(Image: Speedy314; Edited: JR / TO)Editor’s Note: David Krieger is the founding president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to educate and advocate for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons and to empower peace leaders. “We educate, advocate and empower – that’s what we do,” says Krieger. “We speak out. [...]
There is a lot to be seen in any cult of personality. As a central point there is the overwhelming feeling, carefully inculcated in people that salvation always comes from above. What the people are led to believe in is that as far as [...]
Roman Abramovich and his entourage appear at the high court to face charges made by Boris Berezovsky. Photograph: Rex Features It has been bizarre to watch, from the safe distance of Moscow, how the British press has reported the court case between Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky. All the classic ingredients of tabloid fare are there: vast [...]
Demonstrators gather to protest against election fraud claims, in Moscow. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Tens of thousands have taken to the streets of Moscow to protestagainst allegedly fraudulent elections, as opposition leaders issued scathing personal attacks on Vladimir Putin in the hope of preventing his return to the presidency next year. Mikhail Gorbachev has urged Putin to follow his [...]
Mikhail Gorbachev say Russia should hold fresh elections. Photograph: Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images Russian authorities should annul the parliamentary vote results and hold a new election, the ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has urged, as popular indignation grows over alleged election fraud. Thousands of Russians have rallied in Moscow and St Petersburg in the past two days, facing off [...]
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has pledged to review safety standards for nuclear facilities in India due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but India has more than 20 nuclear facilities planned for construction [GALLO/GETTY] Japan’s nuclear disaster has fuelled fear and uncertainty among the world’s producers of nuclear power. For India, an energy-starved country, much is [...]
They Were Truly Idiots’ Yevgeny Kondakov / DER SPIEGEL In a SPIEGEL interview, Mikhail Gorbachev, 80, discusses the last days of the Soviet Union, his failure to resolve problems with the Communist Party and the ensuing bloodshed he says still troubles him today. He also accuses Vladimir Putin of pulling the country “back into the [...]
Mikhail Gorbachev: I should have abandoned the Communist party earlier Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, said he should have left the Communist party months before the attempted coup of 1991. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images The former president looks back on his role in the fall of the Soviet Union 20 years ago [...]
It’s not radical Islam that worries the US — it’s independence Noam Chomsky The Guardian, February 4, 2011 “The Arab world is on fire,” al-Jazeera reported last week, while throughout the region, western allies “are quickly losing their influence”. The shock wave was set in motion by the dramatic uprising in Tunisia that drove out [...]
Every revolution is a surprise. Still, the latest Russian Revolution must be counted among the greatest of surprises. In the years leading up to 1991, virtually no Western expert, scholar, official, or politician foresaw the impending collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it one-party dictatorship, the state-owned economy, and the Kremlin’s control over its [...]
