Vladimir Putin
Yuri Luzhkov running from Moscow
January 19, 2011“In Russia, you must live long — and it will become interesting.” This saying, attributed to poet Korney Chukovsky, has been validated once again. Yuri Luzhkov, until four months ago the powerful mayor of Moscow and cochairman of Vladimir...
“Eagle Guardian” and the strange case of the leak without legs
January 18, 2011(Part One) For more than a month the media was full of accounts of the latest revelations from WikiLeaks broadcasting US diplomatic cables to the world. The international speculation about the ramifications of the world reading US classified diplomatic...
January 10, 2011By Paul Goble Many observers have concluded that the continuing legal actions against Mikhail Khodorkovsky represent an updated version of the “show trials” of the Soviet and Russian pasts, but few have asked why the defendant and his lawyers...
Russia enters year of elections in the shadow of a shameful verdict
January 04, 2011By Pavel K. Baev The year 2010 could have been marked as “not-so-bad” in the still short annals of Russia’s post-Soviet history. It was the scorching summer heat and massive fires that would be remembered as the main feature...
Russian oil tycoon Khodorkovsky 'found guilty' in trial
December 27, 2010Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been found guilty in his second trial on charges of embezzlement, Russian news agencies say. A judge in Moscow said Khodorkovsky and his business partner had been found guilty of embezzling property. The verdict...
‘TV Party’ losing out to ‘Internet Party’ in Russia
December 23, 2010By Paul Goble Russia currently has only “two real mass parties, the party of the television and the party of the Internet,” the editors of Gazeta.ru say, and declines in the influence of the former relative to the latter should be a matter...
US tightens security after leaks
November 29, 2010The White House has ordered government agencies to tighten their handling of classified documents after the latest Wikileaks release. The whistle-blower website has released more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables. They offer candid views of foreign...
Leading Moldova politician says EU 'Too Far'
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September 21, 2010The leader of one of the four parties in Moldova's ruling alliance says the European Union is "too distant" a goal and that Chisinau should focus on building better relations with Russia, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports. Marian Lupu told...
September 10, 2010By Vladimir Kara-Murza Eighteen months from now, on March 11, 2012, Russia will hold what is still officially referred to as an “election” for president. Few doubt that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who left the Kremlin in 2008, but remained...
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tries to crush dissenters
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September 07, 2010By Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin must be disappointed in his police force. True, Moscow police responded roughly on Tuesday when hundreds tried to demonstrate peacefully in favor of freedom of assembly. But the police apparently...