Tag: russia

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In The News

Donald Trump’s Long History With Russia

Donald Trumpsky?
Donald Trumpsky? Alessio Damato/Worldcrunch montage

WASHINGTON, DC — President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he has “NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” Trump, however, has a long history with Russia, trying repeatedly to build luxury properties in Moscow, holding a beauty pageant there, and benefiting from heavy investments from Russians in his properties around the world. It is not possible to verify whether Trump has no current deals or loans with Russian entities because he has refused to release his tax returns. But a look at Trump’s record since the 1980s shows that he and his family long have […]

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In The News

Watching The Trump Storm From Across The Atlantic

Donald Trump speaking at Jan. 11 press conference in NYC
Donald Trump speaking at Jan. 11 press conference in NYC Gary Hershorn/Xinhua/ZUMA

-OpEd- PARIS — As far as beginnings go, this is a terrible start. As a matter of fact, it’s going badly before it has even started. Though American politics has no shortage of scandals, this is still unprecedented. One week before his inauguration, President-elect Trump finds himself under devastating fire. Accused of mixing with a […]

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In The News

Life In Norilsk, A Frozen Gulag Turned Mining Town

A view on Norilsk's factories
A view on Norilsk's factories Ninara

NORILSK — The belly of Mother Russia is most fertile 1,000 meters underground and 300 kilometers north of the polar circle. Outside, the temperature can drop as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit. But down below, it’s warm and moist. And the walls shine. The blocks that detach themselves as bulldozers strike the stone are loaded […]

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In The News

Trump, A ‘Pragmatist’ In Russian Eyes

Trump approaches take-off
Trump approaches take-off Aude Guerrucci/CNP/ZUMA

WORLDCRUNCH NOTE TO READERS: This article was originally published in Kommersant on Nov. 10, two days after Donald Trump’s election win. Since then, there have been reports that Russian computer hackers may have interfered in the U.S. election in Trump’s favor. Also Trump had since called Taiwan’s president, sparking a diplomatic row with China. Nevertheless, […]

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In The News

Vladimir Putin: Enough With The West’s Imaginary Threats

Putin at a Russian military training exercise in the Orenburg region
Putin at a Russian military training exercise in the Orenburg region Kremlin

In Italian daily La Stampa, the Russian president writes that it’s time for the U.S. and Europe to trust Moscow as a partner in confronting the world’s problems.

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In The News

International Justice Denied

Your daily update of the latest news from around the world, brought to you by Worldcrunch. To get it in your inbox each morning, sign up here. Is this the end of the road for the International Criminal Court? Yesterday’s announcement by Russia that it was formally withdrawing its signature from the ICC’s founding Rome […]

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Ideas Syria Crisis

How The U.S. Is Unintentionally Helping Syria’s Assad

FSA soldier in Aleppo on Aug. 16
FSA soldier in Aleppo on Aug. 16 Louai Barakat ImagesLive/ZUMA

The United States intervened militarily in Syria under the premise of the ‘war on terror’ and the fight against ISIS, but their presence is actually helping the Syrian government.

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blog

Panama Papers & Politics, From Pakistan to Iceland

SPOTLIGHT: PANAMA PAPERS & POLITICS, FROM PAKISTAN TO ICELAND It’s been more than six months since a massive leak first exposed vast networks of offshore financial dealings linked to a Panama-based law firm. But the reverberations of the so-called “Panama Papers” continue to show up in unlikely places. Pakistan’s opposition party announced today that two […]

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Ideas Syria Crisis

Why UN Security Council Failing Aleppo Surprises No One

Scenes of war in Aleppo
Scenes of war in Aleppo Ibrahim Khader/Pacific Press/ZUMA

-OpEd- NEW YORK — I’m almost certain I saw Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Strand bookstore in Manhattan today. I wanted to walk over and call him a war criminal and a monster, and tell everyone around us that he was the man butchering unarmed civilians in Aleppo. But after half an hour of stalking him through the fiction and film stacks, I still couldn’t determine if it was really him. I pulled up a Wikipedia page with his photo as a reference. I read that during his university days Lavrov was active in drama. This was quite […]

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Geopolitics Ukraine Winter

Russia’s Other War, On The Front Lines In Eastern Ukraine

A Ukrainian soldier
A Ukrainian soldier Roberto Travan/La Stampa

Despite two peace agreements signed by Kiev and Moscow, fighting rages on along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia.

