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‘Caviar diplomacy’ hides human rights abuses in Azerbaijan
In Azerbaijan, prominent human rights defenders are being arrested; and NGOs raided. ‘Caviar diplomacy’ covers it all up. President Aleksandr Lukashenka of Belarus has recently released Ales Bielatski,...
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Donetsk separatists in dispute – Khodakovsky vs Strelkov
The Ukrainian army has Donetsk surrounded. The separatist forces have men and guns, but their commanders are at loggerheads. After almost two months of battling with Ukraine’s armed forces, on the...
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The enemy, six feet under
In Shirak Province, Armenia, memories of the Karabakh War still inflame; and even the cemeteries are not always sacrosanct. Hovhannes Sukiasyan, mayor of Zorakert, bared his gold teeth and squinted at...
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The thin red line between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
Is there any way to solve the border dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan? In July 2014, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a press release with information...
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Как Россия справляется с потоком украинских беженцев?
Поток украинских беженцев в Россию увеличивается и что власть делает? in English Гражданская война между ополченцами Донецкой и Луганской народных республик и армией Украины привела к массовому бегству...
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Pacifism and patriotism in Russia
Pacifism is incompatible with patriotism in today’s Russia. I have been banned from Russian TV and State radio for 12 years; and even the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station refuses to touch the subject...
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Moscow’s man in Banja Luka
What is happening in Ukraine comes straight out of Bosnia-Herzegovina – same playbook, same hired guns. Russia’s covert support for rebels in Ukraine has transformed Europe into a battleground, for the...
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@FuckingPutin
The rhetoric of hatred describing the situation in Ukraine misses the point – Ukraine has problems that are not derived from Russia or the Putin presidency. Slowly, the Ukrainian government’s...
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Long live the Donetsk People’s Republic!
What will ‘Defence Minister’ Strelkov do, now that Slovyansk has been lost? And can he rely on Vladimir Putin? The loss of Slovyansk to Ukrainian government forces has placed the so-called People’s...
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Tajikistan: Free Alexander Sodiqov!
On 16 June, Alexander Sodiqov, a political science PhD student at the University of Toronto, was arrested in Tajikistan while conducting research on conflict resolution. The American Declaration of...
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The (Russian) meat of the matter
The Russian-led Customs Union has introduced new rules on slaughtering livestock. A massive rise in meat prices is forecast; and the end of small-scale farming. Fresh meat is disappearing from many...
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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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The five forbidden Russian words on stage and screen
It is now official: on stage and screen you cannot say: блядь [blyad - slut], хуй [khui - cock], пизда [pizda - cunt], ебать [yebat - fuck], and мудак [mudak - dickhead]. Artistic freedom in Russia has...
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If you want to be a millionaire, go to Belarus
If you want to know what the Soviet Union was like, go to Belarus. If you want to be a millionaire, go to Belarus – even a jacket or a pair of shoes costs a million here. A kilo of sausage will set you...
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The spillover effects of Western sanctions, in Kazakhstan
There is anxiety in Kazakhstan about the spillover effects of Western sanctions As the cycle of economic retaliation between Russia and the West seems to spiral ever more out of control, anxiety is...
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Separatism in Russia
Russia has been fanning the fires of separatism in Ukraine, but the government is not so keen on separatism at home. The National Bolshevik platform is a small group of Eduard Limonov's former...
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Review: Serhii Plokhy, 'The Last Empire'
When the Soviet Empire collapsed, Ukraine was the key. For those of us who were there at the time, it is sometimes disconcerting to follow the rise and fall of new interpretations and old myths about...
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The Poroshenko Phenomenon
Why did the political crown fall into the hands of Poroshenko? How will he manage Ukraine’s domestic and external pressures? Back in 2005, it seemed that Petro Poroshenko, then serving as secretary...
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