Tag Archives: ukraine

TV anchor protest hits Russia’s RT

The Kremlin seems to have a rebellion on its hands – if only from within its own TV network. For the second time in three days, an anchor on RT, the global television network funded by the nation’s government, has harshly criticised Russia’s aggressive response to the crisis in Ukraine

Teenage girl transformed herself into a living cartoon character

Anime fan Anastasiya Shpagina has transformed herself into a living cartoon character, complete with miniature waist, vividly-coloured hair, and a defined pout. Originally from the Ukraine, the 19-year-old takes style inspiration from the cartoons and computer animations that have a huge following in Japan, and has even adopted a Japanese name – Fukkacumi. It is […]

Visiting Chernobyl 25 Years Later: Lessons for Fukushima

The 18.5-mile radius around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is known officially as the “zone of alienation.” Abandoned cars, tractors, buildings and homes litter the landscape and are slowly being devoured by trees and shrubs. A classroom bulletin board not far from the central Lenin Street in the town where the plant workers used to live reads, “No return

No Gas Deal at the E.U.-Russia Summit

The location may have been the first hint. The 23rd European Union-Russia summit on Friday was held in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk, a former Tsarist army outpost just a few dozen miles from the Chinese border and 5,000 miles east of Western Europe. The location seemed more aimed at inducing jet lag and awe at Russia’s size than at forging agreement on energy, an issue that has consistently soured relations between the two powers over the past months — and which the summit failed to resolve

Russia and Ukraine Battle Over Their Shared History

Fresh from their conflict over gas in January, Ukraine and Russia are again in the midst of a heated battle — this time about the countries’ shared Soviet past. As Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko this week lamented that Ukraine had become “a hostage in the fight between two totalitarian regimes — fascist and communist” and called for Soviet-era symbols around the country to be torn down, his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev ordered the creation of a presidential commission “to counter attempts to harm Russian interests by falsifying history.” These latest salvoes represent an intensification of the ongoing war of words between the two countries over their closely linked histories.