Russia follows Belarusian steps! Right before Belarusian presidential elections in 2010, a song titled “Саня останется с нами” (“Sanya will remain with us”) became an overnight hit. While there wasn’t a direct reference to Alexander Lukashenko in the song, everyone understood that the song’s protagonist named Sanya was none other than the President of Belarus himself. Needless to say, government […]

All past week, Western media has been buzzing with the news: massive protests in Russia! After reading articles in The New York Times, The Washington Posts, and other reputable newspapers, one may think that revolution is about to take place in Russia.

Last night I watched 8 o’clock (8 PM CT) news on Russian First channel for one reason only, to see if the channel would report about the protests. And they did. According to the First channel news program, there were, indeed, protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg on December 10, 2011. They even interviewed several protesters, one of whom mentioned […]

On December 16th, 2010, Putin held a televised discussion with the Russian citizens. People from various regions in Russia had an opportunity to ask him questions directly. Here are some of the highlights of this dialogue. After the events on Manezhnaya Square on December 11, 2010, Putin stated firmly, “It is necessary to suppress displays of extremism from every corner.” […]