Worldcrunch
MOSCOW – The Russian government is looking to change the law on mass communications, which could potentially have a serious impact on the way the media does business. Perhaps the most important proposal put forth concerns who can open and own a media company. Currently, media business owners must be legal adults, cannot be presently […]
BOCHUM — Katja stares into her laptop camera and bites her lower lip. “Hmm, yes…” She confirms that she understands how chromosome divisions work. In front of another laptop, her teacher Julia Wirth holds up a piece of paper with circles and Xs drawn in green and red pen. Meiosis and mitosis. Katja nods from […]
BERLIN — It is becoming chic in Germany not to vote — and to make sure that everyone knows that you didn’t. It used to be just the poor and unemployed who failed to show at the polls, and, ashamed, they hid that fact. Now abstainers come from educated, well-off circles, and opinion polls warn […]
-Analysis- MOSCOW — So Russian diplomats finally prevailed on the Syria question. Since the beginning of the clashes in 2011 between the Syrian army, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and the armed opposition, Russia has used all of its power to prevent an international intervention, including blocking a UN Security Council resolution condemning […]
MOSCOW — One of the defining new features of 21st century life is an attachment to our mobile phones. In Britain, a company AppRiver has actually measured bona fide fear of being without it, with 54% of the UK’s residents saying they worry when they are not able to see or hear their phones, and […]
On the first day of school in Sept 2004, after terrorists took hundreds of children and parents hostage in Russia’s Northern Caucasus region, a bloodbath ensued. Questions and scars linger.
Things are getting nasty between Russia and bordering countries Belarus and Ukraine. And then there’s the Syrian factor.
BERLIN — BMW plans to introduce its electric i3 car this year, which raises the question of what’s going to happen to the old batteries that, for the purpose of powering electric cars, must be discarded well before they have actually been depleted. It’s a riddle the car company is hoping to solve together with […]
MOSCOW — The city of Moscow is covered with graffiti, and proudly so. Members of the “Best City On Earth” project have said they will paint street art on 150 buildings by September. Meanwhile, there is graffiti at the Faces & Laces urban culture festival in Gorky Park, as well as an exhibition of a […]
Long flight delays have a price, but the airline industry is applying serious downward pressure on European regulators.
Syria is more reminiscent of the Balkan wars in the 1990s than Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s imperative for the West to act to force Assad’s hand, not just to slap his wrist.
It was prepared during the global economic collapse of 2008, but it isn’t now.
A Polish army officer got himself deported to Auschwitz to document war crimes in the concentration camp. Now for the first time, Germans can read this vivid account.
Western sources say Russia sought out the American whistleblower when he was on the run in Hong Kong. The Kremlin denies it.
BERLIN — There are a record number of asylum seekers pinning their hopes on Germany this year, and refugees from Russia by far represent the largest group. Of those, some 90% are from the North Caucasus, particularly Chechnya. German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has characterized the situation as “unsettling.” Germany has more asylum requests than […]
MOSCOW – Over the past couple of months, experts on international crime have started raising the alarm: criminal activity is crossing borders like never before. The response from law enforcement must therefore be no less transnational. The European Parliament has recently launched a Special Commission on Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM) that is […]
When there’s too much wealth inequality, there’s no strong middle class to drive economic growth. Dividing inheritances among more people would help. And that’s where harems come in.
Although the number of foreign workers has declined sharply in Russia, Muscovites in particular fear the influx of immigrants – not that they necessarily want to do their jobs.
Despite a four-year ban on gambling, illegal casinos are thriving here — partly because of crooked police, and partly because law enforcement officials are confused by the murky law.
The Russian leader is expected to try to jumpstart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program with the new president, considered more moderate than his predecessor.
