. Nino Kadzhaia, Director of the Georgian Foreign Ministry's Department of Information and Press, told NG that "Georgia's foreign ministry has no comment for the time being on the Russian Vice-Premier's statement about investment in construction in Abkhazia." At the same time Georgian politicians are not concealing their disapproval. Konstantin Gabashvili, the Chairman of the Georgian Parliament's Committee on External Contacts, had the following to say to NG yesterday about the situation: "I would ask my Russian colleagues not to use the preparations for the Olympics in Sochi as an excuse to complicate Russo-Georgian relations. Investment is possible, but it shouldn't be done over Tbilisi's head. It is essential that everything be agreed with the government of Georgia, whose territorial integrity Russia officially acknowledges. Investment in Abkhazia which is not approved by the Georgian leadership is a direct basis for the deepening of the conflict and damages Russo-Georgian relations."

According to the leader of the political movement "By Ourselves" ["My sami"] Paata Davitaia, "The Russian government's decision to invest $170 million to build a cement factory in Tkvarcheli on the territory of Abkhazia is a blatant violation of several international agreements." The Georgian politician referred to, among others, the agreement of the heads of the CIS states of January 19, 1996, which refers to economic sanctions against Abkhazia. "Another question arises: what tax service will monitor the expenditure of these not insignificant sums? The Abkhazian tax service, which is for all intents and purposes illegal? The Russian tax service? But this is not in their jurisdiction. Perhaps the Georgian tax service, which doesn't monitor the situation on separatist Abkhazian territory? All of this looks like money laundering," concluded Davitaia.

Moscow Carnegie Center expert Aleksei Malashenko told NG that Aleksandr Zhukov's statement could have a negative impact on relations between Russia and Georgia. "We are giving yet another excuse for Georgia to raise a question about Russia's WTO accession," said the Malashenko. According to him, in the story about Abkhazia's participation in the construction of Olympic sites "there is an element of senselessness: if cement is needed, it can be bought from a legitimate company in a legitimate country."

Georgia's official protest was swift enough, published on the IHT website (in an AP story) on the same date as the article I translated:

"Any joint projects between Moscow and Abkhazia failing to take into account Georgian interests wouldn't only draw Georgia's negative reaction, but will call into doubt the rightfulness of the selection of the Olympics' site," Burdzhanadze said Thursday.

The story covering Georgia's outrage also suggested that Shamba was running out in front of the train with his statements about huge Russian investment in the region:

No Russian officials have put forward any plans to involve Abkhazia in preparations for the Sochi Olympics, but Sergei Shamba, the foreign minister in the separatist government of Abkhazia, told Georgian television Thursday that the region was eager to offer construction materials and labor.

Russia has since denied (through Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov) that involving Abkhazia in the preparations for the 2014 Games is "on the agenda." Furthermore, according to a post on this topic by cyxymu (heavily commented on, if you're interested in reading more about this and you read Russian), Gref (or at least his ministry) also denied that Russia has plans to invest in Abkhazia in connection with the Sochi Games. Cyxymu thinks this is a simple calculation - $170 million of investment in Abkhazia would lead to Russia losing a billion or more dollars a year by having its WTO membership blocked by Georgia.

Notwithstanding these denials and the above AP report, the statements coming from Russian officials have seemed as conflicted as Russia's long-term approach to settling the Abkhazian conflict:

There have been mixed signals coming from different levels of the Russian authorities on Abkhazia’s possible role in preparation for the Olympic Games in Sochi, which is less than 40 kilometers away from the breakaway region.

Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, said on July 9 that it was difficult to imagine holding the Olympics in Sochi without the participation of “such a kind neighbor as Abkhazia.”

On July 19 Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Zhukov said that cement-producing factories could be built in Abkhazia to supply the construction of infrastructure in Sochi. [...]

On July 27, Russian ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko said although Moscow was interested in Abkhazia’s involvement “no one has ever said that Russia is going to do this without Georgia."

On the other hand, the same article that quoted those statements also quoted Abkhazian "president" Sergei Bagapsh as saying the potential investment from Russia was around $15 million, an order of magnitude less than the figure cited by Shamba in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta article.

It seems obvious that all of the conflicting statements flying around are a result of the divergent interests of elites, even within the same country or de facto country. Some Russian officials have huge investments in Abkhazia and feel strongly that it should be returned more firmly and officially into Russia's orbit. It's a different matter whether their views on this preceded their property holdings, but now anyone who holds property in Abkhazia which was acquired after the shooting war ended has a strong incentive to make sure that Georgian refugees (with their pesky claims to their homes) and rule from Tbilisi (which might contest some of the "privatization" or "leasing" of public property) do not return to Abkhazia.

The approach of the group of Russian elites who seek official economic engagement with Abkhazia, which includes Mayor Luzhkov and some Duma Deputies (some of whom also like to play on the populist potential of Abkhazia) seems to run counter to the views of others who might have other priorities and be willing to use Abkhazia as a bargaining chip to pursue them. There are cleavages in Abkhazia as well, between more Russia-oriented elites (indeed, some officials in the de facto Abkhazian government are current or former officers in the Russian security services) and those who value the small measure of independence Abkhazia has attained, remember Russia's willingness to blockade Abkhazia in the 1990s, and/or realize that some in Russia may be willing to sell Abkhazia down the river if the right incentives come along.

Courtesy of two recent posts by cyxymu (which is easily my favorite blog about Abkhazia) on "How Abkhazia is Being Sold Off" - here and here - here are a couple of articles on the hot topic (especially during resort season) of Abkhazian real estate from Izvestiia and Kommersant-Vlast' (the latter is titled "Подмосковный абхазский округ," or - roughly - "Moscow Suburban District of Abkhazia"). OK, that parentheses-laden sentence tells me I've lost the thread, and it's time to go back to reconnecting with DC - by which I mean baking in the near-record heat on my way to taking refuge from said heat in a movie theater.

[Update Aug 10] I've found a few links I'd saved back when I first translated this piece. They may not be so relevant, but here goes: Russian official (interestingly, the presidential property manager) denying that Abkhazia would pose a "threat" to the Sochi Games; a piece by Molly Corso citing "experts" suggesting that Sochi's getting the Games could "create yet another obstacle to the resolution" of the "frozen conflicts" in Georgia; and a Guardian Unlimited commentator opining about the significance of the decision to give the 2014 Games to Sochi in general.

[Update Aug 11] Vilhelm Konnander also had an interesting post about his first thoughts on learning of Sochi's getting the 2014 Winter Games.