cafebabel.com

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?

Odessa to Vilkova: Ukraine's Venice

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:41:24 -0000

Inspired by British website 'Nerdy Day Trips', we should say that cafebabel.com isn’t just about metropolises and life in the big city, but also Europe’s far-flung corners. A German correspondent discovers pelicans, tortoises and old believers in a sleepy fishing village in Ukraine

Arab spring 2011 and Europe’s fall of communism in 1989

('Daniel Novotny',) — Tue, 24 May 2011 10:00:08 -0000

As the Maghreb goes through its transitions, a look at the lessons learned from central and eastern Europe. Opinion from Daniel Novotny, deputy director of the research centre at the association for international affairs in Prague

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?

Alice in Belarus (Wonderland): politician tries to enter local elections

('Peter Robbins',) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 12:50:27 -0000

This is the story of Olga Karatch, a Belarusian dissident and 'Nash Dom' human rights activist, and her participation in local elections in Belarus. Those were in May 2010, but Olga’s testimony has lost none of its relevance. Unfortunately, it's all too synonymous with the state of Belarusian politics as a whole, and with elections looming on 19 December

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’)

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

University-educated flee and woo Lithuania: emigration and erasmus

('Krisztian Gal',) — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:07:53 -0000

An increasing number of students are asking professor Žilvinas Martinaitis at the University of Vilnius to let them take their exams at the end of May. This would allow them to go abroad - most popularly, to the UK, Ireland or Scandinavia - to work, and return with some extra money in October, a month after the official term start. Lithuanian and eramus students, professors and politicians explain the phenomenon

Stalin, rock music and bad weather: story behind suicides in Lithuania

('Kate Stansfield',) — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:58:28 -0000

The River Neris splits Vilnius down the middle: to the North lies the university, the stadium and terraces with views; to the south is the heart of the capital: cobbled, colourful, and impeccable. But a sinister notice hangs from one of its bridges, followed by a telephone number

Berlin film festival: 60 years of masterpieces

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0000

The Berlin international film festival (or Berlinale) has been fraught with political struggles. Created by the allies of west Berlin right under the noses of communist dictators, it was a way of opening a window to the 'free' world. Over the years, it has developed into an unmissable world cinema event

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

Zhenya Strigalev: 'London's jazz scene is more open than Moscow's'

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

At 28, the prodigious composer and late-night jam-session organiser is the only Russian alto-sax player active on the London scene. We catch him at the launch of his new fusion set ‘Findamorale’ at the London jazz festival

The future is death metal-inspired art in Kosovo

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Contemporary art is just one bright face of the Kosovo prism, from which the works of the likes of 29-year-old visual artist Artan Balaj refract

UK, Russia: a new Iron curtain?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Two out of three British Council offices were deemed 'illegal' and closed down in Russia in January. A reflection on ties between the Kremlin and London

Arkady Babchenko: ‘Russia is the Germany of 1934’

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0000

Sent to the Chechen front at 18, the Russian ‘Novaya Gazeta’ columnist and colleague of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya, 31, lays bare the nightmares he endured in his semi-autobiographical 'One Soldier's War in Chechnya'

Putin: a (filmic) kiss for Valentine’s Day

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Two weeks before his handpicked successor takes over, a Russian film released on DVD on 14 February shows a rather different side to a fictional, unnamed outgoing Russian president

Minsk: the tidy road to regime perfection

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:00:00 -0000

Neat, elegant, so clean that you want to go barefoot – that is how the Lukashenko regime likes to present the capital of Belarus - the one visible to tourists, that is

Shams: Tajikistan’s answer to The Beatles

('Sarah Gray',) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:00:00 -0000

That’s how the band are known in their home country, where they are the most popular group around. Despite their success they’re still fighting the CD pirates and are broke at the end of the month

Meru - new Second Life

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:00:00 -0000

The alternative to Second Life has Europe in its sights, according to Vladlen Koltun, a 27 year old professor from Stanford

Estonian, language of the future?

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:00:00 -0000

From September 2007, the Russian minority have to officially learn Estonian in secondary schools - Irene Kaosaar, the head of linguistic minorities, on a 'transition' not a 'reform'

Soviet mentality brakes Lithuanian educational reform

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:32:00 -0000

The educational system has changed as many times as the capital of Vilnius has changed hands – the current system is as young as the independent country, and much criticised

Picturing faith in Vilnius

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Vilnius’ landscape is defined by the number of houses of worship scattered throughout it. This reflects the rich heritage Vilnius has with the number of religions that have co-existed together for hundreds of years

Putin, prime minister in 2008?

('Nicholas Dobson',) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0000

On 26 October, the EU-Russia summit in Mafra, Portugal could reveal the Tsar's energy policy or Kremlin successor ambitions. Poet and art critic Dmitry Golinko provides a Russian reaction

'I am a skinhead from Moscow'

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Russian magistrates, politicians and media are concealing more and more racist attacks on foreigners

Men creating men in Belarus

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0000

Art is politics - the second part in our series of profiles of artists trying to resist a ‘cultural Chernobyl’ in a Belarus stifled by president Aleksander Loukachenko

Czech and Polish missile shields as military targets?

Wed, 23 May 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Missile shields in Poland and the Czech Republic are military targets, according to Russia: if it cannot control its own airspace, Europe could become a global battleground

Free Theatre of Minsk: onstage resistance

Tue, 22 May 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The Belarusian independent theatre company uses black humour and underground performances to protest against 'Europe's last dictatorship'

Yuri Khashchevatsky: 'Being Belarusian is fashionable these days'

Fri, 18 May 2007 00:00:00 -0000

Visionary film director Yuri Khashchevatsky, 60, is a principal figure of Belarusian dissent. He criticises ineffective opposition, and talks up the new role the Internet plays in the resistance

'Gas-Opec': alarm bells for Europe

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:00:00 -0000

EU President Barroso calls for a common European energy policy, as Russian president Putin amongst others propose a gas cartel

Estonia: not democratic or tolerant enough

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:00:00 -0000

After Estonia’s parliamentary elections on March 4, Culture Minister Raivo Palmaru casts a critical eye over the nation’s press and young democracy

Missiles in East Europe – for or against the EU?

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Plans to build US missile sites force Europeans to reconsider their position

Georgian women, invisible citizens

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:00:00 -0000

Women’s rights are neglected in the Caucasus, as illustrated in Tblisi, Georgia's capital

Hasso Krull, voice of a new Estonia

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:06:00 -0000

As Estonia prepares to celebrate independence from the USSR, poet and intellectual Hasso Krull explains why Russian will never be an official language

Imran Ahhayev: ‘So long as there are fires in the mountains, Chechens will be around’

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The deadline for Chechen guerrilla surrender is January 15 2007. Imran Ahhayev, official envoy of Ichkeria to Estonia, says his people will fight to the death

‘12:08 East of Bucharest’: revolutionary rendevous

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

From the set of a local television station, three madcap characters attempt to understand what happened in their sleepy Romanian town the day that communism died

Sibiu: freestyling in the European arena

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0000

The Romanian city of Sibiu, in the Transylvania region, is making waves alongside Luxembourg as joint European Capitals of Culture 2007

Alone on the roof of central Asia

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:00:00 -0000

23-year-old Charchanbek is a herdsman in the high mountain pastures of Kyrgyzstan. This 'tchabane' lives as if secluded from the world, against a perfect and unspoilt cinematic background

Marius Ivaskevicius: no straight answers

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:35:00 -0000

33 year-old Marius Ivaskevicius is a poet, playwright and director who explores the complexity and melancholy of the Slavic soul. His works are at once tender and humourous