16 links tagged “russia”

Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey and the Czech Republic said gas shipments coming through Ukraine had stopped or fallen sharply.

Though gruesome, the killing was not unprecedented. It was a grim reminder of the vicious daily attacks against ethnic minorities that have become a part of daily life for the millions of migrants from the former Soviet Union who work in Russia.

Police are also examining whether Tsai, who was ethnically Korean, could have been the victim of a racist attack. Neo-Nazi attacks on Asians and Africans are common in Moscow.

Dmitry Agranovski, the lawyer for Skachevsky, said he would be appealing against the verdict and urged people to see the crimes in a wider social context.

"EU officials complained that Moscow was seeking to control the distribution of international relief. EU aid officials were demanding entry to the Russian controlled regions, but were being barred unless they handed over the aid to the Russian authories."

This is what happens when you pay for your gasoline at Lukoil.

Moscow wanted to force Georgia into a humiliation like the one suffered by Czechoslovakia in the 1930s at the hands of the Nazis.

On the ground in South Ossetia -- the contested region where fighting broke out last week between Georgia and Russia -- there was little evidence that Georgian attacks killed thousands of civilians, as Russia has said.

Human Rights Watch says it has witnessed South Ossetian fighters looting ethnic Georgians' houses and has recorded multiple accounts of Georgian militias intimidating ethnic Ossetians.

Villages in Georgia were being burned and looted as Russian tanks and soldiers followed by "irregulars" advanced from the breakaway province of South Ossetia, eyewitnesses said today. "People are fleeing, there is a mood of absolute panic."

But with scant leverage in the face of an emboldened Moscow, Washington and its friends have been forced to face the uncomfortable reality that their options are limited to mainly symbolic measures.

As usual, Russia finds a conspiracy theory to explain their problems rather than actually solving them.

You know how in a bad thriller movie there is a fight to the death in the end ? The hero feels victorious, turns away from the villain that he thinks is dead, just to find himself attacked from behind by a half-corpse ? That's what Russia is -- half-dead, half-alive. Neither here nor there, clinging on to some signs of life.

Which is worse: Media suppressed or Media gone wild? As loyal Russia Blog readers know, we are continually amazed by the lack of objective reporting about life in modern day Russia. Every month, Russia Blog pours over hundreds of mainstream media articles in an effort to identify the most biased, stereotypical piece we can find about the country. Recently, one publication’s coverage of Russia easily thrust itself into first place to win the coveted Shoe Award. After only limited deliberation, our distinguished panel of judges happily provides the latest award to (drum roll please)…. The Economist.

The great Russian military: "two innocent army privates were shot dead by their supervisors in Yekaterinburg and Sverdlovsk. The seniors were either drunk, or playing with pistols."