Absolutely Private
by Alexei Bayer Back in the Soviet times, the Finns were in the habit of building lumber and paper mills on their border with the Soviet Union, downriver from great Russian forests. As their raw...
View ArticlePutting Putin Into the Context of Russian History
by Alexei Bayer Despite the striking similarities between Putin and Alexander III, Russia’s president most resembles long-ruling Russian Empress Catherine II (1762-1796), who was one of only two...
View ArticleFuel Economy in the United States: Eyes Wide Shut
by Alexei Bayer Last summer, we spent a family vacation in Northeastern Spain. Since my wife is an art historian and museum curator, our typical holiday, even if we decide to spend it relaxing on the...
View ArticleUrbi et Gorbi
by Alexei Bayer Americans think they know who won the Cold War. It was Ronald Reagan, of course, with his tough talk and massive increases in defense spending. If you doubt that it was really Mr....
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1913-2013: How Russia Botched an Entire Century
by Alexei Bayer One hundred years ago, shortly before the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, Russia was on the verge of becoming the China of the day. It had embarked on the path to industrial capitalism...
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Russia and Egypt: Stunning Parallels
by Alexei Bayer In December 2010 — matching almost to the day the beginning of the Arab Spring — Russia’s capital city Moscow, some 2,000 miles away from Tunis and Cairo, was hit by serious ethnic...
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Pope Francis Vs. Putin
by Alexei Bayer Pope Francis recently called on the Catholic Church to stop obsessing about abortion, gay marriage and other controversial issues. Otherwise, he said, it risked seeing its moral...
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Toxic Putin
by Alexei Bayer The environmentalist group Greenpeace is in luck. Russian commandos boarded its vessel Arctic Sunrise as it protested Russia’s drilling in the Arctic, and a Russian court detained its...
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The Russia Putin Grew Up In
by Alexei Bayer Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from “Murder at the Dacha” (RIS, 2013), the new novel by The Globalist’s Contributing Editor Alexei Bayer. One day, we were sitting around the...
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Wall Street Wants the Fed to Save it From Itself
by Alexei Bayer When it comes to financial bubbles, Joe Q. Public tends to find out about them from the nightly news and not from his financial advisor. Most of the time, the discovery comes too late,...
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A Modest Proposal to Save Detroit
by Alexei Bayer If a Martian tried to read some of American news headlines in recent years, he might be forgiven for being a little confused. On the one hand, he saw that “Detroit” was saved from...
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Liberty Vs. Safety: A False Choice
by Alexei Bayer Edward Snowden’s revelations about massive, indiscriminate electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency breathed new life into the debate raging since September 11, 2001: how...
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Ukraine and Ireland: Overcoming Mighty Neighbors
by Alexei Bayer Hundreds of thousands all over Ukraine have taken to the streets to take democracy into their own hands. They are protesting the corrupt rule of their thuggish president, Viktor...
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Russia and China: Who’s the Boss in the Relationship Now?
by Alexei Bayer Russia’s invasion of Crimea has been condemned by most countries in the world. The United States and Germany are leading an international effort to impose economic sanctions on Russian...
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Advantage China: Putin’s Dangerous Crimea Precedent
by Alexei Bayer Putin is miscalculating badly. As to negative fallout from his Crimea move, all eyes are on the West and what it will do in terms of sanctions, including exclusion from the G8....
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Crimea: What Could Have Been
by Alexei Bayer This is the second time in history that Crimea has seized global attention. Previously, it was in 1853, at the start of the Crimean War. Notably, that was a time when Russia got its...
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The Bolshevik Roots of the U.S. Tea Party
by Alexei Bayer In the United States, Republican Party primaries used to be deadly boring affairs – until quite recently, that is. But since 2009, they have become as passionate and contentious as...
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Russia Through the Vodka Glass
by Alexei Bayer This is part one of a three-part Globalist series on vodka’s impact on Russia. Many nations of the world are associated with their favorite poison. The French are forever linked with...
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Vodka: Sobering Up the USSR
by Alexei Bayer This is part two of a three-part Globalist series on vodka’s impact on Russia. To help understand the inner dealings and direction of the Soviet Union, there were always two contending...
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Vodka: Market Riches After Communism
by Alexei Bayer This is part three of a three-part Globalist series on vodka’s impact on Russia. Early on, the Yeltsin government, which lasted from July 10, 1991 to December 31, 1999 — and during...
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