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Russian president Vladimir Putin meets US president George W. Bush in the Oval Office at the White House on November 13, 2001. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

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On 12 September 2001, Russian president Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to call George W. Bush to express his condolences – and to offer him support.

Just the previous year, Putin had said Russia joining NATO was a possibility and it suited Russia to draw parallels between the terrorist attacks on the US and its own ‘anti-terrorist’ campaign in Chechnya at the time.

Even though much of the Russian commentary about 9/11 professed empathy rather than sympathy, in their eyes the US was both a victim – as Russia likes to see itself – and ‘had it coming’ while Russia was blameless.…  Seguir leyendo »

El grupo catalán Tsunami Democràtic también bloqueó la AP-7, una de las principales carreteras de España a Francia

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En la primavera de 2019, un emisario de un alto líder del movimiento separatista de Cataluña viajó a Moscú en busca de un salvavidas político.

El movimiento de independencia de Cataluña, la región semiautónoma en el noreste de España, había sido en gran parte derrotado tras un referéndum independentista dos años atrás. La Unión Europea y Estados Unidos, que apoyaban los esfuerzos de España para mantener al país intacto, habían rechazado los pedidos de ayuda de los separatistas.

En Rusia, sin embargo, una puerta se abría.

En Moscú, el emisario, Josep Lluis Alay, un alto consejero del expresidente catalán autoexiliado Carles Puigdemont, se reunió con funcionarios rusos, con exagentes de inteligencia y con el nieto de un espía de la KGB, un hombre muy bien conectado.…  Seguir leyendo »

Police detain a journalist holding a poster that reads "We will not stop being journalists" during picketing in Moscow on Aug. 21. (Denis Kaminev/AP)

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“This message was created by foreign mass media performing the function of a foreign agent”. Under Russian law, this is what I have to write every time I publicly post anything online — whether it’s a cat photo on Instagram, a birthday wish for a friend or this article. I have no other choice — because I’m a journalist.

If I fail to include such a disclaimer — or if I commit one of the many other possible violations of the Russian foreign agent law meant to silence freedom of the press and freedom of speech — I risk going to prison.…  Seguir leyendo »

It’s Now or Never. Biden Must Stop Putin’s Beloved Pipeline

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For the first time in over four years, a Ukrainian president is coming to the White House.

On Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine will meet with his American counterpart. They’re likely to cover a variety of issues: the state of relations with Russia; Ukraine’s fight against corruption; and the challenges of the pandemic. After thanking President Biden for America’s continued support and assistance, the Ukrainian leader may gently inquire about NATO membership.

It should be a good meeting. But there will be a large elephant in the room: Nord Stream 2. Beloved of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the natural gas pipeline threatens the security of Europe — and Ukraine especially.…  Seguir leyendo »

La desaparición de la primera generación de disidentes rusos

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En noviembre de 1988, cuando el gran físico y premio Nobel de la Paz Andréi Sájarov realizó su única visita a los Estados Unidos, pidió a algunos de sus compañeros de activismo por los derechos humanos que lo acompañaran. Uno de ellos era el biólogo Sergei Adamovich Kovalev, que falleció este 9 de agosto a la edad de 91 años.

La visita de Sájarov fue una ocasión notable. Tras ser obligado a residir en la ciudad provincial de Gorki (hoy Nizhni Nóvgorod) hasta diciembre de 1986, cuando el Presidente soviético Mijaíl Gorbachov, en un gesto de relajación de la represión estatal, le hizo saber por teléfono que podía volver a Moscú.…  Seguir leyendo »

Police detain a journalist with a poster that reads, “We will not stop being journalists,” in Moscow on Aug. 21. Russian police have detained several journalists who protested authorities' decision to label a top independent TV channel as a “foreign agent."(Denis Kaminev/AP)

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Russians — and longtime Russia watchers — have grown accustomed to political repression campaigns the government of Vladimir Putin has regularly launched over the past 20 years. But the situation in 2021, in the lead-up to parliamentary elections Sept. 19, appears quite different.

In the past, the Russian government would target specific organizations or individuals, relying on this selective repression to motivate self-censorship among the rest of the population. In the past year, however, the Kremlin has now attacked journalists, lawyers, activists and opposition politicians — targeting virtually all segments of Russia’s civil society. Some Russians were arrested or forced into exile, while others are jobless after the government shut down foreign or nongovernmental entities.…  Seguir leyendo »

De la solidaridad a la suspicacia: 30 años de oportunidades perdidas

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Unidos por un intenso sentimiento de libertad, cruzábamos el río Moscova por el puente de Kalinin (hoy puente del Nuevo Arbat) el 22 de agosto de 1991. Éramos una multitud y acabábamos de asistir en Moscú al mitin que simbólicamente daba por concluida aquella pesadilla de tres días en los que un grupo de altos funcionarios del Estado, constituidos en el Comité Estatal de Situaciones de Emergencia (el llamado GKCHP, por sus siglas en ruso) había intentado frenar la historia y evitar la firma del Tratado de la Unión, el documento que iba a dar amplias competencias a las repúblicas federadas de la URSS (Unión de Repúblicas Socialistas Soviéticas) y a cercenar los poderes centrales del Estado, vertebrado en torno al partido comunista.…  Seguir leyendo »

