The Russian government has decided to open two specialty stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg, selling alcohol, tobacco, candy, cosmetics, jewelry, smartphones and watches. The duty-free establishments will take both rubles and foreign currencies. The twist is that only people with special documents will be able to shop there, just …
Read More »How Russian troops confronted NATO forces in Yugoslavia, in a significant post-Soviet first
The events, of the 1990s, in Yugoslavia are often overlooked in discussions about today’s relations between Russia and the West. Many fail to grasp why public opinion in Russia, which had looked favorably on the US and Western Europe after the Soviet collapse, suddenly shifted to a position of increased …
Read More »The Russian language in post-Soviet Ukraine: 30 years of discrimination against the country’s most popular tongue
If you go to Ukraine and walk through the streets of Kiev, Vinnitsa, Chernigov, or Kharkov, it may seem like you’re in Moscow or Rostov-on-Don, as the majority of the people in these cities speak Russian. At the same time, Ukraine is a country with one of the harshest language …
Read More »EU country may ban Soviet monuments
Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, is aiming to pass a new law that would require the demolition of all sites and objects “glorifying the Soviet and Nazi Regime” on the territory of the country. The bill, which passed its first reading on Wednesday and is expected to be adopted by June …
Read More »US infiltrated post-Soviet states with biolabs – Russia
In the 1990s, post-Soviet nations were weak and inexperienced while the US had the guile and resources to find footholds in them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT Arabic. Washington took advantage of that, establishing a webwork of biolabs that Russia believes to be conducting military research, he explained …
Read More »Protests kick off over plans to demolish Soviet memorial
Several hundred people attempted to gather outside Riga’s town hall on Friday as the legislature in the Latvian capital convened for an extraordinary meeting to consider demolishing a monument to Soviet soldiers who liberated the city from Nazi occupation. The move was ultimately supported by an overwhelming majority of lawmakers. …
Read More »MP suggests turning Soviet war memorial into prison
Veteran Latvian lawmaker and nationalist politician Alexander Kirstein has said that people laying flowers at a World War II memorial in Riga, in defiance of city authorities, should be incarcerated at the site and then expelled to Russia. His proposal, made on Twitter on Wednesday, targets locals who oppose their government’s …
Read More »European MP suggests turning Soviet war memorial into prison camp
Veteran Latvian lawmaker and nationalist politician Alexander Kirstein has said that people laying flowers at a World War II memorial in Riga, an act that would defy city authorities, should be taken prisoner at the site and then expelled from Latvia to Russia. His proposal, made on Twitter on Wednesday, …
Read More »UK looking for Soviet weaponry to prop up Ukraine
British defense officials and diplomats are actively seeking to procure old Soviet-made and Russian-made weaponry worldwide to funnel it to Ukraine, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has said. “Large parts of the [Ministry of Defense] and defense attachés around the world have been looking,” Wallace told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. …
Read More »EU member paves way to demolishing Soviet memorial
Latvian lawmakers have overwhelmingly voted to renounce part of a treaty with Russia in which Riga committed to protect and maintain war memorials in the country. Thursday’s move opens the door to the removal of a monument to Soviet soldiers who liberated Riga from Nazi occupation during World War II. …
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