In the last two days we have witnessed an incredible, rapid, steep, and perhaps unstoppable collapse in the value of the ruble. As of 9:15 AM Eastern today, the ruble is down more than 13%. By the time I publish this, that figure will be out of date. One look at today’s graph shows that […]
Welcome to our new 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 here, and see also our Russia This Week. The ruble continues to drop along with the price of oil, and the Russian government announces the partial […]
Staunton, November 1 – The new society emerging in Russia under Vladimir Putin will be “a powerful and active one, anti-democratic, militarized, with its own ‘leader cult,’ and ‘political gnosticism’ but not comparable to the interwar regimes in Italy or Germany, according to Aleksandr Morozov, the editor in chief of Russky Zhurnal. And he argues […]
Updated Daily. This week’s issue: – Further Peace March Arrests: 7 in St. Petersburg; 2 in Yekaterinburg; 2 in Barnaul – Peace March of 26,000 in Moscow Finishes Without Incident; A Few Arrests Reported – At Least 10,000 in Peace March in Moscow – AP – 5,000 March in St. Petersburg Despite Ban – ‘If […]
The offices at VTB headquarters in Moscow’s burgeoning new financial district, which lays a short hop away from the Kremlin, were eerily quiet. No one was talking as every employee was gathered around the TV waiting for President Obama to announce the first series of sanctions against Russian and Crimean officials in response to Russia’s […]
Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs. View Ukraine: April, 2014 in a larger map For links to individual updates click on the timestamps. Below […]
Updated Daily. The Russian finance minister has admitted that the government has raided the pension savings of ordinary Russians to pay for the forcible annexation of the Crimea — and will not be returning the funds. Opposition blogger Alexey Navalny continues to be harassed with libel suits and fabricated criminal cases — as well as […]
The evidence that sanctions change a state’s policies is slim. Actually it’s very slim. Economic sanctions taken by themselves have rarely produced the outcomes with which they were designed to produce. The main reason is that the global economy is so diverse, so spread out, that it is almost impossible to create an overarching and […]
In 1733 Voltaire published a series of works called “The Letters of the English Nation” or “Lettres philosophiques” which were a compilation of his observation of politics and religion on the Island. He remarked on the love and high regard that monetary pursuits and commerce were held, such that they transcended all religious or ethnic […]
Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways, has been accused by opposition leader Alexei Navalny of spending more money than he makes each year. Now, the government has approved a list of organizations whose managers will report their income and major expenses. Of the major state-owned companies only Russian Railways is on that list. – […]