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In The News

On This Day – October 25

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In The News

On Puppets And Putin

SPOTLIGHT: ON PUPPETS AND PUTIN There was a third politician on stage at last night’s final U.S. presidential debate: Vladimir Putin.The two candidates have taken very different approaches to the prospect of dealing with the mercurial Russian leader, with Hillary Clinton painting Putin as an avowed enemy of American democracy and Donald Trump saying he’d […]

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Geopolitics Ideas

Philippines, Underestimate Rodrigo Duterte At Your Peril

Rodrigo Duterte in Jolo, Philippines, on Aug.12
Rodrigo Duterte in Jolo, Philippines, on Aug.12 Rey Baniquet/Planet Pix/ZUMA

The controversial new Filippino president, who arrives in China today, has mostly garnered attention for his brutal crackdown on drug dealers. But his ambitions go far beyond.

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Geopolitics Migrant Lives

How Syrian Refugees In A Small Russian City Made It To School

Syrian child at the Noginsk school for refugees
Syrian child at the Noginsk school for refugees RUPTLY screenshot

NOGINSK — Knowledge Day falls on Sept. 1 and marks the traditional start of the school year in Russia. But for the children of Syrian refugees who live in Noginsk, a town of about 100,000 inhabitants that’s a 90-minute train ride from Moscow, it’s a day like any other. These refugee children can’t go to […]

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Economy Geopolitics

How Agribusiness And Corruption Swallow Small Farmers In Russia

Farmers in Yerban, Russia
Farmers in Yerban, Russia Tatiana Bulyonkova

Millions of Russians were given plots of land when the former USSR collapsed. Now, as land rises in value, small farmers are the targets of intimidation of powerful forces.

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blog

The Philosopher’s Stone

The Philosopher's Stone

The famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant spent most of his life in Königsberg, in what was then known as Prussia. HIs mausoleum has seen borders and names change: The city is now a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania called Kaliningrad.

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blog

Hacking The Whole Wide World

Russian daily Kommersant reports today that more athletes’ medical files from the World Anti-Doping Agency have been leaked, including three-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. With tensions rising between Russia and the West, such an information security breach — whether about alleged banned substances in sports or gossipy […]

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Future

Just About Everything In Your House Can Be Hacked

Just one keystroke away
Just one keystroke away BrackezMassimo

Israeli researchers recently showed how data can be stolen from an offline computer. But computers aren’t the only devices that can be compromised.

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blog

On This Day – September 7

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Colossal Column

Colossal Column

This is one of two rostral columns opposite the Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange on the Neva river. The red stucco columns, adorned with bronze ship prows, were meant as beacons — the torches at the top are still lit on ceremonial occasions.

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blog

On This Day – September 3

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Society

Anthrax, Bubonic Plague, Swine Fever — Russia’s Strange Summer Of Diseases

People wearing face mask in fear of flu in metro of Moscow
People wearing face mask in fear of flu in metro of Moscow Evegeny Sinitsyn/Xinhua/ZUMA

Abnormally high temperatures triggered the outbreak of anthrax on Yamal peninsula. It’s not the only disease that roiled Russia this summer.

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Geopolitics

A Look At International Relations From A Russian Viewpoint

Putin facing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Putin facing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Alexei Druzhinin/Planet Pix/ZUMA

Aleksei Arbatov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, analyzes Kremlin’s foreign policy and offers an inside look at where international relations are headed.

