An open letter to President Obama from a number of Eastern European former heads of state and intellecutals was published yesterday in the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. The signatories include former presidents Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa and the editor of Foreign Policy's Bulgarian edition, Ivan Krastev. An exceprt:

 We welcome the "reset" of the American-Russian relations. As the countries living closest to Russia, obviously nobody has a greater interest in the development of the democracy in Russia and better relations between Moscow and the West than we do. But there is also nervousness in our capitals. We want to ensure that too narrow an understanding of Western interests does not lead to the wrong concessions to Russia. Today the concern is, for example, that the United States and the major European powers might embrace the Medvedev plan for a "Concert of Powers" to replace the continent's existing, value-based security structure. The danger is that Russia's creeping intimidation and influence-peddling in the region could over time lead to a de facto neutralization of the region. There are differing views within the region when it comes to Moscow's new policies. But there is a shared view that the full engagement of the United States is needed.

Many in the region are looking with hope to the Obama Administration to restore the Atlantic relationship as a moral compass for their domestic as well as foreign policies. A strong commitment to common liberal democratic values is essential to our countries. We know from our own historical experience the difference between when the United States stood up for its liberal democratic values and when it did not. Our region suffered when the United States succumbed to "realism" at Yalta. And it benefited when the United States used its power to fight for principle. That was critical during the Cold War and in opening the doors of NATO. Had a "realist" view prevailed in the early 1990s, we would not be in NATO today and the idea of a Europe whole, free, and at peace would be a distant dream.

We understand the heavy demands on your Administration and on U.S. foreign policy. It is not our intent to add to the list of problems you face. Rather, we want to help by being strong Atlanticist allies in a U.S.-European partnership that is a powerful force for good around the world. But we are not certain where our region will be in five or ten years time given the domestic and foreign policy uncertainties we face. We need to take the right steps now to ensure the strong relationship between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe over the past twenty years will endure.

You can read the whole thing at Radio Free Europe.

Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov says he enjoyed getting to meet Barack Obama along with other members of the Russian opposition this week and even saw eye-to-eye with the U.S. president on a few things. Interfax reports via Johnson's Russia List:

"I said that I had thoroughly studied the U.S. president's anti-crisis program, that I liked it, as well as that it is socially oriented and primarily aimed at supporting poor people and enhancing the state's role. I said all this to President Obama," he said.

Somehow I don't think you'll be seeing that endorsement on Whitehouse.gov.

Democratic opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was at the same meeting, shares his thoughts here.

I agree with my FP colleague Chris Brose that U.S.-Russia cooperation in containing Iran's nuclear program is unlikely any time soon, though I don't really see what harm there is in continuing the lobby for it. The Kremlin has its own quarrels with Tehran and may one day -- like China with North Korea -- come around to the view that the aggressive regime to the south is more trouble than it's worth.

I also think that Chris is a bit too quick to dismiss the two diplomatic achievements of the current talks, the reduction in nuclear arsenals and the opening of Russian airpace for U.S. operations in Afghanistan. Yes, the nukes that the U.S. and Russia will have after the cuts could still "annihilate the world several times over" but surely we have to start somewhere. The greenhouse gas reductions in the currently being debated climate bill probably won't be enough to offset the worst effects of global warming, but it allows U.S. negotiators to show up in Copenhagen with a legitimate achievement under their belt. Same goes for next year's Nonproliferation Treaty review conference.

As for the airspace, it's true that the U.S. probably wants to avoid dependence on Russia's good will in Afghanistan. But it's not exactly like there are a lot of great options in the region of Afghanistan. Given that the U.S. is already working with such reliable partners as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, it certainly seems prudent to look for other options. 

So while the disagreements remain sizeable, I wouldn't be quite so quick to dismiss the breakthroughs that were made on some critical issues and the potential for progress on others. 

