Image by Unw®ecker Figures released for January show the Russian Federation has been buying gold, a lot of it. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been keen to reduce Russia’s exposure to the Western, dollarized, financial system. The Bank of Russia has set up swap lines direct with other economically powerful…
Image by Egor Gribanov Working on one of my final stories as the Guardian and Observer’s Moscow correspondent, I took my seat at the Bolshoi Theatre one evening last December for the premiere of Nureyev. The ballet told the story of superstar dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who defected from the Soviet…
Moscow cancelled Maslenitsa Festivities, which celebrate the last week before Lent and the upcoming long fast, due to the crash of a Saratove airlines flight shortly after take off from Domodedovo Airport, on the way to the Russian city of Omsk. 71 people on board ranging from age 5 to…
Image by sovraskin Russia called in the army to help reign in chaos in the capital city of Moscow as the ‘storm of the century’ dumped record amounts of snow, paralyzing the population. “Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Sunday that 100 engineer brigade troops, two military graders and a tractor had…
Russia Reacts Harshly To Treasury ‘Friends Of Putin’ List.
Image by Ilya Varlamov Late last year, Moscow news media reported that an armed man had taken hostages at a candy factory in the city and killed a guard. The alleged shooter turned out to be a former owner of the factory, still fighting for control of it. He told…
Image by Kremlin.ru Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when discussing the threat posed to Putin’s re-election in 2018 by opposition figure Alexei Navalny, declared Putin is Russia’s ‘absolute leader’. Putin Wants ‘Some Companies’ Monitored By Intelligence Services During 2018 Election “The level of Putin’s popularity goes far beyond the borders of…
Image by Kremlin.ru European leaders continue to accuse Russia of spreading disinformation, with a recent European Parliament forum billed as a probe into the “efficiency” of Moscow’s propaganda efforts. But the Jan. 17 debate also featured some members of Parliament who defended Russia, blaming Brussels for restricting freedom of speech…
Image by IlshatS Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the run-up to the Russian presidential election in march, called for a ‘revival’ of Islamic education in Russia, where 30% of the population is Muslim. “Up to 20 million Muslims make up Russia’s second-largest religious minority. Thousands of young radicalized Russians have…