'the flying Kazakh'

Leaving aside that Vino isn't actually ethnically Kazakh, I wanted to follow a couple of loose threads from previous posts. In the process, I found Nathan and Joshua's excellent Registan.net -- or as they put it, 'All Central Asia, all the time.'

Warp: While Vino's doping has further tarnished the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, it barely seems to register on a seismic scale compared to all the goings on with Rakhat Aliyev. He must have really pissed off his father-in-law is all I can say.

Two days ago, the IHT reported that "The Vienna court ruled that Rakhat Aliyev should not be sent back to Kazakhstan because he would not receive a fair trial there." The Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is now asking Austria to prosecute Aliyev for kidnapping... I'm no lawyer, but I think Austria's probably right when it says "... in general Austria was not responsible for prosecuting a foreign national for alleged crimes committed abroad." Makes sense to me. This article is largely about the Gordian knot of intrigue that surrounds President Nazarbayev's son-in-law, Rakhat Alieyev, and the various attempts to impress upon Austria that they're better off just sending him home.

Weft: After giving kudos to T-Mobile and Nordmilch, I need to express some frustration at Tailwind Sports for seemingly failing to find a new title sponsor for Team Discovery. Now $45million dollars over three years is a fairly hefty commitment... but this may be the winningest franchise in sports history over the course of a decade. Oh well, maybe Gorgeous George Hincapie will be going to T-Mobile... Matt White is already signed to Jonathan Vaughters's new Slipstream/Chipotle team... can't imagine that anyone else will be struggling too hard to find a job...
I just wonder with the Vuelta coming up if it means everyone will now be riding for themselves, trying to raise their individual standings in the open market. Which would make sense, but would pretty much eliminate what made USPS/Discovery the successful team it was.

OOOH: Happy Birthday, Pop!