Tag Archives: Soviet Union

Bloomberg News reports: Vladimir Putin is going on a property hunt, ordering officials to find Russian assets that once belonged to its former empire or were owned by the Soviet Union. An order from the Russian president published late Thursday allocated funding for a state unit to conduct searches for property abroad and ensure Russia’s ownership rights are registered. The …

The Associated Press reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev but will not attend the late former Soviet leader’s funeral, a decision reflecting the Kremlin’s ambivalence about Gorbachev’s legacy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that prior to departing for a working trip to Russia’s westernmost Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Putin visited a Moscow hospital where …

Via press release from the White House: Mikhail Gorbachev was a man of remarkable vision. When he came to power, the Cold War had gone on for nearly 40 years and communism for even longer, with devastating consequences. Few high-level Soviet officials had the courage to admit that things needed to change. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations …

Sky News reports: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91, according to Russia’s Interfax News Agency. He was known for ending the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the break-up of the Soviet Union. When pro-democracy protests swept across the Soviet bloc nations of communist Eastern Europe in 1989, he refrained from using …

The Sunday Times reports: Russian students heading back to school in the autumn will be taught about the country’s values amid the Kremlin’s wider campaign to implement “patriotic” education in schools. Starting from September 5, schools across the country will dedicate hours to so-called “conversations about important things”, Sergei Novikov, head of the presidential directorate for social projects, told Tass, …

Reuters reports: President Vladimir Putin has lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago as the demise of what he called “historical Russia” and said the economic crisis that followed was so bad he was forced to moonlight as a taxi driver. Putin’s comments, released by state TV on Sunday, are likely to further fuel speculation about his …

Axios reports: Belarus is the only European country that is still playing soccer. Why? Because President Alexander Lukashenko, a man often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” said so. Belarus was part of the Soviet Union until it was dissolved in 1991. Lukashenko has been president since 1994 and has continued many Soviet-era policies. The coronavirus “is just another psychosis, …

Reuters reports: Ukrainian politicians and foreign diplomats joined thousands marching in a gay pride parade in Kiev on Sunday, the biggest and most peaceful ever in the former Soviet country. Crowds of people, many dressed in bright colours, paraded along streets in the centre of the Ukrainian capital, holding up banners saying “Diversity is beautiful”, “Human rights = happy country”, …

USA Today reports: President Trump’s re-election campaign said CNN had blocked its latest campaign ad, accusing the network of censorship. But the network said it has not rejected the ad. The ad in question blasts Democrats, the media and career politicians. Additionally, it implies that members of the media are “the president’s enemies.” During a voiceover using that phrase, the …

Estonia today became the first former Soviet republic to approve a civil unions bill. The vote was very close. Via the Associated Press: In a 40-38 vote, lawmakers voted Thursday in favor of a civil partnership act that recognizes the civil unions of all couples regardless of gender. Twenty-three lawmakers were absent or abstained in the third and final reading …

An estimated two million Russians crowded into Red Square today as 100,000 marched in the first May Day parade held in Red Square since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Thousands of trade unionists marched with Russian flags and flags of Putin’s ruling United Russia party onto the giant square beneath the Kremlin walls, past the red granite …