There are reports of a possible chemical weapons attack in at least one area of Syria, but possibly more. Below we will be analyzing the information as it comes in. 2138 GMT: Here is what we know so far: Earlier today there were reports of a chemical weapons attack in Harasta, an area near Damascus […]
The goals of the Syria peace talks in Montreux are fairly straight forward: negotiate an end to armed conflict which has cost well over 120,000 lives and has displaced a huge percentage of the population. As I argued in my overview of the conference, there is absolutely no chance for success. So far, everything that […]
The Geneva II conference on Syria starts this week. The Syrian National Coalition, the internationally recognized opposition group, has decided that it will attend. The SNC also indicated last week that hopes for success were slim. But those hopes have now fallen to zero. This is not my wish, nor my opinion, but the only […]
Last week, Senegalese commandos borded the Russian fishing vessel Oleg Naydenov, which Senegal claims was fishing illegally in its waters. The Guardian reports: The trawler, the Russian-owned factory ship Oleg Naydenov, which regularly fishes off the west African coast, was boarded by armed Senegalese commandos near the maritime border with Guinea-Bissau last week and escorted back […]
Updated January 10, 2014, 1255 GMT. See bottom for details. 80 civilians “massacred,” bodies thrown in ovens, and an international cover up of a horrific act of terrorism — these are just some of the striking claims made by the Russian network RT. On December 15th, the Russian state-owned media outlet formerly called “Russia Today” […]
Just yesterday there was a major headline brewing in the Russia Press. TV Rain (TV Dozhd) ran a rather alarming headline: Russia to Abolish Mayoral and City Duma Elections The story sent shivers down a lot of journalists spines. The story, based on a “source,” said that Putin would make the announcement today, during his […]
Vladimir Putin has had a very good year, and one of his crowning achievements is that he appears to have successfully bullied Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych into halting Ukraine’s march towards the European Union. Russia closed the border to Ukraine’s products, backing up traffic for miles (possibly costing Ukraine billions). Russia froze entire industries: banned cheese; stopped […]
This week, The Interpreter has translated the story of the ‘Slavonic Corps,’ a group of Russian mercenaries recruited in St. Petersburg to go and fight against Syrian rebels. The initial investigation by the St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka concluded that a private military contractor, Moran Security Group, hired the Hong Kong ‘Slavonic Corps’ to assist the Assad regime in […]
There are several important stories today that may or may not be making the Russian press, but need to be highlighted. We’ll be doing regular rolling updates throughout the day. – Ed. Russian University Students Consider Themselves “European”: The Russian expert Paul Goble sites a study that suggests that many university students identify themselves as […]
The Assad regime in Syria is broke. That was the consensus of every expert, and resident, more than one year ago. American officials noted that the regime was struggling to find a way to print currency, and that by July of last year the regime had spent more than half of its sovereign wealth fund. […]
