Section: Global Voices (The Netherlands)
The World According to Russian Stereotypes
Image: Pixabay In early November, Vladimir Putin suddenly signaled his support for new federal legislation designed to clarify the government’s formal understanding of “the Russian nation.” A vague, symbolic initiative, the Kremlin’s push to codify the meaning of Russia as a nation-state has reignited a centuries-old debate about “the...
Hackers Publish Kremlin Aide’s E-Mails, Allege Plan to Destabilize Ukraine
Vladislav Surkov. Source: Wikimedia Commons.On Tuesday, the Ukrainian hacking collective “Kiberkhunta” (CyberJunta) leaked more than 2,000 e-mails from the inbox of Vladislav Surkov, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is often cited as a key advisor on the Kremlin’s Ukraine policy. The leaked e-mails, which are dated between...
‘September’: A New Platform for Leftists Across the Former Soviet Union
Source: tetedelacourse, Flickr. CC 2.0 On Friday, a group of activists and academics from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan launched “September,” a website they hope will be a platform for leftist discourse across the former Soviet Union. The project, which grew out of “Commons” in Ukraine, “Pravsvet” in Belarus, and other...
This Soviet Cartoon Was Too Much for Romania’s Communist Censors
A scene from an episode of the Soviet cartoon “Nu Pogodi” not approved by Communist Romanian censors. According to the documentary “Chuck Norris vs Communism,” Romania’s state censorship board had been deleting scenes from the classic Soviet cartoon “Nu Pogodi” before broadcasting it on state TV during the 1980s. For instance, in the first...
A Toxic Mix of Illegal Logging and Corruption Is Devastating Europe’s Last Primeval Forests
A screen shot from ‘Clear Cut Crimes’ documentary by OCCRP and RISE Project. Earlier this week, journalists from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the RISE Project published a new documentary studying the effects of illegal logging in Romania and Ukraine. The film, titled “Clear Cut Crimes,” examines the collusion of...
Ukrainian Ministry of Information Policy Thanks Facebook Bots for Their Hard Work
Source: Sarah Marshall, Flickr. CC 2.0 On Tuesday, Mikhail Degtyarev, an MP from the far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, sent a letter to Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications Nikolai Nikiforov requesting that action be taken against Ukrainian bots he said are unfairly targeting Russian-language Facebook users. In a tweet...
The Week That Was at Global Voices Podcast: Disturbing the Peace
The Week That Was at Global Voices podcast takes a look at some of the stories that have recently come out of the Global Voices newsroom. This week, we speak to former RuNet Echo co-editor Tanya Lokot and current RuNet Echo co-editor Isaac Webb about the recent flare-up of tensions between Ukraine and Russia and what Ukrainians think about the...
A Man in Crimea Self-Immolated to Save His Wife’s Cafe From Officials, Who Razed It Anyway
Yalta Harbor. Source: Victoria Vasilieva, Flickr Late last week, 75-year-old Yalta pensioner Alexander Strekalin poured acetone down his back, lit himself on fire, and collapsed near Primorsky Beach in the center of the city. Strekalin, a former deputy head of Yalta’s city administration and years earlier a Chernobyl first responder, was...
The City of Mariupol, Ukraine’s Line in the Sand
Tetrapods, normally used to build piers, have been used in Mariupol’s defense, and today are found around the city decorated with Ukrainian folk symbols. Mariupol, Ukraine, July 4, 2016. Photo: Ivan Sigal The Ukrainian city of Mariupol sits 20 km from the front line between the Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian military. It is a...
Astronomy May Have Just Debunked Russia’s Claims About a Ukrainian Incursion Into Crimea
Image adapted from Georges Méliès’ famous film, Le voyage dans la Lune. Russian state television may have broadcast false evidence released by the Federal Security Service (FSB) allegedly showing the discovery of a weapons cache belonging to “saboteurs” the Kremlin says the Ukrainian government sent into Crimea. (Kyiv denies these...