Discussing the ethics of cosmetic surgery, Slate's William Saletan recalls the strange case of Australian politician Hanjal Ban who at age 23 decided to undergo surgery in Russia to increase her height. She gained around 8 centimeters through a mostly experimental procedure involving breaking her legs in four places and slowly stretching them while they healed. After recovering, Ban went on to successfully win a city council seat inLogan City, Queensland.

Under a pseudonym, Ban wrote a book, God Made me Small, Surgery Made me Tall, and is now republishing a new version, Her Secret, under her own name. Though Ban has vocally said the surgery is not for everyone, book promotion on her official website makes her choice seem almost heroic:

International media recently described her as one of the world's most beautiful politicians. Hanjal's explosive story gripped Australia and gained international attention. Prepare yourself for what you didn't hear in the interviews.

Read how Hajnal over came her darkest moments that almost ended her life. Learn how she turned herself around to become an inspiring role model who exudes confidence, elegance and style.

If you too want to exude confidence and style, The Times of London notes that the surgery is available in at least 18 countries including the U.S. but not the U.K. Do you need to be beautiful to win office? Silvio Berlusconi sure seems to think it can help.

The worldwide recession has hit Russia's economy harder than most. The World Bank expects the economy to contract by almost 8 percent this year, its stock market has the dubious honor of being the first bear market since a worldwide stock rally in March. Now, the number of places to escape the doom and gloom is about to shrink significantly, as Russia plans to effectively shut down the entire casino industry on July 1.

The government is shutting down every last legal casino and slot-machine parlor across the land, under an antivice plan promoted by Vladimir V. Putin that just a few months ago was widely perceived as far-fetched. But the result will be hundreds of thousands of people thrown out of work.

And in a move that at times seems to have taken on almost farcical overtones, the Kremlin has offered the gambling industry only one option for survival: relocate to four regions in remote areas of Russia, as many as 4,000 miles from the capital. The potential marketing slogans — Come to the Las Vegas of Siberia! Have a Ball near the North Korean Border! — may not sound inviting, but that is in part what the government envisions.

All the same, none of the four regions are prepared for the transfer, and no casino is expected to reopen for several years. As of July 1, not even two decades after casinos began proliferating here in the free-for-all post-Soviet era, the industry’s workers will be out on the street.

“This is shaking my life to the core — such a blow for me and my family,” said Irina Mysachka, 32, a single mother who is a supervisor at the Shangri-La Casino in Moscow, which appears as orderly and preened (if your tastes run to fire-breathing neon dragons and other Oriental kitsch) as any similar luxury attraction in the United States.

“The authorities are taking this step without thinking at all,” she said. “They have not considered what this decision means for the workers. With the crisis, it is going to be very difficult for us."

The law behind the restrictions was introduced in late 2006, and there appear to be reasons both honest and not-so-honest behind it.

The gambling industry here does not have the loftiest of reputations, and many Russians will not grieve for it. Still, many of the 40 or so casinos in Moscow sought in recent years to behave more respectably, even as hundreds of slot-machine parlors retained a seedy, enter-at-your-own-risk feel[...]

The industry has been largely unregulated, and especially in recent years, almost anyone could get a license, for as little as $50. Russia is not a strait-laced place - rates of smoking and drinking are high - but an outcry about gambling ensued. "It is not only young people, but also retirees who lose their last kopecks and pensions through gambling," Mr. Putin said in 2006.

His plan was announced during a spy scandal between Russia and its neighbor Georgia, and the timing suggested that Mr. Putin was in part seeking to wound the Georgian diaspora here, which is said to have an influential role in the industry.

Shorter Russia: what happens in Moscow is Georgia's fault.

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images

Russia's one-man stimulus machine rolls on:

The prime minister abruptly interrupted a meeting with senior retailers at the Moscow White House, the seat of the Russian government, to drag them on an impromptu visit to a nearby branch of the Perekrestok supermarket chain.

triding angrily through the aisles with a retinue of glum executives in tow, Mr Putin came to a halt in the supermarket's cold meat section and gesticulated towards a packet of sausages priced at just under £5.

