Category: Russia
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Art and protest in Putin’s Russia
ANALYSIS With thanks to Liza Malyan In the past few weeks living in London I have seen the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag on every corner. As little as a ribbon pinned to the lapel is a symbol of allegiance with the oppressed. It is easy to forget that the freedom to express…
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Britain’s love affair with pro-Kremlin oligarchs
ANALYSIS London is a city designed for the rich. Those that have visited the city know that prices are exorbitantly high; beware of going for a pint, you may soon find yourself looking apologetically at your bank account. While the ordinary citizen struggles to maintain a decent standard of living, the wealthiest members of our…
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The Western romance with Alexei Navalny needs to stop
OPINION Alexei Navalny, a major voice of Russia’s opposition, has had quite the year. After being poisoned with novichok at the hands of the FSB in August 2020, he spent five months recuperating in Germany. Upon returning to Russia in January of this year, he was arrested at the airport, triggering widespread protests across the…
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Protests erupt across Russia in support of Navalny
REPORT Protests broke out across Russia today in support of jailed anti-corruption activist, Aleksei Navalny. From Vladivostok to Kaliningrad – separated by 8 time zones – Russians took to the streets at 2pm local time to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the Putin regime, despite the protest being declared illegal by the authorities. Demonstrations took place…
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Konstantin Kotov and the sorry state of freedom of expression in today’s Russia
OPINION On the 16th December, Russian activist Konstantin Kotov was released from a penal colony situated 100 kilometres from Moscow. He had served eighteen months after being convicted for violating the country’s numerous rules that regulate protesting and mass actions. Kotov was first arrested during the anti-Kremlin protests that rocked Moscow in the summer of…
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“Unlearned lessons from the past will lead to repeated tragedies.” An interview with the man helping to lead the fight to safeguard a mass grave in Yekaterinburg
INTERVIEW Politika News spoke to Anatolii Svechnikov, coordinator of the civil rights NGO, Уральский Мемориал (Ural Memorial), which is a local branch of the post-Soviet civil rights group Мемориал (Memorial) led by academics and activists. The organisation dedicates itself to raising awareness about the oppression and persecution that took place throughout the Soviet Union, and…
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Building over a mass grave: Russian council continues its erasure of Stalin’s Terror
REPORT Activists from the Ural branch of the post-Soviet historical and civil rights NGO, Memorial, are raising the alarm, after finding evidence that Yekaterinburg council is commencing a new construction project within a known mass burial ground. In the grounds lie an estimated minimum of 20 000 victims of Stalinist crimes. The civil rights organisation,…
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Nagorno-Karabakh: Russia’s struggle to be mediator in the Caucasus
OPINION The Caucasus, a region that has long been characterised by warfare and instability, has seen some of its most violent fighting in decades between Armenia and Azerbaijan, over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. This conflict is the latest in a series of shocks to what Moscow considers the Russian sphere of influence, which appears…
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The complicated relationship between Russia’s youth and their President
OPINION This year marks twenty years since Vladimir Putin won his first election as Russian President, a post that he shows no signs of leaving in the near, or even mid-term, future. Earlier this year, members of his party proposed amendments to the Russian constitution which would ‘zero’ the number of terms that he has…
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In the midst of the Belarus protests, Poland’s Ostpolitik requires rethinking
OPINION The hesitation of Polish diplomats during 2020 Belarusian protests exposes a deeper crisis in the Polish approach towards its Eastern neighbours. Meanwhile, Lithuanian diplomacy has proved to be surprisingly active and effective. What is the source of this difference and what are the main motives behind Poland’s Eastern policy? Only two weeks ago Zbigniew…
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