It was reported today that Vladimir Putin will meet with business leaders next week to discuss the possibility of granting amnesty to imprisoned entrepreneurs—prompting speculation about whether such a measure would extend to former Yukos CEO and Putin nemesis Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Formerly one of the most powerful men in Russia, this October will mark ten […]
Yet another spy scandal is flaring up between the USA and Russia. On the night of May 14, counter-intelligence officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service detained a CIA agent named Ryan Christopher Fogle, who had allegedly attempted to recruit a Russian security service officer. According to the Russian counter-intelligence agency, the U.S. spy had been […]
An American diplomat was briefly detained by the Russian State Security Service and then ordered to leave the country after being accused of trying to recruit a Russian officer to work as a U.S. agent, Russian officials said.
Terrorism always complicates diplomatic relations. Since the Boston Marathon bombing, the suspected handiwork of two brothers of Chechen background, Russian and American security officials have focused on a blame game.
Russia’s security services say they have caught a U.S. diplomat who they claim is a CIA agent in a red-handed attempt to recruit a Russian agent.
He is one of a few people who can stand up to Vladimir Putin, but even Russia’s former finance minister failed to persuade the president his economy’s problems lie at home not abroad. When Alexei Kudrin took Putin to task live on television during the president’s annual question-and-answer session and said the economy was tanking […]
On Sunday, Russian investigators revealed that a 23-year old man (subsequently identified by activists as Vladislav Tornovoi) was tortured to death, in what the authorities believe to have been an anti-gay attack. Tornovoi was brutally beaten and raped during the Victory Day celebrations on May 9th, and two men have been detained in connection with […]
The independent pollster the Levada Center was recently designed a “foreign agent” under Russia’s new NGO Law. In this Kommersant article, a sociologist opposed to the designation debates a Duma Deputy who supports it. — Ed. According to Valery Fedorov, the Director of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM), sociologists should not be subject […]
Angry and intimidating, Russian President Vladimir Putin sat alone at the head of a long table this week scolding his government for failing to carry out his orders.
The resignation of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov — the Kremlin’s “grey cardinal” — has prompted a raft of articles speculating as to the true cause for Surkov’s departure. This article suggests that his involvement in the corruption-plagued Skolkovo project, inaugurated by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, became Surkov’s pink slip . –Ed. On […]
