Section: The Washington Post (USA)
Fearing Russian expansion, Baltic nations step up military exercises
TAPA, Estonia — A year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula because he said he feared NATO’s expansion. This week, U.S. tanks were cutting up the Estonian countryside just 65 miles from the Russian border in response to local fears about Russia’s expansionism. Read full article >>...
In Kazakhstan, fears of becoming the next Ukraine
ASTANA, Kazakhstan —A volatile mix now building in Kazakhstan contains the same ingredients that ignited in Ukraine: a Russian minority that says it fears being under siege, rising anti-Russian nationalist sentiment and pressure on the Russian language. Read full article >> …read more Source: The Washington...
Ukraine’s military mobilization undermined by draft dodgers
KIEV, Ukraine — As the country’s eastern conflict drags into a second year, Ukraine’s military leaders are trying to learn from past mistakes. They are trying to be better trained and prepared — because no one knows when the warm weather might push this frozen conflict with pro-Russian separatists into all-out war again. And they are...
An ultra-nationalist Russian biker gang is invading Europe, and Poland isn’t happy
Not many motorbike groups can claim to have a head of state as a supporter, but the case of Russia’s Night Wolves is an exception. President Vladimir Putin has publicly embraced the group, and after Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year, the Night Wolves were quick to parade through Crimea’s streets. Their next ride, however,...
Pro-Moscow journalist killed in Ukraine’s capital
MOSCOW — A pro-Russian Ukrainian journalist was gunned down in Kiev on Thursday, authorities said, a day after a Ukrainian politician supporting Moscow was found dead.The killing of Oles Buzyna, 45, raised fears of a new wave of back-and-forth violence in the streets of Ukraine after a string of unsolved deaths that has touched both sides of the...
Russia says Western investment in Ukraine’s farms is a plot to take over the world
MOSCOW — Ukraine has long tried to sell itself to Europe as the once-and-future breadbasket of the continent, promising that Western investment is the key to making its under-exploited black earth bloom. But official Russia would like you to know that all this agricultural development talk is really just a secret plot to help companies […]...
Russia unveils absurd clothing line inspired by the annexation of Crimea
When Russian soldiers annexed Crimea last year, they first showed up in unmarked uniforms. But lately, the Russian government has become more forthright, with President Putin saying that he was surprised by the ease with which his army took control of the peninsula. Now, the Russian defense ministry, teaming up with designer Leonid Alexeev, has...
Russian media fabricated story about a child getting killed by Ukrainian shelling, the BBC says
MOSCOW — The conflict on the ground in eastern Ukraine may have quieted down over the past few weeks, but the information war in the region is still raging. A BBC team reported that a recent Russian media story about the death of a child killed in shelling was, in fact, a fabrication. In a […] …read more Source: The Washington...
A Ukrainian governor’s billions couldn’t save him from being fired
Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s most powerful oligarchs and a staunch backer of Kiev during the last year of conflict in the east, resigned his position as governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Wednesday after confrontations over his interests in the country’s energy sector. He spoke to The Washington Post at his offices in Kiev on...
Ukraine’s stability under threat after president fires pro-Kiev tycoon
KIEV, Ukraine — In a major test of Ukraine’s fragile political stability, President Petro Poroshenko Wednesday dismissed a billionaire regional ally who had established his own power base near the front-lines of pro-Russian rebels.Read full article >> …read more Source: The Washington...
