Russia recently concluded the largest war games in its history. The Defense Ministry stated that over 160,000 troops, 5,000 tanks and armored vehicles (the Ministry originally reported only 1,000), 70 ships and 130 aircraft. The size and scale of the exercises on paper is impressive; the simple coordination of the games is worthy of congratulation. […]
Aleksandr Morozov is a political analyst, editor-in-chief of Russkiy Zhurnal, and director of the Center for Media Research of the Institute for History of Cultures who blogs at Live Journal. – Ed. How can the strange story of the jailing and release of Navalny be explained? And what was the logic of the events, if […]
Aleksei Navalny woke up this morning knowing that he’d be found guilty of the crime of embezzlement. What he wasn’t absolutely sure of, though probably heavily suspected, was that he’d be given a lengthy jail sentence — five years, as it turns out, which is just one fewer than the prosecutor had asked for, along […]
Long before the series of exposures of high-level officials who plagiarized their academic theses, Igor Danchenko and Clifford Gaddy of the Brookings Institution found out that Vladimir Putin’s thesis was “borrowed” from a book by two American scientists. In 2006 it was reported by the Washington Post and The Times. However in Russia that news […]
By now, almost everyone has made jokes about Edward Snowden’s story being a sequel to The Terminal, the Tom Hanks movie. On their Facebook and Twitter pages, people are sharing the picture of The Terminal 2, starring Snowden and directed by Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama. Putin seems to have done even more for this […]
[At the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, President Putin discussed Internet freedom with global business leaders as the Russian parliament initially approved a draft anti-piracy law despite an outcry from Russian Internet companies and free speech activists, Kommersant reports. Meanwhile, the FSB investigated an online hoax involving Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin the Federal Security Agency […]
The new Venezuelan President is on his first visit to Europe. The most important stop of that trip is Moscow, where on July 1-2 he will, among other things, might try to be part of the developments around Edward Snowden, a former NSA agent, who is now somewhere in the Russian capital. The Venezuelan leader […]
The Supreme Court (SC) and the Supreme Arbitrage Court (SAC) will be united, Vladimir Putin announced at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, and in the near future the appropriate draft law will be submitted to the State Duma. Furthermore, the president supported the idea of economic amnesty, which would “strengthen the faith of citizens in […]
Russian media outlets are reporting that Edward Snowden, the former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor and National Security Agency employee, is spending his third day in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Moskovsky Komsomolets says Snowden is likely staying in a Japanese “capsule” hotel without windows to ensure privacy, and likens him to a legendary Indian who was said […]
Here’s a quick summary of the day’s biggest news: -The back and forth, tit-for-tat verbal recriminations continue between Russia and, well, the rest of the world. Russia continues to supply “legal” arms to the Assad regime, while accusing the rest of the world of undermining a potential “political solution” when they support the Syrian rebels. […]
