Image by KSAF AGH Krakowska Studencka Agencja Fotograficzna AGH The Polish government in power has long suspected Russia was behind the plane crash in 2010 that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others. The Law and Justice Party has claimed explosives brought down the aircraft and have exhumed the…
Russian President Vladimir Putin today visited the Rogozhsky spiritual center of the Old Believers in Moscow, the first head of state to visit the cloister in 350 years. The Old Believers, or Old Ritualists, split from the Orthodox Church in 1666 over a change to Christian rituals that had been…
Image by Vladimircaraedit The tiny former Soviet republic of Moldova expelled five Russian diplomats today as tensions between Chisinau and Moscow heat up quickly. The last few years have seen high drama unfold in the relationship between the two nations. Last year the Moldova people rose up against the theft…
Image by Александр Мотин Sixteen people were killed when a severe thunderstorm hit Moscow and the region around the Russian capital on Monday, officials say. Hundreds of trees were toppled, and about 150 people needed medical help. It was the deadliest storm in the city for more than 100 years,…
In 1963 I was born in Kiev, the Socialist Republic of the Ukraine, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. My identification card, issued to me at birth, noted that I was a citizen of the USSR (under citizenship) and that I was a Jew (under nationality). The former was self-evident from…
Image by Clay Gilliland The country Nikolai Klimkin serves does not officially exist and has remained trapped in a limbo of impoverished stagnation for decades. The 32-year-old is a solider in the army of the self-proclaimed state of Transnistria — a tiny sliver of land that claimed independence from Moldova…
Bialowieza Forest, an ancient, primeval woods on the border between Poland and Belarus, is the subject of environmental protests as activists try to stop logging in the area. Multiple demonstrators climbed trees, hung signs, and chained themselves to logging equipment to bring attention to the issue in the world press….
Image by Karel Růžička The governor of the Czech central bank, Jiri Rusnok, says he is in no hurry to raise interest rates due to lower volatility than expected for the Czech Crown. The bank removed a cap on the currency in early April as a first phase of monetary…
Image by Andrew Butko Ukraine no longer wants to rely on Russian gas or coal from the pro-Russian separatist occupied areas of East Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk. In the long-run, Ukraine will be stronger and more energy-independent; however, in the short-run, the country could experience energy shortages and blackouts, although…
Image by Evgeny Feldman Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) published its latest investigative work on Friday, revealing what it says is a cartel of businesses owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin and contracted by the Defense Ministry. Widely known as “Vladimir Putin’s favorite chef,” Prigozhin is a billionaire restaurateur with a history…