An Uncommon Accident and Unusual Cause of Death—A Fatal Domestic Ram Attack

Domestic animal attacks are not common; their fatal attacks are even rarer. Herein, a case of a 78‐year‐old woman attacked by a ram is presented. She sustained multiple head and chest injuries. The autopsy findings and the inspection of the scene revealed that the fatal aortic injury had been caused by direct force from the front, which subsequently caused a powerful anteroposterior chest compression, resulting in an incomplete tear by flexion and compression of the aortic arch. The aortic dissection propagated in both an ante‐ and retrograde direction, with intact adventitia. However, due to a rise in pressure in the formed false lumen, dissection propagated downward to the base of the heart, and further into the subepicardial adipose tissue, forming a subepicardial hematoma. This hematoma gradually compressed the proximal sections of the coronary arteries, impairing their filling, and producing a myocardial ischemia. In addition, circulation had probably been already disturbed by the right‐sided pneumothorax, as well as a possible pneumomediastinum.     

The Municipalization of Enterprise-Owned “Social Assets” in Russia

One British and two Russian social scientists examine the causes and consequences of the transfer of responsibility for funding of social services from enterprises to municipalities in Russia. The study is part of a larger project, funded by the European Union, on the social impact of economic reform in Russia. The primary sources of data are official governmental statistics, data compiled by international organizations, and extensive surveys conducted among enterprise administrators, municipal officials, and the mass public. Regional differences are highlighted by the data; the authors offer recommendations for improvements in the financing of social services.     

Labor Problems in Light of Perestroyka

A number of fundamental labor-related problems to be addressed in perestroyka is outlined by the Director of the Economics Research Institute of Gosplan. The initial presentation covers worker apathy, lack of discipline, poor correspondence between wages and the importance and skill level of various occupations, and unemployment and retraining. As a participant in the first joint Soviet Economy roundtable, he then responds to questions by American participants, a distinguished economist and an eminent political scientist, on the role of cooperatives in absorbing surplus labor displaced by restructuring, and how responsibility for re-employment of dismissed employees will be delegated. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 800.     

The continuing relevance of Germany's engine for CEE and the EU

The article looks first into the nature of the relations between Germany and the CEE countries a decade since the accession of the CEE countries to the EU. The relations are characterized as normalised and intensive with diverse levels of closeness and co-operation reflecting of the conceptual and ideological compatibility/differences.Next, the article focuses on the German attitude to the euro zone crisis. Germany has become a hegemon in the rescue effort aimed at stabilisation and economic invigoration of the euro zone. However, German hegemony has developed by default, not by design: her leading position is linked with considerable political and financial costs. Germany moved central stage and took the position of a reluctant hegemon. However, German role is contested internationally (it has not the support of the French government in key areas) as well as internally (particularly by the Federal Constitutional Court and the Bundesbank).The article argues that the new situation makes the German–CEE relations increasingly relevant for both sides. The German leadership of the EU increasing split along the north–south divide requires backing by the Northern group countries to which the CEE in general belongs. Given a number of reasons the CEE countries implement three distinctive strategies of co-operation with Germany in European politics. Also military co-operation, which remained rather limited so far, may receive new impulses, given the financial austerity.     

Summit diplomacy of the seventeenth century: William III and Peter I in Utrecht and London, 1697–98

This article evaluates the meetings of the Russian Tsar Peter I and the English King William III in 1697–98 as the high point of Russia's 18‐month Great Embassy to western Europe. The emphasis is on the diplomatic aspects of Anglo‐Russian summits as well as on their results for international relations and diplomacy in Europe with particular focus on dramatic changes in Russia's attitude to international cooperation. Reform of Russian diplomatic machinery, enacted by Peter I as a follow‐up of his European journey, were as well to a great degree motivated by his personal contacts with William III and his English and Dutch diplomatic advisors. Based on British and Russian archival sources, the article attempts to prove that Anglo‐Russian summitry, and, in the first place, the rendezvous in Utrecht (1 September 1697, old style), signified Russia's intention to acquiesce to the raison d'etat principle in international relations and in practical diplomatic behaviour, thus abandoning religious and political prejudices that had kept Russians on the periphery of European diplomacy.     

From ‘feckless pluralism’ to ‘dominant power politics’? The transformation of Russia's party system

The transformation of Russia's party system demonstrates a trend towards a decrease in party competition since the establishment of the party of power, United Russia, which claims to have become the dominant party. These developments are unique among post-Soviet countries, which merely attempted to create personalist, rather than party-based, monopolies of ruling elites. Why have Russia's elites opted to build a party-based monopoly and what are the prospects of this enterprise? The formation of the ruling group's party-based monopoly is explained with the help of a part-contingent model of an interrelated chain of causes and effects: (1) open electoral conflict among elites; (2) forced instrumental use of political parties as tools by the elites, in this conflict; (3) elite conflict turned into a zero-sum game; (4) a set of incentives for the ruling elite to make further instrumental use of the party of power; (5) an effective constellation of ideological and organizational resources of the party of power. The article also analyses the benefits and risks of the dominance of the party of power and its possible role in the consolidation of a non-democratic regime in Russia, along lines comparable to the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico.     

The Politics of Fear

The article attempts to analyze the mechanisms of political control used by the Kremlin vis-à-vis its rivals. Russian authorities had opted the politics of fear, which include overt intimidation and public discrediting of the regime's critics, and selective persecution and open harassment of opposition activists and/or supporters. This approach to political control to some degree reproduced similar mechanisms that had enabled regime survival in the late-Soviet period, and fit general trends of repressive policies in a number of contemporary authoritarian regimes. The article discusses causes and mechanisms of the politics of fear in contemporary Russia, its roots in comparative and historical contexts, and strengths and weaknesses of repressive policy in Russia from the viewpoints of the regime, the opposition, and Russian society.     

中俄能源领域合作前景:消除壁垒加强联系

鉴于中俄未来数十年的油气需求和俄罗斯作为世界能源出口大国的事实,中俄两国将在能源领域开展更深入、更广泛的合作与外来是显而易见的趋势.表面看,中俄能源合作似乎发展很顺利,但跨国能源投资机制等始终制约着中俄关系在能源领域的进展.俄应将哈萨克斯坦作为前苏联国家与中国油气公司成功合作的典范而加以关注.为了达到更好的效果,中俄必须汲取以往教训,采取行动清除令中俄能源关系发展天然潜力难以实现的障碍.     

Putin as a flexible politician. Does he imitate Stalin?

The article is about Putin's ‘Jewish anomaly’. Against all expectations, Putin during his tenure as president of the Russian Federation showed in various ways his concern about the life of Jews in his country.