Figes and Kristof

Orlando Figes, scholar of Russian history, reports that his recent book on the lives of Stalin's victims and their families has had its Russian edition contract revoked. The organization with which he collaborated to do his archival research, Memorial, has had its office raided by police in St. Petersburg, its materials confiscated. Figes maintains a fascinating website with downloadable interview transcripts and archival documentation. Much of it is in Russian, but the site is worth perusal nonetheless.

Nicholas Kristof writes that the Sudanese government has responded to Al Bashir's arrest warrant by kicking out all aid workers, effectively reconstructing a regime of starvation and deprivation for civilians of Darfur. He also includes one of those "pay attention to the suffering" photographs of a Sudanese boy with no hands and a face half scarred, both after a grenade accident. Kristof's tagline is that the boy would applaud the warrant....but cannot. Yuk.

Photo credit: Mikhail Metzel