cafebabel.com

Fictional Russian hopefuls in 2012 elections

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:54:48 -0000

Russia’s presidential elections on 4 March are creeping ever closer. Following demonstrations across Russia in the wake of parliamentary elections in December, the run-away favourite Vladimir Putin is now more of a walk-away favourite. Who else is in this one-horse race?

Nightlife in Vilnius: ethnic minority benders

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:12:17 -0000

6.7% Polish, 6.3% Russian, 1.2% Belarusian, 0.7% Ukrainian, 0.1% Yiddish, 0.09% Tartar…approximately 115 communities of ethnic minorities were listed in this vein in a 2001 census in Lithuania. How integrated are these groups in local society? One way of finding out is by hitting the tiles

'What if?': students re-imagine 2011's big events

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:31:09 -0000

Protests, eurocrisis and elections: it's all too easy to assume the events we read about in the news are inevitable. Yet so often they are instead the result of chance encounters, spontaneous decisions and personal feelings. We asked four European students to re-imagine the big events of 2011

Voina: 'As a Russian activist, I'm not sure that I will live long'

('Annie Rutherford',) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:54:43 -0000

With organisers saying that almost 100, 000 people protested in Russia's biggest anti-governmental rally on 10 December - accusing the kremlin of 'fraud' in 4 December parliamentary elections - we hear from the Moscow-based self-styled 'street art gang' in part two of an exclusive interview, where they describe their role in this Russia

Russian art collective Voina: 'Zhlobs are in power in today's Russia'

('Annie Rutherford',) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:05:48 -0000

The Moscow-based self-styled 'street art gang' formed in 2005. Its four main members consist of president Leonid Nikolaev - who was arrested at an 'election fraud protest rally' on 5 December - ideologist Oleg Vorotnikov, coordinator Natalia Sokol and her son and Voina's youngest activist, two-year-old Kasper Can't-Take-Our-Eyes-Off-Him Sokol. Part one of an exclusive interview marks their brief history

Reforms and Russians: mapping young people’s stalled futures

('Agata Jaskot',) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:15:00 -0000

On 27 November Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin officially became a presidential candidate for 2012 elections in Russia. Whilst official surveys praise Papa Putin for what he has done for the country, where do the living conditions of young Russians count in the statistics?

Why I like Putin for president: young Russians speak

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:57:35 -0000

Russia will be going to the polls on 4 March 2012. Approval ratings indicate that Vladimir Putin is highly likely to be voted in for a third term as president. The current prime minister’s politics and image makes human rights activists and western politicians shudder. So what is it about him that makes the Russian tick?

Cyril Tuschi’s ‘Khodorkovsky’: 'I’m not so frightened - I’ll be flying to Moscow premiere'

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:24:34 -0000

The Berlin-based director on the power struggle between Vladimir Putin and the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky - who is probably Russia’s most famous prisoner - are depicted in his documentary thriller, which is to be released in Russia on 2 December - if all goes well. Interview

Boo-tin: Russian prime minister Vladimir catcalled in public

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:28:21 -0000

He has an impressive approval rating of 61%, yet life for Putin isn’t all rosy. The favourite for presidential elections in March 2012 experienced his first ever public ‘booing’ on 20 November. Is there a first time for everything, or was that just someone clamouring to be let out to the loo?

Wine production in Georgia: ‘passport to civilised world’

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:14:28 -0000

If you are thinking of going on a wine-tasting holiday, skip the south of France and head to the Caucausus. Wine tourism and industry is booming in Georgia, as it is largely supported by the current government

Pan-Slavism, Slovio and Polish the 'status symbol'

('Francesca Reinhardt',) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:00:00 -0000

The Slavic languages all have their roots in Proto-Slavic. Since the twelfth century, however, they have drifted apart. One of them reached its zenith in the seventeenth century: Polish

Searching for my German great-grandfather in Siberia

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 10:39:24 -0000

In summer 2010 my grandfather and I travelled to Rubtsovsk to find his father’s grave' he had died there as a prisoner of war in 1945. Far from civilisation, Rubtsovsk is a town of around 160, 000 inhabitants on the Russian-Kazakh border in southwest Siberia. My grandfather had been hoping to find his father’s burial place for over 65 years

Dear granddad, for Christmas I'd like a Eurasian union

('Virag Gulyas',) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:23:46 -0000

In October Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin proposed a 'Eurasian union' of former soviet nations that could be a major global player competing for influence with the US, the EU and Asia, creating instant headlines about the threat of Russian expansionism. Is Putin mastering geopolitics? Where are the limits of his modernisation strategy?

