Lex Libertas

I’ve shown a lot of pretty pictures of Saint Petersburg on here before, and I’ve also posted some pictures from my old neighborhood.  It recently occurred to me, however, that I haven’t really put up many pictures that show the more gritty side of the city.  English Russia has a post on “Another View on St. Petersburg,” which shows a more realistic sampling of city views.  These pictures show the flip side to the imperial beauty of downtown Nevsky, but it was these views that attracted me just as much:

This is a college, very much like the one where I first studied.

Typical post office, next to the entrance to an apartment building.

Swimming Pool and coffee shop.  Reminds me of my days at the dorm on Vasilievsky Island, when one of the main streets was torn up for a year.

Typical Apartment building courtyard.

The entrance archway to an apartment complex.

I love this city.  I love the shining, vibrant center, and I love the dark, decrepit center.  They both coexist in an appropriate parallel for the overall state of the country as a whole.

Vladimir Putin will be the first Russian prime minister to visit Abkhazia. Legally recognized as part of Georgia by every country in the world except Russia and Nicaragua, Abkhazia is pretty surely being sucked deep into the Russian state. It was always a subject of significant Russian influence and support, but after last summer’s way with Georgia, it seems like Russia has decided to stop playing games and start to absorb the place. Why else would the Russian Minister of the Interior, Rashid Nurgaliyev, visit Abkhazia?

Vice-Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Mikheil Machavariani, summed up Georgia’s view:

“This will have very serious consequences for the international image of Russia. But that’s Russian politics right now, they don’t give a damn about anything.”

President Sergey Bagapsh of Abkhazia says they’ve reached a deal with Russia on military bases:

According to Bagapsh, the construction works have already started on the plots allotted for Russian military bases, and the only thing left was to sign the formal agreement between Russia and Abkhazia.