Promises made, promises broken? Russia and the West
The West does not need to back down from its view that the inclusion of Central and Eastern Europe into NATO and the EU promoted strategic interests and values, notes… Read more »
Category: Russia
Russia: ‘Big Brother’ Law Harms Security, Rights
Russia’s controversial anti-terrorism legislation is reminiscent of Soviet-era surveillance and will also likely contribute to crippling the Russian economy, notes Anna Borshchevskaya, an Ira Weiner fellow at The Washington Institute… Read more »
Putin nemesis planning post-Putin Russia
Most post-Communist countries have made a transition to some form of democratic rule, notes Masha Gessen. Not coincidentally, most of them had a memory of such institutions to build on,… Read more »
Democracies join authoritarians in rejecting civil society space
The United Nations Human Rights Council has passed a resolution for the “promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the internet” which condemns any country that intentionally disrupts the internet access of its… Read more »
Elie Wiesel stood for solidarity, not neutrality
“We must always take sides,” said Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who passed away last week. “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence… Read more »
Brexit advances Russia’s strategic aims
Vladimir Putin appeared to throw down the gauntlet to British politicians to quit the European Union yesterday, questioning whether they would dare to deliver on the democratic mandate for Brexit… Read more »
Putin’s ‘prelude to a purge’?
The arrest on June 24th of Nikita Belykh (above), the liberal-minded governor of the Kirovsk region, was headline news on Russian state television. It even preceded the report on… Read more »
Corruption, Extremism, Kleptocracy: the Dangers of Failing Governance
Corruption is a pervasive problem in many societies and has the effect of undermining public confidence in democratic institutions, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard today. “All countries, to one… Read more »
Distorting the Truth: Behind the Magnitsky Film
The Moscow International film festival on Tuesday screened “The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes.” The central premise of the film is that the U.S. was duped into sanctioning innocent… Read more »
Russia opens first criminal case under ‘foreign agent’ law
Russian authorities have launched their first criminal case against a rights activist for failing to comply with Moscow’s controversial “foreign agent” law, the activist told AFP on Tuesday: Valentina Cherevatenko,… Read more »