In early December, TV Rain published an article that claimed, according to a source, that Putin was on the verge of eliminating mayoral elections, which would make the office of mayor an appointed one. It was speculated that this was in response to Alexei Navalny’s strong showing in the recent mayoral race in Moscow. While […]
A criminal case against opposition activist Anastasia Rybachenko who left for Estonia when faced with charges under the “Bolotnaya Case,” has been dropped. Rybachenko told about that on Friday on her page in Facebook. “As soon as we make sure that I’m no longer in international and federal databases as a person on a wanted […]
Why does the image of the Russian state, despite the tens of millions of dollars invested in PR, leave much to be desired? This is what The New Times asked Angus Roxburgh, who served several years in Ketchum PR-agency, that advises the Kremlin In 2013, just one year after the “premiere”, a new edition of […]
On Thursday this week a court in Yekaterinburg issued a two year suspended sentence to a journalist, Aksana Panova, for extortion. The sentence came with an unheard of addition: Panova is banned from working in media for two years. That the grounds for the conviction are ropey at best is worrying enough, though unsurprising for […]
The Eurasian Economic Union – an economic alliance of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan – is expected to become effective on January 1, 2015. After the events in Ukraine it can be assumed that in the future the Eurasian Union will expand by another neighbor of Russia. On December 24 a regular meeting of the Supreme […]
There has been a horrific discovery in Stavropol, less than 300km from Sochi. Kommersant reports that 6 people (the BBC says 5) have been found shot to death in 5 cars, and an improvised explosive device has gone off near one of the cars. The BBC adds that authorities have already identified some suspects, and […]
Patriarch Kirill, traditionally head of not only all the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), but also the Moscow diocese, made a presentation at the annual meeting of the Diocesan Assembly of the capital’s clergy. The patriarch gave the believers a mandate to promote their own program to build 200 churches, which has recently faced resistance from […]
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” […]
A monument to Lenin at a school yard in the Ukrainian city of Berdichev has been toppled. According to a report from the press office of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Zhitomir Region, “a group of persons evidently took part in the destruction of the statue, since one person would not be strong […]
The course towards conservatism highlighted strategic interests of Vladimir Putin. The president has had several impressive occasions to present to the society his vision of the ideological foundations of the state. In June, at the Popular Front Congress, where Putin was elected the leader of the movement, a conservative UPF manifesto was adopted, and veterans […]
