Every Wednesday, The Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller will be speaking with Dr. Matt Sienkiewicz, a professor at Boston College, about the major headlines of the week. If you have questions you’d like Matt to address in future episodes, feel free to tweet to him: @mediastudied. If you have feedback on the content feel free to tweet to James: @MillerMENA. […]
Yesterday, Russian state-owned media outlets carried a “leaked” report that the imprisoned Pussy Riot members were included in the draft amnesty bill. Today, it has been announced that the Supreme Court has thrown out their sentences anyway. As their prison terms are set to expire early next year, this is being interpreted by many as […]
RIA Novosti is, or perhaps “was,” a state-owned news source that was still regarded as fairly balanced and objective. Its articles, in English and Russian, were typically lacking the kind of pro-Kremlin spin often found in, say, Izvestia. Though some editorials were perhaps more clearly in this line (like the sensational article about the Washington […]
One of the many scandals related to the construction of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the environmental impact of the project has been flagged by many experts. But it’s not just the environment that is in danger. Heavy rains and high risks of landslides have already washed away construction sites, and there are fears […]
It’s very unlikely that Ukraine will immediately become a European country as a result of the second “orange revolution” in its short post-Soviet history. But these events may have a significant impact on the situation in Russia. The Russian authorities’ passion for geopolitical games without thinking about the consequences has led to a situation where […]
Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, a member of the punk rock group Pussy Riot, has written a letter from prison, describing the harsh conditions there. Alyokhina is due to be released soon, so the letter can be seen as more a witness for those prisoners who are still incarcerated. However, after publishing the letter in The New […]
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, an independent Russian daily newspaper, shines a spotlight on another one of Russia’s neighbors, Belarus. – Ed. Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko has acknowledged the woeful state of the national economy, but stopped short of admitting his own complicity in it. Experts regard the failure of the current president’s socio-economic policy as the cause of […]
This editorial was published by the deputy editor-in-chief of the pro-Kremlin Izvestia. It is a good example of the Russian government’s position on Ukrainian integration into the EU. It contains several clear pieces of spin. For example, the claim is made that Putin has ignored the crisis to focus on domestic issues, which is an […]
Every Wednesday, The Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller will be speaking with Dr. Matt Sienkiewicz, a professor at Boston College, about the major headlines of the week. If you have questions you’d like Matt to address in future episodes, feel free to tweet to him: @mediastudied. If you have feedback on the content feel free to tweet to James: @MillerMENA. […]
In the case of the riots on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, the discovery of evidence stage hasn’t been completed yet: only 40 out of 453 declared witnesses have been questioned. However, according to the Bolotnaya prisoners’ attorneys, “the court began to ‘push’ the participants in the trial ‘to make sure everything is completed […]
