Day: October 26, 2019

  • Russia Says U.S. Presence in Syria Illegal, Protects Oil Smugglers

    Russia Says U.S. Presence in Syria Illegal, Protects Oil Smugglers

    Russia‘s Defense Ministry on Saturday attacked U.S. plans to maintain and boost the American military presence in eastern Syria as “international state banditry” motivated by a desire to protect oil smugglers and not by real security concerns. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday Washington would send armored vehicles and troops to the Syrian…

  • Maxim D. Shrayer’s ‘A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas’

    Maxim D. Shrayer’s ‘A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas’

    Before Maxim Shrayer became a professor of literature and Jewish Studies at Boston College, he spent over eight years as a refusenik in the Soviet Union. The son of Jewish-Russian intellectuals, Shrayer was born in 1967 and grew up in Moscow until he and his family emigrated in 1987. He arrived in the U.S. at…

  • Russian Woman Convicted by U.S. of Being Agent Returns Home

    Russian Woman Convicted by U.S. of Being Agent Returns Home

    Russian national Maria Butina, who was jailed in the United States in April after admitting to working as a Russian agent, arrived in Moscow on Saturday, greeted by her father and Russian journalists who handed her flowers. “Russians never surrender,” an emotional Butina told reporters at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, flanked by her father and the…

  • At Russia’s Inaugural Africa Summit, Moscow Sells Sovereignty

    At Russia’s Inaugural Africa Summit, Moscow Sells Sovereignty

    SOCHI — Last winter, the head of Ghana’s state news agency received a message: Russia’s ambassador to the West African country wanted the agency to discuss a partnership with TASS, its Russian counterpart.  For many years, Albert Kofi Owusu had thought negatively about Russia, a perception he attributes to the Western media and Hollywood films.…