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Geopolitics

Erdogan’s Purge Moves Next Door To Georgia

Burning Gulen in effigy in Istanbul after failed July 15 coup
Burning Gulen in effigy in Istanbul after failed July 15 coup Emanuele Satolli via ZUMA

TBILISI — The Georgian capital is built upon a hill, sandwiched in the midst of towering peaks. The same can be said about this country, wedged between powerful regional neighbors. As Georgia’s economy and aspirations rise, Tbilisi’s growing middle class is flocking to private schools to educate its children. There’s just one problem: some of […]

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Future

Living In Space, Russia Probes 55 Years After Yuri Gagarin

A 1960s Russian spacesuit on display at London's Science Museum
A 1960s Russian spacesuit on display at London's Science Museum Veronika Lukasova/ZUMA

Yuri Gagarin was the first to prove that humans can survive in outer space. For 55 years since, humanity has been striving to adapt to life in space, but the questions of exploring our galaxy and taking a journey to other planets still remain open-ended. Can technology help our bodies withstand prolonged spatial voyages? Running […]

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

Former Cold War Foe Russia Increasingly Expels Americans From Its Turf

Stranger in Moscow
Stranger in Moscow Zabara Alexander

MOSCOW — Russia is increasingly deporting U.S. citizens on its soil in recent years. Americans living in Russia have also seen a sharp spike in the number of residence permits that have been revoked since the start of this year, signaling a deterioration in relations between the two former Cold War foes. Russian authorities say […]

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blog

Comfort After Defeat — A Video Quote

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blog

July 17

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Society

Doping: Lone Russian Track And Field Olympian Accused Of “Treason”

Darya Klishina
Darya Klishina Darya Klishina's Facebook page

MOSCOW — Russian long jumper Darya Klishina has publicly thanked the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for granting her entry into international tournaments, including the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Following the recent far-reaching doping scandal, which resulted in the disqualificaion of Russia’s entire track and field team, Klishina is the […]

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blog

July 13

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blog

July 12

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July 11

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Society

A Look Inside Russia’s Booming Garage Economy

A packed garage in Severka, Russia
A packed garage in Severka, Russia Anton Novoselov

In Russia, the garage can be a facility for virtually anything from spare parts to smoked fish, from vodka to paving stones. A recent study tracked the expansion of the country’s unofficial business realm, which recalls the dynamics of Soviet time

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Future Geopolitics

Anonymity Killer, Russian App Takes Facial Recognition Mainstream

A young man using FindFace
A young man using FindFace FindFace Facebook Page

FindFace, a revolutionary facial recognition tool, makes it possible to instantly identify an attractive stranger or petty criminal. It could also provide states with new ways to monitor their citizens’ activities.

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blog

June 20

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Geopolitics Ukraine Winter

In Kiev, European Doubts And Wishful Thinking

Woman marching in a parade in Kiev, Ukraine
Woman marching in a parade in Kiev, Ukraine Nazar Furyk/ZUMA

KIEV — In real life, Nadiya Savchenko’s eyes are neither large nor blue. But on welcome posters splashed across Kiev Airport recently with the slogan #freesavchenko, the doctored photos of the just released air force pilot — who was captured by Russia and elevated to heroine status back home during her long imprisonment — played […]

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Geopolitics

Nagorno-Karabakh, A 25-Year Border War Reignites With Religion

A priest and a soldier getting ready for mass in Talish
A priest and a soldier getting ready for mass in Talish Roberto Travan/ La Stampa

TALISH — For some, this is a forgotten war. For others, it’s a frozen conflict. There are also those who consider it a proxy war between Turkey and Russia, with Moscow on the side of the Armenians, and Ankara supporting the Aliyev family, which has ruled Azerbaijan for the past half-century. But before all else, […]

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Future Society

“Russia’s Zuckerberg” — Pavel Durov Wages War On State Power

Pavel Durov in Berlin in 2013
Pavel Durov in Berlin in 2013 TechCrunch/Wikimedia Commons

MOSCOW — He is described as the Russian equivalent of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After launching VKontakte, Russia’s biggest social network, a decade ago, Pavel Durov has more recently become one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest, if ever discreet, opponents. Forced into exile after quarrels with the Kremlin, he is never where you’d expect him […]

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Economy Geopolitics

A Massive Natural Gas Plant Rises In The Arctic

Building Yamal LNG
Building Yamal LNG Total Official website

With the help of its Russian partner, Novatek, and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), French energy giant Total has created an uprecedented liquid natural gas plant on the frozen Yamal Peninsula, some 370 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

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blog

May 27

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