Alternative lives

Was ist exotischer - in einem Computerspiel zu leben oder ein Jahr im Libanon?
What's more strange - to live in a computer game, or a year in Lebanon?
Что более странно, жить в компьютерной игре или год в Ливане? Решите сами.

Lawrence

I'll start reading "Seven pillars of wisdom" now.
As "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of my favourite films of all times, I wanted to note that down, before I write anything stupid under the influence of that book (the edition I'm reading has an introduction by one Angus Calder quoting modernist literature and trench warfare guilt - sheesh, couldn't you just say that Lawrence was a great bastard who had fun doing desert warfare?)

Gute Besserung!

Sometimes, doing term papers is good for something - back during my Slavistic studies, I had to do one on a collection of short stories by Vassiliy Aksyonov, and since then I love his works and his style.
So I'm sad to see that he's been hospitalised after a stroke - I wish him a full and speedy recovery!
Meanwhile, if you know Russian, you can read his Alternative History novel "Остров Крым" ("The Island Of Crimea") online.

Иногда сочиняешь семинарные работы не зря - давным-давно, когда я учился славистике, мне задавали писать об одном сборнике рассказов Вассилия Аксёнова, и с тех пор я - поклонник его творчества.
Поэтому мне очень грустно узнавать, что он попал в больницу; желаю ему скорейшего выздоровления!
Может быть, это повод перечитать "Остров Крым"?

Putin continued / Путин - продолжнение

Things move quickly - so it looks like it will be variant 2)?
If you want more from me on Russia, go to this board - it belongs to a blog that you ought to read if you don't just want to sit and wait for history to happen, but want some intelligent guesses at what the next millennium or so will bring.

Кажется, всё уже решено, и Рутин станет премьером, а не Белорусско-Российским президентом? А жаль, мне эта идея нравилась...
Здесь обсуждают не только Московскую политику, а также главные черты настоящего и даже будущего.

How Putin can become president again - Как Путин опять сможет стать президентом

Everybody and their dog is speculating about how Putin will remain in power after his presidential term expires. He consistently has ruled out a third term, for which the Russian constitution would have to be changed. The main versions currently discussed by the pundits are:
1) Despite what he's saying, he will have the constitution changed if he's asked enough by the masses (I think this can be finally ruled out now that he's announced his support for Medvedev becoming his successor)
2) He'll become Prime Minister and either have the constitution changed to move power from the office of president to that of prime minister or have his successor step down in favour of himself after a fig leaf period, technically avoiding a third consecutive term.
3) He'll rule from behind the scenes, maybe taking over the management of an influential company like Gazprom.

The snag of both 2) and 3) is that he has to rely on his sucessor to adhere to whatever agreement was struck in advance and not to stab Putin in the back as soon as he passes on the keys of the Kremlin.

So, today I read something that made me think that Putin may consider a different option:

BELARUS DENIES REPORTS THAT UNION STATE CONSTITUTION WILL BE SIGNED SOON.
Pavel Lyohki, a spokesman for President Lukashenka, on December 7 denied media reports that Lukashenka and Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign the Constitutional Act of the Belarusian-Russian Union State during their mid-December meeting in Minsk, Belapan reported. Lyohki's statement contradicts reports aired by Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio that the presidents will soon sign the Constitutional Act. "This obscure information came as a surprise to Belarus," Lyohki said. "Since it appeared in the Russian media, I advise you to approach the Russian side for comment," he added. Pavel Borodin, Russia's state secretary for the Belarusian-Russian Union State, earlier said that the meeting between Lukashenka and Putin will focus on a draft of a Constitutional Act for the proposed union state.

In the twilight years of the Yeltsin administration, Belarussian president Lukashenko promoted the Belorussian-Russian Union; not only to save his economically declining country from bankruptcy, but also with the ambition to become Russian president by stealth. Putin never was a fan of this Union, although the Kremlin kept paying lip service to the Union as a final goal, and some Union institutions exist, largely unnoticed by the world.
So any movement here could be an indicator that Putin took a leaf out of Lukashenko's script - becoming Russian president again through the backdoor of the Union presidency.
After this idea came to me, I googled a bit and found a denial distributed by RIA - so if there's smoke, there may as well be a fire?

----

Вкратце (предполагаю, что вы все знаете версии насчёт того, как В. В. сможет оставаться у власти, "от и до"), я прочитал вышеуказанную заметку и думал - может быть, он пойдёт другим путём? У Александра Григорьевича с этим вариантом в своё время не получилось, но Путин, конечно, это - другое дело.
РИА уже отвергает этот вариант - значит, не один я набрел на эту мысль...

Primakov & King Hussein

In my Primakov review I noted:

I was surprised about his positive assessment of Binyamin Netanyahu and his negative assessment of Shimon Peres, as this is the opposite one would have expected from a Soviet / Russian diplomat based on their political positions.

