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Turkmenistan – where everything in the garden looks rosy
State controlled media in Turkmenistan paint a pretty picture of life inside this closed country. But it is a picture that most citizens do not recognise, and they are increasingly challenging...
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LGBT in Samara – pederasts and paedophiles
In Samara, LGBT people are seen as paedophiles. They face aggressive homophobia, harassment, and public incomprehension. Aggressive homophobia, harassment and public incomprehension – these are the...
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The ultimate conspiracy theory
The National Liberation Movement, led by Yevgeny Fyorodov, a Duma Deputy, believes that Russia has been occupied by the Americans, that the US has been drafting Russia's laws... But the NLM has a plan...
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Beyond propaganda
Two hundred election monitors from Russia observed the Ukrainian presidential election. They were surprised by the lack of linguistic and ethnic divisionKiev, Ukraine: Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s...
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Turkey and the tug of war in Central Asia
In the 19th century it was Britain and Russia that played the ‘Great Game’ for influence in Central Asia. Throughout the 21st century the ‘game’ has continued, but the players have changed.A statement...
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The battle for Donetsk
People are not yet calling the situation in Eastern Ukraine a ‘civil war,’ but the battle for Donetsk might change that. During the two months of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and the...
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Ukraine's blackmail system
In Ukraine, businessmen are pressured to give financial and political support to the authorities or to testify against political opponents. It could be argued that for Petro Poroshenko, elected...
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Symbolism of the Donetsk People’s Republic
A new republic, even one – especially one – as uncertain in status as the Donetsk People’s Republic, needs all the trappings of power. But what do they mean?After months of reportage from Eastern...
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South Ossetia’s unwanted independence
South Ossetians may yearn for union with Russia, but the complicated political realities of the South Caucasus make this an unlikely prospect.The crisis in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine has been...
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The limitations of Russian propaganda in Ukraine
Russian TV is waging a propaganda war against Ukraine. But is it working?The long propaganda campaign waged by Russian television channels against Ukraine’s political leadership and the West is...
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Transnistria is a bridge too far for Russia
The breakaway republic – de facto state – of Transnistria has steadily been edging closer and closer to Russia, but the Kremlin does not seem all that enthusiastic.Shortly after Russia’s annexation of...
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Russia’s invisible youth
A new documentary from Russia will have its UK premiere at the closing gala of Open City Docs in London (17-22 June 2014). Footsteps echo through the hallways of an undisclosed school in Russia; a...
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Nagorno-Karabakh: Crimea’s doppelganger
Crimea and Nagorno-Karabakh, two regions with similar histories, took very different paths after the Soviet Union broke up; until now.Parallel provincesCrimea and Nagorno-Karabakh have shadowed each...
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Politkovskaya killers sentenced, but who hired them?
It took eight years to convict the suspects in Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, but the person who ordered the journalist’s killing has never been identified. на русском языкеAnna Politkovskaya was killed...
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Five stories from Ukraine
'Open Access', a new revealing documentary from Ukraine, will have its UK premiere on 21 June 2014 as part of the Open City Docs in London (17-22 June 2014).The camera moves through scenes of nature...
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Moscow's Crimean Tatar problem
In defiance of Russian rule, Crimea’s Tatars last month ignored a ban on marking the 70th anniversary of their deportation by Stalin, but such defiance is unlikely to be allowed to continue…For the...
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Russia’s gamekeeper has turned poacher
Russia has a vast number of nature reserves and national parks. But the government body supposed to be protecting them is in fact destroying many of them by allowing development and mining.In Russia,...
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Legal limbo in Crimea
Judges, prisoners and drug addicts are all in legal limbo in Crimea because the judicial status of Russia’s new territory is still far from clear.Local government in Crimea has pretty much ground to a...
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Sweet talking in Ukraine
President Petro Poroshenko is not an ideal Western-type politician, and certainly not the answer to Maidan's dreams. But could he be the answer to Ukraine’s many problems? For four months, Ukraine has...
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Ambassador Warlick’s folly in Nagorno-Karabakh
How the US botched the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. After 20 years of carefully navigating negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the US made a critical misstep last month by embracing —...
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