Following yesterday’s violence, there have been carnivalesque scenes in Mariupol today as looting has broken out, a military base has been ransacked and an abandoned armoured vehicle set ablaze in the street. Meanwhile, preparations are under way for tomorrow’s referendum. Separatist leaders appear determined to go ahead with the poll, despite a public statement from […]
Updated Daily. Pussy Riot went to Washington to lobby for additions to the Magnitsky List of Russian official human rights violators. 6 May was the second anniversary of a major opposition demonstration in 2012 in Moscow, where dozens were arrested in clashes with police that activists say were staged by provocateurs. Police detained 13 today […]
Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast. Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs. An interactive map of the situation: View Ukraine: April, 2014 in a larger map A live stream from […]
Staunton, May 8 – Despite the declaration in the 1993 Constitution that the Russian Federation is a multi-national country, an expert at the influential Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISI) argues that in fact it is not that but rather a nation state of Russians with a few ethnic minorities. Ilya Anosov, the head of […]
Staunton, May 8 – Fascism is one of the most negative terms in any language and it is often employed as the ultimate expression of one’s hatred or disapproval of something, but fascism has some real characteristics. Consequently, it is possible to list them and the evaluate whether this or that leader or this or […]
Staunton, May 8 Failed states come in a variety of shapes and sizes, one of Russia’s leading regionalist writers says, but on at least one important dimension, the Russian Federation is an example of a failed state while Ukraine, despite all its problems and Russian attacks, is a remarkably successful one. In a commentary on […]
Tomorrow is Victory Day, the Soviet holiday commemorating the defeat of the Nazis. Pro-Russian rallies are planned across the region. Sunday is May 11, the proposed date for the separatists’ referendum on greater autonomy for eastern Ukraine. Will these events increase tensions and further divide Ukraine? Yesterday’s liveblog can be found here. For an overview […]
Staunton, May 7 – If anyone has any doubts about the breadth of Vladimir Putin’s intentions both geopolitically and politically, they should be put to rest by the conclusion of a Russian historian that Transdniestria is “the first liberated part of Novorossiya,” Putin’s term for what he sees as a new state spreading across Ukraine […]
Staunton, May 7 – Two days ago, the Russian government unilaterally suspended its 2001 confidence building agreement with Lithuania and declared that Moscow no longer felt any requirement to inform Vilnius about its military deployments in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. According to the Lithuanian defense ministry, Russian émigré historian Yury Felshtinsky reports, the two […]
Staunton, May 7 – Vladimir Putin decided to go on the offensive now and in such a bold fashion because he believes that the international situation has never been as favorable to Moscow as it is now and may never be as favorable again several years in the future, according to a Moscow analyst. In […]
