Julie Corwin

Also by Julie Corwin

• August 05, 2005

  Russia: Losing Words, Losing Knowledge

  Students in Grozny learning the Chechen language The 9th of August will mark the beginning of the second decade of the UN's observation of the World's Indigenous Peoples -- an international day created to register concern for the rights and welfare of indigenous peoples.

• July 29, 2005

  Russia: Will Putin Follow In Nazarbaev's Footsteps?

  Russian President Putin (file photo) Last week --> /featuresarticle/2005/7/681C29CC-5E17-4411-9976-2E3A041ECCB2.html , Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke out strongly against the foreign funding of Russian nongovernmental organizations that engage in political activities. The presidential press service has not issued any follow-up statements explaining what Putin meant by "political activities," nor has Vladimir Lukin, the presidential ombudsman for human rights, offered an explanation.

• July 22, 2005

  Russia: Leonid Nevzlin -- How The Mighty Have Fallen

  Although he appeared before a U.S. congressional committee only last week, Leonid Borisovich Nevzlin's political and personal fortunes have been steadily declining ever since the October arrest of his closest business partner, former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovskii. In 2003, Nevzlin appeared on "Forbes'" list of the world's richest people with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. This year, his name disappeared from the list.

• July 15, 2005

  Uzbekistan: Is Russia Helping Tashkent Clean Up After Andijon?

  The Uzbek opposition says more than 700 died in the Andijon events On 25 July, a criminal trial against two local employees of the U.S.-based nongovernmental organization Internews will begin in Tashkent. The two employees are accused of "conspiracy to engage in production of videos and publications of informational materials without the necessary licenses." According to the organization's press release of 5 July, the criminal charges followed "a year of harassment and 'fishing expeditions' by various branches of Uzbekistan's investigatory organs." If convicted they could spend six months behind bars, according to Reporters Without Frontiers.

• June 24, 2005

  Russia: Media Deals Signal Beginning Of Election Season

  Russian newspapers covered the Beslan school tragedy differently from TV (a photo from "Izvestiya") Changes have been rippling through Russia's print-media market in recent weeks, as owners are selling off stakes and reshuffling their management teams. Some analysts suspect the goal of these measures is to boost pliability rather than profitability. With State Duma elections scheduled for December 2007 and presidential elections the following spring, it would seem that it is not too early to start planning.

• June 20, 2005

  Russia: Police Brutality Shows Traces Of Chechnya

  Police arrest ultranationalists in Moscow in April 2004 Stavropol Krai's human rights ombudsman Aleksei Selyukov last week sent a complaint to the krai prosecutor about alleged massive violations of human rights in the town of Ivanovskoe in the Kochygbeevskoe Raion on the night of 11 June, when Interior Ministry troops reportedly rounded up more than 30 local youths at the town's disco, yufo.ru and Regnum reported on 17 June.

• June 13, 2005

  Russia: Rock's Revolutionary Influence

  Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko speaking before a rally during last year's presidential campaign Last year, the Ukrainian pop artist Ruslana, a brunette scantily clad in a leather and fur ensemble, won the Eurovision song contest with a song featuring traditional Ukrainian instruments. At this year's contest, another Ukrainian group, GreenJolly, vied for the top honor on home turf in Kyiv. But the trio of pale, plumpish men from Ivano-Frankivsk placed only 20th out of 24 with their rap song "Razom Nas Bahato." Contributing to their weak finish were poor marks from the Russian and Belarusian judges who awarded the group two and zero points, respectively.

• June 06, 2005

  Russia: Country's Critics Play New Ethnic Card

  Russia, the world's largest country in terms of land mass, has some 145 million people and more than 160 nationalities, but international attention in recent weeks has focused on just one of these ethnic minorities, the Marii people.

• May 23, 2005

  Belarus: Planning The Next Revolution?

  Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka (file photo) Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Nikolai Patrushev's recent suggestion that foreign intelligence services are seeking ways to overthrow the current Belarusian government has focused new attention on Belarus's political opposition, particularly its youngest members, since youths were at the forefront of recent colored revolutions in the region.

• May 12, 2005

  Poland/Russia: Ballerinas Take The Fall In War Of Words

  Kwasniewski urged Russia to acknowledge "historical facts and an historic evil" Commemorations of World War II have added to existing strains in the Russian-Polish relationship. This week, a Russian ballet troupe had to cancel a series of performances in Poland due to a massive return of tickets, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported on 11 May. On 9 May, the 60th anniversary of the victory in World War II, Warsaw's Sala Kongresowa was less than half-full and on 10 May, performances in Olsztyn, Lublin, and Krakow were cancelled as patrons returned their tickets in droves.

