The Bell

Sochi Liveblog: What Happens After the Olympics?

February 13, 2014

Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog. Here, we will be covering the news away from the ski jumps and ice rinks, where activists are being arrested, corruption looms large, and the terrorist threat is very real. See all of our Sochi coverage here, and read Wednesday’s Sochi Liveblog: Hot Environment and Jailed […]

Sochi Liveblog: Hot Environment and Jailed Environmentalists

February 12, 2014

Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog. Here, we will be covering the news away from the ski jumps and ice rinks, where activists are being arrested, corruption looms large, and the terrorist threat is very real. See all of our Sochi coverage here, and read Tuesday’s Sochi Liveblog: The Winter Olympics Are Warmer Than Texas. […]

Sochi Liveblog: The Winter Olympics Are Warmer Than Texas

February 11, 2014

Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog. Here, we will be covering the news away from the ski jumps and ice rinks, where activists are being arrested, corruption looms large, and the terrorist threat is very real. See all of our Sochi coverage here, and read Monday’s Sochi Liveblog: Beyond the Sports and Broken Hotel Doors. […]

Sochi Liveblog: Beyond the Sports and Broken Hotel Doors

February 10, 2014

Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog. Here, we will be covering the news away from the ski jumps and ice rinks, where activists are being arrested, corruption looms large, and the terrorist threat is very real. See all of our Sochi coverage here, and read Friday’s Sochi Liveblog: The Games Begin. Updates […]

Sochi Liveblog: The Games Begin

February 7, 2014

Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi Olympics Liveblog, day three. Click here to see yesterday’s Sochi Liveblog: The First Events Start, But is Sochi Really Ready?. Updates are below, so make sure to regularly refresh this screen. 2116 GMT: Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov conducted an in-depth investigation into the corruption surrounding the Olympic games in […]

Sochi Liveblog: The First Events Start, But is Sochi Really Ready?

February 6, 2014

Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog, day two. Click here to see yesterday’s Sochi Liveblog: The 48 Hour Dash to the Opening Ceremonies‏. Updates are below, so make sure to regularly refresh this screen. 2254 GMT: Andrei Soldatov has written an excellent summary of the state of the FSB’s electronic surveillance efforts […]

Sochi Liveblog: The 48 Hour Dash to the Opening Ceremonies‏

February 5, 2014

With the opening ceremony now almost exactly 48 hours away, officials and construction workers in Sochi are now desperately hurrying to bring the Olympic facilities on line. Journalists, who have flooded Sochi in the last day so, have been met with clear evidence of this chaotic bolt for completion. Our liveblog continues here.   0004 […]

Who’s Going to Pay for Russia’s Fiscal Adventurism?

February 4, 2014

Putin and Russia seem to have a seemingly endless ability to spend money to support the country’s political aspirations. Whether it’s the mindboggling $50 billion for Putin’s pet project on the Sochi Olympics (up from Putin’s initial estimate of $12 billion, with which he personally used to lobby the IOC in Guatemala), the $2 billion […]

Is Snowden a Russian Operative? An Interview with Edward Lucas

January 29, 2014

As the international press continues to publish disclosures on the National Security Agency, attention has begun to shift slightly to the figure who stole 1.7 million national security documents. Edward Snowden’s whereabouts in Russia, how he attained asylum there, or what the real public interest is of leaking information about Swedish and Norwegian espionage against […]

Geneva II: What if We Set Expectations REALLY Low?

January 24, 2014

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 […]