Author Archive
Posted on June 19, 2011 - by Venik
Russia aims to speed up privatisation of oil group Rosneft
Russia seeks to sell bulk of its 85% holding in oil group Rosneft, ministers hope BP will acquire a sizeable stake in the company The Russian government wants to speed up and increase the size of the planned further privatisation of oil group, Rosneft, in the wake of the collapsed share swap with BP. Ministers [...]
Posted on June 19, 2011 - by Venik
Yelena Bonner, Russian rights activist, dies at 88
Yelena Bonner was the widow of Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov and a tireless human rights campaigner Yelena Bonner, the Russian rights activist and widow of the Nobel peace prize winner Andrei Sakharov, has died aged 88. Bonner died of heart failure on Saturday afternoon in Boston, according to her daughter, Tatiana Yankelevich. She [...]
Posted on June 17, 2011 - by Venik
New emperors of oil and gas flock to St Petersburg at festival time
Economic forum shows oil and gas are the source of Russian political power At the opulent Hermitage in St Petersburg, huge crowds ignore the dark but stunning Henry Moore sketches in the British exhibition to gawp instead at the museum’s collection of brightly coloured French Impressionist paintings. Their choice in art is a fitting reflection [...]
Posted on June 16, 2011 - by Venik
Sergei Bagapsh obituary
Astute president of the breakaway republic of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh, who has died aged 62 after undergoing lung surgery, was a shrewd leader of Abkhazia, the tiny sliver of shore and mountains on the Black Sea coast that effectively seceded from Georgia in 1993 after a short war. He became de facto president in 2004 and guided his [...]
Posted on June 16, 2011 - by Venik
NATO Says It Won’t Attack Russia
You have to agree that it would look rather strange if you were to approach some random person on the street and tell him that you you will not punch him in the face. From time to time NATO leadership likes to reassure Russia of the Alliance’s friendly intentions. But in the past couple of [...]
Posted on June 14, 2011 - by Venik
Russian court acquits activist of slandering Chechen leader
Verdict comes after human rights campaigner alleged Ramzan Kadyrov was behind death of worker in Grozny A Moscow court acquitted a human rights activist of charges of slandering Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed strongman who rules the southern province with an iron grip. The court ruled that Oleg Orlov’s allegations that Kadyrov was responsible [...]
Posted on June 11, 2011 - by Venik
Shirley Williams brings Russia’s next generation to its feet
In a country of plutocrats and poverty, students at the Moscow School of Political Studies were inspired by the words of a veteran leftwing politician When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, western policymakers and economists got a shock. The condition of the Russian and other east [...]
Posted on June 10, 2011 - by Venik
Russian colonel who killed Chechen woman shot dead in Moscow
Yuri Budanov was one of only a few Russian officers to be prosecuted over human rights abuses in Chechnya Russian investigators say a former Russian army colonel convicted of murdering a teenage Chechen woman has been gunned down in central Moscow. Yuri Budanov was convicted in 2003 of murdering 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva in 2000. He [...]
Posted on June 9, 2011 - by Venik
Syria referred to UN security council over suspected nuclear programme
IAEA vote rules against Syria for failure to co-operate with inquiry into suspected nuclear project at Dair Alzour site The UN’s nuclear watchdog has referred Syria to the security council for failure to co-operate with an enquiry into its suspected covert nuclear weapons programme. The decision, by a 17-6 vote at the 35-nation governing board [...]
Posted on June 8, 2011 - by Venik
Russia defies growing consensus with declaration of ‘total war on drugs’
Under new laws being drawn up addicts would be forced into treatment or jailed, and dealers ‘treated like serial killers’ Drug dealers are to be “treated like serial killers” and could be sent to forced labour camps under harsh laws being drawn up by Russia’s Kremlin-controlled parliament. Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the state duma, [...]
Posted on June 8, 2011 - by Venik
Living with HIV in Russia
Kostya Lyubimov is director of Salvation Centre, which runs two rehabilitation centres for injecting drugs users in Russia and is one of Tearfund‘s local partners. Lyubimov is a former heroin addict, drug dealer and prisoner Russia is home to the fastest-growing HIV epidemic in the world, with an estimated 1 in 100 Russians living with [...]
Posted on June 8, 2011 - by Venik
From the archive, 8 June 1951: Missing Foreign Office men now in Paris?
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 8 June 1951 LONDON, THURSDAY The Foreign Office today announced that two of its officials, Mr Donald Maclean and Mr Guy Burgess, had been missing from their homes since May 25. “All possible inquiries are being made. It is known that they went to France a few days ago,” [...]
Posted on June 7, 2011 - by Venik
Russia ‘key player’ in move towards Afghanistan Taliban talks
Attempt to overhaul UN sanctions regime hangs on Russia, INdia and China dropping objections, says German diplomat An attempt by western powers to kickstart peace talks with the Taliban by overhauling the United Nations’ sanction regime against the hardline movement and its al-Qaida allies hangs on whether Russia, India and China can be persuaded to [...]
Posted on June 7, 2011 - by Venik
Russia head for World Cup powered by a Welshman and Olympic gold
Kingsley Jones, formerly Sale’s director of rugby, is helping Russia to prepare for the World Cup and beyond The Russians are here. Coached by a Welshman, Kingsley Jones, who started the year as Sale’s director of rugby, they are warming up for their first World Cup campaign by taking part in the Churchill Cup. On [...]