• May 02, 2005

  Central Asia: How To Survive As A Journalist In Uzbekistan

  As Uzbekistan prepares for parliamentary elections on 26 December, its national press corps must figure out a way to write about the race without uncovering any unseemly details. In a long article on the website of the Committee for Freedom of Speech and Expression of Uzbekistan (http://www.freeuz.org) published on 29 June, an author identified only as D. Morfius, a likely pseudonym, offers a unique peek at the unwritten rules for writing -- or rather not writing -- news in Uzbekistan. Uzbek journalists face a special challenge: They must express confidence about the inevitable victory of good (the forces of President Islam Karimov) over evil, while at the same time avoid declaring that the result of the election is known well in advance.

• May 02, 2005

  Russia: FSB Hoping To Put Revolution On Hold?

  Does the Russian government think the Internet could organize a "colored" revolution in Russia? Dmitrii Frolov, a top Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) official, told legislators in Russia this week that the service considers it necessary to increase its control over the Internet on the grounds that it is winning "an ever larger audience and becoming a serious player on the information field capable of shaping public opinion." Frolov also called for the mandatory registration of mobile phones with Internet access. While the FSB's calls for greater regulation of the Internet is hardly new, its appeals had previously been based on the need to stem the spread of pornography and information about how to build bombs and other explosives, according to gazeta.ru on 28 April.

• April 27, 2005

  Russian Republic Counters Threat Of 'Revolution'

  27 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Authorities in Russia's ethnic republic of Bashkortostan have countered opposition talk of a "revolution" by announcing plans to minimize political activity in the region during the upcoming May holidays, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reported.

• April 21, 2005

  Russia: 'A Youth Movement Needs A Leader'

  Vasilii Yakemenko (file photo) On 15 April the pro-Kremlin youth organization Nashi (Ours) held its inaugural congress and elected Vasilii Grigorevich Yakemenko and four others as leaders of the movement. The same day, retired world chess champion Garri Kasparov blamed Nashi for an incident earlier that day in which a young man attacked him with a chessboard. Many political analysts -- and Kasparov, apparently -- see the group's agenda as trying to tap into Russia's growing nationalism and xenophobia.

• April 19, 2005

  East: Regime Change On The Cheap

  Otpor protesters in 2000 (file photo) A persistent impression in the non-Western media is that the U.S. government along with a group of Western foundations financed the recent revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and Georgia by funneling money to the revolutions' most activist element, young people.

• March 24, 2005

  Analysis: Russian Police's 'Clean-Up Operations' Extending Beyond Chechnya?

  Allegations of police beating law-abiding citizens during clean-up operations are no longer confined to Chechnya and are now being recorded in the rest of the Russian Federation. Following reports of a four-day long rampage by police in Blagoveshchensk, Bashkortostan last year, three more Russian cities have reported similar cases this month of police actions involving the rounding up of large numbers of citizens who were allegedly beaten up -- and even tortured -- in police custody.

• March 13, 2005

  Kasparov Trades Chess For Politics

  Garri Kasparov For the last two decades, one man -- Garri Kasparov -- has dominated the world of chess. But now the world's number one says he has played his last professional game, and he's going into politics instead.

• March 07, 2005

  Analysis: Is Russia Hoping For Revolution In Moldova?

  Presidents Voronin and Putin are no longer so friendly In the run-up to Moldova's 6 March parliamentary elections, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili both met with Moldovan President and Party of Moldovan Communists Chairman Vladimir Voronin. On the face of it, the three leaders would not appear to have much in common. Voronin is a communist and an incumbent, while Saakashvili and Yushchenko were elected by opposition movements following a wave of street protests. But pressure from Moscow has created an alliance of sorts among the three: While visiting Chisinau on 2 March, Saakashvili expressed his concern about the interference of unspecified Russian forces in the Moldovan election campaign.

• March 02, 2005

  Analysis: Walking With Putin

  The pro-Putin youth movement Walking Together announced on 1 March that it has created a new youth movement called Nashi (Ours). According to a press release published on pravda.ru, which quotes Walking Together founder Vasilii Yakemenko, the goal of the new "anti-fascist" movement is to put an end to the "anti-Fatherland union of oligarchs, anti-Semites, Nazis, and liberals." Several Moscow-based newspapers reported the goal of the new group is actually a bit more specific: to eventually replace the party of power, Unified Russia.

• February 28, 2005

  Analysis: Belarusian Journalist Investigating Iraqi Arms Sales On Eve Of Slaying

  Police believe a domestic dispute was behind Charkasava's slaying New information recently emerged about how Belarusian journalist Veranika Charkasava spent the last few months of her life: She was investigating alleged Belarusian arms shipments to Iraq. Despite this new information, Belarusian investigators continue to have only one suspect in her murder, her 15-year-old son Anton Filomonov. He fled to Moscow this month to avoid being detained in a closed psychiatric facility.

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