NOTE: The Power Vertical Briefing is RFE/RL’s short look ahead to the stories expected to make news in Russia in the coming week. It is hosted by Brian Whitmore, author of the Power Vertical blog, and appears every Monday. Reports have surfaced that Vladimir Yakunin, a longtime crony of Vladimir Putin, is being investigated by […]
The Daily Vertical is an RFE/RL video primer for Russia-watchers that appears Monday through Friday. Viewers can suggest topics via Twitter @PowerVertical or on the Power Vertical Facebook page. A transcript of today’s edition of The Daily Vertical can be found here.
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 […]
The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appears Monday through Friday. Viewers can suggest topics via Twitter @PowerVertical or on the Power Vertical Facebook page.
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 […]
Pavel Kanygin, special correspondent for the independent Russian online newspaper Novaya Gazeta has been interviewing a number of the pro-Russian separatists and other political figures in Ukraine for some time. [See our translation of his interview with former Yanukovych Aide Anna German—The Interpreter). Kanygin himself was once kidnapped by the Russian-backed separatists and freed on […]
Updated Daily. Building on years of Russian journalists’ reporting, Western media are now covering the Kremlin’s paid troll army, citing forums moderators’ experience, leaked documents, and local infiltrators, and uncovering how “web brigades” have been skewing public debate on Ukraine. Authorities are rounding up more suspects in the Bolotnaya Square demonstration case even two years […]
John Wilson, a Scottish writer, is the author of The City of the Plague, a scary story from the 17th century which takes place in London. In Russian school, we don’t study Wilson, but we read Alexander Pushkin. Among Pushkin’s Little Tragedies, there is one called A Feast in the Time of the Plague, a […]
Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways, has been accused by opposition leader Alexei Navalny of spending more money than he makes each year. Furthermore, Navalny has helped show how Yakunin has used his family members to build a complex financial web, one that appears to be designed to hide where money is coming for and where […]
Russian Railways is under considerable scrutiny of late. Its President, Vladimir Yakunin, has been accused of fraud by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In a recent ruling, Russian Railways managers will have to report their income and expenditures to the government, which meets some demands of the opposition, but perhaps only in appearance. Russian Railways is also […]