Rounding on Yuri Kobaladze, the chain's head of corporate relations, Mr Putin demanded: "Why do your sausages cost 240 roubles? Is that normal?" "But these are high quality sausages," Mr Kobaladze replied, looking crestfallen.

With a look of relief crossing his face, the executive spotted some cheaper sausages.

"Look, these ones are just 49 roubles," he said.

But the prime minister was not to be deterred. "Too expensive," he muttered, before conjuring up a price list from his pocket. "I can show you your mark up. Look at this kind of sausage. You've marked it up by 52 per cent." [...]

Having primed his victim, Mr Putin moved in for the kill. Consulting his crib sheet, he pointed towards a packet of pork fillets.

"This is double the (cost) price," he said to Mr Kobaladze. "Is this normal?"

"Is 120 per cent a high mark up?" Mr Kobaladze responded timidly.

"Very high," the prime minister said.

"It will be lowered tomorrow," the executive replied.

Earlier this month, Putin flew to an industrial town to browbeat factory owners into paying workers back-pay. I see the appeal of Putin's "good czar" strategy, but I wonder in the long term how wise it is to promote the idea that people are struggling just because powerful people are greedy. How long can it be before that anger is turned on the state?

He may not have reached Susan Boyle-levels of popularity (though perhaps that's a good thing), but former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev now has a debut album--and he's even sold a copy:

Somewhere in Britain, a mystery philanthropist is listening to a one-of-a-kind CD recorded by Mikhail Gorbachev. At least, we certainly hope they are listening to it – the album cost about £100,000.

An "anonymous British philanthropist" bought what we suppose is Mikhail Gorbachev's "debut album", Songs for Raisa, in London this week, bidding $164,940 (about £100,000) at an auction to benefit the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation. Nearly 350 luminaries were present at the private event[...]

Gorbachev was there too, and he brought his singing voice. The former Soviet leader warbled a song called Old Letters. "The performance ... was greeted with delight and a storm of applause," said Pavel Palazhchenko, chairman of the Foundation's press service.

Attendees at the gathering included many famous Brits, ranging from J.K. Rowling to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife, Sarah. Also present was Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, who is joining Gorbachev in founding a new Russian political party (the pair already own 49% of the Novaya Gazeta). While that process is still being completed, you can judge Gorbachev for yourself by listening to one of his songs here. 

AXEL SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

I'm way late to the story of the Russian military historian who posted an article on the Defense Ministry's website blaming Poland for starting World War II by objecting to totally reasonable Nazi demands. Here's the key exceprt from Col. Sergei Kovalyov article, “Inventions and Falsifications in the Assessment of the Role of the USSR on the Eve and at the Start of World War II”:

“[The war] was begun as a result of the refusal of Poland to satisfy … extremely moderate demands such as including the free city of Danzig in the Third Reich [and] permission for the construction of extra-territorial highways and railroad, which would connect East Prussia with the rest of Germany.”

Sounds reasonable. Not surprisingly the ministry is now distancing itself from the article.

Vladimir Putin reaches for the oldest trick in the Russian political playbook: the good czar riding in to save the people from the nasty local boyars:

Moving quickly to stamp out growing unrest, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to the small town of Pikalyovo on Thursday to demand that angry workers receive wage arrears and rebuke their delinquent employers.

Putin told the owners of the town's three factories that the government had transferred 41.24 million rubles ($1.34 million) to their Sberbank accounts on Wednesday and they had until the end of the day to pay their workers.

"All wage arrears must be settled," Putin said at a meeting with owners and government officials. "The deadline is today."

Turning to the owners, including tycoon Oleg Deripaska, owner of one of the plants, Putin offered a stinging rebuke of their business practices.

"You have made thousands of people hostages to your ambitions, your lack of professionalism -- or maybe simply your trivial greed," Putin said in remarks shown on state television. "Why was everyone running around like cockroaches before my arrival? Why was no one capable of making decisions?"

