This editorial ran in Vedomosti, a Russian business news agency started by the Dow Jones, the Financial Times, and the owners of the Moscow Times. — Ed. The upcoming Olympics in Sochi creates new opportunities for the struggle for political influence and financial flows in the North Caucasus. In addition to the usual news about […]
Seldom does the death of a single person create shockwaves across the entire planet. However, when an ordinary Russian, a lowly accountant, was imprisoned and eventually died in a Russian prison, his name became a symbol for the struggle for human rights, and the reasons for a significant rift in the international community. The Sergei […]
The Interpreter’s Elena Sevettaz, a Russian-French journalist, has published a book about Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in prison, and post-mortem trial and conviction, sparked protests around the world, eventually leading to the Obama administration passing sanctions against Russian officials involved in the case. The Russian government responded by blocking American adoptions of Russian children. The new […]
Russia has had several high-profile human rights cases in recent weeks, highlighted this week by the decision to sentence a protester to a mandatory term in a psychiatric hospital, despite the fact that many high profile mental-health professionals say that he was misdiagnosed for political expediency. Even before that court decision was announced, the news […]
There are things you cannot eliminate by changing the regime, boycotting the Winter Olympics in Sochi, or imposing international sanctions. These are human cruelty, indifference to others, and ignorance. In Russia, cruelty, indifference and ignorance are commonplace. Some people get used to them, others end up tolerating them. You will always come across someone who will find pleasure in humiliating, offending […]
Outrage at Russia’s new law against homosexual propaganda has coalesced around a campaign to boycott the Sochi Winter Olympics, underscoring the complexities of navigating human rights activism and high-stakes international sporting events. The so-called “anti gay propaganda” law, which passed in June, criminalizes the distribution of information to minors that suggests that homosexual and heterosexual […]