Strategy 31: Russians protest for right to demonstrate

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:24:18 -0000

Just a fortnight after the ‘indignant’ protests of Europe, Russians are marching onto their streets and into their squares. However, their motive isn't the greed of those in power but rather the violation of their right to peaceful assembly. Alexandra reports from Saint Petersburg

Elections 2012: glimpses of social network Putin-bashing

('Alexandra',) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:15:13 -0000

On 7 October, the 59th birthday of Vladimir Putin, one pro-kremlin activist composed a couplet with a nod to a soviet-era poem, ending with the words ‘thanks for this Putin’. The rhyme provoked a deluge of tweeted criticism levelled at the Russian prime minister. Could this be the beginning of a protest wave?

Russian art group Voina boycotts Moscow contemporary art biennale

('Annie Rutherford',) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:26:45 -0000

It's not the country that you'd expect to celebrate activist art. Held until 20 October, Moscow's fourth contemporary art biennale is not exactly a step towards the freedom of expression, especially since the famous Russian protest collective are paradoxically protesting against the biennale’s 'international festival of activist art'

Question of the week: if the euro dies, will Europe go with it?

('Annie Rutherford',) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:34:03 -0000

Everyone's talking about saving the euro - but is money really the only thing holding us together? That's this week's theme on Europa plus, cafebabel.com's project with German TV channel ZDF. Four young Europeans tell us what they think: add your two (euro) cents at here before Thursday 29 September!

Swiss, Spanish, German and Czech media on role-swapping Putin and Medvedev

('euro topics',) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:27:28 -0000

The Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin announced his candidacy for the presidential elections in March. The current Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev would take his job in parliamentary elections on 4 December... get it? This swap would cement Russia's reputation as an authoritarian state and bring the country to a political standstill, cry the EU media

Ukraine and Europe on 9 May 2011: tying ribbons

('Singing Foot',) — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:21:25 -0000

On 9 May 'Europe Day' marks the 61st anniversary of the European Union, but in Ukraine we will celebrate Victory Day. This time it will be special, because our MPs bound local authorities to hang red flags (‘Victory Flags’) alongside national yellow-blue flags. It has already aroused indignation amongst not only intellectuals, but all men of good sense too

Caviar: the most expensive food in the world

('Helen Swain',) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:44:47 -0000

When Louis XV spat those viscous fish eggs which Peter the Great had offered him back into the face of the Russian Tsar, the French king did not know that he was turning down a delicacy which was soon to become the most expensive and coveted food in the world. Plus, recipe

Slovakian actresses and North Caucasus terror in Moscow bomb attack

('euro topics',) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:00:00 -0000

35 people died and more than 150 were wounded in a bomb attack on Moscow's Domodedovo Airport on 24 January. If its proved that the suicide attacker was of North-Caucasian origin, it demonstrates once again Russia's inability to defuse the powder keg in the North Caucasus, say the Slovakian, Spanish, Polish and German press

Kaczynski crash investigation: Russia blames Poland, Poland sees red

('Sarah Hartley',) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:30:00 -0000

Scandal, mockery, insult. These were the words with which millions of Poles greeted the official report by Russian investigators on the crash of the Polish presidential aeroplane, made public on 12 January. The Russians see Poland as solely to blame for the accident. Warsaw is not issuing denials, but claims the investigation is incomplete

Flying coffins and Polish president plane crash: in search of answers

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:30:00 -0000

Russia and Poland have announced they are taking control of the Polish president Lech Kaczyński’s plane crash under their control. The shared investigation is one of many rapprochement strategies between the two countries, But more than six months after the investigation of the Polish national tragedy began, will the Russians be as transparent as they promised?

