Kafka on the Black Sea

TO NO one’s surprise, Crimea’s first elections since Russia annexed it this spring were won by United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin. Official figures showed a healthy turnout of 60%, though this jumped rather oddly from 45% just two hours before polls closed. (No foreign observers monitored the vote.) The run-up to the election saw the peninsula overwhelmed with post-communist nostalgia, with campaign posters for the Communist Party of Social Justice showing Leonid Brezhnev (pictured), the late Soviet leader, proclaiming his support for “national happiness”. Who knew that as a younger man, the...Continue reading