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” […]
The Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ahmed Üzümcü, issued a statement saying that Russia will provide a large number of armored trucks to participate in the operation to remove Syrian chemical warfare agents. The operation to transport chemical weapons to the port of Latakia will involve, inter alia, […]
Every Wednesday, The Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller will be speaking with Dr. Matt Sienkiewicz, a professor at Boston College, about the major headlines of the week. If you have questions you’d like Matt to address in future episodes, feel free to tweet to him: @mediastudied. If you have feedback on the content feel free to tweet to James: @MillerMENA. […]
This analysis appeared in Ekho Moskvy, traditionally a more liberal outlet that often criticizes Putin. Though long, it is a fascinating analysis of the dynamic between Putin, Obama, and Assad, and argues that Putin, like “The Godfather,” manipulated the situation in order to come out on top. – Ed. “I read in his face a […]
ITAR-TASS is the Russian state owned media giant, and El Murid is a pro-Kremlin analyst, and this editorial on the Iranian nuclear deal should be read as such. After several somewhat complex paragraphs about the breakdown of the technical aspects of the deal, Murid gets to his real point — America’s allies are weakened by […]
This week, The Interpreter has translated the story of the ‘Slavonic Corps,’ a group of Russian mercenaries recruited in St. Petersburg to go and fight against Syrian rebels. The initial investigation by the St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka concluded that a private military contractor, Moran Security Group, hired the Hong Kong ‘Slavonic Corps’ to assist the Assad regime in […]
A Syrian rebel group claims that it has ambushed and killed a group of Russian mercenaries who may have been working for a Chinese security contractor. The jihadist fighters from an Al Qaeda affiliate “Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS)” claim to have killed the mercenaries in a battle near Homs. At least […]
A Syrian rebel group claims that it has ambushed and killed a group of Russian mercenaries who may have been working for a Chinese security contractor. The jihadist fighters from an Al Qaeda affiliate “Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS)” claim to have killed the mercenaries in a battle near Homs. At least […]
The following was published in the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. It suggests that Russian militants traveling to Syria to fight for the opposition could face a stiff prison term. Of course, the language in the Constitution does not specify which conflict foreign fighters would face penalties for participating in — nor which side of conflicts […]
The West and Russia continue to bicker over who can attend the much vaulted Geneva II peace summits, and the death and destruction has not stopped in Syria. While it seems that, for the moment, Syria is adhering to dismantling its chemical weapons programs, thousands of civilians continue to be killed by Assad, through a […]
