LIVE UPDATES: Searches are under way at the state-owned TASS news agency and offices belonging to the agency’s general director, Sergei Mikhailov. The searches are reportedly connected to his previous work at Russian Railways, the ousted chief of which, Vladimir Yakunin, is now the subject of a hitherto-unexpected investigation by the Interior Ministry. Welcome to […]
Evidently following the lessons learned from opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s expose of Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his sons, the Communist faction of the Russian parliament want to ban relatives of officials from running businesses. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s […]
For a month now the Russian government has been engaged in a full-scale — and accelerating — crackdown against political dissent and the freedom of the press. TV stations have been raided, protesters sentenced to years of hard labor, and activists homes have been searched for crimes that were committed when they were little kids. […]
Former Interior Ministry investigator Pavel Karpov, notorious from the case of jailed whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky left to die in prison, has accused Hermitage Capital director William Browder of links to Navalny’s report published last week alleging corrupt practices by Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and his two sons. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we […]
Leonid Volkov, an opposition activist who organized independent monitoring of local elections and protested government harassment of alternative candidates is now facing a trumped-up case of “obstructing the media” for refusing to give an interview to pro-Kremlin TV channel LifeNews. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in […]
Russian authorities are once again taking reprisals against opposition leader Alexey Navalny for his anti-corruption work and are coming to seize his property in trumped-up court case. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is […]
Vladimir Yakunin, head of Russian Railways for the last 10 years and long a target of allegations of corruption by the opposition, has resigned from his position to seek a senator’s seat. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic […]
“I don’t think there’s any correlation between bicycle lanes and political activity. If you think falsifying elections is bad, no amount of bicycles are going to help you.”
Staunton, June 6 – Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny, like many others in Russia and abroad, says that referenda both past and future are the only basis for resolving the conflict over Crimea and that earlier votes in the Saarland provide a useful analogy on how to proceed. But Russian commentator Andrey Illarionov says that […]
Staunton, April 10 – Russian national culture is not the determinant of the country’s development that many now believe it to be, according to Emil Pain, a leading Moscow expert on ethnicity and culture. Instead, it may “shade” this or that political or economic arrangements found in a variety of places. At a Liberal Mission […]