Now I find in an Economist review of a biography of the late Jordanian King Hussein that he had a similar assessment of these politicians:

Mr Shlaim concedes that the king was occasionally naive and impulsive, and could put too much store on personality and too little on ideology. On this score, his most grievous misjudgments were briefly to prefer the right-wing Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu, whom he seemed to back (perhaps even tipping the scales) against Shimon Peres, whom he did not trust, in the Israeli election of 1996;

As Primakov claims to have counted himself a friend of King Hussein, that similarity may not be accidental. It would be interesting to know who influenced whose opinion in that matter.

Harry Potter Epilogue

Many people seemingly didn't like the Epilogue of HP 7. If you're among them, here's help courtesy of our shop - print out the letter quoted below, rip out JKR's epilogue, and glue this in:

To:
Malfoy, Griphook, and Blair
Attorneys at Law
Accredited at the Wizengamot
League Alley
London
Attn: Draco Malfoy

The Burrow, August 29th, 2016

Dear Draco,
As Harry and I told you on the occasion of our last encounter at the meeting of the Hogwarts Board of Trustees, I have a legal matter for your firm. You may be astonished that we turn to you with a muggle discrimination case, and not to our usual partners at Weasley, Wood, Dursley, & Lupin, especially as we haven't always seen eye-to-eye on muggle issues.

But this is a special case - the claimant is a relative of Harry's, and the claim is against Hogwarts, so we would like to avoid the possible conflict of interest. As you know, we're currently already having a sufficiently bad relationship with the Daily Prophet since we exposed that they still employ unpaid house elves in their cafeteria; they are only waiting for a chance to throw mud back at us.
Anyway, it's not just the experience of working with you on the Hogwarts Board of Trustees that makes me turn to you. We at HEMADL have been really impressed with your work on the Gringotts restitution case - forcing them to release the unclaimed treasures of the Death Eaters' victims to their legal heirs was no mean feat. The fact that you could produce both the original Death Eaters' killings records and the list of vaults belonging to the victims speaks for the thorough groundwork you've done to prepare your case. Of course, we cannot promise you anything comparable to your rumoured 25% commission in the case we want to refer to you.
In fact, this looks more like an ex-gratia case, as the claimant is an elderly lady who only has muggle money, and she wouldn't be able to afford Mr. Blair's rates. I must congratulate you on your success in getting him as a partner - your father's connections went beyond the Ministry of Magic at his time, I assume? In any case, having both a muggle and a goblin as partners evidently ensures that you fulfil our criteria for racial diversity.
Let's get on the case. The claimant had applied for Hogwarts unsuccessfully in her youth, being rejected for being a muggle without any wizarding talent by the late Albus Dumbledore (in accordance with the laws and regulations valid at that time). On hearing about the Muggles Non-Discrimination Act, she applied anew, only to be rejected again by Headmaster Flitwick for age reasons.
In our opinion, this age-based discrimination is in clear violation of the EU anti-discrimination directive. The wizengamot has previously ruled on the applicability of EU law to British wizards; after the U.K. acceded to the charter of human rights of the EU constitution, there is simply no excuse for the Hogwarts by-laws violating the pertinent EU directives.
So I assume that the case in itself will not pose any problems for you. Concerning the remuneration, let me say that I see it as a showcase for further cooperation. Besides our obvious partners like the Sirius Black foundation, you know that since the restitution case, we also have a seat on the Gringotts' board, and, obviously, the support of their new treasurer, so it ought to be possible to make them one of your accounts - actually, this would be positive PR for them, showing that they learnt their lesson and that there are no hard feelings. We also are aware that you have approached the "Quibbler", "Kreacher Katering", "Ollivander & Co.", "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes", and other companies belonging to Potter Holdings for business. Since Riddle Estates ended their business with you after you married a muggle girl, Ginny is ready to consider that (well, you know that Harry doesn't bother himself with business matters - being so busy with keeping the Godric's Hollow team in the Premier League and with the DA Defence Academy at Hogwarts). As you can see, there is potential to further both the goals of our society and your business interests.
I'm currently fetching Rose and Hugo from their vacations at their grandparents, but I'll be in town on September 1st, to accompany them to the Hogwarts train, and I assume you'll be there to accompany Scorpius. If you don't have any other plans, let's meet at "Luna's" for dinner to discuss this matter in more detail. Please also bring Paris - I always like to see her. You know that our side will have a match in Bulgaria, so Ron has to leave for Sofia in the afternoon, to continue his rivalry with Krum even as a coach - I wish they would learn from Harry and you how to get along like grown-ups. I'll bring Teddy Lupin instead - I like my own lawyer along when I'm dining with a lawyer, especially of your calibre!
Looking forwards to hear from you,
Yours truly,
Hermione Weasley
President
House-Elf & Muggle Anti-Discrimination League
Raddick Alley
London