A worker in St. Petersburg paints over a poster of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on April 28. The inscription reads: “The hero of the new times.” (Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images)

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Leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was poisoned on Aug. 20, 2020. After recovering in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia this year and was imprisoned, after which the authorities launched an unprecedented crackdown on the political movement he has led since the late 2000s. Navalny faces more than two years in prison, and probably longer: Russian law enforcement opened new criminal cases against him and his team this month.

The crackdown may not seem surprising, as investigations by Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation have alleged extensive corruption among the political elite, including Russian president Vladimir Putin himself.

Since 2019, Navalny and his team have coordinated “Smart Voting,” a tactical voting project to mount electoral challenges to United Russia, the Kremlin-backed “party of power.”…  Seguir leyendo »

Belarus president Aliaksandr Lukashenko and Russia president Vladimir Putin attend a ceremony together to unveil the Rzhev Memorial to the Soviet Soldier near the village of Khoroshevo, Russia. Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev\TASS via Getty Images.

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On 9 August, the anniversary of last year’s fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus, the UK, the US, and Canada imposed sectoral sanctions on Belarus, targeting key exports such as potash and crude oil, and the UK closed its financial markets to Belarusian debt and securities.

President Aliaksandr Lukashenka responded by saying the UK could ‘choke on your sanctions’ which may seem an empty threat viewed from the safe distance of London but, for Belarus’ closest neighbours Lithuania, Poland and Latvia, the choking could become very real.

When the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions, Lukashenka responded by flying in waves of migrants from the Middle East and delivering them to the border to cross into the EU – a tactic last seen by Russia against Nordic states in 2015.…  Seguir leyendo »

Boys stay on top of the war memorial complex Savur-Mohyla, damaged in the recent conflict, outside the rebel-held city of Donetsk, Ukraine 8 September 2020. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

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The war in eastern Ukraine began in March 2014. It pits separatists backed by Russia against the Ukrainian government in two industrial regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, which are part of an area known as Donbas. The war was ugliest in its first year, when battles raged for territory and strategic position. Two peace agreements – known as the Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015 – put an end to the major fighting. They also laid out a roadmap for the reabsorption of the separatist-controlled regions into Ukraine, which calls, among other things, for Kyiv to grant these areas limited self-governing status.…  Seguir leyendo »

El coste político del gasoducto Nord Stream 2

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Si Angela Merkel se hubiera retirado antes de las elecciones de 2017 tras 12 años en el cargo, la gente la habría recordado por su valiente decisión de abrir las fronteras alemanas a casi un millón de refugiados en 2015. Lo que la gente recordará ahora es su último gran éxito político, si se le quiere llamar así: conseguir que Joe Biden acepte que se concluya el gasoducto Nord Stream 2.

El gasoducto, ideado por Gerhard Schröder, es un símbolo de la amistad rusogermana. También es un símbolo de la división europea. Los Estados bálticos y Polonia, así como Ucrania, ven en ella una violación a gran escala de sus intereses de seguridad.…  Seguir leyendo »

El juego de Putin con culturas y fronteras

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El presidente de Rusia aborda a su manera el 30 aniversario del fin de la URSS que se cumple el próximo diciembre. Vladímir Putin considera la disolución de aquel Estado como la explosión de una “mina de acción retardada”, siendo la “mina” el derecho a abandonar la Unión Soviética, que las 15 repúblicas federadas integrantes de aquel país poseían en virtud de su Constitución y de su tratado fundacional (Tratado de la Unión de 1922).

Ya en 2005 Putin calificó el fin de la URSS como “la mayor catástrofe geopolítica” del siglo XX, pero el tema, y sobre todo Ucrania, ronda en la cabeza del presidente hasta hoy.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping via video conference in Moscow on June 28. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

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At the very moment that Russia and China are facing more pressure from Western governments to stop malicious cyberattacks, they’ve announced a pact to work together for new rules to control cyberspace.

In the annals of diplomatic hypocrisy, this new accord is a stunner, even by Russian and Chinese standards. It promotes a new Russian plan for international governance of the global Internet, even as it stresses the right of Russia, China and other authoritarian states “to regulate the national segment of the Internet” to edit and censor what their people can see.

