Section: The Guardian (The United Kingdom)
Swine flu spreading across eastern Europe and Middle East
3,000 people a day in Ukraine are being hospitalised with H1N1 virus as scientists investigate why flu strain is hitting those in younger age groups hardestSwine flu has killed 183 people in Ukraine this winter and is spreading rapidly across eastern Europe and the Middle East. At least 107 people have died in Russia after contracting the...
Demonising Russia won’t give us security | Letters
We note with alarm that public discourse about Russia is coloured by militaristic and dangerous terms which may talk us into war (We’r*e back to great-power conflict, says US defence secretary, 3 February). The country’s portrayal as an aggressive power increases its perception of threat, accelerating a military and ideological...
Economic minister’s resignation plunges Ukraine into new crisis
Aivaras Abromavičius and his entire team quit complaining of ingrained corruption, a major blow to president and governmentUkraine has been thrust into a new political crisis after the economic minister and his team tendered their resignations complaining of ingrained corruption, which has replaced the simmering separatist conflict as the...
Sex, lies and psychological scars: inside Ukraine’s human trafficking crisis | Maxim Tucker
Desperate to find work, they leave home on the promise of a job only to be ushered into a life of forced labour and abuse. Two Ukrainian women reveal the trauma of trafficking and how a secret hospital is helping them rebuild their livesThe hospital where Dr Olga Milinchuk works has no sign outside and no waiting rooms. The address is a closely...
The missing: what have they done with our sons? | Lily Hyde
To lose a child in war is a nightmare. But when your quest to find them is met with lies, it’s a nightmare that never ends. Lily Hyde travels with the Ukrainian mothers seeking their sonsIn the early evening of 28 August 2014, Andrey Lozinsky phoned his mother.Andrey, a 21-year-old conscript in the Ukrainian army’s 93rd Mechanised...
Russia puts five former US officials on blacklist for alleged rights abuses
Moscow accused the US of ‘medieval torture’ in statement barring five Americans from entry as retaliation for US blacklisting of four Russians and a UkrainianRussia has placed five Americans on a blacklist for alleged rights abuses, shortly after Washington added five persons to its sanctions list, accusing the United States of “medieval...
Chechen leader Kadyrov posts video of Russian opposition leader in gun sights
Mikhail Kasyanov, whose co-leader of Russian party was gunned down a year ago, says video by Chechnya’s pro-Kremlin leader is ‘direct threat of a murder’Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has posted a video of the Russian opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov in a gunman’s crosshairs.Kadyrov has engaged in...
Putin’s Angels: the bikers battling for Russia in Ukraine
They were anarchic petrolheads and now they’re the Russian president’s henchmen: meet the Night Wolves, Moscow’s most infamous motorcycle gangA rumble of artillery prompts the biker gang to pause inside their stronghold. It has been some time since the rebel-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, on the war-torn fringes of...
The Night Wolves: Putin’s motorbiking militia of Luhansk – video
The Night Wolves are Russia’s largest and most notorious biker gang, fiercely loyal to Vladimir Putin, and say they are motivated by Christianity and patriotism. Their base in Luhansk, east Ukraine, resembles a set from Mad Max. Inside their stronghold, the Night Wolves open up about the families they left behindWARNING: CONTAINS STRONG...
Putin is a human rights abusing oligarch. The left must speak out | Owen Jones
For those of us who believe democracy and social justice are universal principles, it’s clear why we should express our solidarity with Russia’s embattled leftistsA rightwing authoritarian leader who attacks civil liberties, stigmatises lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, indulges in chauvinistic nationalism, is in bed with...
