Archives: January 2016

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.

Both sides report continued fighting around Donetsk and Gorlovka, with Ukraine accusing Russian-backed fighters of using tanks to shell the positions near Peski, and separatists claiming that Ukrainian forces have used heavy mortars. Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service […]

LIVE UPDATES: Sergei Mitrokhin, former leader of the opposition Yabloko party, was detained at the presidential administration as he was taking part in a series of solo pickets demanding the dismissal of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian […]

The Neo-Eurasianist perspective on Ukraine was formed already in the 1990s, when Russian fascist Alexander Dugin argued, in his Foundations of Geopolitics, that Ukraine was “an unnatural state” consisting of four major regions with allegedly different geopolitical loyalties, and that a sovereign and united Ukraine constituted a major threat to the geopolitical security of Russia […]

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.

The Briefing is a weekly feature from RFE/RL’s Brian Whitmore. It appears that Russia can’t deliver the one and only thing the West wants from it in Syria — the orderly exit of Bashar al-Assad. According to a report in the Financial Times, late last year Putin dispatched General Igor Sergun, head of Russia’s military […]

LIVE UPDATES: All 34 district courts in Moscow have been taken under guard by Kazachya Strazha [Cossack Guard], Ltd, a security company founded in 2014 by the Central Cossacks Host 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 […]

President Poroshenko and DNR leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko have reiterated their positions on holding local elections in the occupied territories. There seems little sign of a possible compromise. Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our […]

One Ukrainian soldier was killed today when he triggered a tripwire, and another soldier was wounded in combat. Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs. For links to individual updates click on the […]

Psychologists Tell Russians Complaining of ‘Problems with Russia’ to Avoid Reading Pessimistic Commentaries 2016-01-24 15:46:11 Staunton, VA, January 24, 2016 — Faced with a deteriorating situation in Russia and feeling that there is nothing they can do as individuals to change it, ever more Russians are suffering from depression and other psychological complaints and asking doctors […]