Global Voices Online

Two Soviet war veterans who served in Afghanistan are portayed on blogs: Afghanistanica looks at Captain Zakharov, an example of successful counter-insurgency; and Registan.net portrays the mysterious Mahmud Khudoberdiev, who went on to fight in the Tajik Civil War.

Posted by Ben Paarmann

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Recent Links also in Central Asia & Caucasus

Polandian writes about president Lech Kaczyński's Mongolian doctorate and his airplane misadventure at Ulan Bator airport.

Unzipped: Gay Armenia comments on reported changes to legislation concerning HIV/AIDS in Armenia. In particular, the blog notes, this looks likely to include mandatory sex education classes in Armenian schools.

Unzipped comments on news that the Armenian government is considering polling citizens on policy issues, with much speculation that the initiative is linked to ongoing negotiations with Azerbaijan to resolve the conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. The blog believes such a development is fraught with dangers and says that if such a referendum is intended to work for peace, it could also achieve the opposite.