by Sarah Hurst Vladimir Putin looked to be awarding himself around 74 percent of the vote in his spectacularly fraudulent election today, a big increase on his relatively modest 63 percent in 2012. With about 40 percent of the votes counted, the triumphant president briefly appeared on stage […]
by Sarah Hurst Russia’s military might is its crowning achievement, Vladimir Putin made clear today in his annual speech to the Federal Assembly, as he showed a series of videos of nuclear weapons and prototype weapons that he claimed have no parallel anywhere else in the world. The […]
by Sarah Hurst A judge in Tyumen has sentenced a volunteer at Alexei Navalny’s local campaign headquarters, Petr Kharitonov, to seven days in prison for speaking at the protest against Vladimir Putin’s rigged re-election on January 28. He was charged with “minor hooliganism”. Kharitonov held a sign at […]
by Sarah Hurst Thousands of people all over Russia responded to Alexei Navalny’s call for protests today, and Navalny himself was forcefully detained while walking with supporters down Moscow’s Tverskaya Street. Police manhandled him and loaded him in a prone position into one of their vehicles, driving him […]
by Sarah Hurst Vladimir Putin once again refused to say Alexei Navalny’s name at his annual press conference, instead comparing him to Mikheil Saakashvili in response to a question from presidential candidate and Dozhd TV reporter Ksenia Sobchak. Former Georgian president and Odessa Oblast governor Saakashvili has been […]
by Sarah Hurst Ksenia Sobchak, the liberal TV presenter running for president who has been criticised for playing into the hands of the Kremlin, is being threatened with prosecution over her comments on Crimea. Sobchak posted a letter on Instagram from the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office to Ruslan Ostashko, […]
by Sarah Hurst Ksenia Sobchak defied critics at a press conference today, putting forward a strong position and insisting that she is running for president because she wants to live in Russia and cares about its future. She started impressively by showing a video about political prisoners, including […]
by Sarah Hurst Alexei Navalny was released from prison this morning after serving a 20-day sentence, and went straight to the offices of his Foundation for Fighting Corruption, where he stopped briefly before flying to Astrakhan in southern Russia for an election rally in the evening. To celebrate […]
By Sarah Hurst Supporters of Alexei Navalny greeted Ksenia Sobchak’s announcement today that she was running for president primarily with disgust. The 35-year-old TV presenter and socialite whose late father Anatoly was Putin’s boss in St. Petersburg (and died in questionable circumstances) had been hinting at a run […]
Navalny vs. Putin 