Five questions about the Korean conflict

('victor escandell',) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:45:00 -0000

On 23 November North Korea turned the heat up with the first attack on South Korea civilians since the end of the war in 1953. There were four casualties on Yeonpyeong Island. Spanish journalist Alberto Lebrón explains why diplomacy is working with the weapons loaded

Achmed Sakajew: ‘Chechnya is the only place in Europe devoid of law’

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:25:47 -0000

The former Chechen prime minister is critical of Europe’s farniente in the North Caucasus. Interview

Film review: The Last Station

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 12:00:00 -0000

The pre-Bolshevik biopic of the Leo Tolstoy's life stars a British cast and was shot in Germany rather than Russia. A Spaniard reviews the drama, which was released in the UK in February 2010 - the centenary of the great writer's death

The Gulag Archipelago now compulsory reading for 16-year-old Russians

('victor escandell',) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 07:00:00 -0000

The book is both a classic condemnation of Stalinist horror and nobel literature prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s most outstanding work. But why is the book in curriculums if the Kremlin has been softening Stalin’s image in the collective memory

The parallel (and enigmatic) life of Russian cinema

('Kate Stansfield',) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:12:19 -0000

Russia and its cinema are developing behind the EU's back. The films succeeding over there fail over here, and vice versa. Why? From Paris, a panel of experts decipher the unfathomable tastes of audiences on both sides of the former iron curtain over a screening of Pervyi Etazh (‘Ground Floor’)

Dym and dozhd: useful vocabulary for a smog summer in Moscow

('Natasha Doff',) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:17:11 -0000

Two words have been used more than any others in Moscow this summer. The smoke that has been periodically engulfing Moscow from over 500 wildfires burning across Central Russia for the past few weeks, and the long-awaited rain. Today, the city resembles a scene from a zombie film; it'll be like this until mid-August, forecasters say

Cheese People: 'European' face of Russian music

('Natasha Doff',) — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:12:33 -0000

From the banks of the River Volga just west of the Urals mountains, which mark the geographical border between Europe and Asia, a funky new band is making a big impact on the Russian music scene: an unsigned, energetic female-fronted quartet with a disco-punk sound. We meet backstage in Moscow

President dead: what political future for Poland?

('Dave Keating',) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:16:51 -0000

An election for a new president will need to be held in sixty days, but it’s hard to see how Polish society can pull itself together so quickly since their top illuminaries were largely killed in a plane crash on 10 April. Extract from cafebabel.com's Belgium-based American blogger 'Gulf Stream Blues'

Young Poles react: Lech Kaczynski death, 'second Katyn tragedy'

('Hanna Sankowska',) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:13:38 -0000

In the same place where the Polish elite was executed 70 years ago, a new Polish elite dies in a horrid aircrash, that leaves Poles at home and abroad in a state of shock. Young Poles across Europe help demystify the tragedy

News: Polish president Lech Kaczynski dies

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 18:54:06 -0000

Smolensk, Russia. The Tupolev crashed one morning in April, the 10th. Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and other high-figuring state officials were amidst 88 passengers and eight crew members who died instantly. Having tried to land amidst bad fog, the presidential plane hit the trees on the fourth attempt which tore the jet up

EU press react: Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's new president

('euro topics',) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:08:31 -0000

Five years after he was deposed by the Orange Revolution, the opposition leader won Ukraine's presidential elections on 7 February, narrowly edging out prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a runoff vote. The Swiss, Czech, Polish and Portuguese press bemoan the rise to power of a politician who is widely regarded as pro-Russian, but believes that Ukraine has now finally proven that it is truly democratic

Brits in the Baltics: Kaliningrad's shed soviet skin

('Ed Saunders',) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:57:16 -0000

‘Where are you from?’ asks Irina, a wealthy Muscovite, ‘and why are you in Kaliningrad?' She’s right to ask - without a McDonald’s or a stag party in sight, it's an unusual destination

Finding Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Russian Facebook

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Since early September, the German opposition candidate has had a profile on the Russian e-community network Odnoklassniki.ru, which translates to ‘classmates.ru’. The social democrats are looking for the Russian vote in Germany, which mainly voted for the incumbent CDU party in the 2005 elections

