Current election law in Russia bans anyone convicted of a serious crime from ever holding public office. This is one reason that the court case against opposition candidate Alexei Navalny is significant — though his sentence has been suspended, he is still a convicted felon, and so would be unable to run for office under […]
The Russian website “Sochi 24” is focusing a lot on weather reports these days, especially since the Winter Olympics, which start in a few short months, are taking place in an area that has been having weather similar to the sub-tropics. Though this forecast is for Moscow, Sochi is actually 1,600 kilometers south of the […]
The following is an editorial that appeared in Colta, an independent media website. It is a revealing look inside the xenophobic and racist culture that pervades Russia today. – Ed. It turns out that no single idea in modern Russia has such a mobilizing effect as the nationalist idea. Xenophobia is a spiritual clamp which […]
In recent months, the Russian Far East has been devastated by historic floods in recent months, and authorities have only allocated 6 billion rubles (about $188 million) to help relieve more than 25,000 households that have been affected and nearly 600,000 hectares (about 2300 square miles) of destroyed farmland. Now, the weather is dropping below […]
A Russian court has sentenced a protester to mandatory psychiatric treatment in a case that has been widely criticized by human rights watchdogs. Mikhail Kosenko, who has been voluntarily seeking mental-health treatment for much of his life and is a productive member of society, was accused of assaulting a police officer during the Bolotnaya riots […]
Following weeks of alarming inter-racial violence, including anti-minority riots in Moscow, the Interior Minister and the head of the Federal Migration Service spoke with legislators in the State Duma about possible immigration reforms. Some of the suggestions were practical, and not dissimilar from other countries’ systems. Some of the talk, however, was more focused on […]
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is missing. Authorities say that she has been transferred to another prison, but her lawyers and family have had no contact with her since October 21st. Some have suggested that, based on standing regulations, she will be able to contact the outside world within five days of transfer. Below, we have published a […]
Guarantees of privacy and secrecy of correspondence are becoming more elusive. The Federal Security Service (FSB) intends to require providers to install new equipment for comprehensive monitoring of Internet traffic and email correspondence. From the draft joint order by the FSB and the Ministry of Communications, published on the ministry’s website, it is clear that […]
A prominent Russian businessman and former State Duma deputy Konstantin Borovoy writes this editorial for Echo Moskvy, a liberal online newspaper. At face value, it is an apocalyptic scare piece, but there is also insight about the geographical integrity of Russia. With the Russian economy sagging, there are now significant structural problems in many of […]
Police are searching for vandals who threw bottles with flammable liquid into a prayer house, using a videotape from a security camera at the scene. Investigators are studying frames of the video which clearly show how vandals threw Molotov cocktails through the window of the building. It is possible that this videotape will help detain […]
