Free Republic

MOSCOW -- The Byzantine Empire fell in 1453. But you wouldn't know it in Russia, where Vladimir V. Putin has been behaving as though the 15th century never ended, as though he is the direct descendant of the Byzantine kings and Moscow remains the "Third Rome" it declared itself to be in 1472. Just like the leaders of Byzantium centuries ago, Putin and his supporters talk about Russia today as if it were a divinely ordained power, destined to withstand the decay and destruction of the West. The "double eagle" emblem, originally adopted in Russia about the time of the...

President Vladimir Putin's party won a huge majority in Russian parliamentary elections Sunday tainted by fraud allegations, early results showed, paving the way for the Kremlin leader to retain power after leaving office. The United Russia Party won 62.3 percent of the vote, according to official results with 12 percent of the ballots counted and with opposition complaints mounting. United Russia and its allies, A Just Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party would enter the State Duma with a collective 86.3 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll by the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion....

As Slovenia prepares to take on the presidency of the European Union growing numbers of Slovenes are yearning for the old Yugoslavia. The phenomenon of Jugonostalgija has come to Slovenia despite the country's successful entry to the euro, the first of the new EU countries to join, and after 17 years of independence. Slovenia is hailed as a great Balkan success story and a glowing EU example for the other countries of the former Communist Yugoslavia that collapsed amid civil war in the 1990s. But many Slovenes look back longingly with "Yugo-nostalgia" to the days before EU membership. Marco Sporar,...

Fifty Years Later, Russians Regard Stalin Positively March 4, 2006 (Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in Russia think the tenure of one of the most notorious Soviet leaders was beneficial, according to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation. 47 per cent of respondents believe Josef Stalin played a positive role in the country’s history. Stalin was the second leader of the Soviet Union, taking over after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. Stalin was responsible for a series of repressive campaigns—known as the Great Purge—during the 1930s. During his tenure, Stalin eliminated all possible political opposition...

In the main square of a small north Bohemian town, four Czech Communist party (KSCM) candidates sing folk songs and waltz with grandmothers as if the 1989 Velvet Revolution never happened. The 150-strong crowd of applauding pensioners in Louny remains nostalgic for the security and feeling of togetherness that the Communist party's 40-year hardline rule brought. "For us nothing has got better," says Libuse Dalinova, aged 76. "For me things have got worse," trumps Vaclav Stepanek, 72, who argues: "The Communists made mistakes, just like the people now." The KSCM and its huge but ageing membership may be an anachronism,...