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The parallel realities of President Ilham Aliyev
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan recently addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; and said that there are no human rights abuses in the country… As I sat waiting on 24 June...
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Ruslan Kutayev: Chechen human rights activist
Ruslan Kutayev, human rights activist, has been sentenced to four years imprisonment in Chechnya for possession of heroin. His fellow campaigners are convinced that the charges were false. на русском...
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Руслан Кутаев: правозащитник
В Чечне на четыре года колонии осужден общественный деятель Руслан Кутаев, которого суд признал виновным в хранении героина. Правозащитники убеждены, что дело сфальсифицировано. in EnglishВ...
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Look far right, and look right again
The Russian political establishment thinks that Ukrainians are 'traitors to Orthodox civilisation and Russian unity.’ But it is not only Putin’s Russia that is behind the challenge to democracy in...
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Arresting numbers
Human rights defenders in Russia have released data on the numbers of Russians arrested at protests; and what they were protesting about.At the beginning of 2013, openDemocracy published an article...
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The BRICS bank
The BRICS nations are going to have their own bank. They say it’s going to be nothing like the World Bank. But don’t bank on it. For many years, various officials of governments in Africa, Asia and...
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How much power does President Poroshenko want?
President Poroshenko has asked for increased presidential powers, which are the opposite of what the Euromaidan protests were about. The weakening of excessive presidential powers was one of the key...
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Writing the truth in the People’s Republic of Donetsk
Some journalists in Donetsk are brave enough to tell the truth about what is going on there. But there are consequences… The clampdown on journalists in the Donetsk oblast [region] dates back to the...
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Правду писать в ДНР
Summary: Есть в Донецке смелые журналисты, рассказывающие обо всем происходящем. Но не без последствий для себя…In English С началом так называемой «русской весны» в Донецкой области начались репрессии...
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The remains of MH17
Summary: There has so far been little sign of the cooperation which could lead to some form of closure for the MH17 bereaved. But that could be changing… The re-purposed Soviet-era refrigerator cars...
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The Cossacks
Cossacks have always been loyal to the Kremlin. The crisis in Ukraine has only confirmed that loyalty. ‘Obama, when we reach Kyiv, God willing, we’re going to come visit you in America. And we’ll put...
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An emergency situation for Sergei Shoigu
Until the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was one of the most influential politicians in Russia. Not any more. на русском языкеThe profession of political...
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The punishment for Bolotnaya Square
On 24 July, the Moscow City Court sentenced Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the left wing of the Russian opposition, to four-and-a-half years in prison.Sergei Udaltsov‘If I don’t burn, if you don’t burn, if...
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The Russian myth of Europe
Can the current Ukraine crisis unite Europe in facing down the threat of war? на русском языке Europe. The word is a homonym. Homonyms sound the same but have different meanings. How many? I am afraid...
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Cossack against cossack
The conflict in south-east Ukraine has divided the Cossacks – one is fighting for Russian unity, and the other for the Ukrainian national myth.Brother against brotherThe civil war in the south-east of...
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Punitive psychiatry in Samara
Punitive psychiatry is being revived in the Samara region. Doctors are hospitalising healthy people in psychiatric hospitals, in order to take over their flats. On 3 February, the Regional Court of...
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Yevgeny Prigozhin: сaterer to the Kremlin
Putin’s ‘personal chef' seems to have a finger in every Russian pie... In Russia, it pays to have friends in high places. In 2010, Vladimir Putin sang ‘Blueberry Hill’ on stage at a fundraising...
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Карательная психиатрия в Самарской области
В Самарской области возрождается карательная психиатрия. Врачи госпитализируют в психиатрические больницы здоровых людей, чтобы затем распоряжаться их квартирами. in English3 февраля Самарский районный...
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The Ukrainian army is unprepared for war
The Ukrainian army is corrupt and badly prepared for war, with either the Donetsk People's Republic or Russia. The recent news in Ukraine, from the perspective of the government side, has been very...
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How Russia is coping with its Ukrainian refugees
Russia has almost the same number of Ukrainian refugees, as Ukraine has internally displaced persons. But what are the authorities doing? The civil war between the militias of the Donetsk and Luhansk...
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