MOSCOW – Legal vodka production in Russia was down nearly 40% in June from the same month last year. Could this mean that Russians are suddenly less devoted to this nationally beloved libation? Do they have fewer sorrows to drown? Unlikely. Instead, tax hikes on alcohol have made it more difficult for legal producers to […]
In some ways there’s been great progress in a woman’s ability to control her destiny in Russian society. But in other ways, it’s actually even worse than during the Soviet era.
They were sentenced to six-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years in prison in Germany, respectively. But their lawyer says that Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag are counting on a swift departure for Russia, as part of a spy exchange. The trial of this couple ultimagely convicted of spying for Moscow started last January, and included a total of […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s history is not going to be just “political” anymore. Publishers of new history textbooks for Russian schools have been charged with the task of “encouraging patriotism in the younger generation.” That is not all: History is now going to include “religious history,” especially the history of Eastern Orthodoxy. These are the backbones […]
Circuses in Russia are facing animal cruelty accusations and competition from abroad.
Duped like other international reporters, Kommersant’s correspondent took the phantom flight to Havana. Now he’s back in Moscow, as the search for Snowden continues.
MOSCOW – Earlier in June, during the last congress of the All-Russia People’s Front, a movement created by President Vladimir Putin in 2011, Putin announced that one of his primary goals was to create a new era of industrialization in Russia. Russia’s Minister of Economic Development Andrey Belousov announced in the same meeting that by […]
VIENNA – It’s 11:45 a.m. on March 5, 2004 when two men enter the Maki diamond and jewelry store in Tokyo, set to commit the biggest theft in Japanese history. One of the men has brown leather gloves and a bag with the Cartier logo, the other is in all dark clothes. They are shown […]
MOSCOW – June marks the end of Russia’s smoking free-for-all. A new law forbids smoking in offices and hospitals, on beaches, in public transport, on train stations, and on the stairways in apartment buildings. Even advertisements for tobacco products are now illegal, and in one year’s time cigarettes also will be banned in cafes and […]
With the United States embroiled over the National Security Agency’s alleged spying on American and foreign citizens, there are other battles taking shape over the Internet.
MOSCOW – There was a goat just outside the Moscow metro station, accompanied by a girl who was selling bottles of milk – the goat was obviously there as a live advertisement. “Look, she has white eyelids,” passersby would say, looking at the alien animal. “Look at the tail!” they said – and these were […]
AMMAN – King Abdullah II of Jordan personally tested one of the hand grenades during the opening ceremony of the brand-new Nashshab factory, built by the Jordan Russian Electronic Systems Co. The factory produces hand-grenades that were specially designed for Jordan by Russian specialists. Although the opening ceremony was held last week, the factory had […]
MOSCOW – The Volga River, the longest in Europe and one of Russia’s natural jewels, has not so much flowed for decades. When it’s not covered with ice, it fills with fish-killing microorganisms, and emits a putrid stench. Environmental organizations describe the situation in the Volga region in alarming terms, noting that the region is […]
Wealth divides and political opportunism are creating a toxic mix of economic sentiments in Putin’s Russia.
MOSCOW – The 9,265-kilometer trip across Russia, from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok, via the Transiberian Railroad, the world’s longest railroad, is the most popular product for the British tour operator Russia Experience. The trip is 16 days long, with a full week spent on the train. Tourists can decide how to spend the rest – […]
MOSCOW – Only a couple of years ago, government jobs were lucrative and only for the highest-ranking executives in Russia. But that is changing, and now the public sector is aggressively competing in the job market, offering competitive salaries and poaching talented employees from private companies. In Russia, unlike in Europe or the United States, […]
Moscow allowed for observer status for additional countries that don’t border the Arctic, but will grant them virtually no voice whatsoever on policy.
Brazil has overtaken Canada as the top foreign source of both tourists and property buyers in the Florida city, which has been suffering through the real estate and financial crises.
Patriarch Kirill is trying to expand Russian Church’s influence in West and East. But Beijing is tricky terrain for religious head.
New bill would require artists and others in the “creative” fields to prove they are competent, and active in their roles.