Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks transparency advocate and leaker of about 115,000 confidential U.S. government emails, has found a new home: a talk show on RT, or Russia Today, the English language TV channel funded by the Kremlin. Shortly after WikiLeaks released the American classified documents in 2010, Assange announced his next step: publishing confidential Russian […]
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and Kremlin TV: Anti-Westernism Makes for Bizarre Bedfellows
Posted January 27th, 2012 at 10:30 pm (UTC+0)
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Russia and Iran: Uneasy Neighbors — Since the 16th Century
Posted January 23rd, 2012 at 6:03 am (UTC+0)
Countries without natural borders are like amoebas. Over centuries, they expand and contract, expand and contract. As the Western world wonders why Russia has such a nuanced policy toward Iran’s nuclear program, it is important to skip back over four centuries of history. Under Ivan the Terrible, Russia defeated the Tatars and Russia started to […]
Behind Russia’s Protests: Artistic Ferment
Posted January 16th, 2012 at 7:50 pm (UTC+0)
PERM, Russia – On one wall, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin happily brandishes a pistol, as his arch-nemesis, Mikhail Khordokovsky, smiles enigmatically from behind prison bars. Nearby, identical Putin heads are superimposed on rows of neighborhood boys in a group photo. “Motherland” is the theme of the art show at the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, […]
Can Russia’s Democracy Movement Lift the Weight of History?
Posted January 12th, 2012 at 4:07 pm (UTC+0)
My sons and I are in St. Petersburg, walking across Palace Square toward the green and white baroque façade of the Winter Palace, now the Hermitage Museum. In my mind’s eye, I see images from Dr. Zhivago recreating in film that snowy Sunday of January 22, 1905. Tens of thousands of protesters are converging on […]
Are International Astronauts Playing Russian Rocket Roulette?
Posted January 6th, 2012 at 9:36 pm (UTC+0)
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On January 15, Russia’s military space forces say, about 30 pieces of the Russia’s Mars probe are expected to crash back to earth, reminders of Russia’s latest botched rocket venture. In 2011, Russia recorded six failed launches. Last August 18, a Proton rocket put a telecommunications satellite in the wrong orbit, rendering it useless. A […]
