On July 25, Russian Prime Minister Sergey Lavrov met with a Syrian government delegation headed by Qadri Jamil, Assad’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. The meeting came at the same time that representatives of the Syrian opposition met with the UN Security Council for the first time. Lavrov opened with an introductory speech. The statement contains […]
The Ministry of Finance has cut funding of Roscosmos (the Russian Space Agency) by almost 63.5 billion roubles. These figures were announced at the meeting (of which Izvestia has the minutes) of the State Duma in mid-July with the participation of Vladimir Popovkin, the head of the Federal Space Agency, and the ranking members of […]
Since being released from prison following his five-year sentence for embezzlement charges, Alexey Navalny’s campaign for mayor of Moscow has come under intense scrutiny, both from pro-Kremlin and oppositional quarters. Below, Interpreter translator Catherine A. Fitzpatrick weighs some of the controversies surrounding Navalny’s nationalism, his past comments about minorities and foreigners and his plan for barring […]
British authorities have classified the documents of the investigation of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko; there will be no public judicial proceeding. Below is an interview with Litvinenko’s wife, Marina. – Ed. The judicial investigation into the case of the death in London in 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer, […]
Last Wednesday, we went to bed with the knowledge that opposition figure Alexei Navalny could be headed to prison while we slept. This thought did not escape Navalny, either. The investigative-blogger-turned-Moscow-mayoral candidate did what he did best in the final days before his sentence. His last blog post, translated by The Interpreter, was a heartfelt call to action, […]
Vladimir Yakunin, the head of Russian Railways, has been accused by opposition leader Alexei Navalny of spending more money than he makes each year. Now, the government has approved a list of organizations whose managers will report their income and major expenses. Of the major state-owned companies only Russian Railways is on that list. – […]
10:48 EST: Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, continues to speak to RT. Snowden is in good spirits, and has thanked, through Kucherena, the journalists who are covering his story “in an objective way.” Kucherena stressed again the real concerns that he and Snowden share about security, even after Snowden receives asylum. Kucherena then went on to […]
The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic has been dismissed for poor performance. Anatoly Karibov, a former Deputy Prime Minister, has been appointed as an acting Prime Minister. Acting Governor of Dagestan, Ramadan Abdulatipov, sacked the whole government of the republic, claiming poor performance. This happened on Monday at a meeting on the socio-economic situation […]
The sentencing of Alexey Navalny and Petr Ofitserov on July 18 had two immediate and simultaneous effects: in Moscow, a protest of several thousand swarmed a major intersection near the Kremlin, and in Kirov, prosecutors abruptly appealed the defendants’ arrest pending their appeal. Could it be that the prosecutors had responded to the demands of […]
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) associated legalization of same-sex marriage to the coming apocalypse. According to the Western media, such statements aim to divert people’s attention from the problems Russia faces. Those who spoke to “Kommersant FM” are puzzled by the Patriarch’s position. A campaign against gays launched in Russia is kind […]