Nicolai Lilin talks tattoos, Bulgarians and Transdniestria

('Fiona Herdman Smith',) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:45:00 -0000

From Russia to Italy via Transdniestria. Siberian Education, the literary debut of Nicolai Lilin, tells the life story of a young man who, in spite of changing country and culture, has never forgotten the historic traditions of his original community. Interview with the 29 year-old writer and tattoo artist

Temuri Iakobashvili: 'Russia loves Georgia; they just don’t love the Georgian state'

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:15:33 -0000

Obama in Russia, G8, ‘military exercises’ - the post-August war scene looks set to reach 100 political degrees celsius. The vice prime minister of Georgia, 42, on his young political generation, family and mutual love

Soviet nostalgia: Russian drink, bunker parties and film in Vilnius

('Ed Saunders',) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:00:00 -0000

Twenty years after the Iron Curtain, the Baltic tiger is experiencing a bout of nostalgia. A young, trendy generation, fed up of hearing about the past, is looking back at a not-quite-so ‘carefree’ childhood under the soviet regime

Visit to the EHU: Belarusian elite university exiled in Vilnius

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:00:19 -0000

The decision was taken: the European humanities university, created in Minsk, Belarus in 1992, packed up to join Vilnius (and democracy) in 2004. In this oasis of free education, Belarusian youth have been exiled further and further to the west

Tourism in arms: the unexpected boost of Russian missiles in Kaliningrad

('Lydia Bigos',) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:38:24 -0000

When Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced the deployment of missiles in the Baltic region bordering Poland and Lithuania in November 2008, the western media frowned upon a resumption of the cold war of arms. Kaliningrad has rightly kept its distance from the Russian response to the planned US anti-missile shield, a diplomatic bluff

The Russian music rundown

('Lydia Bigos',) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:43:37 -0000

As the Eurovision song contest 2009 final takes place in Russia on 16 May, we check out the pop, hip hop and even central Asian choirs marking its music scene today. Music videos

Hear the one about the six men on a Mars500 space shuttle in Moscow?

('Hayley Worsley-Carter',) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:36:42 -0000

They'll be closed off from the world for 105 days - but it's all in the name of research. The Mars500 experiment simulates the journey to the Red Planet and focuses on the effects of isolation

Trade you my anti-missile shield for your Lisbon treaty

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:00:00 -0000

The incumbent EU president is still making itself the talk of the town. This time, it seems that the treaty will become a tool of pressure in return for the question of a little anti-missile shield. Latest tibit news from Brussels

Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova: ‘Russian murders shocking, but hardly a surprise’

('Iryna V',) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:44:50 -0000

As we mourn our lost Russian colleagues, Belarusians do not forget our own Baburovas, Politkovskayas and Klebnikovs. We remember why they perished. Expresso

Bosnia and Herzegovina: no gas makes for cold homes in Sarajevo

('Andrew Christie',) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:48:42 -0000

The countries of the former Yugoslavia are being hit especially hard by the dispute over gas between Russia and Ukraine. Above all, residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are having to wrap up warm: both countries are running short of gas supplies. Many homes in Sarajevo are still cold; electric heaters have sold out

Photos: 111 000 Russians in Estonia

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Beyond the historic gates of the old town, around the commercial centres, behind the motorways - the Russian-speaking minority mill on with life in the district of Lasnamaï in Tallinn. Photo feature

Press review: EU-Russia summit in Nice, friends again?

('euro topics',) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:55:23 -0000

In a 14 November meeting in the southern French city, the EU wants to resume negotiations for a partnership agreement with Russia. Talks had been temporarily broken off after the August conflict in Georgia

Choose a language - Belarusian or Russian

('Sarah Meleleu',) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:00:00 -0000

In Belarus opinions do not only differ on the domineering president Lukaschenko, who has announced a general election for 28 September

LinEa babelblog: caricatures in democracy

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:45:00 -0000

A babelblog where satire is a speciality. Italian and Belgian cartoonists