Claire Bigg covers Russia, Ukraine, and the post-Soviet world, with a focus on human rights, civil society, and social issues.
The Tajik head of a group that provides legal support to migrants talks about systemic abuses, Russia's "dependence on slave labor," and failures of the "democratic" media.
"We are surviving, not living," says Higmat, a Tajik man who looks worse than his 30-odd years suggest. Without papers and sharing makeshift quarters behind rusted metal sheets, he is easy prey for corrupt police officers.
Rights groups complain that many migrants are routinely exploited and abused by employers and police. Meanwhile, there are signs of growing hostility and violence directed at migrants.
The Taliban's five-year ban on music threatened to destroy a key element of Afghan culture, but the country's musicians have taken on the tremendous challenge of reviving their musical heritage.
TV footage of the October Nalchik raids (AFP) Ruslan Nakhushev, a respected opposition figure and Islamic scholar in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkariya, went missing on 4 November after being questioned by local security agents. While his colleagues fear his disappearance may be retribution for his human rights activities, others are pointing to his past as a secret service officer and raising questions about his allegiances. All, however, agree that Nakhushev's disappearance is most likely connected to the 13-14 October armed raids on the republic's capital, Nalchik.
Outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu virus have been confirmed in eight Russian provinces. But a number of Russian politicians and officials are downplaying the potential threat.
Muslims and human rights campaigners in Russia have joined forces to denounce what they describe as a persistent campaign of harassment and detentions targeting Muslims in the country.
Russia's foreign minister has cast doubt on the results of a report documenting large-scale corruption in the UN's oil-for-food humanitarian program in Iraq.
Russian researchers are working on a prototype vaccine they say they hope might help stem a possible bird-flu pandemic.
The trial of eight teenagers accused of murdering a young Tajik girl last year has opened in St. Petersburg. The trial takes place amid fears that extremist groups are becoming more aggressive.
Two far eastern regions overwhelmingly agreed recently to merge into a single province, continuing the Kremlin’s drive to improve governance in provinces and consolidate its control over the country’s sprawling territory.
Penal officials say the jailed oil tycoon has been taken to a remote camp to serve his eight-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. Defense lawyers and rights activists accuse authorities of seeking to break his morale.
A high-sea drama is unfolding in Arctic seas, where a Russian trawler has fled Norwegian Coast Guard ships with two abducted inspectors on board. The trawler took flight after the Norwegian Coast Guard stopped it on 15 October on charges of fishing illegally in the Barents Sea’s archipelagos of Spitsbergen. The incident, which has brought a longstanding quarrel to the fore, is threatening to spiral into a major scandal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (file photo) No country, including the United States, will force Russia to abandon its nuclear commitment to Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared yesterday. The uncompromising statement came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed to win Russian support for taking Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Teachers, doctors, and students protest in Moscow on 12 October Over 1 million teachers, doctors, and other state-paid workers across Russia took to the streets on 12 October to protest what they call shamefully low salaries. Demonstrators demanded major wage hikes and slammed the government for keeping them in poverty despite Russia's booming oil revenues.
CACO heads of state at the 7 October meeting, including (from left): Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbaev, Tajikistan's Imomali Rakhmonov, Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, Kyrgyzstan's Kurmanbek Bakiev, and Russia's Vladimir Putin The Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO) -- a grouping of Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan -- will merge with the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec), a body seeking to establish a single economic zone comprising Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, and Belarus. Such was the decision taken by CACO leaders at a summit in St. Petersburg yesterday.
Blair (left) and Putin at 10 Downing Street during their 5 October meeting Meeting in London today, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. Putin also toured Britain's antiterror meeting room and presented awards to a team of British rescuers who helped save a Russian submarine crew in August. The bilateral meeting, which came a day after an EU-Russia summit, was also aimed at ironing out differences on several divisive issues. These include Moscow's support for the Uzbek government over the Andijon violence, and disagreements over Iran's nuclear program.
Soldiers carry General Denikin's remains to their new resting place Anton Denikin, a general who fought against the Bolsheviks in Russia's civil war following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, was reburied today in Moscow. The remains of Denikin, who died in exile in the United States in 1947, were brought to Moscow yesterday. A hero of the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of last century and World War I, Denikin led forces opposing the Bolsheviks in southern Russia during the civil war.
Many Russians have found the play difficult Muscovites this week flocked to watch “September.doc,” an abrasive play inspired by the Beslan hostage tragedy of September 2004. The play, which featured prominently in this week’s New Drama Festival, is based on messages sampled from Russian Internet chat sites in the wake of the massacre. Its director, Mikhail Ugarov, says his aim is to articulate the unspoken feelings that the war in Chechnya is breeding among ordinary Russians.
State-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom clinched a $13.1 billion deal on 28 September to take over Sibneft, the Russian oil company controlled by billionaire Roman Abramovich. The biggest corporate takeover in Russian history will give President Vladimir Putin’s administration control over one-third of the country’s crude oil output.
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