Kevin O'Flynn

Also by Kevin O'Flynn

• October 24, 2009

  St. Pete Skyscraper Debate Opens Rift in Russian Elite

  Doubts have surfaced over whether long-standing plans by the Russian energy giant Gazprom to erect a $2 billion, 400-meter skyscraper in St. Petersburg will go ahead. Fierce public opposition to the project has sparked a rare phenomenon -- debate and dissent within Russia's political elite.

• October 20, 2009

  Cash-Strapped Science Looks To Government Support

  Russia came away empty-handed from the Nobel science prizes this month for the sixth year in a row. The lack of recognition of this former powerhouse of scientific achievement is prompting soul-searching about the dire state of Russian science.

• October 12, 2009

  From Political Elite To Political Outsider

  In a new book, Mikhail Kasyanov, a member of Boris Yeltsin's inner circle and prime minister early in the Putin presidency, details his transition from insider to outsider. "Without Putin" offers a scathing critique of the current prime minister, including claims Putin turned on his mentor in the years before Yeltsin's death.

• October 09, 2009

  City Elections A Lesson In Controlled Democracy

  It would've been the end for any ordinary mayor: a friend suspected of a billion-dollar contraband scheme, your wife accused of using connections to build a massive fortune, and your 17 years in power condemned by a prominent opposition leader in a report on corruption. And there's an election coming up.

• September 12, 2009

  Creaking Infrastructure Evident From Siberia To Streets Of Moscow

  Nearly two decades after the Soviet collapse, economic crisis is the latest factor in the erosion of funding and state supervision to maintain Russia's creaking infrastructure. And the problem extends well beyond the dam disaster that killed scores of people last month.

• August 23, 2009

  Russians Loyal To Their Version Of Molotov-Ribbentrop

  To mark the 70th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Russian media have been pushing a version of events that ignores the secret protocols and views the pact as a logical extension of the pan-European negotiations that preceded the start of World War II.

• August 17, 2009

  Mikhalkov Directs Himself Back In Charge

  Russia's resurgent film industry grossed nearly $550 million in 2008. But many filmmakers say the business is being put in a chokehold by a few influential figures -- most notably actor/director Nikita Mikhalkov, a close Kremlin ally who this year fought his way back to the top of the powerful Cinematographers' Union.

• August 08, 2009

  Market Closure Still Reverberates In Moscow

  It's doubtful that Hollywood glitterati knew much about the backdrop for a lavish hotel launch they attended on Turkey's Mediterranean coast as this summer approached. But there was a direct connection between that late-May event and the closure of a massive outdoor market some 2,000 kilometers away, outside Moscow: Azerbaijani-born owner Telman Ismailov.

• July 22, 2009

  Couple Takes On Russia In Fight For Same-Sex Marriage

  Thirty-year-old Moscow resident Irina Fedotova-Fet has big plans this September. She'll travel to Canada, a country she's never visited, and marry her longtime partner, 32-year-old Irina Shepitko. Then comes the hard part -- trying to get her same-sex marriage recognized by authorities back home, where homosexuality remains a deep taboo.

• July 07, 2009

  Vox Pop: Obama Receives Mixed Reception

  Barack Obama is in Russia, on his first visit as U.S. president, trying to "reset" relations with Russia after they descended into acrimony during the Bush administration. So how are the residents of one small town in Russia's North Caucasus taking to Obama?

• July 06, 2009

  Russia's Black Community And The Obama Effect

  Barack Obama's first presidential trip to Moscow stirs particular interest among a minute section of the Russian public -- the fraction of the country's black and mixed-race Russians. Does the arrival of America's first black president hold special meaning for African-Russians?

• June 30, 2009

  Luck Runs Out For Russian Casinos, Gaming Halls

  An industry is closing up shop in Russia. At the stroke of midnight, all the casinos and slot-machine arcades across the country will close, and gambling will be permitted only in four Las Vegas-style zones decreed by the Kremlin. The only problem is there is nothing in these zones yet.

• June 28, 2009

  Police Crime Wave Sparks Talk Of Reform In Russia

  Police in Russia have never enjoyed much respect. But their reputation has sunk to a new low after a Moscow district chief went on a shooting rampage in a supermarket. The question many Russians are asking is: Can anything be done about the culture of impunity among Russia's police?

• June 25, 2009

  Politkovskaya Acquittals Overturned

  Russia's Supreme Court has overturned the acquittals of three defendants in the shooting of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, ordering a retrial. It's a case that many regard as a key test of authorities' commitment to the rule of law.

• June 24, 2009

  Russian Standardized Exams Fail Public Test

  Russian schoolchildren all over the country have just completed the first Unified State Exam, or EGE, a new end-of-school series of standardized tests that academics and students say is damaging the country's academic standards.

• June 08, 2009

  Kidnapping Raises Questions About Rule Of Law In Russia

  The teenage son of a vice president of Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft was kidnapped outside his college more than two months ago, although the news was only made public last week. The kidnapping has sparked speculation that the crime is part of a battle against one of the top men in the country's ruling elite.

• May 30, 2009

  Officials Turned Poachers Rile Russian Public

  In Russia, two fatal helicopter crashes this year have exposed a predilection among the country's political elite to engage in illegal hunting excursions. The incidents have sparked outrage among local populations who see the authorities as putting themselves above the law.

• May 29, 2009

  Fortunes Dim, Migrants' Children Get Left Behind

  The post-Soviet period has seen millions of people from Central Asia and the South Caucasus migrate to Russia in search of work. One consequence of that trend has been a rise in migrants' children living in Russian orphanages after being abandoned or taken away from neglectful parents.

• May 15, 2009

  Will Russia's Debut As Host Be A Triumph, Or A Scandal?

  Russia, host to this year's Eurovision Song Contest, is staking national pride and an unprecedented $42 million on the event. Even Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has gotten in on the act. But this year's concert could be remembered more for its scandals than its songs.

• May 10, 2009

  Russian Shamans Vote For First Nationwide Leader

  A small minority of Russians from Kamchatka to Moscow believe in the practices of shamans, men and women who perform healing rituals and speak to the spirit world. Their faith is rarely recognized by the mainstream, but two believers are seeking to change that by organizing the first-ever election for a chief Russian shaman.

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