Section: The Guardian (The United Kingdom)
Vladimir Putin: from pariah to powerbroker in one year
At the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, the Russian president was browbeaten by western leaders. But now they know they need himWhat a difference a war makes. Twelve months ago, Vladimir Putin was on the menu at the G20 summit in Brisbane. Western leaders queued up hungrily for a piece of Russia’s president following his armed intervention in...
Ukraine moves closer to visa-free EU travel as gay rights bill passes
Parliament adopts legislation banning discrimination against gay people in the workplace – a key condition for the European Union to ease travel restrictionsUkrainian lawmakers have approved a bill that bans discrimination against gay people at work – key legislation intended to help pave the way for visa-free travel between the country and the...
Images of drowned boy made only a fleeting change to refugee reporting
Study of newspapers across Europe reveals that initial press sympathy after Alan Kurdi’s death rapidly reverted to type within a weekNewspapers in western Europe became significantly more sympathetic towards migrants and refugees immediately after the publication of photographs of the lifeless body of Alan (aka Aylan) Kurdi on a Turkish...
Ukraine eschews visa-free EU travel by refusing to protect gay people in workplace
Parliament has blocked legislation banning discrimination at work that was condition set by European UnionUkraine’s parliament has on Thursday scuppered the country’s chances of visa-free travel to most EU nations by blocking legislation that would have banned discrimination against gay people in the workplace.The pro-EU leadership...
Moscow library of Ukrainian literature raided by ‘anti-extremist’ police
Observers say facility was targeted, and its director charged with inciting ethnic hatred, as a result of current cross-border tensionsEmployees of the Moscow Library of Ukrainian Literature arrived at work last week to find armed and masked police waiting for them.The target of the morning raid by riot police wasn’t a dangerous criminal,...
Smugglers profit from Ukraine’s dirty war
Blockade of separatist areas is a headache for locals and a boon to illegal tradeA pillar is all that remains of the bridge’s steel structure. It stands in the calm waters of the Seversky Donets river. The bridge was destroyed by two shells, falling in quick succession, during the fighting last winter. Since then the Ukrainian army and...
Ukrainian rebels grow restless amid cracks in alliance with Russia
A trip to the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine reveals militants unhappy with the ceasefire and increasingly out-of-step with Moscow Portraits of Putin and Stalin adorn the room where the rebel commander, Yuri “Rostov” Shevchenko, holds court.In this former KGB complex in the industrial town of Alchevsk in the...
MH17, Arctic Sunrise and illicit edam – how it all went wrong for one Dutch diplomat
The Netherlands’ ambassador to Russia talks to The Moscow Times about the series of disasters marking his posting When Ron van Dartel agreed to take up the post of Dutch ambassador to Russia he thought it would be the perfect ending to his career. Eighteen months later, he concedes he might have been optimistic. “If we look at the...
At least two killed by ammunition dump explosion in Ukraine
Emergency services struggle to control blaze in Svatove as exploding shells force residents to take coverHuge blasts have rocked a town in eastern Ukraine after an ammunition depot exploded and a series of fireballs erupted into the night sky. At least two people were reported dead and three wounded, though the numbers of casualties are expected...
Amateur footage ‘shows huge blast at Ukrainian ammunition depot’ – video
Amateur footage published on YouTube purports to show a huge explosion after an ammunition storage facility reportedly caught fire in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. The footage, filmed from a distance, shows a fierce blaze sending large plumes of smoke into the sky, and a series of fireballs shooting over the nearby town. Early reports suggest...
