For the past three weeks, thousands of protesters have been demonstrating against the exclusion of opposition candidates from the ballot for city elections in September. As the Kremlin ramps up the pressure on demonstrators, Muscovites who don’t usually attend protests, have been joining the movement. Meet Zhenya, a 25-year-old protester who has vowed to keep…
“They (the authorities) are wiping their feet on us,” said Elena, a student attending Saturday’s protest. Another attendee, Yevgeny Snetkov, a 61-year-old engineer, described as brazen the way the authorities had prevented opposition candidates from running. “I had no option left but to protest,” he said. Some protesters chanted “Putin is a thief” as they…
A helicopter circled overhead. Riot police clad in protective gear and balaclavas lined the sidewalks. Columns of police wagons sped past. There was a sense of foreboding in the air in central Moscow on Saturday afternoon as the authorities prepared for the latest demonstration to demand that opposition candidates be allowed to run in the…
Russian investigators said on Saturday they had opened a criminal investigation into the alleged laundering of 1 billion roubles ($15.3 million) by an anti-corruption foundation set up by jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny. Russia‘s Investigative Committee made the announcement in a statement while an opposition protest organised by Navalny’s allies was taking place in Moscow.
Russian police on Saturday detained prominent opposition activist Lyubov Sobol ahead of a planned protest in Moscow to demand free elections. Thousands of Russian opposition protesters are expected to try and rally again in Moscow on Saturday despite a sweeping police crackdown and ban on the event. Sobol had called on people to attend the demonstration,…
An icon of Soviet avant-garde, Konstantin Melnikov was born on August 3, 1890. He was the fourth child of a poor family who occupied a room in a state-owned working-class barrack in Moscow. Eventually his family managed to make a living in farming, after which they were able to own a small house. Still, Melnikov…
Saturation There is no doubt that many Soviet citizens venerated Stalin, but in political humour we can hear many others sharing critical opinions about him and his Cult on a day-to-day basis that rapidly presents us with a very different, more complex image. Let’s consider two anekdoty which turned up numerous times in the archival…