· June, 2011

Stories about Russia from June, 2011

Video: Celebrating the Solstice

The celebrations for Summer and Winter Solstices were full of lanterns, dances, flowers and bonfires. Lets tour around the world to check out the different celebrations: Solstice at Stonehenge, Feast of Saint John's bonfires in Spain, Inti Raymi in Peru, we tripantu in Chile and Kupala Day in Russia or Midsummer's night in Poland.

27 June 2011

Russia: Rodric Braithwaite's “Afgantsy”

In Moscow's Shadows writes about Rodric Braithwaite's Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89, a “new study of the Soviet war on Afghanistan.” OpenDemocracy.net published exclusive excerpts from the book in...

23 June 2011

Russia: Southstream as a hoax

RuNet Echo

Streetwise Professor questions whether Russian state gas monopoly Gazprom will actually build the Southstream gas pipeline – the main competitor to the Western-financed Nabucco pipeline.

15 June 2011

Russia: Yuri Budanov's Assassination Exposes Deep Wounds of Chechen Wars

RuNet Echo

The June 10 assassination of Yuri Budanov, the former Russian army colonel convicted of the murder of an 18-year-old Chechen woman during the Second Chechen War, has reignited inter-ethnic tensions both online and offline, and reinforced the feeling of bitter disappointment with what appears to be a permanent state of lawlessness in the country.

15 June 2011

Russia: New Initiative to Enforce TV Morality

RuNet Echo

An initiative to create a Public Oversight Board for media control in Russia may seem like a passage from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four but it is a reality in the country, which still struggles to accept the concept of democracy and free speech.

14 June 2011