The Ukrainian government suspended preparations for signing the Association Agreement today after a vote in parliament failed to achieve a sufficient majority to pass legislation that would allow the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad. The EU considered Tymoshenko’s release essential for progress with the agreement, which was hoped to […]
Seldom does the death of a single person create shockwaves across the entire planet. However, when an ordinary Russian, a lowly accountant, was imprisoned and eventually died in a Russian prison, his name became a symbol for the struggle for human rights, and the reasons for a significant rift in the international community. The Sergei […]
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 […]
The West and Russia continue to bicker over who can attend the much vaulted Geneva II peace summits, and the death and destruction has not stopped in Syria. While it seems that, for the moment, Syria is adhering to dismantling its chemical weapons programs, thousands of civilians continue to be killed by Assad, through a […]
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. Pussy Riot Singer Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Transferred It has been reported today that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will now spend the remaining months of her prison […]
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 Interpreter’s Elena Sevettaz, a Russian-French journalist, has published a book about Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in prison, and post-mortem trial and conviction, sparked protests around the world, eventually leading to the Obama administration passing sanctions against Russian officials involved in the case. The Russian government responded by blocking American adoptions of Russian children. The new […]
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. […]
News of the stabbing death of a 25-year-old ethnic Russian by a non-Russian, and the subsequent rioting in Biryulyovo, a district of Moscow, was not particularly surprising – Russia has been experiencing inter-ethnic violence and subsequent protests with alarming frequency. What set the Biryulyovo pogroms apart was both the extreme nationalist catharsis that characterized the events […]
On October 19th, Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova published a letter in The New Times, describing how prisoners are often transferred to punish, or silence them. Nadia requested that the article be published, because she knew her own transfer might be coming. On October 21, her prediction came true, and she was put on a train […]
