Although the international community has remained united in refusing to recognize Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian Crimea five years ago, it has been disturbingly willing to accept Russia’s narrative about the supposed mass support in Crimea for this move

This was not the former Ukrainian President’s first press conference since he fled to Russia after the bloodshed on Maidan and as on previous occasions, his message seemed closely coordinated with that coming out of the Kremlin

“Russia doesn’t abandon its own, it simply spits them out”, Olena Boiko said bitterly in a telephone interview given to a pro-Kremlin blogger from the train deporting her from Russia to Ukraine. 

Just like in Soviet times, reporting on Russian persecution of Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians can make you a persona non grata for Moscow. In Oliver Loode’s case, the ban is until he’s 99!

On the eve of a critical vote that could see Interpol headed by a Russian implicated in numerous political prosecutions, Russia has brought new charges against one of the Kremlin’s most implacable critics, Bill Browder

On 21 November 2018, at the 87th session of the General Assembly of INTERPOL, a new INTERPOL president will be elected. According to the report of reputable mass media, the representative of the Russian Federation, Major General of Police, Vice-President of INTERPOL Oleksandr Prokopchuk has the greatest chances to be elected for this post.

According to media reports,, Russian official Alexander Prokopchuk is likely to be appointed INTERPOL President next week. This will signal a major victory for Russia and a grave blow to the Kremlin’s political enemies and the many victims of persecution whom Russia is increasingly hunting via this vital international policing agency

The occupation authorities in Crimea appear to be planning to steal the property of the Mejlis, or self-governing body of the Crimean Tatar people, while describing this as ‘nationalization’.

The High Council of Justice [HCJ] has suspended Larisa Tsokol from serving as a judge pending a decision as to whether she should be dismissed from her post.

The Kremlin, in association with its political friends, is trying to get rid of this sanction without in the least changing its policy. This would mean that the Council of Europe would give up its normative foundations.

Russia has launched the first reactors of two thermal power stations built in occupied Crimea with Siemens gas turbines provided despite European Union sanctions.  The news comes 15 months after it became clear that the turbines had turned up in Crimea, and over three years after Siemens was first directly warned of the planned scam for bypassing sanctions.

Russia’s Union of Journalists has declared Kyrylo Vyshynsky, a Ukrainian journalist accused of treason for his propaganda support for Russia’s annexation of Crimea, its laureate for the ’Anna Politkovskaya Kamerton Award’, in a move condemned by one journalist as “plummeting the depths on a cosmic scale”

Lyudmila Kozlovska, a Ukrainian national who has lived in Poland with her Polish husband for 10 years, has been deported from the country in a move widely viewed as linked with the couple’s open criticism of the current government’s attack on the independent judiciary

The Supreme Court, headed by a strong critic of the government’s attack on the judiciary, is effectively the last bastion after systematic moves since 2015 to reign in all other judicial bodies and install loyal people in top posts

To preserve his life, cultural and public figures decided to write a letter to the political prisoner with a request to stop the indefinite hunger strike.

Vladimir Putin was clearly feeling emboldened by the coup that US President Trump gave him through the 16 July summit, and did not even bother to hide behind his customary subterfuge about Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea

The Kremlin’s assertion that Crimea will not be on the agenda during Vladimir Putin’s meeting with US President Donald Trump might be cheering given Trump’s apparent refusal to rule out ‘recognizing Crimea as Russian’, if it could be believed. It cannot, and not least because of the number of times Putin has said something quite different.

All of Ukraine’s leaders, including President Petro Poroshenko have just received ‘life sentences’ after an elaborate public ‘trial’ staged in the self-proclaimed and Russian-backed ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ [LPR].  The stunt, which public-sector workers were forced to attend, would not be worth a mention had it not been for the significant and very specific coverage it received on Russian state-controlled media.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has demanded an end to what he called “Russia-bashing” and said that it is time to “reconnect with Russia”.  

Despite the hoopla surrounding its “opening,” the bridge isn’t very useful as the roads leading up to it on both the Russian side and in Crimea won’t be ready until at least 2019. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Pavlo Klimkin, rightly tweeted: “Both ends of the bridge lead nowhere.”