Ukraine

Ukraine Liveblog Day 98: Poroshenko Wins Majority of Votes

May 26, 2014

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 For links to individual […]

On Election Eve, Controversy Over Russian Election Observation Mission

May 25, 2014

This article was written on Saturday, May 24, ahead of today’s elections. Kiev: Election observers have descended on Ukraine for the presidential elections this Sunday, May 25. Given the tumultuous situation in Ukraine’s separatist eastern regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, the elections are particularly important for legitimating Ukraine’s central government and reestablishing faith in Ukraine’s democracy […]

Putin’s Shift on Ukraine Result of His Visit to Beijing, Kazan Editor Says

Staunton, May 24 – Vladimir Putin began pulling Russian forces back from the Ukrainian border and distancing himself from the secessionists in east Ukraine after his visit to Beijing convinced him that China, however useful tactically, is a long-term threat to Russia and that Moscow needs the West as a counterbalance to Chinese power, according […]

Ukraine Liveblog Day 97: Polls Open with Elections Under Threat in East

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 For links to individual […]

Russia This Week: Translator, Human Rights Activist Killed in Slavyansk With Journalist (19-24 May)

Updated Daily. The Chinese-Russian gas deal is getting mixed reviews, depending on what observers think of Putin in the first place. LifeNews reporters are still being held by Ukrainian authorities on charges they helped armed separatists, sparking a debate in the regional journalist community about embedding with insurgents. Russian liberals are concerned that Putin’s aggressive […]

Ukraine Liveblog Day 96: On Eve of Election, Separatists Declare the Formation of a United ‘Novorossiya’

May 24, 2014

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 For links to individual […]

Russian Nationalist Charged in Kazakhstan for Training Kazakh Nationalists

Staunton, May 23 – The Kazakhstan authorities have brought criminal charges against Aleksandr Belov, the lead of “The Russians” national movement for recruiting and training ethnic Kazakh nationalists as part of a plan to destabilize the political system in that Central Asian republic. Belov’s alleged actions, interesting as they are in their own right, are […]

Crimean Tatars View Russia as If It Were Still the Soviet Union, Zorin Says

Staunton, May 23 – Vladimir Zorin, a former Russian nationalities minister, says that the Crimean Tatars continue to think about themselves in terms drawn from the Soviet past but have infused these terms with anti-Soviet attitudes and that this contradiction explains many of their current problems. In an interview given to Yuliya Taratura of TV […]

Ukrainian Political System is Stronger than Russian One, Kasparov Blogger Says

Staunton, May 23 Only at first glance does the Ukrainian political system appear to be weak and its Russian counterpart strong, according to Sabidzhan Badretdinov, but a closer focus shows that the Ukrainian system has far greater chances for lasting over the long haul than does the Russian, a reality that may explain some of […]

Can a ‘Russian Orthodox Chekist’ Make a Revolution Abroad?

May 23, 2014

Staunton, May 23 – Igor Strelkov, defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic, has attracted attention because of his Moscow ties, but now a Russian news agency has suggested that he represents “an Orthodox Chekist at the head of a revolution” and asked the broader question — can an Orthodox oligarch carry out a […]