He threw a pen at a contract and told Deripaska to sign it.

The whole affair was televised, including crowds cheering Putin's arrival. 

The Kremlin's first response to this crisis was to pretend it wasn't happening. The new tactic seems to be to blame it on other people.  

From RIA-Novosti:

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will conduct joint military exercises in August-September in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, the Belarusian defense minister said on Wednesday.

The defense ministers of the post-Soviet security bloc comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan held a regular meeting in Moscow on June 3.

"The joint drills will be held in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus to practice the deployment of CSTO's joint rapid-reaction force," Leonid Maltsev told reporters after the meeting.

He said the exercises in Belarus will also involve the Russia-Belarus joint military grouping created within the framework of the CSTO.

According to media reports, Russia is planning to build a strong military contingent in Central Asia within the CSTO comparable to NATO forces in Europe.

Russia was highly irritated by 19-country NATO war games held in Georgia last month. Interestingly, Kazakhstan, where part the CSTO drills are to take place, was one of the countries invited to participate in the NATO exercises but declined in solidarity with Russia.

The exercises in Belarus, right on NATO's eastern border, are likely to be seen as a response to NATO's actions in Georgia.

An International Herald Tribune survey of the popularity of international leaders in five European countries plus the U.S. found that the U.S. president is still overwhelmingly popular. 78 percent of those surveyed have a positive view of Obama, eight points ahead of the Dalai Lama. The nearest politician is Angela Merkel with 54 percent.

Another interesting result of the survey is that Vladimir Putin seems to be somewhat more popular in Europe than Dmitry Medvedev. Some of this can be chalked up to name recognition but its still a bit surprising given how Medvedev often seems to attend international meetings to play the part of the Kremlin's friendlier, pro-Western face. 

Why exactly is the EU-Russia energy conference being held in the far-Eastern city of Khabarovsk, 11 time zones from Brussels and a place that even Russian President Dmitry Medvedev avoids visiting unless absolutely necessary? The FT investigates:

Was it a fiendish plot to disorientate the easily divided Europeans ahead of tricky negotiations on Russian gas? It seems not.

The Kremlin, apparently, had not wanted to choose the location for fear of offending powerful regional governors who were gunning for the honour of hosting it, “so they said ‘let the Europeans choose’”, according to an east European diplomat.

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, and Václav Klaus, Czech president – the Czechs hold the revolving EU presidency – had a look at the list of prospective sites before Mr Klaus picked Khabarovsk, because “he hadn’t been there before and wanted to see it”, according to a diplomat, who asked not to be named.

That's nice for Klaus, but not so nice for the assembled delegates whose heads, the article notes, "had a pronounced tendency to loll if they were allowed to sit for too long."

If you're interested in Russian affairs, I highly recommend subscribing to the Johnson's Russia List newsletter, a daily digest of Russian news put together by the Center for Defense Information's David Johnson. Today, I found this progression of news headlines from Russia's official state news agency really amusing:

ITAR-TASS: Russians Become Healthier This Year -Ministry.

ITAR-TASS: Crisis To Cleanse Russian Society, Says Country's Chief Auditor.

ITAR-TASS: Weathermen Forecast Record Harvests Of Grain Crops, Fruit, Vegetables This Year.

ITAR-TASS: Economy Keeps Nosediving Despite Optimistic Forecasts.

Hmm...well thanks for all those optimistic forecasts. This reminds me a bit of Yeltsin-era prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's famous line, "We hoped for the best, but it turned out as always."

Almost exactly a month after the Russian government declared the anti-terrorist operations in Chechnya had ended, a suicide bomber killed three people at a checkpoint in Grozny. He had been attempting to reach the interior ministry building. Another bombing killed three people in a village in Southern Chechnya earlier this week:

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says it is rare for Muslim rebels to be able to carry out an attack in Grozny, and a suicide bombing is even rarer.

It would appear to be a message from the separatists that the conflict is not over and that they remain a force to be reckoned with, our correspondent says.