For a month now the Russian government has been engaged in a full-scale — and accelerating — crackdown against political dissent and the freedom of the press. TV stations have been raided, protesters sentenced to years of hard labor, and activists homes have been searched for crimes that were committed when they were little kids. […]
This year Time Magazine named the brave health workers and first responders who have been fighting the Ebola outbreak as its “Person of the Year.” One can understand why. These people are selflessly trying to fight one of the scariest viruses known to the human race, and have been doing it while also dealing with the […]
Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog. Here, we will be covering the news away from the ski jumps and ice rinks, where activists are being arrested, corruption looms large, and the terrorist threat is very real. See all of our Sochi coverage here, and read Friday’s Sochi Liveblog: The Games Begin. Updates […]
The first case of charges being brought against a child for spreading gay propaganda among children has been registered in Russia. Her location, photo and name were not disclosed so as to protect the child. The ruling of the Juvenile Affairs Commission (KDN) in one of the small towns in the Bryansk oblast, from January […]
The Russian Foreign Ministry has released a report on the human rights record of the European Union. It begins with a rather honest and astute reflection of problems facing the EU: The most pressing human rights issues in the EU still include a steady growth of xenophobia, racism, violent nationalism, chauvinism and neo-Nazism. In the context […]
Few pieces of graffiti are more famous than Dmitri Vrubel’s My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love. The painting, sometimes called Fraternal Kiss, adorned the Berlin Wall between 1990 and 2009. It recreated a picture taken in 1979, on the anniversary of the founding of the Communist German Democratic Republic in East Germany. At that celebration, two men, Leonid […]
Vera Kichanova, Slon.ru journalist; a municipal deputy for the South Tushino district; and [Kichanova’s] companions were beaten at Kamchatka bar. Some female guests at the bar, and then the men in their group, were unhappy with the way Vera’s friends looked and decided to demonstrate their dislike of homosexuals, not only by word but by […]
Here’s a quick recap of some of today’s biggest news: – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper labeled the G8 summit as the “G7+1” in reference to Putin’s isolated stance on Syria. As The Moscow News reports, when asked if he felt “lonely” during the summit he replied, “Of course not. That’s absolutely not true. Somebody, apparently, […]
In a recent court decision “Coming Out”, a public organization advocating the rights of sexual minorities, has been declared a “foreign agent”, according to Interfax. A magistrate for the 19th district of St. Petersburg established the fact of administrative offence and imposed a fine in the amount of 500 thousand roubles. The defense said they […]
Here’s a quick summary of some of today’s biggest news headlines: -It seems that the continued haggling over the conditions for a peace summit have become one of Russia’s best tools to support the Assad regime. Reuters reports that Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is quoted as saying: “We categorically oppose … affirmations that the […]