The June 28 Russia-China accord was revealed in a little-noticed posting the next day by the Chinese embassy in Moscow, which was sent to me by a European Internet activist.…  Seguir leyendo »

El peligroso relato sobre Ucrania de Putin

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El presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, está obsesionado con Ucrania –o, más bien, con pretender que Ucrania no existe-. En su programa anual de llamadas en vivo el 30 de junio, dijo que “los ucranianos y los rusos son un solo pueblo”. Luego publicó un artículo destinado a justificar esa “convicción”, rastreando la historia compartida de los dos países. Es una clase maestra de desinformación –y prácticamente una declaración de guerra.

Putin empieza su relato en la Antigua Rus, donde rusos, ucranianos y bielorrusos estaban unidos por una lengua y –después del “bautismo de Rusia” en la religión ortodoxa- por una fe hasta el siglo XV.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny sits in a cage during a hearing Feb. 12 on his charges of defamation in the Babuskinsky District Court in Moscow. (Babuskinsky District Court Press Service via AP) (AP)

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Over the past week, Russia’s political parties have been submitting nomination papers for their candidates in September’s parliamentary election. In some cases, gathering the documents has proved more difficult than in others.

One such case involves Yabloko, the last (genuine) opposition party that still retains ballot access — a relic of Russia’s brief stint with democracy in the 1990s. Its list of candidates for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, includes Andrei Pivovarov, an opposition activist held in pretrial detention and facing up to six years in prison on a charge of belonging to an “undesirable organization” (in his case, the now-defunct Open Russia, founded by exiled Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky).…  Seguir leyendo »

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Last week, Russian forces spied the British destroyer HMS Defender on routine patrol in the Black Sea. Specifically, a part of the Black Sea that's very sensitive to Russia: inside the territorial waters of Crimea. That's what Putin calls Russian territory, and much of the world still thinks belongs to the sovereign -- and pro-Western -- nation of Ukraine.

Matters got a bit sticky when the Defender crossed into Crimea's territorial waters. The Russian military says it fired warning shots across the bow, and then 11 minutes later, two Su-24M bombers dropped bombs in the path of the ship. No damage was done.…  Seguir leyendo »

Rusia, el vecino difícil

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Hace unos años viajé a lo largo de la casi interminable frontera de Rusia, a través de catorce países, desde Corea del Norte hasta Noruega, para averiguar qué significa tener como vecino al país más grande del mundo. Treinta años después del fracasado golpe de Estado de agosto de 1991 —el principio del fin de la existencia de la Unión Soviética—, el Kremlin sigue proyectando sombras sobre las antiguas repúblicas soviéticas.

Georgia

Grandes letreros azules anunciaban en ruso, georgiano, e incluso en inglés que nos hallábamos junto a la frontera de Osetia del Sur. Una ancha alambrada de espino marcaba claramente la delimitación de la frontera entre Georgia y aquella república independiente.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks at the news media as he meets with President Biden on June 16 in Geneva. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

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As September’s parliamentary elections approach, Russia has made it increasingly difficult for independent media — outlets that are neither owned nor directly controlled by the Kremlin — to continue operating. And it’s doing so whether or not the outlets criticize the Kremlin.

VTimes, an online Russian news site, shut down on June 12, Russia’s Independence Day, a month after the Kremlin designated its domain administrator a “foreign agent” — which exposed VTimes editors and journalists to criminal prosecution and possible imprisonment.

The VTimes story reveals the many tactics Russia deploys to silence independent media. Our research shows that, at least in the short run, this tactic may reduce media coverage critical of the government.…  Seguir leyendo »

British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender in the port of Odessa on Ukraine's Black Sea coast. Photo by Konstantin Sazonchik\TASS via Getty Images.

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HMS Defender entered the Black Sea knowing it would be an eventful visit. Between friendly port stops in Ukraine and Georgia, passing by the tense region of Russian-occupied Crimea was bound to be a serious business.

Moscow likes to claim that foreign ships or aircraft in its vicinity change course and retreat when challenged by Russian forces. It is usually a fiction, but Russia needs to tell its people two stories – that it is under threat from a dangerous, aggressive West, but also that Russia itself is strong and can protect itself and see off unwelcome intruders.

This leads it not only to carry out aggressive and dangerous manoeuvres close to Western aircraft and ships on and above the seas around Russia, but also to concoct fanciful stories about the supposed power and reach of Russian weapons, including in the Black Sea.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Tiene que ser una cumbre muy importante para empequeñecer la del G-7. De un lado, Joe Biden, todavía con olor a nuevo y con la misión de recuperar el liderazgo del Capitán América. Del otro, Vladímir Putin, con el olor a rancio del autócrata impertinente y con la misión de sentarse en la mesa de los más poderosos, aunque no tenga con qué pagar la cuenta.

La puesta en escena, una hermosa villa del siglo XVIII con vistas al Lago de Ginebra, porque los suizos siguen viviendo de estar bien con Dios y con el diablo. Vamos, de hacerse los suizos, como hicieron en 2014 al no unirse a las sanciones occidentales contra Moscú por la anexión de Crimea.…  Seguir leyendo »