Worldcrunch
PYONGYANG — In the Beijing airport, as I was preparing to fly to North Korea, you could practically smell the communism. Traders were checking large, beat-up bags of household items. A family was buying a large appliance in the duty-free shop. The North Koreans were easily identifiable: They were required to wear buttons with portraits […]
CHISINAU — The tent city in the center of Moldova“s capital sprung up the evening of Sept. 6, just after a downtown protest had drawn thousands. The demonstrators decided on the spot to stay until they could claim victory; and by nightfall, a few dozen tents had appeared. By the next day there were at […]
A Russian embargo bans imports of French cheese and other Western products. But one farmer has the answer: bring in French cheesemakers to teach him to make his own.
If it wants to grow in a balanced way, Russia should not think a rash of new agreements with China will permit it to forsake the West.
DONETSK — Komsomolets Donbas is one of the largest coal mines in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. But for more than a year now, it’s been out of operation due to serious damage suffered by the war. There are holes from falling explosives. The electricity has been interrupted. And the entrance is practically collapsed. […]
MOSCOW — Russia placed 45th in the world on the most recent Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, a ranking of 141 countries compiled twice a year by the World Economic Forum and Strategy Partners Group. This represents a significant improvement over the previous year, when it ranked 63rd. Industry analysts agree that the driving factor […]
MOSCOW — In a small town outside the capital, 15-year-old boys live in barracks with soldiers. They march in formation, memorize army regulations and sing songs in unison. “After our camp, young men aren’t afraid of hazing,” says Vladimir Prixodko, the camp director, referring to a persistent problem in the Russian army that has scared […]
Gagauzia, a small region in neighboring Moldova, has taken a turn toward economic union with Russia, and away from the EU. Will the whole country follow?
Russian researchers have been doing a rather unusual study that compares DNA across countries with political affinities. A patriotic take on the old nature v. nurture question.
Despite the ruble’s freefall, a shaky economy and growing international isolation, cosmetics companies and the beauty industry at large can rest easy that Russian women will buy what they’re selling.
Separated families, refugees and a deeper sense of national loss for Ukrainians who saw an entire region of their country taken over by Russia last March.
The assassination of democratic reformer Boris Nemtsov prompts a look back over the past two decades of Russia flirting in vain with economic and political reforms.
MOSCOW — I’m going to share my own observations about myself, yes, but also about my neighbors in the countryside. I spent last summer in a 100-year-old house outside of Moscow. In between writing articles, I maintained two beehives and pruned old apple, cherry and currant trees. I harvested. I made jam and extracted honey. […]
New restrictions and the plunging ruble change the calculus for visiting migrant workers, who have helped fuel Russia’s past growth. Yet another sign of a fragile national economy.
Moscow sees huge new business opportunity in northern shipping routes. But figuring out the best ways to travel via the Arctic is a massive, and chilly, undertaking.
With its programs aging, Russia has announced that it’s pulling out of the International Space Station in 2020. Where does that leave space exploration for the rest of the world?
MOSCOW — When Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating began to rise last year, patriotism crept into Russian consumer preferences, branding experts say, so much so that companies are now catering to this newfound domestic pride. Branding agency Depot WPF recently developed a new design for a juice brand, using elements of traditional Russian painted […]
MOSCOW — If you happen to produce widgets in Russia and sell them in foreign currency, your time has come. Konstantin Babkin, president of a company that produces tractors, is convinced that the ruble should have been devalued long ago. “An excessively strong ruble already killed our airplane construction, food and light manufacturing industries,” he […]
PARIS — The Jewish community in Paris lived through the manhunt for the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in a state of extreme tension. The hostage-taking Friday in a Kosher supermarket, which resulted in the death of four Jewish men, confirmed their worst fears. Francois Hollande called the act a […]
-OpEd- MOSCOW — The dials of the propaganda machine were never properly calibrated. Instead of talking about fighting Ukrainian nationalists, who like nationalists anywhere are dangerous and unsavory, it was simply Ukrainians and Ukraine that Russians were fighting. Less than a year later, this indiscriminate approach has had identifable results. In an October survey of […]
Fleeing war in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, and even Crimea, some Ukrainians are finding life difficult in the capital.
In Russia’s capital, environmental protection is victim of manufacturers who don’t want to reform and a government that won’t challenge them. The result is there for all to see…and smell.
In a country estimated to spend billions on faith healers and fortune tellers, many Russians opt for alternative medicine over certified doctors.
Last December, amidst dramatic protests in Kiev, few imagined that the Maidan protests would lead to land grabs and open warfare. The symbols and substance of Ukraine’s iconic square.
Russian doctors often push mothers to abandon disabled newborns to the state. The result is growing numbers of orphans, two years after Russia imposed a ban on American adoptions.
The Russian capital has invested in new mobile applications aimed to better aid and involve citizens. The results are mixed: parking app is good, democracy app not so much.
After its annexation of Crimea, Moscow is hoping to accelerate a long dormant project to build a bridge connecting Russia across the Kerch Strait. But there is the Sochi lesson to consider.
A new survey asking Russians how they think people abroad view them and their country is overly optimistic, revealing a “warped” sense of reality.
Unlike with Washington, Moscow and Beijing agree on how the state can monitor the Internet. Kommersant reports on a new Sino-Russia partnership set to be signed next month.
DNIPROPETROVSK – Last week, in this central Ukrainian city, a public farewell was bid to 21 soldiers, even if their names were never determined. The coffins, draped with Ukrainian flags, were brought to the the square between the Opera and Ballet Theaters on Karl Marx Avenue in Dnipropetrovsk, the country’s fourth-largest city. “The soldiers who […]
-OpEd- MOSCOW — Patriotic hysterics between Ukraine and Russia have given birth to a host of scathing labels — terms such a “fifth column” and “friends of the junta” — that state-owned television channels and some newspapers are employing with increasing zeal to identify Russia’s many “internal enemies.” The number of people targeted with these […]
MOSCOW — At the beginning of the 1990s, no one was talking about fighting copyright piracy. It was a wild time, and the government in Moscow had more urgent things to think about as the Soviet Union was unraveling. Back then, amateur thieves didn’t think twice about slipping into an apartment — or even a […]
This week’s UN General Assembly highlighted the need for cooperation in the fight against ISIS and other Islamic terror networks. And that could extend to sworn enemies.
One effect of Russia’s embargo on Western food products is the disappearance of imported Polish mushrooms. Microcosm of economic warfare around a Russian culinary tradition.
Motivations and expectations of Russian volunteers in Eastern Ukraine are nothing like those who were sent to fight in Chechnya and Afghanistan. Maybe even more is at stake now.
The Kremlin is spinning domestic protectionism and anti-West food sanctions as a way to help Russia’s farmer. But it’s really just a recipe of pure politics – and bad economics.
Move the shot glasses aside and make way for some stemware. One expert characterizes the Russian wine market as one of the “most promising in the modern world.”