Next year's presidential elections offer a real opportunity of disposing a tired, weakened and unpopular Lukashenka, says Presidential hopeful Yaroslau Romanchuk. In this interview with David Marples, Romanchuk outlines a strategy for election and why his candidature offers the best prospect for t
Six months into office, Yanukovych has moved swiftly to strengthen government. Indications are mounting that his intention is comprehensively to curtail the freedoms won by Ukraine since the fall of communism. But there is reason to hope that civil society may prove robust enough to withstand the
When Putin sat down to tea with artists and musicians before a charity concert last month, he could not have expected difficult questions, writes Olga Sherwood. He had not counted on DDT's Yury Shevchuk, who found the courage to stand out from the crowd and launch a memorable and principled critic
The Taliban propose a joint committee to investigate civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Pakistan has announced a crackdown on charities connected with Islamist militants. Israel and Palestinian Authority are on the brink of direct talks. The South African government uses a heavy hand to suppress the
Russian government attempts to deal with the heat wave and the resulting widespread forest fires have been much criticised. But Putin’s popularity rating remains high and his government seems to be more interested in keeping it that way than addressing people’s problems, explains Dmitry Travin
Daniel Metcalfe's book ‘Out of Steppe’ describes his journey through Central Asia. In this excerpt he describes the Karakalpak landscape around the Aral Sea. The Soviet tourist destination, previously the centre of a successful fishing industry, is now depopulated, polluted by the chemicals used t
Lack of personnel and organizational incompetence have seriously hampered the Russian response to forest fires, writes Greenpeace's Alexei Yaroshenko. Worryingly, fires have reached some Chernobyl-affected regions, and many other villages have been essentially abandoned to their fate.
The imprisonment of military researcher Igor Sutyagin for alleged espionage has long troubled Russian human rights campaigners, writes Zoya Svetova. He is now free, but only after agreeing to agree he was a spy. Those familiar with Russian prisons will understand why he acted as he did, but he fac
The Russian attempt to build Silicon Valley in Skolkovo is a case of throwing good money after bad, argues Andrei Kolesnikov. Russia badly needs systemic reform, not grand projects: without it there is no chance of achieving real, organic and high-tech innovation.
President Yanukovych is steadily demolishing the gains of the Orange Revolution. This turn towards Moscow looks uncomfortably like an attempt to placate the Tsar with tributes
The accusations against Khodorkovsky have collapsed now that two senior establishment figures have testified. He may still be found guilty. But the absurdity of this trial is eroding public confidence in Putin’s regime.
The recent local elections in Georgia were deemed “free and fair”, but the opposition remains fragmented. Parliament is the proper forum for moving towards mature democracy, says Denis MacShane, but the world should not forget Georgia and its troubled relationship with its northern neighbour, Russ
