Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
Pine Penises, Pink Penguins – New Moscow Decoration
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHQGXJZA2YJ/ One of the central Moscow squares, the square of the Revolution, recently received a new decoration from the city government – two compositions of human high pine trees which looked very much like male genitals. First, this similarity caught the attention of Russian Instagram users, who called them...
Revisiting Ukraine’s Maidan Legacy Amidst EU Shambles
While it would certainly be premature to predict the disintegration of the European Union at this point, the United Kingdom’s recent departure from the bloc via “Brexit” referendum certainly casts a dark shadow over the continent’s political future. If the E.U. continues to unravel or becomes distracted by its own internal...
Online Discussion of Sexual Abuse in the Former Soviet Union Is a Start Toward a Solution
Image: Anastasiya Melnychenko. Facebook I am one of the many women in the former Soviet Union who was cheered when Ukrainian journalist Anastasiya Melnychenko decided to discuss on social media the many instances of sexual harassment and abuse she has suffered since she was a child. Her postings on Facebook caused a sensation — because no...
Russia Expels 2 American Diplomats
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Saturday it had expelled two U.S. Embassy staff members in June after a similar ‘unfriendly’ move by Washington.One of the expelled diplomats was involved in an incident with a Russian policeman near the U.S. Embassy entrance in Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, citing Deputy Foreign...
Kremlin Fantasies
Western Europe in 2035 as envisioned by Express Gazeta. Map courtesy of Express Gazeta What do the denizens of the Kremlin and their new tsar dream about? Wealth? Perhaps. With a personal fortune estimated to be anywhere from 14.5 billion dollars (Forbes) to as much as 200 billion dollars, it’s hard to believe that Vladimir Putin dreams...
Former Soviet Countries’ Use of Symbols to Thumb Their Noses at Russia
Image: A Ukrainian postal stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Stepan Bandera’s birth. Public Domain Symbols were important during the Soviet era. The hammer and cycle was the premier example. Then there were the statues of Marx, Lenin and Stalin, and the names of notable Soviets on streets across the empire. But a lot of the...
Time To Rethink NATO
co-authored by Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Donald Trump angered the D.C. establishment when he said that NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, may be obsolete and the U.S. should reassess its spending on the alliance. Hillary Clinton has used Trump’s comments as another example that he is a dangerous, loose cannon. But...
NATO and Russia: The Many Unknowns
Officially the Warsaw NATO summit will be about the deployment of military forces, missiles and arms projects. But in fact hovering above all will be one question: How to deal with the Russian military powerhouse that resurfaced in the East. More than two years after the political and military escalation in Ukraine, opinions on how to proceed...
NATO Takes Over U.S.-Built Missile Shield, Amid Russian Suspicion
NATO took command of a U.S.-built missile shield in Europe on Friday after France won assurances that the multi-billion-dollar system would not be under Washington’s direct control.The missile shield, billed as a defense against any strike by a “rogue state” against European cities, is one of the most sensitive aspects of U.S. military...
Belarus Is Latest Target of Russia’s Use of Oil and Gas as Geopolitical Weapons
Image: Belarusian flag. Stock Photo. Pixabay.com The West found out firsthand on January 7 of 2009 how Russia uses oil and gas as geopolitical weapons. That was the day in the dead of winter when Gazprom halted its gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over price and money that it said Ukraine owed it. At the time, Russia supplied a third of...
