The notion of an “information war” in the wake of the actual Russian-Georgian hostilities has gotten a lot of attention in its time. One would be forgiven for thinking that some amazingly complicated PR strategies are being deployed on both sides. In actuality, the “war” mostly consists of both Russia and Georgia trying to impress a who-hit-whom-first narrative on a completely indifferent American public, and doing it in the clumsiest manner possible.

We’ll come right out and say it: alongside Zemfira and Splean, Mumiy Troll are one of the very, very few Russian rock acts we’re not embarrassed to crank up with Brits or Yanks within earshot. And Mumiy (pronounced like roomy) Troll might be the worldliest of the three, what with lead singer Ilya Lagutenko’s multilingual punning (he’s fluent in Mandarin, among other things) and no-translation-needed feline yowl. 2009 brings the band’s first attempt to conquer the U.S. in earnest – and seemingly on their own terms.

Georgia the U.S. state has produced R.E.M., B-52s and Pylon; now its oft-beleaguered namesake in the Caucasus is beginning to catch up.

Watching black-helmeted military police subdue protesters in the streets of Riga this Tuesday felt shocking on two distinct levels. For one thing, these are the streets on which I grew up – hey, is that my favorite coffee house they’re smashing? Far more jarring, however, is the gulf between the protests’ intensity and what I have, in my 16 years there, come to know and partly absorb: the Latvian temperament.

Protest rallies continue across Russia over a new tariff that, as of January 12, aims to bail out domestic car industry by making imports prohibitively expensive. Here's a short thing I wrote about them for The New Republic. It basically cheers the return of public protest into Russian life but warns against idealizing the protesters: "These are not harbingers of a Georgia- or Ukraine-style 'color revolution.'"